HUNGRY families are being pushed “over the abyss” by cruel Government policies, a damning report by a group of MPs warns today.

A landmark investigation – backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury - condemns the explosion in food bank use in this region and elsewhere and demands radical change.

Last night the Archbishop called for a £150m state-backed system to end food poverty in Britain forever.

The former Bishop of Durham said he was left more shocked by the plight of Britain's hunger-stricken poor than suffering in African refugee camps.

Food is being wasted at "astonishing" levels across the UK but hunger "stalks large parts" of the country, the Most Rev Justin Welby said.

In just six months this year, more than 40,000 people in the North-East received emergency aid from the Trussell Trust, a figure that has doubled in just 12 months.

And in North Yorkshire, 3,181 people were helped between April and September – up from 2,181 in the same period in 2013.

The Archbishop said he had seen poverty on a visit to the Africa and a few weeks later he met a family using a food bank in England.

"They were ashamed to be there," he added. "The dad talked miserably. He said they had each been skipping a day's meals once a week in order to have more for the child, but then they needed new tyres for the car so they could get to work at night, and just could not make ends meet.

"So they had to come to a food bank. They were hungry, and ashamed to be hungry.

"I found their plight more shocking. It was less serious, but it was here. And they weren't careless with what they had - they were just up against it."

Now a Parliamentary cross-party study has called for an end to harsh and incompetent benefits policies, as well as action on “rip-off” utility bills imposed on poorer people.

It also demands an end to the “scandal of the subsidised destruction of edible food” – pointing out that just two percent of edible waste is made available to charities.

Frank Field, the former Labour minister who set up the inquiry, said: “When we look at our constituencies, there’s clear evidence that something terribly disturbing is happening.”

Mr Field attacked the department for work and pensions (DWP), saying: “They are unable to deliver benefits quickly and accurately, so they take ten, 11, 12, 13 weeks to process.”

And he rejected ministerial claims that more people are using food banks simply because they are there, saying: “People are near the abyss – and a small event can push them over the abyss.”

Mr Field also criticised utility firms, explaining: “They think the poor are easy prey, so they charge them more than the rest of us.”

The study, entitled ‘Feeding Britain: A blueprint for abolishing hunger’ makes a series of recommendations, including: * a new network made up of food banks, charities, food manufacturers and the Government to co-ordinate efforts to eradicate hunger; * DWP to deliver benefits “within five working days of a legitimate claim”.

* A ‘yellow card’ system to end the sudden removal of benefits from claimants who are “sanctioned” – often for trivial reasons that leave them “bewildered”.

* An end to Government subsidies for the food industry to destroy 4.3m tonnes of food every year – with just two per cent given to charities.

* Action to stop poorer people being “clobbered” by water meters, prepayment meters and higher-rate phone numbers for public bodies.

* Consideration of extending free school meals to children of low-income parents who are disqualified because they work.

* The introduction of the higher ‘living wage’ in sectors where it can clearly be afforded.

The Government has refused to hold an inquiry into food banks, pointing to the free food on offer - and JobCentres telling benefit claimants about them – as the reasons for the rise.