THE rollout of the new Universal Credit system across west Wiltshire has seen the number of families needing help from Trowbridge's Foodbank more than double, as people wait for benefit payments to come through.

"We have seen a 54 per cent increase in numbers in the last month and an 104 per cent increase in the last week," Chris Neighbour, manager of the Storehouse Foodbank on Church Street said.

"Last week we had such a demand for food that we had to go out and buy some because our stocks were so low, and that's the first time we've had to do that for a long time.

"The people of Trowbridge are incredibly generous and always have been, the collection points at the Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda stores are always full, but we could not meet demand."

Mr Neighbour says people coming to the Foodbank for help are telling him that the Universal Credit rollout, which has been widely criticised nationwide, is responsible for the problem.

"Universal Credit has just started to roll out into Wiltshire and people just cannot manage," he said.

"The change is taking longer than they hoped so it's taking up to six weeks and I feel that is putting a lot of extra pressure on people.

"We are just trying to plug the gap until the Universal Credit system comes into line fully.

"We are seeing more first time Foodbank visitors, people on low incomes specially because they are people who, where two months ago they were just keeping their heads above water, are now not able to."

The Foodbank is open three days a week, and hands out parcels which contain enough food to keep an individual or a family fed for at least three days. People can only use a Foodbank three times a year, and all applications are carefully checked to make sure people really are in need.

"Over Christmas we are only closing for one day and we will be handing out special packages in the week before, which we'd like to be able to include some Christmas goodies in,"Mr Neighbour said.

"We really need more family items, and also things like tinned meats. We know how generous people in Trowbridge are and we hate to ask them for more help - but it will really make the difference to many people this Christmas.

Donations can be left in the drop-offs at the three major supermarkets, or taken to the Foodbank, which is in the old United Church building on Church Street.