WORCESTER'S foodbank use has angered the city's parliamentary candidates - with Labour's hopeful saying too many people are playing "catch up" on pay.

The city's General Election hopefuls took part in another hustings event tonight in front of a tough-talking audience at St Peter's Baptist Church.

During the event, organised by Worcester Trades Union Council:

- Labour candidate Joy Squires said the Coalition Government had overseen "a race to the bottom" on the economy, leaving foodbank use to surge

- Conservative Robin Walker said foodbank use was a "serious" issue but insisted the growth in its popularity has come alongside the network being increased massively

- Green Louis Stephen said his party would immediately make the current Living Wage the legal minimum wage, criticising the likes of Tesco for not paying it

- UKIP's James Goad called the so-called 'bedroom tax' "unfair" and said his party would scrap it

Cllr Squires said: "A combination of factors are leading to increased foodbank use, a low wage economy together with debt means many people can never catch up.

"I've seen people n Worcester who can never, ever catch up, one week before pay day and they need to use a foodbank.

"It hasn't been helped at all by the bedroom tax, it hasn't been helped by benefit sanctions, there's a whole range of factors."

She told the room the economy "does not have to be about a race to the bottom", saying it was about "what type of economy we want to be".

Mr Walker said: "The issue of foodbanks is very serious, you have to look at what the Trussell Trust are saying about it (the body which organises them), it started the first foodbank in 2001 in Salisbury.

"We have to recognise the use of them has increased, but we should also recognise the network of them has increased too - you can't measure foodbank use in Worcester before 2010 because it didn't exist."

He pointed to his personal efforts to tackle rogue payday lenders during his last five years in parliament, and mentioned the personal tax allowance threshold, which has just increased to £10,600.

Mr Stephen said the Green Party would launch a series of measures to tackle poverty.

"We need to repeal the bedroom tax and put housing benefit back to where it was pre-2012," he said.

"Two other big things are the cost of housing and fuel poverty, we need more houses to be built, rent controls, a whole load of things need to be done."

Mr Goad told the audience UKIP would scrap the so-called bedroom tax, labelling it "unfair", and said those on the minimum wage should keep every penny they earn.

He also pointed to "mass immigration", saying cheap labour from abroad has kept British wages down. "It does say a lot about what employers are prepared to pay staff due to an oversupply in labour," he said.

"I think wages will remain depressed until that over-supply is tackled."

During the exchanges back and forth Peter McNally, from the Trade Unionists and Socialists Coalition (TUSC), hit out at "the capitalist system", saying it has only "made the rich richer and let the rest struggling at the bottom".

Liberal Democrat Councillor Sue Askin, filling in for Worcester candidate Federica Smith, defended the Coalition's record, pointing out the rises in employment and tax moves.

"The rise in the income tax allowance (to £10,600) has lifted three million people out of paying tax and we want to see that increase to £12,500,"she said.

"There are 596,000 more people in work than now (compared to five years ago)."

In 2013/14 foodbanks fed 913,138 people nationwide and of those helped 330,000 were children.

Your Worcester News revealed in October last year how across Worcestershire, the figure has increased nearly 150 per cent in 12 months.

In 2012-13 4,363 people in the county used a foodbank, but in 2013-14 it surged to 10,868, a 147 per cent hike.

Of that, the number of children under 16 visiting them leapt 162 per cent, from 1,436 to 3,792.

TIME TO TACKLE FAT CAT BOSSES, SAY HOPEFULS

WORCESTER'S UKIP parliamentary candidate has called massive differences in big company pay "unsavoury" - saying people should look to boycott firms who take it too far.

During the hustings event James Goad said he wanted the huge disparities in chief executive officer salaries compared to low-ranking staff wages tackled.

The response was prompted by a member of the audience, who said some of the nation's biggest companies have bosses on pay "134 times" their worst paid workers.

Mr Goad said: "It is a very unsavoury situation when you have these sorts of multiples, but I don't think it's up to the Government to tackle it, it needs to be up to the shareholders.

"They are the ones who should be looking at it and for consumers too, perhaps they shouldn't buy products for these employers with CEOs on such rates."

The other candidates largely agreed with the stance, saying they did not like such vast differences.

Green Louis Stephen said the maximum multiplier should be set at "ten to one", and urged the likes of Tesco to start paying staff the Living Wage.

"It's not just the private sector but the public one too, you've got some school headteachers, heads of county councils on these types of salaries," he said.

Conservative Robin Walker said he disagreed with a ten-to-one limit, but did describe the multipliers as "absolutely crazy".

"Clearly those multipliers are absolutely crazy, and if you are a shareholder you should question why they are being paid so much," he said.

He said it was important activists challenge such differences and Lib Dem Councillor Sue Askin agreed, adding that it "reflects the inequality on society".

Labour's Joy Squires said her party would force some companies to publish their top 10 executives' pay, saying the key was to "shine a light on the problem".

WE MUST PREPARE TO WORK LONGER, SAYS WALKER

WORCESTER'S Conservative parliamentary candidate insists the best way to solve the growing pensions problem is to work longer - saying he knows it is "controversial".

Robin Walker says he would rather people around his age, in their 30s, face up to a longer working life than their elders than go the same way as other European nations and cut active pensions.

During the hustings debate one question to the panel was about the worsening pensions landscape in recent years.

Mr Walker said: "We do need to try and improve pensions in general, one of the things we've done (in Government) is the auto-enrolment, where employees must be on a pension in the workplace and their employer must make a contribution.

"Part of the solution, I know it's controversial, is having a longer retirement age, we need more support to help people stay in work in their 50s, 60s, 70s.

"Because people are living longer we are having to stretch their pensions further and further, there is a risk when a country loses control of its public finances, like other European countries have done, that they cut into existing pensions, and I don't want that to ever happen in this country."

Green Louis Stephen called for the state pension to rise from £115 to £170 a week while Labour's Joy Squires said it had to be tackled one way or the other because people are living longer.

UKIP’s James Goad claimed former Prime Minister Gordon Brown “destroyed” pensions.