Is there such a thing as "severe poverty" in the UK?

you've got a tall skinny one as well haven't you expat? Nightmare to buy for.

£70/week is about the cheapest I can get away with, too. That's £3640 right there.

We live in a rural area and don't have the selection of supermarkets that are in the cities and of course, travel to such places is an ever-costlier affair.

And YY about the clothes. I have that problem, too, but with two school-aged girls.

Ebay's not exactly full of bargains these days, either.

Right now I'm looking for a spring jacket for DD2 but have lost two auctions so far.

swallowed - I can't remember how much it cost having one child (I can't quite get over the fact that DS2 will be 8 this year ) so I don't know if I coul. Possibly, probably. Actually don't know, guess it depends on the child's age. DS1 and 2 eat the same amount as me (admittedly I don't have a huge appetite - but it's still a small adult portion rather than a "child" portion" iykwim?

I can at a push do my weekly shop for £50 for the 3 of us, (including the cleanin stuff and nappies), but its not very good quality food. That's £2600 a year to start with - I actually usually spend £60-70.

cheapest council tax here (single rate) is £676, but even so. Still a lot out of a £6000 budget.

I can never find any clothes for DS1 and 2 in the charity shops either. Used to pick up some great bargains (still do for DS3) but I'm not sure what happens to boys post about 5yrs old.............whether they trash their clothes or what - but there's usually nothing that will fit.

And they are living on less than that.

Maybe with just one child, assuming no rent/mortgage. But well, even the lowest council tax here is still £1100/annum. Then there's that bothersome issue of needing fuel for heat, cooking, getting clothes clean, getting oneself clean, etc.

It's anything but cheap even on the 'cheapest' of direct debit plans. So I'd say there's another £1000/annum; that's being quite conservative with it, too.

And she's online. Our local library is closing. So much for accessing it there!

I have a garden - but I can't grow stuf in it, it's entirely gravelled over, and though my landlord is very lovely I'm not sure he'd appreciate me dragging up all his hard work in making it a low maintanence garden. Nearest place where there are allotments are available is pretty much in accessible without a car.

Likewise - no car boot sales round here, there was one literally down the round (run by my church) - but they're not running them any more because of poor turn out (not suprising really - there was another much larger and more lucrative onea couple of miles drive away). Jumnle sales? Yep - I'm sure DS's would look lovely in the clothes that the old dears at church have donated

yes expat I was wondering that too. I have worked out that if I had no rent or mortgage to pay (assuming my income was all my own and I'd otherwise be paying it out of earning snad no from benefits). I could live on around £10k a year for 3 children and 1 adult.

£6000 a year is £500 a month.

How can I grow our own food - there's no garden, no communal garden, our council has no allotments? None.

I'd love to know how we can survive on less than £6000/annum, all five of us, because we are working poor.

We already bake our own bread/cakes, eat leftovers and bargain brands and get clothes on Ebay/boot sales, etc.

Pray tell.

'My daughter and I live on less than than £6000 and are the richest people we know. '

How do you pay for the roof over your heads? Because we're in a council maisonette and our rent+council tax is over that amount of money/annum.

How about utilities? What do you use for heat? Because we have to use what the landlord provides, we can't just change it and start a fire in here.

My daughter and I live on less than than £6000 and are the richest people we know. Millionaire friends are having a rubbish time of it with all the pressures of Public school fees. Grow your own food, bake, do the supermarket "bargain run". Car boot sales and jumble sales are a hoot and beats the shops hands down. Learn to live on less and life gets a lot simpler.

oh absolutely - I was incredibly lucky - exH and when we split made a deal - he would keep the house (bricks and mortar - not that it's worth anything to him - but if he can cling onto it it's still an asset) and I took the contents - the whole lot. I moved into an empty house and filled it with useable stuff straight away, anything i@ve added to it has been "material" - stuff I could save up for and buy as I felt like it, things that would make it feel more like "my" home but nthing I couldn't live a basic life without.

I've just checked the APR on my Very account, 44.9% APR!! (as mentioned earlier I use it sparingly so don't have to worry about that actual rate!)

Capital One - my emergency credit card - is 34%

I'm sorry, but just because your on Benefits dose not make you a scrounger. Me and my partner worked our asses off only to find that when I got pregnant, we lost our job and home. We're now waiting on a council house which I'm over the moon about as we can get out of this homeless hostel, but when we get there, we somehow need to pay bills and find basc things like carpets and a cooker. That's not to mention trying to do all this on £400 a month whilst trying to feed ourselves

actually exH was another case of getting a job with no relevant experience - he came to the UK in 2000 baring knowing how to use a computer, and so slow at typing he used to dictate his emails back home to family for me to type. in 2001 he got a job working for the company that provides the software that most schools use in managing their information. He was actually involved in speaking to the council .IT departments that helped the schools with the software, - I doubt he'd get that job these days with no IT experience at all. 2yrs after stating that job he was actually working for the council .IT department going into schools and fixing their SIMS problems for them (still with no actual qualifications!). Admittedly he got the job based on his "knowledge" of the products from working from the people that make it, but even so - actually going in fiddling around with school computers systems without having anything to "back up" his work.

He's since tried to find work in IT (as it actually did that work for quite a long time) and has been turned down for absolutely everything he's applied for, not even made the interviews stage.

He's now working as an asbestos surveyor .

The fact is that companies say "no experience required" or "blah blah blah qualifcation preferred but training will be given to the right applicant" - but the reality is that there are just too many people that arleady have the experience, and already have the qualication also applying for those jobs that those with nothing find it really hard to find work.

They can't even take on a job for a couple of hours a week to try and build up their experience - as under 16hrs a week and you're basically screwed.

Then there's issue (most affecting parents and carers) of "must be flexible" - so you could end up working any hours, extra days, different shifts. The trend for people to move to find work now means that for many people they have no "back-up" childcare in the form of family and close friends. Families are scattered across the country and although in some places there are very good (and affordable) childcare provisions, in others it is disctintly lacking,

When I was pg with DS3 I nearly split with exH then. At the time IW as working, so I looked into a childminders that would do overnight. It would have cost me more than what I earned (and there was only one in the entire town that would/could d it). I would have been forced to give up work had we actually split at that point in time as I was contracted to nights only and there was no option to change (And if I had my shifts woul dhave been irregular and I would have ended up paying for childcare I wasn't using just to keep the place!).

I looked at a job 1yr ago that was 6am-10am 5 days a week. Weekdays only really really close to where I live. I couldn't find a single childminder (not suprisingly really that could take my children from 5.30/6 in the morning). My SIL who runs a care company offered me work with a client she's taken on who lives in our town - it was mostly evenings - again - no childcare available.

I am already severely restricted in terms of what hours I can work (basically 7am-7pm at a push - and weekdays only) and there are 1000's others in the same position as me up and down the country.

I wILL find something, I know I will, I have no idea how long that takes or how many hours it will mean that my DS1 has to amuse himself during the holidays, but something will eventually come up.

I don't know why I started reading this thread; there are some grade A cunts on here.

(thread binned off before 2nd page)

i wasn't considered qualified enough to be a part time minimum wage library assistant despite having post graduate level qualifications.

It's not that at all, they probably just liked the other person more than you for some random reason but you cannot say that anymore so they told you it's your fault for not having the piece of paper, it isn't your fault at all.

that's true swallowed - hadn't thought of that. I did get a job in care work several years back without an NVQ - ad said it was "preferred", and they trained me up on it (though I left before I actually got it). Though I know by the time I left there they were only employing people that already had one.

YOu know recently (well a few months back) did apply for 2 jobs, one in McDonald's, one in a care home as an activities co=ordinator. Both said no experience/qualifications necessary - neither even gave me an interview (I'm still slightly moritified by the fact that McDonalds didn't even think I was worthy of seeing in person ).

yep swallowed - it is depressing. I get nervous thnking about finding work in September once DS3 starts school, and how I'll manage. Yet I possess all the skills and the aspirations "needed" to get myself out of this hole. I've been here (well not on the benefits, but stuck in a place I don't want to be) before and got out of it I know it can happen, I have belief that it can happen.

Imagine how much more depressing it must before for someone that has known no different, has never seen anyone else around them get out of the poverty trap (as even getting a job doesn't mean you're home and dry - the working poor have it extremely hard), can't see any brighter, better future for themselves

Not even that long ago swallwed. My mum left school with no qualifications (later transpired she was dyslexic - but this was only picked up on in the 90's). She walked into a catering assistant job (well jobs - she had a few of them) in the 1990's. Yes bottom of the scale, but the pay wasn't bad, and she did a good job of it, so good that when the kitchen manager in one place (only 2 of them worked in the kitchen.............ironically it was the DSS offices canteen ) was on long term sick leave she was asked to take over the managers job while they got someone temporary in to do the kitchen assistant work. The manager then left and my mum was offered the opportunity to take the job on permanently. She turned it down as her maths and literacy skills meant she really really struggled with that side of the work and wasn't sure she could cope with it permanently. (her difficulty with it meant she usually ended up staying 2hr or more after work had officially finished trying to work through the numbers and the paperwork, she was in charge of stock, ordering, invoices the lot and I remember her coming hom in tears sometimes as she was terrified that she'd got even the simplest of things wrong )

BUT - the fact is her employers knew that she had no qualifications, yet were prepared to offer the job, yes she occasionally made small mistakes and they knew that - but they were prepared to find a assistant would be employed to help with that side of things as well). Can you imagine anywhere employing someone that was to be in charge of that sort of work with no GSCE at least C in Maths these days???