To think that children in 21st century UK should not be living like this?

[mrspear]

See this report from the BBC

Apologies if this has already been mentioned

I find it hard to understand people who manage to find room for and the money to feed large dogs but if I were in the situation the poor woman in Braintree Essex was in I might have had one. And if I had children to protect in a bad area with shit windows and doors, yes, I might get one. The bigger the better.

Thank God Labour did so well to alleviate poverty in the last 13 years..... hosing cash up the wall... for this.

The programme is a shocking indictment of how badly things have gone wrong and how badly money has been spent.

Flibbertigibbert:this report is a few years old, but suggests that the main reason for the UK's low social mobility rate is the link between family income and educational achievement.

Sat and watched it all and cried my eyes out! :(

ZXEightyMum woah nelly! Lay off slagging off grammar and spelling! Seriously, it makes you look a lot worse for it.
I have read most of this thread, but really, this is probably up there as being one of the most inappropriate comments to read.

I watched and was shocked, but not surprised to the level of poverty.
It is very, very said and radical overhauls are needed to reduce and hopefully eradicate this

I was a child raised in poverty. I am from a family of 7 kids and my although my family never claimed benefits my dad had a very low paid job and did loads of overtime. ( so I hardly saw him) We never had treats, my mum made most of our clothes and I had only hand me downs ( as the youngest)

The difference between me and these children is that we NEVER went hungry, we were always clean and our house was spotless. ( in spite of the rising damp on all the walls) We had no benefits whatosoever and my dad never took any loans out.

Apart from me that is....I had a saturday job when I was 15 and saved all my money in an account and actually raised approx £200. One day when he was struggling to pay for my sister's wedding he asked me how much money I had and I gave it all to him. Just felt it was what was expected of me at the time.

I have enormous sympathy for children raised in poverty but I do think so much of it is related to parental choices and they need help for this - not draconian measures.

However, there is no excuse for skipping meals, scruffy clothes ( hence creating a victim for a bully) and a dirty house.

My parental work ethic rubbed off on all of us and we all went to university and are now well paid professionals. I appreciate not everyone can achieve that but there should be more intensive support ( not money) for those kids living in poverty to break them out of the poverty cycle.

I know, I know, but (please miss) I wasn't the only one and were my comments worse than the "fuck off you cunt" ones?

They were also in context of the poster not seeming to appreciate that there but for the grace of god in a competitive job market, anyone can land in poverty. Not just for the sake of bitchy pointless point -scoring.

at "Woah, Nelly!" though. Marvellous. I'd like to see more of that phrase

I guess we have to pump more money into these areas and provide outside support for those most at risk whether it be places that act as youth centers and be educational and serve up healthy meals at the same time. This is all too depressing for words and didn't watch the more than a few minutes. If the parents of some of these kids aren't able to help themselves then it has to be done in another manner.

Ha no they weren't [if there were indeed such reference to cunt comments' (and I believe that there were, but in my tired and emotional state I must have skimmed them)]

Fuck off all you cunts who point score on grammar and punctuation! 'Tis bloody annoying and you actually lose the argument on principle if you do this.

At one time those kids would be been cleaning chimneys, keeping their feckless parents in gin and opium.

The main thing that has changed is the kids wage is now a large benefits payment.

Vouchers work in the USA. It means the money generously given by the taxpayer actually gets to the child, and not the landlord.

Yes they were in context!

Anyway, since we're going into fine detail I would like to come back to TSC's point about maypole leaving her young child with an unregistered elderly person while she went out cleaning for a living. I do doubt hope that said person was inspected by the relevant authorities and paid market rates for childcare as well as paying taxes on her earnings.

I love sweetkittys vision - I think a small step would be to scrap child benefit and replace it with universal free school dinners and after school clubs.

how much does a kids play area cost? closin down 10? seriously? the kids cant even o to the swins or slide? that is soo sad,

i know a family who have damp in their house, bleach wont fix it as it is affectin the whole block and is from the outside, they are in emerency accomadation 2 kids and 2 adults in one bedroom, they have numerous doctors reports sayin the damp is causin asthma in the baby, and the mum has terrible miranes due to it.

now they have to et a solicitor so they can be rehoused, at the moment the baby sleeps in her pushchair she is 11mnths, as she cant sleep in the bedroom as she just couhs all niht due to the damp, and the other child sleeps in travel cot in front room.

The problem is there are certain deprived areas where the majority of people are unemployed, have no skills or qualifications and have health problems. Its difficult to know what to do about though. Just throwing more money at them isn't the answer in my view.

There are so many factors contributing to the dire situation that these children are living in; poor educational achievement, low aspirations, inability to break the cycle of deprivation, mental illness, addiction, relationship breakdown etc. I'm gobsmacked that Maypole thinks putting these children into care is a possible solution; as we all know kids have fantastic outcomes from being in care, yeh right! Sam's dad had previously been earning £400 pw and was now receiving that amount monthly, presumably due to events in his life. Parents are often forced into debt to buy things for their children and also essential household items so benefits disappear once you factor in the extortionate interest rates that people on low incomes / benefits are subjected to.
It's easy to say that people should get a job but low pay makes paying for childcare very difficult and as many jobs involve unsocial working there is a the problem of childcare at these times. There are some truly awful opinions on here - it's good to see compassion alive and flourishing in society.

Sams dad was raising those kids alone after the mother left but where is the mum now and why is she not paying and an even bigger why has no one in 9 pages of this thread said "waster of a mum, fucking off and leaving the kids in poverty. She should be paying the feckless twat" as you can bet your life someone would have said it pages ago if it was a single mum bring up the kids.

The lack of hope got to me far more than the lack of money

So sad and so complex.

Throwing money at the problem doesn't really help- as Labour discovered. You can be poor and eat well and be clothed . It is about knowing how to feed your family, knowing how to prioritise.

There have always been people living like this, sadly. You can't legislate for parental incompetence.

Hi I watched the programme and am devastated for these poor kids. I agree with an earlier post, stop all school age child benefit and use it to provide all children with a breakfast, lunch, and school uniform, that way every child in Britain regardless of wether they are neglectfull working parents, or benefit claimants all kids will get 2 meals every day. I know people rely on child benefit but if it being paid back to all kids in a more constructive way it will help all

I agree that it is disgusting that those kids mum walked out on them, but it did say that a single parent with 2 kids would get £250 to live on, but this family got much less. The father said he only had £100 to live on so where is the rest of the money. I know he may have had debt to buy a cooker etc but surely out of £250 a week he could manage. I know it's not a lot but the issue here is not poverty or not having enough to live on, the issue here is debt.

The single parent with the girls, again no explanation as to why they had so little left from her benefits. I know plenty of single parents on benefits who do not live like this.

Individual cases must be looked at to see where it is going wrong, help to clear debt and get them on their feet should be there, so that they can live ok on benefits.

As for the poster who claimed swimming, bus passes, money for school trips is available, not where I live. A card is available that allows cheap access to swimming, however we live over 2 hrs from the nearest pool, so in bus fares to get there are unaffordable. No free busses here or help for school trips. Surely if the is available to some kids in Britain it should be open to all.

You don't need money to be clean and tidy.
The houses those children had to live in - dirty and squalid. No excuse, especially if you are not working .

Sam's dad was a lovely man and dad just a bit overwhelmed. And Sam was an absolute poppet.

A neglected house can be a sign of severe depression, which is more likely when you live in poverty.

I have no idea what the answer is. I wish someone had one.

just because you are poor doesn't maen you will get benefits. I was sacked from my job, as I couldn't physically or mentally keep up as am pregnant and came off all my medication, and so I don't have a single penny of money coming in. But I don't get ANY benefits, grants, loans, subsidies etc, and have been told I don't qualify as have to be unemployed for a few months, but by then I will be having a baby and don't want to go straight from labour ward to work.