Poor Kids

[NearlySpring]

Documentary on BBC1 now.

Sat here in tears watching this show following children living in poverty.

One woman, with 3 young girls all under 8. Her partner left her alone and she is struggling with money. The girls were given a sausage roll each for dinner. They are let out to play on a building site and derelict houses- where the he'll is the mother? Mother comes on saying how she can't cope financially- kids saying they have to miss meals as mummy can't always afford food. Next scene, mother has acrylic nails and a massive dog!

AIBU to ask if she can't afford to feed her kids basic cheap meals how the he'll does she feed a massive dog that is bigger than her 3 kids put together!

It must be terrible to be in that situation but surely you get your priorities straight. Who has a pet if they have no money?!!

I'm not sure how it runs in other states but in Minnesota (where I live) they can't cut it off between October and April. Which is good, because temps are routinely 30-40 below zero! We've had ours cut off a few times in April and then paid the bill when we got our tax return. We managed to not get it shut off in April of this year and felt quite posh. :o

Its because its pre pay. When it runs out and you cant afford to put any money on the card you have no gas or electrcitiy. I think water companies are p,anning the same. And the rate per kilowat or whatever its called, is higher than for online direct debit types.

But...don't people freeze to death?

You wrap up. Most of my childhood we had winters where we had days of no heating and no electrcity because we didnt have 50p for the meter. Heck, even now we only heat one room for dd because we cant afford the prices and the rest of the house freezes. You just wear a lot!
But its not right in a rich country.

No cheerful. I dont know about other people but the benefits are staggered tgroughout the week. Childbenefit on a Monday, Tax Credits on a Tuesday and it used to be Income support on a Friday. You can put enough on the Monday to get you through then top up again on Friday. Problem is is ive gone onto fortnightly IS payment. I can see this causeing a problem for people in winter. You have to priorotise your money and think do i need gas or do i need biscuits and chrisps.

I prefer the meters as i cant get into debt. If i had a DD i would probably incure bank charges i can do without. I do agree that the standing charge should be removed from all pre payment meters. It costs £his is why most council estate have key meters.

And yes i have sat with no gas for 2 day. I infested in a halogen heater last year £10 in Netto and an oil filled radiator.

Rivenside i can remember the 50p meters. Always running to the shop for 50ps for my mam

When I was single and on benefits - this is the period shortly after DS1's father left me and left a load of debt from sky and catalogues he had taken out in my name, forged my signature or got the latest bit on the side to forge - I seriously struggled.
I was at the time (going back 11yrs) getting £67.87p a week for myself and £11.00 for DS1, I was having my I.S payments reduced because I couldn't give the details of ex's address etc to the CSA at the time as I didn't know where he was, by £20 a fortnight taking my I.S down to £57.87p. Out of that I had to pay
£8.00 rent
£8.00 water rates
£10.00 sky to clear the debt off
£10.00 Gas to heat the very damp home I had
£10.00 as I had invested in a heater due to the damp.
the remaining money had to be spent on food, nappies, and travelling.
Some days I couldn't afford to heat my home so we wore extra clothes. Others I struggled to feed DS1 and myself. His 2nd birthday I was so broke that I couldn't even afford to buy him a card, thankfully I had friends and family who I admitted to just how much I was struggling and they all helped. My dad who was disabled would come over with food parcels, where he had emptied his cupboards to make sure I had food for my son and myself. At one point DS1 spent almost 4 weeks at my mum and dads as I was so skint. Then my friend took us in and helped me get back on my feet. During the 6 weeks I stayed with my friend I didn't have to spend any money on food as he paid for it all which meant I could continue to pay my bills and the remaining money stayed in my bank.

If not for friends and families, it could have easily been me on this show. This is why I am not quick to judge these parents. Because I was almost there.

Whilst not wishing to get into competitive utility experiences. I remember the shilling meters! Is fuel more expensive now taking inflation into account, I wonder.

And yes, cheerful yank people do die of hypothermia here every winter. I think it's about 10,000 deaths due to the cold. and

If we routinely had temperatures of 30-40 below zero, I think they'd make it illegal to cut of the gas here too. But the temperature here in Britain varies less than almost enywhere else in the world. A variation from the norm of about five degress and the country goes hysterical.

What we need is a law that key meters can be no more expensive per unit than the average tariff. Ripping off the poor. How do these people sleep at night?

At least in some of the old terraces (like the one I grew up in) had old fireplaces and you could collect wood to burn and keep warm that way.

I may be wrong but i think the tarriffs the same but you are charged a standing charge which is hugh. To change the meter you have to pay £50

MummaEss a lot of that will change; for example did you know it is confirmed that famillies with one or more chidlren getting midle rate care for disability will see a significant cut in income under universal credits? I have that in writing from Maria Miller. Plenty of people are losing ESA and having to fight ATOs for moths to get it. The new system being developed doesn;t really cover adults with disabilities such as those caused by mental health issues (under the system that includes autism and elarning difficulties); it's quite feasible that my markedly autistic ds3 who is in a special school and will never be independent will be refused PIP (as he can pick up a pen when asked), be told to register for JSA, not make the signing on sessions (I can;t be tehre for ever after all), have that stopped or be sent on those work to claims chemes which he could not do........ and end up totally abandoned. it will be happening to people.

And the top up vaires as well. if you in an adapted house for example you may well be paying top up in the realm of hundredds of punds privately, but your council will very likely not be able to offer anything to a family within a time scale of eyars; when we thought we were being amde homeless last eyar we enquired and were told that as we would need a 4 bed due to the boy's Sn it was a long wait and we would go into a B&B...... and teh disabled kids could not be housed that way so would go into care temporarily.

harsh.

Hard bit is that if you want to come off of a prepayment meter you need to go through and pass a credit check. Which some people often won't pass.

CheerflYank theya lso stopped the system where disabled people qualified for teh same cold weather payments as elderly people, a group equally vulnerable to hypothermia and likely to be stuck in a cold house unable to warm up at work etc.

And yes we had a 50p meter growing up; we were OK as dad worked but Mum was always topping up the meters for the kids down the road whose parents could not be relied upon to prioritise their needs.

She coudln;t afford to, but she did, as well as darning his undies and getting out the apddling pool weekly in the summer so he got clean when the school showers were not available (had she actively bathed him the dad would ahve probably decked her- socially acceptable alternative).

kids were taken into care after the Dad tried to kill one, but too late as theyy are in and out of prison now; the one he tried to kill was my mate but 16 so tehyw ould not help, he has a family and a job and is a great bloke and I hope mum feels a little pride in that- and that he feels a lot of pride in that.

I have a prepayment meter for gas and electric through choice, even though I'm a homeowner. Personally I'm very glad for it as it means I stay in charge of my own bills. Not only that but we do the putting on jumpers and socks thing which I think everyone should be encouraged to do in order to save resources.
I think the problem with heating bills in this country is that so many houses have inadequate insulation, windows and ventilation. I do know there are schemes available to install insulation but I'm not sure of the availability.

Incidentally regarding key meters it's very easy to defraud them and get free electric. I know people who do it for months on end. Just don't open the door to meter readers!

My mate and her week-old baby got moved into an emergency council house that had no heating except an open fire, an outside lav and the second week there the kitchen ceiling fell down!

Scheme availability has been restricted- used to be if for example a member of household gets dla, now home owner / lead tenant ahs to get DLA so kids not covered.

I gret money is tight but te first thng to go were the things that protected the vulnerable.

Fatz. didnt know you could do that anyomre you will have to share

I know you could do the electric with some foil and a clicker

fifi my friend did hers with a wire under the meter. Of course I know there are different types of meters so I guess you would have to ask around your area.
Not that I am advocating theft of course but I would do it if my kids were really suffering and I had absolutely no money whatsoever. Thankfully I have never had to, but I did have a really slow meter for a couple of years, which I didn't inform the electric company about.

The warmfront scheme does not cover windows or solid brick walls or insulating roof if thes no loft. We applied and cos we live in a victoria terrace it was no good. So each winter we are cold and the house stinks of damp. Dd is quadriplegic so we heat one room.
Gawd knows what people will do with these proposed 20% prices rises in gas and electcity for next winter. Im still shocked at that.

I would defraud the bastards if i knew how.

Last winter DS came in to sleep with me as we could only afford to heat one bedroom. I had to keep the heating on all the time, but set the thermostat low because if the pipes had frozen, I would be liable for any damage caused under the terms of my tenancy agreement. As I said, my supplier (meter) increased the cost of gas by 39.1% at the start of May. I can't understand how they are allowed to get away with it.

They're allowed because we let them! The country should be in uproar over this type of thing. There are anti-cuts groups in most areas now, they should be supported. It is an absolute bloody disgrace that disabled children, disabled children people, are living in cold damp houses when bankers bonusses (you know the rest.)