to ask all the skint and struggling people: what would help you the most?

[dreamingbohemian]

I think it's clear that a lot of people are struggling right now. I'm on the thread about parents going without food and it's terrible what some people are going through.

It's also clear that there are a lot of judgmental attitudes, and that the government is not all that interested in tackling the problem.

But you can also see a lot of people are sympathetic and want to help, and are horrified that we are returning to a situation where people have to go without food.

There have been a number of good ideas on that thread, but I thought it might be good to start a new thread to not just talk about the problem, but about how we can all try to do something about it -- whether it's signing petitions, putting pressure on the government, or volunteering or donating in our local communities.

So AIBU to start by asking people who are struggling right now to talk about the top one or two things that would help them out the most? So that we are not focusing our attention on things that might not be the most helpful?

Or, on the flip side, is anyone engaged in anything right now that seems to be helping a lot of people?

I don't want to just be horrified, I want to do something...

I would also issue families with children with a VAT exemption card so they could get VAT off all clothes, shoes and so on, even if they are tall, rather than only smaller children who happen to fit someone else's idea of what a child should be shaped like. Currently a tall 10-year-old with size 6 feet is supposed to pay VAT on many of his/her clothes, whereas an underdeveloped 16-year-old with size 3 feet can get away with a lot (indeed some smaller adults are able to fit into 'children's' clothes for this very purpose).

I would also implement a 0.5% local community infrastructure tax on earnings over £100,000, including profits when people flip companies and so on.

All looks very reasonable, Boffin :)

In fact, the only opinion-formers I can envisage having problems with your proposals would be business consortia.
Funny, that.

Yes, it does all sound pretty reasonable. I like the idea of taxing the profits on a house rather than stamp duty on the value. This would discourage the idea of property as an investment rather than as somewhere to live.

Free childcare for all over 2s would be a great way of making work a sensible option for people, too, though presumably massively expensive to implement. I guess you could means test this, though, as an interim measure with the idea of moving to free eventually.

Don't get me wrong. I am all for people making money, just not shafting other people quite so brutally in the process. Here's some opportunities for business. High housing costs.

HOUSING

Financial and tax incentives to build housing that can be easily adapted for multi-generational and/or disabled use. Some freeing up of prime land for Poundbury type developments along these lines.

CHILDCARE

• Outsource childcare management to private companies. There'd be a lot more of it, and a lot more opportunity for economy of scale as well. Provide premises cheaply so profit margins can be respectable.

WORKING HOURS
Better transport = happier and more punctual employees. Opportunity for large contracts for building infrastructure.

Great thread. I'm in the same boat as all of you.

Work as many hours as i can, never ever get a weekend off and i am always skint. I'm on a low wage and whatever i do to try and earn more it never works, i've taken exams hoping to rise my salary but the companies cutting hours and jobs left right and centre:(

The gas and electricity bills are killing me. I kept most of the heat off this winter and my bedroom started to smell when i investigated all behind the wardrobes and dressing table were covered with green mould, thick with it!!! This didn't happen when i could afford a little heat!!!

I work every hour god sends, never see the kids, i'm wearing clothes i've had for years and years and still i can't stop the constant worry and sleepless nights due to not having enough money to feed us and pay the bills.

I really feel like giving up this year, but i won't i suppose!

Boff, I didn't mean to imply your ideas were anti-business. They aren't and, as you say, would in fact lubricate the economy while creating a healthier, happier and more mobile workforce.

Like asset-strippers with one eye on early retirement, though, the business communities are averse to any policies that slow the flood of public money (and people's lives) into their accounts. They don't need a happy workforce while they can get an unhappy one for free; they don't care if their customers go hungry as long as their profits are well-fed.

The people who should be modulating this are our government - who seem unable to grasp how policies like yours would benefit both workers and businesses, not to mention assuring them a second term.

You speak the truth, Garlicbutter, but while the Lord Ashcrofts and Madsen Piries etc of this world bang on in a self-serving manner about how allowing some people to get revoltingly rich is actually good for the rest of us, surely little will change.

Amazingly nobody ever tells them to shut up.

FWIW there are a group of us setting up something similar to the childcare thing locally at the moment. The Local Authority has been so utterly rubbish it's left a convenient vacuum.

oksonowwhat I'm so sorry for your hardship and I wish I could help you.

Boffin, those are great suggestions

Can I add my 2p?

HOUSING:

Improve tenants rights and housing quality in order to promote longer tenancies and an increased rental culture. This will benefit everyone, tenants will have lower costs from not having to move so much, and landlords will have long-term stable tenants.

More regulation of estate agents, so excessive fees can be reduced.

CHILDCARE:

In an ideal world, I'd like to see a sliding scale for childcare fees, like we have in France. But in the meantime, I'd just note that childcare costs would be less of an issue if everyone were paid a proper living wage.

LONG HOURS:

I'd like to see companies really embrace telecommuting.

TRANSPORT:

Why can't they expand discounts on travelcards and the like?
Students in London get huge discounts on travelcards, no matter how much money they have.
Why can't low-income people get cheaper transport?

MOVING EXPENSES:

I'd like to see a pilot project based on something they do in France, which is to actually reimburse unemployed people for their moving expenses if they find a job in another location.

At the moment, the government is very keen to tell people to move to where the jobs are, without considering that people may not have the money to move. But surely a one-time payment of moving costs is more efficient than having to support a family on benefits long-term?

Longer, more stable tenancies would be fantastic. I let a property out, for not a lot of profit (we are planning to move back in there eventually) and I see the other side of things.

• short-term tenants doing a runner and trashing the house on the way out just because they feel like it, and then it taking months to sort things out legally because they know full well they can pretty much get away with anything;

• tenants coming and going very quickly and bashing the house up on each and every occasion with their botched DIY removals, meaning redecoration, which we end up having to pay for as it's so hard to take anything out of the deposit now;

• tenants leaving loads of rubbish in the garden (eg BBQ cylinders, broken furniture, old bicycles) that we have to pay to be taken away;

• tenants failing to keep on top of the gardening and then us having to get people in to recreate the garden each time so the property can be re-let;

• tenants demanding we allow them to redecorate in bodged manner and quirky colours only to leave 6 months later without redecorating, so we have to get someone in to correct all their work and paint over it before we can let the property again;

• tenants not being arsed to move out on the day they were supposed to, and only starting packing up mid morning on the final day of their let, so the cleaners can't get in during the morning as arranged, and so the new tenants end up tearing their hair out as the removal men are sitting in the van outside unable to unload until early evening. STRESS!

• tenants doing their own cleaning on the way out and thinking everyone will be happy with six inches of cat hair left on all remaining surfaces as it didn't bother them (NB cats not allowed in tenancy agreement, not least because landlord allergic to cats!)

.... if people had 3-5 year lets it would mean everyone could sit back a bit and take a longer view. At the moment it feels like we are effectively providing hotel services, in that properties have to be primped and pimped every six months in order to remain marketable, well in excess of the kind of maintenance that would be necessary in one's own home. If people weren't moving in and out so frequently it would mean less wear and tear on the property, and you could put better quality things in there. And you might actually get a functional rental market with renting as a real alternative to buying.

PS Most of my tenants are lovely though.

WRT childcare, the reason costs are so high is because there isn't enough of it, and it's over-regulated.

We used to do march outs and everything had to be in perfect order, down to the white glove inspection. Since going council, I've been shocked at the state we get the houses in, no carpets, lurid walls, dirty etc. Spend a fortune doing it up, my last house (three storey, for me in a wheelchair, gah!) cost me well over a thousand pounds to carpet and another five hundred to paint (got a man in and paint costs), just to make it liveable. Thank goodness for my mother helping me to afford it.

Oh yeah, and I forgot the charges I got for leaving a clean, smoke free, pet free carpet in the council house when I moved out. Thought that was a bit mad.

Dalek, many is the time I have been scrubbing floors in our rental house to make sure nobody has to be faced with that when moving in.

You sound like a nice landlord. Might be a bit of work moving out, but if everyone did it, you're saved all the work moving in at the other end.

How about a huge rally in the middle of London where we overthrown this bloody useless bunch of fuckwits in the government and get someone in whose policies are NOT to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Let's face it, if the fucking government did their job, there wouldn't be any need for food banks. It's nice to help out but unfortunately there is an argument that the more you buy into this Big Society the less the government have to do to help.

I want to know why people are not getting angry and swarming all over Westminister demanding a coup and the immediate resignation of all the Tory cunts.

Not convinced a rally would do a thing unless people started to commit hara kiri in front of the Houses of Parliament.

Ok, not a rally but an overthrowing of the government.
Storm Parliament and throw the pompous, millionaire twats out.

Military rule for a while until we can organise a government that is truly democratic - i.e. acts on behalf of the people that they rule instead on behalf of themselves. The Labour Party are just as shite, we need Yvette Cooper, Alvin Hall can be Chancellor of the Exchequer. In fact, we get to vote who gets each and every job in the government and we demand that they work for US. The first whiff of corruption or abuse of power and we have the power do oust them.

Bloody hell. You are being very scary. Are you an anarchist????

It breaks my heart when I see kids that go to school in filthy uniforms with last nights dinner on for several days in a row because it costs some parents so much electricity to do the washing. I don't know what to suggest though

Don't you think it's just as likely to be general dis-organisation and a slightly chaotic family life for whatever reason chundle - rather than the cost of putting on a wash ?

Maybe cost does come into it more than I imagine, but I think people struggle in other ways too, and not just with their finances.

I think if we want to help others we need to factor this in too. Friendly emotional support can go along way to making people's lives better and more manageable too - but perhaps in a way that's for another thread ?

You see, Chundle, my kids would never be sent out like that. They'd have an old cloth put over them when they were eating, and if they did get food on themselves, I'd wipe it off with a damp cloth and a bit of soap if necessary, so they went into school reasonably clean. It's also possible to keep shoes clean and quite shiny with a bit of milk/baby lotion/margarine if you have to. But there's a difference between giving in to it, and having a bit of pride in coping. My austerity housekeeping blog promotes the latter view - get on with it and take pride in the job.

The disorganisation also explains the nit epidemic. It's quite simple, as I see it. Many people no longer comb their children's hair thoroughly, morning and evening, and therefore fail to spot the little blighters before there's a full-scale infestation. Before you know it, the whole school has the things, as there's so many of them in circulation.