...to feel slightly annoyed when people claim to be "living in poverty"

[ihateconflict]

...and have huge TVs/smoke/drink/have a holiday abroad each year/wear designer clothes and shoes and handbags, and have all the latest electronic gadgets. In contrast, as a "middle class" (hate this label) professional living in an expensive area, i cant afford any of the above (dont smoke or drink, so dont include those). We havent had any holiday for 5 years, let alone one abroad. AND, when DCs were at school, their friends with EMA allowance were the ones who had driving lessons for their 17th birthday, and cars for their 18th birthday. My DCs had to pay for own driving lessons, and didnt get cars until they finished uni and were earning. I am full of sympathy for those in "genuine" poverty, but somewhere priorities and definitions seem a bit wrong

C'mon, Owl! I want a Staffie, naturally.

I don't understand your post Chocolate.

I think they mean people who live in 3rd world countries having free health care

I would have believed your OP was a genuine sentiment if it wasn't for the mention of the huge TVs etc etc. It smacked of a benefit bashing thread, and why you had to justify by describing yourself as a "middle class" professional - i don't care if you are a GP a bin cleaner or David Cameron himself.

I do think that people do tend to "plead poverty" my DP is a builder - i have lost count of how many clients tell us they have to be wary about spending too much on the job as they are skint - err, no, you are not skint, you are having non essential work done to your home. We are often skint and can't pay our bills and mortgage - but actually i don't consider that we live in poverty - we don't have holidays, our TV is average size 32" flat screen because our old 22" thing blew up and my mother bought the monster screen (i think its too big) from tesco because thats all you can get these days.

I just think that people are just feeling the pinch more and more these days and yes, they might be having non essential work done to their home, they may well be budgeting elsewhere - i don't have an elsewhere to budget from though.

Late to the conversation so hope no one minds me posting. in 2010 I lost my job. The year before DP had to take a pay cut so when I lost mine, things were really tough. Yet the month before I lost my job we had been on holiday to a friends wedding in France, we had a flat screen TV (bought in 2008), we had lots of nice things. When I lost my job we were living on £15/fortnight food for two adults. Six months after being back in work and things had got better we went on a 2.5 week to Asia. Poverty isn't something people are necessarily in for their entire lives. Situations do change, as ours shows.

One thing we did learn was that it would have been far easier to live if we didn't have debt and did have savings so we have almost paid off all our debt now and due to that we are now able to save a little under a third of our salary (I'm sure that will change though when we have children).

as a relative newbie to mumsnet i am suprised at how upset i feel by some of these replies, i just dont recognise the person the replies are describing, as i am really not a hard unfeeling or judgemental person. thank you thrpanthankhans for being a little bit nice, and i forgive you for calling me a hairy handed fucker!!!!!. i think i am a bit traumatised, it will be a while before i post again methinks.
ps what is a goady thread, sorry to be so thick

There's a huge amount of difference between having NO money and having money, spending it, and feeling pissed off that you can't go on holiday.
Growing up, we lived in a damp, 1 bedroom flat. 5 of us.
I shared a bed with my sister til I was 10.
My dad had to stop working, you see when i was 5. He had MS. My mum looked after him, and did whatever bits of cleaning jobs, babysitting, whatever cash in hand jobs she could.

She are once a day, to make sure we could eat.
Sometimes we had no electric, because we couldn't feed the meter.
Sometimes we had no heat.

I sometimes moan about being skint. But, honestly, we are not.
We aren't rich. We aren't well off. We both work full time but earn nothing like what I reckon a GP earns.
But, we can put the heat on if its cold. Put the lights on. Have a bath.
Eat pretty well. Pay for the DCs football and drama.
Get the bus to work rather than walking 5 miles like mum used to.
Buy the DCs shoes and footie boots, although if its all 3 at the same time, we have to juggle stuff.
We had a weeks holiday in Cornwall.

So, even though sometimes we go overdrawn, sometimes a direct debit gets returned because other stuff came out on the same day, we won't be able to afford driving lessons for DCs or holidays abroad or 46 inch tvs or a new car, we aren't poor. Not at all.

That's funny, my Grandparents had a staffordshire bullterrier, infact they always had them, and they lived in council housing all their life and had one in a one bed flat and my Grandad served in the Navy, was of Irish origin and was covered in tattoos. Grandma was half Irish too, this could never be mentioned because of the prejudice at the time and afterwards. I felt sad for them, they were just the loveliest of people :(

and my other grans family were travelers of the barge variety and economic migrants

so I am just a mongrel and have no right of reply even though every time I fill up my car i pay tax

I've got 3 staffies.

Do I get a free tv?

sorry my last post seems so random

your last post demonstrates why these cuts to LA spending and so forth are so damaging, at least no-one (hopefully) has to live like that any more. Surely there has been improvement?:( surely we live in this wonderful progressive country called Britain

your, mean tantrums. I am offering out milk to my children (from plastic bottles, they are older) Can i win the award for slowest scattiest poster on mumsnet pls?

Lucyellensmum95 i think until people in this country have no access to fresh drinking water, no free healthcare, no access to free education and no state safety net to fall back on if they have no work then no, i don't think someone can use the word "poverty."

Really chocolate?

Really?

There's no one in poverty? No one who cannot afford heat, light, food, hot water, shoes and uniform for DCs, not because they have pissed their money up the wall on drink and fags but because they just simply dont have any money

Is that what you think?

Lucyellensmum95 i think until people in this country have no access to fresh drinking water, no free healthcare, no access to free education and no state safety net to fall back on if they have no work then no, i don't think someone can use the word "poverty."

you have no idea what you are talking about the fact that people dolive in poverty in a country with free health care etc etc is shocking and disgusts me .

They don't have any money but their kids still have an education and they still have a roof over their heads. Let them try living in a country where when you "simply don't have any money" means you live in the street.

Chocolate - you are very niave

you cant compare misery you just can't of course living on the streets is terrible and should never be, but children int his country may be living in a building with a roof doesnt mean there is no poverty in the UK

I think people confuse the words being poor and being in poverty. The former is a big problem in this country, the latter doesn't exist in this country and if you think it does - go to somewhere with real poverty and see if you think it still exists in this country.

Well that's alright then. They haven't got anything to eat, their shoes are more holes than material, they haven't got a coat..but they have the privilege of living in a B&b with 2 children and the DCs get to go to school.
Marvelous.

ihate a goady thread, quite simply a thread deliberately started with the itentention of goading others.

I'm so angry at this fucking Government for setting people up against each other, so angry.
Shirkers, workers, hateful public policy against the differently abled.
Hateful vile language about immigrants.

When the truth is none of us live in isolation, what affects you, me affects us all.
I,m so sad and feel so impotent to do anything.
When I see how the cuts are and will affect the most vulnerable, it seems like a massive step back.
While we're at each others throats the things that once made this countrt great are being eroded, we are fucking sleep walking.

Is it a full moon, or something?

Lucyellensmum95 i grew up poor so i know what i am talking about, not poverty, poor.

OK, I'm on page 4. Not sure I CBA to read it all. Has anyone mentioned the goat yet?

Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one?s food or a job to earn one?s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation

definition of poverty