To be really Fucked Off with Edwina Currie

[TheTruffleHunter]

She's on BBC news 24 right now saying she doesn't agree with Food Banks - having just visited one and met the people collecting what will (hopefully) keep them going for the next week or two!

She thinks that won't encourage them to 'save for a rainy day'

I'm so cross I don't know what to do with myself!!

The assumptions on this thread are incredible

Ok, so everyone who needs to go to a food bank also smokes. Er, ok, right

How do you know this? Have you ever been to one? Questioned the people who go there because they have to? Carried out random CO tests? Where is the evidence for this?

jake - he sounds fab ( and a lot like me!)

I watched that program with horror and sadness. I consider myself very fortunate that I have never had to access benefits. The family from Scotland with the two little children broke my heart. However one lady did kind of annoy me - she was single in a 3 bed house and because of the bedroom tax she had fallen into poverty despite working full time, her reason for not downsizing was because her children had been brought up in that house! For gods sake why do that to yourself - live like that rather than move to a smaller property and free up that house for a family that needs it

You have to be referred to them shakethetreee, by a GP, social worker, health visitor etc...

It's painfully obvious that Edwina Currie is spouting this stuff out to get a reaction. It seems being nasty and ignorant is the new way to get yourself on TV. It used to be sex tapes.

The troubling thing is that people are lapping up her misinformed ramblings and it's damaging to the most vulnerable people in our society.

It takes very little time to research and see that she is full of shit.

I volunteered in a food bank last year & year before.

You can only go 3 times. Not endlessly.

Lots of people were there due to JSA being suspended on the flimsiest of reasons (job search not quite good enough). Theyre given food bank vouchers. In the meantime they appeal their suspensions. & normally win. What does that tell people?

Some people on benefits did actually work previously - I hate the fact that some cannot seem to grasp this, and are quick to scorn. & even if they didnt - some people have physical and mental needs that may not be obviously apparent. A lot of the people we dealt with at food banks had hit rock bottom and were very despondent. They weren't there smiling happily at the thought of free food, many felt ashamed.

There are a good number of people in this country who are just 1 pay cheque away from bankruptcy. & don't even think about that. When you live in a society that doesn't care about the poor and vulnerable, people thrown on the unemployment scrapheap who are suddenly 'scum' because theyre now having to claim benefits - that society isn't really any good. & should you fall down sometime you'll be tarred with the same brush.

When all said and done its crap to see this kind of thing going on in the UK. Reinforced by the media, mostly tacky Channel 4 who appear to have nothing better to do than line the pockets of poor and working class-hating faded rent-a-gobs. 1 fucked in a field, the other fucked Mr Grey who most people wouldn't touch with someone else's. Great credentials for a job chatting shit on tv.

For gods sake why do that to yourself - live like that rather than move to a smaller property and free up that house for a family that needs it

Please, do feel free to find all these suitable, one bedroom houses and flats that people can downsize to.

Pro-tip; they're in the magical field, next to the unicorns.

I don't think anyone is saying that all poor people smoke, but the fact is that proportionately, more poor people than rich do smoke.

DM used to work in a newsagents that was the nearest shop to the 'dole office' (in the days when you could go and pick up cash from there).

She served many many people where the parents would repeatedly come in and buy cigarettes and lottery tickets and refuse to buy anything for the DCs (crisps/sweets/a drink). Of course, this was because they only fed them healthy food .

I don't think parents whose children have grown up and left home should expect to stay in family sized social housing for sentimental reasons when there are plenty of younger families who need the space more.

shakethetree it's been said upthread but since it seems to be a common misconception...

Food banks are for emergency use (limited to 2-3 times a year depending on area) for people who have no money at all. Often because the DWP has cocked up, or their benefits have been sanctioned for crappy reasons as listed by diaimchlo upthread.

This is becoming increasingly common, since the folks working at the DWP now have targets of sanctions, and they want to keep their jobs as much as the rest of us...

So you have to be referred to a food bank by social services or your GP etc, you can't just rock up and say, 'hey, I've spent all my money on fags and plasma TVs, gimme some freebies'. Which seems to be what 99% of the population thinks.

HopALongOn - I know that probably sounded harsh but I'm sure a family squashed in a little flat would bite her hand off to swap. The only reason she was staying there was for sentimental reasons which was putting her in poverty!

I am the last person in the world who wants to pay tax to support the idle. That said, I would like to live in a country where we take proper care of the poor especially if the young, the old and the ill are concerned. I find it really worrying that the media has managed to convince a large proportion of the general public that anyone down on their luck is a wastrel. I'm rather ashamed that there is so much anti-poor rhetoric about.
As for Edwina Currie, she has to spout controversial, rather extreme views otherwise she won't be invited back and then part of her income disappears.

I think people just can't get their head around poverty in the UK. It's much easier to believe Edwina's black and white suggestions.

Can't feed your family? Get a job.

On JSA looking for a job but have been sanctioned? Get a job faster, JSA isn't a life long benefit.

Have a job but your wages don't cover the costs? Get a better job!

Lost your job and can't afford to feed your family? Go on JSA, there is no reason anyone in the UK should be in poverty, we have a welfare system you know!

And so the circle continues. No jobs, Low wages, Job loss, sanctions, debt, poverty, food banks.

Well said Ohforfoxache

The usual stereotyping going on

incidentally I work in a lettings agency - plenty of one bed flats here!

I see your point jet but it's just not the case; the majority of those affected by 'bedroom' tax are people who are unable to downsize because there are no suitable, small enough properties for them.

Just because it's one bed, doesn't mean it's suitable. And that's private lets.

Moving someone into a smaller property, perhaps one where access to public transport is difficult/not available, away from their friends and family and job and support network is not cost effective or in the best interests of anyone.

Added to the fact that government conveniently ignores the huge numbers of over 65s under-occupying, the whole system is fucked up. Totally and completely fucked up.

And do many of your landlords take HB, jetsetlil?

Hungermonkey - no poverty in the UK?

Tell that to the ex armed forces men who are statistically the most likely to end up homeless on the streets. (sorry but this particularly infuriates me as it's usually due to mental health being totally wrecked in the service of a country that treats them like garbage afterwards).

Or to the thousands sleeping in SHEDS in the back gardens of some parts of London because it is all they can afford.

Or to the teachers resorting to buying lunch & breakfast for the children they find with rice sandwiches for lunch because their parents don't want to be intentionally homeless and their white collar redundancy & subsequent McJob means they can't pay the mortgage anymore. many non-top brass lehmans employees went from comfortable to struggling overnight (not everyone who works in financial services gets big bucks).

Or to the immigrants sleeping 10 to a room and working in the black economy for £1 an hour.

Or the disabled that are literally dying due to the asinine system that ATOS uses to assess their fitness for work. ATOS incidentally are trying to break the contract early as they've decided the profits aren't worth the cost.

Anyone with a mortgage can find themselves in very real trouble really fast. Insurance fails to cover an awful lot of eventualities as some flood victims currently being told they were subject to "an act of God" are currently discovering. Anyone who falls ill can find that NHS waiting times mean their hopes of returning to work are a pipe dream. Anyone with a disabled child can discover that universal state education is now a myth.

Drug dealers, criminals & those with access to siphoning off funds from the public purse for their personal use (eg MP's) need have no fear of true poverty. The rest of us should understand that everyone is only one traffic accident or serious illness from trouble.

The welfare safety net is broken. We need to all be raising our children so that they clearly understand this for their own sakes.

HopALongOn - I'm sure you are right in many cases however I am only talking about this one. She did not want to move, end of! wouldn't even consider it.

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep. admittedly no. But some do - depends on the area

Applauds blochead

Oh well, if it's just that one case we're talking about...

Poverty affects real people. It's messy and complicated, and it sometimes is down to what we would judge to be poor choices. But choices aren't made in a vacuum. And not everyone considers things in the same way. Perhaps it was wrong for this woman to refuse to move because she was emotionally attached to the house. But surely any human being with a heart can see why she might find that a very difficult choice to make (esp when previously she had been allowed to stay there, and the goal posts have been moved).

And all this talk about poor financial choices and not saving/buying stuff. When you know, really know, that your life is just not going to get any better than it is, because there is always something to knock you down every time you think you have clawed yourself a bit of breathing space. Why would you even bother to plan for the future. Why? Poverty, real poverty, is grinding and constant and wears you down, and you have to consider people's actions and choices against a backdrop of utter hopelessness. And please, no 'I pulled myself up my own bootstraps' comments, there's a reason they are newsworthy; it's because they don't happen very often.

Boulevardofbrokensleep: ( greenday fan right ? )

Thank you for explaining it to me, I genuinely wasn't sure how it worked.

Particularly good posts from mistress and blochead IMHO.

I just googled 'how to donate to my local food bank' & it took me to a fantastic page on netmums ( can I say netmums on here? ) - full of really good info & advice - so I'll get onto that & donate as & when I can.

MistressDeeCee, Molly, bochead, hopalong, I salute you.

Anyone who doesn't agree with you can fuck right off.

This demonisation of the poor, the unlucky, the jobless, the vulnerable, the disabled makes me sick, and the fact that it is essentially state- and media-sanctioned disgusts me to my very core.