To think some people have their heads in the sand about poverty in the UK?

[MrsFlannel]

On here we see a lot about "Don't have children you can't afford" etc.

this article in the Guardian really brings home the effects of poverty today and it's really breaking my heart.

By rights I should be among those who are struggling so badly...and in one way we are...but because I managed to get a degree and get my DC into a school which is good despite living in a very poor area, we're not quite in the trouble many people around us are.

We live in a council estate...all around me is quite terrible poverty. The upsetting thing is that whilst DH and I have decent work...it's not enough to be able to donate to food banks etc....we only scrape by. I'm sick of the people who deny that there's a problem...or shove blame onto "feckless parents"

solid Absolutely! Its a glass wall that can't be seen until you try to walk through it.

stubborn Yes you've put it much better. People don't want money being on spent on causes they don't think are worthy. The I'm alright Jack response.

"Others say they won't do more than 16 hours as they gain more than working whilst others say they can't be expected to work as they are a parent"

A lot of the time those extra hours are intermittent and inconsistent and the system cant keep up with that.

Because financial abuse is common, in households with DVD, across all incomes

That's what I said,it's not just an issue in deprived areas or households in reciept of benefits or lack of qualified parents or any of the other measures of poverty people use.

' The benefit system more than covers food, heating and a roof over people's heads so the parents must be spending the money elsewhere.'

Hahaha. Typical BS.

'Better education, better working role models etc are far more beneficial than simply handing people more money.'

Better jobs - not zero hours, temp/agency, umbrella companies, unpaid internships, more apprenticeships and raising the age that people can qualify for apprenticeships, better and cheaper childcare these would go a long way towards making this society a better one.

Me too, i have a degree, and my husband has done further study at uni for his job, which is in the services... we both have full time jobs and we literally scrape by every month. We dont have any outgoings that arnt necessary (i.e:council tax and rent etc) let alone 'treat' ourselves ( honestly id be lucky if i spent more than 30 quid on myself once in 3-4 months), so how are people meant to cope on 1 single parent salery or if they cant work due to sickness etc!

Great post Solid.

Yes, I agree with you cremeeggthief. Jesus, how can you envy someone with a drug habit, a history of being on the receiving end of DV and 5 kids, who has managed to get a council house because they are, to use the technical term, totally fucked?! (although I'd feel even more sorry for the kids, obvs).

I used to work with ex offenders- most of them were, to use the technical term, totally fucked. But trying to unpick their problems made me painfully aware that it was all too little, too late. You needed a time machine to get back and intervene in their bloody awful childhoods, which led to an adulthood of bloody awful life choices.....as I posted above, the previous govt. was at least aware of the need to step in in early life. Hence the introduction of Sure Start Centres.....which are being closed, left, right and centre .

Unpaid internships came about due to workfare When that started a lot of ppl couldnt see anything wrong with it.

Reminds me of that saying that was "And when they came for me there was no one to speak for me"

And if there is DV going on there is a VERY strong chance there is financial abuse too.

There is also state sanctioned financial abuse = men not paying child maintenance.

And there is the fact that they are cutting CB Does that include men who have a lot of DC with different partners. Of course not Because a lot of these policies are misogynistic as well as classist.

IMO as a nation we ascribe the the ideal that if you study hard at school, graft hard at a job and make all the right decisions then you will have a good and comfortable life...actually the inconvenient truth is that often life can throw stuff your way that no matter how many 'good' decisions you make, or how hard you work you can still end up on your uppers and in a desperate situation. People don't like to think of that though, it is much easier to subscribe to the 'it won't happen to me because...' view.

I hate the condescending view that people are poor because of bad decisions.

People also have heads in the sand about the working poor.

Unpaid internships have been around for much, much longer than workfare Helena. At least 10 years in my own industry.

Young Girl i was on workfare in the mid 90s Its been around longer than you think. But ppl like journalists didnt care I tried to get some of them to run stories about it but hit a brick wall None of them wanted to know. And now their industry has to do it in the form of internships. Like i said "When they came for me there was no one left to speak for me" And YTS was also a form of workfare and that was in the early 80s.

It was even a storyline on Brookside. They showed a young man on YTS who was told there was no job after his stint and then they showed the employer replacing him with another "intern"

That's what I said helena

A great many of the households experiencing abuse incorporating financial abuse would never come on the poverty radar.obviously some did but not the majority.

I have worked in DV services for decades the overwhelming majority of memorable financial abuse situations were from households not in reciept of benefits and not living in deprived areas.

mangos totally agree, throughout our education at school we are constantly told that we need good grades, go to uni get a degree and then everything will be fine... 1) in some situations people can be alot better off by just working and getting experience rather than going to uni and getting debt and 2) people dont think of 'educated' poor people having shit situations too (not that i mean other poverty is caused by ignorance or anything i just cant think of how else to say it)

In that case my apologies Helena - I though it came about in the last parliament.

Totally agree Sock And a read of the Relationships board proves it.

No probs Young Girl There wasnt a lot of publicity about it 20/30 years ago but thanks to social media these kinds of developments are harder to hide now.

Sock, that is true. But cuts to DVD services in many parts of the country, is having an impact.

DV happens in all classes. My first husband was on 80k a year. I had no access to money except what he gave me, he had my bank card and I had to earn money from him if I were to have any. Just because a family live in a lovely middle class suburb doesn't mean they are not in poverty, at least some of the family.

Is it only having an effect in households that meet the poverty criteria?

Of course it's not.

Sorry I get quite wound up about posts implying it's only an issue in deprived areas because it's not. It may be a cause of poverty but is equally likely to be experanced in a wealthy household as it is a poor one

Yes, but in some parts of the country, DV services have been majorly cut. DV services get low levels of donations, they rely on Government grants, many of which have been cut.

But why is that related to poverty in the context of this thread?

I know all about the DV service cuts given that I actually run one

Because children in families with DV are going to school in worn out shoes, having not had breakfast and not having a safe place to do their homework. They are experiencing poverty just as much as children in poor families if one of their parents is not allowed any money.