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"

Who should i blame for the limited amount of jobs in my area and the massive number of job seekers then, it's not my fault is it, i am overqualified for my job but do it because i want to work and have to to keep myself and the kids out of poverty. People really can't win can they, to some no matter what they do they are lazy.

My advice cakes is only seriously apply for roles you are qualified for. My plan when my youngest reaches 5 is to put on the front page of my CV that I can work exactly 9-5pm or it's to go self employed as a consultant on zero hours contract ... They cannot say a peep to that, I have a job.

My advice cakes is only seriously apply for roles you are qualified for

But you can't if your on JSA and need to satisfy the job centre. I couldn't find 45 jobs a week which i could actually do. If i didn't apply for 45 jobs i would be sanctioned.

If you are self employed, you have to be earning a minimum amount to claim tax credits. And if you are unemployed, you have to apply for a minimum number of jobs, which in many cases does mean applying for jobs you are not qualified for. Nobody seriously applies for these, but you do still have to apply.
There are lots more jobs now that are part time. I work 22 hours a week. I want to work full time, but can't find full time work, or two part time jobs whose times fit together.

if you have kids you are given childcare and bus fare.

I was told I'd be reimbursed for childcare. I didn't have the money up front and finding a child minder with a space for 4 weeks only wasn't possible.

Luckily I was able to ask for many many favours and the guy running the course let me leave early two days a week for pick up and promised he wouldn't tell the job centre.

I hope every other parent struggling has an extended network to call upon and understanding people who will make sensible exceptions.

If employers paid a living wage people would not be reliant on tax credits.
employers now have to pay a minimum wage so now advertise temp zero hours contracts.

I was told I'd be reimbursed for childcare. I didn't have the money up front and finding a child minder with a space for 4 weeks only wasn't possible.

i didn't use it i only used the bus fares but i know some of the other girls struggled to get the kids picked up from school, one in nursery one in school so they had to try and find a nursery who would do the school pick ups if the school didn't have an after school club. Luckily mine operates breakfast and after school club so it worked out nicely for me, i know others struggled finding a temp nursery place, you had to ring round the nurseries, ask if they could help and would accept payment from the job centre after they had billed them.

" Far easier for people to blame it on the government than admit they made bad choices or admit they don't want to work/work much."

LOL

Being born with a birth defect is such a poor lifestyle choice. People should just choose to be born healthy. Tsk tsk.

Great plan. IDK why you're not running the whole fucking country, personally.

It can so easily go tits up. Dh and I were both raised on council estates, both have degrees, currently both have jobs although this hasn't always been the case and we have relied on benefits. Our wages just about cover our costs - small flat, no expensive eating out or holidays etc- so we have no overdraft but also no savings bar a couple of hundred quid. I am threatened with losing my job as my company looks likely to go bust, dh is threatend with losing his due to health issue. If both these things come to pass we will have about a month before we lose our home and have to rely on friends, families and foodbanks. So many of us are but one twist of fate away from disaster.

demented, I'm so sorry to hear that and I very much hope things work out for you.
But thanks for posting; I find it astounding that some people seem to make a black and white division between them and us, or 'in work' and 'out of work' or whatever, but the stark truth is it could be ANYONE and it could happen tomorrow.

There but for the grace of God and all.

Britain isn't a poor country, though, neither is Saudi Arabia. And, yet both have significant poor populations. One of the reasons for it is that wealthy people accumulate wealth. Another reason is that, saving avoiding revolt and revolution, wealthy people and their governments have little reason to alleviate the conditions of the poor. So long as the poor don't cause trouble, they can be ignored with little risk.

When ppl on 12 hour 16 hour contracts are offered extra hours those hours are very often.

a. not permanent.
b. intermittent.
c. inconsistent.

And the system cant keep up. Ppl have been through this Having to phone tax credits every week when your hours keep changing They CANNOT keep up with it. A friend of mine was left living on £35 a week for over two months because of this.

How on earth can anyone realistically apply for 45 jobs per week?!

That is setting up a system that demands people fail... no interest in getting people into work but in distracting them from activities (such as volunteering) that could build their skills. Have just lost my job due to family issues :( and have a couple of months before I need to face The System. If I find 2 jobs that are realistic, and I tailor a good application, per day Monday to Friday I am doing well. And that includes part time and short term jobs, and jobs I am over qualified for, but will bring in some money.

Tok I think I could do it once....then the next week I'd have run out of jobs that I was qualified for and were in the area!

Thank you only.

How on earth can anyone realistically apply for 45 jobs per week?!

i had to complete 111 actions (random number) a fortnight including applying for 45 jpbs per week, i worked this out. It was because im qualified, not highly but higher than others and i had worked for 17 years solid so i would be classed as employable. Some people only get 30 actions per week. The actions can be ' I went to the metrocentre and handed in CVs' or 'i rang the coop to ask about vacancies'. I wasn't allowed to volunteer for some reason or go back to college full time which is what i did want to do for a while.

Its actually pretty hard and very time consuming

I agree. I did my last teaching practice in a really deprived area and think anyone who thinks pverty self inflicted (& I have met so many people with that vies) should spend a week in a school that covers a sink estate.

Also, from living near a sink estate in later life and having made friends on it, i do think a dedicated on site 'super team' of different agencies for each area could make a difference with the underlying issues underpinning poverty that need tackling if things are to improve .. education, mental health, addiction, mentoring to counteract lack of positive role models etc etc etc. It could be added onto or part of existing Sure Start nurseries as a one stop proactive social support/ poverty improvement initiative. If you have a crap start, chances are you will repeat the pattern and be stuck in it not knowing there is a way out.

A hell of a lot of child poverty in the U.K. is the result of feckless fathers. I am sick and tired of hearing about single parent poverty - it takes a man and a woman to make a baby and I don't see why my taxes should step in to support a mother and child while the father fecks off and contributes nothing. If couples split up and have extra costs as a result of living apart that is their problem. I don't see why couples who stay together should, via the tax and benefits systems, subsidise those who split up. I'm sure that someone will respond by raising domestic violence, abuse, etc. but, first, that is a small minority of cases and, secondly, maybe people need to take a bit more personal responsibility and due a bit more due diligence before getting involved in relationships.

Another cause of child poverty in the U.K. is fractured families. Spain has over 25% unemployment. The U.K. has 6%. Does anyone reading this seriously think that U.K. society could cope with 25% unemployment. The highest ever U.K. unemployment rate was 12% in 1984. In Spain family members help each other out - those in work help support those out of work. In the U.K. many successful small businesses, not only in the Asian community but also among native British, are based on family members chipping in and working together. However, the culture of family solidarity is much less in the U.K. In many communities the norm with a child gets to 16-18 is for the parent (usually a single parent, possibly with a partner who is not the father of the child) to kick the child out.

If children are going to school in dirty clothes or without food, then the parents are to blame. The benefit system more than covers food, heating and a roof over people's heads so the parents must be spending the money elsewhere."

That's simply not true. Especially now people's benefits are being sanctioned, there are people living in dire poverty in this country Not relative poverty, but actual poverty.

retro, yes. In fact even in Scotland I believe the law requires parents to support adult children at least for a time. We will have to go that way in the UK (which will not help those without parents as they are dead and no siblings and aunts/uncles) because of the cost and the country's debts. I bet Labour or the Tories brings in new rules that under 25s for example are supported by parents/don't get benefits - we are already moving that way.
It is not a bad way as most of us support or house or offer a sofa to those whom we love and certainly means you need to try to keep in with relatives however hated they are!

With housing and living costs being what they are, even dedicated parents, on sink estates have a Herculean task in raising their standards above those of the pit. I despise the Daily Mail style mantra of child poverty is down to feckless dads (it's easy, init) One thing we do not do in this country is use poverty advantageously. We did during WWII. Dig for victory, rationing, recycling, housebound partners working in factories. There is nothing inevitable about the cycle of dependency and inability. In Britain, though, we do nothing but complain about it and bash it in the Daily Mail. Neither the political right nor the political left has ever given any thought to fixing it!

A hell of a lot of child poverty in the U.K. is the result of feckless fathers. I am sick and tired of hearing about single parent poverty - it takes a man and a woman to make a baby and I don't see why my taxes should step in to support a mother and child while the father fecks off and contributes nothing. If couples split up and have extra costs as a result of living apart that is their problem. I don't see why couples who stay together should, via the tax and benefits systems, subsidise those who split up. I'm sure that someone will respond by raising domestic violence, abuse, etc. but, first, that is a small minority of cases and, secondly, maybe people need to take a bit more personal responsibility and due a bit more due diligence before getting involved in relationships

perhaps we should have waited longer than the 6 years we did to have children? or I should have married more than 3 years after meeting my ex? because that extra time might have revealed to me just the kind of person he was? perhaps we shouldn't have waited to have our children until we were financially stable? what kind of income and time frame would have been suitable do you think?

what exactly is it you want women like me to do? not work? live on the streets? have my children taken into care? Or perhaps support me a little with tax credits so I can work full time?

and whilst I'm at it...why should my taxes step in to support a mother stay at home with her children just because her husband works? don't many women in these situations receive Housing Benefit, Tax Credits and Child Benefit too? Or is it just 'working families' that matter?

Wiggly there's more at play than people spending their benefits on beer and ciggies you know.

Some families have struggles you could not imagine. Illness in the shape of addiction and disease...people who have their money stopped...forced to live off food banks with NO money at all.

I didn't know parents legally in Scotland had to support young adult children. There are hostels in Scotland full of 16, 17 and 18 year olds, who have been thrown out of home by their parents.