Aibu to not know why you wouldn't be able to feed your DC's breakfast?

[Bearlover16]

Daughters school has recently extended the 'paid' breakfast club to 'free' breakfast club due to an increase in the number of children going to school not having had any breakfast.

Are people really that much on the bread line that they cannot buy a loaf of bread or some cheap porridge oats for less than a quid?

I'm not well off by any means and I do donate to food banks when I can. I also ensure my dcs have had breakfast before leaving the house as I was always led to believe it's the most important meal of the day.

Just a general point about Working Tax Credits: as far as I know, there is no limit at all on how many hours you work. In fact, if you work over 30 hours a week (but are still on a sufficiently low income to qualify for WTC), then they pay you more. There’s a basic monthly amount plus extra amounts for e.g. children, working 30+ hours. Graduated of course, so you will only receive the maximum monthly amount if your income is very low.

I was made redundant and set up my own business when there were no other good job opportunities without moving house. I eventually started claiming WTC - many months later - as I was worried about how little I was earning and my redundancy and savings had largely gone. It was a really difficult and lengthy process (I really don’t see how people can cheat the system, and can imagine how they’d struggle in the 4.5 months it took them to start paying me), but WTC gave me a little much-needed security for a few months, until I got my business on a fairly sound footing.

So, please don’t anyone be put off by worries about WTC penalising you for working too much, IME they do a pretty good job of topping up when income is low and providing a very small amount of regular income on which you can count in months when you’ve really struggled to get paid work.

Why should schools be doing more of parents jobs for them?

There will always be deserving and undeserving poor.
Why should an able bodied person who can work pay for another able bodied person who can work but doesn’t want to? Of course they shouldn’t.

There are situations which people find themselves in which cause them to be in poverty. But we live in a country where, yes, you can get help financially and you can get help to find work, to retrain, to study at University etc.

So most people can get out of poverty yes.
If your sick/disabled, if you are in situational poverty then yes you should be helped. But if you are refusing to help yourself then you can’t be helped forever.

There HAS to be a limit to welfare. There has to be a cut off for everything.

I don’t understand why I would have the same income working 20 hours a week and claiming tax credits than my partner working full time and me working 20 hours. How can that ever be sustainable? When he literally gains nothing financially from working over claiming? It does not make sense at all.

The fact is you want to claim as it's easy money for doing nothing

If you knew how demoralising not being able to support your family is, you wouldn't make comments like that.

One of the things that really pushes people into poverty is the cost of rented accommodation which is ridiculous these days - and there is very little social housing/council housing to give people who can't afford to buy a decent home since all the decent homes were sold off and the money NOT invested int more.

If you choice is a roof over your head, or breakfast, then you pick the roof.

Tax credits have created a culture of part time work and state top ups.

Work has actively been de-incentivised by in work benefits.

& why should someone earning 49k be better off than sometime working £52k

Surely you wouldn’t ask for a pay rise and stay in a better tax bracket?

So most people can get out of poverty yes.

Yes - it's that simple. Re-train for a job that doesn't exist.

Go to university, get into debt, come out and find that you have spent 3+ years training for a job that doesn't exist.

I don’t think everybody has a conscience about claiming. I have felt dreadful for every penny I’ve ever had to claim, and have changed my life so that one day I will be able to pay considerably more back in tax than I ever had to claim.

As a disabled single parent with other health conditions I was put into a position o situational poverty, and instead of accepting that position, I changed it.

I could no longer do physical, manual work so I am studying so I can use my Brain instead of my hands.

I got help for my health conditions and disability and followed advice. I didn’t wait for a magical solution, I tried to find out what little steps I could take.

Through fate or fortune I found DP. That was beyond my control though. Regardless I am glad I do not have to do it on my own anymore. I am also very happy with DS 😊

So yes, poverty happens to people, but that does not mean they should be helped forever.

The welfare state is for people in times of need, not as a permanent cash cow for their lives.

DD often went to school without breakfast, she'd sit there looking at it until it was time leave. She still doesn't eat first thing even though she's now an adult.

Wow! No there ISN'T a magical invisible supply of jobs we're all avoiding, there AREN'T easily accessible funded college courses,

Cuts have massively affected training and education TOO.

To the poster who is 21 and saying how easy it is - try saying that when you're over 40, more expensive to employ, not less than 5 years out of education and seen as easily trainable due to your youth!

I'm 45, been unable to work due to a combination of ill health and caring responsibilities for 10 years, the nearest college courses for updating my skills are hours away on public transport because the local courses closed due to funding cuts, expensive to get to (expenses unavailable also due to funding cuts), and massively over-subscribed because - yes you've guessed it, funding cuts in other areas mean those courses are covering larger areas.

I live in an area of high deprivation and unemployment. More than half the units in our local shopping area are empty, several major employers in the area have closed their branches here to open overseas where labour is not only cheaper but the potential employees have had better access to education and training.

Children here have NO chance it's the kinda place where if you've a head on your shoulders you know you need to get out of - but of course it's not that easy to leave without money either.

To those saying its a 'generous' benefits system - have you lived on it? Long term?

In addition WHENEVER there's a policy change it gets fucked up and it's NEVER the state that loses out.

There are claimants who've been waiting over 6 months for ANY money on the UC change over alone. Evictions and DEATHS as a direct result are increasing. Are people seriously not getting that?!

I work in an infant school and always have fruit, crackers and cereal available in my classroom at the start of each day. There's a snack area where they can help themselves; some have second breakfast like Hobbits, some don't eat before they come in and I don't try to distinguish between the two because it's not my concern. My concern is that hungry children don't learn so well as the ones with full tummies. I pay for it out of my own salary and will continue to do this for as long as I can because even if there's only one child each year who needs it, it's still one child too many.

WhooooAmi for you and all the other lovely teachers and staff who do this.

Cheminotte, thanks didn't know this as relocated to Wales from England last Aug. Tiny tyke 2.5 years 2moro, so primary school a way off, but very handy to know as i (currently) work for Uni of Bristol so we generally leave for work / nursery round 7am - very little time from 6am to get everyone ready & do brekkie & getting up b4 6am wiv a toddler, f/t job & long-term health condition would be mental!

And yep - people are on breadline! I HAVE to work f/t due to my prior industry disintigrating due to budget cuts (faced notice of redundancy twice in my 30s - 2010 & 2013) & hubby having a career crisis not long after qualifying as primary teacher in 2014 (yes i supported him through 4 years of degree study). He's now a minimum wage cabbie after working a 0 hours contract as Dominos pizza driver from Nov 2016 to Sept 2017. Bit short-sighted to believe everyone can afford breakfast club or afford to feed everyone in household on low incomes. (And yes we both have degrees & a good education, but unfortunately so do many other people these days - in fact both of us also have professional quals & graduated uni twice, the job market just isn't what it once was...)

'Tax credits have created a culture of part time work and state top ups.'

No. Tax credits have created a culture of businesses getting away with underpaying people. We are not subsidising people's lifestyles, we are subsidising businesses.

Well said Maireadplastic

The people who benefit from benefits aren't the claimants, they are the business owners and shareholders.

FYI i am planning to retrain as a lecturer from 2018 when childcare is cheaper by taking my MSc & then (hopefully) a PhD - at cost to myself over time (student loan for masters progs now available, PhD progs loans available from 2018 onwards - both are if u don't already have a masters or a PhD) - as this is the only way i can improve our "situational" poverty. But not everyone is lucky to have the quals / experience / time to be able to do this.

There are few people able to comment on how difficult the job market is for adults & young people / young parents. I consider myself something of an expert as i worked as a professionally qualified careers adviser in 6 schools & 3 FE colleges between 2002 & 2014; so i stand with those saying improvements need to be made in funding / childcare support for those trying to retrain - they are right, funding cuts have made it hard for low-income working people to retrain for better paid jobs. Degrees in UK are pricey & there is limited funding for childcare for those who aren't 18-21 / studying Bachelors degree. So no its NOT that easy (for anyone these days - unless you are minted millionaire politician type). You can work your absolute arse off (I did for 12 years & have a missed mc to show for it - you will still find yourself chewed up & spat out if your industry / employer goes does pan financially.

And one other thing - anyone shaming any single other person for claiming tax credits to fund childcare when in difficult financial circumstances (so they can still hold down a job & pay the rent / mortgage) is IMHO The Devil.

Yes their needs to be something done about wages in this country definitely 😊

For context, both times i faced notice of redundancy, i had secured a new job within 3 weeks. For further context, i commuted 3.5-4 hours a day to & from work from 2010 to 2014 to ensure i could still maintain work. And finally, yes i worked with highly disadvantaged groups in: Slough, High Wycombe / Amersham & South West London (or if you will around 5-10 mins walk from Grenfell Tower). Life is VERY hard for people whose opportunities are limited by their family upbringing or skin colour.

Oh yes & for further context, yes i did do all that while having a long-term health condition. (In fact i have 2). So anyone dissing those "lazy" people with disabilities / health-conditions being a drain on our welfare system needs to remember not everyone in that position is un-motivated or unprepared to work. Don't be an a-hole on my watch - I'm educated enough to discredit you / "tear you a new one".

I don't think the majority of people are demoralised at not supporting their family, if that were the case we'd have very few people claiming,

Given steps have been taken under UC to ensure a couple work more and tax credits got capped to two chidren it's an indication just how many claim and continue to have children with the intent of somebody else providing the financial support.

Gone are the days it was shameful to be on benefits when able to work, now it's a case of how to do the minimum to gain the maximum.

Tax credits simply remove a work ethic. They don't subsided businesses, they subsidise those who want to do little or make choices that their wages don't stench too but that they want anyway.

yellow you're the gift that keeps on giving eh! Have you ever even BEEN on benefits? as myself and others have said repeatedly THERE ARE NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH JOBS, TRAINING COURSES OR FUNDING FOR TRAINING, live a year on benefits and DON'T feel demoralised

Mairead spot on!

People just don't like the 'undeserving' poor. It is why the daily mail does so well.
There are lots of useless parents that need help. What can you do about it? Pretty much nothing. At least if a child is at school they are in a relatively protected environment.
There are plenty of jobs in the uk otherwise lots of east Europeans with limited English would be out of jobs. The problem is that the roles on offer aren't flexible for mums.
Childcare and rent is a vicious circle too.
There is now less money to go around so naturally there is resentment. You need to move on.

There HAS to be a limit to welfare. There has to be a cut off for everything.

There is a limit @DaisyRaine90. The cap has already been lowered twice.

@EvilDoctorBallerinaVampireDuck I still don’t understand if your dp is in his sixties and unable to work more than part time why you wouldn’t work yourself? Swop roles? Instead of moaning that benefits aren’t enough to maintain your children and their food/ clothes.
It smacks of ‘I am claiming everything and it’s still not enough’
And before you tell me off for not knowing what’s it’s like I do. I work full time with a terminal illness because I have to.

The fact is you want to claim as it's easy money for doing nothing

Yes I'm sure people who have took enormous drops in salary for £70 a week did it simply so they didn't have to anything