*Poverty* Do you agree

[geekone]

BBC Scotland say 1-4 children in Scotland live in poverty, which is an aweful statistic and really sad. However they also state "According to the group's most recent figures, a two-parent family with two children of school age would be defined as being in poverty if they are living on less than £413 a week after housing costs."

This seems like a lot of money to me £1652 after housing costs? I don't think that's poverty? In London maybe but Scotland?

I may be wrong and I am happy to stand corrected but wanted to know what you all think.

Doesn't seem like a poverty level to me, especially after housing costs.

it doesnt say that 1 in four lived in a two parent family with two school agers tho.so whilst they might define the 2parents two kids thing as a poverty level it hasnt said thats the scenario.i assure you.its very not

I’m in Scotland. I don’t even earn that amount each month. I am a single mum to 2 kids and yes we could be classed as living in poverty

Oh for goodness sake Katherine it's in the thread multiple times over. I rarely say this but do RTFT.

tolerable the definition is for 2 parent 2 children families. There is a sliding scale...

I'm in Scotland, and rent and council tax included, we'd have to earn £513 a week. My full time wage after tax is £297. We can afford a roof over our heads, food, heating, Sky TV, internet...and although it's been tough at times, we never go without.

To add, my local councils threshold for free school meals/uniform allowance is £16,100. I would class that as borderline.

When you think broadband internet is now considered a utility like water and electricity and a child can't go to school without a laptop, I would say that was fair analysis.

The demands on low income family budgets are scary.

@ Piggywaspushed. Yeah,I realise that. I dont quite get why tho..miniimum available income surely automatically =poverty then?

PomBearWithoutHerOFRS I truly admire you and also feel for you having struggled myself. I still live on such a tight budget for the most ridiculous reasons too. There is an organisation which helps people if you get into debt or if you struggle to pay your bills. It's Christians Against Poverty or CAP. They don't need you to be Christians and they don't push that. I went to them and they were marvellous. They also negotiate on your behalf to make sure you get any money you are entitled to and they deal with any loans you are paying back. It is such a relief when they start helping!

You probably are managing and have worked out a budget. I truly admire you. I just mentioned CAP in case you or anyone might find them helpful, as I did.

I think the poorest in society are parents that are out working in minimum wage jobs. The level of taxation in UK is so high that the government take the money from the wage earners then spend a fortune on redistribution on hairbrain schemes. Time for less government employees on huge salaries less MPs and letting people manage their hard earned cash. Period poverty another waste of government time that should be spent on improving the economy so everyone is better off. Surely people need to be better at budgeting. Poverty as a term is misleading. During the war years people lived in relative poverty but they were healthier and not obese. We need a safety net for people who need help but honestly they are the very people that our system fails and fails miserably. We have a society where expectations are now too high. Lack of attainment and deprivation are often the result of poor parenting skills. Pouring money is not going to fix this problem. We need to engage with the results by having much smaller class sizes to reach out to affected children. I would call it pastoral care where Teachers can impart skills that the parents fail to deliver. Also approaches to life like respect honour pride and motivation to ensure these children are not deprived of going forward in life. Smaller class sizes would be a better recipient for the money.
I have just returned from Northern Europe. It’s open for business. We are not. We are tied up in knots with no chance of ever getting better off due to the squandering of money on benefits that do not deliver.
Governments tax businesses out of existence then spend a fortune on trying to foster new business. Governments and local authorities are no longer held accountable. Small business owners are at the mercy of these bureaucrats and literally give up. What is the point of having minimum wages when half is taken in tax.
Less government and more freedom and more of what you earn left for you to decide what to spend it on

But if you have less government employees and smaller class sizes, where are the extra teachers coming from. Unless we encourage people to have less children.

I agree with most of what you say Lessons in budgeting and finance should be introduced to help everyone maximise their income and reduce debts.

Most women have less than 2 children nowadays a level that leads to a declining population and less ability to pay for an increasing ageing population. That is why governments want immigration. Especially young immigrants. To fund pensions etc.

Young people arenot so attracted to teaching as a profession because of the stress attached to the job. It’s all government tick box stuff and less time to actually teach. Plus huge class sizes multiple languages and huge range of abilities in classes. Learning disabled are now integrated into mainstream schooling. I would hate to attempt to teach IQ levels from maybe 60 to 160 plus in one huge class. No wonder children become disruptive. Halving the class sizes would be a huge improvement on children’s attainment level. It’s a no brainer. Also if the job was more maneagble and less paperwork and if the tax system was more encouraging I think we could recruit a lot more teachers.
You could then support the children much better and be more alert to a child who was experiencing for instance bad parenting. Most teachers do a wonderful job and are true professionals. (I am not a teacher by the way) and we need to sort out these awful problems now. Why do we wait till children are teenagers and need mental health support. Improve primary education as a start. Give children the pastoral care they need - a warm caring environment where they are nurtured from an early age and where there are professionals that are supported not tortured by the media, bureaucrats for failing.
It’s like having to give children breakfast at school. I would say that a basic premise of being a parent is feeding your child. £2 gets 40 portions of porridge. Charge parents for neglect and surely this is neglect.
Stop rewarding bad behaviou in the UK. That’s whats gone wrong
Thanks for agreeing with me on some of my points

Me and my 4 children, all teens are well below the poverty line then.

I think the BBC need to redefine what they actually mean by 'poverty'.

Think everyone is forgetting the reality of poverty and that can encompass poverty of spirit, emotional wellbeing etc etc.
Some people are poor but that is not poverty. Some people live frugally others spend spend spend.

We live in a welfare state so fed up hearing about children living in poverty. Do however appreciate that the system fails people and I despair of everyone having to claim some form of benefit whether working or not. In reality we have created an army of bureaucrats doling out peanuts but getting paid enormous salaries to determine entitlement.
The people using food banks are those on small wages that are having to pay tax on a pittance salary/wage. How dare governments tax people on really small income and force them to claim benefits and free food.
We really will go even more forward economically when the First Minister derides the office of the President of the USA because of the person. I was told you respect the position.
How much more poverty can we expect because of inept selfish behaviour by our elected representatives. We want to stay in Europe and yet do not even have a ferry service anymore from Scotland to Europe. Yet the money is spent on meetings and expensive travel for talks instead of making sure we have a ferry from Scotland to mainland Europe. I know what I would be spending the money on and it would not be meetings.
Despair at what future we will have in Scotland if the current politics continue. Our most senior elected representative spends her time at gay rights rallies instead of getting on with her job of achieving a vibrant economy to the benefit of all.

How ridiculous. If they'd said £200 after housing costs I could maybe understand it but not at that figure.

Hi guys.

I am thinking of a possible move to Fife, Scotland, can anyone recommend nice friendly places to live? I have been offered a job in Kirkcaldy so I don't want to b a million miles away from my office, I will be happy with a 30 minute - 45 minute commute.

I am initially looking to rent a small 1 bedroom flat / apartment or house, I have a budget of £700 a month for rent, I also want to be close to places where it's good for shopping and a few bars/pubs etc, but I dont want to be bang in the middle of a noisy neighbourhood and where there is a high crime rate.

some people have recommended actually living in Kirkcaldy, but some people have also said not to move here.

any help would be great!

Start your own thread?

Not sure why you'd tag on a plea for real estate advice on a thread about poverty.