To be shocked at this comment about poverty?

[abacucat]

I have been thinking for a few days about a comment a MNer made on a thread about poverty. She said that she has nearly been in tears because a woman at the toddler group she went to had a hole in her shoe and thus had wet feet.
I have a hole in my shoe. I got a wet foot today. I don't think this is a big deal or worthy of "nearly being in tears". Surely it is pretty normal to have to wait a bit to be able to afford to replace things like shoes?
I just do't see it as a big deal at all, and I think this comment was OTT.
AIBU?

Humble apologies,only read page one to get a flavour but will catch up.

I firmly believe the childhood poverty agenda is quite simply fake news driven by certain interest groups.

This country has a welfare state security net and we should be thankful it does have one because in countries not that far away, if you didnt have a job,you would be rooting in the bins for your dinner.

No when i was a kid growing up in the 70's we were seriously poor for reasons i shall not expand upon. My mother would sometimes go to the catholic church to get a voucher to take to a charity to get second hand clothes for us. I have even known her to find something in our size in the street,take it home and wash it for us to wear. But the rent and bills were always paid, there was coal for the fire and food on the table. This poverty agenda is taking the piss..

Arnold please tell me you are joking

Arnold your post is pretty disgusting. Life in benefits is life in poverty. Unemployment Benefits are set below the breadline. It might be a safety net but it isn’t wnough of a safety net to lift people out of poverty.
And there is no point comparing to developing countries. Relative poverty is very real and exists in this country. It isn’t a race to the bottom and should not be a case of is thinking ourselves lucky because in other countries people might literally be starving to death

Arnoldthecat there is plenty of poverty in the UK. As you can see from this thread many many people are just one unexpected bill away from not being able to afford food.

if you didnt have a job,you would be rooting in the bins for your dinner.

Lovely, so you're in essence saying people who are unable to work should die. Since they can't get a job they are worthless.

You're sickening.

Fake news, my arse!

My sister works in an inner city primary school - the amount of kids who show up not having had breakfast and then have no money for lunch or no packed lunch is astounding.....but yeah....child poverty is obviously fake news

I firmly believe the childhood poverty agenda is quite simply fake news driven by certain interest groups.

You are fake news

MyBreadIsEggy - it does depend on why the children are turning up without breakfast. I’ve also worked in schools like that where the benefits money goes up the parents nose

And I’ve been on benefits myself and would have had no issue whatsoever in receiving 75% in food vouchers, gas and electric tokens

5fivestar True....but that’s not the children’s fault, and surely would still mean the children are living in poverty as they aren’t in control of where the money goes? If the parents choose to spend the money on drugs instead of food, surely the children would still be classed as living in poverty due to neglect rather than lack of income?

I think there are two types of not having the money at the end of the month: genuinely just having enough money to cover the basics, which is poverty or just not planning money and spending when it's available.

I was in the second category until my late twenties when several big breakdowns in a single month (car, boiler, washing machine) saw me stick a couple of thousand on a credit card. I realised I was earning over the average salary but couldn't afford new shoes if I needed them. We ended up doing a big overhaul of our money and each month save some towards annual costs (clothes budget, insurance, Christmas, holidays) and some towards things that might break. I barely notice when pay day is now and my account is never empty.

But that is because I was genuinely overspending rather than poor.

MyBreadIsEggy - absolutely and we would take care of the children accordingly. It’s such a hard situation because there are so many variables. I know of one single mother living in conditions that would break your heart and universal credits are taking back an overpayment at 50% of her weekly allowance... tax credits would take 20% maximum and negotiate if it was too difficult... UC will not.

5fivestar it’s an absolutely disgusting system....but people like Arnold will tell you that’s “fake news” (as they sip tea from their gold plated tea cups, polishing their Conservative party badge)

I’m not on unemployment benefits but I would be strongly against a voucher system. Vouchers just stigmatise people. And vouchers won’t mean that money should be spent on the things intended as people who want to spend the money on other things will sell whir vouchers on he cheap. It used to happen when schools had dinner tokens for the free school meal pupils. Pupils would get their dinner token and sell it for half price and keep the cash and go hungry. But many many children felt stigmatised because everyone knew who he poor kids were that had free school meals.

We don’t need to treat poor people as incapable of managing their finances just because a few mistreat their benefits. If children are in poverty because money is being snorted up the parents nose then the best thing would be to remove the children from the parents care.

And I really feel like arnold would like to see the workhouses brought back in.

It's UC now, Hands. There's also been a freeze on benefits increases for the past 5 years or so. Under UC and PIP a great many no longer have a 'safety net'. The British peoples' race to the bottom will be their downfall. It's stupid, outdated nonsense that ends up costing their society far more than sensible investment in everyone.

I think there are two types of not having the money at the end of the month: genuinely just having enough money to cover the basics, which is poverty or just not planning money and spending when it's available.

We don't have enough to cover the basics but that's because the basics go up and DHs salary doesn't. I'm not in poverty though as we cope. We just find we are in a minus figure each month. It's mainly due to a whopping SE mortgage and no I don't have a Manson, no sky tv / netflix/ amazon prime and we have just one car. But that's why my shoes get worn out!

I didn’t say benefits need to be increased but I do think we need to be understanding of the fact that life on unemployment benefits does mean life below the poverty line.

@Arnold: Perhaps you'd like to keep an adult, a 14 year old who is growing at a rate of knots and 4 year old on £70 pw.

Thanks to the benefit cap, this is what one of my clients has left to live on after paying the (large) top-up to her "affordable" rent, 20% of her council tax and her water, gas and electricity charges.

She's an excellent manager of money, shops around, meal plans, batch cooks etc. She walks miles rather than pay £5 bus fare to get to the nearest town with a proper supermarket; she walks 6 miles to and from the job centre every fortnight. She only pays £5 a month for her mobile and £20 a month for internet. She manages to squirrel away a pound or two most weeks so she builds up a little stash for replacing essential items.

Despite all that, she still had to resort to food banks when her youngest started school and she had to buy her uniform, when her son's school became an academy and completely changed the uniform and when her washing machine needed repairing. The only new clothes she has had in the last few years have been gifts. She has to buy 2nd hand bed linen from charity shops. Her towels are so thin they wouldn't even pass muster as dog towels in my house.

This is absolutely normal for families on benefits in the SE, where rents are high. I could give you case study after case study of real families who are struggling like this.

"Fake news" is the shite spouted in the DM etc when they spew bile about scroungers etc.