Am I the only person who thinks parents should feed their kids outside of school?

[HalloweenDoughnutAnyone]

Obviously it goes without saying I don't want any child to go hungry. But. Am I the only person who thinks parents should feed their kids outside of school?

Just that really.. it's free school dinners. Not free lunch all year round.

I don't understand why people think the tax payer should be paying even more? Maybe, if you can't afford to cover the basics (food and clothing) you should think twice before having a child?

Or should we extend free school dinners, to cover all the food a child needs inside and outside of school ?

I'm not tarring everyone with the same brush but I know people who rely on free school dinners. But have sky tv, expensive mobile contracts etc

During WW2 the government actually took a lot of responsibility to ensure that children did not go hungry and that they were kept safe.

But the very people who keep going on about the Blitz spirit are the ones bleating about the dangers of nationalisation (aka making sure children get fed).

If there isn't endless money, perhaps the government could have thought of that before splashing out on subsidising MPs expenses, bribing the DUP and paying out billions for contracts to companies with no experience.

For the record, I grew up in a country where nobody went hungry. We were not all as poor as one another, it was not joyless, and it was a damn sight less repressive than the current government is turning out to be. I still struggle to understand how anybody can be genuinely happy if they know their neighbours' kids are going hungry.

@ANoTail - precisely, very well said. I suggest using the remaining 880 or so messages in this thread as follows:

U OK hun?

(x880)

You are being so unreasonable I don’t know where to start!

Kids are going hungry and will go hungry if nothing is done. There may be some feckless parents out there - there are certainly some feckless nrps- but I really think that saying “should” doesn’t cut it! Plus with the pandemic, the tanking economy and all the awful cuts we’ve had in the past 10 years, families genuinely don’t have the money.

As a PP said, some parents go without food to give their kids the bare minimum.

And before the government can talk about nrps they really need to sort out the CMS debt and give enforcement of payments some teeth!

@EddieVeddersfoxymop - so maybe we start with MPs subsidised lunches, consultants on £6000 a day, large companies who don't pay Corporation Tax...

As for the shock horror of poor people having smartphones- are you aware of the Universal Credit app? The Covid testing app? The way that job searches and job applications work these days? How on earth are these people supposed to access the money they need for food or do the responsible thing and get tested for Covid if they don't have smartphones?

I was turned down for the Covid testing programme at my workplace because as a family of 3 we only have 2 smartphones between us and they wanted each of us to have a separate number to send results to. Do you think poor people don't spread infection?

No I'm sure you're not the only person who thinks like that there is many people who can't see past what should be vs what is happening.

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss - aren't you just perfect? I hope you're never in need

• some people have children in a relatively comfortable financial position and then their circumstances change and they can't (covid or non covid).
• some people have kids when they probably aren't in the best financial position
• some people can't cook or don't know how to feed their children properly (I agree with comments up thread about basic cooking lessons in schools)
• some people have kids and don't give enough of a shit to feed them properly.

Whatever the reason there is one person not at fault..... the child.

[quote luckylavender]@EddieVeddersfoxymop - so maybe we start with MPs subsidised lunches, consultants on £6000 a day, large companies who don't pay Corporation Tax...[/quote]
And there lies the problem. It’s so much easier to target those at the bottom and make them feel even more shite about the hand they have been dealt than those at the top having to make any slight changes to their privileged lives.

Feck me OP!!!

How about you keep your taxes to keep Dido Harding's fanny moist and I'll use mine to keep kids having cornflakes for dinner.

Then we can both be happy

I think there should be a system to tell when a family genuinely needs it, and when it is being abused. I work full time from home on decent but not great pay. Husband was furloughed, has gone back but possibly could be laid off soon. He's not british and not entitled to any benefits. I can't afford to put my son in nursery, I would be working for nothing. My aunt who is on benefits gets free childcare and doesn't have to work. She is not disabled, she just doesn't want to work. We struggle whilst working but we can't get anything. She gets Amazon deliveries daily and brags about all the free things she gets and that she can now afford to get some nice branded clothing for herself and eat out when she wants. It drives me nuts. Her son broke her glasses and she said, it's ok I can get a new pair for free on the NHS. This is why people get angry and don't want to give the children who actually need help the help they need.

Dear God. People are starving and desperate. You need to open your eyes, and pray your circumstances never dramatically change when you may thank god for some free meals for your children.

I’d love to know what the Tories would have said if Labour has done everything the Tories have done.

Indeed. Labour would have been crucified by the press and public both if they'd spent a fraction of what the Tories have wasted. We'd be hearing a lot of "Where's the magic money tree, Jeremy?"
And then someone will manage to shoehorn in "The problem with Socialism is that, eventually, you run out of other people's money." And will be so busy patting themselves on the back and having their arses kissed that they fail to realise (or care. They sounded really, really profound, which is what matters) that, as the economy isn't static, that isn't really how it works.

Goady post OP. There will always be people who will take the piss. Oh wait, MPs expenses, big corporations avoiding tax but oh no what's really wrong with this country is all these feckless benefit claimants who sell their children's food vouchers to buy ciggies!!

I won't say what I really think otherwise I will probably be banned but I do struggle to comprehend how a country like the UK is even in the position of having to debate this.

I got furloughed, then I got cancer, I could afford a comfortable life for me and my kids, now I have the same outgoings (including phone and TV I'm tied into contracts for) but around a grand a month less than I usually have.

Will I just put my kids back now?

Taxpayer here 😉
Don’t mind My money being spent here at all
Thanks

139 posts in and I see OP has only posted once, so clearly just a goady piece of nastiness, and cowardly too as she hasn't been back.

It's funny how people get so annoyed about those feckless families who buy sky and smartphones with their benefits and never work a day but don't seem to get so irritated with those people who don't work a day due to living off the money they inherited from their trust fund set up with the profits of exploiting various vulnerable people isn't it?

Or those people who don't pay council tax on the extra guest property their parents built on their country estate?

Or those people who are paid billions of public money by their friends to provide a service (without a proper bidding process) that they then can't provide.

If people really understood how massively rich some people are by DOING NOTHING they couldn't possibly begrudge somebody a new pair of glasses on the NHS. Or, like, lunch.

We certainly need a better benefits system. I don’t think any parent let’s their kids go hungry but it’s a huge pressure for long holidays with having to feed kids 3+ times a day plus bills/rent (which often isn’t covered by benefits).

I would suggest food coupons with benefits that can’t be used on the wrong things and at least guarantees that people are fed. But not everyone is able to get to Asda/Tesco/Lidl and have to rely on Spar/corner shop as £5 return for adults on the bus plus kids doesn’t work our cost effective.

Everyone could feed their kids healthy food from Aldi/Lidl (I pay 13p for a banana from Lidl) but if it’s not accessible what can you do? The other option is a service that drops around food shops for those on a extremely low income but then what happens to free will?

I agree to an extent. If you are truly in need of extra help right now then you should claim and show proof you are struggling. There are a lot of people abusing the shstem right now, so I understand your point.

Only those who need the help should receive it.

corythatwas excellent points you make there!

Some people seem to have a real problem with people on benefits having any hint of up to date technology in their house. They should either live in the dark ages and have none at all or pretend they live in the 1990s with very basic phones and go to the library every day to use a computer to apply for jobs. Why can’t they just do that at home?

Most things are online these days and things are on apps on a MODERN phone. You can’t get apps on a Nokia 3310 can you? Job applications, universal credit account, internet banking, zoom meetings, ETC. How the fuck do benefit bashers who begrudge these modern essentials expect people to find and keep a job without a smartphone and a laptop with an internet connection?

Even if we assumed for a second that children are going hungry because their parents procreated when the could not afford to look after them and/or prioritise TV etc over feeding them (to be clear- I disagree with this assumption), the fact remains that there are nearly as many new FSM claimants in the last few months as pre-existing claimants.

That means that nearly half those qualifying for FSM (which requires a very low family income) were not in that position before the pandemic. Were they supposed to be able to predict this crisis when deciding whether to have children and whether to take out TV contracts etc last year? (if they can, perhaps they should be employed as Government advisers) Many of these people are struggling to get by having lost a lot of their income through no fault of their own. During the school term at least they know that their children will be getting a decent meal once a day. During the holidays the extra £15 per child to pay for a meal for the week may well make all the difference.

OP- imagine for a second that you have used all your savings and are juggling which bills you can afford to pay, skipping meals yourself. Then imagine facing school holidays and the prospect of having to pay for 5 more meals a week. How would you feel to have politicians and strangers saying that you are irresponsible and your plight is not the Government's concern?

Another one who’s happy for my taxes to go towards feeding children. Subsidising the MPs canteen & restaurants in parliament? YeH, not so much.

@nogooddeedgoesunpunished

Worked with vulnerable families for 20 yrs. I've never met a family who prioritised sky tv and mobile contracts over feeding their children. I've met depressed, scared (mostly) women who struggle to budget on very low incomes. Half of the children living in poverty live in households where people work but due to the pandemic many of these zero hours contract jobs have gone. Many people have been forced on to worse contract terms and have lost the ability to control how much money they can earn in a month. Could you budget on that? Many have a phone as their only means of contact and this is necessary now more than ever to use for school work etc. If the only thing you could give your children by way of entertainment was tv would you not have one? It's way more complicated than you appear to understand. One things for sure, it is not the children's fault . Why can't MPs learn to stand on their own feet and stop taking handouts from the state through subsidised dining and work accommodation ?

Well said

I firmly believe the welfare state should be a safety net for all the residents of this country. I don’t think people should be able to abuse this system and have the taxpayer support their children because they won’t. People should, however, be confident that they can get financial support in times of crisis.

However we are in unprecedented times. So many people have lost their job or been forced to drop hours. These people need help and support until such time as the pandemic eases and they are able to get back in their feet. I know I have been lucky, both DH and myself are key workers and have not been adversely affected by Covid. We have been lucky in that the only real impact on us has been the loss of contact with family and friends. This is not the case for so many people.

Refusing to extend free school meals while accepting a pay rise and a food allowance sounds like something out of a Dickens novel and I would hope the MPs that voted against the motion realise just how removed they are from the people they were elected to represent. Unfortunately I fear that may be a vain hope.