To wonder WHY parents can't afford to feed their kids isn't being addressed?

[BearPomBear]

Just that really....

DLA being scrapped and 'replaced' by PIP hasn't helped. By next year some £37 billion will have been cut from the benefits budget, much of that from disability benefits.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/23/welfare-spending-uk-poorest-austerity-frank-field

The eateries who are offering free food will also be taken advantage of by those who can afford to feed their children but just want free food.

This is sadly true. There's also the issue that some of the families who could do with the free meals can't afford to get to the places offering them. A day saver bus ticket here, which is for up to 4 people, is £6 in school holidays. It would be cheaper to walk to the local shop and buy something.

Because addressing it would mean the Government admitting there's a problem. And as they are the problem they aren't going to do that.

This. Coupled with people falling for the narrative about immigrants stealing jobs and draining resources, or the trope about people on benefits being feckless wasters, and people voting for governments more interested in lining their own pockets and those of their cronies than challenging institutional inequalities.

Because the people currently in power have deliberately created policies over the last 10 years to make the situation worse. Just read one of the many Rowntree Foundation reports on this.

Because minimum wage isnt enough for a single person to live on never mind trying to afford a family.
Because rent is taking over 50% of people's wages.
That's just for starters.

@Cabinfever10

The 11year freeze on benefits whilst everything keeps getting more expensive plus UC pays less than tax credits even for disability payments. So not great really

Yes exactly.

Minimum wage is not sufficient for minimum living costs.

Universal Credit similarly is paid at sub-survivable rates.

At the same time as benefits have reduced and purchasing power has withered, housing and living costs have continued to climb.

We need unskilled and semi skilled jobs done, so there’s an obvious mismatch there.

Largely the fact that since the last financial crash the UK has had the poorest wage growth in Europe

Yes, Yes & Covid will exacerbate that.

@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander

Because addressing it would mean the Government admitting there's a problem. And as they are the problem they aren't going to do that.

Oh, yes, that.

The Govt needs to do a u turn fast.

I honestly do not care if the Govt u turns and this means that parents who do not care for kids get money they wouldn’t otherwise, and don’t spend it on their kids.

As long as a policy change means ONE family who would go hungry, don’t, it is worth it.

The feckless parents are a complex problem and the austerity and underfunding of important support services are not going to be solved overnight. And it’s pretty obvious the Tories don’t care. But I still have hope, that even with a stinking majority (how??) they are being held to account.

Didn't you realise OP its all those feckless low income parents refusing to sell their pearls to feed their kids?

According to this MP anyway...

They are not problems local people or restaurants could or should solve. They are issues around crappy employment opportunities, pricey housing and poor education. Their will always be a few utterly feckless parents but a huge amount of kids going hungry wasn’t an issue 20 years ago.

I will be honest and say as a single mum of 6 year old I am on full benefits at the moment because she is disabled we get more than the normal rate ( by a a lot ) We survive fine on that but when I look at what I would get as a single mum normally i couldn’t cope.

Sell handbags and pearls? He shouldn’t be in public office.

They can take 40% of your standard allowance of UC for "debt recovery".

@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander

Because addressing it would mean the Government admitting there's a problem. And as they are the problem they aren't going to do that.

BINGO!

@CrimsonCattery just goes to show how far removed from reality many of those representing us are! So sad that there are children out there going hungry, whatever the reason for it something is clearly going very wrong.

YANBU OP. Clearly neither low paying jobs nor benefits pay enough.

If the social welfare system were fit for purpose, there would've been no need for furlough - everyone whose jobs had to stop could've gone on universal credit, with a change in eligibility criteria so that jobs could be kept safe for after lockdown. But a massive proportion of the country suddenly trying to feed and clothe their families on universal credit even for a short period would've made it abundantly clear that that's not possible.

I don't know why this isn't discussed more.

a huge amount of kids going hungry wasn’t an issue 20 years ago
I disagree. In the 80s huge swathes of northern England had hungry children whose parents were striking from the coal mines or had lost their jobs in heavy industry. This is not a new problem.

@CrimsonCattery

Didn't you realise OP its all those feckless low income parents refusing to sell their pearls to feed their kids?

According to this MP anyway...

:(

And as long as we have clueless cunts like this in power, we'll have children in poverty! (Not saying removing them would automa solve it but it would help).

I mean, I could sell my mobile. But then I'll get sanctioned if I don't see a message on my UC account. He really is clueless isn't he! (And I'm not sure selling any of my handbags would make enough money to feed the dc for more than a couple of meals)

I have sympathy for those who’ve lost jobs or ended up in unexpectedly difficult circumstances, but others have purposely chosen to have children in the full knowledge they can’t afford them and the expectation that everyone else will pay to fund their life choices. So how do you feel about couples with fertility problems who have the expectation that everyone else will pay to fund their life choices? Or do you equally think that the NHS should stop funding infertility treatment?

automa =automatically obviously. Not sure what my phone was doing there. Maybe it's rationing letters thinking its saving money

Their will always be a few utterly feckless parents but a huge amount of kids going hungry wasn’t an issue 20 years ago.

So not true, I grew up in poverty in the 70s and 80s - I was often hungry, my parents often went without food to fed us and I knew many hungry children. This isn’t a new problem but it’s certainly one we should be utterly unprepared to accept.

Or do you equally think that the NHS should stop funding infertility treatment?
I do actually. The NHS should be servicing needs only, not wants.

The majority of people struggling are good parents who will go without themselves to make sure their kids eat this week, or they'll seek support to make sure the children are fed.

It's the awful parents who won't feed their kids - regardless of extra UC, regardless of a £15 voucher - that need tackling.

I saw a sign in a shop yesterday stating "Free school meal vouchers cannot be used to buy alcohol". Sickening.