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

[BearPomBear]

Just that really....

“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

May be immigrants are poorly paid too so soon after arriving they find themselves either in debt and applying for food vouchers or both.

Because everyone knows the reasons: the rich pay too much tax, the disabled get too many benefits, and too many immigrants. Luckily we have the Tory govt to sort all this out for us.

@Grapefruitcauliflower

Low pay Precarious working conditions Exploitative bosses/companies Structural inequalities Housing shortages Inadequate benefits system Decimated funding to public services Covid-related job losses

Basically all the problems the Tories couldn’t care less about solving (because they largely caused them)

No, it was all started when Labour allowed unlimited freedom of movement in 2004. Most countries had limits, the UK didn't, and as a result wages have stagnated, and pressures on housing, school, and health services have massively increased.

Having kids in big cities at least make it almost impossible for both parents to work so relying in one salary as child care is very expensive. I have a lot of empathy for single mothers. It must be so hard. So yes something must be done about enforcing absent fathers to take responsibility.

@WizWoz I agree with you.

There are some who have additional responsibilities not covered by UC.

I remember watching a documentary a while ago about child poverty. One family featured was a single father with a daughter who had leukemia. He had given work to care for her, and she needed to go to hospital for treatment three times a week. Petrol cost £10 per trip, and while she qualified for hospital transport, it meant a lot of waiting around, and it made her very travel sick - bear in mind she was already very unwell. They were really struggling financially as that £30/week was money they didn't have, but most of us would do that for our child. There will be others with caring responsibilities that the state doesn't recognise which tip them into poverty.

Btw high earners do pay high taxes in this country and is automatically taken every month with their salary.

‘No, it was all started when Labour allowed unlimited freedom of movement in 2004. Most countries had limits, the UK didn't, and as a result wages have stagnated, and pressures on housing, school, and health services have massively increased.’

Very true!

@RHTawneyonabus

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.

Hi, I think you're referring to me, one of the hungry kids from 20/30 years ago.

Remember when tesco brought in 'value' brands. That was a response to the food poverty that existed.

Noone talked about it though. My wider family had no idea that we had so little food. Holidays were rough.

Because the party in power for the last 10 years would have to admit they had created a shit fucking life for a lot of people - 0 hours contacts, below minimum wage jobs, benefit cap, two child cap, UC in general, the bedroom tax. no sure start centres ...

I thought the same, the reason needs to be looked into as you can make very cheap meals if you have to

It has always been an issue. My mum taught at a primary school in a deprived district and children were often sent in having not had any breakfast before school. She always said it was not lack of money that was the driving factor behind children not having enough to eat, it was dysfunction. Most of the children struggling the most had parents with addictions, suffering abuse, or with mental health problems. I don't think that has changed.

In her career she saw the cycle perpetuate itself repeatedly as girls from poor homes sought the stability & love of having their own family, lots became young mums and my mum would find herself teaching the kids of her former pupils. Usually in the same poor circumstances.

Because wages have stagnated and house prices have shot up.

I bought my house in 2001. I was at college and a mum to my eldest child. I was 19. Dp was 23. He worked 32 hours a week in Tesco, we paid 24000 for a 3 bed semi in an ok area. Not the best, but perfectly nice area.

We'd been given a council house within weeks of asking but decided within a couple of months it wasn't the area for us (( neighbors were ok but they were drug dealing heroin addicts. ))

To save the deposit for our home we moved into my mum's spare room for 3 months and hoarded money.

I'm 37. My mortgage was paid off ages ago. I've no want or need to move.

Were perfectly normal people. We've never earned loads but we've always lived a good life. Money has been right over the years but due to the massive stroke of luck that is the year we were born I can honestly say I've never struggled to feed any of us. Which is understandable given my mortgage rarely went over £200 a month. Sadly the poor sod paying £600 a month to rent a house on my street wasn't so lucky. Neither is the person paying out for the £100000 mortgage to buy a house on my street.

Inflated house prices are fools gold. They should be capped based on area and average earnings for that area.

No simple answer but there’s a lot of deprivation in counties that nobody talks about.

‘No, it was all started when Labour allowed unlimited freedom of movement in 2004. Most countries had limits, the UK didn't, and as a result wages have stagnated, and pressures on housing, school, and health services have massively increased.’

So did the purse since average EEA immigrants are net contributors...

Whatwouldyoudo
House price inflation has been crazy too of course. I found an old file note at work once that showed the salary for my pay grade 20 years ago.it was not that much lower than today, but my one colleague of that generation bought his house back then for 1/6 the price they cost now.

NoIDont

Home ownership for most low income families is an impossible dream. They have a future of poverty and renting, it's a wheel they can never come off as rent will always need to be found.

We seem to have created this society built on hot air and emptiness because from my point of view the inflated vision of wealth is serving nobody. I feel so sorry for young people and low earners today. I don't see how they have any hope .......and yes. Some can build up to better things. But some just don't have that capability. And in a decent society that shouldn't be a barrier to a life that's secure.........we're supposed to be doing our wills in a few weeks and I'm seriously tempted to put a covenant in it stating that if we outlive the DC the house is to be sold for the price we paid based on their (( low )) earnings. If it's doable I'll be going for it !

@WhatWouldYouDoWhatWouldJesusDo

Because wages have stagnated and house prices have shot up.

I bought my house in 2001. I was at college and a mum to my eldest child. I was 19. Dp was 23. He worked 32 hours a week in Tesco, we paid 24000 for a 3 bed semi in an ok area. Not the best, but perfectly nice area.

We'd been given a council house within weeks of asking but decided within a couple of months it wasn't the area for us (( neighbors were ok but they were drug dealing heroin addicts. ))

To save the deposit for our home we moved into my mum's spare room for 3 months and hoarded money.

I'm 37. My mortgage was paid off ages ago. I've no want or need to move.

Were perfectly normal people. We've never earned loads but we've always lived a good life. Money has been right over the years but due to the massive stroke of luck that is the year we were born I can honestly say I've never struggled to feed any of us. Which is understandable given my mortgage rarely went over £200 a month. Sadly the poor sod paying £600 a month to rent a house on my street wasn't so lucky. Neither is the person paying out for the £100000 mortgage to buy a house on my street.

Inflated house prices are fools gold. They should be capped based on area and average earnings for that area.

That's great but surely not in the South East.

It's a sad state of affairs isn't it.

I was thinking this too.

There will be different situations that cause this.

The minimum wage is too low. I don't know how ppl survive on it. It really needs to be increased.

I watch a programme called Rich House, Poor house. Although not always, most of the time the poor family consists of a single mum. It's no surprise they are struggling and using food banks.

Having been on MN for a few years, I see the number of apparent accidental pregnancies, ONS babies and multiple pregnancies with men who are utterly useless.... again leading to single mothers with absent fathers....

There seems to be so little thought about creating a new life and bringing into poverty.

What's more is the encouragement they get from posters to go ahead have the baby...you'll be fine...you'll manage...babies don't need much and the rest of it...even after the OP has said they have little or no support...the father isn't interested and there's very little going for them.

Yet you hear continued encouragement...of "I did it" "You can get xyz benefits" "You'll be fine".

@CrimsonCattery
The only thing worse than that mp saying they should sell pearls is his thinking that child benefit (£20.30 for the first child and £13.??for the 2nd)would feed a child 3 meals a day 7 days a week.
If the government thought that UC was enough to survive on they wouldn't of given £80 extra per month per claim (not per person) for 1 year nor would they have changed the SSP rules to allow people to claim from the 1st day of illness instead of the 4th.
If they hadn't done this there would be rioting as people who thought that only the feckless lazy wasters need/use benefits and found out 1st hand how wrong they are

When I lost my job and my husband I had no where to go but my sisters sofa. When her next child was born she needed the space so I looked to the local council who couldn't house me. I got a grubby shared bedsit, my benefits didn't even cover the rent let alone the bills. I had porridge every morning and lentil soup every lunch and the ate out in the evening at churches/mosques/gurdwaras/soup kitchens/and a freegan cooperative kitchen.
I got pregnant by mistake and decided to terminate beause I felt that I couldn't raise a child in those circumstances Plenty do with the hope that it'll get better.
There are so many reasons people need help sometimes and losing 20% of an income where you live pay check to pay check is only one step away from losing your house or getting into crippling debt.

Poverty wages, addiction, mental health problems, austerity, cuts to benefits, cuts to local government budgets...too many to mention, but mainly 10 years of Tories. All forms of poverty in the UK have risen exponentially in the last ten years. Yet people still vote for them

@CrimsonCattery I've seen a lot of Tory MPs having their social media statement shared on my friends' Facebook but I hadn't seen that one. It is the worst. Pearls, phones and handbags! I work with families in need, some of them do pawn stuff when needed. It is a really difficult decision because they are pawning stuff they need (like the only phone a couple share). Handbags is making my mind boggle. Does he not realise normal people buy handbags for £10- £50 new and worth √FA second hand!

One of the things that annoys me about this debate is that even if you accept the 'feckless parents making children they can't afford' argument (and ignore all of the other structural aspects that help create wealth inequality), it's not the kids that are feckless and deserving of censure but it is them that people don't want to help.

Also, basically we are still back at the old idea of the deserving and the undeserving poor...

@Love51

Or use carrier bags and pockets!