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

[BearPomBear]

Just that really....

Top up benefits like Child benefit have existed for decades, before that there was a child tax allowance so yes benefits did exist. So you grew up in relative poverty and didn't qualify for housing benefits, council housing, school lunches ?

Which means you didn't live in relative poverty.

I guarantee you would be one of the first with your hand out.

Because it will take real investment in services, require employers to pay a fair wage, and something in place to try and stop the cost of living spiralling- one of the key things I suppose being homes.

my family were poor but didn't receive any benefits.

Then they weren't overly poor were they.

I don't think that you are more risk averse, just good old narrow vision.

I also didn't receive any means tested benefits until a few years ago. I only had 2 children and could easily support myself and us.

But life exploded, every single thing that I thought I knew was wrong and I had a complete mental breakdown.

My ex, in addition to raping me, made himself redundant and gambled his redundancy. I became pregnant by that rape despite the MAP. I couldn't afford £1,450 rent and £900 childcare, plus living expenses on my single salary. No maintenance ever paid. I don't have family support to any extent.

So I have been learning how to survive since then. It's a different world. Did you know that there is a limit to the extent that the NHS will fund your recovery from MH issues? The NHS refused me any further treatment and I am reliant upon charities. However, they aren't free. I need to find £20 per week to go, in the hope that I can eventually recover and be of some use in society again, at some point.

I don't want to get flamed, and I do recognise there is a serious issue in our country. However, I think in general our relationship with food is poor. Just watching programmes like Eat Well For Less and wandering around a typical supermarket makes me think this. I have been guilty of spending way way to much in snacks and easy convenience food in the Past. It's sold as normality. Schools really really need home ec classes (not fancy ones for GCSE) teaching bollocks but classes where you learn how to make cheap nutritious meals. Schools should offer such classes to parents too and supply them with the basic ingredients. Would be much better to offer a class and ingredients to really prepare for the future than handouts.

On threads like this if you hold any view which disagrees with the mantra of pay everyone more money, there is an assumption that you are a) doing so from an exalted ivory tower and/or b) are a terrible rich person who knows nothing of 'being poor' and your comments are immediately dismissed as the worthless witterings of the elite.

Hence mentioning my childhood experience.

I'm aware housing costs in London are sky high. It's why I'm encouraging my own children to consider living outside the London property bubble when they come to leave home, for a better quality of life and to have some chance of affording their own homes and families, provided of course they can find work in those other areas (or work from home).

It's partly due to the fact it's not a one size fits all problem. In theory those who are unemployed or low paid can claim uc which should paid sufficient for a basic style of living let's say, except the rent element doesn't always pay enough, children element is capped at two kids and the overall amount is capped (affecting high rent areas principally), then there's the sad truth that parents prioritise booze, cigarette, gadgets, entertainment etc over decent food or are just neglecting their kids generally. Putting up cash benefits doesn't always reach the neediest kids either.

If we all worked as much as we can, tried our hardest, managed money well etc then generous cash benefits could work but that isn't the case. I would like to see targeted help for low income families including food vouchers that have to be used for food or healthy food hampers dropped directly off as too many low income areas don't have decent supermarkets, plus cheaper wrap around childcare but a stricter requirement to look for work

I'm not sure whether this has been mentioned but there was talk of clamping down on anyone profiteering from the Covid pandemic early this year. Supermarkets prices went up loads during lockdown- now some of this is due to supply issues, but food stores generally are absolutely coining it in at the moment as people are eating at home more. Meanwhile food is less affordable than ever. Assuming the govt are getting a greater tax take (you would hope) from the supermarkets, they could set some of this aside for making sure children don't go hungry and have nutritional food to eat.

Council housing isn't and never has been means tested Tom, surely you know that?

Or are you just a middle class poverty cosplayer?

But then you did get state benefit if you were in council housing. Probably child benefits too, which were much more generous.

@TomMRiddle

But then you did get state benefit if you were in council housing. Probably child benefits too, which were much more generous.

What? Which state benefits were specific to council housing?

It isnt a good thing that social housing isnt means tested fgs.

Didn't one of Ken livingstone's cronies keep living in a £90 place property when earning over £100k pa?

Honestly, whilst others need to spend their food money to pay the rent shortfall on housing benefit, because the tories refused to cap private rent.

It is a precious wasted resource.

WizWoz You hit the nail on the head.

"Getting rid of the benefit cap , the two child limit, the five week wait for UC and the “getting paid twice in one month” issue in UC would help instantly."

So who actually is going to pay for the family with 8 kids who live their lives on benefits? Keep breeding to get more state handouts to spend on fags and booze, holidays in Shagaluff and never work a day, great life but someone has to pay for it all.

Council housing is state subsidised therefore a benefit.

Part of my job involves working in a supermarket. I remember those vouchers issued to parents in place of free school meals over lockdown... and I also remember the vast majority of parents using those vouchers to buy alcohol, TVs, stereos, clothes etc for themselves rather than on food for their kids. If vouchers are to be issued again, then they need to be like the milk tokens and only able to be used for grocery items.

Top up benefits like Child benefit have existed for decades,

Child benefit wasn’t originally a top up benefit, it was intended as a payment to women at a time when they wouldn’t have had an independent income after they married and had children. It was to mitigate against men who drank their wages to ensure children in the family got fed.

It was still a benefit that was given to all.

The poster claimed that they got nothing

@TomMRiddle
Why assume council housing equals on benefits?
Many council tenants work, probably the majority, very odd ideas on MN about social housing.

Private rent is too high. So there is always a shortfall.
Waiting lists for benefits are weeks in some places.
People are encouraged to take advances they simply can't pay back.
Maintence payments are a pittance
Debts for things you take for granted, ovens, washing machines, couches.
Falling behind on gas. Electric, water.
Childcare why the fuck is our childcare so expensive that it forces women out of work.
And yes addiction, poor choices for the very few. I think you should also be asking how many of these women go without food just so their kids can eat that day.

I don't know why so many of you are surprised kids are starving. The majority of you voted a monster in and you knew the poor would pay the price. I hope you think on that when your tucking in to your tea tonight. It takes a village to raise a child but so many people have moved up the ladder and they pull the rope beneath other peoples feet becayse why should they share what they have. If there was ever a time to be ashamed of voting Tory now is it.

Saw your other comment, how is social housing subsidised? none in England gets built!! Rents can be high, private let’s are horrifically high and out of control.

The local LHA rate covers social housing costs in our area, it is £1200pm. My friends rent for a 3 bed HA property is £400. The average lower end rents are currently £1600.

In addition if anything in her house breaks, the housing association fix it. She has solar powered water heating and has had a new bathroom and kitchen this year. Free.

I have to pay for anything that goes wrong here, aside from structural building issues, I have to just live with them, because my landlord doesn't care about mould, damp etc.

It is subsidised.

The bathroom isn’t free, what do you think the rent is for? HA uses rents to maintain properties and run the HA.
Find a better landlord.

@BlackBirdOfChernobyl

Part of my job involves working in a supermarket. I remember those vouchers issued to parents in place of free school meals over lockdown... and I also remember the vast majority of parents using those vouchers to buy alcohol, TVs, stereos, clothes etc for themselves rather than on food for their kids. If vouchers are to be issued again, then they need to be like the milk tokens and only able to be used for grocery items.

Did some areas have vouchers marked with "WARNING WARNING FSM VOUCHER"? (or something less dramatic). Mine were just bog standard gift vouchers. Of the sort anyone can buy. So no one knew it was given to me via the fsm voucher scheme.

[quote SpaceOP]**@TomMRiddle my family were poor but didn't receive any benefits. Top up benefits as we know them now didn't exist then, ditto minimum wage. Plenty of people were poor without being on benefits. But I was always fed and clothed. And no I never received tax credits or any means tested benefits. Sorry if that doesn't fit your fabricated narrative. I'll wait for you to apologise for calling me a liar.

I don't really understand why your experience in the past is relevant here though. I think it's true that while a lot of people did need and benefit from various benefits etc, there were lots of "poor" people who didn't necessarily get them. But that's because wages were still livable, housing was affordable etc. But when you consider that in London and surrounding areas, just paying for housing and transport can cost a fortune ... of course more people are struggling. I know a young man who works very hard on minimum wage and does something like 50-60 hours a week. Financially, he's doing okay. But... here's the kicker: he's single, no children, living in shared accommodation etc. His room in a house in central London costs him £600 per month. Even with his work ethic etc, if he had children and a partner, it would be a LOT harder for him to survive.[/quote]
But when you consider that in London and surrounding areas, just paying for housing and transport can cost a fortune ... of course more people are struggling

You’ve hit the nail on the head there. London and the south in general are ridiculously expensive. Unless you’re very very lucky and you’ve got a council/Housing association house, you’re always going to be chasing your tail.

I have no idea how much housing benefit is given in relation to property size etc...but I know it will be partially relative to the area you live. (The allowance for a 3 bed flat in London would more than what you’d get if you lived in Sheffield)

There must be a cut off point where the Local Authority won’t pay any more regardless of where it is, so I assume people have to make up the difference/shortfall themselves?

I assume that leads to more poverty because the housing costs are too high?

If this is the case then surely people should be given options to move further north where it’s cheaper and their money could go further?