There is never a quick fix if you’re in poverty.
There are hard slog things you can do to improve your chances of creeping out, but they take hard work, often years of sacrifice and usually set-backs along the way. Most people cannot face this ir can’t face it over a long period, so remain in poverty.
One of the things that strikes me, is how when you’re poor and you get just a bit of good luck, like a gift from a family member of money, or some kind of help from elsewhere, because if the grinding day-to-day nature of poverty, people want to treat themselves. It’s totally understandable. And the money is gone. The harder approach which actually boosts the chances of creeping out of poverty is to save that money. Bloody hard if you’ve been scrimping for months on end and have that sense that surely you deserve a treat.
The difficulty is to build up that but if a buffer that’s big enough to be able to take a hit due to need for new schools uniforms, or new washing machine ir whatever, without being back to zero again. Most peop,e on low incomes lives hand to mouth and massively struggle to build that buffer and to keep it. It’s what makes the difference.
Some people are bloody determined though. Despite hideous circumstances they take on another 20 hours work and save every penny. They genuinely never have a takeaway, or any leisure spending. Many think their lives are totally miserable and not worth living, but they are determined and can see their bank balance creeping up by tiny amounts. Sometimes there are set backs and a crisis happens a no the savings mostly vanish, but they don’t become hopeless and keep going.
It’s almost impossible if someone has mental health issues, physical disability, addiction or other issues which make working or budgeting effectively difficult. Some people live lives that are subject to huge crises too….relationship breakdowns, job losses on a frequent basis, many dependents who are unreliable or a big drain for whatever reason, family members who are financial nightmares and run up debt. These things prevent stability and make getting out of debt very very difficult.
The grinding nature of it is exhausting and I understand why people living like this, spend any money that comes their way to have a chance to feel they are able to enjoy the ‘normal’ things of life and to have some pleasure.