to think that some people just don't get poverty?

[Ohsoworried]

I've seen a few posts recently where people earning a fair bit of money (think around 100k a year) are complaining that they're struggling with money, don't have enough etc. I DO understand that it is all relative but equally, for people like me on a low low wage, in insecure housing, wondering how I'm going to pay rent, having to stop paying in to my pension for the extra £30 a month etc it does make me cringe a little. Things are a little better for me at the moment but it has been hard and my secondment is up soon so back down to low pay. When I left my abusive ex I was living in poverty. And when I mean poverty I mean in a refuge, no job because I had to relocate, no money for a deposit to rent etc. It's the choice between being able to downsize your house, not go on holiday for a couple of years, make sacrifices but still live comfortably etc, compared with not knowing if you'll be able to afford your bills. Of course I'm generalising and I'm sure there are people out there who are genuinely on high wages but have high mortgage payments etc who are struggling. I do sympathise. But I don't always think this is the case...

My husband was on the earlier equivalent of free school meals in the 1990s and early noughties. He watched that video and said it was poverty- esp social poverty, not being able to afford trips with friends and he experienced it as a child. He did have a yearly holiday paid for by grandparents though! I think poverty in a rich country must be viewed through the isolation it causes you, in a poor country, you often live with your extended clan and bonding with them costs nothing. Everyone around you is poor and will do free activities with you. In a rich country, so many social activities cost money even if it's bus fare. Esp if you are a kid. And if you are poor in this country, you are likely to be a family of 3- harried single mum and 2 kids and probably your grandparents live somewhere else or maybe you see them once a year at Christmas. Aunts and uncles all distant. Always renting so you move every year, hard to form connections with neighbours. Your are struggling and lonely.

My husband thought that was poverty despite growing up poor himself, perhaps this means that UK poverty has gotten a lot worse since the Blair years! New Labour were quite generous with the family allowances.

Her kids are fed, they can afford meals, they live in a spacious, modern beautifully decorated apartment, the kids are very likely to have help to afford to do their hobbies as well as the money they get to go on holiday. I'm sure she genuinely is struggling and it must be unpleasant not to ever be able to go to a restaurant or on holiday abroad, but it's nothing like being poor in the UK.
but don’t you think that it’s this kind of thinking that is pushing struggling families to Poverty ?

her flat is spacious and her kids are fed for now, but as she has mentioned she needs to drastically downgrade ,

2300 a month is not even close to affordable.

My bills:
Rent: £1480
Council tax: 147
Water: £23
Gas and electric £180 - in debit and argued this down from £300
house insurance: £11
Two mobile phone contracts £50
Nursery fees (after the Gov discount) £1440
Travelcards x 2 for work £400
Internet £35
TV Licence: £13

Even without nursery fees, that's £2339, and that's before food, toiletries, clothes, household products.

It is all completely dependant on your circumstances and where you live.