Foodbank - 3 cars

[TalkToTheHand123]

Am I being unreasonable to think a family with 2 cars and a big fancy house shouldn't be using foodbanks regularly? No disability issues.

But surely not being able to feed your kids is the last resort. I mean that's the most basic thing isn't it - putting food on the table. If I couldn't do that and lived in a 'big fancy house' then I would be downsizing asap.

Yeah you would have to as you wouldn’t be able to afford the council tax. The water rates which will be high. Everything.

plus selling one car means no maintenance costs, insurance, tax etc. save money

Might need to use cars to get to jobs that cover bills, possibly not, but doesn't cover a food bill.
Or even collect for other people

Judge ye not.

So they might just need a bit of temporary help for whatever reason. You don't know their circumstances, so don't judge. That's for the foodbank to do (evaluate each client).

I worked in a place that had an attached foodbank. The first time no questions are asked, after that they are offered financial counselling and there is a maximum of three parcels. At least in my area. It's not a system you can take unfair advantage of too easily.

But it's not a matter of just selling your house and then having more money. It's a matter of trying to sell the house, and trying to secure a new place to live, and paying for a down payment on a new place to live. All that stuff costs money up front. Plus the house might need repairs. Which also would potentially need to be done before it was sold and costs money.

Maybe they're struggling for 6 months or a year and then things are going to be better. Maybe the mother is on maternity leave and she's not working and not getting paid as much for a year but when she goes back they'll be fine again. Or maybe one of the parents got laid off from their job and they are looking for another one but just haven't had any luck yet. There are all kinds of circumstances where it wouldn't make sense to sell the house.

So you want people who have fallen on hard times to make themselves homeless and reliable car-less, too, on top of feeling like shit and absolutely terrified of ending up on the streets with nothing before resorting to food banks for help. You would rather their children go hungry? Really?

Even people who up until hard times hit, generally paid taxes that helped provide safety nets for others facing hard times.

Selling a house takes months, and some of the costs have to be paid up front. Should they not eat for 6 months while the sale goes through? Perhaps it's heavily mortgaged, and selling it wouldn't leave them enough for a rent deposit (even though they might be better off renting because they could then claim housing benefit).

The cars might belong to their work, or be on a lease that's hard to break, or they might need both to get to their jobs.

Cars could be company cars/gifted/borrowed and house could be paid off/small mortgage etc. you don’t know individual circumstances and should not judge.

the better question should be why has this country got so many food banks (not the surplus pantries) why have we gone back to Victorian times where people are only fed due to the generosity of others? Food banks are not a good thing, they are not the sign of a functioning country, they are symbols of where a government has failed and citizens are looking out for each other. Nobody should be relying on charity just to feed their family.

If someone has any equity in their house though, they can release some in times of need. I mean to have a fully paid off house (in your scenario) but not be able to get basic food in sounds crazy to me.

ETA I am not saying that anyone should rush to judgement, or speculating on the specific circs of this case, Just saying that home ownership is not some separate and protected part of their wealth.

Why are you shoving your nose in other people's business?

in the country where I live, food banks are open to all. No referrals needed. No questions asked. No income check.

But you are being unreasonable to claim that you know there are no disabilities. Maybe the person hasn’t told you that they have a disability in the household. It’s really none of your business.

There, but for the grace of God, all that…

Releasing equity still needs the bank to be satisfied you can repay. You don't know how they got the house, what circumstances might have changed. It's easy to judge but you don't know the details. One day it might be you, because none of us are immune to sudden unexpected changes. You want your neighbours to be judging how you should have handled things?

No I don’t and we’ve cross posted as I did just edit my post in case it gave that impression, I mean I don’t have a house so it wouldn’t be an option for me, but very good point about repayment. I hadn’t really considered that.

I think in some ways it depends how regularly they use food banks and for how long they've been using them, along with what cars they drive, what they need them for and when they got them. It might be possible to use a food bank to subsidise a more lavish lifestyle.
If they've been regularly using them for some time I would expect them to be doing all they could to reduce their outgoings and tighten their belts wherever possible, including possibly downgrading cars or getting rid of one or both.

As I have mentioned on other threads my job is Administrative Law Judge. I conduct public assistance appeal hearings for my state. That covers cash assistance Medicaid food stamps and child support. Before I did this job I determined eligibility for public assistance benefits in my local county.

When I was working for my county I had a woman come in who applied for Medicaid, cash assistance, and food stamps. Her husband had been a very high earner but because of some personal circumstances had been unable to work and eventually had had to resign. She was a stay-at-home mother and had been for about 12 years. They had eight children. They lived in a very expensive house in a very expensive area. They had lived in that house for nearly 20 years. The entire time that they'd been married.

They of course were eligible for all of the assistance that was available because they didn't have any income. Everyone dGwho is eligible for food stamps is eligible for a program called the workforce investment act. Workforce investment act will pay for you to go to school to learn a high demand job in your state. So the available training differs from state to state. But she realized even though her husband had applied for Social Security disability that it can take sometimes years for that eligibility to be determined so she decided to use the workforce investment act to become a nurse.

They used the cash assistance that they received to pay the mortgage on their house and got assistance to pay their utilities. Utility companies here have something called a percentage of income payment program so you pay a percentage of your income and because their income was really low, they didn't pay anything.

Her husband stayed home and took care of the kids who were little enough that needed care. She went to school. And for 2 years they got assistance from us.

Then his social security got approved. Social Security disability is based on how much you earned when you were working and how much you paid in social security taxes. So his benefit was pretty high. Because he had minor children, each of those children could draw an amount that was a percentage of his benefit. All told, their social security was several thousand dollars a month.

She graduated from nursing school a couple of months after their social security started and they no longer needed public assistance because of the Social Security and then her nursing job.

But they chose not to sell their house because they worked to get back on their feet and I think that was the right choice for them. I know lots of stories like that although this is the most dramatic one. But I just don't know other people's circumstances and what might be the best option.

We already have an unsustainably massive social support framework but there will always be people who just don’t cope well with life and make choices that leave them with no money for food. And there will always be people who will take anything that’s free so they can spend their money on other stuff.

I don’t think the rise in food banks is particularly indicative of government failure. Whenever I’ve seen stories about users they have made choices that many of us wouldn’t agree with. That’s why you need to not be judgemental if you work or volunteer in this area. You’ll just stress yourself out.

I think the disability reference was to rule out the cars being Motability vehicles

This is all irrelevant as you’re clearly in the US!

Lots of possibilities here. One could be financial abuse. Income earner provides inadequate ‘allowance’ for the SAHP and kids to meet needs. Addiction issues. Sudden unemployment. Etc etc.

Also how exactly do you know there are "no disability issues"? DH has a chronic condition that can be really disabling, you'd never know it to look at him and plenty of acquaintances aren't aware, so unless you know these people really well - how do you know?

But if you’re regularly using them, you absolutely should be looking for ways to reduce costs to enable funding your own food.

YANBU op, they need to reassess their lifestyle to factor food costs in. That may mean a less fancy house.

Two cars may be needed for two adults to access work so may not be a luxury at all (depending on the type of car, but even that may be misleading depending on the age and condition of the car when purchased).

Big and fancy house is subjective. What do you mean by it? The house may be the size which is required to house the people living inside it.

Tedious goady post. What's it to you?

The obvious reason is sudden loss of job.

it takes time and money to sell a house.