To wonder what else can be done to break the cycle of generations living off benefits?

[Allonthesametrain]

Sounds harsh because It is. As a former teacher, then eduation social worker, now the past few years more heavily involved with school attendance.

My desire has always been to help children from unprivileged backgrounds to know their worth and achieve the best they can and this has been my career from age 23 to 57.

The number of times I've cried, torn my hair out, is immeasurable. I and colleagues have gone above and beyond to support the families, genuinely care about them, but unfortunately the outcome has been, as I've said in title, it's a continiation of the cycle of being brought up within a small community and low expectations.

So many gorgeous kids (supported throughout their young lives until they leave school) who tell you their dreams of what they want to to achieve in life, we do everything we can to enable it and some have indeed broken out of the circle but unfortunately the reality has been...

Parents who live lifestyles of no bedtime routine, tell their kids not to come back before ...pm, sleep in and don't get them out of bed ready and fed for school and as for weekends, pub and take back a new bloke

Parents who have issues themselves and project them onto DC. The kids soon realise they can stay off school for feigning illness and would actually be a comfort to Mum

The parents who just cba and say shall we just still in bed?

Of course there are so many other mitigating factors but these are the 3 main experiences we've dealt with. Unfortunately it really does come down to poor parenting and no matter what interventions we do to encourage attendance, only a minority are genuine.

So the cycle...DC think education isn't important, parents are hopeless role models and can often be aggressive to teachers, a deflection of blame.

Then oh DD gets pregnant at age 15, DS has been reprimanded by the police for scooting around in a balaclava. Then pure hostility when we try to continue to talk to them and what could be done to help.

Basically it's just such a shame, these sweet young kids who say they want to be ... become so influenced by their homelife, a need to fit in with their family and peers from the same estate, that they ignore the support we give them, don't turn up to appointments etc.

For the genuine cases, DC with SEN, the effort to try and ensure they are in best place is utmost and it's heartbreaking there aren't enough of them. Yes, we do know genuine cases and not just so many parents striving for a diagnosis because they feed DC a terrible diet and let them stay up late so are tired and irritable at school.

Expecting some backlash, whatever anyone says I can reason with.

But people are advocating these things for "being poor" not just for proven criminal acts. We are regressing back to a time when poverty was seen as a moral failing, regardless of circumstance, and then criminalised, and the assumption that if you're poor you are more likely to commit crime.

I can't rock up in my town centre with a suitcase of goods to sell, you have to pay for a license, or you are committing a criminal act. Everything that is suggested for people to lift themselves out of poverty requires a personal investment of money they often don't have. It's Catch 22 all round.

Open your eyes and see them

I really would not bother. Her first post on here was guns blazing at me for something totally irrelevant. On another thread, she called my dead grandmother lazy and a "scrounger" because my gran claimed Pension Credit after a lifetime of unemployment, yet being a carer for my very disabled grandfather.

She also thinks if you can date, then you can't be disabled and should not be on PIP.

Absolutely spot on. The poor are also vital for many businesses, discount retailers, Lidl, Aldi, B&M, Home Bargains. Whole industries rely on them, Shein, Temu, Primark are all geared towards the poor with limited aspirations demographics. Cash Generator, CEX, would cease trading if it wasn’t for those unable to afford new or those who dabble in burglaries. The low wages and lack of ambition combination is another way many companies thrive off the backs of the poor.

Benefits Britain is a sad state of affairs when you stop to ponder how interwoven into society it has become.

Total rage bait

I do not know what benefits people are on by looking at them.

If people are fraudulently claiming it’s hardly going to show in the “facts and figures” unless they have been caught, is it 🙄

then explain to me what rights then should criminals have to keep being a criminal in a society that wants to be a better society ?

I think the idea behind the UBI is that it would only cover the basics, to avoid the incentive to work disappearing. Which is actually not dissimilar to the principle of UC, much as some would scoff at me for saying that that. And at least if a UBI was introduced people might stop bitching because poor families can get into Whipsnade Zoo for a quid, as they have been doing on other threads.

Ubi works very well in other countries. People get it if they are in or out of work. No shame no sanctions

They need to be paid proper wages if they are working - like anyone else surely? Otherwise it will just be a case of companies paying even worse poverty wages, exploiting the poorest.

The problem we have is that wages have grown by just 4.5% since 2010 ie 0.3% pa - the worst growth for 200 years. The poorest 13 million are in deep poverty. This comes with insecure housing eg whole families in 1 room, unable to get council housing, unable to afford winter clothing/shoes, moved to areas miles from home and family, insecure jobs, often paid well below minimum wage, huge mental illness problems ( anxiety and real fear of loan sharks). Women unable to feed their children properly etc., terrified of their husbands/partners who take their money to gamble/ to control etc.

When you are deep in troubles like this, it is very difficult to think straight.
25% of the people coming to the Food Bank I collect for, had been sanctioned ie refused any money for weeks on end because they had eg failed to attend a meeting ( no money for the fare etc).

It is not widely known that people have to wait a minimum of 5 weeks before they receive any money* if they lose their job eg. In that time they will have no money at all to pay off debts, feed their family, pay rent etc and by the time any money comes through they are traumatised by visits from debt collectors / loan sharks etc. Most countries in Europe have laws governing the amount of interest that can be charged on loans. We do not.

*They can get a loan but it has to be paid back so just delays the crisis.

The anger in the country is growing. The anger of youngsters who are desperately scrabbling around to find something, anything that might work, after doing degrees, working on placements, paying to work… this country is now heading into severe danger.

I’ve been watching the effects slowly work up the social hierarchies and even now the very richest and the top political classes have no real clue of what is happening. Or if they do, they really don’t care. Yes some would very definitely bring back workhouses, and worse.

This thread is about benefit claimants, not criminals.
Unless you are conflating the two? Which is pretty offensive.

I’m confused. Laughing about what?

No, these policies don’t don’t draw a distinction. I received a payout for my child who was born with a disability which turned out to be genetic. It doesn’t matter if the disability was caused by the birthing process or whether they were disabled by virtue of genetics.

The parents are responsible for looking after their kids … not everyone else!!! Who’s in violation of the human rights if not the parents?!?

Oh she's an idiot, no doubt about it. I just enjoy asking bombastic people questions that they won't have a clue how to answer (without recourse to irrelevant AI generated output at any rate) purely to prove to myself that they really are full of hot air!

its a difficult one but if you are poor why keep on having dc in the age where there is reliable contraception

We kind of have UBI already, except you have to be 67+ to claim it.

Oh sorry, I didn’t realise. I thought you were making a big thing about your being on benefits because of a broken leg. Anyway..I’m not too focussed on individual specifics.

on the original point of the op and there has been many different factors that lead to explaining the ops question mine just happens to focus on the criminal side of poverty leading to crime etc

"DS has been reprimanded by the police for scooting around in a balaclava. Then pure hostility when we try to continue to talk to them and what could be done to help."

I don't even know if it's worth trying to engage with you. I struggle to believe that someone could be that ignorant of... well everything really, and, at the same time, be sentient.

I have a degree in criminology. People commit crime for lots of reasons. Poverty is a driving factor. I have been a victim of crime myself but not that long ago women were being jailed in Scotland things like non payment of TV licences

Love it … all the ones on here supporting those on benefits, likely all sat on benefits themselves!!
Stop taking money from working people!!

It's not. That's the same poster who thinks I'm a lazy scrounger for being on disability benefits

TL:DR -Poor thick people buy cheap?