AIBU to be sad and shocked by this article?

[LittleDorrit]

Have just been reading this:

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/18/child-poverty-labour-eradicate-promise

and I am shocked by the conditions this family is living in, but in particular how little/what sort of food they are able to afford.

It's not so much an AIBU issue, but just wondered whether others in similarly difficult circumstances think this is typical, or whether the mother could try to buy other types of food (e.g. rice, lentils, etc.) or perhaps be able to afford to spend a bigger proportion of her budget on food... £20 is very little.

The picture just shows lazy untidiness...... Not poverty in my opinion. Their tv is similiar to mine!! The room would look fine if tidied! They need to show true poverty to reflect the article.

I don't understand why she has so little to spend on food. I have family members on benefits and although they don't have lots of spare cash they have more money to spend on food than this lady. Something doesn't sound quite right.

Lots is going on repaying debts though - to council and to bank. I don't think it's unusual. Also, if your local shops are iceland & to go further is too expensive, is it that easy to buy lentils? and would you eat them if no-one you knew did and they sounded plain weird?

she should sod the £7 to Lloyds and give her children more fresh food. There is no reason for her to be putting Lloyd's bank before her children's diet!!!

But other than that - yup - thats about the upshot of it round here

That's a fantastic article and to me shows what true poverty in Britain is.

I knew plenty of people (and there are some on here) who don't have much furniture or storage and have things in boxes.

I'm shocked and saddened by how little she has to spend on food.

Poor lass is only 24, I think she's doing amazingly well with so little.

lazy untidiness???? Did you READ the article? "they need to show true poverty" - you don't think this is True poverty then? You think that having less than £3 to last between Thursday and Monday isn't True poverty?

i am going to be harsh and get flamed for this but - if i only had £20 for food i wouldn't then spend £5 on a mobile phone top up, she wouldn't buy potatos because they are too expensive, but she buys oven chips? as for the picture of her home, you dont need money to tidy up.

I smelt a rat too. No table? That's ridiculous. I know people on benefits and they've received basics to furnish their flats.

Read the article, I love Tiffany. Don't just look at the picture

ForeverOptimistic, she is paying back bank charges from when she was overdrawn by the sounds of it and also a crisis loan. I imagine that is what reduces the amount available to spend on food. The article makes it clear that she budgets carefully.

Sorry Cockles, lentils were probably a bad example !!

She's also paying off school uniform from last September

That level of poverty is grinding - it's just hideous

And I bet she doesn't have a landline so in order to keep in touch with her mum she has to have £5 for a mobile top-up

I says she is paying off bank charges, a loan from the council and another one which she used to buy school uniforms with. Probably a Provident loan at a million per cent interest. That can take a huge chunk out of your benefits

fircone - if you have no landline - then a mobile may be your only other option for a means of phoning out of your house - and its' a darned site cheaper than using a paphone.

Yes you can get a crisis or budgetting loan to furnish your flat - however they look at what other money you're repaying and to who and decide how much you can "afford" - before giving it to you.

If you're living out of boxes because of a lack of furniture it is harder to keep the place tidy.

Nancy - I imagine that having money on her phone is pretty important? With 2 young kids how is she meant to keep in touch with schools, doctors etc??

Re the oven chips vs potatoes - potatoes can go off and be wasted - oven chips don't?

fircone - lol! I'd say no table is the least of her worries!

I really feel for her, and it's so hard to get out of that cycle of debt!

I did wonder about the Lloyd's charges, because I would have thought that someone could try to negotiate with them to get them written off. But perhaps that's the problem - that she needs not just more money but also help to access the necessary information and services.

The article quite clearly states that she has no cupboards and that when she was given the flat, it had no carpet - she was lucky to get given an offcut, but it isn't big enough. She has nowhere to put things - she can't tidy up.

i don't know anything about being on benefits so I don't know why she can't get a table, but I imagine that living from day to day as she does, and being restricted in how far she can travel, makes it difficult to find out what schemes can help her.

As someone else mentioned, she has a £600 debt to pay off to LloydsTSB (as a result of compound overdraft and interest charges) - if she doesn't make the regular payments, the debt will just increase. I think she's made a sensible decision to try and clear this in whatever way she can.

I really admire this woman - she has such a positive attitude - and wish she didn't have to live like this. I hope I've never been glib or smug enough to dismiss people on benefits as 'scroungers' but I can see that it's the easy way to react. I think this article will open a lot of people's eyes to what it's really like.

Perhaps there is no dining table because there isn't room for one? There wasn't when DD and I lived in a flat. We didn't have carpet either for a year when we moved to a house, I had to save up for it.

i doubt she makes £5 of calls to school/doctor each week. personally i would think feeding my child proper food was more important than having a phone.

I saddened by the article too. I think the saddest thing is that it will be so hard for her to break the cycle for her children.

hmmm - if she gets the Lloyds charges written off and gets an extra £7 a week is that going to solve the problem? Surely the issue is children living in homes where there isn't enough money to allow them to live safely and healthily?

We aren't as bad off as her, yet we can't afford a table or carpets at the moment, even in second hand shops a dining table and 4 chairs will cost at least £60. Doesn't look that untidy to me either, the children are playing with toys which are scattered on the floor .

Living 100% on benefits sucks, maybe she tops her phone up because she can't afford a landline and may need a means to contact people , payphones are a complete rip off these days.

Oh fgs I did read the article!! Her stupid debts are not priority and she could pay them off at £1 a week instead of struggling! She could yet a budgeting loan of up to £1000 and re pay that at a few pounds a week out of her income support....... She could use freecycle......vegetable garden? ......it doesn't have to be so grim......I manage!!

So, no phone calls to anyone then? To keep the mum sane! And our dr surgery costs a fortune to ring! TBH, £5 is not a lot to spend on a phone, and she is keeping her children fed! I imagine the daughter gets free school meals so has a proper dinner every day?

You don't know that she makes £5 of calls every week. That was just expenditure for the particular day that the reporter was there. perhaps that £5 gets spent on something else next week.

I don't think it's up to anyone here to lecture her on how she spends her money. They're her choices and I think she makes the best ones that she can.