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.

"she is fitting in computing courses and working on her literacy at the local community centre".

I still stand by my original assertion to stuff lloyds. Why should they profit from her kids grocery money?

She probably needs £5 mobile top up for the ridiculous 0845 numbers that cost a bomb and just about every one uses nowadays!

Also - being on a meter won't help - they charge a packet per unit compared to credit meters......

I say good on her for not havign a nervous breakdown personally!

for flips sake, they have a big telly, clothes to wear, food to eat, a sofa to sit on, a roof over their heads. That is not poverty.

that's just the kind of mess which comes from being lazy for a week or two and not having the common sense to not put your kid's desk right next to the 30" flatscreen.

I sometimes muse on how to help children in this sort of situation without just handing the parents more money, which just leads to a benefits trap.

hedgiemum says food/coupons, but I have read that people just sell or trade them so still the children's lot isn't improved.

It would take a Solomon to find a solution.

yes she could if they have creche places for her children, not to mention if she can afford the bus fare to get there and back.

MarlaSinger - how does someone without a computer access Freecycle? And how does someone without transport of her own collect a table? And if you live in the middle of an enormous sink estate, how likely is it that your local Freecycle group is going to come up with the goods anyway.

she probably won't have a choice re the pre-payment meter, or would be charged to replace it.

Stuffing Lloyds is unlikely to be a good idea - she'd probably end up with Bailiffs at the door taking what little she has and leaving her with even more debt and completly ruining whatever credit rating she has

Marla - there's no mention of a computer or internet access - harder to access freecycle without those things

And yes I missed the bit about the course she's doimg.

The article focused on the lack of table.

Well actually it is poverty. According to the official definition, the family are living in poverty.

Never mind the fact that there is no money for contingencies. Nowhere to store the tidied up things, clothes and so on. And that she is still paying off the loan she had in September for school clothes.

i think it is proufoundly depressing and is replicated in 1,000s of households

having £3 to last 4 days is poverty

they may have a roof over their head but what sort of environemtn is it - i bet it is damp and cold - they have no carpet

People are missing the point that poverty is a cycle. She doesn't freecycle/have an allotment/bulk out with lentils because she neither has the equipment/access or knowledge to do these things. That is the point,not whether she should/could have a table or a tidy up. she is the daugher of a lone parent who lived on benefits and on it goes.

As the community support worker quoted in the article said its not merely a question of getting a job. You are often starting right back at the beginning e.g. learning to read and write. There are generations of poverty and disadvantage to deal with. You are seeing the end result.

I personally think the young woman is doing an admirable job in what looks like desperately hard circumstances. Arguing about how she spends the tiny amount of money she has is slightly missing the point. The point is that children should not be raised in such desperately hard circumstances.

Marla - you ever used freecycle? Things like furniture are usually "taken" within hours of being posted - if she can only get to the library once a week she's going to miss most of the stuff!

Perhaps there is someone reading this thread who lives in the Bristol area and either has or knows of a table and chairs or a rug going spare - or a cupboard/ or toybox. I have some of these going spare now, but live too far away for them to be of any use - however I will be contacting my local council to see if they have a scheme for recycling unwanted furniture and giving it to people like this lass who really need it.

Freecycle is a good thing for those who have access to the internet and to transport to collect items, but it's worth noting that there are other organisations that can help out people in difficult circumstances - council furniture recycling schemes, or the Salvation Army - however when you are struggling on a daily basis just to keep your head above water, and you are tired and not particularly well nourished, it can be very hard indeed to make the extra effort needed to find such help.

What saddened me most in this article was the attitude that she reports from her child's teachers - that all the kids from that area are thick and not worth bothering with. Education is the lifeline that will help the children out of a life of poverty.

This young woman has my sympathy and my admiration - it sounds like she is doing the best she can in very hard circumstances.

Nancy do you not think she's isolated enough without having nobody to talk to throughout the day? I think she's being pretty bloody sensible keeping her phone topped up in case of emergencies tbh.

Poor cow. And I don't mean that in a condescending way, just that it's completely demoralising to live like that.

And I thought I was skint....

Forget loans from council/Freecyle etc - why isn't her children's father contributing or rather why is he allowed to get away with contributing nothing? He was working when they split up but has never given any child support.

Second, I think Jamie Oliver said something quite interesting in his Ministry of Food programme (slight cringe that I am referencing him as bona fide social commentator): the people he was visiting in Barnsley weren't poor in real terms - none of them were starving, all of them had a roof over their heads, TVs, cookers etc - but it was a poverty of expectation and a poverty of education that meant that kept their horizons so narrow.

Fircone, when I was on benefits I had no furniture. I had a tv, donated to me by my grandad, a chair and a second hand bed and well thats about it.

I got no help from the benefits agency to buy furniture because I hadn't been unemployed long enough and I hadn't been to prision. So basically because I worked and wasn't a criminal I wasn't entitled to help when I became pregnant and was unable to work . Any money that I had saved was spent on rent because I wasn't entitled to full HB due to not being old enough.

There was help available in form of short courses, reduced cost childcare and free college courses, but, I had to go out and look myself and ask the right people.

No one sat me down at the begining and said "Do you know that this is available to you?" Which I think that they should have done.

It is all too easy to get into this situation and not see a way out when you are living like that.

Lack of a dining table is the least of it.

I do find it somewhat ludicrous that freecycle and grow your own vegetables and take out more loans (for which she would presumably not be eligible anyway) are seen as solutions.