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.

I would say her situation is fairly typical of many families I know.

Banks are a nightmare to negotiate with when you owe them money. When you have threats to send the bailiffs in and court proceedings hanging over your head you pay what they ask just to give yourself even the tiniest bit of peace of mind.

If you have a fridge that is on it's last legs you don't waste what little money you have by spending money on fresh food because you know there's a good chance it will go off before you can eat it.

The bus is far too expensive to use. A 5min journey around here will cost you around £1.80 each way. You walk everywhere.

When you have no spare money then how on earth are you expected to buy seeds and equipment for an allottment???

A PAYG phone is still cheaper than having a landline and you also have the security of knowing that you can only spend what you've already paid for. There are no unexpected bills to knock you sideways.

This situation is far more common than many people seem to realise. I think the woman in the article is doing really well considering the circumstances she's living in.

The television was probably given to her. There are loads of TV's like that down at our recycling centre. I would be very surprised if she actually bought it.

The family are living in poverty there is no denying that. We are living in a pretty fucked up country right now. My mum's friend is an elderly lady who is not in the best of health and yet she receives £250 per week in benefits! She doesn't have to pay any rent which means that she essentially has £250 per week disposable income, far more than we have ever had since becoming a family. I am not quite sure how the family in the article are living on £85 per week when my mum's friend receives so much. Admittedly my mum's friend is supposed to pay for a part time carer out of her allowance but she manages without. I suppose you have to know how to beat the system.

She would be entitled to transport costs to get to college. Why does she spend £5.50 a week (£286pa) on a TV licence which iirc is about £140?

Ok, all you brighty sparks suggesting she uses freecycle and checks the local paper for storage/table etc.
How the hell is she supposed to do that? She doesn't own a computer, and spending up to £1 from her meagre allowance on a paper is not a sodding priority.

Message withdrawn

have now read the article, her logic for which food to buy is a bit skewed.

when dh and i were surviving on not much more than this we tended to buy packs of frozen vegetables which are just as nutritious if you don't cook the life out of them. also she could leave the jam and buy the bananas, surely? why is it always the nutritious food which is the first to be sacrificed.

i don't think you can say nutritious food is more expensive than the alternative, not at morrisons anyway, they always have great deals on their fruit and veg. why is she buying crap like hotdogs anyway? they dont' fill you up and they're bad for you. she could have spent that money on a cheap cut of fish like Coley which costs bugger all at the counter and would really make a difference in the diets of those kids.

What I found sad about the article is that the father was allowed to swan off and not give her a tuppence.

THAT is a lot of the problem, people.

We have a culture that allows men to go around fathering child after child and leaving it to the mother and whatever help she gets from the state to bring them up.

And then she gets all the blame for it.

lal - why the hell does she need credit rating?!!! She's hardly going to be in the position to buy a house for the next 7 years is she? By which time any defaults will have just dropped off the file. Why are people so obsessed with credit ratings when they clearly don't have a bean for their kids??!!!

WRT allotments - I agree they are great. But they still cost money and if you have no contingency or savings for things like school uniform, how likely is it that you will pay about £20 (per annum, so yes they are cheap) for the rental of the allotment on the basis that if the weather is good and you have access to tools, seeds, pitch nearby and so on) you may have abundant supplies of fresh veg in a couple of months.

EXPAT - BLOODY WELL SAID!

Pooka.....well what are your solutions? This is how i get by with my 5 kids! And how come her income support is £80 when it's £60.50 for everyo ne else? And as I live 'hand to mouth' also I'd like to point out that she will also get a small amount of child support and she can have her monthly child benefit paid weekly as opposed to monthly..... These small things can all be life savers!

£5.50pw is the minimum cost she can pay for a TV licence. See link here

Yeah MollieO, you're right, the profligate bitch, spending £5.50 per week on the only entertainment her little family can have, so that her kids will know the games the others play in the playground, when she could spend the money on lentils or perhaps donate to the deserving poor.

Your attitude makes me sick.

That article is all about her. How about they track down where the hell this 'father' is and what he is doing? Bet you London to a brick he's already with some new partner and gotten her sprogged up so he can do the same when the going gets tough.

It takes two to create a child, so why's it always the mother who's the target?

She did buy bananas!!!

She could also check with council about school uniform grants.......ours have them. And if you buy the uniform from the school she'll get a good discount as the kids get free school meals.

Anyone know why her income support is so high?

these guys should be forced to labour for free then, doing something.

It was a genuine question so not sure the vitrol is welcome balloonslayer. I see that she has to pay that for the first 6 months to cover the current year's licence and then the payments become fortnightly

Is that sky she's watching, or BBC?

totalmisfit - I doubt she has a freezer.

These fathers have no vested interest in their household. Their name's not on the rent book, their name's probably not on the children's birth certificates; they drift around from billet to billet - true, they are feckless, but I feel sorry for them too.