Save the Children launches appeal for children in the UK

[Vagaceratops]

BBC link

And it will get worse :(

crackcrackcrak the problem is not mothers giving up work when having a child its mothers having children never having had a job

Ha ha haha ha just saw a person from save the chikdren on bbc saying mobiles, sky and nikes are essential now and its there human right i fucking heard it all now

Thank got labour is out shame on save the children

We're on a bloody good income and are struggling. Or rather we are struggling in comparison to how we were living two years ago. Everything is dearer. Everything. Our take home is slightly lower than it was, too (increased pension contributions - cue the sound of the world's smallest violin).

It's taken me a little while to work this out so I've not cut my cloth soon enough; but that's my look out and we'll get over it.

My point is that I simply have no idea how anyone can get by on much less than we do now. I have lived on a low income (for most of my life tbh) so it's not as if I don't know how to live without a nightly bottle of Bollinger.

It doesn't remotely surprise me that people are being forced to use food banks. It's a fucking outrage. We're a wealthy nation - there is No Bloody Need.

Mrbojangles - don't think there's much point debating with you

I was quite shocked at what the woman on TV thought was essential. When we were young parents we were on a very low income and got what was known then as Family Income Support. We just cut our coat according to our cloth. We had no car, no TV, used bikes when we could (although it was a very hilly area so not ideal). I used to have a mental list of luxuries (jam was one) and if we didn't have the money we didn't have the jam. I wouldn't want to go back to those days (DS1 still talks about how a blob of jam on rice pudding was a treat) but we also felt embarrassed that we had to claim a benefit to make ends meet.

Jam is an essential to me. If I run out of butter, meat, and cheese, I can always give the kids a jam sandwich. Strange how people have different ideas for the same things.

My comment would be on the guy describing struggling families who don't have "decent homes, food or foreign holidays" WTF?! since when were those three things in the same category!?

Anyway, it's appauling that most children living in poverty do actually have a a working parent. It is criminal that minimum wage is so low. I say that the government should bring in a minimum wage sliding scale so that high profit firms must pay more. It's criminal that the fat cats at the top of some of the huge supermarkets (for example) are so wealthy when their staff are working their arses off for £6 an hour. Maybe they could be forced to distribute shares to employyees...

Althought hey'd probably only pass the cost on to the customer, thus increasing the cost of living and defeating the object.

Greed is the problem. And the fact that men run the government.

JRsgirl. Your post started very sensibly. Went a bit wobbly with the unworkable idea of a minimum wage based upon profits (Do workers get a pay cut then if the firm in question makes less money next year than they did this year?). Then you completely left the reservation with the remarkably sexist comment at the end.

There is the old English expression "jam tomorrow". It was a rare treat. Now it was better when it was. In my view it is a poison really. It is one reason 60% of British people are over weight, sugar foods have become every day not treats. The irony is if the poor were having to cycle 5 miles a day and walk for miles and ate the number of calories a day which the slim rich middle classes eat they would be a lot healthier and jobs sadly go to thinner people too (and rich husbands seem to prefer them as well). Perhaps nothing better you can do for some women than eat less and move more.

Have we got into the competitive poverty yet?

'Back in my day, we didn't even have water. Mama just spit on us to wash us and dried us with her breath. If I survived, so you can you!'

As if it's a good thing to have Mumbai-type slums in this day and age and if you don't, then there's no such thing as poverty.

Get real, Xenia, people have had wide-scale access to refined sugar in the UK since the sugar tax was revoked in the 19th century.

'The irony is if the poor were having to cycle 5 miles a day and walk for miles and ate the number of calories a day which the slim rich middle classes eat they would be a lot healthier and jobs sadly go to thinner people too (and rich husbands seem to prefer them as well).'

Because everyone who is rich middle class is slim, of course, and married to a wealthy man.

JRsgirl "It is criminal that minimum wage is so low."

No, what is criminal is that the government tax minimum wage earners and then expect those same minimum wage earners to come grovelling to them for a handout.

MrJudgeyPants I think the theory is that we all feel better for being taxpayers. Not sure why, when as you say some people then have to claim it back or apply for benefits to make ends meet. Raising the tax threshold would certainly be something I'd like to see.

maybe im being wishful thinking

but surly raising the income tax will help?

im hoping universil credit be a good and fairer thing.

my bugbear when you work is most things are taken as income.

even child benefit nons meanstested is income.

when applying for series of benefits it doesnt take the other benefits as income so people can accrue more in benefits than the avrage working persons net amount after tax.

Blimey if i had lower rent, less council tax or housing benefit and had the £40 a month school dinners for free then I be better off.

I think tax system too complicated.

sometiems wish they double ta xallowance and scrap tax credits all together as seems madness we subsidising employers wage bills.

As a young adult i had 2 jobs think back then people worked 2jobs did what they could.

I think we much more a throwaway soceity these days.

But peoples expectations have changes.

I fail to see how mobile phone contract and sky is a neccesity.

when someone goes on news and says that mockery of whole thing.

Is it people not getting enough

or tehy prioriterising and spending on wrong things?

I know plenty who fall into the latter.

The boom days are over

banks dont give overdrafts like they used to or worse demand them back within 30days.

jobs are less and more competition means its an employers market.
a mum who wants part time job whos not flexible.
school off hours.

all part time jobs i see say must be fully flexible and most temporary.

Our living standards have fallen.
private renting-no subsidised rent
no low interet rates that lucky freinds who brought at time and have trackers.
petrol, ultilities and food all shooting up.

The middles definatly getting poorer.

all the cuts dont really seem to have affected the low earners that much. som not even start until 2013.

if income below 25 then they still get tax credits
still get child benefit.

we huy gets pay increase next year he gains £100 gross we lose £2500 cb net-wonder if can tell a an emplyer dont give me a pay rise thanks.

it makes me feel penalised for being a sahm mum taking that off me.Im not on jsa- so im not under figures unempolyed, im not a single mother im married, no family nearby at all.lost tax credits this year am i slightly bitter yes.

yet the wealthy pensioner living in spain still gets their beloved fuel allowance, free bus pass and tv licence.

I think a lot of people in uks living standards have fallen simply because its expensive to live just for basics never mind the extras.

They need to look at outgoings not just income as combined this can be quite generous.

but surly raising the income tax will help?
Yes but is it the right thing to do? Raising income tax may bring in more money but we have a huge deficit so do we use that to pay off our debt or siphon it to those in need? Because according to STC having a mobile is a necessity. That's going to be a tough sell to convince me that I should pay more income tax so little Johnny can have a mobile phone.

I think a lot of people in uks living standards have fallen simply because its expensive to live just for basics never mind the extras.

And the simple reason for this is because as the global economy has grown, the asian countries are now demanding more resources than ever before. China/India need vast amounts of coal, gas, oil etc And as the law of demand and supply dictates, as the demand grows for resources which ultimately are fixed, the price must go up.

Add to that the fact that our economies are not competing well enough and we're hemorraging jobs/money to them, we have less left over to spend on ourselves.

The socialists will tell you it's all the rich people's fault but the reality is far more complex than that.

HereBenson Raising the tax threshold would virtually abolish in-work poverty in this country. I?ve explained this before, but it is so obvious I?d like to repeat it again. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation believe that the bare minimum one needs to earn to take part in society (the living wage) is £14,400 per year. After deducting Income Tax and National Insurance, you end up with a take home wage of £12,280.

Working the other way, someone working a 40 hour week on minimum wage (£6.08 p/h) will earn £12,646 per year - £366 per year above the living wage*. Unfortunately, the same jokers who have mandated that it is illegal to sell your time to someone else for less than £6.08 per hour are perfectly happy to relieve you of over £1,500 per year (and then let you waste further energy and time jumping through hoops of bureaucracy to claim that money back). This needlessly pushes people into poverty.

In an ideal world, £12,646 would be the starting point for NI and Income Tax to kick in and a flat rate should be paid on all (by definition disposable) income above that point whether it is in the form of salary, dividend, interest pay-out etc?

*(I?m not claiming that this is a comfortable existence and regional variances aren?t taken into consideration, but it must be better than claiming benefits)

All the people moaning about scroungers and other such shit need to look past their biggoted I'm all right jack mentality and see the truth.

More and more people are losing there jobs or being forced to take zero hour or part time contracts.

Wages are not going up, yet utility bills, rent, travel and taxes keep going up.

Childcare is completely unafordable.

Many rural areas have fuck all public transport and jobs for that matter.

So many have lost there jobs and found themselfs stuck in debt endlessly paying off things they bought years ago with no way out.

More and more benefits being changed leading to payments being stopped for literally months as the system is so shit.

There is a real issue here just because kids are not grabbing about on the street doesn't mean things are not bad, why do some of you want us to wait until we reach that point before talking action? Do you really want us to be like America.

I am with many above in thinking it is ridiculous to impose taxes once you earn over 8105 but then give lots of people benefits on top of that - housing benefit and if children child tax credits. It is just paying civil servants to be employed to push money around. I suppose there is an argument that if people pay tax they feel more included in society but remember income tax was only introduced as a very short temporary measure 200 years ago to fund Napoleonic wars. There was none before that.

Can anyone tell me that if you are a single person on £8200 if you will obtain housing benefit for the one room in a house that HB might cover? Presumably.
The Lib Dems want to increase the SPA from £8105 to £10,000. i think the minimum wage is £13,000.

The big problem is although 1% of us pay 30% of all tax in the UK there are very few who earn in this 1% band so it doesn't matter how much you tax us you will never get enough to feed the poor. Therefore we have to hit the squeezed middle for most of the tax and they are a bit fed up and the coffers are bear and our current cost of the state, benefits all spending etc is the highes % of national income it has ever been in British history. It rose massively under Labour. We need to get it right back again to a level which is sustainable.

Dolomites.....when did I say I was in poverty??
Certainly as a child, But not now!
I was trying to point out that not all of us live in London or he south east, can afford childcare or have skills that are in demand to get a part time job easily.
That's all.

you will never get enough to feed the poor

But there is enough to feed the poor. Britain is a rich country, there is enough food for everyone. The problem is the way wealth and money is distributed.

Government borrowing has risen 25% under the Coalition btw.

Not intending to read much of this thread now that I see it is the usual benefit bashing assault on the "idle, feckless poor" but I will say this:

My mother is a teacher. There is a family in her area that really concern them. Mother is a widow and disabled, family fell on hard times prior to husband's death as he was also quite disabled by the end.. two years ago, a local businessman asked my mother to give some money to a family in need (deprived area) at Christmas. My mother had a chat with this woman and asked if there was anything the family needed they could help out with. She said a bag of coal as they had run out of money for fuel and some wool so she could darn the kids' jumpers. Not a Nike or playstation in sight. Some people in Britain are poor.

Xenia "It is just paying civil servants to be employed to push money around."

Spot on. That is all big government exists to do. Many services that the state runs are run for the benefit of the employees of the state, and not for the benefit of the tax payer.

Rosebud05 "But there is enough to feed the poor."

Absolutely! As I showed above there is even enough money to feed most of the poor already in the pay packets of the poor! If only the state would confiscate less.

Xenia although of course the poor don't pay prescription charges I suppose so they don't have that burden most other people do if they are ill.

BULLSHIT People on DLA and those who are still on the old Incapacity Benefit DO NOT and NEVER HAVE got free perscriptions. It says so on the back page of the repeat.

Benefits which DO NOT provide exemption.
You are NOT entitled to exemption from prescription charges because you receive Pension Credit Savings Credit,Incapacity Benefit. Disability Living Allowance.Contributions based Jobseekers Allowance,or Contributions based Employment and Support Allowance.
Copied off of the back of DHs repeat prescription.

Not all disabled people are poor.