Poor Kids

[expatinscotland]

Anyone watching?

very true sungirltan, I have done a few budgets for families befor ena dfound they have enough to live on, but then because of the provy man and owing money and the fact benieifts come in at stupid times, weekly, four weekly, monthy!! I mean hows anyone meant to budget with that crap :(
I have spent years counting the pennies, only having £20 left a month, wondering weather to buy milk OR bread, raiding the penny jar to buy basics :(
Its only in the last 2 years I can relax a little more, but still not great

mollie0 - maybe she's tried.

Frillyflower - eh?

Don't they need dry walls first?

ffs!

I know benefits are pitiably low but is it really so low that you can't give your children anything for lunch?

lisa - i can well imagine. i've done enough budgets where the fmaily doesnt really know whats even coming in or going out its so confusing that they just sort of lurch between 20 here and 60 there and they to get their heads around it. you cant even do an you get x monthly and need to pay y because x is spread over 4 weeks and hasnt all arrived by the time you have to pay y.

and who would give her a saturday job? her clothes dont fit, her hair is terrible and she clearly is depressed :(
Decorating isnt possible for most, it costs, and the choice is food OR paint, not a tough decision.
Im looking round my little 2 bed houise and am very grateful.

Again...Have you been watching.

The simple answer is yes. In school holidays they often miss meals.

frilly - lisa and i can probably explain that.....

No frillyflower, mum can go without lunch, like mine did and we ate a concoction of flour, water and salt pancakes. She did have a clean house though, apart from the damp!

Can't believe that the UK is ranked 18 out of 22 European countries for child poverty. Just proves how vast the gap is between rich and poor, and the cuts will just widen that even further.

i was thinking with the older sister that she probably needs to help dad at home and or she can't afford the bus fare into town to find a job. its sad though because she might flourish a bit with the self esteem and social support of working in a cafe or something :(

most just see money go in and go straight out again. They are forever robbing peter to pay paul.
Yes sometime even food is a problem. I have not eaten to make sure my kids are fed but only a few times when things went very wrong but think most do it daily

Oh yes igggi, I think it's fairly recently I just lost all hope of ever living a better life, it's very depressing.

meanwhile how likely is it that sam's sister will stay in education do you think?

if you have 4 children that are used to warm meals daily at school and suddenly you have them home for 6 weeks, and have to find breakfast luch AND dinner. Thats 28 extra meals a week!!

that was so moving.
particularly as it was the chldren themselves talking. i read the article in saturday's guardian.
one parent had approx 108 per week, 35 for gas 35 for elec and the rest for everything else. imagine that. food, clothes. not a lot. and presumabley the reason the gas and electricity are so expensive is becuase they are key meters.

Condensation causes mould, but it isn't what's technically called 'damp' so council/landlords can blame the problem on lifestyle. Ie. drying clothes indoors, not opening windows enough etc.
When it's generally a lack of ventilation and insulation in the property. Which will cost them more than they can recoup in rent increases so they don't do it.

If you have the resources to find out how best to deal with condensation issues, the cure doesn't help either, opening windows and keeping the heating on does help but bumps the heating bill up hugely. Less money to spend on other essentials.

Our last house had some pretty bad mould problems. We have the jammiest luck that allowed us to move to somewhere healthy and affordable.
We would have been looking at a 50% increase in rent if we hadn't have dropped on.
The neighbours had lived with worse condensation and mould problems for nine years before they managed to get a council place.

And just that one aspect of living with limited means is utterly miserable.

Ime most of the richer kids don't have Saturday jobs as they have the bank of mum and dad to live off. I was surprised she didn't mention trying to get a job when speaking about her dad's job hunting.

I just watched this and it really says something when moving to Drumchapel made that little girl's 'dreams come true'.
Those flats in the Gorbals are uninhabitable and NO ONE should be living in them. That is a disgrace and the GHA (Glasgow Housing Association) should be ashamed of themselves.

I don't blame any of the parents for not cleaning/decorating- I'd be too depressed to do any of that if I was forced to live like that. I think it's the hopelessness of ever having any chance of escaping which is the real nail in the coffin. Most people can cope with short term poverty but when the only route out of poverty is death what kind of life is that?

I think it's naive to think that having a nicely decorated house really makes any difference to the situations that these kids find themselves in. People become so desperate and tired of the daily struggle that decorating is just not important. It's awful to see the conditions that councils expect people to live in - that mould in the flats was truly shocking.
It does put things into perspective - we're economising at the moment as I'm only on SMP after 6 months maternity leave but our economising bears no similarity to the millions of people who live hand to mouth.

£70 a week for gas and electric? Even if it's on a meter that's over £300 a month. Who on earth spends that much on their monthly heating bills?

people on a meter who have damp problems!
Mine is £200 a month

MollieO - IME richer kids do seem to look for work as they have the motivation and encouragement of their parents to do so, plus they're used to seeing work as a necessity in life.

i am pretty sure thats what i read. i assumed because of the sky high charges of having a key meter? will hunt out the article.