Dispatches - Growing Up Poor

[TurquoiseKiss]

Did anyone see this? I'm half way through on catch up - very tough to watch.

[HeIenaDove]

"The lady with the dog had fled domestic violence and moved her children miles away to keep them safe..."

Yep And i wonder how many women watching will now be less likely to leave an abusive partner as a result of this.

Abuse or grinding poverty. What a choice

[christmassymcchristmas]

Two of the families did smoke though, cigarettes as well. The most expensive way to keep up the habit. There are plenty families in this situation that don't. If only these programmes would feature them it wouldn't give those with a Tory outlook any further ammunition.

[user764329056]

How very predictable dotty, that age old small-minded attitude, congratulations on your level of ignorance

[JustAnotherPoster00]

www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/04/food-bank-northampton-people-abandoned-by-state?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A year in the life of a food bank: ‘People who come here have been abandoned’

Natalie Bloomer visited the Weston Favell scheme in Northampton every month for a year. Here is her diary

[Gran22]

I have a grandchild who is eight in very different circumstances to the girl in Cambridge. It really brings home how messed up the benefits systems are. Thank god they could access food banks, but the house was cold. At least in the old days of open fires people could find something to burn!

No mention was made in two of the families about financial support from the absent parent. Even when dv has been an issue, the courts should step in and make sure responsibility for children is a shared expense. As usual the mothers were the ones trying to hold things together.

The family who moved to Hull showed an important point, there is affordable housing, even social housing, available in less affluent parts of the UK. However, its very likely there are fewer well paid jobs.

[purpleme12]

I wondered how they moved all their things to the new house but perhaps they took out another loan

[june2007]

Purpleme12 perhaps they had help from a charity? Perhaps they had friends? Pr yes maybe a lone.

[june2007]

And refering to my pads out of rags comment. It is actually very easy to do, you can make propper pads out of them and they last years. It,s not so stuipid you just need to get your head around it. And why take a comment from a completely different thread and quote it in another. (Like months afterwards.)

[dottypotter]

Yes there are some genuine cases but you can't deny that there are so many people having children before they are in settled relationships and have somewhere to live. It's not like it used to be people got married settled down supported themselves before they had children. Everything thinks it's the gvts job to help them today. Even if it wasn't this programme there are other programmes where people plead poverty but have phones and smoke and have pets. Stop having children you can't afford. I used to do voluntary work in a housing advice centre the amount of people coming in and saying I'm pregnant what benefits can I get was disgusting. People were expecting the council to house them as well. It's too much. If you don't think this is happening you must be living on another planet.

[dottypotter]

I'm not a Tory either just someone who sees the situation as it is. My parents saved up got married and bought a house. They then bought 3 kids up and both worked. Dad full time and mum part time. They stayed married never asked for a house or any money apart from the normal child benefit that all parents got. How many people are running their lives like that today?

[dontalltalkatonce]

It's not like it used to be people got married settled down supported themselves before they had children.

Oh, yeah, those good ol' days, when if you were raped or groomed or made a mistake and the guy scarpered rather than marrying you, you were forced into a mum and baby home to give your child away. Workhouses if your spouse died and you were poor. Transportation of poor children.

[KaliforniaDreamz]

Perhaps we should revert to Workhouses then Dotty?

The demonisation of the poor certainly signposts this.

[OlaEliza]

You'd seriously begrudge a family with such stress and constant anxiety having a pet?

It makes sense though that if you can't feed your kids then you can't afford a pet.

[diege]

Your parents have been lucky dotty Poverty can be unpredictable, even when you've made the 'right' choices you can be laid low by illness, bereavement, relationship breakdown, poor mental health etc etc. Have some compassion - you sound very bitter and angry for someone brought up by such great role models!

[OlaEliza]

Re pads made of rags, this is effectively csp. And it's what people used up until disposables were made and widespread. I always wonder why the period poverty charities don't give out reusable mooncups or cloth pads. There are even sponges that are reusable. Makes no sense to me to just keep giving out disposables as you have the same problem the next month.

[Sarawish]

I used to do voluntary work in a housing advice centre the amount of people coming in and saying I'm pregnant what benefits can I get was disgusting.

Fuck off Dotty.

Why do voluntary work, if all you can manage is to sneer at those less fortunate.

You are disgusting.

[dontalltalkatonce]

I always wonder why the period poverty charities don't give out reusable mooncups or cloth pads. There are even sponges that are reusable. Makes no sense to me to just keep giving out disposables as you have the same problem the next month.

The outlay for these is not cheap. DD uses them (I use a mooncup but her being a teen, she doesn't want this) and period pants and to get her quality ones I probably spent about 50 quid. Secondly, anyone in great poverty may also struggle to pay for power and gas so washing the resuables could be problematic, especially for those in temp accommodation or B&Bs/hostels. I bought a mooncup years ago and it was about £30 and if you don't get on with it (some people don't) then that's you out £30.

[Bluebutterfly90]

Wow, pregnant people asking for benefits?
How dare they. Clearly they should be shipped off to a mother and baby home to atone for their sins like the 'good old days'.

Never could wrap my head around the demonisation of single parents, myself. Why judge the parent who stuck around harsher than the one who didn't?

Dotty, you've had a privileged upbringing, and that's fine. That's grand. I'm glad you didnt suffer in poverty. But it wasnt through some inherent superiority that your parents had.

[ReanimatedSGB]

What people did WRT saving for their first home, up to the 1980s, is completely and utterly irrelevant now. Because wages have not kept up with housing costs. The huge increase in buy-to-let not only makes housing less affordable but also leads to large numbers of landlords who are greedy, incompetent or both, so lots of people are living in overpriced, substandard accommodation. The huge sell-off of social housing has also had a massive impact.

I understand why Tory voters have to keep yelling about how poor people only have themselves to blame for their poverty. It's terrifying to have to accept that, yes, it could happen to you as well - you get ill, your partner/child gets ill, your employer goes busts or lays off half the workforce and suddenly you are one of 5000 people with similar skillsets and experience, competing for about 150 jobs which are all that's left of your industry.
The only thing that is going to fix this whole mess is taking money from the very rich and giving it directly to the very poor. Any competent economist will tell you that redistributive taxation is the only option, now, that will work.

[Womenwotlunch]

As others have said, the causes of poverty can be complex.. DV, mental health issues, lack of education , divorce, addiction issues- some families experience many of these.
Dotty’s view of poverty is simplistic and fails to comprehend how these factors contribute to the dire circumstances in which these people find themselves in
I was saddened by the programme and the matter of fact manner in which the children described poverty.

[dottypotter]

It was normal it wasn't a privilege. Everything has gone downhill today. Yes it is pretty disgusting getting yourself pregnant and then saying what can I get. Some people have no shame a lot of people are doing it more than once also. The government are not a bottomless pit of money. If you want to keep having sex and not getting settled and self sufficient what has it got to do with them. No wonder they have had to toughen up.

[Womenwotlunch]

Agree @ReanimatedSGB- housing costS have increased and housing benefit has decreased. This means that many tenants find themselves in arrears.

[HigherFurtherFasterBaby]

My Grandmother (shes 74) grew up in poverty. Her father was much older than her mother and not a well man (tragic, heartbreaking backstory that I discovered last year), and her mother worked 24/7, cook, cleaner, seamstress, all sorts.

It horrifies my now well-off Grandmother that children are STILL in that level of poverty with working parents. She also now panics like fuck about my finances (student, 3DC).

The old style benefits system allowed me to escape an abusive marriage. Were I still with him and contemplating UC... I don’t think I’d have been able to leave

[Bluebutterfly90]

Women get THEMSELVES pregnant?
Wow, that's a trick!

[dontalltalkatonce]

They stayed married never asked for a house or any money apart from the normal child benefit that all parents got.

Well, it's a very good thing then, and lucky indeed, that your father didn't run off. Because I grew up with some children whose fathers did just this in the 70s and their families were thrown into poverty because women couldn't hold certain jobs, sexual discrimination was rife making it hard for many women to get FT jobs, discrimination in housing meant it was to even get a LL to take a single woman with kids but hey, must have been all their fault he ran off.