UK's Poor becoming reliant on Food Banks Just to survive

reply to post by michael1983l


Don't they put the mortgage fee on top of the mortgage though? So that you don't have to pay that up front. I'd forgot about mortgage fees...again though when I took out my first mortgage, the fee for such a mortgage was relatively low...but then that was at a time when borrowing was being pushed, well before the bottom fell out of the borrowing market leading to tighter regulations.

this is a topic thats going to be on everyones mind in the next year or so,

the people affected are those on the minimum wage, ive no idea how on earth people are supposed to survive on this??

before stopages i earn approx 35k a year, after taxes,rent,utilities, council tax etc etc there is barely anything left - we have one child which my missus stays at home with and we arent entitled to any benifits like family tax credits.

i cant imagine being able to support my family on £6 an hour..the min wage really is an insult - its like saying "if i could pay you less, i would"

love stu

reply to post by babybunnies


I am what would be called a middle income in the UK but in reality it is not so great. I am a single earner in a family of 4 and the government has put me into a group that they deem can have every break taken away from them whilst having their taxes increased and still survive. Well let me tell you this is not the case. To give people a real idea of what budgets look like in the UK right now I will show mine

Monthly


Mortgage £950
Car payment £200
Fuel £200 (work is 70 mile round trip - houses closer are unaffordable)
Food and household £550
Council Tax £134
TV License £13
Gas and Electricity £100
Water £60
Car maintenance, servicing and tax £40
Home insurance £27

Earnings

Income £2300
Child Benefit £120


Total out £2274

Total in £2420

Notice my outgoings have no credit card payments or entertainment. Basically our budget is pretty much dead before we even start to think about luxuries.

Originally posted by discostu123
this is a topic thats going to be on everyones mind in the next year or so,

the people affected are those on the minimum wage, ive no idea how on earth people are supposed to survive on this??

before stopages i earn approx 35k a year, after taxes,rent,utilities, council tax etc etc there is barely anything left - we have one child which my missus stays at home with and we arent entitled to any benifits like family tax credits.

i cant imagine being able to support my family on £6 an hour..the min wage really is an insult - its like saying "if i could pay you less, i would"

love stu

You have a valid point there my friend, I do not like bringing class into this but you would be classed as lower middle class these days, it is unfortunate that our effin government is directly attacking not only the poor but the middle classes to, a global division is quite evident now between the so called elites and the rest of us.

Originally posted by michael1983l
reply to post by babybunnies

 

I am what would be called a middle income in the UK but in reality it is not so great. I am a single earner in a family of 4 and the government has put me into a group that they deem can have every break taken away from them whilst having their taxes increased and still survive. Well let me tell you this is not the case. To give people a real idea of what budgets look like in the UK right now I will show mine

Monthly


Mortgage £950
Car payment £200
Fuel £200 (work is 70 mile round trip - houses closer are unaffordable)
Food and household £550
Council Tax £134
TV License £13
Gas and Electricity £100
Water £60
Car maintenance, servicing and tax £40
Home insurance £27

Earnings

Income £2300
Child Benefit £120


Total out £2274

Total in £2420

Notice my outgoings have no credit card payments or entertainment. Basically our budget is pretty much dead before we even start to think about luxuries.

Disgusting isn't it my friend, and all of this because we without our consent bailed out the bankers.

But I can save you that small amount on your TV licence, just phone them up and tell them that you do-not watch any live as it is broadcast TV that will give you two years of not paying the licence fee.

I know its not that much of a saving my friend but every little helps eh.

reply to post by freewestray


There could be many reasons and without knowing his exact circumstances, I couldn't say. Is he divorced/does she get the money? Has one child reached a certain age (16)?

Currently, the only cuts people are facing are from next year when anyone over the higher rate threshold will have theirs cut proportionally until they hit an income of around £50k when it cuts off completely.

reply to post by michael1983l


I'm only on a fraction more than you, it would appear and I too have similiar outgoings, albeit I don't run a car so that free's up a good chunk of cash and I live a mere 3 miles from work. I feel your pain matey and this time last year I was sinking. If it wasn't for the PPI payout I got, I'd be destitute.

Like you have said, people in our income bracket have our benefits cut but taxes increased, because the idiots in Government think anyone on over £30k a year is "wealthy".

In my mind, to live comfortably in the UK, you either need to not work at all or earn over £60k a year. Us middle earners are getting bum raped. I wish I bought a house before the crash when I could have got a mortgage easily, but I was holding off as the house prices I knew could not be sustained. I was right, but it has made buying harder as well.

reply to post by michael1983l


I would be so depressed if I was you...in fact, I'll rephrase that, I was depressed when I was you...which is why I started to look at other ways and means of living. I have managed to get a job with tied housing. I earn a fraction of what I used to, but since I also live two minutes walk from where I work, I have considerably less costs. I don't even pay tax my actual earnings are so low...but despite that, I have much more of a disposable income than I had when I worked full-time and more free time than I know what to do with. I'm not suggesting that everyone can do what I have done, or would even want to, but there are ways to live better with less.

just wanted to add that i regularly have to go without food for several days.... This is no joke, and were it sends me in terms of my psyche is very dark. At my hungriest i'll shoplift and am prone to violence. 'A hungry man is an angry man" I'm in my 20s and need calories. It makes me sick (well, dry wretch at least) to see the chubby cheeked front bench talking about the need for savings... To who do we owe our national debt? and why do i have to pay it?
I can't find a job and would be on the street were it not for my JSA and housing benefit, which have both been cut leaving me with a monthly deposit in my rent which i have to make up from JSA. I am very appreciative of the welfare state that we have and seek a position were i no longer rely on benefits and can contribute to society both financially and actually. To all those who seeks to portray us as living the high life should consider....
1. i haven't been on a holiday for four years. I haven't beeen abroad for a decade.
2. i don't own a car or a driving license.
3. most days i eat rice and lentils.
4. i usually can't afford bus fares
5. I haven't bought clothes or expensive tech for years.
6. going on a night out is not an option (unless it's free)
7. I smoke (fiver for a packet of baccy and rizla)

I am not a materialistic person and do genuinely believe the best things in life are free but when you can't eat, you can't enjoy them. I have been unable to locate a local food bank but have often thought of it on hungry days. In my area there are loads of people in a similar position and it won't be long till there's more of us than there are of them.... WE NEED LEADERS... when the revolution comes, i'll be straight to sainsbury's....

Originally posted by stumason
reply to post by freewestray

 

There could be many reasons and without knowing his exact circumstances, I couldn't say. Is he divorced/does she get the money? Has one child reached a certain age (16)?

Currently, the only cuts people are facing are from next year when anyone over the higher rate threshold will have theirs cut proportionally until they hit an income of around £50k when it cuts off completely.

None of the above my friend, the cuts are right now and affecting more than you may realise, its easy to believe the MSM and the government propaganda, but if you ask around real living poverty stricken humans you will be shocked at what you find.

Here's a solution.

Stop feeding these people!!! The Gov is enabling this to continue to get worse.

I can talk.. I'M POOR !

I don't have a job and my wife only works two days a week. We are WAY below the poverty line.

Do I get Gov hand outs? Hell NO !

I refuse to touch any handouts by anyone. I work side jobs when I can find them and manage to make enough with my wife's two day a week job to afford a 300 dollar a month condo and put 150 dollars worth of food on out plates every two weeks.

If your not crippled, get off you Butts and Do SOMETHING.

If you are crippled get off you Butts and Do SOMETHING.

My best friend was born without arms. yes, that's right, NO ARMS - and He Does Something!!

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


This is not a government hand out , but set up by charities.

The thing is we throw away millions of pounds worth of food a day. I appreciate that some people could spend their money better, but there are people out there who do need this food and if the food is there and the charity has provided it, then surely better to give to people than throw it away?

reply to post by woodwardjnr


feeding the poor is not profitable unless there are jobs available to work for.

If tesco was told to offer a discount to the unemployed, would it really change their insane profit margins?

No but, a day later you still have starving unemployed guy.

stop outsourcing, fix immigration and "emergency housing" for illegals etc

Brittan needs to shape up and help its people and stop all this crap, stop giving aid to other countries and create some bloody jobs!

also wars we dont even want could go amiss to.

Not to mention if jobs are not there, what can you do? Even when jobs are there, it is you and hundreds of others hoping to get one of the few positions open. It's really a cut throat world lately - and us poor/lower middle are the ones being the victims

reply to post by freewestray


Dude, it isn't MSM propaganda or whatever you want to call it, it is fact. I have 3 kids, all of whom attract Child benefit (and I am just about in the higher tax bracket too).

If your brother says he has had his cut, then there must be a reason, or you/he has misunderstood something.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Aren't some of the big Supermarkets now donating "waste" food to such charities?

Sure I read it somewhere, I think Sainsbury's was one of them...

Originally posted by woodwardjnr

The thing is we throw away millions of pounds worth of food a day. I appreciate that some people could spend their money better, but there are people out there who do need this food and if the food is there and the charity has provided it, then surely better to give to people than throw it away?

( didn't realize this was a private charity.. thanks)

I agree to a point. Hospitals, school cafeterias and the like produce millions of lbs of food everyday that is thrown away. This is wasteful and should be illegal.

But homelessness and hunger should be temporary and transitional problems. You simply cannot just give this food away to people who are going to go away, change nothing about their lives, then fed them again another day. This contributes to a growing problem.

The solution IMO?

Make homelessness illegal. Set up temporary housing to house and feed these people while giving them the medical care and teaching the skills they need to reintegrate to society as a self sustaining member. have them do community service work at the same time to help pay for these services. Perhaps the community service work and the training can be one and the same. Make it a 6 month program, set them up with a job in 3 months giving them time to save for a place of their own. Then out they go. Perhaps adjust the time or other things based on circumstances but you get the point. Recycle the people.

This would be cost effective. Way cheaper than most Gov programs because companies who need services performed would get the benefit of these peoples labor.


For hunger (for those who are not homeless) the solution IMO is to find out exactly where the problems are and fix them in each home. 1st) make sure no one is living beyond their means. If they are, cut the fat. If you cannot afford a new car, you are Not allowed to have one. Make it illegal. In fact, make anything you can do to get in debt illegal. This would solve 80 % of the worlds problems.

Cons - The credit cards and other companies wont like this one bit because they make their money on people defaulting. Make this an illegal practice too.

2nd) find out if the people are getting the proper foods for proper nutrition. If they are spending money on junk foods that make them unhealthy make this illegal. This solves two big problems - wasting money, on empty foods with no nutritional values and saves in the long run on health care costs because people will not be getting sick as much.

Cons - Of course the Big Pharma and those who make their money off making you sick as well as the junk food companies won't like this.

3rd) What is you simply don't have the money for food in the first place even though you work? There should never be a case where your rent takes all you have and you are not left with enough money for food. If so, you need to move to a cheaper place - or supplement your skills to make extra money during your off hours.

4) Have too many kids to be able to provide for them even though you work? You are not allowed to keep them. yes, I said it.. take some of those kids away! Give those kids to someone who can feed them. Of course if all the above conditions are met there will be way less chance that you will not be able to feed your family.

We have these problems IMO not only because we create the conditions for them to thrive on a personal basis, but we allow this to happen by allowing companies and products to dictate to use what we should and should not put in our bodies - and this is not always sound advise for us. We are a brainwashed society. Make these practices illegal. Because these things are prevalent and acceptable in our society we have to always fight an uphill battle. This is very unnecessary.

Problem is, none of my solutions have really been tried. These are all common sense solutions. If one city tried just two of these for a period of 5 years we could at least see how much they might help - or not.. but Try Something Else than what they are doing now, because they will always repeat the mistakes of the past and nothing will change.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


What you're suggesting is awfully Big Brother, which is ironic as the UK is often pillored by American members here for being a "nanny state", often using incorrect information..

And there was a time homelessness and vagrancy were illegal, as was merely being poor. Thankfully, our society became slightly more caring during the 19th century and eventually stopped victimising the poor but instead try to help them...

everyone is missing a problem.

If the country did what we actually wanted and voted for no one would have a problem getting a job.

Its too easy to sit on ass claim what you can and get by with little to no effort or contribution to the country.

There are no proud Britons left, they either smell the future and get what they can, or dont care and are happy with being nothing for themselves or from their country.

Originally posted by stumason
reply to post by JohnPhoenix

 

What you're suggesting is awfully Big Brother, which is ironic as the UK is often pillored by American members here for being a "nanny state", often using incorrect information..

And there was a time homelessness and vagrancy were illegal, as was merely being poor. Thankfully, our society became slightly more caring during the 19th century and eventually stopped victimising the poor but instead try to help them...

I can see how this sounds like Big Brother a lil bit. I'm asking for people to be more strict and more responsible with their spending and asking the state to enforce this. But this is not Big Brother. I've read 1984 and that's a nightmare. This is just tightening the reigns a bit to keep people from doing things that hurt them.

If people doing these things that hurt them causes problems for society as a whole then it should not be acceptable. Sometimes you need to stop people from hurting themselves in spite of themselves.

So lets move beyond the progress of the 19th century and do what we can to help the homeless and poor in better ways than we have been. Again I go back to - Try SOMETHING ELSE than they have tried in the past because it's not working.