Parents job to feed their kids

[FatCat]

Do you think that what I have described is adequate support?

It’s certainly not ideal and is a sorry state of affairs - what I’m trying to understand is regardless of who is paying the bill be it gvt or charities is how many children do you think are going hungry each day. I honestly don’t know the size of the problem here.

 

[FatCat]

Because the support mechanisms are completely inadequate and the process of claiming is difficult with many ways someone can have their benefits sanctioned.

You previously referenced the free school meals vouchers that ran during the COVID-19 period - do you think you could feed a child adequately for £15 a week?

No I’m sure that’s not enough.

 

[ticker_tape]

Was only a matter of time.

 

[FatCat]

This is certainly a good read on the subject - it seems many of the arguments on here have been going on for some time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

[BoroFur]

I've just woken up to this thread and I'm surprised (not) to find one of the very few posters claiming to suffer from account restrictions due to their political beliefs all over it.

The moment Marcus Rashford is in the news again they're back desperately attempting to discredit any notion that folk are struggling to feed their children.

More investigation is needed to establish just how these Tory 'Austerity Deniers' are managing to infiltrate message boards.

 

[SuperStu]

benefits officers will always explain options available also.

Staff at job centres aren't in the business of helping people. They're there to try and impose sanctions whenever they get the chance, have target numbers for how many people they can deny benefits to, and in a more abstract sense their role is to validate poverty by turning employment in to a moral issue and propping up an illusion of help.

 

[r00fie1]

https://cpag.org.uk/child-poverty/child-poverty-facts-and-figures

Child Poverty



Child poverty facts and figures

The facts and figures show the reality of child poverty in the UK.

• There were 4.2 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2018-19. That's 30 per cent of children, or nine in a classroom of 30.
• 44 per cent of children living in lone-parent families are in poverty.2 Lone parents face a higher risk of poverty due to the lack of an additional earner, low rates of maintenance payments, gender inequality in employment and pay, and childcare costs.
• Children from black and minority ethnic groups are more likely to be in poverty: 46 per cent are now in poverty, compared with 26 per cent of children in White British families.3
• Work does not provide a guaranteed route out of poverty in the UK. 72 per cent of children growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one person works.4
• Children in large families are at a far greater risk of living in poverty – 43 per cent of children living in families with 3 or more children live in poverty.5
• Childcare and housing are two of the costs that take the biggest toll on families’ budgets.
• Between 1998 and 2003 reducing child poverty was made a priority - with a comprehensive strategy and investment in children - and the number of children in poverty fell by 600,000.6
• Removing the two-child limit and the benefit cap would lift 100,000s of children out of poverty.7
• Increasing child benefit would substantially reduce child poverty as well as providing support to all families with the extra costs children bring.

(Updated July 2020. All poverty figures are after housing costs)

 

[FatCat]

Staff at job centres aren't in the business of helping people. They're there to try and impose sanctions whenever they get the chance, have target numbers for how many people they can deny benefits to, and in a more abstract sense their role is to validate poverty by turning employment in to a moral issue and propping up an illusion of help.

It seems what they are meant to do and actually do are two different things - there seems to have been a change around Feb 2019

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/inew...wp-jobcentre-food-banks-ban-claims-256581/amp

 

[Laughing]

Laughing - Im asking why we still have the problem when there seems on the face of it to be a number of support mechanisms in place. I’d also be interested in knowing the size of the problem. There seems to be gvt support and charitable support etc but still it seems not to be enough.

Because Fatcat the only support mechanism we should require is the government funded social security. In no way shape or form should the 5th biggest economy on the planet be relying on charity to feed it's citizens. It is a systematic failing and your idiotic attitude just normalizes food banks and charity.

 

[r00fie1]

Some facts about those working and sinking below the "poverty line":
[2018/19 figures not yet available].

 

[American_Mary]

What the government seems to overlook is that a small increase in welfare support with regard to adequately feeding children and families in general would save them money on health care further down the line, medicine, medical treatment, etc costs them a lot more than providing the means, and almost as importantly the education of proper home economics, as a proactive rather than reactive measure.

Hunger is the base line point but going beyond that children who are perhaps just above that level are still malnourished due to the lack of balance in their diet, small changes in the support mechanisms are needed to improve the situation, adult education on cooking and the way to make less more by prudent use of produce is going to ultimately prove more sustainable than merely intervention at the desperation stage.

 

[ticker_tape]

Out of curiosity I wonder if Fatcat has any children ?

 

[FatCat]

Because Fatcat the only support mechanism we should require is the government funded social security. In no way shape or form should the 5th biggest economy on the planet be relying on charity to feed it's citizens. It is a systematic failing and your idiotic attitude just normalizes food banks and charity.

Food banks have been commonplace for many a year both in the UK and throughout Europe, it is a sad state of affairs indeed I totally agree with you. It’s disgraceful.

I guess my initial questioning of the situation was about how many people are actually going hungry, I’ve read more about the matter now and appreciate that it isn’t quite as black and white as that.

 

[WeeGord]

Food banks have been commonplace for many a year both in the UK and throughout Europe, it is a sad state of affairs indeed I totally agree with you. It’s disgraceful.

I guess my initial questioning of the situation was about how many people are actually going hungry, I’ve read more about the matter now and appreciate that it isn’t quite as black and white as that.

There should never be a need for food banks in a civilised society, I totally understand that. However look at the figures for the number of food banks and the number of parcels given out in 2010 and contrast that with today after 10 years of austerity, which is essentially Tory ideological warfare against the poorest and neediest in society.

 

[FatCat]

There should never be a need for food banks in a civilised society, I totally understand that. However look at the figures for the number of food banks and the number of parcels given out in 2010 and contrast that with today after 10 years of austerity, which is essentially Tory ideological warfare against the poorest and neediest in society.

Yes this link shows the increase , quite staggering really!
https://commonslibrary.parliament.u...t-do-the-latest-food-bank-statistics-tell-us/

 

[WeeGord]

That's a good link FatCat - this only goes up to 2018-2019 too, so with Covid-19 and the upcoming hard Brexit that figure can only continue to rise exponentially. Anyone with any semblance of empathy and decency should look at this graph and realise that this is everything to do with austerity and punishing the poor.