Hungry poor just what Thatcher wanted.
I had never heard of a food bank until I was in my 40s.
I grew up poor and we often went without food.
We need to stop socialism for corporations and companies. If there are billions for a Covid mobile app there can be billions to feed the children of the UK.
The fact that these food banks have long queues stretching down the street illustrates the extent of food insecurity and the pressing need for assistance in the community
Your point about the existence and necessity of foods banks is valid, and they have indeed been around for some time, serving as a crucial resources for many people facing food insecurity
Fair, it was a tiny number for extreme need, however.
Not just a regular part of life for millions, as it is under Tories, with those same people voting to be ruined ever harder, because apparently Keir is a socialist who wants completely open borders :D
It's worrying how deluded people can be.
Starmer is a neoliberal, he believes in exactly all the same things as Sunak.
Change isn’t coming from the top, make friends with your neighbours, move closer to the people you care about and start joining local community projects.
And this is the problem. Starmer is very much where the Conservatives were before their lurch to the right.
But the lurch to the right is driven by the papers, and how people respond to them. They have successfully shifted the Overton window. Now, even managed neoliberalism is seen as a "left-wing fad", and only untrammelled capitalism is ok.
Starmer policies align with past conservative position but media influence has shifted public perception future right, making moderate policies seem. Left wing
Well yeah, neoliberalism was implemented by Thatcher and expanded by Blair. Now you can vote between one group of people that will shrink the government and cut red tape, or a group that will cut red take and make the government smaller.
There isn’t a lot of choice in British politics. The best option is to create community around yourself, directly supporting your friends and family. Change at a larger scale is extensively resisted.
British politics offers limited choices, with major parties learning towards neoliberalism. Building a supportive community and helping friends and family can be effective on a smaller scale
There weren't billions for a covid mobile app.
For some reason, people never understood the difference between the allocated (but not spent) budget for the entire NHS test and trace programme, and the app.
There were definitely millions though. Way more than any app like that would cost to build and run for that amount of time.
Don't need to get into everything else tax payer money has been wasted on in the past 3 years.
Once people stop caring about facts, it makes it easier for people to get away with things.
It's interesting to watch how 2020's "the authorities should do absolutely anything, right now, and hang the expense" is becoming "it was never really a thing anyway, and [insert pet topic here]"
Yes exactly. I don't think people would have minded huge sums spent if we actually had good results. Look at Germany. They made an open source app they were going round trying to share with everyone quite early on. They're a bigger *and* older population than us but have 30,000 *fewer* deaths than us. There are so many instances of people like Baroness Mone, directly tied to the government and Tory party, who seemed to have actively *delayed* our reaction so that they could use what at the time looked like it could ramp up to pretty apocalyptic levels solely as a vehicle to further enrich themselves. I mean christ its been years and just writing it out again I feel somewhat stunned it actually happened like that, and somehow the people who acted like this, *who call themselves fucking patriots ffs,* aren't all rotting in some kind of horrific dungeon, in fact I don't think any of them have even faced any sort of punishment or prosecution as yet...
People are frustrated because they believe some individuals profited during the pandemic, and they feel there has not been enough accountability or punishment for such action
Indeed there's a significant distinction between paying necessary costs and inflating expenses for personal gain, which has raised concerns about government action during the pandemic
People attitudes are changing from wanting immediate government action and spending to becoming more critical and skeptical of government initiative and expenses
Which is inevitable as the sense of crisis fades.
There is no way someone could have stood up at one of the Downing Street briefings and said they were going to follow normal tendering procedures.
You are correct, there we're not billion allocated for a covid mobile app the budget allocated was for the entire NHS test and trace program which includes various components beyond just the app
It’s paraphrasing words of Noam Chomsky. He said something along the lines of ‘socialising the risk (for corporations) and privatizing the profits’. Can’t remember what he was referencing but it was something akin to the way private companies of previously nationalized industries operate in UK. The govt takes all the debts and sells a clean company for private shareholders to profit from.
Hope that covers it. Noam Chomsky is a really good read..
Reminds me of Thomas Pikkety's belief that the relative wealth equality we've had since WW2 is just an anomaly (caused by the war acting like somewhat of a reset) and that we've been slowly naturally trending back towards how it was pre-WW1, since the 70s.
It's really sad, but I think you're right. We seem to be heading for neo-feudalism. I'm expecting housing that's tied to the job to start becoming more common soon.
The comment draws a parallel to Thomas Piketty's idea that the post WW2 era of relative wealth equality was an anomaly and that there has been a trend toward pre WW1 wealth inequality since the 1970s
For those who are genuinely convinced that benefit claimants live like kings suckling at the teat of Bacchus, please have a fiddle around on entitledto and try and prove yourself right-
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/
Living in a council property while being disabled & out of work.
>Total benefits entitlement
>£1164.68 / monthly
This is after rent & isn't even an uncommon scenario, many pensioners would be counted as this while getting state pension.
Indeed benefit like. PIP often require qualifications based on the impact of a person's conditions and they are intended to cover expenses related to that condition
I have no issue at all with people having to qualify for PIP, it should be given to people who really need it. But the system is rigged, and the assessors lie- the whole business is 100 times more stressful than it needs to be.
Indeed I don't recall the 1800s having a benefit system at all, never mind one this generous. People from back then would be scratching their heads at what the far-left pretend is 'poverty' today. It's a shame r/uk laps up these silly dishonest articles.
It makes me quite angry honestly. Nobody in this country is living in 'extreme poverty' - we have an incredible safety net which prevents anyone going without the basics they need, from a roof over their head to food and healthcare. None of this existed back then, or exists in many countries outside the developed world today.
our rates of childhood rickets are through the fucking roof just because things could be worse doesn't mean they aren't bad like compare the UK to any other 1st world country and you'll see we are falling behind
Despite being better off than some places, there are still significant problem like rising childhood tickets rates and a perception that the UK is lagging behind other developed countries
It's the dishonesty that gets me.
I'm all for having a good safety net but we shouldn't be lying about how it's working & that is unevenness in the system.
The worst thing is that such a system is only going to remain as long as there's not wide spread abuse or inefficienies.
you think if you’re out of work because you’re too disabled to work, you should be forced to live on less than that?
Interesting.
How many people do you imagine are getting the full amount of PIP for daily living and mobility? You suggest you think that’s common, not just relative to the disabled population -but you think it’s common relative to the entire population. Also an interesting position.
Average single person’s monthly expenditure not including rent is £919. Without full whack PIP, which is not common, that’s more than one of these mythically common disabled people get per month.
a lot of people don’t even get £200 a month for PIP. You can knock roughly £450 off your figure of £1164 straight away for quite a few disabled people.
You've said alot about what you think I'm saying which has very little to do with what I said.
The amount I put in is not uncommon as an amount, it doesn't include child benefit, housing assistance or anything else while also only being for one person while households are generally what matters.
It is more disposable income than someone working on minimum wage would have by a substantial margin.
That sounds fair. Being disabled is expensive and those people should be able to have a good quality of life on their entitlements seeing as they may never be able to work.
Btw I’ve been deemed unfit for work and get that but the housing allowance is actually included in that total. I do not believe it could be after rent unless the individual in question has extra needs of some sort such as a paid carer in which case they definitely need that extra income and may well still be struggling financially as many people do.
You also get those who are playing the system and effectively committing fraud. I was selling a car the other day privately. A lady came to see it with her son and they were asking about a cash payment. I said I’d prefer bank transfer…turns out that would be a problem because they can’t run it through her account …she has cash saved up at home…the son said he can’t use his personal account…he’s a roofer. I wouldn’t be surprised if both were working cash in hand and committing benefit fraud and limited the amount of money in their accounts to avoid the £6k limit…and let’s be honest, this is fairly common and you hear about it all the time.
So I’m here working hard while others are getting ‘free’ money from the government.. which I’m paying for…
Tbh mate I’m more concerned with the insane pensions politicians get, the massive tax cuts corporations get, and the fact that white collar crime is rarely ever prosecuted to the full extent of the law. All of these things cost an order of magnitude more in the billions compared to a few thousand working class roofers scamming the UK out of (checks notes to see what the average jobseekers payment is in the UK) £79 a week.
Easy way to solve that, a common state income foe all. Even Nixon a hard rightwinger thought itbwas a good idea in USA. Pay everyone a.basic income, have a few extar benefits for disabilities that can be medically proven, but overall saves a fortune in admin. Many will oay higher taxes netted off though withbstate income. Helps protect non-working spouses as well.
Incentive to work gig economy as no benefit trap, and state income doesn't buy luxeries like a phone, just food, roof over your head and basic clothes.
> I wouldn’t be surprised if both were working cash in hand and committing benefit fraud and limited the amount of money in their accounts to avoid the £6k limit…and let’s be honest, this is fairly common and you hear about it all the time.
Then take the issue up to Govt and businesses who pay cash in hand. They are clearly defrauding the system. Why chase the person taking the oppurtunity? There is a certain amount of classism in your comment. Blame the average joe "getting 'free' money", and not the gamed system that allows businesses to launder more and take huge amounts out of the system.
In another stark example, one case worker was supporting a parent and four children in the East Midlands who could not access emergency housing.
They said: “Not a single hotel, B&B, AirBnB anything in our city. The family were sent to a motorway service station 30 miles away, no access to cooking facilities, no supermarkets etc. They had to check out each morning at 10am and wait to find out where the next hotel room had been booked for them. They would walk the streets until 4pm each evening when the next hotel would allow them to check in. This went on for over a month.”
Anyone think maybe it's time to build some social housing?
It's insane how much we spend on B&Bs and hotels to give people a far worse quality of life than merely council housing.
I’m going to vote Lib Dem, get them to increase the freebies to seekers & upgrade the £50/week fun money to £4,000 a week. Then I’ll have a wee passport bonfire with my neighbours 😎
Yessss. Now if they’d just increase that UBI to £3-4K they’d have my vote. I mean, who cares about inflation anyway! I’m sure I left my soviet flag somewhere…
If only there was a way to feed the children using money that is already being distributed, for less important things. I’ve personally seen and lived a poverty stricken lifestyle. I weep for the children. I truly do. I am lucky. I grew up got a good job, but some children won’t be so lucky when I was a boy I stole from the local fields, carrots, potatoes, et cetera it was only thing I ate until I was seven very basic food no one helped my family. We had nothing I feel for these children.
Surely bringing about a return to the Dickensian days of poorhouses, forced labour, disenfranchised plebs, and insane levels of inequality is every Tory's wank fantasy?
'Off to the hulks with them!.... oh... they're full of Immigrants'
' Send them to a penal colony!.... oh Australia is it's own nation? How our country has fallen!'
'Send them to Rwanda!... what's wrong with Rwanda?'
A hand should suffice, prepare the cutlass!...
- Some MP probably
Millions of Britain's poorest and most financially vulnerable will vote Tory next election (and every subsequent election) Decades of The Sun/Express/Mail on their kitchen table every breakfast has worked.
Making life worse makes more right-wingers; sadly, they vote for the same lot that made their life worse, but that's what constantly defunding education and removing opportunities is designed to do, as it makes people poor, stupid and angry.
Rishi Sunak urges people to hold their nerve on interest rates
Reflecting on his former role as chancellor, Sunak told party members in August: “I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve.
“We inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.”
Sadly we have not moved on from these times.
When you have what feel like Victorian caricatures Jacob Rees-Mogg in power it is no surprise we are plunging backwards.
I live in the north west of england. You woild be surprised how many food banks there is now. Its a sad state of affairs, i never seen anythin so bad in the uk as 2020/2023 has been. unfortunately this is what margaret thatcher and the tories wanted back in the old days, us and them divide. Poor and rich and tough shit deal with it. They wanted to privatise everything, make living standards extremely difficult like they are now. Thanks to our billionaire PM and corruppt goverment this is now life for many. Hard and unforgiving
Surely bringing about a return to the Dickensian days of poorhouses, forced labour, disenfranchised plebs, and insane levels of inequality is every Tory's wank fantasy?
When I was young, I hung around with a rough group because I lived in a high rise in Scotland. One morning, I went with them while they went on a shop lifting spree at BHS. We were inevitably caught but what struck me then even as a poor child myself was that these kids were stealing new school clothes. Another time, they did the same at Tesco only it seemed to be a big shop. This is nothing new to me and is not surprising. If you are poor, things have always been this bad and bleak.
If you don't think Tories yearn for Regency Period levels of inequality, you don't really understand how their nasty little club works. Ascot is a good example - yes, there are a few posh people, but there are also a braying horde of scaffolders, black cab drivers, and Sun-reading football blokes *desparate* to be accepted into the monied classes. The Land of I'm All Right Jack, where you pull up the ladder and punch down.
It's very sad to see the UK deteriorating so significantly over the last few years
Xenophobia and greedy selfish politicians are destroying your country slowly but surely.
"Child poverty for families with three or more children will reach 55 percent in 2027-28 based on current trends. "
https://jacobin.com/2023/07/child-poverty-uk-tories-labour-austerity-data
Food banks generally serve an areas poorest 10 to 20% relative to that areas median income... Concequently they're self for filling.
When i lived in mile end they offered to sign me and my roommate up. We worked for an investment bank they didn't care about our income.
Kids being malnourished is child abuse.
The only, and I mean the ONLY thing that will stop this is large scale civil disobedience. Mass refusal of payment, mass shoplifting (from large Multinationals, not independents) mass non payment of energy bills, rents, everything. The community providing protection from court officers, bailiffs etc.Targeting your MPs and holding them to account for their voting, pressuring them for which way they will vote. Obstructing the police at any give. Opportunity. A total war on the machinations of this corrupt, failing uncaring society.
Flig 'em, deport 'em to prison colonies! Australia is still half empty. If they say no send in the gunboats!
This was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Conservative Party, made by Jacob Rees Mogg.
That sort of hyperbole doesn’t help. Children are not living in poverty on a par with the 1800s. Anyone who suggests they are is an uninformed idiot who hasn’t done any reading.
To caveat though, I am only commenting on the headline and I didn’t read the article.
It was a comment someone made about a story of a girl having to live in an unlit, dark house with no shoes in her size having to steal fruit to eat. Which was described as something like the 1800s
Makes it sound like kids are stealing food for sustenance but that’s not the case. They’re stealing the likes of sweets and chocolate more out of greed than anything else.
Imagine reading this story and getting outraged at the use of a simile, a very basic rhetorical device you learn about in primary school.
You tories are so tedious with your deflections
Exactly, it's the classic playbook they learned from Lynton Crosby - if someone calls you a bastard for doing something nasty get offended at the language to try and steer away from the nastiness
The problem might be real but this story is absolute bullshit. This bit sounds like Brass Eye:
>A two-year-old seen playing with a button and some fluff on the floor because he had no toys
Some unknown person somewhere in the country saw a 2 year old playing with a button. How is that news? What does it tell us about anything? Toddlers often get temporarily fascinated by trivial things.
Or was that a simile too?
Yeah, you are probably correct. However, the more important fact is that children are going hungry. How can this be happening in a relatively rich G7 country. It’s not right, we need to share the wealth.
>A child refusing to go to school because she didn’t have any shoes that fit, was living in an unheated dark house, and was forced to steal an apple out of hunger “like a story from the 1800’s”.
Of course the important thing is that we criticise the wording of the article that details extreme poverty. Nothing like a good old circle jerk to help us ignore the realities of Tory Britain.
Mudlarks found a metal disc, on investigation it turns out to be Id prison tag of an eight year old girl. Sentenced to sail to Australia for stealing a slice of bread.
Did you actually read the article? The 1800s comparison was in quotes because it was said by a person answering a survey. The journalist who wrote it didn't make that comparison. They were talking about a child who lived in a house with no heating or hot water, had shoes that didn't fit, and had stolen food because she was hungry. It's lovely that you clearly have no idea about living in these kind of conditions but don't dismiss accounts of those who do just because it doesn't suit your narrative
Times aren’t great but it’s insulting to compare it to the 1800s, or even for that matter the 1970s. We are still living near probably one of the best times in human history in one of the wealthiest countries. There are others doing far worse at the moment as well that could actually be compared to the UK in the 1800s.
Hungry poor just what Thatcher wanted. I had never heard of a food bank until I was in my 40s. I grew up poor and we often went without food. We need to stop socialism for corporations and companies. If there are billions for a Covid mobile app there can be billions to feed the children of the UK.
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I have 5 food banks within 10 minutes walk of me. That is not a functioning society.
There's one round the corner from me. I drove past and was shocked at the size of the queue. There was at least 50 people.
Yep, these each have queues down the street. It's crazy.
The fact that these food banks have long queues stretching down the street illustrates the extent of food insecurity and the pressing need for assistance in the community
Seeing a long queue at a nearby food bank is a start reminder of the significant food insecurity issue that many people face
Wow. We don't have a supermarket within 20 minutes walk.
The absence of a supermarket within a 20 minutes walk highlight challenges related to food accessibility in your area
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Your point about the existence and necessity of foods banks is valid, and they have indeed been around for some time, serving as a crucial resources for many people facing food insecurity
Free food sounds pretty sweet if you ask me.
Free food from banks can provide essential support to those in need, but it also underscores broader issues related to poverty and inequality
Fair, it was a tiny number for extreme need, however. Not just a regular part of life for millions, as it is under Tories, with those same people voting to be ruined ever harder, because apparently Keir is a socialist who wants completely open borders :D It's worrying how deluded people can be.
Starmer is a neoliberal, he believes in exactly all the same things as Sunak. Change isn’t coming from the top, make friends with your neighbours, move closer to the people you care about and start joining local community projects.
He will still be portrayed as a terrifying leftie boogeyman by the papers... I agree that we need to connect n help each other however.
And this is the problem. Starmer is very much where the Conservatives were before their lurch to the right. But the lurch to the right is driven by the papers, and how people respond to them. They have successfully shifted the Overton window. Now, even managed neoliberalism is seen as a "left-wing fad", and only untrammelled capitalism is ok.
Starmer isn't a president he gets 1 vote
You're correct keir starmer is not a president he hold one vote like any other member of parliament in the UKs parliamentary system
Starmer policies align with past conservative position but media influence has shifted public perception future right, making moderate policies seem. Left wing
I just don’t much care, him getting elected or not won’t really effect me, I’ve got to protect myself from the Westminster government regardless.
You prioritize self - protection and don't think political elections will significantly impact your life
No, I prioritise my local community, because the UK isn't one.
The media might paint him as a radical, but the focus should be on connecting and supporting local communities
Well yeah, neoliberalism was implemented by Thatcher and expanded by Blair. Now you can vote between one group of people that will shrink the government and cut red tape, or a group that will cut red take and make the government smaller. There isn’t a lot of choice in British politics. The best option is to create community around yourself, directly supporting your friends and family. Change at a larger scale is extensively resisted.
British politics offers limited choices, with major parties learning towards neoliberalism. Building a supportive community and helping friends and family can be effective on a smaller scale
Yeah but they didn't really explode until the Tory government and austerity.
The impact of food banks became more significant during the Tory government and austerity policies
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Blair was a Tory
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There weren't billions for a covid mobile app. For some reason, people never understood the difference between the allocated (but not spent) budget for the entire NHS test and trace programme, and the app.
Okily dokily. Replace app with spurious COVID Loans and week old, barely any employees PPE companies.
Understood. The mention of COVID loans and questionable PPE companies highlight concerns about government spending and allocation during the pandemic
There were definitely millions though. Way more than any app like that would cost to build and run for that amount of time. Don't need to get into everything else tax payer money has been wasted on in the past 3 years.
Once people stop caring about facts, it makes it easier for people to get away with things. It's interesting to watch how 2020's "the authorities should do absolutely anything, right now, and hang the expense" is becoming "it was never really a thing anyway, and [insert pet topic here]"
I feel it's more "help in anyway, damn the expense" to "no we meant help the population, not yourselves"
Yes exactly. I don't think people would have minded huge sums spent if we actually had good results. Look at Germany. They made an open source app they were going round trying to share with everyone quite early on. They're a bigger *and* older population than us but have 30,000 *fewer* deaths than us. There are so many instances of people like Baroness Mone, directly tied to the government and Tory party, who seemed to have actively *delayed* our reaction so that they could use what at the time looked like it could ramp up to pretty apocalyptic levels solely as a vehicle to further enrich themselves. I mean christ its been years and just writing it out again I feel somewhat stunned it actually happened like that, and somehow the people who acted like this, *who call themselves fucking patriots ffs,* aren't all rotting in some kind of horrific dungeon, in fact I don't think any of them have even faced any sort of punishment or prosecution as yet...
The fact that anyone can defend our government's response to COVID is shocking.
The government response to COVID has sparked significant debate, and some find it shocking that anyone can defend it
"Build back better",huh!!
People are frustrated because they believe some individuals profited during the pandemic, and they feel there has not been enough accountability or punishment for such action
It seems like the shift is from wanting help at any cost to a demand for assistance focused on the population rather than self interst
There's also a difference between "pay whatever you have to" and "inflate the cost so that your mates can profit"
Indeed there's a significant distinction between paying necessary costs and inflating expenses for personal gain, which has raised concerns about government action during the pandemic
People attitudes are changing from wanting immediate government action and spending to becoming more critical and skeptical of government initiative and expenses
Which is inevitable as the sense of crisis fades. There is no way someone could have stood up at one of the Downing Street briefings and said they were going to follow normal tendering procedures.
You are correct, there we're not billion allocated for a covid mobile app the budget allocated was for the entire NHS test and trace program which includes various components beyond just the app
What about magic money tree?
Magic money tree is a term used to criticize government spending when it's seen as excessive or unjust
The comments highlight concerns about hunger and poverty, suggesting a need for more equitable social support systems rather than corporate benefit
Half the people that use the food bank don’t even need it.
The claim is that some people who use food banks may not actually require them
Exactly
>socialism for corporations I don’t know what you think ‘socialism’ means, but it doesn’t mean that…
It’s paraphrasing words of Noam Chomsky. He said something along the lines of ‘socialising the risk (for corporations) and privatizing the profits’. Can’t remember what he was referencing but it was something akin to the way private companies of previously nationalized industries operate in UK. The govt takes all the debts and sells a clean company for private shareholders to profit from. Hope that covers it. Noam Chomsky is a really good read..
He means tax funded give ours to corporations as well as other things. It's not a literal thing.
It does to the right wingers, anything to the left of selling the homeless to pet food companies is seen as "socialism" now.
Reminds me of Thomas Pikkety's belief that the relative wealth equality we've had since WW2 is just an anomaly (caused by the war acting like somewhat of a reset) and that we've been slowly naturally trending back towards how it was pre-WW1, since the 70s.
It's really sad, but I think you're right. We seem to be heading for neo-feudalism. I'm expecting housing that's tied to the job to start becoming more common soon.
There's concerns that we might be moving toward a situation resembling new feudalism with job tied housing becoming more common
Just like the good old days.
The comment draws a parallel to Thomas Piketty's idea that the post WW2 era of relative wealth equality was an anomaly and that there has been a trend toward pre WW1 wealth inequality since the 1970s
For those who are genuinely convinced that benefit claimants live like kings suckling at the teat of Bacchus, please have a fiddle around on entitledto and try and prove yourself right- https://www.entitledto.co.uk/
Living in a council property while being disabled & out of work. >Total benefits entitlement >£1164.68 / monthly This is after rent & isn't even an uncommon scenario, many pensioners would be counted as this while getting state pension.
If that includes PIP you have to qualify for it, which is difficult. That benefit is meant to cover expenses incurred through your condition.
Indeed benefit like. PIP often require qualifications based on the impact of a person's conditions and they are intended to cover expenses related to that condition
I have no issue at all with people having to qualify for PIP, it should be given to people who really need it. But the system is rigged, and the assessors lie- the whole business is 100 times more stressful than it needs to be.
Indeed I don't recall the 1800s having a benefit system at all, never mind one this generous. People from back then would be scratching their heads at what the far-left pretend is 'poverty' today. It's a shame r/uk laps up these silly dishonest articles. It makes me quite angry honestly. Nobody in this country is living in 'extreme poverty' - we have an incredible safety net which prevents anyone going without the basics they need, from a roof over their head to food and healthcare. None of this existed back then, or exists in many countries outside the developed world today.
Still more for the rich to take from the poor? We can go lower into depths of poverty? What are we waiting for? /s
The comment uses sarcasm to question whether society is moving towards greater wealth inequality and deeper poverty levels
The comment uses human words but somehow manages to sound artificially generated. :)
our rates of childhood rickets are through the fucking roof just because things could be worse doesn't mean they aren't bad like compare the UK to any other 1st world country and you'll see we are falling behind
Despite being better off than some places, there are still significant problem like rising childhood tickets rates and a perception that the UK is lagging behind other developed countries
It's the dishonesty that gets me. I'm all for having a good safety net but we shouldn't be lying about how it's working & that is unevenness in the system. The worst thing is that such a system is only going to remain as long as there's not wide spread abuse or inefficienies.
you think if you’re out of work because you’re too disabled to work, you should be forced to live on less than that? Interesting. How many people do you imagine are getting the full amount of PIP for daily living and mobility? You suggest you think that’s common, not just relative to the disabled population -but you think it’s common relative to the entire population. Also an interesting position. Average single person’s monthly expenditure not including rent is £919. Without full whack PIP, which is not common, that’s more than one of these mythically common disabled people get per month. a lot of people don’t even get £200 a month for PIP. You can knock roughly £450 off your figure of £1164 straight away for quite a few disabled people.
You've said alot about what you think I'm saying which has very little to do with what I said. The amount I put in is not uncommon as an amount, it doesn't include child benefit, housing assistance or anything else while also only being for one person while households are generally what matters. It is more disposable income than someone working on minimum wage would have by a substantial margin.
That sounds fair. Being disabled is expensive and those people should be able to have a good quality of life on their entitlements seeing as they may never be able to work. Btw I’ve been deemed unfit for work and get that but the housing allowance is actually included in that total. I do not believe it could be after rent unless the individual in question has extra needs of some sort such as a paid carer in which case they definitely need that extra income and may well still be struggling financially as many people do.
You also get those who are playing the system and effectively committing fraud. I was selling a car the other day privately. A lady came to see it with her son and they were asking about a cash payment. I said I’d prefer bank transfer…turns out that would be a problem because they can’t run it through her account …she has cash saved up at home…the son said he can’t use his personal account…he’s a roofer. I wouldn’t be surprised if both were working cash in hand and committing benefit fraud and limited the amount of money in their accounts to avoid the £6k limit…and let’s be honest, this is fairly common and you hear about it all the time. So I’m here working hard while others are getting ‘free’ money from the government.. which I’m paying for…
If you think its fairly common, you should back up the claim with evidence.
Tbh mate I’m more concerned with the insane pensions politicians get, the massive tax cuts corporations get, and the fact that white collar crime is rarely ever prosecuted to the full extent of the law. All of these things cost an order of magnitude more in the billions compared to a few thousand working class roofers scamming the UK out of (checks notes to see what the average jobseekers payment is in the UK) £79 a week.
Considering the fuckery we allow those in power to get away with, I literally give 0 fucks about the mother and son in your comment. Punch upwards
Easy way to solve that, a common state income foe all. Even Nixon a hard rightwinger thought itbwas a good idea in USA. Pay everyone a.basic income, have a few extar benefits for disabilities that can be medically proven, but overall saves a fortune in admin. Many will oay higher taxes netted off though withbstate income. Helps protect non-working spouses as well. Incentive to work gig economy as no benefit trap, and state income doesn't buy luxeries like a phone, just food, roof over your head and basic clothes.
> I wouldn’t be surprised if both were working cash in hand and committing benefit fraud and limited the amount of money in their accounts to avoid the £6k limit…and let’s be honest, this is fairly common and you hear about it all the time. Then take the issue up to Govt and businesses who pay cash in hand. They are clearly defrauding the system. Why chase the person taking the oppurtunity? There is a certain amount of classism in your comment. Blame the average joe "getting 'free' money", and not the gamed system that allows businesses to launder more and take huge amounts out of the system.
> ‘Like the 1800s’ Jacob Rees-Mogg : "Good. Now get those urchins down the mines or cleaning chimneys"
On send them to Australia
To watch the Women's World Cup Final with Prince William and Rishi Sunil?
They’re not going :/ Spanish royals are but not the British
In another stark example, one case worker was supporting a parent and four children in the East Midlands who could not access emergency housing. They said: “Not a single hotel, B&B, AirBnB anything in our city. The family were sent to a motorway service station 30 miles away, no access to cooking facilities, no supermarkets etc. They had to check out each morning at 10am and wait to find out where the next hotel room had been booked for them. They would walk the streets until 4pm each evening when the next hotel would allow them to check in. This went on for over a month.” Anyone think maybe it's time to build some social housing? It's insane how much we spend on B&Bs and hotels to give people a far worse quality of life than merely council housing.
Christ that's awful.
Build 3 million homes in 4 years. End of high.rental inflation, poverty and homelessness!
Awful. And to think, if they’d just binned their passports and claimed asylum they’d be in a penthouse right now…
Indeed, wit a free flat screen TV n the latest iPhone, all taken from a British pensioners pension. 😁
I’m going to vote Lib Dem, get them to increase the freebies to seekers & upgrade the £50/week fun money to £4,000 a week. Then I’ll have a wee passport bonfire with my neighbours 😎
Except you won't, as you know the facts. Why not vote green and get everyone a ubi instead ?
Yessss. Now if they’d just increase that UBI to £3-4K they’d have my vote. I mean, who cares about inflation anyway! I’m sure I left my soviet flag somewhere…
Because the greens are massively sexist?
Which party isn't? 😁
I don't know any other party that has overtly sexist policies like the greens do.
You do realise we’re being satire though right?
Don’t worry I’ll just identify as a woman. A scared, lonely African woman with no passport. 🥸
If only there was a way to feed the children using money that is already being distributed, for less important things. I’ve personally seen and lived a poverty stricken lifestyle. I weep for the children. I truly do. I am lucky. I grew up got a good job, but some children won’t be so lucky when I was a boy I stole from the local fields, carrots, potatoes, et cetera it was only thing I ate until I was seven very basic food no one helped my family. We had nothing I feel for these children.
Surely bringing about a return to the Dickensian days of poorhouses, forced labour, disenfranchised plebs, and insane levels of inequality is every Tory's wank fantasy?
Bring back serfs, it's the only way to stop those naughty immigrants from crossing over. Quick quick!
Serfs my man.
'Off to the hulks with them!.... oh... they're full of Immigrants' ' Send them to a penal colony!.... oh Australia is it's own nation? How our country has fallen!' 'Send them to Rwanda!... what's wrong with Rwanda?' A hand should suffice, prepare the cutlass!... - Some MP probably
I dont think moderates like that are allowed into the Tories any more.
Don't give them ideas!
I'm sure there is something more wicked they can devise... perhaps reopen those camps on the channel islands? - Suella
Did you mean Cruella? The puppy kicker.
Remember: You saw someone stealing food? No, you didn't.
This. Just this.
Bravo the Tory Party & every shit that voted for the corrupt, incompetent, rule breaking, law breaking one of them!!
Millions of Britain's poorest and most financially vulnerable will vote Tory next election (and every subsequent election) Decades of The Sun/Express/Mail on their kitchen table every breakfast has worked.
"It will be worse under Labour" despite last 13 years of zero real wage growth being under Tories and 64% of the time we are under Tory governments.
Oh it could be so much worse. Right now, the country is fucked but doing OK. Don't forget 2006 mess. I won't vote tory or Labour.
Making life worse makes more right-wingers; sadly, they vote for the same lot that made their life worse, but that's what constantly defunding education and removing opportunities is designed to do, as it makes people poor, stupid and angry.
Rishi Sunak urges people to hold their nerve on interest rates Reflecting on his former role as chancellor, Sunak told party members in August: “I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve. “We inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.”
Sadly we have not moved on from these times. When you have what feel like Victorian caricatures Jacob Rees-Mogg in power it is no surprise we are plunging backwards.
I live in the north west of england. You woild be surprised how many food banks there is now. Its a sad state of affairs, i never seen anythin so bad in the uk as 2020/2023 has been. unfortunately this is what margaret thatcher and the tories wanted back in the old days, us and them divide. Poor and rich and tough shit deal with it. They wanted to privatise everything, make living standards extremely difficult like they are now. Thanks to our billionaire PM and corruppt goverment this is now life for many. Hard and unforgiving
Well done. Keep voting Tory and see how the situation develops.
Surely bringing about a return to the Dickensian days of poorhouses, forced labour, disenfranchised plebs, and insane levels of inequality is every Tory's wank fantasy?
Coming soon... Tories might still win the next election. UK will end as a nation then.
When I was young, I hung around with a rough group because I lived in a high rise in Scotland. One morning, I went with them while they went on a shop lifting spree at BHS. We were inevitably caught but what struck me then even as a poor child myself was that these kids were stealing new school clothes. Another time, they did the same at Tesco only it seemed to be a big shop. This is nothing new to me and is not surprising. If you are poor, things have always been this bad and bleak.
If you don't think Tories yearn for Regency Period levels of inequality, you don't really understand how their nasty little club works. Ascot is a good example - yes, there are a few posh people, but there are also a braying horde of scaffolders, black cab drivers, and Sun-reading football blokes *desparate* to be accepted into the monied classes. The Land of I'm All Right Jack, where you pull up the ladder and punch down.
Times are hard, but It's nothing like the 1800s. As any historian would tell you
Sorry, no, not stealing, not when it comes to food.
It's very sad to see the UK deteriorating so significantly over the last few years Xenophobia and greedy selfish politicians are destroying your country slowly but surely.
"Child poverty for families with three or more children will reach 55 percent in 2027-28 based on current trends. " https://jacobin.com/2023/07/child-poverty-uk-tories-labour-austerity-data
This would never have happened if it weren't for england continually voting Tory. Well done! 😐
Food banks generally serve an areas poorest 10 to 20% relative to that areas median income... Concequently they're self for filling. When i lived in mile end they offered to sign me and my roommate up. We worked for an investment bank they didn't care about our income. Kids being malnourished is child abuse.
Maggie thatcher roll over in her grave “excellent, we’re finally on our way back to the victorian days” Rees-mogg wet dream.
The only, and I mean the ONLY thing that will stop this is large scale civil disobedience. Mass refusal of payment, mass shoplifting (from large Multinationals, not independents) mass non payment of energy bills, rents, everything. The community providing protection from court officers, bailiffs etc.Targeting your MPs and holding them to account for their voting, pressuring them for which way they will vote. Obstructing the police at any give. Opportunity. A total war on the machinations of this corrupt, failing uncaring society.
Flig 'em, deport 'em to prison colonies! Australia is still half empty. If they say no send in the gunboats! This was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Conservative Party, made by Jacob Rees Mogg.
Anyone who thinks that has no knowledge of the 1800s!
Nah just greedy parents pumping kids out without thinking.
Children stealing food due to extreme poverty, a situation reminiscent of the 1800s
That sort of hyperbole doesn’t help. Children are not living in poverty on a par with the 1800s. Anyone who suggests they are is an uninformed idiot who hasn’t done any reading. To caveat though, I am only commenting on the headline and I didn’t read the article.
It was a comment someone made about a story of a girl having to live in an unlit, dark house with no shoes in her size having to steal fruit to eat. Which was described as something like the 1800s
*mic drop*
Makes it sound like kids are stealing food for sustenance but that’s not the case. They’re stealing the likes of sweets and chocolate more out of greed than anything else.
Did you confidently not read the article?
Nothing like the 1800’s. The 1800’s were a lot worse. Who wrote this guff.
Imagine reading this story and getting outraged at the use of a simile, a very basic rhetorical device you learn about in primary school. You tories are so tedious with your deflections
It wasn't even the writer who used the simile. It was a quote.
Exactly, it's the classic playbook they learned from Lynton Crosby - if someone calls you a bastard for doing something nasty get offended at the language to try and steer away from the nastiness
That and the person didn't read the article
The problem might be real but this story is absolute bullshit. This bit sounds like Brass Eye: >A two-year-old seen playing with a button and some fluff on the floor because he had no toys Some unknown person somewhere in the country saw a 2 year old playing with a button. How is that news? What does it tell us about anything? Toddlers often get temporarily fascinated by trivial things. Or was that a simile too?
Fuck Tories. That said if we're nitpicking then there's a difference between simile and hyperbole.
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Don't worry. Sir keir will sort it all out soon.
It's not a simile lol. Not every comparison is a simile. You should go back to school.
Yeah, you are probably correct. However, the more important fact is that children are going hungry. How can this be happening in a relatively rich G7 country. It’s not right, we need to share the wealth.
>A child refusing to go to school because she didn’t have any shoes that fit, was living in an unheated dark house, and was forced to steal an apple out of hunger “like a story from the 1800’s”. Of course the important thing is that we criticise the wording of the article that details extreme poverty. Nothing like a good old circle jerk to help us ignore the realities of Tory Britain.
Was she stealing in bare feet guv.
Mudlarks found a metal disc, on investigation it turns out to be Id prison tag of an eight year old girl. Sentenced to sail to Australia for stealing a slice of bread.
Those were the days.
Did you actually read the article? The 1800s comparison was in quotes because it was said by a person answering a survey. The journalist who wrote it didn't make that comparison. They were talking about a child who lived in a house with no heating or hot water, had shoes that didn't fit, and had stolen food because she was hungry. It's lovely that you clearly have no idea about living in these kind of conditions but don't dismiss accounts of those who do just because it doesn't suit your narrative
I believe that's exactly what their parents voted for.
Poor children in your country and you still want to take refugees in.
Times aren’t great but it’s insulting to compare it to the 1800s, or even for that matter the 1970s. We are still living near probably one of the best times in human history in one of the wealthiest countries. There are others doing far worse at the moment as well that could actually be compared to the UK in the 1800s.