Hungry Britain

Your charity shop should close down, rose. They aren't being charitable. Or, they aren't explaining why they don't take certain furniture.

I donate most items of furniture to the local furniture store and shop that is based in a nearby church hall. They take everything they are legally allowed to take. Anything like covered dining chairs, sofas, beds must meet fire resistance regulations, although they will take dining chairs that don't if the donor doesn't mind the people collecting them stripping off the materials that are not allowed - volunteers will recover them with the correct material.

Ooops! I see a flaw in this - the volunteers are people with drug addictions. Back to the drawing board.

I agree absolutely with your post, granjura.

granjura That's by no means the first time that you have remarked on the paucity of intelligent debate on Gransnet. Why did you bother to rejoin?

Joelsnan, my grandson has ASD. He takes everything literally, and he talks to grown ups as if he is an equal, even though he's only 11.
It is important with people with ASD to treat them as if they are as normal as possible. In fact they will think they are normal; it's you who are out of step.
There is no reason to suspect that his sister had not written to her brother's MP, Cameron. My MP writes back straight away. Anyone in government, I find, ignores your letters. We wrote to both Alan Johnson and John Prescott when they were in power about my mother's appalling treatment in a home in Hull. They ignored us.

The man who died was not opening his post, so his family found out afterwards. Peope get their vouchers by going to the jobcentre, their GPs and their church and telling them they have no food. Eating is not necessarily a priority. The man who died also had an eating disorder, which I assume means anorexia. His doctor actually wrote him a letter to take to the jobcentre, telling them he was extremely unwell and absolutely unfit for any work whatsoever. He also had OCD.

My husband died of brain cancer 4 months after diagnosis. I have seen what happens to someone when they stop eating over a few weeks and months. It's not as dramatic looking as it seems when you see them every day. I do not know how often his family saw him.

I also had some really good quality furniture which the charity shop would not take because they said that people on benefits only want new or fashionable staff. I found this offensive, if you are poor then you should take anything until you can afford better. So where is the logic in that.

LOL I certainly did not-I went on the pill at 16- and to University when our youngest went to primary school ;)

As usual on Gransnet, there is no discussion- entrenched views and from the ridiculous to the ridiculous, without collecting the sublimous on first square)...

Of course there is a lot of genuine poverty around- but it is hard not to acknowledge that priorities have changed, and that getting food on the table for yourself and/or your family- as was for my parents and yours probably, and to some extent ours- is not longer at the top- for all sorts of reasons- and not always good ones.

When people don't pay drug dealers very nasty things happen to them, especially if they are no longer users and, therefore, no longer potential customers.

What is your problem with anything I have said?
I am not accusing people of being feckless, not saying they should have their children taken off them, not being judgmental, in fact saying in essence that there are all sorts, good, bad, unfortunate, feckless, caring, jobsworthy in all walks of life whether rich, poor, employed, unemployed or whatever.
And when I said it seems to be difficult to give away second hand furniture I got shot down in flames again by someone else.
Just speaking as I find from experience.
Have only heard about the food bank in one particular town from someone close who helps to run it and there are all sorts of reasons why the people who are using it do so.

My comment about dogs is from real life, many people who are on benefit seems to have a big dog or two, Im not referring to the panorama programme.
Can anyone tell me why people have dogs that must cost a fortune to feed

OK.....line up, all you baby boomers who went and got pregnant at university, before you were married, before you were engaged....c'mon, you know who you are, you with your lack of moral fibre.

Is someone getting just a little bit SILLY now????

sarcasm is the lowest form of wit durhamjen, some of you good goody gransnetters don't see how the other half lives you are all too busy being posting nice letters and probably polishing your halos. No-one seems to want a balanced discussion

Rosequartz, if you find the comments too rude, you can always report them. On the other hand perhaps you feel there is enough truth in them not to.

Thanks Durhamjen
If the food vouchers were posted to them as the dole cheque used to be. I don't know if it is still sent. The vouchers would be used in shops maintaining the local economy.
I saw the program and the boy who walked the 4 miles was paying his benefit to drug dealers for debts buying drugs. He did say that he did have a previous problem with drugs.
Re the sister: why wasn't she writing to IDS at the outset if her brothers issues. Why wasn't she and other members of his family caring for him?
Unless they have a truly valid reason for allowing this I think it is shame on the family.

Tell you what, Cactus, why don't we let all the people who do not live up to your ideals starve, along with their kids? That'll solve the problem.
I didn't see any huge dogs on the programme, or did I just not notice them because I was more interested in the man who had to walk 4 miles to sign on.

I am watching panorama now on catch up tv, all I can see is people who through their own fault are in dept. The girl who was in hospital with her pregnancy and lost her benefits admitted that she owed money on her mobile bill and also the loan shark, why did she run up a huge phone bill and why take a loan from a shark.
If I cant afford something I do without.
Some people never learn. Also what was she thinking about getting pregnant while living in a hostel. When I had my family we got a house then saved up to furnish it then we had the kids. People have no values nowadays.
Well done Edwina Currie she is right saying people have choices. Can anyone tell me how many people on benefit have huge dogs, they must cost more that kids to feed. How do they do it.
Society needs to go back to old fashioned values where quite simply we did without if we couldn't afford anything

Sorry, merlot. As you will have realised I fail to see anything lighthearted in this. Not criticising you; it might be my loss.
Joelsnan, you have to have vouchers to go to foodbanks. You have to have someone to vouch for the fact that you and your family are starving.
There was a man on the Panorama programme who did not have the busfare to go the jobcentre and had to walk four miles there.

I first put about this man's death on the adult Aspergers thread, because he had Aspergers. He was 44, and had been diagnosed in his late 20s. "Wood of Bampton, Oxfordshire, was not told his housing benefit and ESA had been stopped, and struggled to survive on the £40 per week disability allowance. He was reluctant to ask relatives for help and they were unaware his payments had been removed until shortly before he died."
His sister has written to Cameron and IDS as she wants them to acknowledge the flaws in the system they set up. Not holding my breath.

Did I say everyone at the job centres are jobsworths? But some are, as are people in all walks of life (see some other forums on here!). Don't twist my comments to make your point.

Food banks are not the whole answer, they should only be just an emergency stop gap. If the problem is ongoing it needs to be looked at. All sorts of people are using them for all sorts of reasons.

Anyone is very welcome to my unwanted furniture (not that I have much unwanted any more). Just saying that it has been very difficult to get rid of decent, clean but older stuff, even by free-cycling. I don't ask people for a certificate to say they don't take drugs or drink before I hand over anything on free-cycle or ask the charity shop to interrogate anyone who buys my stuff to make sure they are worthy of it.
What a ridiculous comment! And in fact extremely rude.

As someone who has only just joined I find some of the comments breathtakingly rude.

It is so sad to read of the poor boys death through starvation. But, where was his family through all of this, especially knowing that the boy had the difficulties associated with this syndrome?
The assessment for work system has been found to be inappropriate especially with cases such as this, but blame should also be laid at those who knowing his condition, should have cared for him.
Again I say that food vouchers should become part of the benefit provision.

Actually my post was a follow on from rosequartz's who said she had never had a cookery lesson so wasn't really intended to be a serious addition to the issues being discussed.

Patronising, judgmental but true for some people, Ana. At least you noticed. Have you read any of the links I put on earlier?
No I was not referring to you, merlot. I knew what you meant, but some people think that all people on £40 per week to pay all their bills need is a few cookery lessons.

Thanks, Deedaa. Saved me the bother.

It's all very well saying that drug takers don't deserve to keep their children cactus but what about the children? Many of them no doubt love their parents and don't want to be taken off into care. They might want them to stop the drugs, but that's a different matter. And a life in care often does the child no favours.

durhamjen I hope you're not suggesting I recommended cookery lessons from James Martin because that's exactly what I didn't recommend.

"Some people take it seriously. There are calls for IDS to be charged with manslaughter.
I could put links on this thread, but will not bother as I know those who need to read them will not."

Do you have any idea how patronising (and judgemental) that sounds, durhamjen? You can't just browbeat people into thinking the way that you do - we are all allowed our own opinions.

Well said, when.
Rose, not everyone at the jobcentres are jobsworths. They have to follow the rules as set out by IDS or they get sanctioned as well.
As far as Scandinavia is concerned, Cactus, they can cope better because they are a more equal society. The IMF says that inequality is a drag on growth now. It's just taken them a long time to realise it. Scandinavian countries have higher taxes, higher pay and higher benefits on the whole.
This is the second report from the IMF that says that government cuts to public-sector spending were having a detrimental effect on the economy. But the Tory govt. take no more notice of the IMF than they do of charities and churches running foodbanks.
It will take someone to take the government to court over the cuts. It will happen.