Child Poverty

Jalima, it has everything to do with it. It is about poverty, poverty of education, attitude, family support, outside support, schooling
and so on.

How on earth people can come on here and claim things aren't as bad as they were in the past is deluded.

When I was delivering financial education lessons, I showed comparisons between borrowing from loan companies, high interest stores, banks and from credit unions.
We deliberately didn't mention the name of certain stores, in case children went home and criticised their parents.
A fair number of children naively told us their parents had bought goods from a "great shop" called Brighthouse.
We made conscious decision to deliver financial educations programmes, due to the high levels of deprivation in our schools.
As for the OP. I don't quite understand the figures he/she quotes. Maybe I'm just dense!
Most of he parents I worked with were on the minimum wage, which as far as I'm aware in Scotland is not £10 an hour. That is if they worked at all.
Furthermore, they certainly weren't getting £500 a month from ex partners. They were lucky if ex partners had any contact at all with their children. Some of them had never seen their father.

Evil isn’t it ?
Yes, gillybob that makes me very angry.
I thought steps were being taken to shut down some of these firms or at least regulate them better.

Children stealing food from bird tables for example?
That was a case of deliberate neglect and child abuse oldbatty and has nothing to do with the discussion.

There is a large Brighthouse close to where I work ( a very poor NE town) . I have always said to DH that if I could win the lottery I would stand outside and stop everyone from signing their lives away for a new washing machine or TV costing £200 in a normal shop but £2000 in there. Evil isn’t it ?

No Gillybob it is back to hand washing and line drying everything and surviving on cold food and pot noodles like we did 50 years ago. At least then we had a coal fire where you could make toast or boil a kettle and a clothes horse in front of the fire to dry the clothes. Mind you we didn't have clean clothes or towels every day and only changed the beds once a fortnight. A fish supper was only 1/3d and big enough to feed 2.

I’m with MaryDoll. Imagine counting the pennies to get through the week and then something crops up like a washing machine or the cooker breaking down? Where would the money come from to replace or repair them? Or is it off the Brighthouse to pay 1000% interest ?

I think that sometimes it is the families who have been 'comfortably off' who suffer most when misfortune suddenly forces them onto benefits. As an example the man who lost his driving licence, and thereby his job and his company car as a result of an RTA that he caused. The wife was a stay at home mum with 2 toddlers and one on the way. They had a big mortgage, and maxed out on the credit card, with no savings to speak of. Pride ensured that they kept up a show of being fine and they had no previous experience of cooking from scratch or beans on toast with an egg on top for tea, had never been in a Thrift Shop, were used to a bottle of wine in the evenings, dining with friends and monthly visits to the hair salon - you get the picture.

I know another couple who, in a similar situation, made the best of it, pulled together, sold stuff on e.bay, etc. etc but the first couple collapsed under a mountain of debt, guilt, mental health problems, drinking - a whole family split apart.

The man who crowdfunded to buy his children Christmas presents certaintly didn’t do favours for those living in poverty

My point, that I think only one poster brought up, was that there is much more child neglect involved than there is absolute poverty.

Feed the figures based on 16 hours a week £10 per hour into any benefit checker, and you’ll see I haven’t made them up.

I came across the figures when a young dad where I worked was saying how broke his little family was. I tried to help and gave him the relevant figures of what they could get ... turns out he knew, they already got the money, that was “the wife’s” money. His disposable income was much the same as his supervisor.

In my experience many single mothers with "a "couple of kids", don't mange OK. They works hours a week just to survive.
If something like a cooker breaks, they then have to borrow money or take on high interest credit and their debt spirals.
In my school we did a lot of work on financial education, raising awareness of high interest rates with some firms selling household goods and encouraging parents and pupils to join the credit union, even if it was only £1 a week. This then allowed them to borrow money, and TRY to manage their debt.
They can buy nice treats Can you please elaborate on nice treats?

The reality is that child maintenence for low wage earners is entirely voluntary it is very easy to avoid paying and nobody is going to waste time chasing you. However if you are a high earner (over £30k) it is worth chasing defaulters, most will be made to pay, if, they are in the UK.
Single mums with a couple of kids manage OK but it is very basic, if they work a few hours a week they can buy nice extras, there is no reason that children are not clothed and fed properly. If they are there is some other problem or they are not getting the benefits.

There are plenty of places where poverty is every bit as cruel as it was in the 1918/30's.

Children stealing food from bird tables for example?

www.jrf.org.uk/our-work/what-is-poverty

"Surely poverty is relative to each generation you cannot compare 2018 with the the early 1918/30’s"
Good point, GrannyGravy.
I find it hard to understand the current view of poverty having seen it pre welfare state. When support only came from friends family or church etc.

I think the issue about pensioner poverty is an interesting one and it highlights the way in which the benefit system treats pensioners differently from those of working age.

A single pensioner is entitled to a minimum income of circa £163 per week under pension credit plus full council and housing benefit if applicable.

A single working age adult over 25 is entitled to JSA of £73.10 and from that has to pay a contribution towards council tax (variable according to which council area they live in) and is subject to housing benefit age and bedroom tax rules.

Younger adults get £57.90.

How many of us could live long term on that?

Alan Johnson's book is very readable. he didn't actually go into care, his sister looked after him after their mother died.
The family were very poor.

Is it any wonder that children and adults have mental health issues ??
I note yet another building which deals with such problems is closing its doors ? It's very worrying.

I have a book on Alan Johnson's life which I confess to not having read yet but I do know that he was in care at the start of his life.
It does depend on a person's mindset as to whether or not they want to succeed or not in life.

This government is peopled with those who have never gone short because no one in poverty can aspire to stand for political office.
I don't think that is strictly true Granny23 - I'm not sure about any at the moment but certainly there have been politicians who have had a deprived start to life yet have succeeded and achieved high office.
Alan Johnson is one who immediately comes to mind and there may well be others.

It’s the damned wait to be paid that is inexcusable . Do they think these poor people have a cash stash to fall back on ? Idiots !

I agree with much of what you have said Granny23 except the bit about the possibility of malice towards the people if Glasgow. The poor of much of Newcastle have UC inflicted on them since February and March 2017 ! ( look at the “turn to us” website ) .

People who have never been poor or 'just managing' can have no conception of the pressures on families who are living on the edge, on benefits or minimum or erratic wages, with no savings or wider family who can help out.

This government is peopled with those who have never gone short because no one in poverty can aspire to stand for political office.

This may explain why they are oblivious to the impact of the roll out of Universal Credit and are comfortable with the notion that families will manage somehow while they wait the 6 to 12 weeks with no income whatsoever until their first payment of UC arrives.

I am making excuses for them here although I am tempted to think that the decision to roll out UC in Glasgow from 1st December was made with malice 'afore thought' given that there will be thousands of Glaswegians left penniless throughout December and into the New Year. Leaving aside the children's expectations of Christmas treats, gifts and party frocks, and the fact that benefits are geared towards providing for every day essentials, with no extra to save, I cannot think of a worst time of year to be without a weekly income.

How are people expected to heat and light their homes in midwinter? How are they to feed their Children, when the schools and thereby free school dinners are closed for a fortnight? How will they be able to seek emergency welfare when the benefits offices will be closed for Xmas and New Year holidays. People on longterm benefits are unlikely to have been granted a credit card, but will be easy prey for unscrupulous loan sharks. I am aware that the Charities, including Food Banks, are gearing up for a major crisis because this will be a blanket changeover when all claimants will be in the same position at the same time and therefore unable to help out their relatives, friends, neighbours.

If anyone has answers for this dilemma, please send them to Glasgow City Council or any of the churches or charities operating in Glasgow - preferably enclosing folding money or food hampers.

Housing costs can be huge now. Private rentals mean that many families are spending a larger proporton of their income on rents than they would in proper social housing. The idea that there isn't a real problem with poverty for some families (and not only single parents) is ridiculous.

What sweetiew222 is peddling is just wanton propaganda, no hard facts just ignorance- vile!

House prices are stagnant in my area and Have been for quite some time . We have never seen the rise that many others areas have. My house is worth less now than when I bought it over 7 years ago . Young people with insecure jobs struggling to get mortgages so it’s a lose lose situation . Of course the private landlords are rubbing their grubby little hands together. Such a shame for youngsters who end up paying inflated rents for substandard accommodation .