Welcome to Britain’s Victorian Christmas……..

It is, you're right.

You will never get people who choose to think the worst of everyone to believe in the need for food banks. They choose to make unfounded accusations of people selling on e-bay or smugly stating that there is no need for the food banks. Well I can tell you from my own life , that things change and I have never taken things I dont need. When I started working FULL TIME in overseas telegrams in London, I earned the princely sum of £11 a week doing shifts, and speaking 3 languages, and in those days the PO had the cheek to pay you by how old you were up until you were 24. I lived in a bedsit, cooked everything from scratch , could not afford to go out to anything that cost money, but I was learning my skills learning 5 unit tape and codes etc. I used to keep pasta in, dried not fresh because if friday was the end of the week I had no money to buy food on thursday. I lived on what I had, couldnt make any savings as for a start the tube bill for the week was £2.50. So I scraped and struggled, and not through drinking or drugs or such things. Later in my life when my son was very young, we checked and worked out if we could afford to buy this house in the Manchester area. We totted up our income and outgoings, and decided to buy it, and we knew it would be difficult. But what we could not have known was that when we had been in the house for a couple of months the mortgage rate went up to 15% , yes 15%!!! However people think they are hard done by with the mortgage rate now , they should look at that time. We struggled to get by for months, as I could not go out to work with a very young child, and there was no overtime for my husband. I walked round the house with my coat on, and a one bar electric fire went on in one room when my son came home from playgroup. Carried on, helping in playgroup, running brownies, later did Meals on Wheels, where I saw some people who needed them as they were unable to cook for themselves through illness, but met many many people who had worked hard and thought that they had made savings for their old age. I paid full stamp, then went abroad, paying even more for nothing, when I retired spent 10 years of 3 days a week doing volunteer ambulance car , so again met very many people struggling and in need of the food bank. Not one of them that I met, had wealth at home, and many were very proud and only finally came to the food bank when they literally did not have enough to pay for food. When you are coping with chemotherapy you feel the cold, and you are not well enough to go out exercising. Also trying to eat healthily is difficult, when fresh ingredients are so expensive , and the price of things go up weekly. I bought something for £1 one week and the following week the same item was £1.10!!!and if you dont have a car and live in a rural area So now, many women who did not have a full pension, because of their caring roles or having to have gaps looking after others so that their pension did not amount to much. So if the pension age had to be raised, they could have said that people now working would have to pay that, but when you have budgeted carefully, that your pension will be paid at age 60 and then it is just moved further and further away with no way that you can make up the money. So now, it will be very difficult for many people, me included, to not have the winter fuel payment to help with heating. I have cancer and feel the cold and my back is very bad so I cannot do the equivalent of "get on my bike"!!! Up until now when I worried about the cost of fuel, knowing that I would have the winter fuel payment helped my anxiety. So now I lose either way. Too much pension to get the fuel amount, yet when I tried to change my bank account to a better one which paid a little interest the bank said that I did not get enough a month to be able to have that account!!!! We all have to make choices, my way is that I only shop in charity shops for any clothes, apart from underwear. My biggest luxury is to have a car, because with my back etc and health issues, I could not stand at a bus stop, for long, cannot walk the length of my high street etc etc. When anything happens to this car I shall not be getting another one. I go shopping with a sort of list, but it depends what is in the reduced basket , or how much more has been put on the price since last time. I will manage, as I always have, and pay my bills like everyone else, but to read ignorant comments about people selling things on e bay or that people only use food banks because they have the opportunity, whilst it may be true of one or two selfish and greedy people. the greater majority are using them because they NEED them. I am sorry to be on a rant on christmas eve, but my goodness Charles Dickens would recognise these charactors who want to say things are unnecessary etc. My name is not Oliver Twist so I shall not be asking for more, but my feelings will warm me up anyway!!!!

Redhead56

We have four food banks within two miles. What amazes me is that most of the people who go to them are middle aged and drive cars. How can these people afford cars but appear rely on food banks something is definitely wrong.

Sigh

How wonderful

nanna8

Phones have to be paid for and charged so I can understand why, when you are very poor and don’t have enough food to eat, you might get questioned for being able to pay for one- particularly if it is a very up to date one. After the war when we were poor we didn’t have phones - not until the late 1960s when things eased up a bit. All our money went on food and the house. We certainly didn’t own a tv.

Sigh. Again

Here on Sydney my Son helps out at his friends Feed the homeless project
They feed 100’s 5 nights a week all with donated food. They have a barbecue so can serve hot food.
Last week was their Christmas Dinner for the homeless I helped too we fed 100/150 homeless folk in sydney city centre. It’s a huge effort by volunteers here too.

Allira

^there for the taking^
Not how I understood a foodbank works.

Nor how it works where I volunteer, either.

MissAdventure

I think o made a thread at one point, asking how to recognise the latest iPhone.

What features give it away, and let people know its "the latest".

It's quite simple. If someone looks poorer than you, the phone they have must be "the latest i-phone".

Ah, of course.

Tamayra

Here on Sydney my Son helps out at his friends Feed the homeless project
They feed 100’s 5 nights a week all with donated food. They have a barbecue so can serve hot food.
Last week was their Christmas Dinner for the homeless I helped too we fed 100/150 homeless folk in sydney city centre. It’s a huge effort by volunteers here too.

That's fantastic!

Tamayra

Here on Sydney my Son helps out at his friends Feed the homeless project
They feed 100’s 5 nights a week all with donated food. They have a barbecue so can serve hot food.
Last week was their Christmas Dinner for the homeless I helped too we fed 100/150 homeless folk in sydney city centre. It’s a huge effort by volunteers here too.

DD said she she will be helping out at a Salvation Army lunch in S Queensland on Christmas Day, serving Christmas dinners, Tamayra; yes it's not just in the UK these centres are needed.

Happy Christmas to all the kind, compassionate and non judgmental posters on this thread, especially those who give their time to help those less fortunate than themselves.

None of us know when we may need the support of others.

HousePlantQueen

nanna8

Phones have to be paid for and charged so I can understand why, when you are very poor and don’t have enough food to eat, you might get questioned for being able to pay for one- particularly if it is a very up to date one. After the war when we were poor we didn’t have phones - not until the late 1960s when things eased up a bit. All our money went on food and the house. We certainly didn’t own a tv.

Sigh. Again

Sigh. Again

Why? It was a perfectly reasonable thing to say, that assumptions might be made which is true.

I don't know how many times, in how many different ways things can be explained though.

Phones are not a luxury; they don't even cost much, unless you want to pay a fortune.

I've absolutely no doubt that what I paid for my phone, £70 secondhand, around ten years ago is less than a lot of people would pay for a meal out for two.

I don't understand the obsession with worrying about poor people's phones.

The school email, school dinners are paid on an app, the dwp use online as their means of contacting people, hospital appointments are confirmed by text, blood tests are booked online, on an app.

School reports are sent in pdf format or on excel, bus passes are bought through an app, mostly.

Job applications are sent by email and filled in online, not to mention that people have families to keep in touch with.

Note the phrase ‘particularly if it is a very up to date one’ The people I come across through helping out do NOT have up to date phones. Old ones, yes, sometimes. Happy Christmas and may you have a wonderful time with family and friends, as we will.

nanna8

Phones have to be paid for and charged so I can understand why, when you are very poor and don’t have enough food to eat, you might get questioned for being able to pay for one- particularly if it is a very up to date one. After the war when we were poor we didn’t have phones - not until the late 1960s when things eased up a bit. All our money went on food and the house. We certainly didn’t own a tv.

But after the war you didnt require a mobile/telephone to apply for help/jobs/do banking etc...

How is it that our government can give millions to other countries, when we have so many destitute here? Who is paying for Starmer's trips abroad?

I think quite a lot of people buy their phones through their phone contract anyway so it it is spread over several years. You do need your phone or internet for eveything now it seems.

Yes you do Jane but you don’t really need the latest iPhone that costs more than a thousand bucks. Anyway, these are the minority of needy people - most don’t actually have them so it is a moot point. I haven’t actually come across too many with those phones. I suppose handling money is a bit of a skill so maybe these don’t actually work it out too well. In the old days they had free financial counsellors at our local council and they would help people a lot and even arrange very cheap loans for survival. Good old days.

I don't suppose many people (anyone?) needs 'the latest phone, and most people only have one until the next development from a rival producer a month or two later, then it's no longer the latest.

So what? I got some lovely Christmas presents today. If I became 'poor' tomorrow, would people be questioning the fact that I might need to claim benefits whilst wearing Jo Malone perfume eating Hotel Chocolat sweets? Or how I can afford a Diptyque candle?

For many people cars and phones are essentials.

It is all very well for city dwellers to see cars as luxuries, but live in smaller towns or even suburban areas, where bus services are poor and people's jobs are scattered randomly over a huge area, for may people, if you want a job, you need a car, especially if your job requires you to work shifts.

MissAdventure says it so well, I will not repeat it, but a mobile phone is essential these days for doing anything in life

M0nica

For many people cars and phones are essentials.

It is all very well for city dwellers to see cars as luxuries, but live in smaller towns or even suburban areas, where bus services are poor and people's jobs are scattered randomly over a huge area, for may people, if you want a job, you need a car, especially if your job requires you to work shifts.

MissAdventure says it so well, I will not repeat it, but a mobile phone is essential these days for doing anything in life

Hear, hear.

The fact is, phones are now a necessity, not a luxury. And if you have unreliable transport links and have a job, so is a car.

The days when you could walk to the end of your road and catch a bus, or make a phone call from a public call box are long gone.

nanna8

Yes you do Jane but you don’t really need the latest iPhone that costs more than a thousand bucks. Anyway, these are the minority of needy people - most don’t actually have them so it is a moot point. I haven’t actually come across too many with those phones. I suppose handling money is a bit of a skill so maybe these don’t actually work it out too well. In the old days they had free financial counsellors at our local council and they would help people a lot and even arrange very cheap loans for survival. Good old days.

Just for you.
This is how a mobile phone contract works in the uk.
www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/yt63vr/someone_please_explain_how_mobile_phone_contracts/?rdt=47129