Too poor to eat properly

sorry to rant...but at least got that off my chest.i would like to downsize but cant afford too and i want to stay near my grandchildren and daughter(whose husband died last year aged 37 from heart related problems) my spare bedroom is used by grandchildren. but the government dont care about that ,they still charge me £60 extra each month for my "spare" bedroom.

please dont crirtisise people that you know nothing about

well said.

I dont mind at all what my taxpayers purse spends out on the needy, those who are vulnerable and people who need help, Gabrielle..

I do find it slightly galling that greedy 'landlords' benefit the most from the broken system though.
The rent on the flat above me is the same as you're paying, so you have a good rent.

Promised myself I'd come back to this thread, and have read a few more pages, but I can't cope with assorted people's strange way of looking at their fellow man, so I stopped.
Benefits are a nightmare in 2019, and once you've got them, they can be cut off at any time.
Food banks are demeaning, and are not open to all for anything you want.
Bus/train fares are extremely expensive if you're on a low income.
Teachers are talking about feeding kids, washing their clothes and providing them with shoes because their old ones are flapping or too small.
Benefit fraud is about 0.3%, but £millions are not claimed in benefits because the claimants cannot wade through the massive booklets they are expected to fill (48 pages was one I heard of recently), or get to the Job Centre because their local one has been closed.
Mobile phones/internet access is required to claim benefits.
What is this doing to the mental health of our children?

I think the answer to that is becoming clearer and clearer..

moggie asks what about the other bills?

The other bills ie rent, gas, electricity, council tax, tv licence etc have to be paid.

No-one penalises you if you don't buy food.
The only one (s) being penalised are you and your family.

I was going to ask if you could take a lodger, moggie, but you like to have your DGC to stay, which is only natural.
So do I.

My bible when we were first married was Jocasta Innes "Paupers' Cookbook" and still use it now -however, can understand how people get into difficulties - I changed jobs a couple of years ago and ye jolly tax authorities kept changing my tax code so that 3 months on into the new job they took 50% tax off me! Now, had I not been in the situation of having no mortgage/rent to pay and not reliant on my salary I would have been totally stuffed that month - imagine £450 instead of £900.

What a desperately sad state of affairs this country is in. The division between rich and poor is obscene and how the poorest in our society can get themselves out of it is beyond me. I have 3 precious grandchilden who have wonderful, happy, healthy homes. I watch them grow and thrive so happily. My heart bleeds for so many little ones who don't stand a chance. And most likely are hungry as we read this.

I totally agree with your comment about the the needy MissA however, there have been instances in that area, of sub-letting, indeed, one 3 bed house was turned into 5 bedrooms and a communal kitchen and bathroom and sub-let to 10 builders. The Canadian owners had no idea, not did the agents check. Rents were £600pm per room and £20 per person pw to cover gas/elec/ broadband/water.
The council were paying the original family of 6, £1,255 pm rent and paid council tax.
Admittedly, it's more of a concern in London and a smaller number here, but it's taking the Mick.
The family stayed with relatives in Portsmouth and only came up to collect the rent in cash.
Someone next door eventually dobbed them in to the agents after a fight broke out.

I agree that many people nowadays could benefit from eating and cooking as we used to. (However I wouldn't want to eat mince all the time. ) Fresh cooking is always better, although I do remember our weekly menu included sausages, vegetable roll, liver and corned beef - all full of fat.
buying frozen rubbish is all some people can afford. And it can be cheaper than cooking fresh food.
The poverty in the UK is a disgrace. So many people have so much while others haven't enough for the basic essentials. To have so many relying on food banks is inexcusable and just so shocking. I know we have some good caring politicians but I don't believe the government cares about the ordinary person. Most of them haven't a clue about ordinary day to day living. The queen's grocers are Fortnum and Masons for goodness sake. I buy special biscuits there as a treat when I visit London.
Nannyto3 my daughter is highly intelligent but is forced to work part time and claim Universal Credit (and don't get me started on the stress that causes her). Luckily she has me. She knows how to budget, cook fresh, freeze soup etc. She shops in the cheaper shops now and does her best. The problem of not eating proper nutritional food is not peculiar to those on U.C. Plenty of folk earning good incomes don't cook nourishing food.

I watched a programme where a council house had been sublet and the three bedrooms each had about 5 lots of bunkbeds in.
There is no doubt that there are people who know exactly how to milk the system.

A good start would be to build a huge number of social houses. After the building costs are covered its income for the country is it not? And perhaps we could not sell any more off at a ridiculously low price. It's the country's duty to provide social housing for those who can't afford to buy. It's not the country's duty to help people on to the property ladder. Too much emphasis on home ownership in this country. Long term social housing provides security for tenants at an affordable price which can only be beneficial for the country as a whole.

youtu.be/jbq0bf2ptbA

FarNorth
If people were paid rent directly to themselves in the belief that it would be paid to the landlord but the tenant and had no food or their child wanted some small toy or tenant smoked and were out of cigarettes, there is the strong possibility of that rent being dipped into.
They fall behind with their payments, landlord retains the deposit and eventually gives them notice to quit. They have then made themselves homeless.
At one time rent was paid directly to landlords but tenants thought it unfair and took away their responsibility, so it was changed to allow tenants to manage their own money.
The fact that some fail to pay or are late payers, is why many private landlords do not accept DSS or whatever it's now called.
I think it should be a direct payment to the landlord or agency.

I don't know any tenants who think it is unfair.
Everyone I know was glad it was paid direct to the landlord.

Just what can we do to make a difference, apart from stuff some of us already do, such as giving to food banks, clothes to charity shops, DDs to charities such as Shelter? It will never be enough.

Its a bottomless pit at the moment.
I don't know what the answer is.
Should local authorities do more?
We have an almost derelict old building here, which could make such a brilliant community centre, but the council are after closing it down, having left it in a state for years.

When I first started to work at the “dole office” in 1975 rents were paid direct to the claimant. Is is easy to see how they got into arrears and landlords were unwilling to take a risk. After many years rent was paid direct to landlords. One effect of this was to “disable” people from getting a job. Rent and council tax didn’t have to be thought about previously. By then I was a Claimant Adviser carrying out regular interviews exploring reasons why people were long term unemployed. It was an uphill struggle, even if the person wanted to work. I was dealing with people who had their lives and finances sorted. Although not generous, that giro dropped through their letter box every fortnight. To put it at risk by taking a job, losing the benefits they were relying on and waiting for wages and the Famiky Income Support top-up was expecting a lot. It was a massive upheaval. In addition they would now have to budget and pay rent and council tax. Who could blame them if they chose to play the game and pretend to look for work.

That's very true, pensionpat.
People use it as a safety net, as the idea of having to deal with the fallout which comes when your circumstances change is dreadful, particularly if you end up no better off.
It can take months and months to try and get back on your feet after being left with debts owing to all and sundry.

The reason for payments being changed from direct to landlord, to tenant was because it was seen as unfair by those who would pay on time.
It has since been and, in some cases still is, abused by some who don't fulfil that obligation.
They know that eviction can be a prolonged process and burybtheir heads in the sand.
Evidence of this was shown in The programmes The Sheriffs Are Coming and Can't Pay We'll Take It Away.
Landlords have to lose rent and bear the costs of trying to recover the debt.

Of course, you now have to prove that you've spent 35 hours a week job hunting.

I think 'they' decided it was patronising not to let people manage their own money.
A bit like when 'they' decide that celebrating Christmas offends Muslims, and saying the word 'black' offends black people.

Grim, isn't it?