Too poor to eat properly

Charley I think that would apply whatever you were being taught to cook at school. Not sure my learning to make a Christmas cake was any use to me or anyone else. I can read so can follow a recipe but the basic ways of stretching a budget are rarely in recipe books or online as far as I can see. DH cooks but always needs a recipe whereas I can look at what needs using up and throw something together. Doesn't work with some cakes but no one needs cakes.

Perhaps nutrition could be taught as an academic subject rather than a practical one. It could include how to make cheap food without the students having to actually make it.
I also think from 16 they should be taught how to live outside the parental home as it would appear that many parents don't teach this either. Learn about budgeting, fuel use etc and generally about how much things cost. I don't remember actually teaching my children how to do all this it just evolved and by the age of 12 one of mine would go shopping for me and come back with things I hadn't asked for which were good value or had a yellow sticker. He would also decide that something was cheaper in a different shop to the one I had asked him to go to.

Readymeals lemonade and a slice of cake is not exactly a nourishing meal!

If eg shepherds pie had been taught- would you have had to take the ingredients to school because I am assuming that the parents of many children could not afford to do that.

Even when I was at school 50 years ago, and had lessons actually called Cookery, we learnt to make lemonade, apple pies, souffle, cakes, biscuits. Never a shepherds pie, or braised skirt of beef or anything that would help us nourish a family cheaply. Or even how to cut and boil a cabbage! But I think they assumed we'd learn those basics at home, so the cookery lessons were trying to elevate our skills. By the time basic skills actually needed teaching in schools, the cooking had been phased out!

There is 'pensioner poverty' though - particularly if older people still have to pay rent.

Exactly Jalima, we don't have the same expenses.

Some pensioners get more now than when they were earning
Well, we don't but then again our outgoings are lower and we don't have children to clothe and feed. We don't have to travel to work, buy work clothes etc.

Some pensioners get more now than when they were earning ?

Why would a single pensioner be made to go to a food bank when their money is regular/guaranteed and they can also apply for various " top-ups and health benefit payments ?"

My understanding is that some people are significantly worse off on UC. Given that they were probably having difficulty managing anyway because payments aren't that generous, in my view no amount of budgetary advice is going to solve the issue. It must be very hard to avoid the tempation of dipping into money that will be needed in the future when you have current unmet needs.

I agree that "food technology" hasn't really been very good in helping young people to cook cheap, nutritious meals. I recall my son coming home with a list of ingredients for pizza which ended up being quite expensive - and I don't consider pizza to be a particularly nutritious meal anyway.

I think most (?) people know that, as they know that having a gas/electric card is costing them more in the long run.
Its just almost impossible for some people to manage to get enough to do otherwise.
I have never had a pay as I go plan, because I realise i'll be charged more, but then I'm very thrifty, plus I have had times when I've had more income.

Well I did use the politically correct term "invited" But yeah I suppose so.

I don't think that will happen Ready. In an ideal world but can you imagine how many civil servants would be required? What the media would make of it? The Opposition would say it was an invasion of privacy etc.....................

It does sound like a sensible idea.
Some ways of 'budgeting' are not in the least cost-effective - eg Christmas hamper savings schemes.

Well I do think that when a person is going to be changed from income support to UC they should be invited to come in and discuss how they currently deal with their budgeting, and then have a discussion about how the change might affect their budgeting methods, and during the conversation make some assessment of whether they have at least understood the principles of keeping some money back for periodic expenses. Then have some instruction sessions - maybe group classes - to offer them if it seems it could be helpful.

Not quite as simple as that Ready if you look at the bell curves for these sort of things you will find that very few are at the lower and higher ends, most of us are quite close to the average. Not enough difference to affect our ability. What I would like to know is what we can do to help those at the lower end.

How did I fail miserably to teach DD with a Master's degree how to budget?
Where did I go wrong?
The others manage just fine.

Presumably it's a sliding scale, how much instruction you need for how long, but there will be those who need it and they're not helped through those first months to find out if they're coping before it becomes obvious they don't know how.

What you can find with Google, even these days, is that people with higher IQs can teach themselves skills when they need them (eg suddenly finding themselves on UC!) while the lower than average IQs (by definition 50% of us) need some instruction in the skill. Who is teaching the 50% of UC claimants who need that instruction - before they get into debt?

I have a BPS qualification Ready which is why that surprised me. IQ tests only test one sort of intelligence so it seems unfair to judge someone's ability to perform clerical tasks based on that. It is quite possible your husband had other types of intelligence.

Nonnie it was a long time ago. My first husband was always making mistakes in his office job and ended up as a minicab driver. We all took IQ tests one day and he scored just under the level that I had read was the minimum to work comfortably in his job, and I thought to myself ah that explains it! I bet it's completely politically incorrect to publish works saying that sort of thing now :D

I'm not sure that budgeting money is IQ dependent ReadyMeals. Some people are 'good managers' and others are not although I agree that having help with learning how to budget would be a good thing.

People may, too, be coping with large amounts of debt and higher than normal interest rates.

Thanks Jalima not sure it is possible to sum up but did want to get across that most of the posts have some validity and it is not necessary to 'take sides'.

FarNorth Other supermarkets also have buckets for food banks.

I buy items at Lidl, cheaper than Tesco, then donate them in Tesco's food box.
Our generosity to food banks doesn't have to mean increased spending at Tesco.

I agree with all you've said. As you long to be able to pass on your knowledge, I wonder if there's any opportunity for you locally, to work with a voluntary organisation/charity, to show poorer families how to feed themselves? It would be such a worthwhile thing to do, I'm sure. Just a thought.

A good summing up Nonnie - if it's possible to sum up such a complex problem.