Too poor to eat properly

Marieeliz you live in cuckoo lad, £19,99 is a vast amount of money to someone with little or nothing. A choice between heating, food, clothing, rent or a slow cooker.

Many of those who claim to live in poverty are the same ones who keep producing more children or move from one bad relationship to another or won't shop and cook cheaply and so on. If they can't cook then tomorrow is the time to learn. They all seem to be able to afford smart phones and there's a You Tube video for everything!

There is no excuse for those who just expect someone else to go out to work to pay for their poor choices, especially when they keep repeating them. If one parent decides to leave then money should be taken at source by law (from their pay packet) to ensure they pay for their own children's costs. It should not be the responsibility of other tax payers to fund them.

If independent accommodation can't be afforded then stay at the parental home till you can or flat/house share or rent a room and most certainly don't have children, pets etc. until you can afford to pay them yourselves.

The only genuine people in need should be those who need a temporary helping hand if they lose their job because their place of work shuts down unexpectedly or those who have such terrible disabilities, or care for those who have, such that it is impossible for them to work.

Everyone else can work and should, in my opinion. This country makes it far too easy to rely on state aid. By giving housing benefit etc. all it does is give profits to landlords. If no one could afford high rents, they would have to come down.

101 recipes with minced meat - essential education. Herbs and spices?? - salt and pepper will do.
As well as a trip to the food bank why not go to the market at the end of the day to pick up cheap fruit and veg?
There are ways but they need to be taught.
We are in danger of creating a dependent group. We should help but teach as well as give.

I think the answer is for poor people to buy smallholdings.

The trouble is quizqueen too many people these days seem to think it IS someone else's (ie the state) responsibility to provide for them and their family.

There was a similar thread some months ago and I made the point about how so many of those on benefits seem to have numerous children. Someone actually asked me "so are you saying we should only have the children we can afford ?"

I initially thought it must have been a wind up, but no, the person was genuinely querying whether that was what I believed!!

I so love my slow cooker wouldn't be without it. Often find I have cooked far too much so I freeze the remainder for another day.

To some people if you can't microwave it or its not fast food they can't be bothered

M0nica I would be very interested to know where you got your information that "many of the children going unfed to school, are from families with substance abuse or with other other social management and mental health issues". I have never heard this from headteachers, social workers, GPs or foodbank assistants.

BRedhead what market? Most estates are nowhere near a shop or a market. Very little rural housing is on a regular bus route let alone in walking distance of a shop. Glad to read that you are teaching as well as helping (do tell us the details) but perhaps you should learn a little as well

Have you quiz queen never made a poor choice? Also disagree that they are the ones with many children. There are also self employed people coming to the food banks now as they have seen their income drop and now get no state aid. Would you say working for yourself is a bad choice and how does he manage if he wanted to get work, where would the money and help come from until he got his first months wages? It could happen to any of us.

To me poverty is having no choice.
The poster who said they lived on £1 a day ( along with colleagues) for a month is to be applauded. Perhaps we should all try it to educate ourselves. Of course it is different to being poor but provides some insight.
I think Monica's point is very valid as both a retired GP and I worked with the drug and alcohol team. I don't know who you have talked to Seakay.

Think it comes down to managing your money , never been a big smoker or take drugs or drink alcohol. At one point in my life I would by cheapest and the best and buy stuff that would be used a couple of time or could make two separate meals .Eggs omelet, boiled on toast , fry up sausages mash and gravy.

Anja I have lived in Bootle for 28 years and spent the first 22 working for Sefton MBC which became One Vision Housing. Bootle is not all sink estates, we have a lovely home in a quiet cul de sac and a former council building nearby has been turned into luxury flats.

I suggest that those who think they are poor take a look at a charity called Mary's Meals. They are feeding really poor people. I prefer to support them and refuse to give to food banks.

Quiz Queen I fully agree with you.

Just heard on the news Amber Rudd is going to make some changes to UC to be more compassionate, General election coming up?

Shame some on here are not more compassionate. God forbid misfortune should fall on you.

Really JenniferEccles? Your wondering? Have you been on another planet the last five years?

I actually donated to Marys Meals at Christmas, so I dont need to go and take a look.
Very worthwhile cause.

I am just wondering how these food banks work.
JenniferEccles No-one can just 'walk in off the street' and ask for food; people have to be be recommended by Social Services or their GP I believe.

Lack of reasonably priced social housing and high rents in the private sector contribute to the problems.

People have explained how they work.
I haven't used one, but there is plenty of info around.

My lovely Mum was an absolutely hopeless cook, but I learned to cook at school in Domestic Science lessons. Sadly, DS was subsumed into "Science, Design & Technology" and children were more likely to be designing "an energy bar" not only the ingredients but also the wrapper and advertising campaign (according to a friend of mine who was a cookery teacher) - thank you Mrs Thatcher for trying to make us all Entrepreneurs and forgetting that lots of us need to learn the basics of cooking. We have brought up a whole generation who haven't got a clue how to make even a basic meal (a lot of them think that making toast is cooking!) We need to put proper cookery lessons, from the basics, back into schools for those who can't learn it from their parents (who didn't learn it themselves). Until we do this, we will have yet another generation dependent on chill-cook or frozen meals.

As well as a trip to the food bank why not go to the market at the end of the day to pick up cheap fruit and veg?
Our nearest market is about 20 miles away, so that would be difficult for someone with small children to reach after school and the cost of using the bus would probably be prohibitive.

I'm not saying I need to do that (thank goodness) but I can see the difficulties it would present.

I so love my slow cooker wouldn't be without it. Often find I have cooked far too much so I freeze the remainder for another day.
Lisaholder - me too - but if you can't afford a slow cooker and a freezer it's impossible to do that.

Someone asked about food bank access.

Normally the claimant will get a voucher from an organisation like an Advice Centre given after some enquiries as to why they need it, though usually the need will be obvious if the person has been helped with advice about benefits which have not come through or been stopped, or some other change of circumstances. Usually a claimant will only be given three vouchers ( one at a time ) and they will be given food for three days for the required number of people. The type of food will depend whether they have cooking facilities or just a kettle.
Yes, there may be some who may abuse the system. The food bank will have its own rules as well. But in general they are there to help, not to judge .

The job centre has info about food banks, alongside what else you can do when you have no money.

I was talking to an elderly gentleman the other day who was telling me about his enjoyable childhood. Telling remark I thought was “we didn’t know we were poor till somebody told us” ...