Tory welfare cuts will impoverish 200,000 children next year and more than 600,00 in 2020

Yes, I did know about it, dj. Not only that, but there are strict criteria for hardship payments, which have to collected in person. For some, it's an almost impossible (and certainly expensive) journey to collect it. In my area, it's one of the most common reasons for food bank referrals.

politics.us3.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=f5ab5efdb629954eb1b8df87b&id=59036a30c0&e=f5e4f66f33

More homeless on the way.

mzolobajluk.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/universal-credit-sanctions-and-the-horror-of-repayable-hardship-payments/

Did anyone else know about this?
Another of the government's cons.
Whenever people complain about sanctions, we are told that there are hardship payments that can be claimed.
This is what happens when they do.

So everybody should suffer because a small minority are drug addicts?

Yeah, right, I'm sure only a small minority of the mega-rich squirrel their money away in tax havens. The rest are real cute cuddly bunnies.

Woops! Just dodged a flying pig! Dave, is this one of yours?

dj, I did say a small minority of people and yes I am talking from experience. As you well know I do not live in Westminster or even cloud cuckoo land.
I live in an area with mixed housing and actually live next door to drug addicts, we have had police in the street every single day this week.

I think the best two placards I've seen yet are "Dave, Listen to your Mum" and
"I'd rather be a low achiever than a Tory".

Anyone else seen any good ones.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/04/16/peoples-assembly-national-demonstration-anti-austerity_n_9709318.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

About the people's assembly march. Anyone who doesn't know what Labour will do by now should just read McDonnell's speech.

I too despair when people deny the facts about food banks or dismiss them with ' they were around when we had a labour government. Since we have had a Tory government the homeless has increased by 50% , the number of food banks have soared, there are more people in poverty, the unemployment figures are lower because people have a choice between contract hours or having their unemployment benefit stopped. There is a big rise in suicides . There are people with mental illness who spent nights in a police cel,, not because they have committed a crime but because there are no beds in physciatric hospitals. Women's refuges are being closed because of lack of funding.

I am proud to be a leftie even though it is a derogatory term, I didn't vote for this government so even though I despair of the suffering I have some comfort in the knowledge I did all I could to fight against them

Out of the mouths of babes, eh?

I'd like to see part of the council tax bill ring-fenced for what the pre-Victorians knew as 'the poor of this parish'. People could opt out if they felt strongly about it. Money could be used for emergency food, meals and accommodation.

I'd like to see every council with an advisor for the poor. In my council, there are actually some ancient charities which provide help for people, but hardly anybody knows about them. The CAB does a brilliant job, but it's being overwhelmed.

I can understand that people are reluctant to see a general tax rise when they don't know where their money is going. On the other hand, I don't think most people are generally mean. If they see a need, they willingly contribute, but they want to know that their money is being well-spent. I despair when I see people who refuse to believe that there is genuine poverty in the UK, because they've swallowed benefit porn propaganda. I also despair when people use 'leftie' as an insult. It just goes to show how right wing mainstream thinking has become.

Big charities have a problem in this respect, because they employ good people on high salaries, who are strategic thinkers and can achieve economies of scale. The trouble is that these people themselves become part of the management elite. The state is a step further. People will quite happily put a pound a week in a charity tin for a local charity, but they won't pay an extra pound in tax if they think it's going to pay for MP's expenses or some vanity project.

Our councillors and MPs need to work hard to regain some respect and trust. That won't happen when we can all see that they're in it for themselves.

My son and his family were in London a week ago, and my grandson has talked a lot about homeless people and why they are homeless since he got back. It is obviously preying on his mind.
We have been talking about foodbanks. He thinks it's completely wrong that Some people have millions and millions and others do not have any food and nowhere to live.

There was a letter in the i yesterday and the writer said that it is that simple.
She had to sort out her aunt and uncle's paperwork when they died and paid a lot of inheritance tax.
At the same time she has been looking after her severely disabled brother's finances.
One pays for the other.
That is why she finds it hard to believe Cameron. Why can't he see the bigger picture, and realise that every million that is taken out of the tax system penalises someone like his son?

dj, Rather than handing over bags of pasta and cereals, it would be more efficient just to give people a few pounds, rather than having to collect the groceries, arrange somewhere to store them, have people give up their time to check and distribute everything, monitor the vouchers, etc. We could call it a 'crisis loan'. Oh hang on....

I've often thought that if I won the lottery, I'd set up a real 'greasy spoon' cafe. When I was a student in London, I knew of a few, where you could get a hot meal and as much tea as you could drink for a ridiculously low amount. Now they've been gentrified. They probably serve the same stuff on posh tables, call it something trendy and charge a fortune. They'd probably turn scruffs like I was away.

Agree with everything you say, daphne.

The reason foodbanks cannot give fresh fruit and veg is logistics, I think. They cannot get the food to the banks and delivered in time for it to still be fresh.
At least what they do give allows for those involved to spend their money when/if they get it on fresh foods instead of staples.
The foodbank providing meals gets over this, by using fresh fruit and veg in cooked meals for the families.

I had to give up volunteering in a foodbank, because it seriously interfered with another commitment.

Before I gave up, I will confess that I was deeply disturbed by the whole experience. It wasn't a TT foodbank and I'm not even sure that our contributions were counted, along with hundreds of other independent foodbanks.

I really didn't like the quality of the food which was been given away. The cheapest way to fill a hungry tummy was with carbs and the food just wasn't healthy on a long-term basis. People needed first class protein and fresh fruit/veg. There was no provision for special diets. That kind of food is OK after a major disaster when the choice is eat rubbish or starve. The idea that people sell it is laughable.

It used to concern me that people will put a packet of cereal or teabags in a foodbank trolley in the supermarket, but moan if their council tax is put up by 50p a week. Part of the reason we have an 'underclass' is that people resent paying tax and benefits have been cut. These people are made to feel like spongers by the whole system. Many of them have learning difficulties, mental health problems or just aren't very bright and are already vulnerable. They don't know how to fight the system, never mind get round it.

The whole thing smacks of Victorian 'charity' to the 'undeserving' poor. Most of the people who worked in the foodbank were kindly, altruistic souls and genuinely cared about the people who came to us. However, there were some who looked down on them and seemed to think it was their civic duty to show how superior they were. Maybe they think their souls will go to heaven. I felt that the poor were being 'given the crumbs from their table'.

At the time, I lived in a rich area. Fewer than five percent of children were deemed to be living in poverty and my child was one of them (maybe the only one in my village). There were people who didn't believe how little we had and working at the foodbank was my way of paying something back to society. I'm quite appalled that there are people who still seem to be in denial about what's happening.

I am surprised it has taken you so long to learn how to link to Fullfact, POGS.

I hope you appreciate the work they do and have donated to them to help them continue their excellent work.

www.trusselltrust.org/news-and-blog/latest-stats/

Read for yourself, POGS.
Figures for 2015-6 compared with the figures since the government came into power.
The article did not say footfall.
They are allowed three parcels each year, with food for a minimum of three days in each parcel. I'd like to know how many can stock their cupboards with that.
1 million parcels will mean more than a million people as they are for families.

I am ashamed of and disgusted by this, even if you are not.

I agree with daphne, they should not exist.

Durhamjen

I might have respected your response better if you raised your game and stopped continually make personal insults as your preferred defence mechanism when being questioned by other posters. I asked a genuine question .

I thought I made myself perfectly clear about the dates but I do not see how this new report has produced either new statistics or information. What am I missing the figures look very similar so what is new? I am happy for you to point them out and then maybe I will happily agree with you I 'showed myself up'.

I mention the foot fall and the fact that 1 million food parcels does not equate to 1 million clients, which it clearly does not.

The Full Fact link is interesting. So pleased I now know how easy they are to do.

I rest my case! Why are you people so rude to people you don't agree with?!!

POGS, perhaps you ought to read the link I put on before criticising and showing yourself up.

The date is yesterday, the latest Trussell Trust data.
The fullfact article last year said that the Trussell Trust article was wrong, because it said people.
Trussell Trust has learnt from that.
It said that over 1.1 million food parcels have been handed out.

Well said, daphne.

harrigran, I wouldn't waste your time trying to put forward another opinion. You will only be shouted down, and it just isn't worth it. Certain people on here are far better informed over all matters political than others of us could hope to be. Your opinion is quoted as 'bloody ridiculous!! How rude is that?! No conversation, no asking you how you arrived at that opinion, just a contemptuous put down! Perhaps you live in Oxfordshire? If you do, then sadly I'm afraid you're beyond contempt!!!

Durhamjen

Isn't this old news or am I missing something here?

I am a tad confused on the timing of the Labour Shadow Environment Secretary, Kerry McCarthy's article you have put a link to.

It has been a point raised on other threads before, the number of parcels should not be equated with the number of people receiving them.

I have put a link to another of your favoured sites Full Fact who express the point well , it is dated April 2015 and the figures are remarkably similar.

fullfact.org/economy/more-1-million-people-used-food-banks-last-year-s-not-what-evidence-shows/

harrigran, I worked in a foodbank. A few of the people did swapsies, because they didn't like what they were given or had special diets. Possibly a few sold the food they were given, although I never heard any gossip about it. If they did, it would have been to raise cash to pay their rent or their utility bills.

I actually wish foodbanks didn't exist and that people were given more money. I know the intention was to ensure that at the very least people ate when they were desperate, but the problems go much deeper than that. I wish the Trussell Trust campaigned to make sure that people received enough to live on and that they didn't have to experience delays in payments and so-called sanctions, but they're not allowed to lobby. The main reason we gave out food was because people experienced administrative delays with payments. Those in long-term poverty had no savings and no 'store cupboard' to fall back on.

For god's sake, harrigran, that's just bloody ridiculous.

There is a foodbank in Newcastle, the biggest in the country, where they have started providing hot meals after school for whole families because the parents cannot afford to feed their kids. However, this foodbank has just lost half its funding.
They are all fooling the system are they, all these families going to be fed?
Oh, because a small minority of them are, we should not believe foodbank statistics, is that right?

You live in a different world from me.
It is those rich people in government.

i0.wp.com/voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/160412MPmillionaires.jpg?w=421

78% of British MPs are millionnaires.
0.7% of the British population are millionnaires.

You know these people personally, do you?

Anybody who wants to fill their cupboards with the stuff foodbanks provide has to be desperate.

Increase in use of food banks does not prove that people can not afford to buy food. There are a small minority that see it as an opportunity to fill their cupboards and use their cash for other purposes.
Why can it not just be the government dj ? why does it have to be those rich people in government

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/kerry-mccarthy/foodbank-use-figures_b_9699754.html

"Today’s report from the Trussell Trust on food bank usage shows well over 1.1million three day emergency food parcels were provided to people in crisis by the charity’s network in 2015-16, compared to 41,000 parcels in 2009-10: a mortifying increase of 2,612% in the number of people who needed food aid to put a meal on the table since David Cameron became Prime Minister."

What's wrong with a rich MP or PM; the fact that he doesn't notice this, and does not do anything to change it. In fact those rich people in government have made it worse.