Child poverty would reach a record high in 2023-24 under the Tories

Although the documentary makers don’t politicise their findings, it’s clear from the facts that austerity and benefits changes are driving a lot of these families’ problems: foodbank use rising since Universal Credit kicked in; child poverty increasing over the last ten years; parents trapped in a cycle of low pay; a desperate housing shortage; inadequate mental health provision; staggering inequality.

It's the Tories. No one else. Disgusting in such a rich country.

GGMK3 - you mean that's what we always hear from the left wing. It's the fault of the State. No matter who it is or what choices they make, if they're not OK, it must be the fault of the State that they are in this position. Despite the fact that millions of other working class people from similar backgrounds are doing OK and generally enjoying life, it must still be the fault of the State .

Opal the point is that the parents don’t or can’t so society has to step in and break the cycle.

This isn’t about blame. It’s about helping children who otherwise will sink

Oh but victim blaming is so very convenient isn't it? The fortunate always harp on about how they've worked so very hard all their lives to 'deserve' what they've got. Not me, though, I recognise how very lucky I've been in life. I don't mind paying more tax to reduce inequality and I'd never, ever, vote Tory!

The myth of the benefits scrounger is just that, a myth. It is SO difficult to get any kind of state benefit anymore that anyone that DOES get it is subject to such stringent testing/checking and sanctions.

Far more often people that are desperate for benefits can't get them, as evidence by people dying for lack of insulin.

Also far more often high earners avoid paying tax. Tax scroungers. Castigate them NOT the poor.

*evidenced

Yes, GGMK3 add your own take on my argument, I don't much care but what I say is true.
Sometimes the victims bring it on themselves. Nobody holds a gun to their head to be an alcoholic/druggy do they ? It's what a person chooses to do with/in their lives.

I knew a family years ago where there was literally no hope.Both parents went to the pub every night, children, twin girls and a boy were neglected and the boy being the eldest washed their clothes as best he could and even ironed them for his younger sisters for school.

This was in the 70's and I'd never seen poverty like it within the area-----because the mindset of all the parents was to " live " in the pub on the corner. Is that teaching children ??
As a consequence they grow up knowing no different and so it goes on.

However, the boy in the family that I knew had kept his head down at school and worked hard because he wanted to get out of the situation after realising he didn't want that way of life.

He went on to gain a scholarship to university and eventually travelled to California and from there got a job in real-estate and the rest is history.

I’m sure we can all point to one anecdote about someone who succeeded or failed against the odds. It proves nothing of course.

Yes, we have choices, up to a point (I now have a Trainspotting earworm), but the better our circumstances the more choices we have. If most of our income goes on rent, it’s more difficult to choose educational extras for our children. If we have no storage space, we can’t choose to save by buying in bulk, without a car, we can’t choose to shop out of town, and so it goes on.

It is the responsibility of adults to just have as many children as they can afford and look after them sensibly. I am fed up of the excuses made for those who do behave in an irresponsible manner then expect tax payers to pay for their lifestyle.

I was born into a poor, working class family in the 50s. My parents chose to have one child, worked long hours in factory jobs they both hated, provided nice meals, a clean house and good morals and were never in debt because they didn't but things they couldn't afford. They wouldn't ever have considered it was the state or charity's responsibility to feed us.

State benefits and charity don't break the cycle, Yehbutnobut, they perpetuate it

You’re absolutely right Doodledog, lack of money limits your choices hugely but to compound that by feeding a dog, smoking and having more than one mobile phone in the family doesn’t help does it?

I worked on a project to help some of the most disadvantaged families on the poorest council housing in north Wales and every house I went to had a smoker, a dog and Sky TV. My heart bled for those kids but I saw so many go on to do better in their own lives that it fills me with hope for the future.

It’s imagination we need to encourage in youngsters not victim hood - show them a route out and most will take it.

I was born into a poor, working class family in the 50s. My parents chose to have one child, worked long hours in factory jobs they both hated, provided nice meals, a clean house and good morals and were never in debt because they didn't but things they couldn't afford. They wouldn't ever have considered it was the state or charity's responsibility to feed us.
And presumably you learned from their example?

If you use your own circumstances as evidence of how one generation learns from another, how can't you see that this applies equally to people who did not have your start in life?

Facilities such as Sure Start used to help to plug the gaps for people who needed help, but they, like so much else, were victims of Austerity.

It’s imagination we need to encourage in youngsters not victim hood - show them a route out and most will take it.
Yes, but who is doing that under this government? How is there a route out when housing is impossible to find, jobs have no security, and people in work rely on foodbanks?

No Opal that is not what we always hear. I am not suggesting for one moment it is the fault of the State. It is the incompetence of the Neo-Liberal Tories.

I am so pleased that you are doing okay but I wonder if you can explain why that stops you having any concern whatsoever for the vastly growing numbers of those who aren't?

Exactly GracesGranMK3. Anyone would think compassion was expensive, the meanness of some posters on here.

I happen to be one of the 'pull myself up by the bootstrap' commenters on here. Started in a one parent family, poverty, no education etc, now a professional, reasonable salary. BUT I am an exception. Most people CAN'T do that.

Poverty is SO hard to get out of. Exactly why it is self perpetuating. And it is hard breaking to see lovely, clever, bright children trapped, virtually from birth.

Argh! My typing today. NOT hard. HEART!

You’re not exceptional where I came from GagaJo- not many of us stayed put and certainly none returned to living there once we made it out.

That doesn’t stop us from having compassion and giving back, it does stop us from victimising and pitying though- both pointless stances.

I wasn't thinking specific to an area. Nothing wrong staying where you were born. I was referring to breaking out of the cycle of poverty. As I said, MOST people don't manage to break out of it without help.

Good for you and your brethren. But you too are exceptional. MOST people aren't.

I'm a teacher. I work with students who don't eat enough, don't have warm enough clothes. I give back. Education is SO important to their escape from poverty. But often the local culture doesn't value it.

Society should help these kids. And the current leeches at the top are bleeding money from the poor to give to the rich. Wrong on so many levels.

How rude are YOU ybnb?

You don’t know anything about me! You don’t know how many charities or which ones I support by direct debit, nor by what amount.

Wind your neck in.

Quite right Gagajo and I've seen plenty of such children who are innocent victims by accident of birth.

Some of the criticism levelled at parents on here is so lacking in compassion. As I posted previously they love their children as much as middle class parents, and often work damn hard for basic wages.

Quite honestly if I lived under circumstances that some people have to put up with I'd probably take up smoking and probably drinking too.

Tell you one thing GagaJo - you certainly don’t hide your light under a bushel do you? Stop keep blowing your own trumpet. It’s not endearing in the least.
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GGMK3 - if you read all my posts, you will clearly see I said I am concerned for people who "aren't doing ok", with the proviso that they are also unable to help themselves. They should be our priority. BUT, we are all aware, that there are many people in our society who claim every benefit going and never work a day, despite being perfectly able to work. I've worked in primary care, I've seen it. So has Pantglas - see her post above. You "pooh pooh" our arguments because you don't want to listen. I'm not saying that the poor in our society should not be helped, quite the opposite, but we do need a culture change to ensure that the funds provided by our taxes are used appropriately. Do you honestly believe that parents who buy their fags, alcohol and Sky TV, but complain that they can't feed their children, should not be challenged about their lifestyle choices? We all make choices in our lifetimes, and lots of us make wrong ones sometimes, I know I have, but to blindly carry on making the same ones and not try to change the system and direct funds where they are most needed is madness at best, criminal at worst.

I was born into a poor, working class family in the 50s. My parents chose to have one child, worked long hours in factory jobs they both hated, provided nice meals, a clean house and good morals and were never in debt because they didn't but things they couldn't afford. They wouldn't ever have considered it was the state or charity's responsibility to feed us.

Well shine your halo quizqueen you are obviously above the rest of us.

Your parents had jobs and, in the 1950 many people didn't feel they could limit their families and would have found it hard to get help to do so. Obviously, your wonderful parents must have had an insight others didn't. What if those jobs had been lost, or one partner had been lost, unlikely that a home would have been lost as the laws stopped people being thrown out or overcharged although housing could be squalid, and there was far more council housing.

Great that they didn't buy things they couldn't afford - no food, no heating for you was it? I despise that sort of holier-than-thou post from those whose small minds cannot see that things happen to take life out of peoples control. Jobs in a factory? You'll be lucky these days. An income you can be sure of? Not if you've hit rock bottom and hard work simply isn't enough.

In today's world, where the vast majority are earning their poverty with one, two or three jobs they don't have the unionisation in factories your parents could rely on to protect the worker. Our great move towards neo-liberalism, taken by the Tories, aided and abetted by some so-called socialists and liberals, has taken away that security.

Many lived as your parents did and felt their lives were better than their parents have ever been with the NHS, better pensions, and the post-war fighters who brought secondary education for all, including you, for free. Now when we want to move from free primary education, followed by free secondary education into free tertiary education the Tories say "no", not for the likes of you. You have to go into debt. We are not taking your education to a level that can compete with our own.

We are going back to abject poverty of a kind, so they tell us, than we haven't seen since Victorian time. And you come along and tell us these are bad people and you are an example of the good. You make me weep.

And that last post from GGMK3 pretty much sums up EVERYTHING that is wrong with society today. Insult hard working people. Envy politics. If you can't afford it, then why should anyone else have it? If you can't get a job, get benefits. If that doesn't work, join the LP, shout the loudest, call everyone who has a job and pays their taxes a fascist.

"Unionisation your parents could rely on?" Don't make me laugh, the unions were a law unto themselves, encouraged strikes instead of hard work, and brought the country to its knees. If you don't want to go back to those dark days, vote Tory.