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

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.

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.

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.

Argh! My typing today. NOT hard. HEART!

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

*evidenced

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.

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!

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

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

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 .

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.

^Many of these deprived children grow up to be unemployable because of sheer ignorance brought on by their parent/s whose negative lives have rubbed off.
Usually their parents before them. They don't even know the basics in life such as making do or simple cooking using cheap produce. Some of them can't boil an egg!^

That's what we always hear from the Neo-liberal Tories. It's the fault of the victim. No matter who it is or what they have inflicted upon them, their okay so it must be the fault of the poor that they are in this position.

To listen to you lot we’re all going to hell in a handcart.

Obviously not for the few UG and it sounds, from what you repeatedly say is you are neither living it or seeing it. But for far too many that is exactly what is happening.

Agree doodlebug the points that you mention plus the two child limit on benefit payments which seems to have passed some posters by.

I think that Universal Credit has 'rammed the message home' more than enough. Benefit caps, bedroom tax, zero hours contracts etc reinforce the 'message' that some are more equal than others.

How much more humiliation and indignity do you want to see before you feel some compassion?

Many of these deprived children grow up to be unemployable because of sheer ignorance brought on by their parent/s whose negative lives have rubbed off.
Usually their parents before them. They don't even know the basics in life such as making do or simple cooking using cheap produce.
Some of them can't boil an egg !

Cookery was taught in my school in the 50's as many had even far less than now so at least we knew how far a 1lb of mince went in a family.

I brought 4 children up when I was in my early 20's, our flat was £1,750 and H paid the mortgage and bills my family allowance fed us.
Before I went back to work, we had no washing machine and I used to soak our clothes in the bath overnight, rinse them next day and put them through the mangle. Nappies were boiled on the stove.
Our clothes were spotless and ironed and we ate pretty well, delicious breast of lamb on a Sunday ( 1/6 ) roast pots, etc.

I worked damned hard in those days until the young ones started school then I went back to work doing nights at the local hospital and after that lived like millionaires in comparison to the initial struggle. Little did I know/realise that hard graft was to be my middle name until 66 and I've ended up knackered !

Although my GD has 7 children who I love, I certainly don't agree to her having had so many when 13 years ago she'd given birth to twins ( 1 of each ) who in their right mind would have had/ wanted more ?? She knows how I feel about it and the rest of those who are gormless enough not to look ahead to the future.

In this climate of uncertainty, overcrowding of the planet etc, families should be limited to two children. It's democracy gone mad to use having more kids as an excuse for freedom ! Especially when you can't look after them-----the majority being one-parent ones. I don't get it.