Food Banks and Poverty- was Nye right?

Steven Pinker puts it well: "progress does not mean that everything gets better for everyone, everywhere, all the time. That would be a miracle, that wouldn’t be progress.”

Despite all the gloom and doom projected onto Gransnet by a bevy of those suffering from what Mark Littlewood calls "traumatised pessimism", progress in improving people's lives — not every life, everywhere, all the time, but globally nonetheless — over the last decade has been fantastic by any statistical measure.

On a more specific level, I know someone who was a volunteer at a food bank for years. Last time I saw her she spoke of being surprised that some people who had been helped over long periods to turn their lives around were still coming for food bank handouts. She could not understand it.

I don't believe a more sympathetic than her exists.

more sympathetic person than...

Milly My income places me in the lowest 10% in the country. I grow much of my own food and live extremely frugally. My health isn't wonderful, but I still have to work and also do voluntarily work with vulnerable families. No, I don't contribute to foodbanks. I try to spend less than £20 a week on groceries (including cleaning materials), so I'm afraid I'd be pushed to buy an extra packet or tin every week. I don't do virtual signalling, so try to help in practical ways, where I know I can do good.

PS The reason I put family sized cereal packets in food banks is because we read of children going to school without any breakfast and I hoped that at least some could get a bowl of cereal, and maybe the Waitrose lady had also read that, and they may well do other things to help the disadvantaged.

Huge rise in homelessness among ill and disabled people is no accident

Hours after Tories won election they cut benefits for disabled even more.

From Voxpoltical

The Tories have been stepping up their hate campaign against sick and disabled people, with a 53 per cent increase in homelessness over the last year.

People with long-term illnesses who can’t work can claim Employment and Support Allowance, but the government has tightened criteria to the point at which assessments might as well start with an official telling the claimant they are lying – or deluded – about being ill.

Disabled people can claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP), even if they can work – but the Tories have tightened criteria for that benefit too, meaning the chances of receiving the benefit are equally remote.

With PIP, 56 per cent of new claims, together with 28 per cent of claims by people who have been transferred from Disability Living Allowance, are refused.

Only 10 per cent of rejected claims go to appeal, which means 1,585,000 rejections have gone uncontested since the benefit – if you can call it that – was introduced.

With so many benefit claims rejected, sick and disabled people find it hard to make ends meet – especially if they have been housed in dwellings with more bedrooms than they need, laying them open to the Conservative government’s Bedroom Tax.

With all these Tory policies stacked up against them, it’s no surprise so many sick and disabled people end up presenting as homeless.

The Tories have made it the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that these people have a place to live, but – oh! That’s right – councils don’t get enough funding from Westminster to provide that service.

The upshot of all this is that, under the Conservatives, long-term illness or disability has become a fast-track to a life on the street.

A short life on the street; while Tory communities secretary Robert Jenrick says the number of people sleeping rough has fallen by two per cent in the last year, the reason for that is probably that a rough sleeper dies every 19 hours in the UK.

It’s all part of the Tory plan.

The Nazis went after the sick and disabled first, too.

Source: Homelessness among ill and disabled people rises 53% in a year, figures show | The Independent

I am firmly convinced these doom and gloom threads are posted purely to encourage arguments, leading to outrage at the supposed heartlessness of some.

Honestly how many threads saying virtually the same thing do we need?

We all know by now that some of you are certain that hundreds of thousands if not millions are dying of starvation when the rest of us are well aware that that is poppycock.

It won’t stop some of you though will it?

I am trying to guess the angle tomorrow’s ‘we are all doomed’ thread will take.

I'll be honest and say that I don't like foodbanks. I would far rather people were given increased benefits or that work really did pay, so they could buy food for themselves.

As far as I'm concerned, food isn't the biggest problem the poor face. Housing is and nobody seems to want to do very much about it.

Ignore them, if you don't like them or don't want to believe them JenniferEccles. What's the problem?

My son (before he took his life) was frequently sanctioned by DWP. He suffered severely with anxiety and panic attacks and couldn’t cope with the DWP offices, his father and I bought him food etc. When I understood his sanctions. I wrote to his MP and got no response. I requested a private interview for him at DWP which was refused. I then went with him to an interview for Universal Credit and initially was told I could not be with him, however, I refused to move. Half way through the interview the clerks stopped and said it was obvious he was too ill to continue, she told me to take him to the doctor for a sick note and the benefits would be paid without him needing to attend again. He got a sick note for one month and received payments however towards the end of the month he began to get anxious that he wouldn’t get another sick note and days before it expired he took his life.
The benefits system is not easy to navigate, just starting a claim is a long process involving phone calls to faceless workers who work from tick lists. There appears to be little training of staff to enable identification of those really in need and sanctions although intended to penalise those trying to claim benefits whilst working are in fact penalising the most vulnerable usually the sick.
Unfortunately the stigma attached to many claimants arose during the crash of the 80s (I think) when unemployment was high and benefits easy to get, some people did live better lives on benefits than work. A few still do, but not many. The trouble is that as a result of its inappropriate application at that time genuine claimants have real problems accessing help today.

I have never claimed that hundreds of thousands or millions are dying of starvation. I don't even like food being used as political football, because it's not the biggest problem the poor face, but it's visible and a simple message for people to understand or refute.

I am genuinely sorry to hear about your son Joelsnan. Your story means more because I know you are not exaggerating and not telling it to make a headline or to "doom monger".

On a more specific level, I know someone who was a volunteer at a food bank for years. Last time I saw her she spoke of being surprised that some people who had been helped over long periods to turn their lives around were still coming for food bank handouts

Oh they must be scroungers, that'll be it.

How on earth have we made the leap from " I'm sad and concerned that people in the 4th (?) richest country in the world need to use foodbanks"........to " anybody who is bothered is a doom ridden pessimist"

JN, desperately sad and so sorry.

A relative of a friend of mine died of motor neurone disease before his payments could be sorted out and that only happened because they were able to help him with his application. I'd seen Daniel Blake prior to that and thought it was a bit of an extreme case until they assured me that that's how bad things actually are.

We do need to talk about these issues of massive inequality.
It's ok for many of the older generation who saved bought their houses etc. With a wonderful NHS thank Nye Bevan for that and the welfare state. But even if you cannot see it there has been underfunding and cuts to our public services we all rely on for the last nearly 10 years. Promises Johnson made have been broken as soon as he took office. He said the NHS is safe during election but is now being sold off to private firms. And what is he doing about the climate emergency? We need to hold this government to account. So much is wrong with the Tory government no one can be complacent.

So sorry to hear about your son Joelsnan

I help out in a food bank and its not just food that is provided, credit for electric and cooking classes are two of the other things provided. It is not just peoe on benefits but also low earners, those with high rents and on zero hours. There are also baby banks which will provide for clothes and equipment for small children and babies.

It seems to me that because we now have food banks etc. the government can step back from their responsibilities. How do they think its right that they give someone £71 to live on for a week while they can claim £160 per week for food expenses. This government just doesn't seem to care and don't get me started on Ian Duncan bloody Smith and his honour.

Oh they must be scroungers, that'll be it.

That's on you, inky, not me. I didn't think it and neither did my friend.

So what did she mean then?

She meant what she said, which was that she didn't understand it because it seemed to her that the opportunity to turn their lives around had been provided. Please take special note of the phrase "it seemed to her".

Boris said the NHS is safe during election but is now being sold off to private firms.
Evidence, please.

Also, privatisation or contracting out of some NHS services started under Labour:
"However, in1999 ‘New Labour’ marked the start of a transition of the NHS fromapublic sector providerto include the private sector under the disguise of choice and competition. New Labour’s reforms of the NHS proved to be highly unpopular both within and outside the mainstream Labour Party."

from: www.opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/moment-of-honesty-is-required-new-labour-began-dismantling-of-our-nhs/

by Kailash Chand

JE there is more to GN and life in general than happy-clappy thoughts and the trivia fed to us by the red tops and TV.

Some of us think these issues are more important that what is happening this week on East Enders or what slebs are up to.

Or what taxi drivers tell us, so you will tip them.