Poverty in the UK - disappearing according to Boris

They are just stories Maizie. Nobody has ever been able to explain how these people living a life of luxury on benefits manage it.

But they are believed. So dangerous.

There are different degrees of poverty, but surely anyone who cannot get work and has to live on social security is poor, as are all those who have to use food banks?

If people on low incomes chose to smoke, eat ice cream or have a drink that is up to them. Being poor must never mean that you cannot treat yourself to something occasionally, nor must it ever come to mean that other people decide how you may live your life.

It is short-sighted to equate a good income with someone having worked hard at school, gone on to further education.

Many of us who did so never managed to get a well-paid job.

That seems a ridiculous rule Growstuff. I can't see the logic behind it.

The idea is to stop people living in (allegedly) luxurious accommodation and getting the state to pay for it. When LHA was introduced there were loads of stories in the press about people living in very expensive properties in London and claiming Housing Benefit.

The Local Housing Allowance rate is different for each area and is supposed to cover 30% of the properties in an area, but it doesn't and has been frozen for years. There is no way I could even find a room in a house share for the LHA in my area.

I have a friend who works for the CAB and she has told me that rents are the biggest cause of poverty in this area. Unemployment is way below the national average, so most people in difficulty are working. Many are facing eviction and the "hidden homelessness" rate (ie people sleeping on sofas and the like) is very high. It's a form of social cleansing because people on low incomes find work and accommodation elsewhere, if they possibly can. It's a vicious circle because the area is becoming increasingly gentrified.

I agree with you grandtante. Last week, I bought a piece of fresh salmon from the newly opened fishmonger in town. It cost me about as much as I usually spend on two days' food. I hope the Benefit Police weren't spying on me (not that I can claim any benefits anyway).

I can understand the reasoning behind LHA but it's easy enough to find out what kind of property people are living in. Too many inflexible rules in the system.