'Food banks, now bedding banks'

I work with a charity that gives grants to many causes including food banks however at my last panel meeting experts who were working with various food banks across the county gave a word of warning. They take away the individuals ability to budget for food. A dependency is created which isn’t always helpful for their futures. We are a wealthy country and we provide more than many countries governments do. We also have an amazing charity base for almost every issue. It isn’t an easy situation and the idea that we are becoming too dependent won’t be popular. I am sure that we have all visited many countries where real poverty is apparent in the streets as people live in atrocious conditions. Let’s keep perspective on poverty and self help. Let’s also be thankful that at this moment in time at least we aren’t Ukrainians fleeing our country. It all becomes so political but even left wing politicians haven’t rectified and probably can’t rectify the situation to meet every individuals needs.

DaisyAnne

MissAdventure

Disgusting state of affairs.
It seems that soon, charities will be taking on everything.

I have always felt that was this governments intention.

@DaisyAnne. Me too. I remember in 2013 when the savage cuts to disability benefits were starting to be implemented, a certain economic adviser to the Coalition government, actually stated that the duty of care for supporting disabled people who were ‘economically inactive’ would eventually have to be moved away from government, and in his own words ‘back to the charities’. It seems that the rich and powerful have no qualms about consigning the disabled back into the institutions they fought for fifty years to escape. So if the disabled, why not the ‘undeserving poor’. The existence of food or any other ‘banks’ in this country should be a source of shame.

Worth looking at how and why this charity was started
zarach.org/about/

Nandad makes a fair point, and Tory ministers have been known to say what an excellent innovation food banks are. But I don't know that refusing to support them solved any problem.

It might help if essential training for all MPs to spend half a a day at a food bank, half a day at a homeless centre and half a day at a benefits agency. Soon. And talk to people while they're there.

DaisyAnne

nandad

When Foodbanks first started here I was demonised because I said I was against them. I continue to be against them because I think it makes the government shirk their responsibilities. We live in an affluent country, people should not be going hungry or sleeping on the floor.
In our local area we have a multi million pound road project that will have taken nearly 3 years to complete. The benefits to the community are negligible. The money would have been better spent providing affordable housing or care for those in need.

So you would starve people? I agree with your assumption that the Conservative party and government does not even recognise it's responsibilities but I would not insist on others starving to prove the point.

No, I don’t expect people to starve to prove a point. And in fact I make regular donations to a homeless charity to prevent that. However, to use a Foodbank you generally have to be referred, why shouldn’t the government be picking up the bill for this? Year on year the number of people needing to use foodbanks has risen so the problem isn’t actually being sorted. Charities are speaking to the government but they are quiet voices. How many people who donate to a foodbank would go on a demonstration or even sign a petition? The two things aren’t exclusive but it shows the government that people do care about poverty in this country. Dropping a packet of pasta into the collection trolley salves our guilt but it doesn’t resolve the problem.

nandad

When Foodbanks first started here I was demonised because I said I was against them. I continue to be against them because I think it makes the government shirk their responsibilities. We live in an affluent country, people should not be going hungry or sleeping on the floor.
In our local area we have a multi million pound road project that will have taken nearly 3 years to complete. The benefits to the community are negligible. The money would have been better spent providing affordable housing or care for those in need.

So you would starve people? I agree with your assumption that the Conservative party and government does not even recognise it's responsibilities but I would not insist on others starving to prove the point.

Janamax

nandad

When Foodbanks first started here I was demonised because I said I was against them. I continue to be against them because I think it makes the government shirk their responsibilities. We live in an affluent country, people should not be going hungry or sleeping on the floor.
In our local area we have a multi million pound road project that will have taken nearly 3 years to complete. The benefits to the community are negligible. The money would have been better spent providing affordable housing or care for those in need.

Where do you propose people get food while they're waiting for the govt to help them? Stealing?

You have misunderstood my point. Because Foodbanks are now in common use it means that the government don’t have to do anything about addressing the problem and can say that it doesn’t exist. If charities step up to do what the government should be doing then it gets them off the hook.

nandad

When Foodbanks first started here I was demonised because I said I was against them. I continue to be against them because I think it makes the government shirk their responsibilities. We live in an affluent country, people should not be going hungry or sleeping on the floor.
In our local area we have a multi million pound road project that will have taken nearly 3 years to complete. The benefits to the community are negligible. The money would have been better spent providing affordable housing or care for those in need.

Where do you propose people get food while they're waiting for the govt to help them? Stealing?

winterwhite

And now we hear that the MPs’ pay rise is going ahead on 1 April. They deserve it, but so do many millions whose pay has been frozen. And many millions deserve not to have laid upon them new energy and NI price hikes that should be laid on broader backs.

I can’t agree that MPs deserve a pay rise of £2,200 per annum, it’s obscene when so many people are struggling to cope with the huge increases in the cost of living.

When Foodbanks first started here I was demonised because I said I was against them. I continue to be against them because I think it makes the government shirk their responsibilities. We live in an affluent country, people should not be going hungry or sleeping on the floor.
In our local area we have a multi million pound road project that will have taken nearly 3 years to complete. The benefits to the community are negligible. The money would have been better spent providing affordable housing or care for those in need.

Crisis loans are no longer available. They've been replaced by budgeting loans, which you can only get if you've been on certain benefits for at least six months.

If you receive Universal Credit, you can't get a budgeting loan - you have to get a budgeting advance. Both are repayable, so the recipient receives less Universal Credit each month. Universal Credit doesn't usually cover the full cost of rent.

If you owe more than £1,500 from a previous loan, you're not eligible for a new one.

The above is why charities are needed and there most certainly are people who can't afford bedding and/or essential white goods.

Some of these people have no dealings with the benefit system at all, historically.
That's not exactly a barrel of laughs, either.
It's easy to know what you can expect if you have knowledge of the system, but there is a reason why lots of benefits aren't ever claimed.
I remember my "job coach" at the job centre asking me which type of ESA I wanted to claim- new style, income related, or something else.
I had not the faintest idea what he was talking about.
Why would I?

Freya people like the person described on Woman's Hour should not have spends hours and hours looking for charities who might, just might, give them a grant to buy a duvet or a mattress. Most will be searching on mobile phones. It is highly unlikely they will have a computer

May be this charity will give £50 for some pillows another a hundred for a cooker. Do they not have enough problems just getting out of an abusive home with disturbed and upset children, without spending days, may be weeks, playing the charity lottery to see what they can get from who

Means related loans, and they are loans, not grants, are very difficult to get and, the last time I dealt with them, you could be refused such a loan because the relevant official reckoned that the applicant could not afford to repay the loan.

Money aimed to help the poorest in the society withheld because the applicant was too poor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

In our area there is a local charity that specialises in furnishing homes for such people.Why cannot liaise with these charities, so that when someone in that position is granted a house someone from the chcarity is there to see what they want and provide it.

The local charity takes the person in need to their warehouse so that they can choose what they want from their stock. choosing their own furniture, even if it is secondhand, is so good for families and individuals like that. To be seen as individuals who have likes and dislikes and hate grey and love red.

And now we hear that the MPs’ pay rise is going ahead on 1 April. They deserve it, but so do many millions whose pay has been frozen. And many millions deserve not to have laid upon them new energy and NI price hikes that should be laid on broader backs.

Freya5

midgey

I listened to a woman on this morning’s Woman’s Hour, she had escaped domestic violence and had been given a house. But that’s it, I cannot imagine having to struggle to feed and clothe children while sleeping on floorboards. Rich men who have absolutely no idea about real life are in charge!

There is help out there, for all furnishings white goods etc. No one need be sleeping on the floor.
www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/grants-low-income/

That’s the theory Freya, but if you, or any of your family have tried to access any means tested benefits in the last few years……….well, it’s not the reality

MissAdventure

Disgusting state of affairs.
It seems that soon, charities will be taking on everything.

I have always felt that was this governments intention.

It’s humiliating for people finding themselves in poor circumstances through no fault of their own having to go to food and clothing banks.
I know I wouldn’t like to.
I suppose work houses renamed “domiciliary employment centres”, or some such will be in the Government’s plan shortly. Run by volunteers of course.

There is help for all sorts of situations..
That is, until you try to access them.
They seem to dissipate then.

midgey

I listened to a woman on this morning’s Woman’s Hour, she had escaped domestic violence and had been given a house. But that’s it, I cannot imagine having to struggle to feed and clothe children while sleeping on floorboards. Rich men who have absolutely no idea about real life are in charge!

There is help out there, for all furnishings white goods etc. No one need be sleeping on the floor.
www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/grants-low-income/

Thank you very much, Tina, for supplying the link, and others for support.
I'm not a Bible reader but this does seem a case of 'the poor we have always with us', so let's talk about Ukraine, let's talk about climate change when we have to talk about them All.

I listened to a woman on this morning’s Woman’s Hour, she had escaped domestic violence and had been given a house. But that’s it, I cannot imagine having to struggle to feed and clothe children while sleeping on floorboards. Rich men who have absolutely no idea about real life are in charge!

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/01/food-banks-bedding-banks-worst-poverty-gordon-brown

Yes, while the world is understandably focusing on the horrors in Ukraine life is still getting harder for people, and that is before the NIC increase and the increased fuel costs kick in.

Disgusting state of affairs.
It seems that soon, charities will be taking on everything.

We also have baby banks for new parents who need stuff, disgraceful place for our country to be in.