Tory MP blames food bank use on people not knowing how to cook or budge

I agree with Blondiescot that a mobile phone is a necessity these days. They're not the luxury they were (or even unheard of) when you were growing up, Skydancer.

Bloody hell, there is a recent thread having a go at people for not having a mobile.

This would be one of those MPs that voted themselves a huge increase on 1st April because they couldn't manage would it?
news.sky.com/story/mps-to-get-2-200-pay-rise-from-april-after-boris-johnson-urged-restraint-12554941
And that's with their subsidised catering facilities of course.
Who needs lessons in budgeting properly?

Skydancer^a lot of people haven’t a clue how to budget or cook^, but what is the evidence that this is a particular a feature of poorer families?

As for mobile phones. ownership of mobile phones is lower in the lower income brackets and many still depend on phones that are suitable for calls and text and no more.

Like it not smartphones are essential for everything these days, from claiming benefits, job seeking, Without the ubiquitous app, life is very difficult. I speak with feeling because I struggle to use a smart phone for reasons discussed extensively on the thread about owning such phones and, yes, it causes me problems.

I had a road accident recently and no matter how many times I tell the insurance company to use my landline or email, they will contact me on my mobile phone and I have difficulty accessing their messages.

Many poorer families do not have landlines and use pay as you go phones., which can limit their phone usage anyway.

We did not have colour TV in the 1960s.

We did not have a mobile phone in the 1980s.

Did that mean we were deprived?

Of course not.

We are living in the 2020s when smartphones and internet connection are actually a necessity.

We live in a country which is just about OK for the haves, but almost impossible for the have-nots to survive in.

Anyone who supports this appalling government should be thoroughly ashamed of themseleves.

Maybe we should just go back to the days of the poorhouses or workhouses and have all these 'feckless poor' queueing up for their bowl of gruel...

Someone ought to go into the commons canteen and serve up food that has cost 30p per person.

MissAdventure

Someone ought to go into the commons canteen and serve up food that has cost 30p per person.

That is an excellent idea MissA. No choice, and every day until they get the message. And to drink, tap water or value teabags with no milk or sugar.

Served up by people who earn minimum wage but pay a more expensive fuel tariff for having a meter, whose rent is £1850 per month, whose childcare fees cost more than they earn.

Then they can go home and cook delcious meals from scratch.

Woodmouse

I have always worked to a budget but am amazed at the number of people who don't. I have met folk who don't check their bank statements, use up food leftovers, shop around for the best deals or save up for things. Some people are in hardship because they have been reckless with money.

Being in a position to budget and then calling others out does not make you a good person Woodmouse. Far from it.

If you can budget for your meals you must have sufficient behind you be able to cope with the odd emergency. You, presumably, would not have to decide between having the fridge/oven repaired and therefore going without food or not having the necessity repaired so you can buy instant meals which do not require storing or cooking or going in to debt to have both food and something to keep it in or cook it on.

You also presumably do not live in an area where your food shopping is done in either a food desert or a food swamp.

It is far more expensive to be poor than it is for those with enough to live on.

Blondiescot, how much is gruel these days??

If you don’t have a smart phone, you can’t com-let’s the 100 impossible things before breakfast that are expected by the benefits agency.
You can’t contact the company that supplies your water, gas, electricity because everything is done on line

The rather smug superior folks here describing feeding a family on vegetables for next to nothing aren’t living the same life as the poverty stricken people who go without so they can feed their children.

This Tory MP should be ashamed, as should the rest of the tories who supported ending the £20 upgrade to UC, who support the bedroom tax, who have absolutely no idea what budgeting on a low wage is loke

As a child in the 50s I lived on the edge of a council estate and most of my friends came from very poor families. We weren't well off ourselves, no car, no television, no fridge, hand me down clothes. But we would have been astounded at the thought of food banks, it would have sounded like something out of Dickens rather than the 20th century and the idea that people who had jobs might need to use them would have been unbelievable, A fair bit of bread and dripping may have been involved and fresh fruit may have been rare but people did manage to eat.

Skydancer

In the 70s when my children were small we had little money. I bought vegetables and made vegetarian dishes. I learned how to make cheap nutritious meals from scratch. If we couldn’t afford something we did without. Show me a “poor” family who haven’t got a mobile phone each. I don’t consider myself right wing but it’s sadly true that a lot of people haven’t a clue how to budget or cook.

I am so fed up with these posts. They are disgusting.

I find it increasingly hard to stomach them, too.

Show me a “poor” family who haven’t got a mobile phone each.

Well, I could, in fact. But what would be the point?

Jobseekers are often expected to 'go online' for various form-filling procedures and job applications.

Of course, they could always join the queue of people waiting to use the terminals in the local library - assuming of course that they actually have a local library.

People claiming certain work-related benefits can get SIM only deals for as little as £10 per month, and many do.

Many who are working in the 'gig' economy doing flexible or temporary jobs need to be contactable at a moment's notice. If they don't have a landline, then they won't get a call and won't get the chance to work that day, if they don't have a mobile 'phone.

These are not luxury items. They are now very much a necessity.

Have you heard of Jack Munroe? If not, I suggest you read some of her accounts of poverty. It might open your eyes to a world inhabited by people about whom you probably have very little knowledge or understanding.

... and she could possibly beat you by a country mile making dishes from scratch, and pennies...

Of course there are always people who are not good at running their lives, live wastefully etc, but why are the likes of Skydancer and Woodmouse assuming that it follows that all the people like that are poor, and all the poor are like that.

Of course there will be some people among the poor who are like that, but many more among the comfortably off and rich. they are the only ones who can afford to be wasteful.

This blaming the poor for their problem has been the get out of so many selfish centred people since time began. Read Dickens, his books are full of such people. Scrooge in A Christmas Carol is a classic example.

This blaming the poor for their problem has been the get out of so many selfish centred people since time began. Read Dickens, his books are full of such people. Scrooge in A Christmas Carol is a classic example.

Dickens had an understanding of how the poor lived that most of his class knew nothing about. He often undertook evening walks venturing into some of the most deprived areas of London and saw the foul, grinding poverty first hand. That's why he wrote about it so well. And was often criticised for it because people just didn't believe such poverty existed.

History repeats itself.

MissAdventure

I find it increasingly hard to stomach them, too.

Having read your "diary", I'm not surprised you feel like that. I've been there too, so I know how it feels. You don't even have to have experienced it to give people credit for knowing more about poverty than these dismissive posts do. It's obvious that those who pontificate haven't a clue and couldn't care less about finding out.

At least some people have the good grace to realise there are angles they have never considered.

As I've said, I have been offered refferal to a food bank, but I wouldn't even consider it, now that I know how people view the folk who visit them.

Plus, I don't actually need to use one, because I am excellent on a budget - contrary to how some would view me.

It's just that I quietly get on with doing all the things that others feel the need to trumpet about.

It's patronising, to say the least.

It feels pretty uncomfortable to say these things, but I figure why not?
Nobody else holds back on singing their own praises.

MissA I enjoy the company of the people at foodbank- volunteers and clients. No folk who matter would view a foodbank user differently from a volunteer.
You might find your nearest one quite good fun . One of my clients told me on Monday, that I had beautiful eyes- in Italian! You don't that in the supermarke queue.

I'm not well enough to get to one these days, except by taxi.
Imagine the furore?

My mobile phone is cheaper than my landline. What is the weirdness about mobile phones? I have just applied for a new job, without a phone and a laptop I would have been seriously disadvantaged compared to other applicants.

MissA we deliver in those situations , but, sorry we can't guarantee that the deliverer will praise your eyes....disappointing I know.

I don't know why some are so focused on phones.
It's not even as if they're expensive these days.

My having a mobile has meant I have been able to earn a living for the last 4 ish years.

Or is that "wrong" somehow?