Too many British families are hungry!

Thank you, Cossy. Your point about having two incomes is well made and can make a vast difference. I'd already posted (page 13) some ONS stats on households, trying to put into context who exactly answered "yes" to the YouGov survey questions on food insecurity.

There are 8.5 million people living alone in the UK. 3.5 million of those are 65 or over so the majority will be retired. That's still 5 million working-age people having to manage on one income.

It strikes me just how little professional salaries have risen compared to house prices and rents. In the mid 80s, I had professional qualifications but was still only 30. Not junior but not that senior either. Forty years ago, I was earning more then than a band 5 nurse or an NQT does now when house prices were a tenth or less of what they are now.

And, of course, there were still reasonable priced rentals to be had. By 1985, right-to-buy had seen the sale of 665,000 local authority homes. I believe that number now exceeds two million.

Buy-to-let didn't really take off until the late 1990s and escalated dramatically following the 2008 financial crash. Following that, bank rates plummeted to record lows, fuelling borrowing and sending property prices spiralling. Just about every new block of apartments built around here since then has been littered with To Let signs as soon as the development was released. First time buyers don’t stand a chance.

One can draw a straight line linking the sell-off of local authority homes, the 2008 crash and the rise of buy-to-let to the major housing crisis we have today. And if housing costs are taking up most of your income, there's little left for anything else.

I'm not trying to be funny or nitpicking. It would just make it easier for the person reading it 😆

Thank you MaizieD I’m so rubbish at this! I’ll try

I fear Grandma29s post is the only one on which we will all wholeheartedly agree.

Cossy

Primrose53

^I still laugh at the nurse who was on Question Time not that long ago holding back the tears about how hard up she was and had to visit food banks as her nurses’s salary was so bad.

A few days later photos of her came to light on a cruise ship eating luxury food and sipping champagne. 🤣🤣

I have at least six friends who have now all retired from nursing and they are all very comfortably off with great pensions, several foreign holidays a year, all with their own houses and mortgages paid off long ago. A couple also have second homes in France and Spain. They are all lovely ladies and worked hard for what they have but I don’t recall any of them complaining about their salaries.^

You are just so patronising sometime Primrose53. Yes, a nurse at the end of their career now will have a great pension, the NHS pensions were and in some cases still are, the most generous public sector pensions. You fail to mention whether your 6 friends were single or married? Makes a huge difference. My best friend of 45+ years is a retired nurse and married a doctor. She’s enjoying a great retirement. Her daughter, who is 40, and my goddaughter is a junior sister in a large London hospital doing shift work, she’s struggling and single.

My daughter is a primary school teacher and at 26 still lives at home. She’s just going into her 4th year of full time teaching and earns around £35,000. Hardly a fortune in the South East where a one bed flat would be around £800 per month.

Dear Cossy. Look at the bar with my name on it at the top of this post. At the right hand end of it you will see the word 'quote'. If you intend to reply to any post by quoting it just tap on the word 'quote' and the whole post (or series of posts) will appear in a grey box. Just like this one. Write your reply in the Message box. Post message. Hey Presto! Everyone now knows who is saying what...

I'm not trying to be funny or nitpicking. It would just make it easier for the person reading it 😆

TinSoldier

^ And you keep posting about how things were, Primrose53. This is now. Yes, nurses at the top of the scale can earn good salaries but starting out is not easy at all for young people. I’ve shown the numbers. What part of those do you dispute? ^

Tinsoldier I agree with you 100%

Primrose53

^I still laugh at the nurse who was on Question Time not that long ago holding back the tears about how hard up she was and had to visit food banks as her nurses’s salary was so bad.

A few days later photos of her came to light on a cruise ship eating luxury food and sipping champagne. 🤣🤣

I have at least six friends who have now all retired from nursing and they are all very comfortably off with great pensions, several foreign holidays a year, all with their own houses and mortgages paid off long ago. A couple also have second homes in France and Spain. They are all lovely ladies and worked hard for what they have but I don’t recall any of them complaining about their salaries.^

You are just so patronising sometime Primrose53. Yes, a nurse at the end of their career now will have a great pension, the NHS pensions were and in some cases still are, the most generous public sector pensions. You fail to mention whether your 6 friends were single or married? Makes a huge difference. My best friend of 45+ years is a retired nurse and married a doctor. She’s enjoying a great retirement. Her daughter, who is 40, and my goddaughter is a junior sister in a large London hospital doing shift work, she’s struggling and single.

My daughter is a primary school teacher and at 26 still lives at home. She’s just going into her 4th year of full time teaching and earns around £35,000. Hardly a fortune in the South East where a one bed flat would be around £800 per month.

And you keep posting about how things were, Primrose53. This is now. Yes, nurses at the top of the scale can earn good salaries but starting out is not easy at all for young people. I’ve shown the numbers. What part of those do you dispute?

HousePlantQueen

Norah

Skydancer When I was a child mothers stayed at home. They had hours in which to prepare a nutritious meal which, in our case, was on the table at 6pm when Dad got home. These days, with 2 parents having to work, who has the energy or inclination to start a meal from scratch?

Mum stayed home with all of us, she cooked delicious nutritious food from scratch, hob did much of the work, she wasn't tied to in all day.

I do/did the same as mum - no more than 3-5 hours in the kitchen prepping, cooking, laying tables, washing up daily. Whilst making 3 meals, I get ready for the day, walk dogs, do laundry, hoover, do the books, etc.

My time has always been used by driving because we live a long distance from anywhere (school run, shops, etc).

With respect Norah you have told us in the past that you have never worked out of the home. Your choice of course and no criticism ftom me, but you can hardly compare your life to a couple juggling jobs and paid childcare, wondering how much their rent will increase this year

Thank you for no criticism.

I understand staying at home is vastly different to leaving home to work and time being constrained.

However, my point was more that I do believe some people might be well served putting ingredients in a pot on the hob during wash up from dinner, as mum did and I did. Or some form of cooking whilst at work?

It seems to me, if people have electricity, cookers, and a fridge - some advance cooking is possible, even if one works away from home.

Or, that was my point.

I still laugh at the nurse who was on Question Time not that long ago holding back the tears about how hard up she was and had to visit food banks as her nurses’s salary was so bad.

A few days later photos of her came to light on a cruise ship eating luxury food and sipping champagne. 🤣🤣

I have at least six friends who have now all retired from nursing and they are all very comfortably off with great pensions, several foreign holidays a year, all with their own houses and mortgages paid off long ago. A couple also have second homes in France and Spain. They are all lovely ladies and worked hard for what they have but I don’t recall any of them complaining about their salaries.

I agree. Especially for shift workers which is why, in my example, I cited a flat close the hospital.

Some might argue that the nurse could walk or cycle to and from work and save the £85 a month on a bus ticket that she could spend on food. However, while this is a relatively safe area for crime, the roads are busy and not well-lit after dark.

From here, a monthly season ticket into London including Travelcard zones 1-6 costs £600.

People still have to live in London if they work there, otherwise commuting means travel costs are extortionate as well as transport being unreliable.

Indeed. My cost of living estimates above were based on where I live, about 30 miles outside of London.

The flat I mentioned, rent and council tax (for someone living alone) around £1470 per month is for an ex-local authority one-bedroom flat. Take home pay £1970 leaving just £500 a month for everything else.

No wonder nurses are having to use food banks.

Yes totally unacceptable!
I’m not interested in football, it should not dominate both channels at the same time.!

Oreo

If teachers need to exist on free food parcels then there’s something badly wrong and it ain’t their pay! They have either over extended themselves with mortgages or saddled themselves with card debts or spend money on the wrong things or lie to the survey ( it has been known ).
Anyhow will leave this discussion to others as I have a work shift to go to in fifteen mins.

Teachers and nurses also live and work in London where rents and property prices are sky-high.

An NQT will start on £30,000 so they have take home pay of £2064 so £94 a month more.
Average rent in London is £500 per week.

My goddaughter is a children’s oncology nurse in London! She really struggles with the cost of living there and is a junior sister.

My daughter is a primary teacher and was on £24,900 as an NQT only a few years back!

It was 6 weeks training when I got a job as a clinical support worker.
Perhaps it's changed, given the current climate.

Oops!

Nurses make up more than 10% of the staff currently using food banks provided by NHS charities to cope with economic hardship, according to a survey.

Thats the beginning part that should have been what I posted.

0% of the staff currently using food banks provided by NHS charities to cope with economic hardship, according to a survey.

The survey found that at six NHS trusts and health boards alone, nearly 5,000 NHS staff, of whom 550 were nurses, were making monthly use of the food banks run by charities that support NHS trusts and health boards.

This adds to the evidence that many nurses across the UK are living in poverty, as new Royal College of Nursing president Sheila Sobrany told the Nursing Times last month, when she said nurses were “really struggling” right now, both financially due to the cost-of-living crisis and pay levels, and emotionally due to the pressures in the system and short staffing

I wouldnt think qualified nurses have too many problem, but most of those you see on the wards are in fact Clinical Support Workers, with just a few days training before they go on the wards, then they qualify for extra skills on the job.
Many of them may well be single parents, in social housing of some kind, starting pay is £19k.

Cossy

Dolly17

Seawoozle you are a breath of fresh air on these threads! I don't post often as I'm dismayed by some of the attitudes expressed on GN. Please keep on posting smile

I second this!!!

I third it... Some of the attitudes expressed on here - judgemental, censorous, patronising - are a disgrace, and do indeed read like Victorians. Surely we should have moved on from Disraeli's 'two nations by now?
"Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws . . . . THE RICH AND THE POOR." (From 'Sybil')

If you can't fatten yourself you certainly don't have enough spare to fatten a pig.

And if you are choosing between cheap bread and cheap rice you won't be spending £2.99 on delivery.

Benefits are not enough to live well enough to be healthy.

Taxes need to be higher so that the safety net isn't full of holes.

A band 5 entry-level nurse with 1-2 years experience earns £28,407. That’s monthly take-home pay of £1,970.

Rent for a no-frills one-bedroom flat here in the suburbs, two miles from the hospital on a bus route is £1,350 per month.

The council tax is £155 per month (say £116 if he or she lives alone). Energy and water say £100 a month averaged over the year. Broadband and phone say £40. Home insurance £15. Four-weekly bus pass £85.

That's only £264 left for food, toiletries, household cleaning, clothing and everything else for a month - £66 per week.

Hardly enough to manage on if someone is to have any kind of life outside of work and no car.

An NQT will start on £30,000 so they have take home pay of £2064 so £94 a month more.

Have a good night, Oreo.

If teachers need to exist on free food parcels then there’s something badly wrong and it ain’t their pay! They have either over extended themselves with mortgages or saddled themselves with card debts or spend money on the wrong things or lie to the survey ( it has been known ).
Anyhow will leave this discussion to others as I have a work shift to go to in fifteen mins.