me me

Watching the news on British TV this morning, there was a report on the effect the cuts were having on Greece and the population.

It featured a mother who could not feed her 3 children, and had put them in care, there has been a huge rise in the numbers of children being handed over to the authorities as the cuts bite deeper.

The general opinion was that it will get a lot worse, and the reporter mentioned that hunger on a large scale could increase.

Solution? I have no idea, and I dont think anyone else does.

Domino

From an earlier time in England:-

"Welcome poverty!..Welcome misery, welcome houselessness, welcome hunger, rags, tempest, and beggary! Mutual confidence will sustain us to the end!"

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

jackytoo

I am sure there is poverty but I think a lot of these reports are blown out of proportion. Last week Sky was showing an item about food banks in the UK. A couple from Liverpool went along and were interviewed, saying stuff like there wasn't enough food to go around to feed the kids so the father didn't eat...all sob stories. They left with about 5 carrier bags of food and put it into a nice shiny...CAR

I think the benefits level for a couple with 2 kids must be around £200, OK it's not a fortune but enough to be able to eat!

JLFS

I think the poverty figures in the UK are a load of rubbish, no food, but they own a car.......great.....

Unlike poverty in other countries where there is no income if the parents dont work.

There are kids in the UK going hungry but that is down to bad parents, not "real poverty".

agoreira

In Germany it would be, right the car is worth about £5,000, sell it, that should last you x number of weeks, come back and see us then. We've given a lot of stuff away to Freecycle, TV's, furniture etc and the idea is that hard up families benefit from stuff you no longer want. Unfortunately you can't decide who has it, ie you have no idea of knowing whether they are deserving cases or not, you just agree to give it to someone that phones you up. Someone that collected a TV from us put it in the boot of a new car, after telling us they were doing a barn conversion! Another couple told us where they lived, and you wouldn't buy a house there for less than around £400K. Luckily most stuff has gone to deserving and grateful people, but there are always those around that will abuse it, if it's free, I want it.

Domino

reminds me of the time I saw a father of 3 banging on the door of the local bookies as he had a winning betting slip, shouting he needed the money to buy his kids dinner - before going back into the pub.

then there was the woman complaining about the price of crisps etc for her kids dinner who then bought 2 packets of cigarettes without complaining about their price.

and the tenant on full benefits who complained she had a choice - buy nappies for her daughter or pay the rent as she was served an eviction notice for not paying the rent. She had been clubbing the night before.

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Domino

I remember when I had seperated from my wife, I had little of anything (CSA made sure of that) and had been gifted a sofa by a friend.
I went to local Salvation Army shop and asked them to pick up my old one. They refused as it may not have a flammability certificate and was worn and used. "This would not be acceptable to those in need".

When I was at a low I was prepared to take anything that was of use, so why do some people seem to think that those in a similar situation would not be grateful of hand-me-downs.??

at the other end of the spectrum I knew a couple, pots of money, who changed their kitchen every 5 years max, just scrapped the "old" one. As she rarely cooked and he always seemed to be working there was hardly any use.

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mikelincs

It would have been illegal for them to have sold a sofa that didn't have the certificate attached, which is why you should never remove it, as that destroyes much of it's resale value.
There are families in the UK needing food handouts genuinely, there are also those who feel that getting the basics from the food bank means more money to go out with, very difficult to separate them.