Hungry Britain

£900 a month isn't bad for a single person - a lot of pensioners have to survive on much less than that!

There are food banks in France too, one is Restaurants de Coeur. Donations made from supermarkets and veg. producers.
I wanted to contribute eggs from our hens who are producing well, too many for us. But they said, the hens must be checked by a vet. I can understand the health risk (insurance again?) but there's more to this than meets the eye.
There needs to be a better system for using surplus or wasted food.

But, as Joelsnan mentioned, a lot of it was taken up by debt I think. So should we feel sorry? If we couldn't afford we went without, debt frightens me.

It is good to hear the stories surrounding this issue, and the links are useful. But I do weary of the branding of everyone on benefits as feckless and the "in my day we managed" sanctimony. That was then, this is now. Things are different and we would do well to realise that, rather than engage in mass castigation of the poor and needy. Dickens would have had something to say about this!

Yes, sorry "Ariadne" we the older generation are to blame for the mess our youth are in now. We have allowed the 'buy now pay later' society, we have allowed greed to overwhelm need. We allowed our industry to be outsourced. We allowed our utilities to be nationalised. We made our children precious. We allowed basic skills to be removed from the curriculum preferring media studies etc. etc. etc.
Sometimes it takes courage to acknowledge that the baby went down the plug hole with the water and things were better in the old days.

If we couldn't afford, we got HP. The car, TV, sofa and chairs, cooker - all needed, all on HP. We paid our debts or risked repossession. Some managed better than others. I remember crying when a threat of summons arrived in the post because we got behind with the rates. For several weeks, it was buy groceries or pay the council, so we ate. Bit by bit we paid it off, but it was years before I was debt-free - after my last child left education.

If the benefits had been available at the time, we most certainly would have qualified. People on minimum wage, part-time workers, unemployed and unable to work, unavailable for work because of care commitments - they don't need the added burden of condemnation.

When we were poor we did not run a car, smoke or drink alcohol and I was married before anyone in my family had a TV or a fridge. I think priorities are different now.

Ariadne - thanks for your post. I find the heartless criticism of the vulnerable in our society depressing. All societies have a few feckless folk.I recall looking at Hogarth's gin lane prints and seeing the similarities between the gin sodden mother's he drew, and the heroin sodden mother's I came across so often in my work. They're a minority of those dependent on benefits. Are those expressing a no sympathy point of view suggesting we return to a work house response to poverty.

give the poor food vouchers that do not allow for cigarettes or alcohol, I find it hard to believe that some people will put pleasure before feeding their kids.
Also how do they manage in Scandanavian countries, I talked to a girl who had married and gone to live in Norway, she said there were very little benefits and they were so low that you were glad to get back to work. She told me the few single parents they have are hard working and all the children go to state nursery schools. We should take a leaf out of their book.
As regards drug takers, I think they should have their children taken into care, they do not deserve to have them.
IDS is right in his stance, yes it is hard but if we bring the end to the benefit culture it is worth it, having said that the government needs to do more to encourage more jobs especially for young families

I don't see that anyone has heartlessly criticised the vulnerable in our society, Iam64.

They may have expressed some irritation at the way some recipients of benefits seem to be exploiting the system, and there is no doubt that this happens.

The impression I get from the posts on here is that most feel that help should of course be available to those in genuine need.

Thank you Ana, for expressing it so well. I was beginning to think I was heartless and sanctimonious for expressing an opinion that debt is causing some of the misery today. Some of this is debt caused over the last few years when people, encouraged by the banks and by Mr No More Boom and Bust, went credit card crazy and people are still paying it off, or have consolidated it into a lump sum - still a debt!
I am not talking about the sort of debt we may have incurred, buying one thing at a time on HP or interest free credit which was how we bought our 3 piece suite. There was always too much month left at the end of the money but we would have done anything to make sure our DC were fed.

and I might add we bought a lot of second hand furniture etc cheaply - you can't sell anything these days even for next to nothing. They all seem to want or get new somehow.

I despair of some of the comments on here. Lots of people have criticised the vulnerable. I restarted this thread because a man has died because he had his benefits cut and did not understand that he could apply to get more money.
In yesterday's guardian there was an article about the right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange which said that the WCA had gone too far. 70,000 jobseekers had had their benefits withdrawn unfairly. These are the ones that end up at foodbanks.
This thinktank was set up by the Conservatives!
Churches and charities as well as the Labour party have been telling IDS that the administration of benefit sanctions has become too punitive. Atos are getting out of the administration of the WCA because they have been making too many mistakes.
Can you survive for four weeks on no money?
That's why people go to food banks.
They have no food, and nothing to cook with when they get food. That's why they eat pot noodles.
They do not need cookery lessons from someone like James Martin, whose dad cooked at Castle Howard, by the way.
Some people take it seriously. There are calls for IDS to be charged with manslaughter.
I could put links on this thread, but will not bother as I know those who need to read them will not.

Iam40, when Seebohm Rowntree did his first treatise on poverty in York, they used to go into people's homes and find out if the women had been drinking. It was written on the census.
That was the start of the welfare state, bank holidays, better housing, shared finance for housing between rent and purchase, and lots of other help. They set up libraries and healthcare for their workers.
We appear to be going back to those pre-Rowntree days.

Well......I don't know where to start, so won't bother - except to ask how many people have been joining in discussions about freecycling, swapping household items, donating furniture to charities etc? Are you giving your unwanted furniture away to feckless drug addicts who smoke and watch TV? Or, like me and many others, seeing a genuine need and trying to contribute to help struggling families and single people who are trying to make ends meet?

We're decent people, aren't we? Aren't we??

Just saying that food banks are not the only answer if you read my other post.

There is obviously incompetence in the way the benefits system is administered and that should be addressed.
Some officers are going to be jobsworths or look down on the people they are helping which is very unfortunate and does not help matters.
Some people are in a complete and utter mess of their own making and need more help than just food banks.
Any one of us could need a helping hand at some time in our lives.
That does not mean that some people have not become dependent on benefits and handouts as a way of life. Not all, just some, which give the others a bad name.

Anyone here work in a food bank?
My close relative does and sees the many and varied rsons why the people who are using them do so.

Well said, when.
Rose, not everyone at the jobcentres are jobsworths. They have to follow the rules as set out by IDS or they get sanctioned as well.
As far as Scandinavia is concerned, Cactus, they can cope better because they are a more equal society. The IMF says that inequality is a drag on growth now. It's just taken them a long time to realise it. Scandinavian countries have higher taxes, higher pay and higher benefits on the whole.
This is the second report from the IMF that says that government cuts to public-sector spending were having a detrimental effect on the economy. But the Tory govt. take no more notice of the IMF than they do of charities and churches running foodbanks.
It will take someone to take the government to court over the cuts. It will happen.

"Some people take it seriously. There are calls for IDS to be charged with manslaughter.
I could put links on this thread, but will not bother as I know those who need to read them will not."

Do you have any idea how patronising (and judgemental) that sounds, durhamjen? You can't just browbeat people into thinking the way that you do - we are all allowed our own opinions.

durhamjen I hope you're not suggesting I recommended cookery lessons from James Martin because that's exactly what I didn't recommend.

It's all very well saying that drug takers don't deserve to keep their children cactus but what about the children? Many of them no doubt love their parents and don't want to be taken off into care. They might want them to stop the drugs, but that's a different matter. And a life in care often does the child no favours.

Thanks, Deedaa. Saved me the bother.

Patronising, judgmental but true for some people, Ana. At least you noticed. Have you read any of the links I put on earlier?
No I was not referring to you, merlot. I knew what you meant, but some people think that all people on £40 per week to pay all their bills need is a few cookery lessons.

Actually my post was a follow on from rosequartz's who said she had never had a cookery lesson so wasn't really intended to be a serious addition to the issues being discussed.

It is so sad to read of the poor boys death through starvation. But, where was his family through all of this, especially knowing that the boy had the difficulties associated with this syndrome?
The assessment for work system has been found to be inappropriate especially with cases such as this, but blame should also be laid at those who knowing his condition, should have cared for him.
Again I say that food vouchers should become part of the benefit provision.

Did I say everyone at the job centres are jobsworths? But some are, as are people in all walks of life (see some other forums on here!). Don't twist my comments to make your point.

Food banks are not the whole answer, they should only be just an emergency stop gap. If the problem is ongoing it needs to be looked at. All sorts of people are using them for all sorts of reasons.

Anyone is very welcome to my unwanted furniture (not that I have much unwanted any more). Just saying that it has been very difficult to get rid of decent, clean but older stuff, even by free-cycling. I don't ask people for a certificate to say they don't take drugs or drink before I hand over anything on free-cycle or ask the charity shop to interrogate anyone who buys my stuff to make sure they are worthy of it.
What a ridiculous comment! And in fact extremely rude.

As someone who has only just joined I find some of the comments breathtakingly rude.