child poverty

Just for the record, by no means everyone who is poor is a bad or abusive parent. Many work hard, encourage their children to do well in school and do their best to provide nutritious meals.

I don't see what bad parenting and children being shouted at have to do with 'child poverty'. What is child poverty? I'm assuming it can be assessed in financial terms, or does it include deprivation in the examples given above?

In which case, many children of affluent parents are similarly neglected and/or abused.

Poverty is relative, but as gillybob said in her post, meters are fitted for those unable to pay resulting in cold and hardship for those in difficulty as they then have to pay more for their fuel.
If they get into difficulty with their bank account that can be a downward spiral, bank charges can get out of control so those in most difficulty are penalised again.

Most people would always put their children first and go without themselves, but not everyone unfortunately.

Many women did not go out to work in the 50s and 60s, my MIL was widowed during the war but did not go out to work, I don't know how she managed but she did. My DM worked part-time but still managed to knit, sew, cook meals from scratch etc, my DP were really hard up but I always had decent shoes and warm clothes as did my brothers.

And I can remember having wool 'put by' and buying a couple of balls a week to knit for DC.

Yes, but no one is telling me what 'child poverty' is! Obviously a child has no income, so it must relate to to their parents' income.

I'm sure everyone could cite an example of neglect, emotional or physical abuse directed towards childen, but that can happen in any family.

Re my last post, I was relating the story to gillybob's post regarding children being shouted at. Of course this happens in families other than poor families and because one is poor it does not mean the children are treated badly at all.

Definition of poverty by the sociologist, Peter Townsend, one of the founders of Child Poverty Action Group.

Thank you, anno.

Although this article seems to suggest that at present it is assessed solely on financial grounds.

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/14/plans-change-child-poverty-measures-impasse

I prefer the more comprehensive definition.

Whatever.

Sorry for moving slightly off subject flowerofthewest I was just thinking about children being neglected or badly treat as a whole.

Meant to add that I can't imagine how some children are treat indoors when they are treat so badly in full public view. Sorry again for moving off the subject.

I agree with most of IDs's (changing poverty measures) but I don't think having no-one in the family "in work"should be a measurement. It should be how much money comes into the family (whether this be benefits or wages) and how much goes out in necessities (rent,council tax, school meals, fuel etc) as many people on benefits are relatively better off than some of those on the lowest income when all the outgoings are taken into consideration.

Ana, there are some links at the beginning of this thread to child poverty, the child poverty action group, the Joseph Rowntree Trust, etc.
Here is another link, but you have to read the article to find the mention of child poverty.
https://fullfact.org/finder/economy/poverty_inequality/
What you will find is that the definition of child poverty changes depending on who is collating the information.
The reason IDS wants to change things is because it will reduce the ability to compare statistics from then on.

Was with you all the way gilllybob it just brought back a few memories.

Gillybob, have your son and daughter in law checked moneysaving expert to see if they can save anything on their prepayment meter, or change to a credit meter?
I do not know how long ago their problems happened but British gas can be asked to change the meter if they have been okay for a year. There's a lot of information on the site.

I have looked into it Durhamjen but they still have around £300 to pay the gas back and slightly less for the electricity and then they will have to go for a whole year before they can have the thing removed or replaced. I appreciate that they do owe the money but it it the way it is collected that gets to me. You would not believe how much they have to feed into the meters in order to get any credit. I think it is set unfairly high. Meaning for every £10 they feed in to each meter they get less than half in fuel as the other half is paying the debt. The price per kWh is set extremely high on these types of meters anyway. With the exception of school holidays we have organized it so the little ones always stay with me on a Monday and Tuesday (which is usually the days they run out of funds to feed the meter) . Angry doesn't even begin to cover it.

I did speak to British gas who told me that they were quite lucky as some meters are set as high as paying £10 in gives you £1 worth of fuel which I told them straight was almost barbaric of them !

I am sure that moneysaving expert says that if they owe less than £500 per fuel, they can change suppliers. The new supplier takes over the debt.
British gas news this morning is that their profits have gone down by 6%, so if your son says he wants to change they might give him a better answer. I do not know if the rules have changed since you last looked.

Children who arrive at school with just a couple of biscuits in a lunch box are surely eligible for free school meals. Is the uptake of this provision so bad that parents are depriving their children of this much-needed nutrition?

Thanks for that durhamjen I will be looking into it as soon as I can. I think they probably still owe around the £500 mark between the two so might be possible. Fingers crossed.

Sadly just because a child turns up with a packed luch of a couple of biscuits doesn't make them eligible for free school meals anno . It depends on whether there is anyone in the household working or not and how much comes into the household. Often those on very low incomes can find themselves being relatively worse off by working then they would be on benefits. Mind you if I saw a child with a couple of biscuits I would be giving them a free school meal anyway , but I am always being told I am a bleeding heart who would fall for anyone's hard luck tale.

Saddened at the news this morning with the report relating to hunger in the UK. Perhaps we should re-build the workhouses because the UK is more and more looking like it did 150 years ago.

I'm with you gillybob on seeing how some small children are treated [in public as well] makes me want to slap the person very hard.I know, it's nothing to do with child 'poverty' I'm just saying.
Poverty is relative, and I don't know how it's worked out.All I know is that there are the most ghastly parents around now, and I see them everywhere I go. I know that my family would have been considered poor at the time[never mind now!] My Mother was wonderful though, and I never considered myself as poor.

Roses, the difference between absolute and relative poverty is shown hehttps://fullfact.org/finder/economy/poverty_inequality/re.