General Chat

For the first time in it's history Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, is handing out food parcels to children and families in the UK. I guess that's what 10 years of Tory indifference/hostility to the poor will do and this is before we take a Brexit "backward step". What is this country coming to?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/16/unicef-feed-hungry-children-uk-first-time-history

In other newspapers as well.

I too saw that - and Rees-Mogg said UNICEF were 'playing politics', and 'should be ashamed of themselves'.
If UNICEF are 'playing politics', perhaps our Government should be learning a lesson from them.

Rees-Moggs' comment also brings up the thought that this Government believes that children going hungry is a political act.

The only hungry children can be found in Southwark :-S :-S :-S

Sadly, some people just don't know how to live cheaply.There has always been the opportunity to borrow more money if you run out.

I agree, nameslessone - the highest use of foodbanks is in the North East.
Perhaps they'll talk with foodban suppliers and get food for children sent there.

Dermot the birth rate is going down.
I'd also like to point out, 100% of pregnancies are caused by men - perhaps you should have a word in their ear!

Not by men alone. They do need help with it.

Men are the causal bit - women the creative! :-D :-D

We are all accidents of birth.

Virgin births are as rare these days as a white blackbird.

I think virgin births these days are as rare as they always were.

I'm certainly not saying this is the case with all these families...but you have to wonder if some of them aren't partly to blame as someone already said they can't always live within their means. If a family is always eating takeout or prepared food and not cooking from scratch it adds up on the bill. If mum/dad are smoking/drinking likewise. AGAIN not saying this is the case always/often but certainly for some.
Likewise, while Government policies from any government over the last few decades have obviously influenced them COVID must also have had an effect on this situation where parents haven't been able to work for so long.

OH's brother has three children and no job. His wife is working every hour God sends and they have the elderly mother with them.

As far as I know, they owe money and I will not let OH lend the any because it would not be spent well and no support has ever been offered to us.

Anyway, we have some crackers we have had a few years that are perfectly good but of no use to us so they were offered to them. They already have some so they don't want them.

We offered to buy them a sack of potatoes because, if you have spuds and eggs you will survive. Didn't want those because they don't use many potatoes, they do eat oven chips!

I am not even going to offer them any of my oatmeal!

They wouldn't want the oatmeal as it's not instant by the sound of it Sharron :-)

It's like with lockdown, if we had run out of food we always have dried beans so I can make soup...my favourite?? not necessarily but it would keep you alive!

Tastes like **** but you can live on it!

:-D

Use of foodbanks in all areas has increased this year.

Independent foodbanks (Independent Food Aid Networks) account for roughly 35-40% of all of the UK's foodbanks but because of their very local nature (some pop up while others close), no reliable statistics are yet available for them except, perhaps, in Scotland where statistical headway has begun. These include places such as Hambleton Foodshare which saw a rise in use because of furloughed staff. All-in-all, IFANs have seen a rise across the country this year. IFANs can be found in all areas except really isolated ones.

Reliable statistics, however, are available from The Trussell Trust which operates nationwide. Figures are available for towns within regions but the following regions indicate where food parcels have been distributed by foodbanks for the year ending March 2020, figures are as follows

North West 252,165
Scotland 237,225
London 204,299
Eastern England 196,511
South East 191,250
West Mids 168,886
South West 162,045
Wales 134,646
Yorks & Humber 108,102
North East 98,461
Northern Ireland 45,008

I expect those figures (especially for the North East) will surprise many people but even if the North East had a disproportionate number of independent foodbanks it is highly unlikely that it would be 'top of the list'.

The Trust has released its recent half-yearly figures (to September 2020) with London topping the list and, yet again, Northern Ireland showing lowest usage.

London 210,006
North West 154096
South East 149,085
East 115,380
Scotland 110,965
West Mids 108,395
South West 99,875
Wales 70,393
North East 64,382
East Midlands 64,285
Yorks & Humber 60,238
N Ireland 32,299

It does not make for pleasant reading particularly if one includes IFAN numbers which one could say, would add 35-40% to those numbers.

A number of factors could affect usage - unemployment, benefit claimants, zero-hours contracts, sickness, homelessness etc.

Particularly in London, figures may have increased due to furlough and/or unemployment but this could be that there are more people living in isolation without family help nearby.

Figures could also indicate that Northern Ireland has stronger family networks than most areas so its residents are less reliant on foodbanks.

Year-end statistics will, no doubt, make for even harder reading but they'll be even harder for foodbank users.

Many people have been made unemployed during the pandemic - including me!
I was fully aware of the 'system', but to many, it's come as a shock to find, for example that the money they'd been saving for years, towards buying a house, has to be used up before any help can be accessed.
If they're actually in the process of buying a house, they will no longer be given any help - like the mortgage interest being paid, so they could easily become homeless.
If they've got 'too many rooms' in their rented accommodation - not only bedrooms, but a separate dining room, they will have 14% deducted for on extra room, and 25% for 2 or more rooms.
If their rent is deemed too high, they will only receive a proportion of the rent due.
The Government moved many (mainly older) people out of their social housing as they were deemed to have too many rooms and moved them into expensive private 1 bedroomed accommodation, with the promise their rent would be paid.
Then, in 2013 benefit was capped. This led to homelessness.

Then there's the 5 weeks without any payment. This may 'work' if someone is paid monthly, but if you're paid weekly, with no savings, you have to take out a loan to cover rent, food, bills etc for that time - which you have to pay back out of your benefits.

It's come as a shock to those who, in what they considered their 'safe' jobs screeched about people 'living the life of Riley' on benefits, and accusing some of choosing being on benefits as a 'lifestyle' to be confronted with the reality.

As for strong family networks - that can only work for so long.

Nothing new under the sun!
I think Christmas has been ruined.
It should be about remembering
the Nativity of Jesus and being better.

Instead it now seems to be about
Too much eating, too much drinking
And falling out with each other.

St Gregory of Nazianzus, Archbishop of Constantinople 385AD.

(C&P from our Church Newsletter.)

The irony is not lost. The picture in the guardian showed showed breakfasts being

delivered to a food bank in the Prime minister’s constituency.

So many people have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and now have to rely

on food banks. It’s disgusting when there is plenty of wealth in the country much of it

being squandered by an incompetent bunch of people. :-(

Most people lose their jobs through no fault of their own - pandemic or not!

Maybe the 'I'm alright Jacks' will realise this, now.

I agree entirely, Von.

It's time all governments bucked their ideas up and appointed people with expertise to the job in hand but it makes me wonder what qualifications their advisers have too.

As we've seen many times they all have an eye on their own futures eg Nick Clegg, David Milliband and numerous others who have portfolios of 'jobs' after government service. Not your ordinary men in the street, are they?

It's all me, me, me! Is it any wonder that the behaviour of the general public is going that way too - if it's not already there?