Baroness Stroud who chairs an all party enquiry has produced a report which has identified that over four million UK citizens are living on incomes below the 'official' breadline !!! HuffPost is now part of Oath
Poverty line defined as 60% of median income "made up of 8.3 million working-age adults; 4.6 million children; and 1.3 million pension-age adults" There would be about 12, 13 million children in the UK. So report is saying 1 in 3 children in the UK is living in poverty. Which of course is bullshit. And hardly surprising 1.3 million pensioners are on less than 60% of the median income For our US readers, 60% of median UK income is US$28000 a year, thats poverty apparently
Yes, but you haven't accounted for the cost of living either rent/Mortgage, Council Tax, Gas/Electricity/Water rates, cost of shoppping etc, etc. and that's even not accounting for travel to and from work.
You have hit the nail on the head. We spend about £50 per head per week on food, lass than our daughters fares too and from work. However the breadline figure is hugely misleading, since it is calculated on the overall cost of living. A large number of people included in this figure live in social accommodation, do not work and claim everything on benefits. Many of them have satellite TV and own a car. Very few people go hungry in the UK and the vast majority who do are addicted to gambling, alcohol, or drugs.
So how do you account for the burgeoining numbers of food banks across the country and why the vast majority of their clientele are not social security claimants, but those actually working ???
It does happen when people are burdened with a high mortgage, but the percentage figures are nowhere near those in your original post. Strangely enough, a lot of these people earn well above the 'breadline' figure and have stretched their budget when buying a house. Finding ways of determining who should be allowed to use these food banks is hugely difficult.
A slightly different angle and I am not taking sides here but there are an every increasing number of people on the streets . Now I have to admit when I see some of these so called homeless, not all appear genuine to me . The genuine ones are those who are sitting it out when its raining but their numbers certainly in my area tend to be on the increase . The soup kitchens are also out on a Friday and Saturday night who give the needy support to the homeless . I don't know if these fit the criteria for food banks but IMO ought to be considered .My point is here the gap is widening between those who have and those who havn't . IMO Foreign Aid no matter what party is in power should be suspended until we get our own house in order instead of looking good in a PR exercise.
This is an altogether different problem and their are endless reasons behind it. Our eldest daughter is a London police office and she (along with dozens of other officers) spend a lot of time during night shifts trying to resolve the situation. Some of the things that she hears are heart breaking. The major reasons are as follows. Alcohol and drug addiction, along with people who gamble their money away is the largest single cause. Guys ending a relationship and being kicked out of their home (often following a court ruling) is a major cause. Some of these people have been kicked out by 'gold digging' partners when the investment banks collapsed and the easy come, easy go lifestyle came to an abrupt end. Ex military and people released from prison who have no idea how to budget or run a home form another sizable percentage. Mental illness. Once a person has no address for appointments to be sent to, any treatment soon grinds to a halt. Illegal immigrants, or people running from the law Claustrophobia is far more widespread than most people realize. Unfortunately, on it's own, it is not classified as a mental illness. The problems soon become a catch 22 situation, where without a home address, people can not get a job and without money they cannot get a home. Fortunately, in London, police, local councils and health authorities are at last working together to find a solution and the councils appoint a named care worker to each case. Several major companies have joined in and offer employment to people referred to them by the care workers. Hopefully it will succeed and other cities will follow our pattern. .
