The BBC's "Growing up poor". Poverty seen up close

princeofpounds

The documentary showed the grim reality facing millions of people in this country brought about by an unequal access to life opportunities.

Truth is, for most of these serious cases it's not really a case of getting into university, or getting a job, or even getting A levels.

The battle is usually lost and won very early. I think the Jesuits used to say something like "give me the boy until he is 6 and I will give you the man", and it's true for the fate of the underclass too.

We see the stereotypes of the 'noble poor' and the 'savage poor' and really it's not the material poverty that divides them at all.

exarmydreamer

Just from a budgeting point of view.

Can someone remind me how much Ian Duncan Smith (subsidized tax payers) breakfast was?.

Hold on, it was just under £40.00.

How much do these girls get for a week?.

£50.00 from the tax payer to live on for 7 days.

I know who is getting the best deal!, and I don't vote for anyone (so don't refer to me as left, right or UKIP, it's an insult).

Thrugelmir

LauraW10 wrote: »

For the benefit bashers amongst you (you know who you are ) - The Economist article concludes:-

Not benefit bashers per se.

However I would like an explanation as to why Mr Brown felt it necessary to create a system whereby my my son's tax deductions are being spent on tax credits for the middle class?

(My son is single and on a relatively low wage I should add).

PDC

I did really feel for some of the people in this, though at the same time you could see some of the people had no comprehension of how they could be responsible for themselves or their own lives.

grizzly1911

exarmydreamer wrote: »

Just from a budgeting point of view.

Can someone remind me how much Ian Duncan Smith (subsidized tax payers) breakfast was?.

Hold on, it was just under £40.00.

How much do these girls get for a week?.

£50.00 from the tax payer to live on for 7 days.



I know who is getting the best deal!, and I don't vote for anyone (so don't refer to me as left, right or UKIP, it's an insult).

This IDS?

Housing cuts IDS gets his mansion free

Tory welfare secretary Iain Duncan Smith - the man slashing housing benefit for hard-up families - is living in a £2million Tudor country pile for FREE.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/housing-cuts-ids-gets-his-mansion-258616


Don body armour and await inevitable champagne socialist rhetoric


Innocently found when googling info on your post.:D

ash28

margaretclare wrote: »

I did see some of this, not all. As I grew up in the direst poverty a couple of generations ago I was intrigued by how much things have changed since my childhood. For example, I saw a young girl sitting alone in her sparsely-furnished flat in front of a large TV set, and I thought how much had changed since my single mum and her disabled sister struggled to live and to raise me. They were never still. Even my aunt, who sat on the floor most of her life since polio age 21 in 1926, never stopped - sewing, knitting, cooking (cheap cuts of meat to make nutritious meals, home-baked bread), clothes remade from cast-offs of the better-off women my mum cleaned for. The love and support that surrounded me and how hard it must have been for them especially after my grandad's death in 1948 and the loss of his state pension, which was almost all the benefit available at that time. Just at that age when I was at grammar school and 'needed things' like a Guide uniform.

I am not criticising these young women, just feeling so sorry for them. I'd like to take them by the hand, take them round the markets, search for bargains - meat, veg etc can often be found especially late in the day - and make some proper food. Buy some wool and knit jumpers.

I empathise with the young woman who had only a microwave and no cooker. I wanted to say to her 'You don't need pre-made chips, buy a few baking spuds and bake a spud in the microwave. Many a good degree has been gained on beans on toast or beans with a baked spud'.

Things were supposed to get better but it's the 'poverty of aspiration' that is worse than anything. All the information that's available has been lost on these young women.

PS: None of the women in the village where I grew up could have afforded cigarettes. Nor could I when my children were little.

I didn't see the programme but I was brought up in poverty.

I think the difference is that I and my siblings were brought up in functional family. My parents and grandparents supported each other and us, all of their lives, we had nothing in a material sense.

Having been brought up in poverty I knew I would do my utmost not to spend the rest of my life like that. We all did, it may have taken a bit longer than some one whose circumstances were more comfortable than ours but we all got there in the end.

There was always mum and dad who, although couldn't help in a financial way, offered plenty of advice and help in other ways.

Good parenting costs nothing, poor parenting can mean a lifetime of misery.

These kids need help and support - not necessarily financial (as you say), I do feel for them, a lot of them on the scrapheap before they reach adulthood.

CWSmith

Similar to ash28, I was brought up in what was (at the time) relative comfort, and was the norm for every family on the street, and in fact, everyone we knew .............. but by today's standards, it would be deemed (probably extreme!) poverty.

By that I mean the very cheapest cuts of meat a couple of times a week, hiding from the council rent man, bread and dripping for tea quite regularly, no heating beyond an open fire in one room of the house, wearing hand-me-downs until I was 12 ........... it didn't feel like poverty at the time. There were plenty worse off.

By the way, this wasn't 1900, it was in the early to mid 1960's,

exarmydreamer

CWSmith wrote: »

Similar to ash28, I was brought up in what was (at the time) relative comfort, and was the norm for every family on the street, and in fact, everyone we knew .............. but by today's standards, it would be deemed (probably extreme!) poverty.

By that I mean the very cheapest cuts of meat a couple of times a week, hiding from the council rent man, bread and dripping for tea quite regularly, no heating beyond an open fire in one room of the house, wearing hand-me-downs until I was 12 ........... it didn't feel like poverty at the time. There were plenty worse off.

By the way, this wasn't 1900, it was in the early to mid 1960's,

I had a similar upbringing in the 70's. we didn't have much but it pushed me on through my life to achieve as much as possible to provide better to my children. I joined the Army as a 19 yrs old girl and stayed for 17 yrs.

There is of course the materialistic things in life, but it is obviously love, support and empathy these youngsters need now but they have had parents brought up in an enviroment which has not nurtured them. So I imagine the parents either don't care or don't know how to support their grown up children.

These days a lot of children are brought into the world to provide a benefit income to the parent and so the circle continues. No dreams of a better future and no hope, of it because of the state of the country.:(

GeorgeHowell

N1AK wrote: »

blah blah blah rant rant rant. You're right I must be wrong! Whatever it was that you said has really changed my opinion on the subject, it must surely be an effective form of discourse.

It's an internet forum, not a chaired debate. I doubt that many opinions are changed by whatever is posted. If your contribution majors on accusing those who disagree with you of 'ranting', then I would contend that is not a very effective form of discourse. Not only is it unlikely to change opinions, but will surely not even make interesting or stimulating reading for most people.

grizzly1911

CWSmith wrote: »

Similar to ash28, I was brought up in what was (at the time) relative comfort, and was the norm for every family on the street, and in fact, everyone we knew .............. but by today's standards, it would be deemed (probably extreme!) poverty.

By that I mean the very cheapest cuts of meat a couple of times a week, hiding from the council rent man, bread and dripping for tea quite regularly, no heating beyond an open fire in one room of the house, wearing hand-me-downs until I was 12 ........... it didn't feel like poverty at the time. There were plenty worse off.

By the way, this wasn't 1900, it was in the early to mid 1960's,

I was only a child in the 60s and things weren't much different, perhaps a rung up.

Expectations have changed.

Instant gratification didn't exist like to day everything had to be fought for. Consumerism, advertising, overt capitalism, have led people to expect so much more as a right.

My dad used to chuckle about the fact that doors were never locked on his street, when he was young, on the basis there was nothing to nick in any house.