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

grizzly1911

Conrad wrote: »

How about paying more so we support British workers?

If British workers were paid more perhaps they wouldn't need to seek out the bargains. Catch 22?

Thrugelmir

grizzly1911 wrote: »

If British workers were paid more perhaps they wouldn't need to seek out the bargains. Catch 22?

Can't see British workers doing 12 hour days and living in dormitories.
In effect going back over a hundred years to Victorian times.

epz_2

YoungBusinessman wrote: »

This shows a minority of the Glasgow scene and infact the city as a whole is thriving just now, jobs are there if you are prepared to work hard for it.

I think she was from pollok which was ruff as hell even in the good times, the problem is if you are brought up in that sort of area you are trapped more by what and who you know than external opportunities.

I did find the pregnant girl who was forced to stop smoking cause her claim was turned down disturbing.

CLAPTON

in many parts of the world there is a 'professional' beggar class (particularly in India but also elsewhere).

people give to the beggars as they are good people

the beggars parents' cripple their own children to make them 'better' beggars


is it a good thing to give to beggars or not ?

dktreesea

exarmydreamer wrote: »

....
These days a lot of children are brought into the world to provide a benefit income to the parent and so the circle continues...../

That to me is one of the more astonishing facts about our social welfare system. At the end of the programme they said that the girl in Glasgow who did the 6 month work placement was pregnant. I wasn't surprised to hear that, because it's probably the only way she can double her income, and she will have someone to love - and to love her - and for company.

That's the problem with living alone in general. It's relatively expensive, AND you have to do everything yourself, so relatively tiring as well. So I can understand that girl deciding to have a family, even though she is so young herself.

But a welfare system that not only encourages people to have children, but then pays them more to have those children than they pay for the out of work grown adults in the family? Does a young child really cost more than an adult?

If that Glasgow girl had been able to do that job part time for the minimum wage, even if the government had picked up the tab for her and help her with her housing costs for two years, she might still have been there.

shaggydoo

Generali wrote: »

I've not seen the program but is there anything in it that makes you think that giving young unemployed people more dole money would solve these problems?

TBH, my experience of young people from these sorts of backgrounds is that any amount of money won't help. Life experience, and in some cases access to mental healthcare, might well.

They need work, so they need to be made more mobile. The girls (haven't seen the boys yet) live in Glascow, Bradford and Rotherham (I think). All of them could have easily have found work in the south East and had a comfortable life. They need to get the hell out of where they were born...

imho

shaggydoo

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

Whatever the rights and wrongs, and whether them smoking and drinking discredits the case in their favour, the fact is that just throwing money at them to do with what they will does more harm than good. The purpose it does serve is making the comfortable liberal chattering classes feel better about themselves. There will always be an underclass of some sort, that is a sociological reality. But an education system that rewards effort and achievement properly and provides a proper conduit for the brighter and more achieving types to be encouraged and improve themselves would help greatly. It also should help to train the less academically able to do something useful in terms of earning a living. Furthermore things like work ethic, self discipline, punctuality, and personal presentation should be a key feature of state school life, as they mostly are in the private sector. It's not all the teachers' fault that we turn out so many unemployables. It's down to trendy, liberal, anti-elitist so-called educational experts who have been allowed to foist their damaging, politically correct ideas onto the system, and tie teachers' hands. It's all about giving people fishing rods, not fish meals.

Did you watch the program? One of the girls was working in a shop 30 hours per week for nothing but work experience, she had plenty of work ethic, self discipline, punctuality, and personal presentation.
What do you do if there is no paid work anywhere?

shaggydoo

N1AK wrote: »

What I think did show through is that at least a couple of the girls on the episode I watched had the capacity to become successful members of society but didn't have the willpower and belief required to get there without support.

This is so true. So what to do? Even if you can instill in them the belief that life could be different is it actually in possible to have a great life in Glascow, Bradford or Rotherham?

shaggydoo

Generali wrote: »

Interestingly, income distribution has become 'fairer' under the Tories:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp29904_295499.pdf

Only because we have all become poorer.

Good news! Your chances of living in poverty in the UK have fallen in the last few years. But, oddly, that doesn’t mean we have more money.

Sadly, across almost every measure, the number of Britons struggling has risen since the 2007 financial crisis (see chart below). More people are struggling to pay their mortgages, rents, meet debt payments, keep their homes warm, meet unexpected costs or even eat meat or protein regularly.

So why are people less likely to be in poverty? Well, that’s because poverty is measured compared to everyone else, and everyone else has got poorer too.

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/how-poor-is-britain-now-122632356.htm

jules888

shaggydoo wrote: »

Sadly, it seemed that she ended up pregnant....:(

I thought i saw her smoking as well.