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More Good News ......
grizzly1911
Posts: 9,965 Forumite
Aspirations
There is some good news in the Meadows.
A new food bank has opened and that means there is less shoplifting.
"Shoplifting for basics - milk and bread - has gone down since the food bank started," says Sharon Mills.
"Because if your kids are hungry, you will go stealing," she insists.
But optimists here are few and far between.
David Gretton, of the Meadows Advice Group, is worried about the impact that the benefits changes last month will have.
"In three or four months we are going to see an increase in bailiffs because people haven't paid the council tax," he says.
Britain's poorest city: The struggle to make ends meet
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22623964
'Huge' increase in demand at London food banks
40,000 Londoners used food banks from 2012-2013
The number of people using food banks in London has tripled in the last year, according to new figures.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22717665
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj4wcuo9Mgo"If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham
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Comments
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She owes £2,500 in energy bills but is slowly managing to pay that off.
Rachel does not count herself as being poor, though.
As proof, she mentions that her daughter goes to Brownies, and her son plays football.
I prioritise paying for heat and light above sending my kids to Brownies £40 per term plus uniform plus sundries and football £10 per session.
I also don't spend any money on drugs, ciggies or alcohol (although not only because I can't afford it).
You would have thought if an area was really penniless it would not be able to support the incomes of the loan sharks and baliffs, it is an intersting world we live in.I think....0 -
Rachel gets paid at the end of each month. By the beginning of the following month, all her salary has already gone on rent and bills. She survives to the next payday on £140 of tax credits and £134 child benefit.
This doesn't add up. A single parent with 2 children, working part-time as an administrator would receive far more than this in tax credits alone.
HMRC's online calculator suggests that if she was working 24 hours per week on minimum wage (roughly £7,700 pa) then she would receive almost £8,000 in tax credits. With child benefit that would bring her monthly household income to around £1,400. That is more than the national average household income.
I suspect that the £140 tax credits quoted is a weekly amount rather than monthly, which would put her employment income at around £10K, and yet she has still run up £2,500 unpaid energy bills."When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson0 -
Having aspirations suggests that you still believe you are in control of your own destiny.
To me that is the crucial thing.
There is a very rich neighbour near me. Some of his business interests lie in the PDL arena. He thinks he is doing right because has quite a number of 'regulars'.
I'm not so sure. Is this not just locking people into a cycle of debt? It sounds a sure fire why to squash aspirations.0 -
MacMickster wrote: »This doesn't add up. A single parent with 2 children, working part-time as an administrator would receive far more than this in tax credits alone.
HMRC's online calculator suggests that if she was working 24 hours per week on minimum wage (roughly £7,700 pa) then she would receive almost £8,000 in tax credits. With child benefit that would bring her monthly household income to around £1,400. That is more than the national average household income.
I suspect that the £140 tax credits quoted is a weekly amount rather than monthly, which would put her employment income at around £10K, and yet she has still run up £2,500 unpaid energy bills.
I can't access the tax credits site from here - what would the income and take home pay of someone receiving 140 quid per month rather than per week tax credits with 2 kids be? ThanksI think....0 -
From what I've read of food banks, they basically exist to support people who were living from pay cheque to pay cheque and then lose their jobs and have a delay until the first welfare cheque comes through.
Nobody in the UK that has kids is poor for more than a couple of weeks. Not really.
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You have no idea what poverty is if you think that's the case. Sorry to be so blunt but hundreds of millions of people would love to be able to access the bins outside the food bank in most parts of England.
It is Capitalism which has generated the belief in the Western world that wide-screen TVs etc are an essential part of daily life.
Poverty in the Western world is completely different from poverty in other places.
Capitalism works by creating unrealistic expectations.
You can't just switch it off!
TruckerTAccording to Clapton, I am a totally ignorant idiot.0 -
I can't access the tax credits site from here - what would the income and take home pay of someone receiving 140 quid per month rather than per week tax credits with 2 kids be? Thanks
Gross Pay roughly £27.5K
Take home around £1750 per month plus £140 per month tax credits and £134 child benefit 4 weekly."When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson0 -
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