10 million in severe poverty

[Vitamin c]

I've lived in the same village for almost 30yrs I know most of my neighbours well I wonder if you could get a rota going where 5 people went from home to home Monday to Friday 5 to 1030 so you only had to heat your home 1 night a week plus TV and a tea break .

[Kiwififer]

That might work if you get on with your neighbours.

In my wee bit, there would likely be at least two murders….

[Kiwififer]

This has just been tweeted by our FM. Still not great but according to this, child poverty has fallen in Scotland.

It gives other areas as well if you want to see how your bit of these rocks are doing.

[diamond lil]

Poverty's always been with us but I think maybe now there are just too many people full stop - esp in England. Too many people means too many problems for anybody to fix. I think they only way is for small neighbourhood ventures,people helping themselves. But that won't work in areas of high crime. This winter things will really get interesting - because the next level up are going to start really feeling the pinch. Higher fuel prices + astronomical heating bills + the job losses that are coming with recession. Might be worth it all to get people to wake up and do something about it all ...

[Frnc]

I've just googled the definition of Severe Poverty in the UK , and according to Professor google it is those existing on 60% of the median UK income. But I think this is an outdated definition and all things are relative. For this definition doesn't take into account the massive price hikes in almost everything nor which part of the UK you live.. Does anyone really believe we have 10% inflation? I'm seeing it to be more like 30% - 40% in some things, especially food!

For example, if you lived with family in a small ex local authority house in a pit village in the North East, mortgage paid off, had an allotment or two, kept a few chickens, used public transport, shared lifts with mates, cooked traditional food from scratch, had a strong community that would exchange goods and services with you,,, living on approx £15,000 a year is doable. But try doing that alone in the South East!! I'd say it would be near impossible.

I live on much less than £15,000 per annum and I consider myself to live well,,,,, but I earn a lot more than that and save the greater percentage of my income. Not because I'm a miser. But I just don't need or want things... Poverty is relative!

Now for the solutions,,,,
There's been an increase in food bank use. But most of the food isn't the healthiest. And there's often no point in providing fresh food if people can't afford to run fridges and cookers. I've ran a small community kitchen which provided meals for the elderly and a lunch once per week.

I have an idea...
Food banks by their very nature are often demeaning. Now please don't all bite my head off,,, but I know I could never bring myself to ever accept food from a food bank. I would see it as a massive personal failure and I'd honestly rather not eat for days than accept charity. I would see it ( on a personal level) as below rock bottom.. Humiliating, degrading, an utter failure.

People need to feel valued. To have a purpose, To be useful,
There are plenty of closed down cafes and coffee shops with Class 3 Consent.
What if these were opened as Community kitchens,, People getting together and producing simple, nutritious home cooked meals. Food could be cooked, packaged up, and taken home. Everyone has a part in the operation. People would be warm. They don't have high energy bills to pay to cook. I know companies who would donate food, meat, fish, vegetables.

I had thought of starting this. But I have also questioned whether there is a need in my area.

Any input appreciated,, and please don't bite off my head about me not being able to go to a food bank.It's just how I am.

And in reply to "it killed the poll tax", the difference is that the poll tax bill was only one creditor,,, the local authorities,

I've been a believer in the idea of community kitchens/restaurants since the early 80s. In my imagination, you could go and eat there for free or very minimal cost, and do some work there, donate food or whatever. I think they would be great social facilities, save resources, and other benefits.

[Frnc]

My wife is in teaching and sees poverty everyday. Free ( universal) school meals would be a very good start.

Definnitely. It's a disgrace that there are hungry kids in one of the richest countries in the world. Meanwhile Eton, which charges £50,000 a year per kid, gets tax examptions as a ''charity'!

[jansman]

My wife is in teaching and sees poverty everyday. Free ( universal) school meals would be a very good start.

Definnitely. It's a disgrace that there are hungry kids in one of the richest countries in the world. Meanwhile Eton, which charges £50,000 a year per kid, gets tax examptions as a ''charity'!

Be that as it may, the Eton kids are not in the situation we are discussing. There will always be those who have,and those who have not.Thats how it is.Your political leaning is obvious,but please let’s steer away from it.

[Kiwififer]

The kids are not the problem, it is the system that is broken.

The gap between the rich and poor is at its widest I’ve seen in my lifetime, it is simply unsustainable if it keeps going. Private schools enforce the view that there’s ‘betters’ and ‘others’ but that is not the kids fault, that’s the system that engrains it into them.

I’ve lived in two other countries, New Zealand and Australia. Both have elite schools, all have poverty, crime and drugs but I never once came across ‘I’m better than you because I went to X Boys School’.

This however is getting away from the main thrust of the thread, we have gripping inequality and poverty and few solutions to end it. There is also little political will to do so, at least it looks like that from a U.K. pov.

[Frnc]

The kids are not the problem, it is the system that is broken.

The gap between the rich and poor is at its widest I’ve seen in my lifetime, it is simply unsustainable if it keeps going. Private schools enforce the view that there’s ‘betters’ and ‘others’ but that is not the kids fault, that’s the system that engrains it into them.

I’ve lived in two other countries, New Zealand and Australia. Both have elite schools, all have poverty, crime and drugs but I never once came across ‘I’m better than you because I went to X Boys School’.

This however is getting away from the main thrust of the thread, we have gripping inequality and poverty and few solutions to end it. There is also little political will to do so, at least it looks like that from a U.K. pov.

One thing economists and politicians tend to not think about is this: imagine a country has extreme inequality, where a small number of people have most of the wealth and own all the industry, and most people are skint. Who do the rich think they are going to sell their products and services to? Low wages mean smaller markets. Things like austerity (eg cutting money for education) have this effect. Underemployment also, ie where a lot of people can only find part-time work.

[Vitamin c]

My neighbour has 3 kids in a 3 bed house 2 share a bedroom 1 has his own mum and dad have the other i know that in the kids rooms their are large TVs a laptop each 2 xbox's everyone has a phone and in the living room a family TV large a family computer and music system

That's just one average house.

In my youth we had a TV in living room with a stereo gram a radio in the kitchen .
We well all have to go back to the 70s for the foreseeable future.