Food and fuel poverty approaching?

[Le Mouse]

Add to food and fuel poverty, more people are struggling with paying rent or mortgages:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25577567

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, which helps a million people a year with housing problems, said that despite recent discussion of an economic recovery, a combination of high housing costs, wage freezes, and rising food and energy bills had created a "nightmare scenario" for many families.

He said: "It's a worrying sign of the times that so many are starting the New Year worried about how they'll pay their rent or mortgage in 2014.

"Unless they get help, some of the families struggling now could face the very real prospect of losing their home this year."

Like someone said earlier, public transport prices went up on 1st January (round here, the bus prices go up on Sunday). If you're dependent on public transport, that's a big chunk out of a wage which itself *isn't* going up!

I like what SooBee said:

Having said that...food is not a wish but a necessity. I know the country has an obesity problem but starvation is no way to deal with it.
Education might work better and be fairer. I feel that perhaps schools could fit a new subject into their curriculum..."Basics".

Even I need to relearn some of those.

When I was a wee Mouse, my school was attached to a special school with kids who had all manner of physical and learning difficulties. Our teacher told us that the older kids had lessons in budgeting on a small income because the reality was that quite a few wouldn't be able to work and would have to exist on benefits. And I thought 'Why can't we have those lessons too?' As much as learning about the Vikings was fascinating, having lessons about managing a very small budget would have been much more useful!

[grenfell]

Not everyone is convinced by this food poverty as I read recently in our local paper. The columnist wrote that he thought that the rise in the number of people claiming at the food banks has grown because the number of food banks themselves has increased. He then went on to say that if we were to open beer banks there would soon be stories of beer poverty seems he's got his argument arse about face .

[Le Mouse]

A friend just posted this on Twitter:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014 ... e-families

A £180m-a-year hardship fund providing emergency help for low-income families who suffer sudden financial crisis as a result of domestic violence, ill-health or natural disaster such as flooding is to be scrapped, it has emerged.

It's not just January that'll be difficult for many. Give it 15 months and some of the most vulnerable people in society will be losing a critical safety net.

[justsurviving]

Its amazing that people complain about public sector employees have only had a 1% pay rise. well what about the private sector many have had none. I know people who have not had a pay rise since 2009. yet the public sector has, so has benefit claimants. We always see people moaning about public transport rises well all sorts of people use public transport.

If we stopped OAP free bus passes that would help. It also stuns me that via Facebook and other sources people moan about food/fuel poverty yet manage to pay £150 for a tattoo and have sky installed and moan about not getting the newest X box or what ever.

There are many reasons for the state of this country, the previous Govt: EU immigration. foreign aid. Welfare. The list goes on.

My partner used to work 80 hrs a week (7days) to keep the business running employed 20 ppl. they all moaned about this that and the other, but some still earnt more than she did.

I have little or no sympathy for many people in my area, there are 2 women on a local estate who's benefits are in excess of £36k is that right ???? my partner earnt less that that some years. I have to view Facebook and see these people give their kids £100's on xmas presents and days out while my family work and can't afford it. So much for a just England.

[jansman]

Its amazing that people complain about public sector employees have only had a 1% pay rise. well what about the private sector many have had none. I know people who have not had a pay rise since 2009. yet the public sector has, so has benefit claimants. We always see people moaning about public transport rises well all sorts of people use public transport.

If we stopped OAP free bus passes that would help. It also stuns me that via Facebook and other sources people moan about food/fuel poverty yet manage to pay £150 for a tattoo and have sky installed and moan about not getting the newest X box or what ever.

There are many reasons for the state of this country, the previous Govt: EU immigration. foreign aid. Welfare. The list goes on.

My partner used to work 80 hrs a week (7days) to keep the business running employed 20 ppl. they all moaned about this that and the other, but some still earnt more than she did.

I have little or no sympathy for many people in my area, there are 2 women on a local estate who's benefits are in excess of £36k is that right ???? my partner earnt less that that some years. I have to view Facebook and see these people give their kids £100's on xmas presents and days out while my family work and can't afford it. So much for a just England.

The Country is in the state it is in, because of the state it is in. Every country on the planet has the same problems. Watch the news. The Economy is a result of Globalization. I use the Z as that is what George Bush Senior used, when he told us back in 1990 that we now live in a Globalized Economy.

Blaming this, that or the other will not apportion any responsibility. Short memory etc. it was originally about toxic loans. Living on the Never-Never. Or Have-it-Now-Pay-Later.

I have ALWAYS worked for small Family Firms. The one I work for now is sound. BUT the Boss told me if he has to work more hours than the employees, OR start pumping cash in-he is done. And I don't blame him.
It all has to work for YOU.

[tolerance]

Really don't want to sound pretentious when discussing this BUT....

I was always bought up to pay your bills first my mum and dad used to say as long as you have a roof over your head and some food in your belly you will get by..

People moan about how much it costs to feed a family, well surly the simple answer is don't start a family then..
I would not go out and buy a Ferrari knowing full well I couldn't afford the insurance on it, so just think before you make decisions in life.

Being single it is so expensive food wise because the family packs all have discounts but If I was to buy a family pack I would just end up with loads of food waste.

Fuel poverty.... yet again I don't want to sound pretentious but when I was homeless in the winter of 2007 which was quite bad if you cast your minds back, I was sleeping under a train bridge and wearing literally every item of clothing I owned on me.

I am not saying it is fine that children are coming home from school and feeling the cold and I am certainly not saying it is fine that older people are afraid to put on their heating because of the bills but what I am saying is lets teach the younger generations of today to not depend on central heating or electric fires, lets teach them to put on a jumper or 2, to drink hot drinks and to use hot water bottles.

I am not saying lets live in the dark ages, Lets just live with some common sense and some foresight we have winter every year we know it gets cold and we know the energy companies don't give a monkeys when they put their prices up, so lets be prepared and find other means of keeping warm.

Jumpers are not just a fashion statement they are a practical piece of clothing.

Maybe I am just to cynical but I do worry about future generations when I see the way we react now to the cost of food and fuel prices, these items will only ever go up all the time we keep breeding and needing a bigger and better supply off food and energy to keep us going as a nation.

Just Think, Just Listen, and Just prepare

[Malthouse]

You make fair points Tolerance, but I believe you are over simplifying the problems.

The ambulance service get a fair number of calls to elderly people who have put on extra jumpers, but they are still suffering from hypothermia.

And couple who had kids 10 or 15 years ago may well have done so with two incomes, they may now have less than half that coming in now and no one really could demand that they foresaw that.

I agree that the majority of sheeple are lazy and selfish, they will not look far enough ahead and not prioritise well at all.

[jansman]

Obviously there will always be differing opinions and political leanings with any discussion. But I think in the times ahead, we will look back and see the second half of the 20th century as the fat, lazy times. *I* think we are in for a real sharp shock,a New Reality.

What we need to do here , on this forum, is discuss ways to solve problems, not complain about the problems themselves.

[Briggs]

There's a certain irony in the 'put on a jumper' argument because I think it's a good analogy. So, let me rant for a moment on the topic of jumpers.

How many sheeple went out and bought totally impractical but highly fashionable Christmas jumpers this year? They were easy to spot in the daytime because of the garish 8-bit reindeers on the front and even easier to spot as the cheap polyester weave sparked with static when people brushed past each other. Every cheap, polyester, garish jumper was fabricated in a Far East sweatshop for the lowest wage and the highest profit, then shipped by container 4000 miles to be worn once in the UK then undoubtedly binned. At best, the jumper will be recycled by Oxfam, and ultimately end up being worn by some kid in Africa on Comic Relief 2014.

Only a fraction of the revenue from that jumper contributed to the UK's economy. That is the issue here. Now extrapolate tacky Christmas jumpers to the tacky Christmas lights, all made in the Far East, and if I dare risk being xenophobic for a moment, predominately being made in China. Extrapolate it further to cheap and nasty toys, cheap and nasty gifts, etc, etc. Container ship after container ship full of cheap, unnecessary, frivolous tat. This country has become China's pound shop and as a nation, we choose to shop there. For example, why does my 35 year old brother-in-law need a remote control helicopter for Christmas Day? Because all his mates got one perhaps, along with their bl**dy Christmas jumpers. £45 upwards spent on a cheap, tacky Chinese jumper and micro-copter that will both be discarded come Boxing Day. What a cock-eyed, gormless, brainless load of nonsense.

So, we have hard-earned UK wages being spent on imported, Far Eastern rubbish. The UK turns the revenue for minimal profit while the Chinese maximise the profits. That is the true issue with a globalised economy. Now, here's the rub. If it's stupid to be spending hard-earned UK wages, how stupid is it to be spending benefit money on Far Eastern imports? Do the maths here. It's no wonder the country is nearing economical meltdown.

It's quite simple. If it says MADE IN CHINA, don't buy it!

[Malthouse]

That is all true, I can testify to the full container ships that pour in during the latter part of the year delivering over priced plastic for consumption.

But, you can't single out China.

An economy is measured by imports versus exports, it matters not one jot when the imports come from. Except that reaffirming good economic relations with countries from, for example, the Commonwealth makes sense.