Britian's poorest going hungry: Are we heading the same way?

steddyeddy

smcgiff wrote: »

I don't think anyone is disagreeing with you that 10% of people are not eating healthy enough.

The reasons as to why possibly differ.

There are also wealthy people not eating healthy.

What to do?

Yes of course they differ. Of course people are miss-budgeting whether they be rich are poor. People are often uneducated about food which doesn't help either. However those are different issues than someone having to use a food bank to supplement their diet.

steddyeddy

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I'm sorry, there's very few reasons for anyone not getting enough nutrition in either the UK or Ireland, and the vast majority of them boil down to poor decision making on the part of the person themselves. Personal responsibility and poor lifestyle choices are tough things for a government to legislate for.

Can you provide some data for your analysis?

hmmm

How is taxing people more (because of "inequality") going to solve the problem of mothers who feed their kids nothing but chicken mcnuggets? You'd make plenty of nutritious healthy meals for the price of a McDs, if you could be bothered enough to do it.

dharma200

Untill you have been in this situation it is very hard to even understand how food poverty occurs. It does not happen overnight, and usually it happens over a prolonged period of time.. choices have to be made when on low income (and this includes working people not just people on the dole, infact thousands of working people seek asstistance). An electricity bill, your fridge breaking down, car porblem (if you need a car to work before dole bashing starts).. a school expense for one of your children, an unforseen death or circumstance can ALL knock someone into food poverty. The 'oh i can live of takeaways for a week on 50 quid' brigade have no idea what prolonged responsibility with little means can do.

I know mothers who have collapsed due to not eating because they are giving th efood to children. I know of people who have had their electricity cut off because it was a choiuce between that or becoming completely homeless. I know many many people who are victims of the lack of rent control in ireland and the recent cuts have forced them into dire poverty through no fault of their own. I also know someone who commited suicide due to the pressure of being unable to provide adequate food/rent/clothes etc for their family and just couldnt take it anymore. Some of the situations charities in Ireland are seeing now are appauling.

It is the worst it has been for the lower income people. The comments here of people who can quite easily live off set amounts a week are unrealistic. Long term low income poverty, including those working, paying childcare, paying massive rentsmortgages etc is not the same as having a sewt amount of money per week an managing, life is not like that. Food poverty is massive already in Ireland and those that dont know it choose not to see it, or do the 'dole' bashing, alcohol swilling gamblin one, whereas the reality is it is people who you would look at and think were doing ok, families with jobs, who cant afford to eat and heat their house at the same time.

Beaner1

steddyeddy wrote: »

Can you provide some data for your analysis?

Food has never been cheaper.
Source: CSO

sh1tstirrer

stateofflux wrote: »

i have never seen a starving emaciated person in Ireland Ever. i have also never heard of anyone dying from Starvation here.

whether that is directly related to the efforts of some of the 8,000 charities in Ireland i cannot tell..

Black 47, an Gorta Mór. You need to brush up on your history

smcgiff

steddyeddy wrote: »

However those are different issues than someone having to use a food bank to supplement their diet.

Re foodbanks, it would be interesting for an unbiased survey for the reasons of why people found themselves in the situation.

I agree that a more educated populace would improve the food poverty levels. But a state can only intervene so much.

Tobyglen

One minute the supposed lower classes are all going to be obese in 2020, now they're going to starve. Make up your mind folks!

Aineoil

People who work can live in poverty too - a wage can't pay for everything. Heating is expensive. If any appliance breaks down you

might not have the money to replace it. Cars etc break down and they are expensive to fix.

smcgiff

Aineoil wrote: »

People who work can live in poverty too - a wage can't pay for everything. Heating is expensive. If any appliance breaks down you

might not have the money to replace it. Cars etc break down and they are expensive to fix.

What do you suggest should be done?

steddyeddy

Aineoil wrote: »

People who work can live in poverty too - a wage can't pay for everything. Heating is expensive. If any appliance breaks down you

might not have the money to replace it. Cars etc break down and they are expensive to fix.

People who work are often in greater poverty than those on benefits. You won't find me disagreeing with that.

shuffle65

I'm trying to get my head around this, would need to educate myself a little more in order to make a more informed comment. (or perhaps a lot more!)

The example of a student putting themselves through college with minimum support I can understand, my own experience of raising children as a single parent family, not so much. No money for luxuries for sure, but always adequate to provide nutritious meals (Not always very elaborate I admit!) I'm sure there's someone who will be able to fill me in on what I'm missing (probably something glaringly obvious, so apologies in advance)

Lidl and Aldi were a godsend...

smcgiff

steddyeddy wrote: »

People who work are often in greater poverty than those on benefits. You won't find me disagreeing with that.

Usually this is the case where someone cannot support a previous lifestyle due to redundancy. For someone in employment and with reasonable budgeting skills and social welfare support such as FIS they should be fine.

sh1tstirrer

steddyeddy wrote: »

People who work are often in greater poverty than those on benefits. You won't find me disagreeing with that.

All the uproar about water charges and the sneaky tax USC is ignored :mad:

sh1tstirrer

craig_daniel wrote: »

its more ill discipline in a budgetary sense

irish people as a whole are prety fiscally irresponsible , add in our expectations for the goverment to do everything for us and you have a recipe for general personal responsibility deficit

The most important thing never taught in schools money management of course algebra would be more important :mad:

lulu1

Could someone tell me what a families income would be to be considered to be living in poverty.

Just say a family of four

Aineoil

steddyeddy wrote: »

People who work are often in greater poverty than those on benefits. You won't find me disagreeing with that.

My husband and I budget well but it's the unknown things that catch us out. We use the one car to go to work- it's not convenient, but it's only one tax etc.

My car needed work. The car needed a new gear box 2 weeks before Christmas. That cost 900 euro.

So for us Christmas was conducted on a very low key level, even though we both work.


Thanks for agreeing with me.

shuffle65

Aineoil wrote: »

My car needed work. The car needed a new gear box 2 weeks before Christmas. That cost 900 euro.
.

Ouch!

Capercaille

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

All the uproar about water charges and the sneaky tax USC is ignored :mad:

Can't even claim USC against Gross profit. A pure loss!!!!!!!!!!!

smcgiff

Capercaille wrote: »

Can't even claim USC against Gross profit. A pure loss!!!!!!!!!!!

what's that?

bb1234567

Armistice wrote: »

I think the UK has a much wider gap between the haves and the have nots.

In Ireland we're all more or less the same regardless of whether we are working or not.

There are of course extremely rich people and homeless people at the opposite end of the spectrum but nowhere near as wide a gap as the UK.

In the UK it is perfectly normal to have an average salary of 16K a year in one region and an average salary of 55K a year in another.

I know plenty of folks who moved down from Derry to do a similar job in Dublin as they were getting paid 10K a year in Derry for something that pays 26K in Dublin.

Massive difference.

Ah now, if you look around some parts of south Dublin vs some parts of North Dublin youll clearly see a big income equality gap...as in very very big

garp

RDM_83 again wrote: »

Thats an interesting point , if they were highly rational they would be sitting on the dole (allowing for periods of employment) for a year after finishing leaving cert , obtaining BTEA and living a decent life throughout there time in college.

Edit its a very harsh thing to say but that path is their choice and i presume that they are sticking with it in terms of future rewards. We should have better support for students in this country but the type of student your talking about (even for grant holders) is a tiny tiny minority

Correct me if I am wrong but did they not change it so that you are not able to get "The Dole (BTEA)" and the "The Grant" at the same time and lets face it in this regard we/you are talking about adults/over 18's.
A lot of the food poverty in this country is in relation to children. I was very horrified when a teacher friend informed me that his school had started a "breakfast club" because children were arriving into school hungry, Mondays being the worst.
Poverty is never a choice.

sh1tstirrer

smcgiff wrote: »

what's that?

The wonder of google
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226158

NIMAN

Don't believe the hype, very few people are starving in Ireland or the UK.

And if the UK is so hungry, how come there are so many massive people around?
People from all ends of the spectrum are over-eating from what I can see.

garp

Beaner1 wrote: »

Food has never been cheaper.
Source: CSO

Pulled this out of me A**.
Source: Me A**.
Provide a link

smcgiff

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

The wonder of google
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226158

I've seen the odd thousand or so p&l's in my life. Not sure what their point re USC is though.

Beaner1

garp wrote: »

Pulled this out of me A**.
Source: Me A**.
Provide a link

CSO.ie

Tearin It Up

I'm hungry.

sh1tstirrer

smcgiff wrote: »

I've seen the odd thousand or so p&l's in my life. Not sure what their point re USC is though.

I took you up wrong I don't have a clue either about the posters connection with gross profit and usc as it only payable on net profit.

garp

Beaner1 wrote: »

CSO.ie

That's not a link. At best it is an incomplete web site address which leads to a web site with LOTS of info on it.
Provide the link to your info.