Austin Allegro Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 So you could live a week for £1.22. I think even a rabbit would struggle with that. I would say that most days I spend less than a pound a day on food. If I bought fresh veg I don't reckon I could do it. A large cabbage (the cheap kind not the savoy kind) and a kilo carrots if stretched out with other things, a bit of meat, pasta, oats for breakfast etc would last a week. Say you eat double the amount I mentioned, that's £2.44 a week. An apple a day for pudding, say 1kg, that's about £2 a kilo. So that's £4.44 a week or about 64p a day for fruit and veg. All this can be supplemented with foraging (free) and growing bean sprouts (indoors, no garden or soil needed, costs a few pence). Yes it's tough but no impossible, I only spend about £15-£20 a week on food etc but could do it for much less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byron78 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 I didn`t read the article in great detail TBH because it is just a generic "Bad Tories" piece IMO. How much is the girl receiving in benefits that she can`t buy vegetables? I am assuming that her housing costs are paid by us? She'll have a tiny room somewhere and the HB (probably about £60 a week) will only cover 75% of its cost. But this is all her fault and she just needs to get out there and do some free gardening for someone like me who voted to pull up most of the ladders I enjoyed climbing when I was her age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si1 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 The biggest problem I have with all of this is that pensioners benefits are fully protected Living off food handouts (and good quality ones for that matter) is not a dire situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gf3 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 She'll have a tiny room somewhere and the HB (probably about £60 a week) will only cover 75% of its cost. And the bit that gets me is at least half that £60 goes into the hands of someone as unearned income. If the government just built some social housing on some land HB could be cut in half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Can we not match a hungry young person up with a lonely old person's spare room? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si1 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Can we not match a hungry young person up with a lonely old person's spare room? And where would the old person store all their tat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byron78 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 And where would the old person store all their tat?Ha! We need a social shed building program Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b w Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Biggest problem are the Council Tax benefit changes. CT benefit effectively ended. I suspect most rise in food bank use, is because of this Biggest problem is council tax itself, mine is £804 a year and thats with the 25% single person discount applied, wtf am i paying that much for exactly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy soy Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Our leaders have ditched full employment. They decided that a permanent unemployed class would be a price worth paying to keep working class wages and inflation down. IDS should know this, the party he once led enabled this policy.Now he has the opportunity to attack the vulnerable, disabled and disadvantaged he is causing real hardship. As another poster said, we are at 60,000 being sanctioned a month. I am absolutely certain he is inflicting starvation and homelessness to massage unemployment figures. How is starving the unemployed supposed to help when we have a permanent unemployed class baked into our society? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byron78 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 (edited) And the bit that gets me is at least half that £60 goes into the hands of someone as unearned income. If the government just built some social housing on some land HB could be cut in half.It's certainly no coincidence the HB bill has increased by over 300% since the end of council housing. We've actually made the state bigger by doing away with them (does highlight there are sometimes "the lesser of two evils"scenarios when it comes to socialism.) Lots of other things have gone to the wall as well though. If I was 19 again and the choice was: A) Work 37 hours a week for £5.13 a week (with little to no chance of any job progression) to take home £185 and pay £100 of that for a room. Or: B ) Sign on. Get £57 dole. Get £67 HB. Make up the other £60 selling bits on ebay (or more likely someone's weed) I might well think about it. I certainly don't blame the kids, put it that way. And I can see why so many in the poorest areas have kids as well. Benefits without them are a pittance. I'd advocate lowering living costs before wages, and that obviously means lowering housing costs. I'm not sure if it's a dichotomy to wage war on the poor whilst simultaneously keeping them poor by artificially inflating housing costs or just very very sick. Either way, as a Tory (a proper one) I hate this government. Edited December 9, 2014 by byron78 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybernoid Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Biggest problem is council tax itself, mine is £804 a year and thats with the 25% single person discount applied, wtf am i paying that much for exactly? Public sector pensions. I wonder if those who don't want a smaller state are capable of working out they have to pay for it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timak Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Biggest problem is council tax itself, mine is £804 a year and thats with the 25% single person discount applied, wtf am i paying that much for exactly? Google it. About 35% goes to adult social care (old people's homes once any self-funding has run out), 15% to children in care and the rest split between things like roads, police, fire and local government (bins, env health, planning). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest_northshore_* Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 And where would the old person store all their tat? Get with the program man. These young people, so juvenile and forsaken yet so healthy and sentient... http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329831.400-young-blood-to-be-used-in-ultimate-rejuvenation-trial.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygivenup Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Forty or fifty years ago most people lived off economical and relatively healthy foods such as stew, meat and two veg on Sundays, fish on fridays etc. So they knew how to prepare food cheaply. Since the 80s people have assumed food for 'normal' people is packaged convenience food, and that cooking healthy food yourself is some sort of hobby for 'posh' people. Then suddenly thirty odd years ago babies started to make processed crap and feed it to themselves... hang on a min.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19 year mortgage 8itch Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Then suddenly thirty odd years ago babies started to make processed crap and feed it to themselves... hang on a min..Amen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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