'two Or Three Payslips From A Brick Wall': Once Well-Off Workers Now Using Food Banks As Oil Slump Hits Aberdeen

[workingpoor]

http://www.itv.com/news/2016-01-28/ex-oil-workers-left-using-food-banks-in-aberdeen/

The once booming city of Aberdeen has been hit hard by the North Sea oil slump - so hard the Westminster and Holyrood governments are pledging a £500 million boost to the city.

As the price of crude oil has fallen dramatically, job losses in the region are estimated at 65,000, while the number of people turning to food banks is on the rise.

Dave Simmers, from the Aberdeen Food Bank Partnership, told ITV News Correspondent Martin Geissler people now using its services once earned an attractive salary in the famously well-paid sector.

Mechelle Clark has lost her job in the oil industry twice in nine months. She told ITV News "It's demeaning, it's demoralising - but what choice have you got? You've just got to stay motivated."

"WHAT RECESSION" was crowed post 2008,

AMG taxi's met "high rollers" at the airport,

And there were people who thought the house prices were going to shoot to the moon!

How things change eh?

Edited January 29, 2016 by workingpoor

[ccc]

Anyone who has worked in O+G for years and has to go to a foodbank within months of losing their job needs to be dumped in the north sea for the benefit of mankind.

It beggars belief that people this stupid can earn such huge money in the first place.

[Snugglybear]

Anyone who has worked in O+G for years and has to go to a foodbank within months of losing their job needs to be dumped in the north sea for the benefit of mankind.

It beggars belief that people this stupid can earn such huge money in the first place.

Posters on here have pointed out before that people in those jobs splurged on houses and cars and so on and didn't even imagine there'd be a rainy day, never mind saving for one.

It also puts the kibosh on the commonly held belief that people who earn lots of money somehow deserve it or are better than others who don't. Very often they're just in the right place at the right time and are less than gifted intellectually.

[beccles]

[VeryMeanReversion]

The once booming city of Aberdeen has been hit hard by the North Sea oil slump - so hard the Westminster and Holyrood governments are pledging a £500 million boost to the city.

It's very easy to read those sort of sentences and they just seem to slip by.

But, really, can it really be justified to throw £500 Million at it? What will is actually boost? If there is a good return, why aren't we doing it for every city/town/village?

[dpg50000]

It's very easy to read those sort of sentences and they just seem to slip by.

But, really, can it really be justified to throw £500 Million at it? What will is actually boost? If there is a good return, why aren't we doing it for every city/town/village?

+100000

I can remember, probably not more than 15 years ago, when figures of "just" a few million were discussed in the press in regards to Government spending, and it seemed such a huge amount. Now more often than not, the amount is in the billions!

As others have said, no sympathy for those who have earned fantastically well and spunked it all.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

It's very easy to read those sort of sentences and they just seem to slip by.

But, really, can it really be justified to throw £500 Million at it? What will is actually boost?

Their house prices of course !!!

[Limon]

> Works in extremely cyclical industry

> Doesn't set aside enough cash during the feast years to ride out the famine

> Expects sympathy

But, really, can it really be justified to throw £500 Million at it? What will is actually boost? If there is a good return, why aren't we doing it for every city/town/village?

AFAIK it's to subsidise research into increasing the efficiency of extraction, extending the life of the north sea fields (good luck with that if the low prices persist for another year; all the rigs will be shuttered and that'll be that for British north sea oil).

[TheCountOfNowhere]

Are the rich oil workers looking for a bailout ?

Surely they have saved during the good years to cover the bad ?

[olde guto]

Anyone who has worked in O+G for years and has to go to a foodbank within months of losing their job needs to be dumped in the north sea for the benefit of mankind.

It beggars belief that people this stupid can earn such huge money in the first place.

I'm not defending them but intelligence isn't common sense. Plus there has been decades of governments pushing the materialist agenda so hard that I suspect many people don't know what capitalism really is. Don't much like the term but I imagine a good number have been pussy whipped into buying the nicest house possible, the nicest car possible, the nicest ______ possible...

As for the £500 million, that's got to be a typo surely?

[Si1]

Were any oil types into BTL?

[Noallegiance]

+100000

I can remember, probably not more than 15 years ago, when figures of "just" a few million were discussed in the press in regards to Government spending, and it seemed such a huge amount. Now more often than not, the amount is in the billions!

Result of proper inflation (I.E. the money supply)?

With every passing month our £s go less far. Same for governments. Folk peddling oil cheapness as a boost for consumers aren't grasping the gravity of the overall situation.

[richc]

It's very easy to read those sort of sentences and they just seem to slip by.

But, really, can it really be justified to throw £500 Million at it? What will is actually boost? If there is a good return, why aren't we doing it for every city/town/village?

+500,000,000

[zugzwang]

It's very easy to read those sort of sentences and they just seem to slip by.

But, really, can it really be justified to throw £500 Million at it? What will is actually boost? If there is a good return, why aren't we doing it for every city/town/village?

Have you seen the size of the national debt? We are doing it for every city/town/village!

[TheCountOfNowhere]

Were any oil types into BTL?

Is your parish priest a paedo ?

[TheCountOfNowhere]

Can we call £500,000,000

HALF A BILLION POUNDS

AUSTERITY ?

[justthisbloke]

It's become un-PC to say anything even remotely derogatory about people who put their palms out at foodbanks or benefit offices - on the basis that, yes, there are a few instances where the need and the cause of need are entirely genuine. But, in reality, most cases are down to people failing to provide for themselves and their family.

I was having familial discussion lately after a niece needed bailing out in a minor way. She's young, at university, and her phone broke and needed replacing. Despite being a real worker - holding down multiple jobs while at school and university - she didn't even have £150 to buy a new phone. She's a really good girl and in many ways a real example of hard work - but she had no reservations about asking for help and expecting it.

It was a minor thing but really made us think and got us on to how having savings isn't just sensible from a personal level - it's actually a duty to your wider family. You need reserves so you don't have to call on help - and you need reserves so that, in dire need, you can offer help.

[spyguy]

Were any oil types into BTL?

Is the Pope Catholic?

The NE O+G workers I know, were nuts for it.

[doomed]

Anyone who has worked in O+G for years and has to go to a foodbank within months of losing their job needs to be dumped in the north sea for the benefit of mankind.

It beggars belief that people this stupid can earn such huge money in the first place.

I can somewhat sympathise as I once had a gig that was very lucrative in my early 20s that pretty much stopped overnight, and at the time it is easy to think things will last for ever. I did however learn my lesson from this and sometimes shock my self these days at how tight I have become.

[Up the spout]

It's very easy to read those sort of sentences and they just seem to slip by.

But, really, can it really be justified to throw £500 Million at it? What will is actually boost? If there is a good return, why aren't we doing it for every city/town/village?

When you consider the Chancellor of the Exchequer has collected over £300 billion in direct taxation from the North Sea industry, £500 million isn't a great deal and the UK Gov is only sharing £250 million of that, £254 million is coming from the Scottish Gov and the private sector allegedly is investing £700 million.

[Up the spout]

You can buy a replacement phone for about a tenner (or not have one at all), you can rent a room instead of a house, you can eat Value line items, you can have a holiday abroad flying CheapyJet and staying in a hostel, you can buy second-hand clothes, gadgets and furniture. These are all choices that are very, very, VERY easy to make. Deciding not to go out and splurge your wage on an iClone and overpriced drinks at the local doesn't require a PhD.

[Agentimmo]

This is an abuse of Food Banks.

What the heck has happened to the notion of personal responsibilty and saving for a rainy day ?

It's OK to say they have paid into the system (even though many will have been setup as contractors and have managed to avoid paying their fair share of taxes) , but jings, crivvens ! Looks like the biggest earners in society have proved that they are not very good with money or running their own affairs. Like the City folks before them.

In "industry speak" - the UK needs a root and branch review to get rid of this nonsense. And pronto.

[sfr]

Is the Pope Catholic?

The NE O+G workers I know, were nuts for it.

Ditto. Do bears $h1t in the woods?

Most guys I know have 2 or 3. Great investment y'know.

Last I heard one guys 'investments' were empty and he was subsiding them.

Must be like getting a red letter from your pensions provider.

[PopGun]

Posters on here have pointed out before that people in those jobs splurged on houses and cars and so on and didn't even imagine there'd be a rainy day, never mind saving for one.

It also puts the kibosh on the commonly held belief that people who earn lots of money somehow deserve it or are better than others who don't. Very often they're just in the right place at the right time and are less than gifted intellectually.

But they're worth it....

[Snugglybear]

If I volunteered at one of these food banks I'd be telling them to flog their cars and their houses before I'd hand them so much as a tin of Value beans.

Maybe I'm just a miserable get.