Just been listening to 5 live on the way home from Sarah's parents and they were having a phone in.
Edwina Curry said last night that no one in this country should be starving, and tonight there is uproar with people phoning in fuming mad about it.
Are these people serious? Are they saying that they cant afford food on benefits?
It's ridiculous, these people are phoning up saying they have to make the choice between their heating, their cigarettes or their food...what the fcuk? Their cigarettes?
These same folk have a mobile phone, sky TV, possibly a car, and more often than not smoke 20 a day, drink and gamble. A lot of the work I do is project management with refurbishing pubs and hotels. I go to briefing meetings usually around 10am in some city centre pubs, and in every one you see a group of blokes turn up at 11am opening, drinking and smoking. Often there is a bookies close by to these pubs and these folk are backwards and forwards between the pubs and bookies presumably betting on the horses or dogs.
How the hell do these folk afford to live like this? Well I guess tonight's phone in explains it, they just dont eat and then blame the government and the cuts for not being able to afford food.
So just out of interest, does anyone on here struggle to afford food? And I dont mean the budget is tight, I mean having to go days without food as you simply cant afford it?
Starving in this country?
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Miztaziggy
- Posts: 2451
- Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:15 pm
- Location: Tadcaster
Re: Starving in this country?
Well,If it came to it I,d rather miss a few dinners than sell my Vtr. lol
Theres A Hare in The Turnips.
Re: Starving in this country?
these same people will have 5/6 kids born a year apart so jump on benefits,their rent,poll tax is payed by us and they get £300+pw in benefit and family allowance...tbh if i was in their position i would do the same,it's easy money and thats whats wrong.
Re: Starving in this country?
When I was a starving unemployed artist in the 1980's there were times when I went without food - okay I had an onion and a tin of beans to last 5 days in the middle of winter. But normally when I was a dole other folk on two weekly cycle of benefits would lend you a fiver till dole cheque day, and this was reciprocated.
I could endure this as when travelling I got caught in Crete when funds ran out* and survived for a fortnight by diving for coins from the bottom of swimming pool which paid for bread rolls till a bank transfer arrived from UK. It was a great month, and I was very slim and tanned at the end!
In bohemian Colchester folk like Dove Rowntree (Drummer from Blur) survived prefame days when travelling around France gigging in The Temperance Bus Boogie Band by eating snails from fields.
* This was in the 80s, and I'd gone hoping to get farm work but the place was flooded with Eastern Europeans willing to work for 50p an hour.
I could endure this as when travelling I got caught in Crete when funds ran out* and survived for a fortnight by diving for coins from the bottom of swimming pool which paid for bread rolls till a bank transfer arrived from UK. It was a great month, and I was very slim and tanned at the end!
In bohemian Colchester folk like Dove Rowntree (Drummer from Blur) survived prefame days when travelling around France gigging in The Temperance Bus Boogie Band by eating snails from fields.
* This was in the 80s, and I'd gone hoping to get farm work but the place was flooded with Eastern Europeans willing to work for 50p an hour.
It may be that your whole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
VTR Firestorm and other bikes t-shirts
VTR Firestorm and other bikes t-shirts-
Miztaziggy
- Posts: 2451
- Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:15 pm
- Location: Tadcaster
Starving in this country?
Lol so truesimo wrote:Well,If it came to it I,d rather miss a few dinners than sell my Vtr. lol
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benny hedges
- Posts: 6110
- Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:09 pm
- Location: Warrington
Re: Starving in this country?
i spent a while proper on my butt shortly after i left my mam & dads but wouldnt ask for help.
lived in a row of derelict terraces and gradually stripped all the wood out of them to burn for heat.
had no food one time but over next door's yard were some binbags i'd thrown over the year before with spud peelings in.
there were spud plants growing out of the binbags and i got about 2lb of new potatoes off them.
then went & picked some magic mushrooms.
all i had in the food cupboard was some orange angel delight and some curry powder, so i made a feast of chips, mash & mushroom curry with angel delight for afters, fed a bunch of us
dole at the time was £7.50 a fortnight lol which coincidentally was the price of an 1/8 of weed which was why we was all skint lol.
i feel sorry for those who genuinely are skint, but not for the ones who smoke, drink (in the pub all day on giro day), own 2 cars, go on holiday twice a year, sky tv etc and still cry poverty.
imo they should be sent to a 3rd world country to see what real poverty is...
when i was between jobs for 3hrs recently, i had a look at the dss online benefits calculator... i couldnt believe i wouldve been only £148 a mth worse off for not working!
try it, you'll be as shocked as i was!
lived in a row of derelict terraces and gradually stripped all the wood out of them to burn for heat.
had no food one time but over next door's yard were some binbags i'd thrown over the year before with spud peelings in.
there were spud plants growing out of the binbags and i got about 2lb of new potatoes off them.
then went & picked some magic mushrooms.
all i had in the food cupboard was some orange angel delight and some curry powder, so i made a feast of chips, mash & mushroom curry with angel delight for afters, fed a bunch of us
dole at the time was £7.50 a fortnight lol which coincidentally was the price of an 1/8 of weed which was why we was all skint lol.
i feel sorry for those who genuinely are skint, but not for the ones who smoke, drink (in the pub all day on giro day), own 2 cars, go on holiday twice a year, sky tv etc and still cry poverty.
imo they should be sent to a 3rd world country to see what real poverty is...
when i was between jobs for 3hrs recently, i had a look at the dss online benefits calculator... i couldnt believe i wouldve been only £148 a mth worse off for not working!
try it, you'll be as shocked as i was!
You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when posting something which you later rely on in quote. Anything you do say may be ripped to sh*t.
Re: Starving in this country?
I would generaly agree with you there Ziggy, Having been selfemployed all my life untill Feb this year, if you run out of work you are really fu.... because unless you pay the full stamp (most people dont) you are entitled to nothing, even if you have done well in the past and paid 40% tax nothing comes back, and when not working you dont go on a list of the unemployed , been in construction all my life, and as there is no work in my area have taken a job in a greenhouse working with plants its back breaking, minimum wage, take home is about £600 a month, but its work, i' m not bleeding the state, and its something different,
we have them in the countryside as well Chancers Bar in rural Evesham open at 10 outside on the pavement pint of Stella in one hand fag in the other, we have work in the aera it just dosent pay very well.......but its work.
we have them in the countryside as well Chancers Bar in rural Evesham open at 10 outside on the pavement pint of Stella in one hand fag in the other, we have work in the aera it just dosent pay very well.......but its work.
Re: Starving in this country?
Bring back National Service! That'll sort the scroungers out, possibly or not.
In my job I'm in & out of council houses all day long, it's a fairly even split between honest good hardworking people & total scum living off the state who want everything for nothing. The pest control service I provide is free to all council tenants so it costs them nothing, which of the above mentioned two groups does the most moaning? Yep our friends the dole scroungers.
It's true most of them have a beer on the go all day have a huge flat screen TV in the lounge ( always showing Mr Kyle's fine out put!) & always seem to have the hump if you arrive any time before 11am as it's ''Far to fecking early''. Oh yeah & they all have dogs, mainly Staffs. According to a colleague of mine, they get extra benefits if they have a dog so as to feed it, I bet that the dog misses more feeds than they miss beer or fags tho!
In my job I'm in & out of council houses all day long, it's a fairly even split between honest good hardworking people & total scum living off the state who want everything for nothing. The pest control service I provide is free to all council tenants so it costs them nothing, which of the above mentioned two groups does the most moaning? Yep our friends the dole scroungers.
It's true most of them have a beer on the go all day have a huge flat screen TV in the lounge ( always showing Mr Kyle's fine out put!) & always seem to have the hump if you arrive any time before 11am as it's ''Far to fecking early''. Oh yeah & they all have dogs, mainly Staffs. According to a colleague of mine, they get extra benefits if they have a dog so as to feed it, I bet that the dog misses more feeds than they miss beer or fags tho!
Making up since 2007, sometimes it's true...Honest...
Re: Starving in this country?
we have work in the aera it just dosent pay very well.......but its work.[/quote]
Thats the trouble, they will get less money for working than they do on benefits for doing nothing. We have a woman living near us living in a threee bed house with FIVE KIDS. the youngest has just started to walk. There all girls as well so here comes the next generation of benefit want and expecters .
Theres a couple as well, 3 bed house 2 kids, neither work . both smoke , drink ,sat tv and he goes fishing every weekend as well. Oh and they have a car ? Oh and both these propertys rent out at £450 a months as well so add that to the list of money there beeing given .
They now target new people that need to calim through no fault of there own rather than target the long term benefit cheats .
Your now classed as a benefit cheat until proved other wise, even when you produce written reports from medical specialists they still say your fit for work . I dont see then doing this to the long term cheats does any one else.
Thats the trouble, they will get less money for working than they do on benefits for doing nothing. We have a woman living near us living in a threee bed house with FIVE KIDS. the youngest has just started to walk. There all girls as well so here comes the next generation of benefit want and expecters .
Theres a couple as well, 3 bed house 2 kids, neither work . both smoke , drink ,sat tv and he goes fishing every weekend as well. Oh and they have a car ? Oh and both these propertys rent out at £450 a months as well so add that to the list of money there beeing given .
They now target new people that need to calim through no fault of there own rather than target the long term benefit cheats .
Your now classed as a benefit cheat until proved other wise, even when you produce written reports from medical specialists they still say your fit for work . I dont see then doing this to the long term cheats does any one else.
Re: Starving in this country?
Heres a thought,
Everybody leaves school at 15, regardless of what you want to do, you are put in a pool of minimum paid workers, production line, odds and sods, warehouse, whatever, all the sh1t jobs, then when your 21 or so you get to go to university to study what you hope will be your career.
Factory people get a ready supply of workers fresh from school,
The workers will know what hard work is so will make there education count coz they wont want to go back to it.
While your doing the 5 or so years of menial work there is no dole if you f... up.
Anybody care to add more .......?
Everybody leaves school at 15, regardless of what you want to do, you are put in a pool of minimum paid workers, production line, odds and sods, warehouse, whatever, all the sh1t jobs, then when your 21 or so you get to go to university to study what you hope will be your career.
Factory people get a ready supply of workers fresh from school,
The workers will know what hard work is so will make there education count coz they wont want to go back to it.
While your doing the 5 or so years of menial work there is no dole if you f... up.
Anybody care to add more .......?
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benny hedges
- Posts: 6110
- Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:09 pm
- Location: Warrington
Re: Starving in this country?
soylent green.Steve97 wrote:Anybody care to add more .......?
best idea ever.
You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when posting something which you later rely on in quote. Anything you do say may be ripped to sh*t.
Re: Starving in this country?
Your right Benny, just done the benefit calculator, i would be £20 a week worse off on benefits !
Cant do it, have to work
Cant do it, have to work
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pinkyfloyd
- Posts: 928
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2010 9:58 pm
Re: Starving in this country?
While there are plenty happy to sponge off the government there are others that just fall into the benefit trap. My neighbours are the former, Happy not to work and claim all the benefits they can. Sadly I fall into the latter. Happy to work, and indeed I do work, and unable to get out of the benefit system.
To explain the benefit trap in simple terms is: There is no incentive to better yourself while you are claiming benefits and the government, oddly enough, conspire to keep you there whether they want you there or not they make it impossible to get out.
A more detailed explanation is mine and I will give a rough outline.
I was working full time as a chef, and dispite what you see on the TV with Jamie "prick with a fork" oliver, Gordon "fkin crouton" Ramsay, a real chef at any level is not a high paid job, especially for the hours you have to put in and the huge commitment it takes. Having been a chef since leaving school 20 years ago I have never been what I would call well off. I've survived and indeed for the guts of 15 years I couldnt afford to run a vehicle to get me to and from work. Anyway I digress. Through no fault of my own I was forced to leave my reasonably paid catering job and take part time work. The reasons are personal and forgive me for not elaborating.
I now work part time working 20 hours a week on minimum wage. I get my rent paid, I get my council tax paid, and I get the full entitlement of working family tax credit. I will state that this is the first time I have claimed benifits other than the odd JSA between jobs. Doing the maths now I am £20 a week worse off for being on benefits. Thats not even a chinese take away a week which we would have while working full time for the family of 5 (3 kids). In other words I was working my guts off doing between 40 and 60 hours a week, working all hours for 20 hours at my standard wage rate and the rest in a 40 hour week for £1 per hour.
So I am left with a choice. I work 20 hours extra for £1 an hour or I continue to work part time and spend the rest of the week helping the soon to be mrs pinky bring up the kids. When you work until 11pm as a chef and rarely see the kids its a real no brainer. I am better off part time. The kids are better off with me working part time. We may do without a take away once a week but little baby 18th old pinky gets to spend important quality time with her daddy.
If I was to work an hour more than my allowed 20 hours then the benefits stop and in this climate with the way jobs are at the moment anything less than my old wage, which was decent for a chef, would leave me struggling. Welcome to the benefit trap.
Why should I work more when for any extra £1 I make on top of what I do now the government take £1.20 in benefits off me. There is no incentive for me to do better because I get other doors closed on me and I am in a worse situation.
If I work full time I am not earning enough to put savings away, Being on benifits I am not allowed to have savings so you cannot save to get out of the situation. Its a lose lose situation.
If I didnt have baby pinky I would happily go back to catering but given the situation its not cost effective and I would end up worse off, if not finacially it would be mentally.
Next doors story on the other hand is somewhat different but the end result is the same. He looks like he's never worked a day in his life and she pops out kids faster than a ball dispenser at Wimbledon on training days. They sit on their arses all day, He smokes weed and takes god knows what else. But again they are better off doing that.
What it boils down to, indirectly the government make it impossible to better yourselfs when you fall into the benefit trap. As a result we all get tarred with the same brush, council scum, sponger, a few of the mentioned above derisary remarks. But in truth, while there are some happy to do live off the government, there are others, like myself, where it is actually not finacially viable to live any other way.
Just for the record, to cover what Benny brought up. We dont smoke. We have the odd cans of cider at home once in a blue moon. Less than once a month. We dont have a flat screen TV or own any other transport apart from my bike which rarely gets out for anything more than commuting too and from work.
To explain the benefit trap in simple terms is: There is no incentive to better yourself while you are claiming benefits and the government, oddly enough, conspire to keep you there whether they want you there or not they make it impossible to get out.
A more detailed explanation is mine and I will give a rough outline.
I was working full time as a chef, and dispite what you see on the TV with Jamie "prick with a fork" oliver, Gordon "fkin crouton" Ramsay, a real chef at any level is not a high paid job, especially for the hours you have to put in and the huge commitment it takes. Having been a chef since leaving school 20 years ago I have never been what I would call well off. I've survived and indeed for the guts of 15 years I couldnt afford to run a vehicle to get me to and from work. Anyway I digress. Through no fault of my own I was forced to leave my reasonably paid catering job and take part time work. The reasons are personal and forgive me for not elaborating.
I now work part time working 20 hours a week on minimum wage. I get my rent paid, I get my council tax paid, and I get the full entitlement of working family tax credit. I will state that this is the first time I have claimed benifits other than the odd JSA between jobs. Doing the maths now I am £20 a week worse off for being on benefits. Thats not even a chinese take away a week which we would have while working full time for the family of 5 (3 kids). In other words I was working my guts off doing between 40 and 60 hours a week, working all hours for 20 hours at my standard wage rate and the rest in a 40 hour week for £1 per hour.
So I am left with a choice. I work 20 hours extra for £1 an hour or I continue to work part time and spend the rest of the week helping the soon to be mrs pinky bring up the kids. When you work until 11pm as a chef and rarely see the kids its a real no brainer. I am better off part time. The kids are better off with me working part time. We may do without a take away once a week but little baby 18th old pinky gets to spend important quality time with her daddy.
If I was to work an hour more than my allowed 20 hours then the benefits stop and in this climate with the way jobs are at the moment anything less than my old wage, which was decent for a chef, would leave me struggling. Welcome to the benefit trap.
Why should I work more when for any extra £1 I make on top of what I do now the government take £1.20 in benefits off me. There is no incentive for me to do better because I get other doors closed on me and I am in a worse situation.
If I work full time I am not earning enough to put savings away, Being on benifits I am not allowed to have savings so you cannot save to get out of the situation. Its a lose lose situation.
If I didnt have baby pinky I would happily go back to catering but given the situation its not cost effective and I would end up worse off, if not finacially it would be mentally.
Next doors story on the other hand is somewhat different but the end result is the same. He looks like he's never worked a day in his life and she pops out kids faster than a ball dispenser at Wimbledon on training days. They sit on their arses all day, He smokes weed and takes god knows what else. But again they are better off doing that.
What it boils down to, indirectly the government make it impossible to better yourselfs when you fall into the benefit trap. As a result we all get tarred with the same brush, council scum, sponger, a few of the mentioned above derisary remarks. But in truth, while there are some happy to do live off the government, there are others, like myself, where it is actually not finacially viable to live any other way.
Just for the record, to cover what Benny brought up. We dont smoke. We have the odd cans of cider at home once in a blue moon. Less than once a month. We dont have a flat screen TV or own any other transport apart from my bike which rarely gets out for anything more than commuting too and from work.
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.
History:....CZ125....RXS100.....Lifan LF125-14F.....Suzuki GSXR750
Current:...1999 VTR FIRESTORM!
History:....CZ125....RXS100.....Lifan LF125-14F.....Suzuki GSXR750
Current:...1999 VTR FIRESTORM!
Re: Starving in this country?
Those who have chosen to make living off benefit without any paid work need to be sorted out. However, IF (I stress the if) these people really do exist, then it seems to me that there’s something wrong with the system and it needs addrressing.
Nevertheless, these are indeed strange times and similar to Pinky my situation is now far from well off when compared to others and indeed myself a couple of years ago.
I'm another who works part time after fulltime work all my adult life, this occured due to the economic turmoil of 2008. I get paid minimum wage +20p an hour… but I really enjoy it, now that is priceless. Oh and I also get free meals when I’m there.
Male part timers seem more common these days, it would appear that they can no longer expect to be the bread winner. So to all those with stable, regular, full time employment, enjoy it while you can, you just don't know what's around the next corner...
Nevertheless, these are indeed strange times and similar to Pinky my situation is now far from well off when compared to others and indeed myself a couple of years ago.
I'm another who works part time after fulltime work all my adult life, this occured due to the economic turmoil of 2008. I get paid minimum wage +20p an hour… but I really enjoy it, now that is priceless. Oh and I also get free meals when I’m there.
Male part timers seem more common these days, it would appear that they can no longer expect to be the bread winner. So to all those with stable, regular, full time employment, enjoy it while you can, you just don't know what's around the next corner...
Re: Starving in this country?
My job does not inspire me... it simple pays the bills.
I am a single Mum, who is (I think) slightly better off working. I took the job because it is better for your self esteam to be able to say, 'I earn my money', it also give adult company.
However, when my son was 4 days a week in child care (nursery) it added about 6k to my salery as the govt paid £500 a month for his nursery I paid £200 month. Very helpful.
I am a single Mum, who is (I think) slightly better off working. I took the job because it is better for your self esteam to be able to say, 'I earn my money', it also give adult company.
However, when my son was 4 days a week in child care (nursery) it added about 6k to my salery as the govt paid £500 a month for his nursery I paid £200 month. Very helpful.