It's obscene that folk have to rely on foodbanks to sustain their families due to poverty and low pay, every day just in the North East alone well over 200 people have to use these facilities to survive. When the ill thought through debacle of the Tax Credits cut's comes into place this worrying figure will rise exponentially thousands of local children are going to be malnourished - this a worrying and sickening development and should not be happening in a rich country like ours ... Ill get off my soapbox
I watched a program about this, or benefits, can't remember, there was one lad who gambled away all of his benefits in the casino and he left himself with just £5 for two weeks so just went to the food bank. His words were 'I'm entitled to do what I want with my benefits, they're mine and I'm entitled to the food for free at the food banks so why should I stop gambling?' (Or words to that effect). I think people like that should have their benefits taken away from them, shove his head all the way up his arse and stitch it shut. These food banks are being abused, very often by the wrong people... desperate people out there need them and they rely on charity, the public will become less and less charitable the more they see people abusing it.
I agree some people do take advantage and the and my opinion media do not help the cause with programmes like 'Benefit Street' etc - but in my first hand experience the majority of people using them have had sudden job losses, break up of relationships or cuts to their income and hours worked - zero contract employment etc
Is it just me, but whenever I see someone on benefit they always seem to have enough money for cigarettes and alcohol. All for giving to the needy but some people just take the piss.
It's me too. Alcohol, cigarettes, tattoos -all unnecessary expense. Not to mention the big tv, sky package, latest smart phones ,everything the kids want. Would love a big tv and sky myself but accept I'll just have to do without. There are people who are in genuine hardship but these days poverty is different. It used to mean the family has nothing, buys nothing yet still cannot put food on the table. For many today it's spend available money (benefits or earned) on items like the above mentioned and then say society has to provide the food and basics
I definitely think they're a good thing mate, I've no doubt you're right either, they're valuable to a lot of vulnerable people. I donated a fair bit last time there was a collection in Tesco, they give you a little shopping list as you go in and then you buy an item or a few if you can spare. I gave them a bag full of stuff, tinned foods mostly. Whilst Muslims are a hot topic by the way, there's a few of these Muslim food banks set up in Manchester... I originally drew my attention to them because I thought they were doing it just for Muslims but they're not, they're collecting in Mosques and such places and feeding anybody who comes and needs it. It did make me think that there are some of them, actively trying to be a part of the community and integrate, but unless you actively seek out these little clusters of them, you become oblivious to it all. I felt sorry for them in a way. I hope nobody I know ever has to live using food banks, to survive, but it's testament to our nation that we chip in when there are so many people below the breadline, struggling to eat.
Part of me thinks, **** it, let them spend it how they like... many people on benefits have given huge amounts in income tax over the years then for whatever reason, age discrimination being my biggest concern with people on benefits, they fall on hard times and can't get employment. Who are we to tell them how they can spend money that they have essentially donated themselves? Then you see the toothless rat boy who's never had a job, smashes his bird's face in every day for a laugh and walks around with his hands in his pants touching his dirty cock and balls, wearing a new United top and you think, 'Well, you are just sewage, give me that ****ing money back and go drown yourself you piece of ****'. Unfortunately, the gov't can't distinguish the two for whatever farcical reason so you get the good with the bad.
I know somebody on benefits who has £675 per month, disposable income. She tells me she's on 'top whack' disability benefits and also receives CSA payments from her two children's fathers. There's no way in hell she will ever look for a job, there's no need pulling in them wages from the government. She has two holidays a year and is never skint when there's a night out
Some lass on my facebook (don't even know her, gonna delete her now thinking about it) left a status going off on a rant about missing out on benefits and crestfallen over the fact that she was absolutely skint. Literally her next status a few hours later was about the fact that she was gonna get a tattoo done. Weeks later she showed us all a photo. It must have cost well into 3 figures. If I was to meet her on the street I don't think I would be able to stop myself from jabbing my finger deep into her eye.
Yeh and there's hundreds and thousands like him who think because they were born here the country owes them everything.they never work at all
Our Government are liars. Braking one of their main pledges not to cut tax credits. Our of interest. Does this effect anybody who voted for them?
Why doesn't the Tories do something about these people then? Instead of targeting the genuine needy? From where I'm sat, the genuine are being punished while the cheats continue to fiddle the system. Proof that the Tory's are getting it so wrong. Blinkered toff boys with no experience of the real world.
There is a real need for food banks, which is a bloody disgrace, but there are scroungers as well. The problem is that people at the bottom end don't always want to do low paid jobs, because the difference in their net pay from a job and what they get from the state doesn't make it worthwhile. It's why the immigrants have come here, as the money they get from doing those jobs is decent when they take it back home, so they'll do work Brits won't. The whole system is in need of an overhaul IMHO.
Don't worry 'cos the pig shagger will look after us . . . . starting with his Robin Hood philosophy, or is it his brother, Robin Bastard's way, where, instead of robbing from the rich to give to the poor, he'll rob from the poor and leave the rich alone to enjoy their wealth
I have been lucky enough to have been fully employed all my working life so I must admit I don't know how a life on benefits is. I don't know the amounts handed out so I am going on what comes onto the public domain through the media. Am I right in thinking that there are a whole load of benefits available such as having your rent, or part of it, paid. What is the sum given to an out of work person and how many other payments are available. Isn't it right that these payments ensure that you have enough for food and shelter. How can true poverty exist when there are plenty of payments available. Isn't the aim of these payments to tide you over until you get a job. There seem to be so many cases where life on benefits gives a better standard of living than many who actually work. A lot of people appear to be able to work the system although if you try to do the right thing and play by the rules you get penalised. How do we, as the fifth richest nation on earth, have so many homeless like the many ex servicemen living on the streets. Surely they are entitled to some kind of accommodation and food. These austerity cuts are a step in the right direction where workers are paid a decent wage rather than subsidising large firms who pay minimum wage. They could be introduced better than they are proposing but should eventually make working a better proposition than living on benefits. How can people be against reducing the maximum of £23,000 benefits which would be about £30,000 before tax. Most getting this amount will never work as they would probably get a big drop in income. How is there a need for food banks? Is the safety net of benefit payments too low. I always thought benefits, the dole in my day, was the safety net payment but with all the payments now available many are better off not working. Again, I stress, I don't know current payments but if pensioners are expected to exist on £115 per week, the money available to someone between jobs, even if only half that, should enable all but the continuously unemployed to get by. Nobody should need food banks unless they waste the money they are given.
Whenever they try to clamp down on the cheats it's always the genuine cases that bear the brunt. Those who know how to con the system always will, it's what they specialize in. The Tories don't give a **** as long as they cut the welfare bill.
The Tories have the right idea in principle, i.e. get people back to work on at least a "living wage" and at the same time reduce the benefits bill, but as usual, being politicians, they have ****ed it right up. You can't cut benefits that quickly, as the living wage isn't law yet and there's no way the private sector can create jobs anything like that fast.
The more the minimum wage go's up, more companies will **** off to the far east were people get paid a pittance. John Dyson did it with his whole mould shop & moved to Taiwan. Look at a lot of branded goods in your own home. Nike trainers made in Vietnam, Belling cookers made in Turkey, DeWalt tools made in China.
