[News] Food Poverty figures in Worthing

[Lenny Rider]

16,000 people in the Borough of Worthing below the food poverty threshold according to DWP figures, at a 5th of the 21 st century gone that’s nothing short of disgusting.

For all my usual detractors in the NSC knitting circle, this is not click bait, just someone approaching his 60s wondering where our generation went wrong?

 

[Norman Potting]

Up here in the Northern heights of the county it is gratifying that the food bank collection points at our 4 supermarkets are generally full of offerings.

Whilst I always drop something in I ponder what causes them to be required and how things could be structured so that they were no longer needed.

 

[Rambo]

8.4m across the whole of the UK. Not sure how Worthing shapes up as a percentage as I dont know what the population is these days but it does seem very high to me, and you are right, very sad.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

As someone in his 30's I can say with absolute certainty that the struggles people my age and younger are experiencing is almost exclusively down to the cost of living in a home.

Cost of actually buying a property is insane and unreachable for many... so these many are stuck with renting which bizarrely is even worse, both in the long and short term.

If people are spending 70% of their wages on rent, or the fortunate few spend £40k of their life savings and then £700pm on a shitty studio flat at their late 20's... it's not surprising that so many find themselves below the food poverty threshold at some time.

Your generation went wrong by seeing property as an investment rather than a necessity... and voting in the politicians that not only allowed it to happen, but encouraged it.

When I bought my first flat in 1990 I wish the mortgage was 70% of my wages or £700, it wasn’t the interest rate was 11%. I was earning basic £800 and my mortgage was £840. I had to do all the overtime I could just to pay the bills.

The point I make is it was bloody hard back then for most.

 

[Bansko Seagull]

I recently visited the first Workhouse opened in this country which is now in the National Trust. There is an explanation of the theory behind it and it is clear that this was not (initially at least) the horrible place that others became. This workhouse opened in 1820 and I left with the sad realisation we have been trying and failing for 200 years to find a way to prevent and support people in extreme poverty.

 

[Justice]

When I bought my first flat in 1990 I wish the mortgage was 70% of my wages or £700, it wasn’t the interest rate was 11%. I was earning basic £800 and my mortgage was £840. I had to do all the overtime I could just to pay the bills.

The point I make is it was bloody hard back then for most.

How did you get the mortgage in the first place, Self cert?

 

[Gwylan]

How did you get the mortgage in the first place, Self cert?

Yeah, that struck me as odd. That's a couple of years before I bought a flat and I certainly didn't self-certify, I had to show previous wage slips and get a letter of confirmation from my employer.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

How did you get the mortgage in the first place, Self cert?

I originally bought it with a mate as a flat share originally but he went off to be with his girlfriend so I took on the mortgage myself, within months the rate was going stupid, negative equity the lot. I worked through it though and slowly things got better.

Happy days

And yes self cert, the only way anyone young could get a mortgage back. Toxic loans!!

 

[Gwylan]

I originally bought it with a mate as a flat share originally but he went off to be with his girlfriend so I took on the mortgage myself, within months the rate was going stupid, negative equity the lot. I worked through it though and slowly things got better.

Ouch, that happened to someone I knew. He tried to make a go of it but sadly, the increased payments were too much for him and the flat was re-possessed. They were grim days

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Ouch, that happened to someone I knew. He tried to make a go of it but sadly, the increased payments were too much for him and the flat was re-possessed. They were grim days

Yes suppose the point I make is things are so different in many ways today but putting a roof over your head has always been a struggle. Also the demands of today mean you have to have the latest tech etc to be part of society, I moved in with a mattress, a tv I'd bought a number of years prior and a deck chair to sit in.

I do feel for my kids in getting their own place, rents are stupid, they do get trapped in loading other peoples pockets and there's not enough affordable housing but we could debate that all night.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Nurses used to be trained in house (on low wages) but training was free. Now, even with a bursary, they owe £69K when they’ve qualified.

This is made up of 3 years tuition of approx £9250 yearly and maintenance loans.

I also visited a food banks 3 Times in my training and currently have bailiffs attend my address.

One day they attended, Im driving into work, working under the emergency standards

The bit in bold is a direct quote from a newly qualified nurse. The NHS is 40,000 nurses short because people can’t afford to be trained.

 

[rigton70]

Believe it or not but food is cheaper today that it was 20 years ago.

IMO it's technology that fuels poverty as everyone seems to have a phone,data and the other shite that comes with life today.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Nurses used to be trained in house (on low wages) but training was free. Now, even with a bursary, they owe £69K when they’ve qualified.

This is made up of 3 years tuition of approx £9250 yearly and maintenance loans.

I also visited a food banks 3 Times in my training and currently have bailiffs attend my address.

One day they attended, Im driving into work, working under the emergency standards

The bit in bold is a direct quote from a newly qualified nurse. The NHS is 40,000 nurses short because people can’t afford to be trained.

This madness that everyone has to go to university, saddle themselves with debt and so on has to end.

 

[herecomesaregular]

A friend of mine , as a vulnerable adult, was receiving food parcels during lockdown. To my dismay they just put the tinned tuna, meatballs, chick peas and baked beans received into the cupboard and left them. Wouldn't cook or repeatedly would say "I can't cook" the pasta or rice, doesn't drink tea and had thousands of teabags received. The fresh carrots, onions, turnip (!), oranges and apples she'd received would often just rot or were thrown away. She did enjoy the crisps, biscuits and capacchino sachets though. The regular carer and friends including me would try when they could to cook meals with her/for her. After speaking to her (acknowledged alcoholic) neighbour, turns out she received the same.... and the same thing happened.. Offered her some of the stuff and she just laughed. Surely there must be a more efficient way to support people with food? For these two it was mostly an utter waste of money and resources. Probably a bit off topic but I did find it disturbing. You can dump "healthy" food on people but you can't ensure they eat it. Would have been better to give them vouchers for KFC and Burger King. Probably more realistic and cost effective would be to deliver two Charlie Bighams a day.

 

[clapham_gull]

Believe it or not but food is cheaper today that it was 20 years ago.

IMO it's technology that fuels poverty as everyone seems to have a phone,data and the other shite that comes with life today.

Typical nasty bollocks straight out of the neo-liberal Daily Mail reading party playbook. Food is "cheaper" based on average income, but that doesn't mean there isn't an underclass who struggles to afford it.

I'd also challenge the idea that anyone "poor" shouldn't own a mobile or access to the internet in the modern world, seriously ?

It used to be six kids, three fathers and a wide screen TV, but now you've lowered it to a telephone and a cheap data plan.

 

[clapham_gull]

This madness that everyone has to go to university, saddle themselves with debt and so on has to end.

Do you seriously think that those who can't afford food are paying off tuition fees ?

Anyone who gets a mortgage "saddles themselves" with debt for many years.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Do you seriously think that those who can't afford food are paying off tuition fees ?

Anyone who gets a mortgage "saddles themselves" with debt for many years.

Where have I said that?

I was answering the post about nurses.

 

[Blue3]

As a nation kindness has been eroded by everything that makes up modern life

 

[Blinkers]

A friend of mine , as a vulnerable adult, was receiving food parcels during lockdown. To my dismay they just put the tinned tuna, meatballs, chick peas and baked beans received into the cupboard and left them. Wouldn't cook or repeatedly would say "I can't cook" the pasta or rice, doesn't drink tea and had thousands of teabags received. The fresh carrots, onions, turnip (!), oranges and apples she'd received would often just rot or were thrown away. She did enjoy the crisps, biscuits and capacchino sachets though. The regular carer and friends including me would try when they could to cook meals with her/for her. After speaking to her (acknowledged alcoholic) neighbour, turns out she received the same.... and the same thing happened.. Offered her some of the stuff and she just laughed. Surely there must be a more efficient way to support people with food? For these two it was mostly an utter waste of money and resources. Probably a bit off topic but I did find it disturbing. You can dump "healthy" food on people but you can't ensure they eat it. Would have been better to give them vouchers for KFC and Burger King. Probably more realistic and cost effective would be to deliver two Charlie Bighams a day.

Indeed a sad story. Perhaps basic recipe cards along with the relevant goods might help to encourage the recipients to ‘give cooking a go’ when otherwise they may feel daunted or unable to cook?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This madness that everyone has to go to university, saddle themselves with debt and so on has to end.

I agree. I was against the introduction of student fees; bring back free education!