[News] Food Poverty figures in Worthing

[Thunder Bolt]

so changing the system is more important than providing practical solutions. viva la revolution comrade.

Yes, because at the moment the government can do anything they want including changing the legal systems in place to prevent any sort of accountability.
Education shouldn’t be a political football. It has changed time and time again over the last five decades. Get a great system and then stick to it. Finland has the best system in Europe, possibly the world, and consistently prove that every year.
The vast majority of countries have proportional representation governments, where excesses are tamed. It’s not perfect but far better than FPTP.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Boris seems to resonate with ordinary folk just fine. All he needs to do is utter a certain word beginning with "B" and they're round him like flies round a

As evidenced by Hartlepool when a voter was asked who he would vote for.
Conservative he said, because when they won, we only had one food bank, and now we’ve got nine!

 

[schmunk]

What puzzles me is if someone can afford to pay 1000+ in rent and can give proof of payments over a period of time is why can they not get a mortgage. Seems odd

They probably will be able to get a mortgage, just not one with £1,000/month payments.

Currently, that would buy roughly £250,000 of mortgage at a typical 1.5% tracker interest rate (or short-termish fix)

If in a couple of years time rates have increased to perhaps 3.5%, the monthly payment jumps to £1,250/month - can they still afford that? For the last 10ish years we have had unprecedented low interest rates, with the BoE base rate currently sitting at 0.1%. It can only go one way - the question is when?

 

[KeegansHairPiece]

Totally agree sir. got my flat in '92, earning £10k a year! had a record player and a few guitars, a matress . no phone, mobile, sky etc . . mortgage aside, biggest bill was council tax! used to work in a clothes shop Saturdays, or fix scooters for extra beer money. Technology has leached into peoples income in a bad way.

No landline?

 

[Happy Exile]

Cost of living is huge, and as many have pointed out property is the driver of that because wages haven't kept pace with the changing property prices. House prices were 4 times average wage 30 years ago, they are now 8 times average wage. As others have also said, rent is always more expensive than a mortgage too.

In Worthing average rent is just under £1400 a month. Average salary in Worthing is £26k, which is roughly £1700 a month take home. A couple both earning average salary and without any children will still be spending one person's entire salary just on rent and bills, let alone on food, transport for work, saving for a mortgage, and god forbid doing anything that makes live worth living etc. There'll be countless people making decisions to skip food because they don't have a buffer for a broken washing machine, or a broken down car, or a dodgy boiler.

 

[beorhthelm]

Yes, because at the moment the government can do anything they want including changing the legal systems in place to prevent any sort of accountability.
Education shouldn’t be a political football. It has changed time and time again over the last five decades. Get a great system and then stick to it. Finland has the best system in Europe, possibly the world, and consistently prove that every year.
The vast majority of countries have proportional representation governments, where excesses are tamed. It’s not perfect but far better than FPTP.

government changing the legal systems is rather the point of them. the problems highlighted are not exclusive to this country, they are common across all liberal democracies. how we select our representatives doesnt change much. i expressed some solutions, you noted they're already done to a degree. so what we need is political will, in broader sense from the population, to implement further. give people in food poverty vouchers instead of relying on them to spend a meager dole out. build more homes. simples right?

talk about changing the political systems is putting ideology first. talk about excess is ideological too. taking more taxes doesn't solve anything itself, just satisfies some ideology. the problem is solutions arent proposed and implemented.

 

[KeegansHairPiece]

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.

So for someone in poverty, not having access to technology: google job searches, completing online applications, email communication, texts etc. is a good plan for getting out of poverty?

Great plan, but I think there might be a hole in it...

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

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?

Get down the beach with your inflatable and you're guaranteed three meals a day
Regards
DF

 

[Guinness Boy]

Cost of living is huge, and as many have pointed out property is the driver of that because wages haven't kept pace with the changing property prices. House prices were 4 times average wage 30 years ago, they are now 8 times average wage. As others have also said, rent is always more expensive than a mortgage too.

In Worthing average rent is just under £1400 a month. Average salary in Worthing is £26k, which is roughly £1700 a month take home. A couple both earning average salary and without any children will still be spending one person's entire salary just on rent and bills, let alone on food, transport for work, saving for a mortgage, and god forbid doing anything that makes live worth living etc. There'll be countless people making decisions to skip food because they don't have a buffer for a broken washing machine, or a broken down car, or a dodgy boiler.

That's a pretty accurate (and depressing) summary of the problem but there's no solution in that post. We can't just increase wages and, even if we could, there would be huge inflationary pressure as a result, meaning interest rates would rise and no one would be able to afford property.

Any property price decrease would also be largely artificial while interest rates are low and many people now only have their equity as their pension. It's as much a vote loser as winner, both to the current older generation and the young people hoping to inherit or borrow from the bank of Mum and Dad.

 

[Worthing exile]

There'll be countless people making decisions to skip food because they don't have a buffer for a broken washing machine, or a broken down car, or a dodgy boiler.

Skip food? yes, but skip the latest iphone, Tattoos, nails, Starbucks and McFlurries? No.

 

[zefarelly]

No landline?

Not when I first moved in . . . did after about 6 months . . . place had been reposessed, everything had been cut off, place was a mess . . . . . just sealed the deal moved in and found my feet.

It was better than the shitter houses I'd been renting rooms in.

 

[BBassic]

Ah, one of the Pit Dwellers has arrived.

The countdown starts...I give it two more pages.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

government changing the legal systems is rather the point of them. the problems highlighted are not exclusive to this country, they are common across all liberal democracies. how we select our representatives doesnt change much. i expressed some solutions, you noted they're already done to a degree. so what we need is political will, in broader sense from the population, to implement further. give people in food poverty vouchers instead of relying on them to spend a meager dole out. build more homes. simples right?

talk about changing the political systems is putting ideology first. talk about excess is ideological too. taking more taxes doesn't solve anything itself, just satisfies some ideology. the problem is solutions arent proposed and implemented.

Taking more taxes is satisfying ideology?
Germany says there’s no need for charities there as people believe in paying tax.
I’m not saying the State should pay for everything but basic infrastructure like police, firefighters, old people, health. highways etc need taxes

Corruption is rife, so changing judicial reviews, stuffing the HOL with cronies, and no recourse to justice is normal now, so very worrying times ahead.
But there’s non so blind as thos who don’t want to see.

 

[Simster]

so the solution is to build more housing, social or general. not argue around who owns the existing stock, or vilify those that do offer property for rent. high prices and rents have the same root cause, insufficient supply for the demand.

Yes, you are right. There is little point arguing about who owns the existing stock, except to say that perhaps those who are sympathetic to right-wing market economics would do well to admit that those policies created the problem in large part. Letting people buy council owned houses at a massive discount without replacing that stock has been a disaster.

So why doesn't more housing stock ever get built? Well the answer is simple - home owners tend to vote Tory, but building more houses in the vicinity of those people tends to upset those very same people. Therefore, the Tories do nothing for fear of upsetting their core support - they are like rabbits caught in headlights.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Ah, one of the Pit Dwellers has arrived.

The countdown starts...I give it two more pages.

That’s why they do it. Instead of moderators banning them from the thread, their aim is to get it in the pit.

 

[BBassic]

That’s why they do it. Instead of moderators banning them from the thread, their aim is to get it in the pit.

Yep, and it's a shame because this thread is full of adults debating sensibly.

 

[beorhthelm]

Taking more taxes is satisfying ideology?
Germany says there’s no need for charities there as people believe in paying tax.
I’m not saying the State should pay for everything but basic infrastructure like police, firefighters, old people, health. highways etc need taxes

when its the starting point for policy, yes. saying we must tax a group or thing more, then thinking about how to spend it, is ideological. tax should be the end of the discussion, after determining what needs to be done and how it might be delivered.

and i cant believe Germany has no charity. for a start they have food banks that 1.7million use.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Even before I left the States , many years ago , there were areas of NY where people were living below the poverty line . No so much in the area in Manhattan where I lived but certainly in areas like Harlem etc . Mind you, the folks back home have to pay for their medical care or it comes with their employment in most cases . If you are not working , the medical care ( insurance ) can be expensive especially if you are over 60.

Lots of food banks even in those days . A couple of suppliers pulled out of food bank sponsorship in the early 80’s because of the level of gun crime in some of these areas . Whilst it’s still a major problem , parts of Harlem have definitely improved due to gentrification.

Long may that continue.

I've seen the poverty first hand and it is pretty shocking, not just in New York but in many rural areas as well. The comparison between the haves in Manhattan and the have nots in Harlem and the Bronx is stark. As you say medical cover is linked to employment and ends when the employment ends. When folk fall on hard times they end up relying on neighbours and the church. When the pandemic hit the queues for the soup kitchens were around the block.

Although the figures in Worthing are shocking I think the vulnerable in the UK are still in a better position than those in the States, they do have access to benefits and healthcare through the NHS. A lot of people in the States really have no safety net at all when the s*** hits the fan.

 

[stewart12]

Skip food? yes, but skip the latest iphone, Tattoos, nails, Starbucks and McFlurries? No.

my experience of working with people on the breadline doesn't reflect on the above at all

latest iphone? absolutely not. Zero chance on getting accepted for a contract and buying outright is completely out of reach. They might have a smart phone, yes, but that not only is bordering on a necessity these days but is also a one off/long term purchase so is pretty irrelevant in regards to their ability to buy food which is a constant need

tattoos? again, pretty pricey unless it's a pile of shit. People aren't skipping food to get tattoos....seriously

nails? see above

starbucks?! probably on the lower end when it comes to coffee but I haven't worked with anyone who is skipping food to knock back countless amounts of coffee...how much coffee do you think people can drink in a day?! People might be going to Starbucks to use the wifi if they can't afford it at home, but apart from that...no

McFlurry? yeh, that's food

 

[beorhthelm]

Yes, you are right. There is little point arguing about who owns the existing stock, except to say that perhaps those who are sympathetic to right-wing market economics would do well to admit that those policies created the problem in large part. Letting people buy council owned houses at a massive discount without replacing that stock has been a disaster.

its a disaster for social housing. let the councils build more, in fact go further and mandate they should provide more. they are responsible for housing people after all.

So why doesn't more housing stock ever get built? Well the answer is simple - home owners tend to vote Tory, but building more houses in the vicinity of those people tends to upset those very same people. Therefore, the Tories do nothing for fear of upsetting their core support - they are like rabbits caught in headlights.

that is a problem. public from across the political spectrum protest against every development. the housing stock, social or commercial did not rise in the Labour years either, presumably no change to buy Tory voters.