Non-motoring > The Foodbank Thread. Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Bromptonaut Replies: 18
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 Wed 5 Dec 18 10:23 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Bromptonaut
We had tangent(s) in Brexit volumes 67-8 over poverty in UK. Significant part of it is here and on:

www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=26488&v=t

Yesterday the Joseph Rowntree trust published its Annual Report on poverty in the UK:

www.jrf.org.uk/file/51890/download?token=jLrnnviz&filetype=full-report

Grim reading. Interesting follow up discussion on Radio 4's Call You and Yours yesterday including an economist explaining real v relative poverty. Worth a listen.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001f0k

The guy from Cumbria, past retirement age but still going 2 jobs is typical of a genre I speak to regularly. The e-mail from somebody earning £33k and claiming to pay £8k tax struck me as a bit odd. Even on a BR code (ie no deduction for personal allowance) it shouldn't be much more than £6.5.

And, specially for Mapmaker Mx Jack Monroe's latest publication is a cook book based on tinned ingredients:

www.theguardian.com/food/shortcuts/2018/dec/05/dont-bash-millennials-for-not-having-tin-openers-donate-one-to-a-food-bank-instead

www.amazon.co.uk/Tin-Can-Cook-Store-cupboard-Recipes/dp/1529015286
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 Wed 5 Dec 18 12:23 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Dutchie
There are over a million foodbanks in the U.K.

I am fortunate never to have to use one.Is it people waiting for benefits or the working poor?

With so many foodbanks something has gone wrong hasn't it?
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 Wed 5 Dec 18 13:04 
 The Foodbank Thread. - R.P.
A million ???

Trusell Trust had around 400 when I last looked - they are the biggest provider...
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 Wed 5 Dec 18 15:30 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Pat
I'm proud to live in the Fens where people care.

tinyurl.com/yc84p9lc

Pat
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 Wed 5 Dec 18 20:17 
 The Foodbank Thread. - bathtub tom
I thought I was right wing, but SWMBO declares anyone turning up at a foodbank in a Merc with visible tattoos and throwing their fag end on the floor should be put up against the wall and shot.
If they turn up during school hours and have children of school age with them, then those children should witness their parents being shot!

Only saying, like.
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 Mon 28 Jan 19 00:16 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Bromptonaut
The day before the second bite at a 'meaningful vote' on Brexit the government sneaked out this gem:

www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2019-01-14/HCWS1249/

Clearly the 'good day to bury bad news' concept is still around.

Mixed age couples, those where one partner but not the other has reached State Pension Age, will from May have to wait until both are pension age before moving from working age benefits to the much more generous Pension Credit. While the current regime gives Pension Credit to those with a twenty year age gap, hence the press wags talk of a 'toy-boy' tax, the vast majority of those affected will be ordinary couples with and age difference of 2 to 4 years.

The effect is that instead of 'the minimum amount of money the law says you need to live on' being £248.80/week it will be less than £115. If the older partner, usually the male, gets the full new state pension of £164.35, that alone will be deemed to be all but £50 a week more than they need to live on as a couple. They are also likely to be subject to the 'bedroom tax' and to pay up to 50% of Council Tax - imposts from which up 'til now they've been protected as pensioners.

Silver haired couples aged 63 and 66 needing help from foodbanks ain't going to look good.....
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 Mon 28 Jan 19 07:57 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Zero
Wasn't buried, this was discussed at length on various news websites about three weeks ago.
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 Mon 28 Jan 19 08:25 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Bromptonaut
>> Wasn't buried, this was discussed at length on various news websites about three weeks ago.

Sneaking out Written Statements, on which Ministers cannot be questioned, on days or at times where they may be overlooked is an old trick used by governments of all stripes. Chris 'Failing' Grayling did exactly same thing when announcing curtailment of rail electrification on the cusp of the summer recess. Labour, when in government, were no better.

Social media means they're much less likely to succeed. One organisation picks it up and all over Facebook and Twitter in no time.
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 Tue 12 Feb 19 21:49 
 The Foodbank Thread. - zippy
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/food-banks-universal-credit-dwp-jobcentres-uk-a8769921.html

It is 1984, doublespeak is here.

Food banks are doublebad.
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 Tue 12 Feb 19 22:14 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Bromptonaut
A DWP spokesperson said their policy on food bank referrals had not changed. “Jobcentres will signpost people to food banks and other services according to their individual circumstances, as part of their support to help people manage their finances and get into work,” the spokesperson added.

As I said in original thread pretty much all foodbanks require those needing help to have a referral from a third party who has done a 'gateway' interview to ascertain their circumstances/needs. If that person is in wait period for Universal Credit or has been sanctioned there's a rational case for JCP (Job Centre Plus) referring them direct rather than 'signposting' them to join all the other punters waiting to see an Assessor at (say) their Local Citizens Advice (I have to learn to use LCA in place of CAB - we've dropped Bureau from our title). Some JCP offices in Sussex seem to have cottoned onto to logic of that.

But it doesn't go down well in DWP HQ (who've not yet caught up with fact that Amber Rudd has finally accepted UC and sanctions being major drivers in rise in food bank usage.
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 Tue 12 Feb 19 22:28 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Bromptonaut
>> Silver haired couples aged 63 and 66 needing help from foodbanks ain't going to look
>> good.....

So I wrote to my MP about this. After fending off an attempt by his 'admin' to refer it to DWP for reply - pointed out I'm a retired Civil Servant and could draft reply for them - I finally get a personal response from him. Basically he simply re-hashes the Written Ministerial Statement, including a reference to a government paper my original letter debunked. Adds something that looks suspiciously like a party issued 'line to take' making a thoroughly disingenuous comparison between rate at which income is withdrawn for earnings in Universal Credit compared with Pension credit and says he hopes I will contact him if he can be of further assistance.

Reply in draft.

Is it tactless to point out to the MP, Chris Heaton-Harris, who was recently made to look a complete ass-hat by a Scottish QC on the DExEU Select Committee, that aspects of the policy I'm questioning might be difficult to justify in the media or to a Select Committee?

Is it reasonable to use the word Schadenfreude when referring to my response if, as I expect it to, this blows up into a media brouhaha in the summer?
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 12 Feb 19 at 22:30
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 Fri 29 Mar 19 08:42 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Bromptonaut
So latest is that Chris Heaton-Harris has passed my second letter to Amber Rudd. I await her response but given she's tied up in other Cabinet business and is drafting her application for PM's job I may have a long wait.

Meanwhile there was an intersting opinion piece in The Guardian earlier this week.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/25/big-business-food-banks-subsidise-reputation
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 Fri 29 Mar 19 16:42 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Haywain
"Meanwhile there was an intersting opinion piece in The Guardian earlier this week"

I guess neither Brompt nor many of the Grauniadisti will have worked in industry. Having done my time as a product manager, I can say that the primary function of that job is to maintain the selling price of a product and to manufacture the exact amount that will sell the product out - with neither shortage nor surplus.
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 Thu 25 Apr 19 12:42 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Bromptonaut
Report from Trussel Trust today about scope of help they've delivered in 12months to March:

www.trusselltrust.org/2019/04/25/record-1-6m-food-bank-parcels/

Some commentary from The Guardian:

www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/25/food-bank-network-hands-out-record-16m-food-parcels-in-a-year

Interview on Today Programme this morning with somebody who suffered from Food Poverty:

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0004cp5

Starts at 53:20.

And an example drawn from stuff colleagues have dealt with recently:

Female, recently back at work after relationship breakdown. Has dependent children and lives in Housing Association place. Doing about 20+ hours/week at National Min Wage for under 25 so a around £170/week. EU migrant, been here four years and has pre-settled status. Claim for Universal Credit rejected as DWP say she lacks Right to Reside. That's wrong; they've only looked at first limb of a more involved set of rules. DWP have been asked to do a 'Mandatory Reconsideration' which is the first stage of an appeal. She's been told that will take weeks. Currently trying to get DWP to say what average delay is on MR but no answer yet.

In meantime she's had no money since her March wage.

A food bank voucher was issued but it's a struggle to even find the bus fare to the distribution point.

And we used to complain about Thatcher's Britain.
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 Thu 25 Apr 19 14:48 
 The Foodbank Thread. - R.P.
Started volunteering at our local Foodbank - brings some perspective with it.
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 Thu 25 Apr 19 18:22 
 The Foodbank Thread. - Zero
>> Started volunteering at our local Foodbank - brings some perspective with it.

Is that tinned or dried packet perspective?
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 Thu 25 Apr 19 18:47 
 The Foodbank Thread. - R.P.
and chocolate...lots of it
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 Thu 25 Apr 19 17:59 
 The Foodbank Thread. - zippy
>>And we used to complain about Thatcher's Britain.

Didn't an ex-Tory leader or senior member actually complain about the path taken re Universal Credit and the DWP?

When a hard nosed conservative of the past says enough is enough then perhaps its time to rethink.

Saying that, there are abusers of the system. I know a healthy 27 year old guy with 6 kids (two mothers) who is a professional skiver. Claims an inability to read and write, yet has a tablet computer, gets a paper and has an Xbox and goes on more holidays than I do.

.*********

Then on the other side of the fence we have this:
www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/21/stephen-smith-liverpool-seriously-ill-emaciated-man-denied-benefits-dwp-dies

and this madness....

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/03/dwp-benefits-electrician-work-placement-labour

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 Thu 25 Apr 19 18:15 
 The Foodbank Thread. - zippy
The bit sanitised out above basically said..

He has worked for about 6 months since he left school at 16. He just gets sacked for "doing nothing".
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