The poor going hungry.

[Justayellowbadge]

Anyone hear this on R4 this morning?

They were interviewing people at a food bank, food poverty being so prevalent, apparently.

There were some sad stories, admittedly. But..

Woman was collecting free food for the week and was asked how she did spend what she had.

"Well, I smoke. And my husband smokes. We tried to give up but can't."

Even as a smoker (well, now ex) it raises my blood pressure a tad...

[Justayellowbadge]

Johnnytheboy said:

Was quite impressed at the resilience of a smoker that can keep puffing away after their daughter expired from cancer.

She actually gave her daughter's cancer as one of the mitigating factors for them still smoking.

[Justayellowbadge]

98elise said:

I believe poverty is defined as having an income lower than a set % of the average. This means "poor" is not related to your actual standard of living.

And also why the number in poverty has been reducing.

Because everyone else's earnings have dropped in real terms during the recession.

So without any extra income, and purely as a consequence of others becoming poorer, families are reclassified as no longer in poverty.

Genius.

Absolute fking genius.

Edited by Justayellowbadge on Thursday 19th July 12:39

[Justayellowbadge]

0a said:

TinyCappo said:

I heard this this morning and my heart really did go out to the poor single mum who was missing meals so she could feed her kids and worked out she only had about 10-15 a week to feed them all after her benefits paid the bills.

If she is claiming all her benefits and not wasting money on fags and booze she will have far more money available than this.

I still remember the BBC piece "Family Life On Benefits" that indicated some people will always 'struggle to chose between eating and heating' no matter how much money they are given.

Her money will be going somewhere.

She was very well spoken, a complete anti-chav. It was mentioned she was recently divorced.

I suspect hubby not doing his bit and she hanging on to family home by her fingernails, tbh.

[Justayellowbadge]

Derek Smith said:

Justayellowbadge said:

Even as a smoker (well, now ex) it raises my blood pressure a tad...

Smoking raises your blood pressure. It is one of the few things, along with lung capacity, that doesn't revert to normal once you give up.

I'd love to see your sources for that. The complete opposite of what my GP was telling me 2 days ago.