Can't afford food but can afford drugs , what a shambles .@bobk No surprise it surprises you!
Re drug deaths yes an appalling waste of lives that yes the government must work harder to remedy.
Happy now
afaik no checks are actually done on those who use them. Of course it's not PC to question them
Would it not be an idea to rustle up a few friends around her and all chip in to a box of decent groceries for her once a week. Cases like this deserve decent help .I have a friend who is in receipt. Genuinely ill enough not to be able to work / drive etc. at the moment. Certainly not a slacker and has worked full time since school. The problem she has is that most of the fresh produce is out of date /mouldy or has 1 day to go when she gets it. Also she has to leave the fruit and veg outside because it's always teeming with fruit flies which then infest her flat. Some odd choices of donations too with lots of biscuits / sweets /crisps and other unhealthy stuff. Plus meat that has been repacked with no indication if it has been frozen or any dates on the bags.
Obviously she is grateful for what is usable and the service is run, I believe, by volunteers so she doesn't grumble but feels bad about having to throw food away. I went over to sort her phone wiring the other day and she asked me to look at some bacon which had just been delivered. It was stinking and clearly rotting. Dangerous really.
I'm sure you dont know a thing about me.I'm sure you don't know a single thing about half the stuff you comment on.
Can't afford food but can afford drugs , what a shambles .
Some people from all walks of life will be feckless whatever, and personally I have no time or sympathy for them.
There are though many who do fall on hard times and deserve a helping hand, but how do you sort the chaff from the seed?
Sadly food banks , do encourage the feckless, but it cannot be akin to increasing benefits to a level where they are never used.
maybe we need to have more allotments for people to grow their own foodIt tells me people are living outside their means and need some lessons in money management and home cooking .
You can feed yourself very well very cheap
As a society prior to the welfare system, we used to have workhouses etc, to provide for the poor of the parish, however, there was a great deal of shame in having to access that support, this meant people worked hard to support themselves, along with implementing the welfare state we have incrementally removed all shame from accessing the benefits, in fact replaced shame with "our rights" to the benefit. This has removed the brake on claiming, with the result that there has become an increasing underclass of people who are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves, expect the state to organise everything for them (category b above) and the left has encouraged everyone to claim (working families tax credits etc, which in reality subsidised the likes of Amazon, allowing them to pay a wage that can't be lived on).What with your previous, can't help thinking this is just a go for a lefty whinge. But, giving the benefit of the doubt... let's ask why the food banks are there, shall we...? Obvious answer = because some people can't afford to feed themselves, and it seems reasonable to break this down:
a) Some of these are people who have / have had a genuine run of bad luck, despite doing all that they reasonably could have been expected to do to see themselves right.
b) Some are profligate idiots and time-wasters who can't be arsed to do anything for themselves, just wanting others to do everything for them, scum in my view.
c) Some are 'vulnerable' people who have come here from abroad for a better life, meaning either they want to work and contribute to as well as gain from this society, or that they are just immigrant scum much along the lines of our own lot in (b).
Of course the 'benefits' system should preclude the need for food banks, but it doesn't. That is partly because some people fit into category (b) and the second half of (c); it is also partly because the benefits aren't high enough.
I have no idea what could be successfully done, in legislatory terms, to cater for the scummy types. It seems to me - and I've met, worked with, defended / prosecuted loads of them - that a large number are simply incapable of taking responsibility for themselves; to the point where the public / state needs to take that responsibility, fully.
For the remainder, I think the benefits should be increased; but, being a horrible 'right-wing-nationalist' (I am a nationalist with a small 'n', but not really right wing) I think that should not be done by taking more money from taxpayers. Instead, I think it should be found by reducing what we give to those who could help themselves but can't be bothered to and from what we send as non-strategic and non-emergency foreign aid.
I would also see non-beneficial - meaning not of benefit to the UK - immigration hammered, with direct repatriation and right of appeal only from country of origin. This need not affect people in genuine need of asylum, but would be aimed at all others. And that's because it is manifestly absurd for us to allow, and for the Left / Liberals to encourage the importation of other countries' poor while we still have our own to deal with.
While I 100 % agree that ship has sailed I'm afraid, we have turned the world into an entitlement societyAs a society prior to the welfare system, we used to have workhouses etc, to provide for the poor of the parish, however, there was a great deal of shame in having to access that support, this meant people worked hard to support themselves, along with implementing the welfare state we have incrementally removed all shame from accessing the benefits, in fact replaced shame with "our rights" to the benefit. This has removed the brake on claiming, with the result that there has become an increasing underclass of people who are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves, expect the state to organise everything for them (category b above) and the left has encouraged everyone to claim (working families tax credits etc, which in reality subsidised the likes of Amazon, allowing them to pay a wage that can't be lived on).
We need to change the welfare system, so it incentivises taking control of our own lives, bring back some form of social disapprobation towards claiming, while still maintaining a social welfare net. We also need to teach how to shop and cook, from scratch.
I totally agree but as this is a farming forum there are probably a lot on here taking Government money and feeling quite entitled to it as well.As a society prior to the welfare system, we used to have workhouses etc, to provide for the poor of the parish, however, there was a great deal of shame in having to access that support, this meant people worked hard to support themselves, along with implementing the welfare state we have incrementally removed all shame from accessing the benefits, in fact replaced shame with "our rights" to the benefit. This has removed the brake on claiming, with the result that there has become an increasing underclass of people who are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves, expect the state to organise everything for them (category b above) and the left has encouraged everyone to claim (working families tax credits etc, which in reality subsidised the likes of Amazon, allowing them to pay a wage that can't be lived on).
We need to change the welfare system, so it incentivises taking control of our own lives, bring back some form of social disapprobation towards claiming, while still maintaining a social welfare net. We also need to teach how to shop and cook, from scratch.
Not much there for any reasonable person to disagree with. Except that the World has changed greatly since the days of the workhouse. With increasing reliance on technology and automation, where is the work that the otherwise unemployable can do, going to come from, in order that they can better themselves?As a society prior to the welfare system, we used to have workhouses etc, to provide for the poor of the parish, however, there was a great deal of shame in having to access that support, this meant people worked hard to support themselves, along with implementing the welfare state we have incrementally removed all shame from accessing the benefits, in fact replaced shame with "our rights" to the benefit. This has removed the brake on claiming, with the result that there has become an increasing underclass of people who are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves, expect the state to organise everything for them (category b above) and the left has encouraged everyone to claim (working families tax credits etc, which in reality subsidised the likes of Amazon, allowing them to pay a wage that can't be lived on).
We need to change the welfare system, so it incentivises taking control of our own lives, bring back some form of social disapprobation towards claiming, while still maintaining a social welfare net. We also need to teach how to shop and cook, from scratch.