General Chat

AnnMarieG. I have been in your situation a couple of times in my life and it is not pleasant. It is really hard to get any help, and you see so many who seem to be living very well on benefits.

Probably you are the same as me. Don't expect to be going to pictures or having a MacDonalds twice a week, or smoking 20 ciggies a day. Just need enough to keep body and soul together. And hopefully enough to stop family and friends feeling sorry for you.

I so agree with you all. Its just not fair. people who dont want to work shoudnt get benefits. My oh and I have never been out of work and believe me I have done some horrible jobs :( but now we need some help, guess what. None is forthcoming, but thats life. I cant see it changing only getting worse in this country.

Yes most of the food is donated or cash donated with which to buy the food. I think they suggest the sort of food to buy and it is concentrated on the best for healthy eating. Our Tesco now has a permanent box in which to donate to the local food bank. I tend to put in things like beans, although as I had a voucher of 50p off 2 tins of Heinz low sugar and salt last week I did donate one of those so it was branded. Having said that the value foods are often just as good as the branded. And I actually used value tinned carrots last week in a stew I had in the slow cooker John because I don't always like fresh in the SC as it doesn't always cook through if short of time. They tasted almost as good. And we like mushy peas. :-) :-)

isn't the food in food banks donated? if I were to donate food to a food bank I would not be buying branded foods

I was amazed by how boring and basic the food is that food banks provide. Value bran flakes, value tiined carrots, mushy peas etc. Not the sort of thing I would eat unless there was a stark choice between that and starvation.

You can bet your socks that food vouchers (which sounds a good idea, Graham) would be more generous and spent on more luxurious items. And why should families on benefits fare any better than those having to ask to join a food bank?

They get their rent paid for them. They should be given food vouchers instead of cash for their weekly shopping. The vouchers should have terms and conditions that mean that cann't be spent on booze and fags.

It is the cans of Coca Cola, the cigarettes, the scratch cards and lottery tickets that gets me. £500 a week is not what a family needs. It is what they WANT - don't we all. £200 is what they need - and possibly that is generous.

And a TV license and a Sky or BT contract are hardly essentials. Or cars. They are things that "ordinary" people do without when they are seeking work and are without much or any income.

Was that 'our' Heather ******* Dizzi? That was quite a while ago now that they changed their minds about the house. Housing association/council decided it wasn't suitable for her after there was so much fuss in the media and people complained when it was known she was keeping a horse etc. Just up the road from us.

I can't watch these programmes as I know they'll wind me up

IT NOW SEEMS THEY LOST THE HOUSE

WATCHING A PROGRAM
ON BENEFITS AND PROUD

NOT AGAINST GENUINE CLAIMENTS
BUT THIS IS ANNOYING ME ,
MOTHER OF 11 KIDS GETTING TWO HOUSES
KNOCKED
IN ONE WORTH HALF A MILLION,
ANOTHER FAMILY HAVING 3 TV 'S WITH VIRGIN
ON TWO SKY ON ONE,AND SPENDS MORE A WEEK ON CIGARETT'S AND TV'S
THAN ON FOOD FOR THEIR CHILDREN.
ONE RECONS SHE SHOULD HAVE £500 A WEEK AFTER HER RENT GAS AN ELECTRIC PAID,,
I KNEW THIS HAPPENED BUT THIS IS BEYOND BELIEF