Free school meals in the school holidays

[12gauge82]

Just now, JohnfromUK said:

It has been suggested - and I believe is used in other countries - there was a scheme here, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/mar/26/payment-cards-emergency-assistance-food-stamps

but not sure what happened to it.

I think it's a good solution, a couple of posts up mentions fraud and if food tokens were issued instead of a proportion of money it would ensure no one would go hungry and I would imagine put a stop to most although obviously not all fraud. Anyone who had starving children after that should be jailed and their children placed into care imo. 

[Yellow Bear]

1 minute ago, JohnfromUK said:

It has been suggested - and I believe is used in other countries - there was a scheme here, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/mar/26/payment-cards-emergency-assistance-food-stamps

but not sure what happened to it.

Probably against some right or other or considered "demeaning" by the wealthy lily lived left and liberals. 

[Gordon R]

Quote

my daughter now runs the benefits team if i told you how much fraud is taking place we would have riots 

With all due respect to your daughter, unless she is working for the Organised part of the fraud team, she will only see a fraction of the massive frauds - albeit enough to scare Joe Public. HMRC are utterly clueless and leave the system open to abuse. 

JohnfromUK - when I say content, I am speaking of MPs and higher Civil Servants. If they do not grasp the scale of the fraud, they are either disinterested or idiots. Taxpayers would be horrified at the scale of fraud and the ease with which it is committed.

[clangerman]

1 minute ago, Gordon R said:

With all due respect to your daughter, unless she is working for the Organised part of the fraud team, she will only see a fraction of the massive frauds - albeit enough to scare Joe Public. HMRC are utterly clueless and leave the system open to abuse. 

JohnfromUK - when I say content, I am speaking of MPs and higher Civil Servants. If they do not grasp the scale of the fraud, they are either disinterested or idiots. Taxpayers would be horrified at the scale of fraud and the ease with which it is committed.

glad you know how bad it is half the problem is current pc climate how can you investigate when any enquiries are meet with claims of discrimination or racism it’s ridiculous 

[Demonic69]

The Government didn't vote down feeding starving children. They voted down an extension to the supermarket voucher scheme, which wouldn't help most starving kids because they're not starving from lack of money. They're starving because their primary carers choose to spend their money on other priorities. Give a scrote an extra £12.50 and it's not going to feed the kids. Families who truly need it have their own options available, food banks, universal credit, top up loans etc. 

I can see there may be some genuine cases where a family just cannot afford food, but they must be the minority in this welfare state? Having grown up around scrotes, and lived and worked in some of the poorest areas in Yorkshire, I've rarely seen an actually poor family, because everyone is entitled to a minimum standard of living paid for by either the state or by working. How would you identify a family in need when everyone gets the same minimum level of income?

We struggled when I was a kid; my mum was physically unable to work, my dad worked in the steel works and was constantly having his hours cut, and they had 2 hungry lads and a little girl. Food was always the priority, then a car to get my dad to work, then the rest. We were bullied at school because we couldn't afford shellsuits! This was by kids with zero working parents! I grew up jaded, fair enough, but I've not seen that stereotype busted in the subsequent decades.

[JohnfromUK]

3 minutes ago, Gordon R said:

when I say content, I am speaking of MPs and higher Civil Servants. If they do not grasp the scale of the fraud, they are either disinterested or idiots. Taxpayers would be horrified at the scale of fraud and the ease with which it is committed.

Unfortunately, when we vote for our MPs, there is in fact little choice in this area.

Both Tory and Labour claim to want to reduce tax fraud - though neither have actually done anything much to do so as far as I can see.

Tory have 'sort of tried' to do some benefit reform with Universal Credit, which seems pretty much universally disliked.  Labour had made the system even more complex and therefore fraud prone - and have never really wanted to reduce benefits as lots of benefit dependants = lots of Labour votes.  Whilst virtually every benefit recipient votes Labour, they will never tackle it.

No other party has ever been in any position to have any chance of forming a government.

3 minutes ago, Demonic69 said:

I can see there may be some genuine cases where a family just cannot afford food, but they must be the minority in this welfare state?

Agreed

[Gordon R]

JohnfromtheUK - Many who claim fantastic sums, via multiple claims, are not voters, they aren't even resident in the UK.

As for Universal Credits, I have no faith that it will ever work properly. Find me someone, other than Neil Couling, who says it will work and I will demand a polygraph.

[JohnfromUK]

7 minutes ago, Gordon R said:

Many who claim fantastic sums, via multiple claims, are not voters, they aren't even resident in the UK.

That is true I'm sure - but it won't win votes for Labour (as in Kier Starmers version of Labour) saying they will clamp down on benefits fraud ........ as the stirrers from the old hard left will interpret this as "clamp down on benefits" and aim to get Starmer replaced by a hard left Corbyn replacement.

He is on thin ice in trying to do anything to cut down on any handouts as it will be twisted and used against him.

[Vince Green]

4 hours ago, Lampwick said:

I was a Governor at a Primary school for years and only 40% of those eligible for free school meals claimed them. We did a survey as to why and the biggest complaint was that there were too many vegetables in the meal.  “my kids don’t eat that ****” was an actual quote 😂😂😂 

That was exactly the quote that my ex wife got at the food bank when they tried to hand out tins of vegetables

They also didn't want things that required proper cooking like packets of macaroni

Edited October 26, 2020 by Vince Green

[Mice!]

Given how cheap the basics are in this country I still find it shocking that anyone should be hungry,  the idea of people wanting to swap things at a food bank is ridiculous,  they should be grateful surely. 

If the money given for food is being wasted on non food items a kind of food bank would be good, turn up and get given the basics needed for the week and the cost covered by the scheme, at least that would be less open to abuse.

As for school trips, apparently if they are educational there is no charge, often there is a suggestion that X amount should be paid,  some may not be able to afford it fair enough but going abroad is ridiculous. 

[Vince Green]

They have food stamps in America called SNAPs, there is a lot of stigma attached to being on them but people are still able to sell them on the black market or trade them for drugs or alcohol.

Whatever the system a whole network of fraud and misuse grows up around them  

[JohnfromUK]

21 minutes ago, Vince Green said:

That was exactly the quote that my ex wife got at the food bank when they tried to hand out tins of vegetables

They also didn't want things that required cooking like packets of macaroni

There is an old, old saying; Beggars can't be choosers.  Some may (in the like of current 'wokeness') find it offensive.  I find it is (or at least should be) true (within reason).

1 minute ago, Vince Green said:

Whatever the system a whole network of fraud and misuse grows up

If people invested as much ingenuity into an honest day's work, the world would be a better place!

[AVB]

22 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

 

If people invested as much ingenuity into an honest day's work, the world would be a better place!

Tell me about it. My 16 year old son was offered the chance to work last week and this (half term) picking pumpkins. £10/hour. You should have seen the look he gave me when I mentioned it. 

[JohnfromUK]

10 minutes ago, AVB said:

Tell me about it. My 16 year old son was offered the chance to work last week and this (half term) picking pumpkins. £10/hour. You should have seen the look he gave me when I mentioned it. 

When I first started - circa 1970 - it was 3/- an hour (15p) which was then the agricultural minimum wage, and we were glad of that.

Edited October 26, 2020 by JohnfromUK

[AVB]

5 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

When I first started - circa 1970 - it was 3/- an hour (15p) which was then the agricultural minimum wage, and we were glad of that.

I used to work on farms during school holidays when I was a kid. Would have been c. 1975/1976. Can’t remember how much I got paid but I always felt rich when I got pay packet at end of week. 

[JohnfromUK]

1 minute ago, AVB said:

I used to work on farms during school holidays when I was a kid. Would have been c. 1975/1976. Can’t remember how much I got paid but I always felt rich when I got pay packet at end of week. 

I think I typically had to work about 10 hours to buy an LP record (about £1.50)!  Now at £10 and hour, probably work about 1 hour for an 'album'. 

Or petrol was about 7p a litre, so 2 litres an hour worked.  Now more like 7 litres an hour.

But as you say, we felt rich then.

[Stonepark]

5 hours ago, Lampwick said:

I was a Governor at a Primary school for years and only 40% of those eligible for free school meals claimed them. We did a survey as to why and the biggest complaint was that there were too many vegetables in the meal.  “my kids don’t eat that ****” was an actual quote 😂😂😂 

Whilst I apreciate the efforts of Jamie Oliver and the like geting rid of empty calories from school meals, it has to be remembered that young kids are not (rightly) fond of the over cooked mush that most schools provide as vegetables.

[Mice!]

29 minutes ago, AVB said:

Tell me about it. My 16 year old son was offered the chance to work last week and this (half term) picking pumpkins. £10/hour. You should have seen the look he gave me when I mentioned it. 

Nothing wrong with a tenner an hour for a student,  I hope you explained that some people probably don't get paid that much for their full time job,  I'm sure he would have found that surprising. 

[Vince Green]

I worked all day Saturday in a supermarket to be able to buy 30 Baikal or S&B Mk11 cartridges. Only trouble was I didnt get paid in time to get to the sports shop about two miles away to buy them so I could go shooting the Sunday.

 

[sportsbob]

1 hour ago, JohnfromUK said:

I think I typically had to work about 10 hours to buy an LP record (about £1.50)!  Now at £10 and hour, probably work about 1 hour for an 'album'. 

Or petrol was about 7p a litre, so 2 litres an hour worked.  Now more like 7 litres an hour.

But as you say, we felt rich then.

I remember it at 35p per gallon, we used to buy 50p of petrol for our scramblers and spend an hour over the quarry

[Scully]

26 minutes ago, sportsbob said:

I remember it at 35p per gallon, we used to buy 50p of petrol for our scramblers and spend an hour over the quarry

We must be a similar age; when I served petrol as a weekend job, 2 Star was 32p a gallon, up to 5 Star at 35p. Redex was 10p a shot! 

[AVB]

https://apple.news/Azd0NQPsqTNC_kmMihiWSYQ
 

bit of a sob story here but something missing. No reference to the father of the children. Ok she could be a widow but I am sure they would have mentioned that. 

[sportsbob]

1 hour ago, AVB said:

https://apple.news/Azd0NQPsqTNC_kmMihiWSYQ
 

bit of a sob story here but something missing. No reference to the father of the children. Ok she could be a widow but I am sure they would have mentioned that. 

I read her story and can relate to it as when I was in infant and Junior school we lived in rural Staffordshire and we had little money although both parent went to work . I remember fishfingers in boxes of 6 was a treat with mash and peas for the three of us and a Frey Bentos pie also went three ways again with mash and peas. There were no handouts from the government and the miners strikes would put us without power for hours on end but we got through it.

[AVB]

5 minutes ago, sportsbob said:

I read her story and can relate to it as when I was in infant and Junior school we lived in rural Staffordshire and we had little money although both parent went to work . I remember fishfingers in boxes of 6 was a treat with mash and peas for the three of us and a Frey Bentos pie also went three ways again with mash and peas. There were no handouts from the government and the miners strikes would put us without power for hours on end but we got through it.

Yes but there is no mention of her ex partner/husband. What is he contributing to the upkeep of the children? 

[Mice!]

18 minutes ago, sportsbob said:

I read her story and can relate to it as when I was in infant and Junior school we lived in rural Staffordshire and we had little money although both parent went to work . I remember fishfingers in boxes of 6 was a treat with mash and peas for the three of us and a Frey Bentos pie also went three ways again with mash and peas. There were no handouts from the government and the miners strikes would put us without power for hours on end but we got through it.

Imagine if the mortgage rates jumped up, were already told how much people were struggling before covid never mind now, 1981 hit 15% 1991 hit 10% difference being folk made do and most didn't live beyond their means.