Food poverty-the way out

[reohn2]

Do you find that an acceptable way for citizens of the fifth or is it the sixth richest country in the world to have to live in 2022?

Problems with food banks is people can squander all their money away on nonsense knowing there is a food bank to fall back to. Needing to use a food bank in many / most cases will be down to a total mismanagement of money rather than the lack of it. Should food vouches be an element of the benefit system. Eating well and healthily is not expensive,

I wonder what would cause anyone to be so judgemental, for want of a better explanation I’ll go for reading too many copies of the Daily Mail. We all hear about the dreadful poor - it sells newspapers and TV programs- but we hear very little about the dreadful rich who’s tax evasion and aggressive avoidance is what we really should be focussing our attention on.

Oh,so very right!

[Mike Sales]

There are people in full time work using food banks,though you'd probably claim they can't manage their own budget.
People can't win with a loosing hand if it's not one thing it'll be something according to some people!

I read that official figures show that 41% of universal credit claimants are in work, and that 68% of households living in poverty include at least one working adult.

[reohn2]

There are people in full time work using food banks,though you'd probably claim they can't manage their own budget.
People can't win with a loosing hand if it's not one thing it'll be something according to some people!

I read that official figures show that 41% of universal credit claimants are in work, and that 68% of households living in poverty include at least one working adult.

Thanks,it doesn't surprise me in the least!

[Ben@Forest]

I read that official figures show that 41% of universal credit claimants are in work, and that 68% of households living in poverty include at least one working adult.

Surely that first statistic was the whole point - allowing people to claim at least some benefit whilst getting into work to try and solve the problem of it not being worth working whilst claiming benefits?

[simonineaston]

I feel sorry for a particular married couple I know, who without going into excessive details, have always budgeted very carefully to provide for the household & their 2 children, work part-time at local schools so that they can spend as much time as poss. with them - and are now probably very worried indeed about whether they can make ends meet.

[Tiggertoo]

work part-time at local schools

Because unable to get full time jobs?

[pete75]

I read that official figures show that 41% of universal credit claimants are in work, and that 68% of households living in poverty include at least one working adult.

Surely that first statistic was the whole point - allowing people to claim at least some benefit whilst getting into work to try and solve the problem of it not being worth working whilst claiming benefits?

What that effectively means is the taxpayer is subsidising employers to pay low wages. The way to make it more worthwhile to work than claim benefits is for employers to pay higher wages, perhaps by setting the minimum wage at a more sensible level.
My wife has a small business and will not pay her staff anything less than the national average wage despite being in a low wage part of the country. She still manages to make a very handsome profit each year. People who can only make their enterprise profitable by paying starvation wages and sweating staff shouldn't really be in business.

[pete75]

Do you find that an acceptable way for citizens of the fifth or is it the sixth richest country in the world to have to live in 2022?

Britain is nowhere near being the fifth or sixth richest country in the world, it's not even the fifth or sixth richest country in Europe.

[simonineaston]

will not pay her staff anything less than the national average wage

That's really cool, pete75
It would be very interesting to find out how many public employers, like individual hospitals, schools and colleges, could show that they payed the national living wage, to all adults (23+) across the board. I have a queasy feeling that would turn out to be a different story.

[reohn2]

Pete75
I stand corrected.

[Tiggertoo]

Britain is nowhere near being the fifth or sixth richest country in the world, it's not even the fifth or sixth richest country in Europe.

Much has been made of 'work shy Britain'.

[Carlton green]

There are certainly some surprises in that list. The ones towards the top might have very low rates of corporation tax or be places to launder corporate money? People justifiably comment about Banking practices in London but one really has to wonder about Luxembourg, Switzerland and Ireland too. Oh, and remember, when companies who trade in the UK don’t pay any UK tax then that’s a form of tax avoidance which suppresses the UK’s ability to fund its state and makes other states more wealthy at our expense. A good way out of food poverty would include closing tax loopholes.

Britain is nowhere near being the fifth or sixth richest country in the world, it's not even the fifth or sixth richest country in Europe.

Much has been made of 'work shy Britain'.

The British workman is little different to any other, but historically investment into performance enhancing machines and equipment doesn’t happen in the UK and that suppresses productivity.

[Tiggertoo]

It is morally and economically indefensible for multi-national companies - mostly American - who pay little or no UK taxes on goods they provide or sell here. Marks and Spencer sells goods and pays taxes, Amazon does not. That cannot be right.

[pete75]

There are certainly some surprises in that list. The ones towards the top might have very low rates of corporation tax or be places to launder corporate money? People justifiably comment about Banking practices in London but one really has to wonder about Luxembourg, Switzerland and Ireland too. Oh, and remember, when companies who trade in the UK don’t pay any UK tax then that’s a form of tax avoidance which suppresses the UK’s ability to fund its state and makes other states more wealthy at our expense. A good way out of food poverty would include closing tax loopholes.

Surprises? It's about what I expected, though the world's richest country based on GDP per head, Monaco, isn't there.
The City of London is the world's money laundering capital so if that's what makes a country wealthy then the UK would be at or near the top.

[Tiggertoo]

GDP by Country

Latest official GDP figures published by the World Bank. Population figures based on United Nations data.
World's GDP is $80,934,771,028,340 (nominal, 2017).

1 United States $19,485,394,000,000 $19.485 trillion 2.27% 325,084,756 $59,939 24.08%
2 China $12,237,700,479,375 $12.238 trillion 6.90% 1,421,021,791 $8,612 15.12%
3 Japan $4,872,415,104,315 $4.872 trillion 1.71% 127,502,725 $38,214 6.02%
4 Germany $3,693,204,332,230 $3.693 trillion 2.22% 82,658,409 $44,680 4.56%
5 India $2,650,725,335,364 $2.651 trillion 6.68% 1,338,676,785 $1,980 3.28%
6 United Kingdom $2,637,866,340,434 $2.638 trillion 1.79% 66,727,461 $39,532 3.26%
7 France $2,582,501,307,216 $2.583 trillion 1.82% 64,842,509 $39,827 3.19%
8 Brazil $2,053,594,877,013 $2.054 trillion 0.98% 207,833,823 $9,881 2.54%
9 Italy $1,943,835,376,342 $1.944 trillion 1.50% 60,673,701 $32,038 2.40%
10 Canada $1,647,120,175,449 $1.647 trillion 3.05% 36,732,095 $44,841 2.04%