ARE YOU ON THE LIST.

[tommy.irene]

ITV News

The British Red Cross said it is launching a campaign to help distribute food to the most needy families in the UK this winter.

Do you think times have got so tough for UK families that the Red Cross should be stepping in to help?

Read the full story: http://itv.co/1gva9gs

[tommy.irene]

I bumped into my mate in the pub last night who was looking a bit glum, so I asked him what was up.

"Well, I can't afford anything anymore so I've had to cancel my golf and gym memberships, my Sky TV package and have to cut down on **bleep**s to 20 a week" he sighed.

"Because of the recession?" I asked.

"No" he replied. "I've been forced off benefits and been made to get a job."

[merehazle]

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@tommy.irene wrote:

I bumped into my mate in the pub last night who was looking a bit glum, so I asked him what was up.

"Well, I can't afford anything anymore so I've had to cancel my golf and gym memberships, my Sky TV package and have to cut down on **bleep**s to 20 a week" he sighed.

"Because of the recession?" I asked.

"No" he replied. "I've been forced off benefits and been made to get a job."

---

Well we are a welfare state. And for certain if they manage their lives everyone gets food. But because so many don't, it's a very good thing to do as the children so often suffer. There will be freeloader's of course. Animals have had a very bad time too. But if you think these are bad times ....

YES   750,000 in one week! hard to believe.  I don't know about any other dog lovers on here but even then somehow I would have fed my dogs.  

[fionajohnston]

mum's budgie survived the war on nice(trade name)biscuits

[al**bear]

Food Bank use has tripled in the last year

Social Security no longer gives out emergency money

The Social fund has been decimated

Someone needs to come in and do what the Government have stopped doing

and like your 'joke' , demonised the people on Benefits, tarring them and the disabled as cheating scroungers

while making it all but impossible for Councils to help either

[bankhaunter]

The cost of living is higher for those on very low incomes.

Paying for gas and electricity by direct debit is much cheaper than using a prepayment meter, having the spare money to buy it and a freezer to store it in means shoppers can take advantage of cut price food in supermarkets, often things at half price.

[ol_blue_eyes_no_1]

You would think with the tripling of foodbank use the government would welcome any extra help:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/17/government-under-fire-eu-funding-food-banks

"British officials rejected EU funding for food banks, which could have reached £22m for Britain, on the grounds that individual member states are best placed to take charge of such funding."

[charliebird123]

Massive rise in the NE.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10740220.Explosion_in_food_bank_across_North_East_revealed/

[al**bear]

Hi Joe,

The UK Government (all of them) have  turned down £billions of help from the EU over the years , but like to attack the EU over us not getting as much as others.

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The reason so many Pets were put down, in the early years of WWII, was the fear of a horrible death of their loved ones, when the Germans dropped, the expected, poison Gas munitions

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Millionaire welfare minister, Lord Freud, who maintained (only 5 mths ago) that there was no link between the increase in Foodbank use and welfare cuts & delays, He also said Foodbanks were a Bad idea, it made the POOR 'risk averse' ????

Now he's came out with a great idea, local councils should fund Foodbanks, to save the Government spending on them

The same Councils that have been hammered by this Government, by freezing Council Tax rises , while masifly increasing the running and cost of services, pushed onto Councils, from the NHS and DWP among others.

----------------------

This story should have been covered a lot more, but was ' swamped' by Mandelas death and the sitting of parliament to talk about Him at the same time as this was going on.

Did anyone see IDS in front of the Work & Pensions select Committee, he was ripped to bits, He denied, the failures in the DWP were his fault, and seemed to blame everyone and anyone, but himself. Even though He took personal  credit for it all, when he said a few months ago, it was all on track.

It also exposes ALL THE LIES given out by the DWP, the Government , Tory Press and others about how many People 'ran off' benefits because of new tests. This is complicated, but is massively false.  He nearly got away with another 'statistical' inexactitude, but was caught by a savvy Committee member.

This is as close as you'll get to Sir Humpreys deflections and gobbldygook from Yes Minister as you'll ever see.

It's over 2 Hrs long, take your time, it's well worth it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqJoGMKIJQw

[al**bear]

So the Commons were having a debate (or one side were trying to) on Poverty & Foodbanks yesterday, but Iain Duncan Smith couldn't be bothered to stick around and defend his draconian policies or discuss the harm his Department are causing

[dr-whos-assistant]

I am sure there are some people who are really that short of money they need help through no fault of their own, but many people don't help themselves you have people on low wages who keep having children then moan they have no money. 

No one plans for the future anymore why should they when the government bails them out.

You also have those people who are just bad at managing money no matter how much they have, I know a couple like that they have the income but spend it on silly things.

[joe_bloggs*]

Al,as well as the rat doing a runner,at the parliamentary Work and Pension’s Committee  he turned up with a bodyguard as well as several armed policemen !

"you have to wonder what he thought he had to fear from people, who’d gone through the usual security searches. Did he get some kind of craven, bullying pleasure by having armed goons point guns at the mentally and physically disabled and vulnerable? And what on Earth were the police doing, if they were pointing their guns at people?"

"Someone once said that ‘No-one trusts the man, who trusts no-one’. Smith has shown himself deeply untrustworthy through this show of excessive force.

The attitude behind it is one of suspicion and contempt for the general public and especially the poor, unemployed and disabled he has penalised and victimised with his policies. Going into the Committee chamber surrounded by armed guards like the Fascist generalissimo of a banana republic, he is a contemptible petty tyrant, who has therefore shown himself totally unsuited for public office."

http://beastrabban.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/ids-and-armed-bodyguards-no-one-trusts-the-man-who-trust...

He is a very dangerous man,but he is running scared,as well he should

[bookhunter2007]

I wonder why this DEFRA report was suppressed?

http://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2013/nov/12/food-banks-government-suppre...

[al**bear]

Iain Duncan Smith refuses to meet food bank charity and accuses them of 'scaremongering'

Arrogant Tory minister Iain Duncan Smith has refused to meet food bank chiefs over Britain’s growing hunger crisis, it was revealed today.

The Work and Pensions Secretary said he would not meet with charity bosses from the Trussell Trust - because they had blamed his benefit cuts for the spike in families relying on food handouts.

Mr Duncan Smith, who sparked fury this week after walking out of a Commons debate about food banks, accused the charity of “scaremongering” to boost its “business model” of giving away food to those in need.

Chris Mould, chairman of the Trussell Trust, which has provided food supplies to more than 500,000 people since April, has called for a meeting with the Tory over the growing reliance on food hand outs.            

But Mr Duncan Smith has dismissed the request.            

In a letter to the Trust he attacked the “political messaging of your organisation”.            

He said that it was “claiming to be nonpartisan” but had “repeatedly sought to link the growth in your network to welfare reform”.

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In reply to Scottish charity workers and Politicians, who are complaining about the rise in the cost of living , meaning more & more are going to Foodbanks and the dramatic rise in the numbers of Foodbanks opening - Iain Duncan Smith says that his Welfare reforms will help 300k of the the poor in Scotland.

Everything will be Hunky Dory when they get Universal credit

Yip the benefit that is stalled at the starting line and whose implemtation , IDS has just put back for years.

[bankhaunter]

There are millions of people who are just one week's pay from financial disaster.

Should something go wrong and they have to look to the benefit system, with the enforced delay in claiming Universal Credit when it is introduced, those people will immediately be in debt.

Add to that excessive council court charges and bailiff's fees and you find a council tax debt of £21 can increase to a total debt of £256.