MP calls for children in poverty to get free school meals (From Daily Echo)

A quick look at these poor kids will soon see the real problem..... over half of them have parents who are spending a huge % of their income on cigarettes...
A day's worth of their cigarettes would feed one child at school for a week.

Yes by all means give them free school meals as long as you take away their family allowance, it is a parents responsibility to feed and cloth their children and if that is not being done to a satisfactory standard then take the kids into care, if the taxpayer is being expected to provide for all these kids then we might as well do the whole job. I do not believe in this day and age there is any such thing as poverty with all that can be claimed from the welfare state not to mention charities, so we feed the kids and absolve the parents of even more responsibility so they can buy more fags or booze.

business-guru wrote:
A quick look at these poor kids will soon see the real problem..... over half of them have parents who are spending a huge % of their income on cigarettes...
A day's worth of their cigarettes would feed one child at school for a week.

Thats very interesting to know.
.
Perhaps you can tell us where you get this info from only i cant find it anywhere

ohec wrote:
Yes by all means give them free school meals as long as you take away their family allowance, it is a parents responsibility to feed and cloth their children and if that is not being done to a satisfactory standard then take the kids into care, if the taxpayer is being expected to provide for all these kids then we might as well do the whole job. I do not believe in this day and age there is any such thing as poverty with all that can be claimed from the welfare state not to mention charities, so we feed the kids and absolve the parents of even more responsibility so they can buy more fags or booze.

Smart move! Any idea how much keeping a child in care costs? Not to mention the emotional effect on them. Free school meals are relatively cheap as benefits go. It is also the one benefit that definitely goes to the welfare of children.
Can I also suggest you try surviving on JSA levels of income for a month and then see if you still think the problem is entirely down to poor parenting.

Every time I read one of these columns some parent or the other is being blamed for poverty. Poverty is caused by lack of employment opportunities which is not the fault of parents or their children. Perhaps some of the people on here would like to suggest how we find employment opportunities for people so that they can feed their kids, rather than suggesting people on benefits should be penalised. Oh and one last thing, a lot of working people are on benefits.

Donald2000 wrote:
Every time I read one of these columns some parent or the other is being blamed for poverty. Poverty is caused by lack of employment opportunities which is not the fault of parents or their children. Perhaps some of the people on here would like to suggest how we find employment opportunities for people so that they can feed their kids, rather than suggesting people on benefits should be penalised. Oh and one last thing, a lot of working people are on benefits.

Agreed. Quite often the Echo's comments section makes for a depressing read. You have to wonder if these people realise quite how markets and economic cycles work, or if they think everyone suddenly decided to put their feet up a few years back by matter of pure co-incidence.

The fact is that poverty is driven by factors far greater than the individual; Lack of childcare, lack affordable housing and a lack of decent jobs all have a big impact on people in Southampton as well as rising energy prices and the cost of petrol. It's got very little to do with an individuals failings.

Donald2000 wrote:
Every time I read one of these columns some parent or the other is being blamed for poverty. Poverty is caused by lack of employment opportunities which is not the fault of parents or their children. Perhaps some of the people on here would like to suggest how we find employment opportunities for people so that they can feed their kids, rather than suggesting people on benefits should be penalised. Oh and one last thing, a lot of working people are on benefits.

Donald, why are the children in Poverty? Parents get a decent amount of money to help with their choice of making babies.

I can't understand why any child in this country would be in poverty unless the parents are spending money on themselves.

Well one of my family lives "in poverty" on benefits but the child is well fed, well clothed and a little money is put aside every week for a rainy day. Then again the grocery shopping is done as soon as the benefits hot the bank, after making allowance for bills due, there is no car and no drinking or cigarettes as they are not affordable. I am sure many other families are coping the same way.

IronLady2010 wrote:

Donald2000 wrote:
Every time I read one of these columns some parent or the other is being blamed for poverty. Poverty is caused by lack of employment opportunities which is not the fault of parents or their children. Perhaps some of the people on here would like to suggest how we find employment opportunities for people so that they can feed their kids, rather than suggesting people on benefits should be penalised. Oh and one last thing, a lot of working people are on benefits.

Donald, why are the children in Poverty? Parents get a decent amount of money to help with their choice of making babies.

I can't understand why any child in this country would be in poverty unless the parents are spending money on themselves.

Perhaps the parents were in work when they planned to have babies. Maybe one or both of them have now been made redundant through no fault of their own. Perhaps they are struggling to find employment in this recession. Why should the children be penalised? Still they are probably feckless scroungers eh Ironlady?
Same old Tory 'I'm alright Jack' attitude!!

Yorkyboy22 wrote:

IronLady2010 wrote:

Donald2000 wrote:
Every time I read one of these columns some parent or the other is being blamed for poverty. Poverty is caused by lack of employment opportunities which is not the fault of parents or their children. Perhaps some of the people on here would like to suggest how we find employment opportunities for people so that they can feed their kids, rather than suggesting people on benefits should be penalised. Oh and one last thing, a lot of working people are on benefits.

Donald, why are the children in Poverty? Parents get a decent amount of money to help with their choice of making babies.

I can't understand why any child in this country would be in poverty unless the parents are spending money on themselves.

Perhaps the parents were in work when they planned to have babies. Maybe one or both of them have now been made redundant through no fault of their own. Perhaps they are struggling to find employment in this recession. Why should the children be penalised? Still they are probably feckless scroungers eh Ironlady?
Same old Tory 'I'm alright Jack' attitude!!

Well said Yorkyboy22. Situations change, often through no fault of those that are now living in poverty. When my situation changed I had to sell my house and my car as being a homeowner meant that I was not entitled to help with mortgage costs and my income did not stretch to running my car. I did not expect or plan for life as a single parent, so in addition to grieving the loss of my husband, I then had to try to manage financially. My children are well fed and clothed and have always been provided with the essentials. I on the other hand rarely have new clothes and any spare income goes on ensuring the children have all they need. My children go to school with a packed lunch each day. I certainly could not afford to pay for school meals. Not all children living in poverty have negligent parents. Also this article is not talking about parents on benefits as their children would automatically qualify for free school meals, but rather those that work and are still scraping by on their income.

TangoMax wrote:

ohec wrote:
Yes by all means give them free school meals as long as you take away their family allowance, it is a parents responsibility to feed and cloth their children and if that is not being done to a satisfactory standard then take the kids into care, if the taxpayer is being expected to provide for all these kids then we might as well do the whole job. I do not believe in this day and age there is any such thing as poverty with all that can be claimed from the welfare state not to mention charities, so we feed the kids and absolve the parents of even more responsibility so they can buy more fags or booze.

Smart move! Any idea how much keeping a child in care costs? Not to mention the emotional effect on them. Free school meals are relatively cheap as benefits go. It is also the one benefit that definitely goes to the welfare of children.
Can I also suggest you try surviving on JSA levels of income for a month and then see if you still think the problem is entirely down to poor parenting.

Oh dear you make it sound like nobody else has ever been hard up, and the threat of taking them into care was a means of making the parents do what they should be doing all of the time. When you have children YOU undertake to love care and provide for those children if you wanted the taxpayers to provide for them you should have asked before having them, perhaps you and anybody else who feels they are in poverty should take a course in how to provide and money management.

Dogs balls.

This story about free school meals was here the other day. As I said then, there is no way that today in the UK, people live in poverty. I'm not referring to those who are unfortunately homeless etc. but earning an income and the benefits that are available, it's more about people not managing their income very well.

It's a parents responsibility to look after their child/ren. All this rubbish in the story the other day about poor parents choosing 'heating over eating' is complete utter drivel nonsense. Eating is vital for staying alive, heating your home is not. It's a parents responsibility to care for their children, feed them, clothe them, protect them so if they're not doing this then it's an issue of bad parenting, neglect and laziness. If a parent chooses heat over food then they need a lot more help than free school meals can provide!

Alan Whitehead should focus on turning up to constituency surgeries and responding to people's letters (which he has a great habit of ignoring) rather than trying to win himself Labour brownie points. If he really wants to do some good, he should try educating these people crying poverty and make them realise that having a child is an extra and costly expenditure and not a source of income.