UK: Schools have become 'fourth emergency service' for poorest families

[Themius]

Usually those are private schools and colleges though aren't they? Comes with specific plans and such but you're still paying for them in some fashion. Who's giving free iPads/iPhones to poor families? Not public schools in England that is for sure.

I don't get why you people think apple products are some special thing that only people with a lot of disposable income can afford. As if carrier deals that give you the phone sometimes for free, or sell them to you at a very discounted rate don't exist.

[Darknessvamp]

I don't get why you people think apple products are some special thing that only people with a lot of disposable income can afford. As if carrier deals that give you the phone sometimes for free, or sell them to you at a very discounted rate don't exist.

True but they're still not cheap to buy/subscribe to especially if you're living on government handouts and are potentially in a council house and may be jobless as well. A situation I bet you that a number of these kids families are in.

I mean considering that YOU brought up that kids with no water to wash or food to eat have iPads maybe you could tell us how they get them. Seeing no one else is aware of this being true.

Easy, rather than spending the money the families are given for their daily necessities on their meters to support their lives they instead are putting a majority of it towards consumer goods such as electronics on multi payment plans/recurring credit card payments. I mean its not the first time it has happened and won't be last especially when you have people cheating the system to get multiple handouts such as one story from the news a couple years back about an older woman who somehow managed to get five applications through on the dole and had been living on those collective handouts for about 15 years before they caught her out.

[Themius]

True but they're still not cheap to buy/subscribe to especially if you're living on government handouts and are potentially in a council house and may be jobless as well. A situation I bet you that a number of these kids families are in.



Easy, rather than spending the money the families are given for their daily necessities on their meters to support their lives they instead are putting a majority of it towards consumer goods such as electronics on multi payment plans/recurring credit card payments. I mean its not the first time it has happened and won't be last especially when you have people cheating the system to get multiple handouts such as one story from the news a couple years back about an older woman who somehow managed to get five applications through on the dole and had been living on those collective handouts for about 15 years before they caught her out.

They are specially cheap when they're free or sometimes just 100...

[Darknessvamp]

They are specially cheap when they're free or sometimes just 100...

Please tell me when ever have you bought or upgraded for a new model phone and got it for free (without having to pay a recurring sub for so many months) or only had to pay £100 once? Cause frankly I would love to know who's selling you these deals.

[Themius]

Please tell me when ever have you bought or upgraded for a new model phone and got it for free (without having to pay a recurring sub for so many months) or only had to pay £100 once? Cause frankly I would love to know who's selling you these deals.

You said apple product, where did you say "new model"

[Darknessvamp]

You said apple product, where did you say "new model"

I kinda implied that? How many phone subscriptions/mobile plans offer phones from ten years ago?

You're doing a few things here that are kind of contributing to the problem.

You're focusing on such an extreme minority, and using that to discredit the humanitarian nightmare thats occuring. Without taking into account all the variables that come with that tiny minority.

Perhaps we should focus on the problem which is austerity and class warfare, rather than a handful of people who the Daily Mail regularly trawl for in order to push out propaganda.

I'm not trying to discredit anything, I'm pointing out part of the problem is literally people spending that money on frivolous items instead of focusing on supporting their families. You don't need an iPhone X or iPad whatever it's at now to live or a 50" TV that you've been paying off for the last 2 years and a Netflix sub you can barely afford. Not to mention this isn't just happening with poor families, it also happens with uni students who get student loans and drop it on random junk rather than using it sensibly. People can't seem to spend sensibly across the classes. Not to mention I saw that story I mentioned on the BBC, not pulled from that joke of a tabloid.

[d00mGuArD]

Austerity is class warfare, make no mistake about it.

Austerity is awefull.
We tried it in Greece.
It does not work.
At all!

That being said, Greece had absolutely no social programs whatsoever, and a crisis bigger than the biggest crisis of U.S. and the amount of people that actually starved was close to zero. Struggle yes. Starve no. It was so rare, that if the reporters found a family that had no food, it made the news. And this during what is by all accounts, the biggest crisis ever in a western country. (Greece has since then started some social programs, many years after the crisis)

Because people knew there is no help from the state, and to expect nothing.
In countries were people have many social programs and handouts, there is where the people starve in the first sign of trouble.

Anyway, whenever you hear the word austerity, wear your yellow jacket!
Whenever you hear the words "internal devaluation" start building guillotines

[Themius]

I kinda implied that? How many phone subscriptions/mobile plans offer phones from ten years ago?



I'm not trying to discredit anything, I'm pointing out part of the problem is literally people spending that money on frivolous items instead of focusing on supporting their families. You don't need an iPhone X or iPad whatever it's at now to live or a 50" TV that you've been paying off for the last 2 years and a Netflix sub you can barely afford. Not to mention this isn't just happening with poor families, it also happens with uni students who get student loans and drop it on random junk rather than using it sensibly. People can't seem to spend sensibly across the classes. Not to mention I saw that story I mentioned on the BBC, not pulled from that joke of a tabloid.

You didn't imply shit, you said "apple products" where is the implication of "brand new" in that? Iphone 6s and 7s are often free.

[LeGin Tufnel]

I bet this is an exaggeration. Is it?

I suggest you focus on your own country's problems and don't worry too much about what's going on in the UK.

Shortly, we will be leaving Earth and departing for Mars.

Bai.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Do some research and you'll find it's not.

Hubcap doesn't create these threads out of a genuine desire to learn things...

[vilememory]

This can be fixed easily by doing two things. More immigration, stop trying to leave the EU.

[LeGin Tufnel]

You won't be going anywhere son. Call me when the UK becomes relevant again. You can't sort out the right pallets for exports let alone medicine shortages and NHS staff funding problems.

You cut funding for the police and now your capital city London is overun by thugs who knife people in broad daylight while your shops get mugged. You are a dustbin country.

Yes. I agree entirely.

As I say, shortly, we will be departing for Mars.

Bai.

[d00mGuArD]

We did have kids showing up to school with empty stomachs. And the number of homeless has exploded. Keep in mind that while Greece had few welfare programs, it also had strong social safety nets; you could count on extended family to help you for a fairly long time and families in general stick together and share the burden. Plus if all else fails, the Church is very wealthy and has charities everywhere.

All of which applies to all countries. The Church is even stronger in Christian countries, and there are families everywhere.
The kids that showed up with empty stomachs were so rare that when one was detected it made the TV news!

And well... of course there was (still is) poverty! Big time!
Just saying that when people don't expect handouts, they take other measures. and that in the countries where people just expect the government to take care of them, would fare much worse in a similar situation.

[Kokolums]

In America, food is incredibly cheap. It's the housing that takes up the biggest chunk of your budget.

This is true. Its also why a lot of self-made millionaires in America who lack much formal education made it by playing the housing market. Some of them I know just had good credit, bought homes, then rented out rooms for massive profits. Easy.

[yetgdhfgh]

It most likely is an exaggeration

I grew up poor back in the 1980s on a poor Birmingham, UK housing estate.

My dad was a postman my mom a factory worker and i remember when we used to have to hide behind the furniture when debt collectors came and i also remember having to share a bed in the front room cause it was the only room that had heating. This was back in the mid 1980s.

Things certainly changed for the better going into the 90s my dad became a manager in the Royal Mail and the whole estate was given a massive million pound overhaul and our house was dramatically changed cause the government decided to plough millions into investing in run down housing estates.

I moved to the states in the early 2000s along with my dad and he got a job in an investment firm and we no longer have needed to worry about money since but looking back at those days makes me humble and is the reason i will always never forget my working class roots.

[druenos]

scumbag comment.


The poorest are hit hardest by austerity. Just look at the rise in Dickensian diseases. Inequality is only going one way, and it will only get worse.

I thought the same.