Poverty in the UK

[grahamw48]

Fortunately we have a (very expensive and comprehensive) social security system geared to taking care of anyone in GENUINE need, both locally and nationally, plus a plethora of charities.

It would help the situation if supermarkets were charged for any food they threw out...or offered to give it to the starving, in return for a small amount of labour.

It would also help if we all took steps to reduce food waste from our own households, and endeavoured to waste as little of the planet's valuable and finite resources, as I do.

Educating people about the perils of debt, and closing down the rip-off 'payday' loan companies would be a good idea too, IMO.

[Terpe]

Fortunately we have a (very expensive and comprehensive) social security system geared to taking care of anyone in GENUINE need, both locally and nationally, plus a plethora of charities.

Quite right Graham, we do have a system you describe. Sadly it's not always as simple as it should be and this adds to the already existing, but preventable, problems in the welfare system.

FareShare is a national charity dedicated to fighting food poverty and food waste.
Tesco has committed to provide an annual 7 million meals (equivalent) to the hundreds of charities FareShare works with by diverting all surplus fresh food from its distribution centres and online grocery centres to support the charity.

Of course the fact that there are more and more foodbanks means more and more people using. No doubt there's cheating too, but there is a real and genuine need that's not being met by the welfare system for all sorts of reasons.

Anyone who has been in hospital for a time, say for a major operation, may easily find that after being discharged their benefits have been stopped or delayed.

There needs to be a proper investigation as to why we, a highly developed society, have such issues. It's not all down to scroungers and cheaters