Poverty in the UK

[Red Doe]

I absolutely understand that and have seen folks like that myself too (though probably much less than people further south, it`s very hard for them to wait on a council house in such a remote area ) and it makes me angry too.
I`ve worked pretty much all my life, at some dreadfully hard jobs too, it gives such a feeling of despair when, when I was younger I was taught to work hard, save what you can and when you are old, everything will be ok for you....but approaching my old age, that isn`t so and it seems like there`s no light at the end of the tunnel for so many of us.
I honestly think that with benefits scroungers like the ones you mention, the time will come when the system that supports them is so collapsed under the strain, they`ll be turfed out of it to meet a short sharp shock to their own systems. And they`ll go under, totally.
What aggravates me is that folks who really, direly need benefits in order to survive will also go under.
I see the beginnings of it now, in the way the government is trying to drive pretty much all jobseekers off their books by hook or by crook. Whilst there are so many jobseekers actively looking for work, in so many areas the work simply doesn`t exist, but the powers that be don`t want to take that into consideration, so god knows what`ll happen to them now.
It`s becoming a scary world, with shades of Dickens about it in a subtle but nasty, dark, crouching kind of way.

[diamond lil]

Good post and very true. We need to survive though and we will ! Just to spite them ! I know that in some areas there is just no work. So how can they hassle them into applying for thin air ? Ypu cant do the impossible..

[the-gnole]

Then it comes down to relocating to go where there is some kind of work, as a certain Mr tebbit once said "Get on your bike". Like it or not if you want to work and there isn't any in your area then you have to relocate or travel/commute, I travel 30+ miles to the next county every day to work, then same again to get home. Needs must.

[diamond lil]

I think up where Red Doe is, you'd maybe have to commute 130 miles each way.. Down here, there is no work in Hawick and they have to travel to Edinburgh which is a round trip of about 90 miles a day.

[the-gnole]

That's why I put relocate as another option Lil. Sister in Law went to South Devon, My brother went to Twyford (Wokingham).

[Carrot Cruncher]

Relocating is easy enough to say but not always so easy to do, especialy if you have to find a buyer for your house. There is only so far that you can drop the price of your house to attract a buyer and I know from experience that there aren't that many buyers around at the moment.

[the-gnole]

I hear what you are saying CC, the other option is to let it out and rent in the new location, there are options available to everyone, but they aren't always easy ones.

If "one" really wants to get out of the hole called poverty then ALL avenues need to be considered, rather than dismissed.

[Red Doe]

That's why I put relocate as another option Lil. Sister in Law went to South Devon, My brother went to Twyford (Wokingham).

Everyone always says that. But look at this....I don`t own my home, I rent it. The rent is cheap and at the moment, affordable...which is why I moved in the first place.
To move, you must have money? Where does it come from? Money to pay a rental and key deposit. Money to close any local bills you may have. Money to hire a removal firm or mate with a van even. If you have no-one to stay with when you are in the middle of this, or in another area whilst you `get on your bike`, what then? Have you got the money to rent, whilst still paying rent on your home, whilst you look for work?
I see this reaction to lack of work in an area time and time again, but without exception it`s said by people who live in or near cities, with rather more opportunities for both work, transport and housing, and not by those of us who live in one of the country`s most remote areas with diminishing public resources and the nearest town being some eighty miles away...when you have no car or public transport, the effort in both time and money is considerable (especially since to get to that town, which is also struggling on the job front, requires an overnight stay due to my location and distance...more money, of course...)



The bald facts are, to `improve your lot` you must have money in the first place!
In a country where there are very much more jobseekers than jobs, what is the solution, beyond moving like migrants around the landscape seeking work that so many others pounce on at the first opportunity, with no cash to begin with. Mind you, I guess if we didn`t eat, or require anything daily that itself required money, to pay for....maybe if we walked, and slept in the occasional ditch....

Sorry for the rant, but many folks make assumptions that folks like me or others in my situation are just idle bug*ers who don`t want to work! I already work, but the recession has hit hard and not gone away.
Sorry, will stop ranting now, it isn`t really directed at the poster, just at all those who use blanket statements as sticking plasters for a complex situation.

[diamond lil]

I wanted so much to post all this last night but didnt like to cause a row. I think people down south and people with trades and skills and money behind them, dont understand how it is. How can they? Their experience is totally different.
And the other huge thing that they dont understand is that the Highlands & Islands is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT culture. If somebody moves up, say from the south of England, and says things like this (poor Gnoley's getting his lugs nipped here -) then he is trampling all over very deep feelings, and then the locals will dislike him as crass and boorish and not talk to him....and then he will move back home & tell everybody the Scots are racist
For over 200 years the people up there have had to watch their children move away for work. often all over the world.It leaves cottages that are used only for holiday homes, ghosts and sadness. Its a huge waste of land and people. Maybe one day after TSHTF it will come back into it's own as the last empty bit of the UK and people will once again farm the land. But in the meantime its a very very sore subject and a whole world away from hopping over to the next town to work.
Somebody gimme a hand down from this soapbox please, me knees are dodgy

[itsybitsy]

Fight, fight!!!