Free School Meals

[videojetman]

I think the bigger picture here is there are too many people out of work, who are more than capable of working. The country is quite happy to pay people to sit on their arses, and pay for ipads, laptops & 50" plasma t.v's. etc.
if we get this country working, then every child could get free meals.
But it takes foreign workers to show us there are jobs out there.
And it seems companies are quite happy to employ foreign workers, simply because english people are too picky & lazy to do the jobs foreign workers are very grateful for.

 

[MikeD]

There are proven educational benefits to having well-fed pupils. The argument would be: Better-educated pupils = more capable workforce = country gets better at doing stuff = better economy = everyone benefits. Although obviously if the motivation was to improve education there are easier/cheaper ways of doing it. Getting shot of Gove would be a good start

 

[barry2017]

The country is quite happy to pay people to sit on their arses, and pay for ipads, laptops & 50" plasma t.v's. etc.

My girlfriend's been on benefits since being made redundant from her job as a teacher last year and I can tell you her experience of benefits is nothing like that. She went into arrears with her rent and started getting bank charges while waiting for the DWP to sort out her "easy life". If it wasn't for me paying them off, she would have lost her home. Why should I have had to do that when she's been paying national insurance all the time she was working?

Videojetman, you, like everyone else, are a couple of paycheques away from needing benefits. I hope you don't ever have to find out how wrongheaded your statements are personally.

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

Videojetman is close to the mark. Over the years I've been in many houses in deprived areas, and they may have no carpet, be ankle deep in cat sheet, yet they invariably have a state of the art tv of at least 42" and the latest x box station. And (certainly where I worked) these areas are deprived because they're the most knackered housing stock and the carncil use them as a dumping ground for the long term candidates who remain "low points", largely because of criminality.

There are genuinely needy on benefits, there through no fault of their own, but judging from the thousands of doorsteps I have crossed over the years they're a relative minority.

 

[Alison]

I think the bigger picture here is there are too many people out of work, who are more than capable of working. The country is quite happy to pay people to sit on their arses, and pay for ipads, laptops & 50" plasma t.v's. etc.
if we get this country working, then every child could get free meals.
But it takes foreign workers to show us there are jobs out there.
And it seems companies are quite happy to employ foreign workers, simply because english people are too picky & lazy to do the jobs foreign workers are very grateful for.

I don't want to be argumentative but with my husband working full time on just about the average salary, we cannot afford ipads and 50" plasma tv's, if he lost his job I know that the benefits we'd get would not cover our lifestyle which isn't lavish in any way, we'd have to give up the internet, the car and cut our food bill by half, and we'd never be able to put the few quid we do aside for clothing and birthday pressies. There are people out there true that would rather chop their legs off than do a day's labour, but it's no rich man's life. I watched a series of programs recently concentrating on a high unemployment estate, and their lives were sh*t, the only attitude that got me on it was the world owes me a living, the "I worked for a couple of years once, I'm entitled to benefits" But they didn't have high quality goods, if they had anything it was from a weekly payment store so not really their's and god I hope I'm never in that situation.

Alison

 

[videojetman]

i have to say i sympathise with genuine people through no fault of their own, have to turn to the state for help.
and i am only a couple of paychecks from needing government handouts.
but where i live there are a high percentage of able bodied people living off hand outs from the government.
thankfully i have not had to depend on the benefits system for help in over 25 years.
but my job like so many others now can barely cover monthly expenses.
my statement was not pointing the finger at genuine people.
and no doubt the lazy, idle. benefit claimants are subsidising their lifestyle with non declared finances.

 

[Alison]

Back to the dinner thing, they say it will start a child off on healthy meals and that children will learn about the benefits of eating a healthy meal, I maybe being completely naive here but does it matter how much you tell some 5 year old what is good for them as soon as they say "mum, school says we need to eat more carrots, apples and bananas" mum is just going to say "I cannot afford that rubbish you'll get pizza and chips and like it" Should it be about educating adults, I've had four children and not once in that time has any health professional ever asked about what I'd feed my children on or about nutrition, OK for me it wasn't necessary as I was brought up well fed and I bring my children up well fed, but should bringing up children healthily be something a health visitor could pop into a conversation when talking to knew mums. OK you might say that these children will embrace the idea for their own children but the chances are they'll follow their parents lead anyway. When after three years of free meals they'll either go on Free school meals or they'll be going to school with choc spread sandwiches, crisps, chocolate bars and coke (OK some will go for healthy lunches or pay for meals but what %

Alison

 

[technodup]

if we get this country working, then every child could get free meals.

If we get the country working again the parents can buy their own frigging meals.

There are proven educational benefits to having well-fed pupils.

This link shows achievement against school meals take up, and seems to show the opposite. (Although this is Scotland and the meals may be pizza crunch suppers and Coke for all I know).

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/206580-scho ... sh-school/

Oddly it tries to make the case that the bottom schools are actually some of the best, and that they shouldn't be measured on how much pupils improve. I'm at a complete loss to understand that- maybe Williamwood wasn't so good after all.

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

If we get the country working we'll be awash with tax income and kids could have three free squares day. We give a billion a year in aid to india, a country with its own space, nuclear and aircraft carrier building programmes, so I can't object to British kids getting fed, the money being spent here and being used here in the UK for wages and much of it recouped by taxation as the money goes around.

 

[TGR]

I just want to raise a point that was mentioned previously and perhaps someone can confirm the accuracy of this -

Do people on benefits, who are a family but the parents are separated, get a free holiday provided by the DSS - to encourage the family to get back together again?

I was told recently that this was the case and i have heard about this free holiday before - but perhaps someone will know whether t is true.

Thanks,

Richard

p.s. re the free school meals - i pay for all my daughter's school stuff, school uniform etc etc etc and recently she said she wanted to go to a drama class outside of school. We spoke to the organisers and it cost over £20 per day. The organisers then asked if we were on benefits, we asked why they wanted to know this and were told if we were on benefits, it would be free and we would be at the front of the queue to join it. I completely understand that some people cannot afford these 'luxuries' and i would always go without for the benefit of my family (without having to think about it) but there has to be something wrong with the system - free for all or all pay seems fair to me. The school meals is the same. When i was at school, everyone knew who got the free meals as they got different coloured meal tickets - i always thought this was wrong and still do. As the years go by, i am getting more annoyed with people -
who are on benefits and working
who pay no tax and are working
who pay minimal tax and earn more than me
who i meet in the pub and are on benefits and are there 4 nights a week

I am friends with plenty of people in the above categories and my most recent eye-opener is bizarre - where a couple have children and are separated - the children live with the mother. The father applies for custody, through the Court, for a child with the intention of leaving his employment to be a full time parent. The child benefits exceed or are very slightly less than his current salary so he is happy not not to work and he reckons he will maintain a similar standard of living without working. This is not a one-off, as i know of two people doing this at the moment. What is going wrong with society? Am i just being naive?

On my last point - i do not care if Amazon, Starbucks etc etc etc pay no tax - i do care that people that are my friends do not pay tax - the big question is - if everyone (individuals not companies) paid their taxes, would we be in the position we are in now? I suspect that figures are not available and that annoys me - but how would HMRC ever know the extent of tax evasion by 'normal people'?

Rant over, and the longest p.s. ever

Richard