Hungry children in Stoke-on-Trent have been rummaging through bins looking for something to eat.
Hungry children in Stoke-on-Trent have been rummaging through bins looking for something to eat, leading to experts being called in by the council to assess the problem.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is reportedly setting up a Hardship Commission to get to grips with the issues facing the poorest people in the region after a local paper reported that local children were “scavenging through bins to eat leftovers”:
“Youngsters have been searching through bins in the Hollings Street and Brocksford Street area of Fenton before eating any leftovers…Concerned residents have raised the issue at a police meeting in Fenton.”
A commission has now been set up by the council to look at account evidence from individuals who have been affected by poverty and hardship.
The commission is being urged to look at payday loan companies and calls for more employers to pay the Living Wage to the city’s lowest-paid workers, according to the Sentinel.
Local MP Rob Flello has blamed the disturbing development on coalition cuts:
“The demand for help from foodbanks is increasing and I suspect the numbers are just the tip of the iceberg because they don’t include people who are too embarrassed to seek help or those who are surviving in other ways. But while foodbanks are doing a great job meeting desperate need, they cannot be seen as a long-term solution to food poverty.”
The revelations come at a time when it has been revealed that the top 20 per cent of households in Britain increased their disposable incomes last year. This at a time when most incomes fell.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for 2011/12 to 2012/13 show that the Gini for disposable household income is now 33.2 for 2012/13 – up from 32.3 in 2011/12.
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26 Responses to “Coalition Britain: hungry children eating out of bins”
Kryten2k35
“Concerned residents have raised the issue at a police meeting in Fenton.”
Well, fuck those “concerned” residents for calling the police.
Leon Wolfeson
That’s an apologia for the coalition. Things are getting worse, rapidly, and this is not unique.
The cost of living is a little higher here than third world countries – and housing in particular is far higher than other Western countries, on average.
Leon Wolfeson
The ECHR ruled it was illegally low, in fact.
But more importantly, in practice, it’s so harshly conditional that it excludes a massive proportion of those who in other Western countries would be able to claim without issues.
Roderick Jackson
I’m not sure whether you are lampooning or not. Many kids have adult “carers” that dress and go out and drink and do drugs. The kids are alone and hungry until they go out and meet up up with others to steal food or go through bins. Stefan Molyneux, prolific online philosopher, grew up like this.
Roderick Jackson
The psychopath or junkie mentality is to occasionaly feel guilt or fear and buy the child something it doesn’t need. Like a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, baked beans, toast, juice etc. Then get angry because the child can’t eat it.