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.
26 Responses to “Coalition Britain: hungry children eating out of bins”
PoundInYourPocket
Typical case : Unemployed, miss a few appointments with Job Centre, JSA stopped for 26 weeks (or up to 3 years), no money, in debt, no family, already borrowed too much from friends; result is no food/minimal food for several days until hardship payments received (if at all). That is absolute poverty and is an all too commmon reality in Britain.
Leon Wolfeson
Ah yes, so you need to see the bodies, before covering that up too with another excuse.
E
My Case: Single Mum, severe epilepsy up to 8 seizures in a day I was without for 1 and a half years :/ They eventually apologised and back dated it, But they still haven’t sent back the 5 lots of proof of identity (including birth certificates and bank letters) that at first they claimed I hadn’t sent and after a while said yeah we have them.
PoundInYourPocket
What an apalling case of maladministration. What do the DWP say when you raise a complaint ? Have you written to your MP or contacted Citizens Advice? I don’t know how IDS gets away with it. It’s not just a case of backdating, there should be compensation for the distress caused. I heard of one case (PIP) where a terminaly ill claimant was told not to worry if he died as his spouse would receive back-payment. Justice ????
Cole
Er, the evidence – of the kids eating out of bins -is from a local paper.