Child poverty

[amsterdammer]

According to the Media, 200,000 more children in the UK were classed as being in poverty last year. Does anyone know of a child in poverty, & what criteria is applied to classify them as such?

[Tena~Lady]

Pippa here ~ sorry, my other ID is suspended at the moment so all my posts have disappeared!

aims...do you suggest I try and find another 24 hours in the day to raise a foster child? I am not sure what else you could be suggesting. I have 4 kids all brought up by myself and my husband. Mr Pippa also has a daughter from his previous marriage to whom we are now paying �700 per month in CSA maintenance.

This is leaving us on the breadline. Years ago we had plenty of self esteem, which is now being carved away by civil servants and an ex wife. My kids have only us to rely on when it comes to financially supporting them. My stepdaughter has lots of help from the government as her mother refuses to go to work ~ but obviously thinks it's ok that I have to work to support 4 kids (which I have done since they were babies).

Believe me ~ 10 years ago we went without food in order to put food into our kids bellies, and we certainly were not on the list regarding family poverty because we were working. I had the wonderful pleasure of getting milk tokens given to me by a friend on benefits. To be honest I might just have to go back to that.

[Ice.Maiden]

Having read down this thread, you all make some valid points, but I just want to say that what Aims is doing is commendable, It's true that whether someone's well off or not, there'll always be children who're poor in life through lack of love and attention. By staying at home with your son, Aims, it IS the best thing for him, even though you might have to go without all the material trappings. I'm not going to comment again on this, because everyone has their own ideas, but Aims sounds like a good, loving mum, end of.

[aims1202]

Thanks Ice maiden. Sorry pippa, i was not saying that you should do fostering and i didnt mean to offend. It was not only about you and i was really answering New judge, i'm sorry. I am sure you have worked really hard for your children. I just think that people who say its wrong for others to have benefits just moan about it but dont really look at the bigger picture. They think that having the benefits is the problem and i was pointing out that the problems are much more complex. Also we are often seen as all the same but we are not.

[Aprillove]

The internationally accepted standard definition of a poor person is one whose daily income is one US dollar or less.

[Pippa68]

This is what I read, aims:

''So maybe instead of just moaning about it and doing nothing people like pippa should help to prevent this from happening.''

Apology accepted, but I still don't see your concept when you say that self-esteem needs building and that support should come from me?

Hopefully I am raising my children to understand that nothing comes for free. Everything costs money, and to make money to help yourself you need a decent education and a good job or career.

My point was that as the government seem to have a blind-sighted view as to who can pay for education and who cannot, my children will be learning that it doesn't matter if you cannot support your kids financially ~ the state will help. They are now seeing that no matter how hard their parents work in order to pay the mortgage and bills, we can't afford to send them to college, while their friends whose parents didn't work and claimed benefits can.

The tables have turned. I have never believed it was right that the poorer people were denied a better education ~ but I also don't believe that to punish the ones who are 'rich' (ha bloody ha) is beyond the pale.