According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a single person in the UK needs to earn £13,400 before tax for a minimum standard of living. The items which the JRF lists as needed are more than a little surprising. By contrast, a single person receiving Income Support will amass less than half of that amount.
Is the JRF too generous or is the Government too stingy? Let us consider the facts. According to the JRF, a couple with two children need certain items with which to participate in society. Of these items, I list two; Cinema tickets and a bottle of wine. Elderly citizens are deemed to need a bird feeder and young single people are claimed to need walking boots, a pay-as-you-go mobile phone and a bicycle. Families were also said to need a one week self catering holiday in the UK.
I find these suppositions extremely interesting. It got me thinking about what I felt I needed to participate in society. Living in a rural area like Denbigh in North Wales, I would say that effective public transport links would have to come top of my list. This assumes that I'm young, single and either don't drive or just can't afford a car. The JRF states that they were seeking to explore items beyond a roof over our head, food on the table and clothes on our back. After public transport, I would place a high value on internet access if only because it is so hard to function without it any more. Denbigh has a good local library with free membership which allows internet access although I'm all too aware of the many libraries which have been cynically axed by many local councils. Axing a library is akin to standing on an oxygen tube.
Maybe I'm more out of touch than I thought I was but I honestly wouldn't feel the need to have cinema tickets to participate in society. The word society implies the act of socialising so I can't imagine many more insular pursuits than driving a few miles to sit quietly and watch a film only to then leave and go home again. For the exorbitant cost of going to the cinema, I would have thought that a pint in the local pub would be more likely to result in some meaningful social interaction. Heaven forbid, a trip to my local church on a Sunday morning would leave me struggling to get away such is the desire of the faithful to socialise with everybody.
I like the idea of the walking boots because even if the bicycle was out of the question, the boots can get you just about anywhere. While I applaud the idea of bird feeders for the elderly, I question the root cause of this need. The growing trend for our society to neglect its elderly is very worrying and only today I heard of an initiative aimed at addressing their loneliness with chickens. It seems as though animals can do what we can't. They seem able to engage with our elderly relatives where we could scarcely be less interested.
So to the bottle of wine. Wine I believe to be a great bond among men. A great bond provided it is shared but not such a great bond if there is nobody with whom to share it. One thing is clear though. There appears an enormous gulf between what the government expects a benefits claimant to live on and what the JRF says we need to live on. I suspect the true figure lies somewhere between the two but question the somewhat emotive usage of the word crisis in conjunction with the current cost of living. If I have no milk in the fridge come the morning, I will have black tea. That is not a crisis. If I have no tea, I will drink water from the tap. That is not a crisis. If I have no home, that is a serious matter. If that situation remains unresolved, it will soon become a crisis.
Is the JRF too generous or is the Government too stingy? Let us consider the facts. According to the JRF, a couple with two children need certain items with which to participate in society. Of these items, I list two; Cinema tickets and a bottle of wine. Elderly citizens are deemed to need a bird feeder and young single people are claimed to need walking boots, a pay-as-you-go mobile phone and a bicycle. Families were also said to need a one week self catering holiday in the UK.
I find these suppositions extremely interesting. It got me thinking about what I felt I needed to participate in society. Living in a rural area like Denbigh in North Wales, I would say that effective public transport links would have to come top of my list. This assumes that I'm young, single and either don't drive or just can't afford a car. The JRF states that they were seeking to explore items beyond a roof over our head, food on the table and clothes on our back. After public transport, I would place a high value on internet access if only because it is so hard to function without it any more. Denbigh has a good local library with free membership which allows internet access although I'm all too aware of the many libraries which have been cynically axed by many local councils. Axing a library is akin to standing on an oxygen tube.
Maybe I'm more out of touch than I thought I was but I honestly wouldn't feel the need to have cinema tickets to participate in society. The word society implies the act of socialising so I can't imagine many more insular pursuits than driving a few miles to sit quietly and watch a film only to then leave and go home again. For the exorbitant cost of going to the cinema, I would have thought that a pint in the local pub would be more likely to result in some meaningful social interaction. Heaven forbid, a trip to my local church on a Sunday morning would leave me struggling to get away such is the desire of the faithful to socialise with everybody.
I like the idea of the walking boots because even if the bicycle was out of the question, the boots can get you just about anywhere. While I applaud the idea of bird feeders for the elderly, I question the root cause of this need. The growing trend for our society to neglect its elderly is very worrying and only today I heard of an initiative aimed at addressing their loneliness with chickens. It seems as though animals can do what we can't. They seem able to engage with our elderly relatives where we could scarcely be less interested.
So to the bottle of wine. Wine I believe to be a great bond among men. A great bond provided it is shared but not such a great bond if there is nobody with whom to share it. One thing is clear though. There appears an enormous gulf between what the government expects a benefits claimant to live on and what the JRF says we need to live on. I suspect the true figure lies somewhere between the two but question the somewhat emotive usage of the word crisis in conjunction with the current cost of living. If I have no milk in the fridge come the morning, I will have black tea. That is not a crisis. If I have no tea, I will drink water from the tap. That is not a crisis. If I have no home, that is a serious matter. If that situation remains unresolved, it will soon become a crisis.
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