Thread: Child poverty
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Old 14-03-2008, 07:40 AM   #13 (permalink)
chikrodah
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Join Date: Jan 2005
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No it doesn't. There are many families who don't qualify for any benefits who are much worse off in real terms than those who are supposedly on the breadline. You can't risk going on to benefits if you lose your job and you have a mortgage, for example, as the DWP will not pay a penny towards that mortgage for the first 9 months, IIRC. Work in the wrong industry at the wrong time (Rover, anybody?) and you have a nightmare in the making.

By the time a skilled mortgage-paying family on just above average earnings (and thus no entitlement to benefits) has deducted outgoings for increasing utility bills, council tax and mortgage costs, there's very little left for food and petrol these days. There are hundreds of thousands of hard-working families out there who can barely manage to have a camping holiday in the UK, let alone a holiday abroad. It's no coincidence that camping and caravanning holidays are extremely popular this year. It's all people can afford.

If UKIP can reach those families with policies that benefit them, they might just vote for the party.
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