I promise to stop getting my childhood out on here but. Here’s a thread on living on benefits and being hungry. I got 9 As and 4 Bs at GCSE. On benefits in the 1990s. Here’s how...

Free school meals were one thing. We didn’t have them in the holidays but this was ok in the 90s because benefits were a lot more generous than they are today...

Swimming lessons were free. Buses were free. Music lessons were free. I got to grade 8 on French Horn, swam for the school and got the bus to the city library to study.

Every single penny of our benefits therefore could go on food. What wasn’t spent in term time could be saved. We didn’t eat like lords. There were no biscuits or yogurts and no meat. But let’s look at what a family on Universal Credit now has to pay for...

Free travel for under 18s in London has been scrapped. Free swimming for kids has faded. Freezes in working age benefits, cuts to tax credits, disability benefits increasingly hard to secure. Food is much harder to pay for now: https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/05/20/nothing-left-cupboards/austerity-welfare-cuts-and-right-food-uk

My childhood on benefits came with affordable housing, mum’s incapacity top-ups and a wealth of opportunities, from music school to transport to a quiet place to do homework. Now I work for the FT and mentor young people and pay higher rate taxes....

If I were growing up on benefits now I wouldn’t have any opportunity to study, mix with middle class people at orchestra, do my coursework somewhere nice. And I’d be a lot more bloody hungry.

Feed the kids, fix the benefits and give all young people a shot at meeting their potential. Then more poor kids will thrive and later pay their taxes. Food and generous welfare does not create a dependency culture. It ends it. (Ends.)