I had to call the council a few weeks ago because I had no money left after I’d applied for Universal Credit and been given an emergency loan of £360.
Normal payments are made 5 weeks in arrears so I was left waiting for the first normal payment to come in.
The council told me I could go to a food bank. They arranged for a voucher to be sent to the Food Bank and off I went on the day I was told to be there.
Therefore I’m currently paying off a Universal Credit emergency loan and going to the North Paddington Food Bank.
The people there are very nice and I don’t know what I’ve had done without them.
When I saw this story in the Guardian just now it didn’t surprise me one bit.
The country is not in a good way and the debate around Universal Basic Income really must be had.
I assume the Labour Party are dead against it but where do they think they will get their votes from when so few people are able to work and many jobs will simply not return?
Going to the Food Bank because you are repaying the most basic bills like council tax and small universal credit loans feels very similar to structural adjustment programmes imposed by the world bank and IMF on developing countries from the 1980’s onward.
James Wolfensohn died the other day – apparently he did something to help 35 countries. I’m not so sure.
Here is the Indian Biometric ID card system, Aadhaar, linked to health and welfare benefits:
I’ve blogged about Aadhaar before.
I rarely look back at my old blog posts – but this one was pretty good:
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