General Chat

Food Vouchers to be given during holidays to feed children Marcus Rashford Manchester United Player has changed Goverments mind to carry on with vouchers good on him seems a nice young man..Some are saying give parents money instead I disagree with that the vouchers are there to feed children make sure they have a proper diet Barbara

Not wanting to detract anything from Marcus, but Help children in need?

where the heck do the millions go that have been amassed for various children in need projects?

So, the Sun has stopped running the country now and footballers are deciding government policy.

Sharon: :-D

Unfortunately holiday food vouchers will not give a guarantee of a proper diet.

Aren't schools supposed to be educational establishments?

Looks like they are childcare facilities now.

Well, to be honest, if children need free meals at school, they'll need them in the holidays too!

One boy in my class had free dinners, after his father was killed in an accident.

Nobody ever relied upon the school to feed their children unless circumstances were dire.

I think our idea of necessities was different then.

A lot of people out of work 're Covid 19 therefore money tight childten will get food at least with vouchers not going in parents pockets for Sundries it is awful time just now surely the vouchers should be avaluable during the Summer .as well as school time that's what Govermants do .help people ?

Footballer campaigned as voucher money was being stopped .not alone in his quest he has done a good job .maybe kids will get more than bag of crisps & bottle of water :-S

40 years ago, people who worked a full week earned a decent wage, and didn't have to claim benefits.

Yes they did, 40 years ago service personnel were on such poor pay that when they had children they qualified for benefits. :-0

My school have been taking around lunches for children who get free lunches, also every child gets a food box on a Friday, some people have four children so they get four boxes.

Saw this on the news different areas taking food boxes out brilliant idea very kind of volunteers .Barbara

Gosh, Pat, my dad was in the Services 50 years ago - and we didn't claim benefits - apart from child benefit.
Maybe it depended on what Service you were in.
Over the past few years, Service pay has essentially been cut.

This is from 2019:
"In 2010, an army private was on £17,014. Had that figure kept up with inflation it would be £21,635 today – £1,635 more than privates now get. That’s a fall of 7.5% in real terms".

Today they get a different wage but in the seventies they kept putting up quarters rent so the pay rises were almost wiped out. When my husband left as a SNCO he went back as a civilian working for a firm attached to the MOD in the same job and was given twice the money as in the RAF and he was on top pay scale as an RAF technician.

We had been given a rat infested damp quarter that later the local council refused to have as it wasn't good enough for council tenants. We also paid far more rent than a council tenant.

We left quarters for our own house as a mortgage wasn't much more than the rent and OH would keep all his pay increases, that year the corporal who worked with my husband got a pay rise of just over 50p per week because of rent increases - this was 1977. All my neighbours were on benefits but OH got his sergeant before we had our second child so we were just above the poverty line.

One of the few good things that Maggie did was start paying the services more but it was still nowhere near what the technicians in the RAF could get if they were civilians. One way that they could balance the books then was by not replacing people leaving so to get service numbers down. Now they haven't got enough people or equipment to do basic jobs that they are supposed to do. :-S

My dad was in the Fleet Air Arm, so wages were possibly higher - and I'm talking about the 50's/60's..
My mum refused to live in married quarters, so in Malta they rented a 'flat' (lower floor of a house), and when we moved to Scotland, we rented a converted bus in a field, then 'progressed' to a very small caravan, that I think they bought - I slept on the unplumbed bath that was in the same area as the bunk beds, toilet was a bucket in a shed.
That was possibly cheaper than married quarters.

Pat, I'm surprised about service pay versus civilian pay as my experience in the UK army reserve was completely the opposite.

I joined the Reserve (TAVR) in 1967. At that stage I was a student Environmental Health Officer. For reasons that I wont go into I had to join the RAMC.

As a student EHO my civilian pay was far greater than my service pay, which from memory was 17s/6d a day. I progressed through the ranks and did the various trade training as a Hygiene Assistant.

On passing my civilian exams in 1970 I was re-classified in my army role as an Environmental Health Technician. I also passed a promotion course and became a WO2.

I used to look forward to the various camps as I received more pay in the reserve than I did in my civvy job, so much so that I often did extra training usually by doing a week or two lecturing at the School of Army Health, just to get the extra pay.

Warrant officers grades 1 and 2 .....

They say there's a troopship just leaving bombay, bound for old blighty shore
Heavily laden with time expired men, bound for the land they adore.
There's many an airman just finishing his time, there's many a twerp signing on.
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, bless 'em all.

Bless em all, bless em all, the long and the short and the tall
Bless all the sergeants and w. o. ones,
Bless all the corp'rals and their blinkin sons,
'Cause we're saying goodbye to them all, as back to their billets they crawl
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, bless 'em all

They say if you work hard you'll get better pay
We've heard all that before
Clean up your buttons and polish your boots
Scrub out the barrack room floor
There's many a rookie has taken it in, hook line and sinker an 'all
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean
So cheer up my lads bless 'em all.

Bless 'em all, bless 'em all, the long and the short and the tall,
Bless all the sergeants and w. o. ones,
Bless all the corp'rals and their blinkin sons,
'cos we're saying goodbye to them all, as back to their billets they crawl
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, bless'em all

Now they say that the sergeant's a very nice chap, oh what a tale to tell.
Ask him for leave on a Saturday night and he'll pay your fare home as well.
There's many an airman has blighted his life through writing rude words on the wall
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean
So cheer up my lads bless 'em all

Bless 'em all, bless 'em all, the long and the short and the tall,
Bless all the sergeants and w. o. ones,
Bless all the corp'rals and their blinkin sons,
'Cause we're saying goodbye to them all, as back to their billets they crawl
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, bless'em all

Nobody knows what a twerp you have been, so cheer up my lads bless 'em all

G Formby

To give you an idea of my pay as a civilian I was earning just under £10 a week in 1966, when I joined the WRAF I was earning as a trainee £4.50. 5 years later as a SACW I got £8.00. This is after deductions for food and accommodation done at source so you never knew what cost that was your stated wage was after that deduction.

When I got married and was still in the WRAF I lived off camp but I was told I wasn't entitled to get the money for food and accommodation back as only one of a married couple was entitled to it.

The army could get extra money by going on courses and qualifying for extra pay - my husband did lots of courses but the RAF expected you to do this so no extra money given.

You were much better off if you got an overseas posting but my OH only did one and that's where we met so we just rattled around UK a little until we decided the children needed a stable home. OH became a weekend husband and father. He did almost 25 years in the RAF. Although we can both moan at what we went through we wouldn't change it.

By the way Alan you were getting nearly as much per day as my husband did per week when he started his 3 years as an apprentice in 1964 at £1.50 per week for the 1st year rising to £5.00 in his last year in 1967. He was an electronics apprentice.

Maggie your family saved money by not being in quarters. When we left quarters in 1977 our 2 bed house plus garage, that was in a block some way away from the house, was nearly £40 per month.

Out here an unfurnished 3 bed quarter on camp for other ranks is £400 per month plus they have to pay average UK council tax because they normally have to pay it when in UK, you can guess where the council tax money goes - straight back to the government.

Here in my village not far from 2 camps for about £410 a month a 3 bed plus plunge pool - annual council tax for the year just over £100.

In 1974, the rent for my 1 bedroomed flat, wirh bathroom, kitchen and living room, on the first floor of a house (so those living upstairs went through my flat) was £40 a month, which was a quarter of my wages, as a clerk on the bottom rung in the Civil Service.
My ex (then boyfriend) lived in a bedsit, and paid £60 a month rent.