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“THE UNEXPECTED IS always very difficult for people who are on a strict budget,” says Linda Kenny, a telephone team member with St Vincent de Paul’s East Region office.
“Christmas and back-to-school times are the highest pressure points, because there are so many added costs,” she adds. “And if someone is struggling, they don’t want anyone to know.”
In November 2017 alone, the SVP’s East Region helpline had almost 12,000 calls for assistance, 1,000 more than the same period in 2016. The helpline’s yearly call total for 2017 is expected to be close to 125,000.
Parents can end up feeling hopeless and vulnerable, as Linda explains:
They’ll sometimes ask me, “What am I supposed to do? I can’t keep turning around to my children and saying, ‘I haven’t got the money, I haven’t got the money.’” How many times can you say that to your children?
In Ireland, one in nine children lacks basic essentials like adequate housing, suitable clothing and nutritious food. As Kieran Stafford, SVP President notes, financial hardship can also result in families being excluded from occasions like Christmas that others take for granted.
“Simply put, Christmas is not the same for everyone,” he says.
“Parents may already feel demoralised by not being able to cover the ordinary, the necessary, and special occasions only add to that struggle. ”I remember one mother who wrote to us saying her only thought when her son took his first steps was ‘I can’t buy him shoes. I can’t clothe my own child.’”
Linda recalls another mother who had everything budgeted so tightly that even a new pair of underwear for her kids was considered a treat.
“Some people consider it the very last resort to call SVP, but there’s another, better way to look at it – that it’s confidential assistance to help with the pressures families are facing today,” says Kieran.
It’s reassurance, some advice or often just a friendly ear. People seeking SVP’s help are often on their own, and may not have friends or families they feel they can turn to. Very few of us can make it in this world without a helping hand.
Linda’s role on the SVP telephone team means she hears from callers in many different situations.
“People say to me, ‘Oh your heart must break every day listening to callers,’ but that’s not the case,” she says.
“The way I think about it is, if SVP wasn’t there, where would people turn to? You can never stop thanking the donors, or the members who go that extra mile. You can never forget the service SVP provides.”
Based on true stories from families helped by St Vincent de Paul’s East Region Office. Some details have been changed for confidentiality.
Find out more about the people SVP has helped, or click here to donate now. Remember, your ‘yes’ can last a lifetime.
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How many of the 12000 calls were from chronic scroungers who just try to get what they can out of SVP?
@Quiet Goer:
Your a right funny man.
@Quiet Goer: This not the point of the article, there are scroungers in all walks of life, as we all know!
@Quiet Goer: is there a conclusion or recommendation there?
What do we do about the chronic cribbers who have nothing of value to contribute only a moan that everyone else has it wrong!
@Quiet Goer: Ah your one those Leo Lovers who denies the blossoming humanitarian crisis in this country. I suppose you think hand over council lands to developer, Councillor & TD run private charities along with the money to build is “social housing” The council rents them back at market value…… Over 500 of these house-building charities exist so far….. Lucrative business and a tribunal waiting to happen…. Sure putting developers and politicians together in a smoky room hasn’t caused any problems before….. Sure you can get your lover Leo and his state paid for spin machine to pretend their actual social houses….. The state doesn’t own them but paid for them lock stock and barrel. And the councils pay market rent to these smokey room dwellers…. Just to finish the scam.
@Quiet Goer: you can have my username..suits u better than me, that’s something. I’m a miserable git lol.
Tell my child I haven’t the money for lots of things and it does her no harm at all.
@Let free speech live: Well done…… Start early and often……
@Let free speech live: well clearly you have brought you kids up knowing money doesn’t grow on trees..unlike the majority who expect more and more every year..idiot parents who give in to there demands..
@OCallaghan TP: They might as well learn early that just because they want something doesn’t mean they get to have it. Hopefully she will be a tough little cookie and have an advantage over all the snowflakes being raised today who have never heard the word no as mammy and daddy didn’t want to disappoint them.
@Let free speech live: Who’s talking about parents? Back when my godchild was a baby, I used to take her for walks. Whenever we went into a shop, there would be children asking me “Will you buy me that/sweets/whatever?” They certainly didn’t break their heart when I laughed and said No. If there’s any adult here who hasn’t said No to a child, they don’t know any children – or they’re very flaithúlach, and I have a wish list myself!
@Fiona Fitzgerald: the article says it is about parents. It is right there in the headline but I agree with your comment.
@Let free speech live: Thanks, and good for you, agree with you, it doesn’t harm a child at all to know that money isn’t unlimited. I once read of a couple who sat down with their child and separated out the monthly pay in cash. Take away so much for this bill, so much for that bill; very little left at the end of the exercise. I think it does no harm to teach budgeting.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: definitely kids need to learn to value of money from an early age.
It’s the real word. Children need to know the meaning of No don’t have the money.. They do need to know that.
I would never get into debt to give my kids big presents. I prefer to give them get a life lesson in how to budget. They also then appreciate what they do get.
Tell them the truth, why tell them anything else, the poor spend vast amounts of borrowed money at Christmas time, money that they spend months paying back, toys bought with this are often discarded after a week or even less, that kind of money doesn’t but happiness .
The truth you say :) I once worked with a man from Cavan, he took his kids to the graveyard and showed them a grave then he had them believe that Santa was dead, saved himself a fortune over the years :)
Christmas has gotten out of hand. Elf on the shelf plus accessories and monitoring equipment. Christmas eve boxes of goodies. Advent calenders with gifts for each day. Toy show ornaments.
People need to calm the f*** down. We are being mugged by corporations. Say no to kids.
Just NO. I heard it many times. Didnt kill me.
Similar to other comments on this, my parents weren’t well off. They made do. If anyone can be bothered to get a temporary readers card for the National Library, you can look back at print media from 10/20/30/40/50 years ago and see the same issues in the news, it is not a “new” phenomenon, it is and has been a problem in every society since the year dot. It doesn’t make the situation right but some folk seem to think it has only occured in the last few years. Its a cross party issue. Don’t politicise it for political gain, thats what gets my goat……
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