Almost half of people in hygiene poverty have gone without toilet roll
Almost one in five adults in the UK have gone without household hygiene products such as deodorant and toilet paper, according to new research described by charities as "a wake-up call".
Social isolation has also emerged as a significant consequence, with 43 per cent of those polled admitting they avoided seeing friends or family because they could not afford basic hygiene or cleaning products in the past six months.
The survey, published by charities The Hygiene Bank and In Kind Direct, revealed that 41 per cent of respondents experiencing hygiene poverty were doing so for the first time this year.
Described by charities as "a wake-up call" - wake up and smell the coffee?
No that's not right, but it's easy to dismiss this kind of thing as virtue-signalling exaggeration...
So I shall.
So I shall.
20 comments:
When I were a lad,many years ago, deodorant did not exist and we managed with a good wash. Yes toilet paper was in short supply ,but considering it was called Izal and had one side shiny and the other like sandpaper this was no big problem. The solution ? squares of the previous weeks copies of the Daily Mirror or similar .You could get 4 squares from one sheet of a tabloid newspaper.
The Hygiene Bank has 14 employees, one of whom earns over £80K, In Kind Direct has 33 employees, 5 of whom earn between £60K and £130K. (Charity Commission accounts 2024)
The origin of the ‘wake-up call’ quote is the chief executive of the latter, who is presumably the one who was earning between £120K and £130K two years ago.
Oddly enough, he doesn’t seem to have spotted the incongruity of his impassioned solicitation of donations in kind from the general public - the very ‘ families who, until recently, considered themselves financially secure’ or the ‘growing number of working households’ who are ‘struggling’ even with two incomes.
John - so many people of a certain age remember Izal, it obviously made an impression. Yes, squares of newspaper were the answer, secured on a loop of string as I remember.
Macheath - thanks, some interesting salaries in there. It adds to an impression that the whole charity business should be reformed and in numerous cases that would mean charitable status being cancelled. The line between charity and scam is too vague.
During WW2, and for a few years afterwards, it was the "Radio Times" that cleaned our bums. I never new soft toilet paper until 1963 when I married a girl from a 'soft paper' family.
Izal played a vital part in my education; the school stationery shop sold tracing paper for 1p a sheet and our pocket money was strictly limited so, whenever it was needed, a volunteer was sent to the lavatories to bring back a roll. To this day, the mention of it brings back an immediate mental picture of the Norwegian fjords or a polygon rotated 90 degrees around point (3, -2).
I suppose, these days, we could claim to have suffered from stationery poverty.
Back in the 70's, a public utility I was involved with had every sheet of their Izal toilet rolls specially printed with "*** property". As if anyone would consider stealing it!
From AI:
"The distinction between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor is a historical and sociological framework used to categorize individuals based on perceived moral worthiness for state or charitable aid."
So my question is how many of the people in hygiene poverty are deserving and how many undeserving? It's an old fashioned view but you could make the argument that the charity industry and some political parties are unwilling to make that distinction - and that is why we have a ballooning welfare state.
£2.52 for eight rolls in Tesco. Anyone having trouble wiping their arse properly, is probably making some very bad life choices
DAD - I don't remember the change to soft toilet paper, but it would have been about the early 1960s for us too. I'm not sure if we used the Radio Times before that, but newspapers would have been used to light the fire.
Macheath - I remember Izal being used as tracing paper and I have an idea it was also used for playing the comb and paper.
Dave - toilet rolls printed with "Government Property" would encourage stealing.
DJ - that's a good point, it was a mistake to allow the idea of the deserving poor to fade away. It is why we have a ballooning welfare state, but there are too many vested interests to put it right.
Bucko - that's it, toilet rolls can be very cheap and cheap packs are easy to find, especially large packs. It's one of those concocted problems.
I can recommend from the album 'Who will save the world? The mighty Groundhogs'. The wonderful track 'Bog Roll Blues'!
Tammly - "Streaming projectiles hurled through the air out of the trains after
games of football."
During games of football too as I remember. Do they still do that?
As an aside, if you ever want to get in touch with your inner self, try Greek toilet paper.
Penseivat
Penseivat - I remember not being allowed to flush it, but not what it was like to use.
I wonder how many of the people suffering from 'hygiene poverty' also are suffering from surfeits of iPhones, flat screen TVs, alcohol and illegal drugs?
A K Haart / Penseivat - We go every year, and I think the quality of the paper has improved to normal western standards, but you still have to put it in the little bin by the toilet. Which isn't pleasant when you've got 'Greece Arse'
Sobers - my guess would be near enough all of them. Plus a surfeit of calories in many cases.
Bucko - it's the little bin I remember, never liked that idea.
The reason they do it is because Greek sewer pipes arn't a big enough diameter to cope with soft toilet paper in any quantity.
Don't know. Probably gone out of fashion along with platform soled shoes and communication cords.
Tammly - an oversight which isn't easy to understand, but apparently it was installed by the British.
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