I'm sorry but someone is going to link to this today so....

[TheRealFellatio]

It may as well be me.

Stumbled across this accidentally (honest) when googling about the poor little girl killed by dogs, but this has to be the most spectacularly entertaining Daily Mail 'I'm better off on benefits' stories I have ever seen.

So many weird things going on here, and so many unanswered questions I don't even know where to begin.....

Her home 'boasts' a 42" flat screen telly, natch.

enjoy

PS. is there anyone whose telly ^isn't a flatscreen these days?

[issypiggle]

omg, all i can say is argh!!!!

[MammaTJ]

Already done

[TheRealFellatio]

Oh so it has. I am not in the UK and I thought it was today's paper and I was the first person in the whole wide world to see it. Sad now.

[TheRealFellatio]

And I forgot to turn it into a bona fide AIBU?

[TheRealFellatio]

I can see how (most) of the figures add back to a situation where she'd rather stay on benefits, although some of them are a bit tenuous and far-fetched, and some things have been counted in twice, but that's not what I want to know.

I want to know how she's gone from being a presumably intelligent and capable chartered accountant who knows about finances and tax etc, living in a huge fancy 7 bed McMansion with a swanky bespoke kitchen and a live-in housekeeper, to someone who is in a rented semi, whose ex pays 13 quid a week maintenance.

There's a book deal somewhere there, surely? I hope she's writing about that!

[DoJo]

FWIW I am the person in the UK who doesn't have a flat screen and therefore gives all the handwringing over those who do some context.

[TheRealFellatio]

The only people who don't have flatscreen TVs these days are very old ladies, people with no TV at all and very posh people who only take baths not showers, (too modern and continental) and shun central heating.

[idiuntno57]

we don't have a flatscreen.
we're not posh.
we're skint.

[OneHundredSecondsofSolitude]

God we're those people! No fLatscreen and no shower, 28 year old boiler!!

Where do I get my matching crumbling pile?

[pippitysqueakity]

Well, up until last Tuesday, I was that person without a flat screen tv, but my big fat non flaty finally gave up the ghost about 6 weeks ago and it got too much for me!
(I will be the v poshy please, even tho it's not remotely true...)

[thegreylady]

We don't have a bath! We have a shower instead. We do have a flat screen TV bought last year when the old TV died. We are also pensioners.We do not feel hard up :-)

[yaimee]

No flat screen for me either and definitely not because I'm posh, more that I'm broke as a joke.
Big sigh.
The worst thing is that people buy into this rubbish!

[livinginwonderland]

eh, we only got a flatscreen last summer, and that's because our area switched to digital and our other TV was too old to cope with it.

[Crawling]

My mum who is on benefits doesnt have a flat screen. I hate watching Tele Down there because the slightest bump and the tv goes off. Seeing my mum struggle I dont know how anyone can live comfortably of benefits. She was working for MIND but got made redundant.

[thereinmadnesslies]

I love the idea that getting a book published will set her up for life -few authors make enough from their first book to quit work (or benefits in her case) - JK Rowling and the Fifty Shades of Grey woman are the total exception to the rule.

[TheRealFellatio]

Ok, I accept that many people have not upgraded their TVs for a really long time, and either can't afford to or don't care to - but you get my drift. My point was that the DM should really move on from their flatscreen obsession now - it's a very long time since they have been considered the height of cutting edge luxury and indulgence. Pretty much anyone who has bought a new telly in the last 10 to 15 years will have bought a flatscreen one. That is all.

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

She should trade down her four wheel drive Honda then to help her with her decision about petrol from Morrisions or food from Aldi.



What's wrong with Morrisions - I thought it was quite a nice supermarket when I was back in the UK?

[Cakethrow]

'She drives a four-wheel Honda CRV'
That is a complete outrage.
A car with 4 wheels, while on benefits?

[Groovee]

How come last year, when my dh became unemployed, we struggled to get any help? 8 weeks with no money and only basics at that. No free school meals or free university places and even tax credits were a complete nightmare.

[Punkatheart]

No flatscreen.

Hate that television dominates rooms.

Now what were we talking about again?

[IsaacCox]

We don't have a flat screen and don't want one

[trashcanjunkie]

i don't have a flat screen.... I've never actually bought a telly! but we were recently gifted an old chunky samsung. The dcs bloody love it!

[trashcanjunkie]

punk totally hearing you.... that's why I decided it could go in the corner of my bedroom and it means the kids need permission to go in my room before they sit down and goggle...

[Poledra]

So, what is going to replace the flat-screen TV as the height on benefit-scrounger luxury?