I. Daniel Blake

[fem2019]

Anyone else watching this tonight? (NC due to an outing comment I made recently). Saw it when it first came out and as a SP some of it hit home. As a statement of how it is to be without resources it is bang on. Be interested in what MN thinks.

Other than donating to the food bank- which I do, what else can we do help them?
How far do want to go with helping?
.Volunteer at foid banks ,Don't vote Tory, actively discourage people that you know not to vote Tory, write to your MP, encourage your friends to write to an MP, put protests out on Twitter constantly and get a crowd doing it as well, organize protests etc.
There's loads you can do.

Volunteer for Citizens advice and/or donate to them
(Disclaimer: I work for them. But as I said we do a lot to help people in these situations.)

Actively discouraging people from voting Tory is one of the best things people can do to help. People do not understand the impact a Tory government is having on poorer people and they think it will never be them in that situation.

I read a small news story of a man who walked into a job centre and stabbed himself in the neck because he was sanctioned and had no money. I've seen quite a few of these stories, recently a man committed suicide when his money was stopped.

You lot do realise that this isn't a documentary, don't you? It's fiction. A work by a director who is very left wing and isn't out there to paint a balanced picture. It's about furthering his political agenda.

Which is fine, and if people want to pay to watch a long Labour party broadcast, that's entirely their outlook.

The Labour Party aren't blameless either

Of course we realise it isn’t a documentary. But it is a good representation of things that are happening all across the country at the moment. The scene where the woman eats the beans from the tin is based on a true story from someone who worked in a food bank, for example.

You lot do realise that this isn't a documentary, don't you? It's fiction

Is that you James Cleverley?!

Yes, it's a story. But it's real life for way too many people. It's a story needing told. Look how many people on this thread (and on the employment boards) who believe that employers pay unlimited sick pay, and when that stops, the DWP pay it without question?

Shameful that we allow the most vulnerable in our country to be treated like this.

You’re not really meant to watch it and ‘like it’. It may upset you, digust you, make you angry. But not like it- odd response.

I was lucky that when I needed emergency spinal surgery I was in a job that paid me full sick pay. If I hadn't been, and I was in the zero hours job I took afterwards, I can see I would have been up shit creek - it was a full 8 weeks off work and then a couple of weeks phased return

Fairylea I thought when she ate the beans (heartbreaking) was more for effect rather than her eating an apple or banana for example. I'm so sad to hear this was based on a real experience.

It's a story based on many people's real life experiences.

Are you dismissing all those that are vouching for its authenticity?

Yes I can’t remember the exact story but basically there was a woman with children who hadn’t eaten anything for 5 days or so (she had been giving everything she had to her children) and when she turned up at the food bank she was so hungry she was trying to open a tin of beans in the food bank and the people felt so sorry for her they found her a chair and opened the tin and she used her fingers to eat the beans from the tin. My heart cannot ever forget reading that story - and then they more or less used it in the film.

And this is Britain today.

And Katie would presumably get about £200 a week in benefits plus HB as a LP so why in the name of fuck did she become a prostitute? Sorry Ken - nice try but I don't buy it.

Not if she'd been sanctioned like she was in the film.

Sanctioned = benefits drastically reduced or completely stopped.

Do they sanction people with children as well?

I have to say, I sobbed my way through it. I know it's a dramatisation but we shouldn't even have food banks in such a wealthy country, let alone the appalling treatment evident in film. It really made me sit up and appreciate how lucky I am. I'll be donating to the food bank every week from now on.

Yes they sanction people with children

Yes they sanction people with children . Not sure if this is the case under universal credit but a few years ago my friend and her husband were sanctioned because he didn't turn up to sign on - because he was attending a job interview arranged by the jobcentre!! They had to send their little one to stay with grandparents for almost a month as they couldn't afford heating and food and you can only use the food bank 3 times in a year .

Yes they absolutely sanction people with children. All of this was going on under labour too so theyre both as bad as each other.

Interesting article about sanctions- www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-46104333

And Katie would presumably get about £200 a week in benefits plus HB as a LP so why in the name of fuck did she become a prostitute? Sorry Ken - nice try but I don't buy it.

You lot do realise that this isn't a documentary, don't you? It's fiction

The sneering, glib comments above make me feel sick!
Of course it’s a work of fucking fiction, the reality is worse. Daniel Blake wouldn’t have had anyone bringing him a glass of water, they were removed from Job centres years before then, a pauper’s funeral wouldn’t allow for a eulogy.

Can people really not accept, that whilst being a work of fiction, this is based on things that actually happen?

Yes, they sanction people with children. And if they'd stopped her JSA they then stop her housing benefit and council tax benefit. So you can wind up in a lot of debt and with no money.

And on UC?

There have been several posters on here who have sold themselves as their UC was stopped or the initial claim fucked up and they were left with nothing for weeks or even months.

On 4 January, another person ended his life in Edinburgh due to benefits sanctions

But hey, they're all making it up and bullshitting.

Wake the fuck up, people.

Yes they sanction people with children and can sanction 100% of your benefits. They will also inform the council who will stop your housing benefit and council tax benefit until you can confirm your new income so full rent and council tax are payable until you can provide proof of this and they recalculate it.

Oh, Sauv, don't feed the goady fucker namechangers. They just namechange to stir.

Morbidlyobese, i think that anyonebwho had ever been in a similar situation now or in the past will have shed a tear or too remembering what they’ve been through and it will have brought up lots of bad memories. Uncomfortable viewing for many.