to find Bianca's storyline on Eastenders really distressing.

[headfairy]

I'm being soft of course because it's not real, but it's scary how many people are in the same position.

It's bloody awful, she has no housing benifit because she's geuung the house cheep. I know its not real. Emmerdale and the ashly sandy thing is worse

Its not odd at all IAmBooyhoo, I live among many people in Biancas situation, TBH im not so far removed from it myself and I know that in real life someone who is faced with the challenges she has been over the years would know the benefit system inside out because she would have needed to at several points during her life [and all its eastenders ups and downs!]

For a start as someone else said, she would have been getting tax credits etc, these are never mentioned in EE, obviously if tax credits were in the storyline her circumstances wouldnt have got to that state.

So in RL she would have claimed whatever she was entitled to and that storyline wouldnt have happened.

maristella well said
I think it is easy to say this was just EE and made up.
but times are tough and people are getting really desperate.
i have been there, (pre dc's thank god) and it is awful to not to be able to afford even the basics.
I was lucky, I had people who helped me, but a lot of people don't have that.

knowing the benefit system inside out doesn't make people give up their jobs you know some odd people if what you are saying is that they all gave up work in the same situation.

when i had ds1 i worked and i knew exactly what i was entitled to. i also knew that i would have been financially better off had i given up my job. i knew the figures off the top of my head both for me working and for if i wasn't working. i still chose to stay in my job even though it was bloody tough at times and i would ask myself why the hell i was putting myself through the daily slog when i could have been sitting at home not worrying about getting to the nursery on time so as to avoid late charges and all the rest taht comes with it.

I cried because i have been watching this build up and she has portrayed it well. I have been in very similar circumstances.

For those saying that it couldn't be real, what has happened is that they have had numerous changes, going from property to property, job to job. Being outside the benefit system, because of changes and renting from family (the house has only just passed to Bianca).

Ricky let her down on this months maintainance and she has had a series of bad luck. Her and Ricky were living as a couple and she has not long come out of prison, so that has meant that there has been a problem with claiming benefits (long time regular watcher), as they have both been working when possible.

I didnt say they all gave up work in that situation! im saying they would know what help is available if they do work or that if it was not financially viable [with say 2 under 5s to find childcare for] then they would know there was the safety net of benefits until their circumstances changed.

I dont know 'odd' people, I know real people of all backgrounds in the real world.

Ok so you know from your own experience how tough it can be working with a small child, so if you had 2-3 or maybe even 4 children imagine how difficult that would be juggling work and your family on your own?

That is the sort of situation where sometimes a mum will figure out that it is detremental to her family to do so....she would then have the welfare state to fall back on until she was in a better position [ie kids older, not so much after school care needed etc]

Im not saying everyone in that position would do that, but a lot would.

Sometimes though, hanging onto that last scrap of provide that being in work gives you keeps you there.

In this hypothetical situation, she cannot claim because she has been refused a proper rental agreement, and escape from that would mean uprooting children.

I'm so lucky I didn't ever take out one of those horrible doorstep loans, I must have been avoiding the door when they were doing the rounds! I remember so vividly the stress of living literally day to day though; paying by cheque (when you still could) because there was not enough cash to spend cash or card, and knowing that it would leave me short from charges later, but that I would have to deal with that later

It's fucking awful bringing up children in poverty, it really is. The shame, the stress, and the desperation...

I'm glad it is being portrayed, because there are more people in this situation than ever before, and they are being targeted. Doorstep loans plunge the poor and vulnerable right into the shit, and I still cannot believe such interest rates are legal

but you said if it was real life bianca wouldn't be working. you said that as if it were fact. i dont know how you could know that.

Well I dont know that because it isnt real life!

I stand by my viewpoint, I believe that someone like Bianca with several children, little support and just out of prison, it is highly unlikely that she would have been working.

My point of view comes from real life experience.

Some parents need to work, they just need to do that. That's real life :)

"I believe that someone like Bianca with several children, little support and just out of prison"

Ricky, the father was living with her as her partner and was working. Bianca has rarely lived on her own, her previous partner was working. She didn't have rent to cover when Pat was alive. She had lots of support.

Not all those who are poor know how to work the system. Not all of them want to. We have a lot of working poor in our society.

Also, people don't leave jobs, no matter how difficult or badly paying because they fear they are not entitled to benefits. Even those who are entitled can wait months for their claims to be processed.

i agree dione

Me too Boo, the more vulnerable the person, tha harder it is to negotiate the system

It upset me far more than I expected, too. I was in a similar position for different reasons and found it really hard not to steal - the way they showed Bianca homing in on the bag with the cash perfectly recalled the way I felt!

Also, I didn't know how to handle the debt. If not for the CAB, I still wouldn't. I'm not the only one who doesn't realise there really are systems and structures that work in your favour.

Palmer did great work on today's episode, imo. Is she leaving the series for a while, then?

i feel that her lack of tax credits and hb has been glossed over though....

even with janinie being a tit she could move somewhere else and get hb

How would she pay the deposit on another home? And moving costs?

@garlic good point. is that not taken into consideration by hb people? i have not claimed for hb.

"i feel that her lack of tax credits and hb has been glossed over though"

It's been explained . Ricky was claiming when she was in prison, as benefits stop. She hasn't been eligable for HB, until now, but she won't save if she claims.

Her work has been cash in hand and unstable, so not out of the question that she hasn't tried to just find work, rather than rely on benefits.

"is that not taken into consideration by hb people?"

No the tenent has to find the full deposit and sometimes rent to cover the 6 weeks that it takes for HB to come through.

When Billy was looking for a flat, the minimum needed was £1200, in the area,(he tried to get a loan off Phil).

she could ethelb, but as dione said, benefits can take ages to kick in afetr you have applied. when i moved into my first home after ds was born i was on maternity leave and entitled to HB. i applied on the day i moved in. unfortunately for me that month, (4 days after i moved in) i got no maternity pay due to a huge mistake by the payroll department. the housing benefit application took six weeks before i got any money and my pay didn't come through until the end of the next month. i moved into my home on the 14th of november so that meant i had no money for my son's first xmas. i was lucky in that i have supportive family and they were more than happy to see me through xmas but for someone who doesn't have someone to help out then it could be a big risk moving house and hoping that everything goes quickly with your HB application and that no other crisis happens before you get money. also, moving house can be expensive, especially if you have to hire people to move your furniture, and dont forget finding a month's rent plus deposit upfront whilst not even being able to afford your rent in your current place (this is the situation bianca is in)and possibly needing a reference from someone like janine! moving doesn't sound as simple when you think of all that.

Ethelb, I don't know about you, but there isn't much social housing around these parts. So the alternative is private housing that usually requires a deposit and advance on top of the extra money to top up HB allowance to cover rent. Even if you find a place, you have to find moving costs, not to mention putting in the work that you originally put in to make the last house the DC's home, and the cost if transport or new uniforms.

I find your post ignorant and in a way I'm glad. The fewer families who experience this, the better.

xposting

HB dont pay you in advance of a move, they will backdate it to the monday of the week that you applied so if the application takes 6 weeks then you have to find that upfront and they will pay it back to once the application has been approved.