to hate the programme saints and scroungers

[Ilovesunflowers]

The scroungers are disgusting and it is theft from the system. However it's the word 'saint' I hate. Since when does being entitled to benefits mean you are a saint? Since when do the people who are doing their jobs to get people the right benefits get classed as saints? They are doing their job.

So when I needed benefits at the start of the year I should have been classed as a saint because I genuinely needed help? Of course not. What a daft programme.

AIBU?

YANBU.

This has always got on my nerves too!

A bit off topic but it also annoys me when people are described as heroes (in an OTT way) when in reality they are being paid to do a job but that's another thread and one I would no doubt be flamed for.

Perhaps the reason is that so many people in the system are obstructive and unhelpful that when someone does go out of their way to ensure that those who actually need help get everything they are entitled to, they really are a little bit saint like.

No I agree about the heroes too. People choose to do a job. One of my friends works as a volunteer for the lifeboat and has saved 2 lives. He would hate being called a hero for a job he chose to do.

I thought the 'saint' part referred to the people who help those who are genuinely entitled to the help to get everything they should be getting, rather than the person actually making the claim?

I think it's a government funded programme.
Dominic Littlewood talks in cliches and is found of using unbackable phrases like 'some experts claim' to make unsubstantiated claims sound like fact.

It also paints people with disabilities as either evil fakers or meek and grateful souls, too proud to ask for 'handouts'

It fails to address WHY people like the man who was traumatically blinded was turned down for DLA twice. It chose to focus on the 'saint' who eventually got it for him, not that DLA is difficult to claim even for those who with severe and acquired disabilities

I agree OhdoAdmit. It portrays disabled people in a really patronising way.

Yanbu. It's the most patronising pile of crap on tv. People in need are invariably shown to be helpless until a 'saint' helps with their claim.

Dominic Littlewood seems to be setting himself up as some sort of champion of diasabled people, consumer rights blah blah.

Agree to about programmes about heroes - friends in the emergenfy services would be embarrased to be described in such a way.

I'm disabled. I'm also an obstreperous cow.

YADNBU. I was just ranting about this the other day. It just serves to reinforce the Daily Mail/Tory view that a huge proportion of benefit claimants are defrauding the tax payer out of millions when, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. But so they can claim "a balanced view" they introduce a couple of poor, helpless, proud and respectable benefit claimants so we can all feel that our taxes are also some kind of charity and therefore by allowing these "poor but proud sufferers" a basic existence we can all feel good about ourselves and say what a lovely and fair society we live in. It smacks of the "I'm not bigoted/racist/sexist, but...." sentiment.

This "too proud to ask for handouts" meme is a giant propaganda trick.

When did you last hear someone say, "Oh I wrote off the car. But I'm not claiming on the insurance because I'm too proud to ask for handouts."

Or "I won't use the NHS. I'm too proud to ask for handouts."

Or "I'm not accepting my state pension. I'm too proud to ask for handouts."

I've paid through my taxes and National Insurance. I'm unlucky enough to have had to claim on the insurance.

Continual media drivel about "handouts" and "scroungers", the endless forms (increasing under Welfare Reform), poor and downright wrong advice from DWP staff, and the fact that even the most mundane communications from them include boiler-plate threats of sanctions and prosecution: these are the reasons people aren't claiming.

Completely agree, MixedBerries.

Only seen this a couple of times, as getting The Rage is bad for my health. But it seems to feature roughly equal numbers of "goodies" and "baddies". Leaving the uninformed watcher with the impression that this represents the true proportions.

serial totally agree that the implication is that there are loads of fraudulent claimants.

I hate the judgment that you are either a 'good' person making an honest claim or a 'bad' person ripping off taxpayers. Most people, imo, are something in between.

I watched this once and thought the same, it is awful. Even the "Saint" story I thought they were slanting it slightly so that the Daily Mail types would still be angry.