About the Benefits program on BBC1

[bimbabirba]

It has made my blood boil! Especially that judgmental bitch, Debbie, who was telling the single parent that she shouldn't buy a whole chicken on tax payers' money to feed her children! Then she went all judgy and bitchy because the kids eat two cooked meals a day and she asked if that was really necessary!
I think the world has gone mad!

And right there on the BBC too Latara - what a wonderful corporation.

Still, makes a pleasant change from their typical heavy rotation of 'homes under the hammer' encouraging debt slavery and rent seeking.

I have a cousin who had a quite good fulltime job whilst her DH who has a health condition stayed home to look after the kids.
They have decided to split up (no abuse just not in love) The first thing she did was quit her job (the children are too ikle for me to work) and claim income support.So now we the tax payers have to foot the bill to rauise her sprogs and also pay to support her ex DH? How is that fair that she can just change her mind and we have to foot the bill.Ok she may not have been 'happy' with her partner, but diddums!! a lot of people are not happy with working lots and lots of hours and hardly seeing their partners and kids and still being and having to pay tax to support my cousins whims.

Oh have we got one here.. xylem8 bangs head against wall

So your cousin should have stayed in an unhappy relationship forever because you say so?

You, are an idiot cunt.

She had a good full time job, paid her taxes, her relationship ended and instead of staying in work and claiming god knows how much in WTC including the childcare element. She's decided to look after her kids and claim IS instead.

Get off your fucking soap box.

why did that woman need so many pets? We are a family of 5 with DH in full time work, myself as a part-time dinner lady, my eldest son in full-time work, 19 year old going to University but trying to find work and an 11 year old with 1 cat and we find it hard to feed our lot even by shopping in Lidl.

There are jobs but with probably 1,000's of applicants going for the same jobs and then what do the rest do? A lot of jobs ask for experience and where do you get that experience before you get that fecking job?????!!!!!!!!! my daughter has even been turned down by KFC and not even had an interview yet. She trained as a trainee commis chef but no restaurant was taking on and basically using her even though she turned up everyday on time. She said she is stuck too she cannot apply for jobs where her university is as she'd have to go for interviews now and she doesn't start till end of sept.

'So your cousin should have stayed in an unhappy relationship forever because you say so?'

I don't give a monkeys what she does as long as she doesn't intentionally make her self destitute and expect us as tax payers to support her instead

But your cousin has been a tax payer Xylem

And their dad moving out will be a massive change for the dc, their Mum staying at home with them for a while could just possibly make that a little easier for them.

It won't be forever xylem. She can't stay on Income Support any longer than when her youngest goes to school.

Xylem is saying that for her cousin it is a life style choice, that's true from how she describes the situation and she does not deserve abuse for stating her point of view.

maybe the kids of parents working fulltime would lile to see more of their parents too

If you have no work why should we tax paying workers fund your life(style)? There are jobs to be done like fruit picking, care home work, call centres and what's wrong with dry cleaners? Competive countries like India and China have lots of hard working families who all contribute to the household budget - people aren't breeding to sponge off their taxpayers. The clothing factories and places that make stuff like washing machines and plastic goods have lots of kids working in them, you don't see their mums and dads crying on tv about a chicken or two hot meals..they're out sweeping the streets or in good decent domestic servant roles minding the babies, elderly or those needing sexual relief. For goodness sake, they don't have extra bedrooms in their houses either where they can lie on the bed worrying about making up a packed lunch from value food items - no ...you can get 3 or 4 generations into a one room apartment if you put beds on all four walls and the children share beds. It's not up to us taxpayers to fund a bathroom or kitchen either... I work hard for my money to let my dc pee in our own toilet and eat meals cooked in our own kitchen ... If you can't afford it share.
I know it can happen to anyone, that you lose your job but really before our taxes are used to pay for anything to support the lifestyles of the feckless they should have sold off anything that's not vital for life including tv, phone, toys, washing machine, anything really and downgraded to the smallest place they can rent privately ( why should tax payers pay for a roof over these people's head - in India or China they don't and there are lots of enterprising community initiatives like soup kitchens and shelters to take care of them). They eat a bowl of rice and some lentils per day in some of these places and if this benefits programme had showed these lazy unemployed or underemployed people how to cook up a value brand one pot rice and bean meal which can be eaten cold like a salad on subsequent days it would have been more useful than all this searching for bits of fruit nonsense.
It's not fair that some people and their children have been scooped up by this safety net benefits system while others work. Tbh not sure we should be paying state pensions either, I mean if you didn't save for your old age why should my DC miss a day at the safari park because my taxes are paying to fund your lifestyle choice( ie choosing to live past 65 without having the means to fund your living).
I am alright (Jack) and it taxes could be lower if we only kept them for things like Mps pay, bailing out the banks or subsidising landowners or the property market ( so we can ensure lots of private renting rooms for families). If we just keep education to the things that make us competive with India and China that's not going to cost too much and actually kept the nhs just as a name but outsourced all the functions to India and China we can all enjoy the benefits of a similar lifestyle to the majority of the people there.

Washing machine is a non essential item? Really?

And you are suggesting that the less privileged in society live a lifestyle on par with a developing country? Really?

And you're against state pensions?
Really?

I suspect this is a wind up but I'll bite...

India has the highest child mortality rate in the world.

China is run by a dictatorship.

Be careful what you wish for. I'm all right jack quickly turns into not a pot to piss in with the onset of ill health or ill luck.

And just to point out, people do actually pay for their state pensions through no contributions - and on a percentage basis those on low incomes are taxed more heavily than those on higher.

Anyway, run along and see if you can have fun winding them up in FWR why don't you...

I have a way that might - I say might with trepidation - solve some of this Benefit mania.
Most single parents are single through a divorce, a split, some trauma within their lives - I know some people chose to be single parents and live on benefits but they are a small minority in actuality. If you actually read people's stories and the stats on this. The unemployed, they are generally unemployed through circumstance - a small minority chose to live unemployed and off benefits. Most want work.

If we leave the people who are choosing benefits as a lifestyle for a moment and concentrate on those who want to be helped back to or, perhaps for the first time ever arrive at, a life where there is some opportunity and hope.

If you go to re-train, if you go to college to better your chances - all benefits stop. Most people can not afford to go back to college or to re-train because of this. I couldn't go back to college before this year (I am 42) to re-train as I had young kids and their father has left, he pays nothing. He just left I certainly didn't chose this life. But to re-train, to better my chances, I would have lost all benefits entirely aside from child benefit and a little bit of child tax credit - its not enough to keep a family going so I had to wait until I had established a part time job, you know because kids are older and I could do that while going to college while raising kids...
Help these single mothers and fathers to retrain - don't punish them for wanting to try to make things better via education. The same with the unemployed - their benefits are taken off them if they go to college - don't do that. Support them.
It can only be good in the end as in the end you have people with education and/or a skill. And then if they still can not find a job? That's the economy not the person.
Once you have weeded out who wants to get on - go to college, re-train, and this can be done at home for the ones with young kids - home study - you are then left with those that have no intention of ever working and then you can tackle that issue.
There are more people on benefits who want to get on than there are who don't. Help them get on rather than slag all on benefits off because 'they are on benefits.'

ohmergod you really are a misanthropist.
I agree things have gone too far here and there is some abuse of the system but would hate to see people in this country living like the majority in India and China, I travel and do know about this so don't talk nonsense. I hope we are all too civilised here to say there should be no safety net.

"sexual relief"... yep, definitely a wind up post.

I thought Kelly did alright with food and seemed to cook fairly healthily. I could have shoved a chicken - a whole one, in one go, rather than a series of streamlined fillets, up Debbie's arse.

Liam should have been paid for his work....even if it was just a part time contract. That's what people are overlooking. He was a bit of a knob, but you don't know how much of it was bravado for his mates, who would be watching eagerly. Doesn't make it right, obvs, but hopefully he'll grow out of it.

Didn't pay as much attention to the other people as I was doing a bit of work and drifted in and out. My attention was initially caught by Debbie's chi'in nonsense.

Omergod's post was a clever and subtle wind up!

she is obviously being sarcastic. I wonder how many on this thread actually are the working poor

Seizethenight, I agree with your post.

Free childcare for single parents would also help. I don't think being a SAHM is a viable option, really, for people who can't afford it.

I really think a lot more should be done to help single parents.

And, you're right: that sort of thing would help flush out the truly workshy. They do exist, and it clouds the issue terribly.

I think before we can solve the unemployment problem or the benefist culture in the UK we need to look at the cost of living compared to the average wage.

Energy companies and the big 4 supermarkets have a stranglehold on us all. We can't live without food and we need electricity/gas/fuel just to function. Whilst ever they are setting and controlling the prices the average wage is almost spent before its even earnt. Chuck in the cost of rented accomodation and travel on public transport and someone on an average income can not afford to feed them selves or their family. At least on benefits you get to keep (usually) a roof over your head.

And that Debbie was a cow. She had a go at her over cheap and cheerful tins of stuff, then a go over a chicken. Chicken breasts are much more expensive than a full chicken. I'd have gone back round to the chicken section in the supermarket and clubbed the fucker to death with a pack of drumsticks.

I think all families should have a choice to have 1 full time carer at home where possible. The problem is that to function without benefits of some form the working partner needs to be on a pretty good wage.

If we lower the cost of living then the average family could survive. Its counter productive to raise the minimum wage. Companies just couldn't afford to employ people. I think its grossly unjust that the energy companies and supermarkets make billions of pounds of profits each year whilst the country is on its knees. Then give us a 'value' range to say they are doing their bit.

Seize it's not just single parents who need help to get back to work.I need to retrain but we can't afford any courses or childcare.

It's obvious that the fillets are more expensive by weight than a whole bird....there's more production costs.
And chicken bones weigh bugger all....they're BIRDS!!!!!

Xylem deserves all the scorn available as do you Rosh, firstly for thinking that getting in to a relationship, having kids and then ending the relationship is a life style choice. Why the benefits are needed is part and parcel of her situation.

2nd The welfare state is much, much more than about social security, something people overlook on her all the time. Education and Health are also part of the welfare state as is housing. So why do you not argue for the cousin and people in the same situation as her cousin being cut out of the ducation system, or the health service. You are after all paying you ever so hard erred cash for that as well. Is it because that it is easier to see someone "getting free money" and then be envious, than it is to see someone getting health treatment or education.

3rd and Last. An anaology that I have used before but I am happy to repeat it as often as I can. Rosh, and Xy I know declare every bit of insurance, house, car, life, credit card, income protection, contents, etc. To be invalid and totally useless. You are now not covered for anything. If someone breaks in and steals every stick you have then thats just tough poo. You get ill, get less pay, run up mortgage rent arrears, lose your house, to bad no income protection is comming to you. I have just decided that in the same way that you decided you dont want to pay for other peoples. "Hang on" you might say "I paid in, thats my money, I have a contract."

Well thats exactly what every one of us does in taxes, all taxes they all get paid to the government who then decide, sometimes badly. How they are spent. You want others to pay for your insurance to replace your stolen good, fine but you NEED the others. If they all take the same attitude as you your on your on, all the money you paid in might get you a telly, or even a new suite, but it will never be enough to replace a house if you need to, or pay medicle bills if your hurt in a car crash. Think about that the next time you pay your insurance. It will be the same thoughts that those of us who need benefits have, I.E. were glad that others paid in so we can survive.