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!

Never type in rage on an iPhone, sorry for typos

Ohmergod don't joke, one of our politicians could read your post and think ''what good ideas!''

I didn't expect to get ill and need benefits because I have to work part time but it happened; and it can happen to anyone!

I would like to know where the jobs are the people are supposed to get.

8-10 applications a day is average in this house. The bearded guy who cried when his son said "I want to be like you Daddy", was doing those sorts of numbers too.

Do you know how many responses you will get for making that number of applications? Less than ten percent if what we received is average, and of those 99% say "Due to a high volume of applications, if you have not heard from us within 2 weeks then you have not been successful." 4 interviews in 9 months, for someone with a good CV, no career breaks, no unemployment (before this redundancy) good experience, excellent references. STBX has just this last week got a job after all that effort. He is working on a temp 0 hours contract in a baking hot warehouse for minimum wage.

I havent even manage 1 interview, despite making about half the number of applications that STBX made (due to being unable to do manual jobs).

"Get a job" only works if there ARE jobs to get, and contrary to what the Daily Fail et al would have you believe, there are no fucking jobs!

And in answer to a PP, given that our TC income is higher than his earnings, I would say that yes, we are working poor. The only reason we manage as well as we do is because I bought my house at the bottom of the last recession and have minimal housing costs. If we had to rent now we would be on the bones of our arses month in month out.

I didn't watch. Don't think my blood pressure can take it, tbh.

I live on benefits. The minimum the law says we are allowed to live on. The kids get DLA but that is not for living costs and you get all sorts of threatening letters about using it in their best interests, and we do - therapies to help their conditions, continence products, fuel and parking for hospital visits (some hospitals charge for blue badge parking) and additional water/electricity charges due to continence issues.

So, we have this set amount of money. If I am VERY careful by shopping at markets, using hand me down clothes, constantly shopping around on utilities and insurances then sometimes we may have a few quid spare for takeaways or a bottle of wine.

I refuse to apologise for that. Why should my life be constant misery and drudge? I didn't choose to be in this situation, and adding all our benefits up including HB and the kids' DLA we are STILL saving the sainted taxpayer approx £3.5k per WEEK in care fees (which is what it would cost if we didn't provide the care).

In return both me and DH have seen a significant deterioration in physical and mental health and we get derided and spat at. Seriously, what is to envy? Yesterday we spent 3 hours deep cleaning to remove faecal matter from various locations in the house.

What business is it of anyone's what I spend my money on? What right do you have to do that? How dare you?

Oh... And VAT is a tax. Road fund license is a tax. Don't say I don't pay tax.

As I said on my thread about the Great British Menu, I wonder if Debbie was pissed off because the woman she was shadowing around the supermarket was clearly more sensible in her spending. IT isnt so much "Why should you get the same money I do when I am working" but "Why do you manage to make your money go as far as it does, when I am the worker and therefore automatically cleverer than you.......oh, wait......"

Oh, and we have animals. DS2 didn't actually SPEAK until we got our dog. But oh no, if the mighty taxpayer speaketh then fuck his development, eh? He doesn't matter. As long as they can feel good by kicking disabled people then all is right with the world.

Irony sisters .. Irony!
The message in my post is to those who are carping over the pennies they contribute each year towards the unemployed and yes, even as a 40% taxpayer it is really just a few pence to ensure that children have somewhere warn and decent to sleep at night, an education and something to eat, that the old don't die hungry and cold really is 'be careful what you wish for'.

Gobby, if you qualify for a BB you can apply for a road tax exemption classification on one car even if the BB is issued to a child. As long as your qualification is due to DLA (M)

I know, thanks Sock
That exemption is on motability car. We need two as often one at one hospital and another at another one, or we need to be at school meetings in a different town etc.

Gobby i'm sad to hear that you have been derided and spat at, you clearly don't deserve that.

Glad to hear that your dog has improved your child's development, pets are very good for that.

Thanks Latara. Sorry, miscalculated. The money we save isn't £3.5k a week. It's between £6.5 and £8.5k per week based on 3 disabled kids in residential care.

"The BBc were not looking for someone who shops in markets, batch cooks healthy food and freezes it and fills his/her time on benefits doing voluntary work,sending out Cvs and investing time in their children! They knew who they were after and they got them and exploited them"

Agree with this!

Xylem I am the working poor. Currently in bed with D &V, unable to work today and wondering how to make up list income. I am on a zero hour contract and can't claim sick pay.

I have £3 to last until Tuesday. To go to work tomorrow I need petrol. I get HB, CB and TC, family of 5. It is not enough.

Stop my TC. I won't be able to pay the bills. I'll be homeless and cost the taxpayer a shed load more in the process.

Its very common strategy in times of credit crisis to turn attention away from big business not paying taxes to persecute those at the bottom of the scale on benefits.

I absolutely know that big business is paying its taxes. They pay VAT, PAYE, NIC, business rates and corporation tax. There are still swathes of businesses going under. Have you not seen all the big retail failures?. I've given you a link.

The government is trying to cast blame on big business in a desperate attempt to misdirect popular attention (or should I say voter's attention) away from the fact that public debt is STILL growing and we are in a terrible, terrible financial mess. There is no money. None.

If that's the case why are we the sixth richest nation?

Only watched 1st bit of programme and not read whole thread but i am angry. The single person on jsa was so not representive. They should have picked someone like my sister who get £70 per week. Out of that she has to pay all bills except rent. She even pays council tax now too. Op ynbu. Btw dh is a hrt payer too. We don't even get chb but no way would i put myself in their shoes through choice. Yes i tell dc they can't have school dinners every day as we can't afford iit. However we could if we gave up something else. We have real choices. Some on benefits have to choose whether to heat their home or eat. Bit different to having to cancel sky.

The others are in a worse mess, obviously.

We've grown up with unrealistic expectations. My generation is poorer than my parents' generation. My children's generation is going to be poorer than mine.

I cannot tell you how many problems there are in big business. The firm that employs me is having really big issues. We've had round after round of redundancies. It is getting worse, not better.

O yes my sister is now taling about not renewing her house insurance as she can't affor it. Goiing to have to shop around for a better day and will probably pay for it as this is essential.

This is another useful and accurate link

We are in a real plight, and the fact that the world is also in a real plight actually makes things slightly worse.

It's not a plight - national debt is not the same thing as household debt. What I mean by that is it's not the same as a household with a maxed out credit card. Historically, the amount of debt is slightly high but it has certainly been higher before and isn't as high as lots of other countries. The tories aren't cutting benefits and jobs because of the debt but because they want to shrink the welfare state and have a smaller public sector. They have their own ideological reasons for doing this. And they rely on poor understanding of fiscal policy and sloppy and inaccurate reporting of it in the press in order to get the public behind them.

it's not the same as a household with a maxed out credit card

in what way is country debt different than household debt?

Lots of ways, but the main one is that there is no final day of reckoning, and the points relating to that. What I mean is that for most people, when they die their debts have to be paid off. Also, lots of debts have to be paid off within a certain amount of time - maybe two years, maybe five years, maybe (in the case of a mortgage) twenty-five years, but they have to be paid off eventually. Countries don't have this same set-up when they borrow. There is no date at which point the debt has to be paid back. Britain has had a national debt for centuries, as have most other countries. This is possible because there is no end-date to the debt - it's just there; it doesn't need to be paid back. All that needs to happen is that the debt is serviced. So how is the debt serviced? By the govt. And how does the govt get its money? Through taxes.

How does the govt get to collect more in taxes? Well, it could raise tax rates, but that would only be a short-term solution because eventually people will have less and less money (because they're paying all that tax) so you need to find a way to get more taxes and to do that you need to have a healthy economy - people are earning more, so they pay more tax. People are spending more, so they pay more tax. All of this goes to servicing the debt ie making it less of a problem. How do you get a healthy economy? You pile money into it to stimulate growth. One of the ways of doing this is to put money into growth in the public sector - more jobs, more spending, more money to service the debt. Or, if you prefer (for ideological reasons), you throw money at initiatives to stimulate the private sector - again, more jobs, more spending = more money in the coffers.

What you don't do is cut spending, because that means less money, which means the debt doesn't get serviced.

Oh here we go again. The right wing catastrophisers who maintain that families like. Mine are a 'lifestyle choice' and have 'no right to be supported by the state' because 'there is no money'.

Actually my 'lifestyle choice' is a bargain to the taxpayer.

Take a long hard look at yourselves if you think that the vulnerable of this country should be unable to feed themselves, to die because of ideological cuts whilst being all boo hoo about big business being poor. Funny how the boards are still getting their bonuses...

The £12 billion that is being sought from this latest onslaught of cuts could be paid for if the corporations paid one quarter of the tax they should be liable for.

Gobbysadcase - couldn't agree with you more. Cameron would soon be on his knees begging carers to go back to do what they do if you were all to suddenly stop caring for your children and require the state to do it instead.

And like bollocks do businesses pay their proper (ie not even 'fair' but just frigging 'lawful') share of tax.

Countries don't have this same set-up when they borrow. There is no date at which point the debt has to be paid back.

yes they do. governments borrow money using bonds. a bond is a loan with a defined term. e.g. a 10 year gilt is a 10 year loan to the UK govt.

if the govt borrow £100. they pay a fixed rate of interest for the 10 years. Then at the end of the 10 years, they need to repay the original capital. so where do they get the £100 from?

they issue a new bond and receive the £100 to pay off the old debt.

but will the new bond be at a higher or lower interest rate than the original? it depends on how the market perceives your risk, .

look at how the interest on PIGS counties has increases - so as they roll their debts forward, borrowing even the same amount of money becomes more expensive.

the PIGS have large debts which is part of the reason they have problems - why on earth would we want to go down the same road?

How do you get a healthy economy? You pile money into it to stimulate growth its nothing like that simple. look at France. they try to avoid austerity, and now their unemployment is 11% and increasing.