BENEFIT STREET

[TeamSouthfields]

Just wow!

I agree with the government, if people are able to work and are not even.trying then they should have there benefits stopped.

But there were families on.there not being able to.afford to feed there kids makes me so sad........

but, the parents have a can in there hand and a fag in there mouth, aibu to think you would give up everything to make sure your children are well feed and warm?

The shoplifting seemed pretty convincing.

farrow... aren't you just delightful!

I am. Thank you for noticing.

Isn't this the second series?

of course some people live like this

i grew up surrounded by many of the same things

it goes on, get real

TV Channels and other media are not allowed to have an obvious bias, they have to remain impartial, even the Daily Fail (yes, really) so they have to show some of the good bits or else OFCOM would be after them, in reality nothing is impartial.

Well clearly no-one thinks everyone on benefits lives like that.
It's still depressing that just a small minority do.

It's not small when you read about it and posters start threads about the crap and agreeing with it.

Boring yes, small, no. It's a huge problem.

Farrow, sorry don't understand what you mean.

Of course people are going to talk about it, farrow, and start threads about it. It's interesting Some will agree, some won't. People want to discuss it, whether you want them to or not.

A pile of crap. People need help not to have a hate campaign starting against them. I and am sure many others will be writing in about the disgusting way this has been presented. Awful!!

I often wonder who buys the cans and fags in shows like this. Maybe I'm cynical but I've often thought that some packets of fags and a couple of trays of strong lager would be (unofficial) lines in the production budget.

I have come across people like this. They do exist sadly. Not all people who claim benefits are like this. How insulted and degraded must many people feel tonight thinking that is how they have been portrayed.

Funny how the show is aired the same day the government is talking about cutting benefits further. This programme is just playing into the government's hands.

Convenient isn't it Randy? One might almost think it was deliberate, I mean it's unlikely that the top brass of C4 might be Tory voter...

Why are the people featured on the show generating so much sympathy? I didn't see it all so am prepared to be corrected but the bit I did see featured benefit fraud, drug taking, shoplifting. Are people really saying this was all misrepresented or fabricated? The only people who actually seemed to be making any kind of positive effort was a woman called Dee and the 50p man. So why all the sympathy for the participants and antipathy towards anyone who expresses any negative opinions about them?

It's not antipathy towards people who are against crime or fraud (although, to be fair, with the pittance they get is it any wonder they steal? Most shoplifters I know of steal sanpro to order, I find it sad that people need to consider buying knocked off sanpro) but all three of the threads started about show are sweeping generalisations about a whole section of society based on one, not unbiasedly edited show.

The problem I have JohnCusacksWife is that having seen at first hand, on a number of occasions and for different 'reality' shows, just how much manipulation of participants goes on by the production teams, I find it quite difficult to believe much that's presented to me on any channel.

^^^^^^

What aramin said

The problem with the show is that it doesn't show a wider example of people on benefits and the circumstances of why they're claiming benefits.

I think the show is spot on with regard to one group of benefit claimants and totally misleads people into thinking all claimants are workshy, fraudulant shoplifters!

I doubt it is an accurate unbiased portrayal of the victims. More like they edited out the whys and wherefores and job searches for all but a token few.

"Cameron and Osborne must have been rubbing their hands with glee at this programme - it pandered to all the prejudices of the benefits bashers."

This, nice and convenient that Osbourne announces more cuts to benefits around the same time this airs isn't it?

I used to live not far from where this was filmed, and I lived there for 15 years - nothing on that episode surprised me . Sadly there are some people like this, shop lifters, drugs, benefit fraud, fake big issue sellers, BUT not everyone is. Most people are just trying to get by.

Thought it made the folk look quite human actually, the little bit I caught. Flawed people but gave them a voice, personality and face. They arealaways trying to stir up anger and envy for these folk, but really they were just quite sad and nothing about them to envy.

Yes but if you look at people like the 50p man he had made a mistake in his life but is trying and actually it's a really good idea.

So they have already shown a side to benefits claimants that isn't workshy.