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?

I have a friend who has proved pretty unemployable over the years: he is now approaching 60 and in very poor health, having worn himself out as a carer to a relative over the last decade. But even when he was young he failed to get called for interviews and got tactfully asked to leave training programmes. He is a lovely bloke, not workshy, honest and (in some ways) intelligent- but he is somebody no employer would pick as he is just so different: unusually small, hopelessly unpractical, never been strong and quite simply looks odd, speaks oddly, comes across as different. If he had a diagnosed learning difficulty he might just have got into some sheltered programme- but instead he has several degrees. Before I married I and his other friends spent a lot of time trying to figure out some kind of future for him, but nothing ever worked. They all fell flat on the one major obstacle that employers didn't want him. We didn't manage to marry him off either. So what can you do?

Its so sad that people live like this , but its not just those on benefits that are suffering .Ive got a friend who was on benfits for years . Shes also got 3 kids abd a useless violent nasty lazy shit of a husband . He refuses to look for work , think hes too importang to look for work . He once said to me when the right job comes to him , hed consider working , but it would have to suit his hours .

Shes bullied , and the children often dont have enough to eat , at times they are dirty , and they have no toys to play with.
My friend is trying her best and started a 2 year college course , so she has student loan to live on.

The useless shit H , cottoned on to the fact shes getting a loan , so he applied for college too so he doesnt have to sign on and look for work. They are living on her loan . She doesnt know where his moneyis going and thany child benfit she gets for the kids pays off her catalogue bills for things her H ordered for himself .

She often cries , and cant see a way out of this mess. Financially shes poorer now Worst thing is If she manages to stay on the course , there are no jobs in what she will be qualified in . She cant afford start up fees for her own business ..shes trapped in poverty.

It was just on the news, apparently residents on the street have had death threats.

Other residents who are employed etc were saying that the whole street has been portrayed like that when there are many normal hardworking people living there.

One of the men who appeared on the show said that channel 4 were there for a whole year filming and that they've just picked the absolute worst bits to portray them so badly in one hour.

it's a series, not just a one off

If every single job vacancy in the country were filled that would still leave 2million unemployed.

Now, some of these people ARE unemployable so would be part of that two million. What is the point in taking their benefits away? It doesn't stop them living the lifestyle they do.

My friend comes from a country with no benefits system and the divide between rich and poor is massive. Those who are starving will shoot you where you stand for an item of value if it means eating for a week. Why would we want to be that uncivillised?

How about the tv bigwigs make a program about giving people jobs , and create jobs to do so ?

How about Mr Cameron creating jobs for the unemployed , instead of allowing mass exodous of eurozone members to our shore . Australia has a good method . You can move there if you bring money and create jobs for austalians , or have specialist skills . I think we have too little jobs for the people who are here already . Once we have an excess of jobs avaliable , then let in loads more people .
As it stands hundreds of people are applying for every job vacancy . Even zero hours . If you manage to get enough hours to live on , your probably very lucky . Its disgusting , the tax from tax evaders could create jobs , and get people off benefits ... but its easier to kick down people at the bottom than go after the crooks at the top.

Think about it . People in that program stole to feed themselves /provide basics, a pair of jeans from a shop . Corporate tax evaders are stealing millions and getting away with it ..millions that would put a huge dent in the deficit and make life a bit less hard for everyone .
Tv companies should do a docudrama on that instead . I wonder who the ceo of the tax evading companies are ? But I bet the Pm knows .

I'm sure it was exaggerated and twisted. But, even if it wasn't and that is what life really is like on that street, how can anyone feel anything other than sympathy for those people?

What kind of a start or awful curveball must you have had in life to end up with those attitudes and lack of prospects?

Even Danny made me feel sad for him. He said things like "I'll grow out of it one day - I hope." and other similar things which just made me feel like he was completely hopeless and very vulnerable. The couple who'd committed benefit fraud were wrong but probably desperate, poorly educated and without a support network. Fun Guy was kind of sweet and funny - I suspect he had undiagnosed learning difficulties or disabilities (couldn't read and write for a start).

I'm not saying some of the actions are condonable but I think they're understandable. I have no idea what kind of a person I'd be if I had nothing in my life but hanging out in the street with no money. Horrible way to live. In fact I wouldn't even call it living, it's existing.

Nothing to envy there and everything to feel passionate about changing.

Its hard to tell what was real and what was encouraged by the tv crews .

Where the people paid to be in it ?

If so , people that desperate would do anything asked .

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

That's cool. We can film their children dying of hunger. Better than Big Brother.

It's called 'Not thinking it through' and there's an epidemic.

Backonlybriefly, you're lovely.

People should work if they can . But instead of the propaganda , the goverment should be creating jobs for them to work in .

Instead they wanted workfare schemes , where its just like having a job , except you dont get paid .

That caused upset , so now its getting the people to turn on each other instead of the goverment . Divide and conquer tactics .
What are they distracting us from ....their massive fuck ups ?

Between August and Oct last year, there were 4.3 people on unemployment benefits to every vacancy, now lets not forget that not all job seekers are unemployed or on benefits, that's a lot of people who are going to be forced to stay on benefits even if every vacancy was filled.

Also only 7.4% of the working age, active population are claiming JSA, therefore, all of these millions of feckless, workshy scroungers you all see everywhere, are a figment of your imagination.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/02/councils-benefit-half-a-million-hours-unpaid-labour-foi-request