These bloody Benefits Street and Benefits Britain programmes are just nasty judgemental propaganda.

[GratefulHead]

Following another thread I made the mistake of watching Benefits Britain.....or at least as much as I could stand before turning it off.

We met a large family with 14 kids....yep....huge family but one of very few such families nationally.

The voiceover says that the programme makers worked out the family's benefits at £70k per annum. And added "two of the children have disabilities so that means they can also claim Carers Allowance" as if that was such a crime ffs. They live in an 8 bedroom "benefits house" apparently and the cameraman was careful to ensure they got all the things like flat screens, games consoles etc into shot.

Then there was Sarah from Essex, a woman unemployed and probably unemployable. She is divorcing and planning to marry her new boyfriend she has known all of two weeks.(does she sound stable and employable to you?). She lives in a "benefits house" with her two adult children who the programme makers couldn't wait to tell us had never worked. From the short bit I saw of Sarah she came across as Dysfuntional ...and yes I did mean to put in a capital D! I would put money on her having had a crappy life right from birth with poor parenting which she has repeated with her own kids. I've seen other similar families....in all cases the families were know. To social services from when the parents were small children the,selves.

The last one was a 60 year old man who has been unable to work for the last two years due to degenerative arthritis of the spine, he walks with a frame and lives in a "benefits flat". But hey...who cares if he walks with a farm and is in constant pain as long as you get that footage of him playing his XBox eh? Judgemental and nasty.

I just wanted to scream FUCK OFF very five mins at the screen. Wtf IS a "benefits house"? Am I in a "benefits house" because it's social housing and I claim housing benefit (and Carers Allowance too), or if I pay my own rent does it cease to be "a benefits house" Is the private let a "benefits house" of the tenant claims housing benefit?

Seriously....these programmes are awful.....and I was so angry at the comment about Carers Allowance as they made it sound almost an "extra perk" for the family with 14 kids. Do you know what it's like to support a child with autism or ADHD or anything else which is severe enough to warrant middle rate care for DLA? It's bloody exhausting and non-stop, if my DS doesn't sleep then neither do I ....and its a regular occurrence too. How dare anyone think it is some kind of fucking perk. Live my bloody life for a week and then see if you still think it's a good deal! This week has been very difficult as its half term and my son has been full on in his tics and activity levels...day AND night!

These programmes just turn people against the most vulnerable....and they managed to pick three families with circumstances which were frankly not usual. Most families on benefits DONT have 14 kids (would like to see the stats for how many families nationally are both that large and on benefits), most families on benefits are far more stable and functional than Sarah from Essex whose new boyfriend was a homeless Polish man she met on the steps of her local Morrisons.
The poor man with the severe spine problem was almost flagged up as "deserving"...until the filmmaker spotted his XBox I assume.

Horrible and judgemental, I won't be watching any more of them. They need taking off air.

the BBc is at it too

I have a severely disabled child who is sixteen and worked until about two years ago when the cuts took momentum and our respite had been cut to the point we could no longer cope without one of us being at home to care. We are lucky as I'm in a stable relationship and my partner works full time but it doesn't take that much imagination to realise we are in a situation that is vulnerable to financial and emotional instability. It's a 24hr, 7 days a week job caring for someone with a severe and complex disability which is worth far more to the government than the £62 pw you are paid in carers allowance. I just wish instead of vilifying carers people would think a little more and employ some empathy.

Yanbu, I only ever watched one episode of something like this a year or so ago and it made me feel sick. Haven't watched since, and when anyone starts telling me about them I have to switch off.
They shouldn't be airing such vile shit.

Of course if benefits are needed they should be given. That's what makes this country the place it is. In times of difficulty we should all be able to access support- whether that difficulty is from unemployment or disability or whatever.
However, having a large family when you can't afford it is surely a somewhat strange choice don't you think? Me and dh both work in well paid professional jobs (lucky us) and had to seriously consider whether we could afford dd2.

Put it this way.

I can't stand to watch them as they are vulgar, nasty, judgmental and humiliating for the underclass.

On the other hand, they are not propaganda - the underbelly of society is actually far worse than what they touch upon on these TV shows. Very sad, and if social services were to put what is happening "out there" it would arouse passionate anger in all but the most heartless people.

*well, not propaganda is not quite correct. They don't make it seem worse than it really is, put it that way.

The young man needs to manage his condidtion himself.
And you're privy to the information that states he is able to do so, are you?

YADDNBU. There's a counter narrative- op please google and watch dole animators instead. (Not clever enough to link to it)

We should film a counter series.

Inbred, rich and proud.

Would be ace, I wonder where we could find a bunch of clueless, middle/upper class twats to star in it.....

There already is. It's called Made in Chelsea. Made by the same channel and is also a pile of vile shit.

How did channel 4 go from the genius of Black Books and Green Wing, to the pap they pump out now?

Bank trouble with MIC is that it looks glamourous and appealing. We need a show edited to make them look like wankers.

The BBC "reality show" which Ubik1 mentioned is called Britains Hardest Grafter.

Jack Monroe has blogged here warning the people who go on it about how they will be treated by the programme makers and the media.

agirlcalledjack.com/2015/05/28/thinking-of-applying-for-britains-hardest-grafter-read-this-first/

'Mn used to be left leaning. Sadly not now .everyone seems self interested and obsessed with the thought that people on benefits might be getting more than them.'

It's exactly this sentiment why the left parties lost the election. Wanting a country that is economically well run and wanting for everyone to be able to do well for yourself if they work for it is not been self-interested or benefits bashing. If the left had pushed for more support for SMEs, more quallity apprenticeships, more entrapanureship etc maybe they wouldn't have done so badly. Instead they pushed taxes & talk on exploitive buisnesses. Any idiot can see pushing companies even bad ones away just results in unemployment. Labour should of been talking about pushing positive corporate cultures and encouraging businesses that investing in people and communities actually boosts profits.

That is the problem with the left in the country. They demonise anyone who disagrees with them as hating the poor, cultually backwards or just plain stupid. Its so pretensious especially as (slight generalisation) many are members of privalaged middle classes shelted from many of the problems affecting working class communities (i.e immigration putting pressure on already over-stretched services). The biggest example is tution fees ('what about the poor kids!') prehaps if they had grown up around poor people they'd realise the vast majority of poor people don't make it to A-Levels nevermind a degree and really what where doing is subsidising (via giving them loans they will likely never pay off before there written off) kids from middle class background to become better quallified and slot in above the truly poor people who left education at 16. If your going to knock people for been self intrested at least get policies that actually help the poor instead of patronising them.

P.s I grew up in a council estate to a single mum on benefits. Sorry for spellings phones decieded to act up.

Ooh. I also had a single mum on benefits.

Well, I'm poor and grew up in one of the roughest parts of Birmingham.

Am I allowed to comment on benefits bashing?

What an absolute crock of shit Rale. I'm not getting into politics with you but do fuck off with your 'middle class' bollocks.

Don't then. It's no loss to me if you chose not engage in an intelligent debate about politics. What terms would you prefer me to use? Or would you rather I just used annual incomes to separate the classes.

You called my post bollocks but offer no explanation why you think this. I stand by the points I made since you've offered nothing to try change my viewpoint.

And fyi I mentioned I grew up on a council estate to a aingpe mum because if you dare take an alternative viewpoint on wealth in this country your assumed to know nothing of poverty and be rather sheltered.

There is no intelligent debate to be had with someone who generalises Conservative bashers as middle class people who didn't grow up around poor people.

If you through many of the recent threads on here about why people voted Labour you can see a lot of scared, worried poor people. Not, as you clàim, sheltered middle classes who don't know what it's like.

My mum wasn't single and on benefits.

I do love a bit of competitive childhood poverty. Reminds me of that "you were lucky" comedy sketch.

So many people work damned hard and need housing ben.

Then others do nothing and take the piss like my unemployed neighbours who really do have the flashy car, flatscreen TV and life of endless takeaways and holidays.

I hate it that TV programme makers help the tories demonise the unemployed - as it clearly doesn't result in real scroungers ( a tiny minority) being dealt with. And demonises good, decent people who are unemployed or rely on benefit top -ups to keep the rich tory landlords with massive property portfolios, in housing ben tenants....

I can't watch these shows. It depresses me to live next door to it (only because the people involved are abusive shits - if they were nice people, I probably wouldn't give a monkey's). But I have to see it over the garden fence so I don't want it in my living room.

That said it is just more TV borefest like the old programmes about hospitals, or other doom and gloom bits of shite that are periodically fashionable amongst media types before they move on to the next gross thing to point a camera at.

Your putting words into my mouth now. I never said Tory bashers, I said left wing middle class people are incredibly pretentious in the way they've spent the last 10 years labelling geniunely concerned people as bigots, racists etc yet have no exposure of how these issues effect the poorest and most vunerable communities. I live in a an area where a generation or two ago voting anything but labour was a big no-no. Now the only people voting for them are students.

Dispute my points or bog off to be frank. If my argument angers you that much surely you'd want to dispute them so i'm just going to assume you can't.

You were quoting me and calling me a left wing middle class bigot who has never been poor. Wrong on all counts.

Dispute what points, exactly? You don't have any point! You just keep drivelling on about left wing middle class people.

As I said, the recent post-election threads show working class people on the brink of poverty, worried about their and their children's future. I'm worried for my children. I'm poor. My parents, pensioners, are poor.

Stop banging on about middle class people and make a point for me to dispute!

YADNBU ANY "reality" tv makes me turn off in disgust. It is universally judgemental, boring and exploitative imo.

When did this become a class war? Everyone has a responsibility towards the most vulnerable in society, at least that's what I was taught growing up (guess that makes me a middle class lefty although I'll always consider myself working class). For what it's worth I believe if we got education right then many of the issues would be resolved, some of these people can't read and write how can they enter employment?And that's societies fault and societies problem