To think This Morning was wrong to shame this woman?

[MrsMattBomer]

www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/phillip-schofield-blasts-benefit-scounger--9561308

Sorry, but what business does he have to decide what someone spends their benefits on? So what if she bought a bottle of Prosecco?

He says he doesn't care about the Prosecco but it's so obvious that he does. This is a man worth £2million sitting in his ivory tower and shaming a woman for buying a £4.99 bottle of Prosecco.

Is this what this country has become? A country where we deny people any pleasure or fun because they are on benefits?

He was being a proper journalist, surely?
No he was being a goady fucker. He is not and never has been, by any stretch of the imagination a journalist. He was annoyed. He however, has offshore companies, one of which he borrowed 2 million from last year. Because he however pays some tax and what he does is perfectly legal, he considers himself above the woman in question. How dare he. As stated, she's paid into a system that would have had to pay out a lot more had her husband gone into care. Thereby saving the government a small fortune, as many carers do.

I am on benefits too.I am a Carer and I get £10 extra on my Carers Allowance in December. Mine went on the gas meter.

I sat my son down and told him that money was tight but that he would have a nice Christmas and birthday which is a few days before.

My budget was £200 which was my savings and MIL contributed that.

Just so those tax payers frothing at both ends don't think they have funded a luxury christmas for everyone on benefits.

This woman funded her Xmas on credit cards and loans. Thats more of an issue than a £10 bottle of prosecco. If her book fails then she is going to struggle.

Benefits should provide the bare minimum of food, shelter and heat. The very fact they fund so many luxuries shows they have become a joke at the expense of tax payers

ODFOD
Benefits for many people don't even cover that bare minimum these days, never mind other essentials like travel, clothes and shoes. "So many luxuries"? What ludicrous tosh.

I've never spent £2,800 on my dc at Christmas and both us work. What a waste of money and get yourself in debt as well.

If she can afford Botox on benefits then they must give her a reasonable standard of living. Also having dc by 3 different fathers isn't that sensible imo.

If she can afford Botox on benefits then they must give her a reasonable standard of living.
Nobody can, she's doing that on credit too.

Benefits should provide the bare minimum of food, shelter and heat. The very fact they fund so many luxuries shows they have become a joke at the expense of tax payers

How does this even make sense? How is the tax payer being made a joke, it's not their money, it belongs to the government.

YABU

I did see him try and be an apologist for Jimmy Saville when it all came out.

Yes that's the world we live in I'm afraid. Joblessness is seen as more of a "crime" than being a dirty rapist. !!!! Anyone defending that disgusting horrible beast is just as fucking bad. In my eyes.

The thing to remember is that some people spend money on luxuries at the expense of things that most people would consider essential.

Most people on benefits struggle. Particularly since the Tories got in. Everyone knows this and chooses to continue denigrating people who claim benefits.

Gilly a lot of the Government's revenue is collected from the taxpayer.

OP you need to calm the fuck down love - ranting like that will ensure that you come across as unhinged rather than discussing a point

To those asking how/why she got on TV, I just googled and found this promotional Facebook page.

Sara's Stars
1 July 2016 ·

Our new client Deborah Hodge is featured today in the London Economic (not organised by Sara's Stars).

We are thrilled to be representing her from now on.

Deborah has previously been featured on TV starting with 'Judge Rinder' followed by 'Pix Me' and 'Victoria Derbyshire' (7 times).

She is also a Novelist, her first book is an autobiography. We will try and get a link to post so you can access the book. She is signed with a publisher to have her poetry and art published on hardback very soon and also a story about transgender history and issues.

If you'd like to follow her progress then watch out for her upcoming appearances on TV starting with 'The Wright Stuff' on Tuesday 10th July followed by a tattoo programme and benefits programme (dates to be confirmed).

www.thelondoneconomic.com/…/brexit-a-real-lif…/01/07/

How about instead of throwing venom at other posters OP maybe think about the person who started the media frenzy. It wasn't Philip Schofield.

She knew what she was she was doing and put herself in the limelight. I wonder if it has anything do with the book that that she is releasing

There are more taxes than income tax. And the people who pay over 50% of what is due in income tax are those who earn the top 3% in the UK. Which isn't many of us - it's usually Bankers in London.

I had to think twice about buying prosecco this year. Am disappointed that someone funded by my taxes could afford it so easily. Benefits in my opinion should only stretch to the basics.

It's awful. We mock the Victorians for their freak shows and the Romans for what happened in the Collisseum but we still do it now. Humiliation in the name of public entertainment

Absolutely amispartacus. It's goad, goad, goad. Get people as angry as possible, light the touchpaper and watch the fire from a safe distance. Getting us plebs mad at each other takes the heat off the government, people in the media etc. As it's always been but it seems especially ugly nowadays.

Deborah Hodge Brexit Hopefully a clicky link

I also think that the woman is generating publicity for her new book

That's handy, feralberyl, she'll be coming off benefits then

Benefits in my opinion should only stretch to the basics.
1)Does that include carers and people with disabilities?
2) Please tell me how £73 per week covers the basics. Thank you.

I am sorry you had to think about Prosecco this year. That has absolutely nothing to do with people on benefits. Somebody, who happened to be on benefits chose to spend their money differently to you, in the same way your working colleagues did. Begrudging her Prosecco is no different to begrudging your co-workers larger turkey.

I'm irate because I volunteer at the local food bank and a local charity to help people with benefits and the constant media portrayal of claimants as scroungers and the divide/conquer techniques used by the Tories mean that people are genuinely terrified and ashamed to say they need help

In that case Bomer you should easily recognize those suffering genuine hardship, this woman is not suffering that. Approve of her spending taxpayers money on botox and luxury gifts whilst other have to attend your food banks,do you? Well more fool you.

I have absolutely no idea whether or not this particular woman just comes across badly or if she is wilfully misinterpreted by the press.

I've been asked and have done press twice now, once when they were proposing slashing the severely disabled child premium of tax credits (which did happen for new claims) and for the bedroom tax (which there was a partial u turn for those who had evidence that the rooms were medically required which we do).

Both times I had to think really, really hard about whether or not to do it, I did in the end because my need to highlight the issues won out. Unfortunately due to the wording of one of the articles I did cop some flak as it mentioned a therapy I was paying privately as 'lessons' which made a much needed therapy for my child's health sound like a luxury optional which many parents can't afford for their children.

I won't do press again though. Doesn't mean cuts to vital services to the disabled community aren't happening it just means that bandwagon jumping as illustrated by Philip Schofield here demonising benefit claimants for daring to breathe is whipping up prejudice and stopping disabled people from daring to highlight the issues.

Which is great for everyone else because they can pretend they're not happening. What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over, yes? As long as you see the scrounging layabouts in front of their 50 inch tellies the abolition of the ilf and everything else that has been cut for disabled people since 2010 doesn't matter.

Oh and I advise you all read the letter below that she has written the the guardian's editor. All on her twitter page.....

Wow - a quick Google and a read of the Daily Mail certainly reveals an interesting person.

It's one way of getting publicity but it's not the way I would go about it.

There will never be a discussion about benefits on here without kicking off by both sides - if you want to discuss the ins and outs, this isn't the place to do it.

the amount a lot of high earners in the celeb world pay in tax is eye wateringly enormous

Income tax is proportional though, isn't it? All income tax payers pay the same percentage of their salary, either at lower rate or higher rate. So celebs aren't paying proportionately more than poorer people, they are paying the same percentage of a much larger ("eye wateringly enormous" even) sum.

Tax is regressive. The less money you have, the higher percentage of your total income you pay in tax, because many taxes like council tax and VAT are at fixed rates.