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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

To think This Morning was wrong to shame this woman?

313 replies

MrsMattBomer · 07/01/2017 13:09

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?

OP posts:
LiviaDrusillaAugusta · 07/01/2017 15:48

She might have a personality disorder or she could be a goady cunt to go on TV and say shit like that

TitaniasCloset · 07/01/2017 15:48

I'm on disability benefits right now but really really want to make moves to getting back into work this year.

How the hell can you have the time and energy to run for London Mayor, go on various daytime TV shows and write a bloody book but you can't just go get a normal job?

So many people getting sanctioned who really need the money.

Its just the msm making anyone on benefits look like a lazy fucker, once again. I don't know anyone on disability benefits who would have the energy for all that as well as being unwell. It takes all my strength just to get through the week.

Where do they find these people?

BBCNewsRave · 07/01/2017 15:57

Where do they find these people?

Exactly! And how on earth does it not result in their benefits being cut? How are they passing the (known to be very strict) assessment? Do you think they get exemptions because they are useful to the government, by changing public opinion?

WorraLiberty · 07/01/2017 15:58

OMG I literally couldn't read further than halfway through her Linked In page

She sounds positively unhinged.

amispartacus · 07/01/2017 15:59

Interesting clip - I would like them to have asked her why she was on the show.

She has been bullied online - why? Is it because she is trying to become famous and is using her situation to become famous?

I don't have much sympathy for someone who says they have felt a stigma around being on benefits when they go all out to generate publicity - and then spend £2500 on presents. That's not going to be good publicity. I have a lot more sympathy for people who use their situation to highlight the real issues facing people on benefits.

WorraLiberty · 07/01/2017 16:01

Well they don't have to look very far to 'find these people'

She's positively banging their doors down.

TitaniasCloset · 07/01/2017 16:01

Get me one if those tinfoil hats too BBC!!

Just up the road from me a couple had a part time job while on benefits, police in riot gear did a dawn raid on them along with someone from the council.

Astro55 · 07/01/2017 16:33

. I have a lot more sympathy for people who use their situation to highlight the real issues facing people on benefits.

This - This is why genuine benefit claimants should be outraged - because this woman is peddling a lie! She doesn't represent benefit claimants - she is self motivated to herself only - she uses public out cry for her own ends

amispartacus · 07/01/2017 16:37

This is why genuine benefit claimants should be outraged - because this woman is peddling a lie

It also says a lot about the unconscious (and conscious) bias of certain media outlets that they are fully prepared to have people like her on their show and in the papers peddling their story - knowing full well what the effect will be.

It just shows how little they really care about the many people on benefits - if they did care, then they would ignore this person and focus their efforts on talking about real issues rather than adding fuel to the fire.

amispartacus · 07/01/2017 16:42

I think the op should have concerns about the impact of people like this lady on others who are on benefits - the fact she uses the media to publicise herself.

Astro55 · 07/01/2017 16:46

It just shows how little they really care about the many people on benefits

But - this type of woman - and subsequent outrage - fuels parliament debate - which tickles down into benefit cuts/disability sanctions/school help for children etc

The news and papers knows a good story will sell - but they never follow up with how her benefits will be cut or how she's going to repay her loans etc and see a true picture

I believe a lot of these 'claimants' must be getting some sort of family help - because benefits don't allow this kind of excess spending

Willow2016 · 07/01/2017 17:00

It wasnt the fact she spent it on Prosecco it was the comment she made about it. Basically saying thanks taxpayers you are buying my booze. And as Philip says its up to her what she buys with it but did she need to comment on it? Not a way to get sympathy for your situation.

She totaly lost my sympathy using credit cards and loans to spend £2800 on her kids Xmas presents. WTF? No way on earth her kids will appreciate what she has spent on them, no way on earth was that necessary if you are having to budget your money with benefit top ups.

You dont need to spend like crazy to have a good Xmas. If you dont have the money you cant spend it, you used to have the money you dont now so deal with it. My ds has had a hell of a year with bullies too but spending shed loads of money on him isnt going to change that.

She cant say on one hand 'Thanks for the booze' as if it was some amazing gesture someone gave her in her life of 'poverty' that she can never have any other time and on the other hand spend £2800 on xmas presents.

Its all just publicity for her 'book'. If her 'book' doesnt sell (and that whole process can take months, how much in interest is she going to be paying on a loans & cc?) she is going to be using all her benefits to pay it all off every month and have sfa left for necessities.

I totaly agree with a safety net of benefits but dont stick 2 fingers up at people while you are relying on them. It only make people think that this is how every person who claims benefits acts, and the people who are really struggling to get by are bypassed and stigmatised. She doesnt represent the vast majority of people she has her own agenda and is prepared to do anything to get the publicity for it.

BlurryFace · 07/01/2017 17:00

This woman is nuts and obviously going the wind up merchant route to fame. I don't like the attitudes this sort of thing whips up in people though, saying people on benefits should only be able to get the basics.

DH's wage is topped up by benefits, should we not have been able to afford Santa stockings full of secondhand toys for our DCs? One day we'd like to get driving lessons, and then a cheap car as it would allow us more freedom and make it easier for me to find work when the kids are older, should that be forever out of our grasp? Are we allowed to buy branded items at full whack, or are only value range things "the basics"?

WorraLiberty · 07/01/2017 17:21

Just up the road from me a couple had a part time job while on benefits, police in riot gear did a dawn raid on them along with someone from the council.

They must have had reason to suspect violence would occur if they wore riot gear.

And obviously the dawn raid was about more than claiming benefits and working part-time.

The normal course of action is to invite them to the Job Center/council offices via a letter, produce the evidence that they were working and claiming benefits and then advise them to get a solicitor.

Scoose · 07/01/2017 17:32

Did anyone read the letter upthread? Didn't she say she lied about spending all of that money on presents?

TitaniasCloset · 07/01/2017 18:16

worraliberty nope, it was reported in the local press they brought a press photographer along too and didn't mention any other crimes. One of the houses they raided was a couple in their sixties.

TitaniasCloset · 07/01/2017 18:17

Sorry one was fifty something the other in sixties.

TitaniasCloset · 07/01/2017 18:18

David Icke picked up on it (I sent the link to him) and made a meme about it.

SpartacusWoman · 07/01/2017 18:20

But - this type of woman - and subsequent outrage - fuels parliament debate - which tickles down into benefit cuts/disability sanctions/school help for children etc

And the government get more support because it then looks like they doing something to fix the benefits system, meanwhile, people like my db who sits on his high horse jacking like he's personally funding all the single mums on his street, saying its not fair that he can't afford a, b or c despite working long hours, ends up feeling smug that now the single mums can't afford a,b or c, doesn't last long though because db still can't afford a, b or c and has to work longer and longer hours for the little he does have.

I keep telling him, why isn't he livid at the Dads (like ours) who actively try not to pay for their own children. Or even better, at the people at the top who have loads and loads of money but don't pay tax, perhaps if everyone got as worked up at them for fleecing taxpayers (and if figures I've seen are correct, money lost due to tax avoidance is way higher that benefit fraud etc) the government would be forced to discuss it, or argue for better wages so he doesn't also have to claim benefits (tax credits)

Anyone can find themselves on benefits, nobody knows what the future holds, I genuinely hope people like my db never find themselves on them and learn the hard way of just how hard it is. Taking more and more money off the poorest doesn't make anything easier for people on shitty wages and still depending on benefits in many cases too.

Nwoildnt be suprised if the government don't love everyone pointing fingers at benefit claimants, it's stops those fingers being pointed at them over their allowing millionaires to not pay tax etc.

Astro55 · 07/01/2017 19:32

or argue for better wages so he doesn't also have to claim benefits (tax credits)

I agree with this!!!

Nobody should be in a full time job AND claiming top up credits - it shouldn't exist - people should be paid a living wage

Unfortunately the tax credits have a ceiling and prevents workers earning higher wages - because they'd lose too much in tax credits ... it's a huge con to keep people as working poor ...

MrsMattBomer · 07/01/2017 19:44

OK, thank you for those videos. I'd quite like to just draw the thread to a close now as I think we have said everything there is to be said.

OP posts:
LittleBooInABox · 07/01/2017 19:49

Benefits are supposed to be a stop-gap, not a lifestyle choice. That's the issue. People choose not to go to work because benefits. There are some people who can not help it, have no choice and need to rely on this system.

There are others, who don't work Sir on benefits popping kid after kid out, because someone else will pay for it. People abuse it all the time. Meanwhile we have couples living together, both earning full time wages who can afford one kid and wouldn't get any help. not bitter.

The women's comment was stupid. Thanks to the tax payer. Shut up and buy your bottle, the stupid comment like it's something to boast about or be proud off. Twat!

MrsMattBomer · 07/01/2017 19:51

LittleBoo - this is not a benefits bashing thread and as I've said, I'd like to bring this to a close as the conversation has naturally ended. Please consider finding somewhere else to say this - thanks.

OP posts:
NotStoppedAllDay · 07/01/2017 19:51

You can't just end a thread.... or 'draw it to a close Hmm

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