Skint Britain: Friends without Benefits on C4

[amrscot]

Is anybody else watching this?

One of the couples take their dog out to hunt rabbits and squirrels that they can eat.

They've just shown him with a dead rabbit he has caught skinning it in the kitchen

Horrendous..

remember Chrissy and the rabbits in Boys From The Blackstuff

really shit :(

@ghostyslovesheets haven't seen that!

I can't believe that people are living like this in our country.

Shocking! That girl with the 2 children, explaining that if she misses that phone call interview, she might be sanctioned. When I think about the number of times I miss a call, sometimes I just mess up which button I need to press to answer it...can you believe you might lose your benefits if you mess up answering 1 phone call?

@ALargeGinPlease it's honestly shocking and makes me so mad! And the lady put the phone down on her, it's infuriating.

I actually know the single mam with 2 girls and things are not as they appear to be.
I can't speak for any of the other people as I don't know them but my heart broke for the partially sighted man trying to get some help so he could eat

Do you honestly get sanctioned for missing one phone call though? Not in my experience.

Don't forget it's all edited for TV.

Of course there are people who are truly suffering in this country but let's not pretend that these TV shows don't have an agenda!

Some of this was filmed in my parents street. Their neighbour is in prison for armed robbery. He'd waited over two months for his first universal credit payment. Got hungry, pissed off, bored and high on 'blueys' and robbed a local shop at knife point. He was no saint before UC but he'd never commited armed robbery or violent crimes.

The rabbit thing though, loads of people in that region take their dogs rabbiting and eat the catch. They would do that regardless of UC. They just would maybe have a bigger, tastier meal and the dog would be well fed and more likely to have given up the rabbit on command.

Isn't rabbit bad for you in some way?

Do you honestly get sanctioned for missing one phone call though?

Yes, you can be sanctioned for this.

I also know of someone who was sanctioned for not returning a form by the deadline. The letter said it had to be back by the 12th, the person dropped it into the Jobcentre on the 8th but was told that they would be sanctioned as it had been returned late. They said it didn't have to be back until the 12th and were told the form takes seven days to process and so it wasn't going to be done by the 12th.

Nothing wrong with eating rabbit as long as it's cooked properly.

Isn't rabbit bad for you in some way?

It's meat like any other but if it's your only source of protein then it can cause some nutritional problems.

Ladycsparkles

My heart broke for that guy too, how can they sanction someone to £5 a month? It’s disgusting

Actually there is a problem with rabbit, it’s a food that use more calories to digest than it does to eat so if it’s your only food you can starve to death whilst eating.

It also has little nutritional value.

Even the government have vaguely admitted that UC is contributing to food poverty

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47203389

Very uncomfortable viewing

Do you honestly get sanctioned for missing one phone call though? Not in my experience.
Yes you do

They live in my town.
Lose pity for apparently skint folks who smoke tbh.

“Of course there are people who are truly suffering in this country but let's not pretend that these TV shows don't have an agenda!”

Well we heard every word uttered by the guy in the phone telling the woman that there was no help for needing a high protein diet (to enable her to undergo chemo). There would have been a crisis payment under the old system.

This maybe harsh but how many people do what ever they can to not be on benefits, or to get them selves off as soon as possible. For some this is a way of life and easier than finding work and working for 35plus hours a week. Fine if they deserve short term support, but as in any job, if you are not available be prepared to be sanctioned. In the workplace you would be told off if you did something wrong. Also don’t forget this will be heavily edited and more fool them for appearing in such a programme

Lose pity for apparently skint folks who smoke tbh

Maybe you should think more carefully about the reasons behind someone continuing to smoke despite being skint. There are still shops who will sell single cigarettes under the counter, even though they're not supposed to, because for a lot of people it really is their only pleasure.

She would have afforded high protein diet if she gave up smoking!!
And if she had cancer why the fuck is she still smoking?

Welcome to Tory Britain, look to the people who voted these people in to power. They wanted this, they sat in their warm homes, in their comfy lives and watched benefit street or some such and ggot angry that poor people with near to nothing didn't have less than nothing.

Now they're starving, dying, killing themselves and turning to crime and prostitution.

It's not Theresa Mays fault, It's not Amber Rudd's fault, it's not Ian Duncan Smith's fault, it's every single person that voted Conservative and Lib Dems, the blood is on their hands.

I'd slow clap for then, but it'd likely make them proud

Lose pity for apparently skint folks who smoke tbh

If they live in your town surely you know you can get a pouch of baccy for £4? Simply knock on any door in [insert one of many rough streets around the town] and ask. You can get 200 Lamberts for £50 on Facebook in Hartlepool. You can also get your baccy on tic from the local baccy man. I doubt they'd be living the highlife if they gave up their £4 a week baccy habit.