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..

I’m amazed that SS looked at that girl with her two young children and said ‘yes lets give her another mouth to feed’

but my heart broke for the partially sighted man trying to get some help so he could eat

Just this really - poor guy my heart breaks for him. It's inhumane how we treat the most vulnerable in our society. Yes there are abusers of the system and I absolutely agree that changes need to be made but come on - such genuine cases as this guy's?? Appalling.

£4 of food from Aldi would feed them a canny meal.
And her tattoos wouldn't have been free either.

Rabbit is very lean, so if you weren't eating any other source of fat you would miss out on nutrients from fat but that's not going to be a problem if you are cooking it in a kitchen, not over a fire in the woods.

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.

Never heard of the benefits trap? It's not as easy as avoiding claiming in the first place or getting off them as quickly as possible. There are barriers to employment, lack of qualifications, no money for interview clothing when your living hand to mouth, no money to get to work, no money to bridge the gap between benefits ending and wages starting, and so on.

For some this is a way of life and easier than finding work and working for 35plus hours a week.

Many people on benefits also work and many people living in poverty are employed.

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.

But your income wouldn't be taken away based on the arbitrary say-so of a "decision maker", would it? "You were at the toilet instead of at your desk and missed a phone call, no pay for you for the next twelve weeks", do you believe that would be fair?

I’m amazed that SS looked at that girl with her two young children and said ‘yes lets give her another mouth to feed’ shock
She would have been given an allowance to care for her.

it’s a food that use more calories to digest than it does to eat

This sounds unlikely. Can you provide a link @Gilead?

£4 of food from Aldi would feed them a canny meal.

You have to get to Aldi first. My nearest one is a £6.90 bus ride away plus £3.50 each for any DC over the age of five.

You also have to have the money to cook the food.

Oh and maybe the tattoos were a present, or from before she was on benefit, or maybe she’s just not been taught how to prioritise.There are some nasty judgemental folk on this thread.

I didn't see the programme but my grandfather used to shoot rabbits for food, pretty sure it was fairly normal. I think we have distanced ourselves too far from the actual sources of our food. There's really nothing 'horrendous' about meat that isn't in a packet on the supermarket shelf as long as it is humane and fresh (and not poached!).

Obviously UC is definitely horrendous!

&Aprilshowersarecomingsoon Wed 13-Feb-19 22:48:45
She would have afforded high protein diet if she gave up smoking!!
And if she had cancer why the fuck is she still smoking?*

I suggest you read up on why some people on limited income choose choices those who aren't do so - their lives are so utterly shit that they inevitably smoke/drink and are in the main just mirroring what they've seen growing up. If my life was so abysmal on benefits I'd maybe prioritise a bottle of wine over a couple of bunches of broccoli just to escape for a little bit

Aldi is walkable from where they live. It takes about twenty minutes. It's shit. The food is rotten almost as soon as you get it home. I once bought a pack of salmon fillets from there to have for tea. We had fish and chips instead because the salmon stank to high heaven when I opened it.

I'd rather have £4 of baccy and wild rabbit for supper than £4 of that Aldi's food, tbh. Vile doesn't cover it. I was over joyed when the new Lidl finally opened it's doors.

As for 35 hours of work, unless you go into care work you've got precisely 0% chance of finding fulltime work in Hartlepool. There are no opportunities in Hartlepool.

I remember a similar documentary several years ago about young Scottish people on benefits and it was fucking desperate.

I’m frustrated for them and my heart bleeds for the blind man.

I really hope Tamsin is able to make something of her music.

I grew up on rabbit. It’s bloody delicious and obviously free range and gets a quicker death than it would face naturally.

They teach you about lack of nutrition in a rabbit in the military. Quite frankly it’s not going to matter if you eat it with even a bit of veg and carbs.

Rabbits on the decline though due to disease and lack of habitat.

"it’s a food that use more calories to digest than it does to eat"
Surely if this was true someone would have brought out "The Rabbit Diet"?

I'm just surprised that the government doesn't have a fleet of J.C.B's going round the streets to scoop up all the unfortunates who are blotting their jotters.
The more you see and hear, the more frightened you become of falling on hard times.
Only today I read of a poor unfortunate man who was declared fit for work, despite having a terminal chronic illness, die while waiting for his appeal to be heard. It's utterly disgusting.
Are we living in a bloody third world country here or have we just returned to 1942 where mothers who lost their husband's had their kids put into orphanages before being slung out onto the streets, or pensioners were forced to go into residential care and God help you if you were disabled.
Depressing and frightening.

It costs money to be poor.

You're often stuck with gas/electricity key meters which cost more to run than gas/electricity on direct debit and are reliant on you topping them up. No money? No power.

Buses are an expensive ride, as shown by the prices I posted for my area, so unless there is one in walking distance you can't take advantage of Aldi, Lidl, market stalls, supermarket smartprice, etc.

Shopping options tend to be local shops which have a limited range and are more expensive than the big supermarkets so you pay more for your every day essentials, your money doesn't go as far, and your diet is poorer because the cheapest foods tend to be the processed crap like £1 pizzas.

Do people actually believe what they see on TV.
Its all for the CAMERA. I despair.

Those interested in Gileads point about rabbit - just Google rabbit starvation.

@Walkingdeadfangirl I take it you don't personally know anyone who has suffered due to universal credit then?
My sister miscarried and there were complications , she needed surgery on her ovaries and she was in hospital for 5 nights. She couldn't get to her jobcentre appointment and as she was in surgery the day she was meant to be there , her boyfriend rang and told them - she was sanctioned and didn't receive her payment. When she got out of hospital she had to walk 4 miles (because she hadn't received her payment so had no bus or taxi fare!) , days after having abdominal surgery and miscarrying , to take a letter from her gp to the jobcentre to prove she'd been in hospital.

Do people actually believe what they see on TV
Its all for the CAMERA. I despair

I see it when I open my front door. Trust me, that is how these people live sadly, and since UC/Tory Britain came into play, places like Hartlepool are on a slow but steady decline. Hartlepool was never a town with lots going on but it was never this bad.

I'm with @Aprilshowersarecomingsoon, smoking is an expensive habit and fucking insane if you have cancer. Giving up is hard but so worth the benefits to health and money in the bank.

I didn't watch the whole program but just saw the lad getting money out of the cash point then ordering a load of take away food. What the fuck 🙈

Walkingdeadfangirl Wed 13-Feb-19 23:06:21
Do people actually believe what they see on TV.
Its all for the CAMERA. I despair.

So are you claiming that this isn't the reality for many people on benefits?

I believe what I saw whereby a partially blind mind who had no money to feed himself because of sanctions because he couldn't fulfil any regular employment. I believe the recorded conversation with the advisor telling him there was nothing he could do and could basically starve.

I'm also bloody disgusted with myself that before witnessing the reality of UC I was one of those who thought along the lines of yourself - lazy, feckless scum yes?

Yes there are abusers of the system and I absolutely agree that changes need to be made but come on - such genuine cases as this guy's??

And yet it's the constant rhetoric about all the "fakers" that are harming "genuine cases" like him. Thanks to people like Ian Duncan Smith us disabled people get the constant message that all we need is to be sanctioned and motivated out of our disability. As if taking a disabled person's income away will somehow magically make their disabilty disappear.
The system no longer recognises "geniune cases" like him, instead they're too busy lying and accusing disabled people of faking their disability to get them off ESA and DLA/PIP.

I'm curious what changes people think need to be made, or just how many hoops disabled people like him should be made to jump through. Because from my experience having all the evidence, doctors letters and proof of disability means fuck all. All you need is an asessor determined to lie through their teeth about you and decide your life-long disability is magically cured and you are screwed. Never mind that PIP is costing the government more than DLA to administer. But hey, I guess it makes some people feel better to know that disabled people like him are being screwed over and left with nothing.