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..

Not really. Labour spends all the money there is so it is gone by Monday and is not sonserved and thus there is none left for everyone including the less well off. The Conservatives conserve it to ensure the less well off are looked after and the money lasts all year - the sensible way.
However we give £13.bbn a year in foreign aid including £250m to Bangladesh and I would certainly support cutting all of that and repatriating the money home to look after people in this country and help us move closer to living within our means. May be the 230,000 net migrants we got in yesterday's figures over the last year will mean they generate a lot more money so we have more to spend on benefits etc. We shall see.

The Conservatives conserve it to ensure the less well off are looked after and the money lasts all year - the sensible way.

Hahahaha hahahaha

The less well off are looked after?
Are you kidding?

Do you realise how many deaths have been attributed to UC and Austerity?
How many people have committed suicide thanks to the Conservatives conserving money?

Please research this, go Google it.

I don't agree but we will just have to agree to disagree. If Labour want to win in 2022 they are going to have to convince an awful lot of people to change their views by the way. Let us see who wins power in 2022.

However we give £13.bbn a year in foreign aid including £250m to Bangladesh and I would certainly support cutting all of that and repatriating the money home to look after people in this country

HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA.

HA.

HAHAHAHA.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

HAHA.

You really think that money would otherwise be spent closer to home?

I bet you also believe the NHS is about to get an extra £350 million a week...

I am a remainer and I don't believe all I read in left or right win press. Always keep an open mind.

One thing we can all agree on this thread - we Geordie Tories as I am and those on the left is that never rely on the state. It always lets you down. Try to rely on yourself instead.

I don't agree but we will just have to agree to disagree

So you're ignoring the evidence? The government's own admittance UC is killing people? The UNs report about the government?

You can disagree all you wish, but ignoring the massive piles of evidence takes some doing.

No buy to let mortgages on homes worth below £250k
Rental caps in line with LHA.

Who will they rent their homes from if there are no btl mortgages though?

It is depressing living in this country people from other countries probably feel the same, in the year 2019 everybody should be able to have a decent standard of living, i'm not talking about holidays and cars, everyone should be able to afford to eat, pay there bills and not be scared to put there heating on, there will alway's be people who earn more than others and have great holidays etc thats fine, people on low wages should be able to afford the basics in life and not have to go to foodbanks, take a look at practically every town centre in the UK all the homeless people sleeping in doorways, when i was growing up you hardly seen such a thing, the country is going backwards and nobody gives a damm

Missmother - I know it absolutely broke my heart. The people have awful attitudes and feel nothing. Whilst people are living off nothing they will be sat all cozy on the couch in front of a warm fire and having a hot meal whilst others are freezing and can't even afford to eat. Show absolutely no emotion!

Fairenuff

Landlords can still make a business from rental market. But stopping BTL mortgages in cheap houses will do 2 things.
Firstly: it will put the cheap houses back on the market for first time buyers, houses of around £100k to get people on the ladder as it were.
Secondly: anyone wanting to invest in property and become a landlord that wants to buy cheaper houses can either pay cash or they can mortgage a property they already own outright. This stops people getting the bank to give them money and getting tax payer to pay via housing benefit.

It also takes the amateurs out of the equation.

When the last Labour Govt. Were kicked out they left a note saying that the money had all gone. They had wasted it. They didn't spend it wisely, they wasted it fighting an illegal war.

Until recently I lived in Liverpool and I personally know a lot ( yes a lot) of people there who do anything to avoid work and live on benefits and petty crime. I used to report them and 2 were prosecuted. Some have never worked.

My friend advertised a job in her cafe. The job centre send 6 people for interview. 5 told her they could not take the job for all sorts of spurious reasons( can't stand for long, can't start before 9.39, got to,finish by 2.30). She was furious and reported it to the job centre. These people were just turning up hoping they would not get the job. They said they had to turn up because they had been sent.

I know there are some people in need of support but unthread a poster says that the only jobs are in the care sector. Surely that is better than no job?

. But guess what?
They have a safety net called UC
The point you were making was about stress of the situation. When you claim UC and flow the rules and do what you are told to do, you won't lose what you have. If they make an error, they can appeal and get what they had before.

If you lose your job through no fault of yours, you can claim UC, that is if you can evidence you were dismissed through no fault of yours which might be a fight alone. If you have a mortgage, UC is not going to help you much.

My point is that you might have more to lose when your benefits are stopped but you have more control trying to avoid it. You can be a model employee and do all what you've been asked to do by your boss but that won't protect you from being sacked with just one week notice.

My point is that both situations are not pleasant ones to be in.

£73 a week, lets see thats around £300 a month. Council tax is covered by benefits (another handout) so out of that £300 a month that claimant has to pay gas and electric; which for aguments sake lets say is 80 in winter, water rates, say £25 a month, food lets say £80 a month (and thats eating well, at uni a could survive on a bag of pasta £2 and some sauce for a week but ive said £100)

Council tax is NOT necessarily covered by benefits: council tax benefit was abolished by the coalition government and councils have had to set up their own schemes, which vary. The district council where I live will reduce bills by a maximum of 80%. It charges the 6th highest council tax in the country, so £1,800 for a band C property (tiny 2-bed house or decent 1-bed flat). That would make council tax around £20 a month.

Water charges are high, we have 2 separate bills and it's around £35 a month minimum. Much of the area is rural with no mains gas, so only electricity for heating, hot water and cooking - around £100 a month.

Add on £7 for your bus fare to the job centre every two weeks, and you've already spent half your money, but you haven't bought any food, toiletries, cleaning materials or other household essentials yet, never mind replaced any clothes that have worn out. And when you do buy those things, you can either pay through the nose at the village shop or spend another £7 on the bus fare to town.

You also haven't paid for your phone (essential so job centre can contact you), internet (essential to manage your universal credit claim), tv licence (essential if you're not going to die of boredom or cop a heavy fine) or paid for any financial commitments made when you were in work.

Oh, and you're under 25, so you only get £57.90 a week. And the food bank is also a £7 bus fare away.

When you've worked out a nutritious menu plan that enables this unemployed 24 year old living rurally to feed themselves and pay their bills on £57.90 a week, please share. Former colleagues who struggle, like I did, to work out feasible budgets for the rural poor will be delighted.

When you claim UC and flow the rules and do what you are told to do, you won't lose what you have. If they make an error, they can appeal and get what they had before

Not true. Totally untrue in fact.

You can be sanctioned for all manner of reasons. There's been some on this thread.
Or do you see it as fair that people lose their money for being in hospital? It's fair to be sanctioned for missing a phone call? It's fair to have the nothing you've got reduced to less than nothing because you're blind and haven't applied for enough jobs?
And appeals? Lol.. really? More weeks with no money for food and then stress on top.

Ryan Webb from Tuebrook, who was sanctioned for being late to a meeting at the job centre - despite a message notifying him of the meeting arriving a month too late.

He was subsequently sanctioned and left with just £26 for the month - which forced him to search in supermarket bins for food

Kyes girlfriend had a miscarriage earlier this month and so he had to miss an appointment at the Jobcentre to discuss a payment issue. To his shock, he was told there was a chance he could be sanctioned.

Are those copy pasted from inews? Because literally every benefit story they post never includes the full story. Like the couple who supposedly lost their house due to one missed UC payment. That would not happen.

It drives me mad because they could use real truthful stories instead of these half truths.

Like the couple who supposedly lost their house due to one missed UC payment. That would not happen.

You think it wouldn't?

I don't know that story, please do post links.

but it wouldn't surprise me if someone lost their house.
Same as it doesn't surprise me to send people in hospital because of starvation, 6 stone man left without money but also fit for work.
It doesn't surprise me that homeless people die whilst the politicians step around them... Man dies yards from the door used by politicians.
And it doesn't surprise me that instead of admitting it doesn't work, the government throw money at it to try and fix it.. government approve more funding to DWP.

www.ladbible.com/news/uk-man-who-couldnt-stand-and-weighed-6-stone-was-declared-fit-to-work-20190204

www.thesun.co.uk/news/8021214/homeless-man-dies-after-collapsing-yards-from-entrance-to-parliament-used-by-mp-and-lords/

There

And let's not forget they now send staff to the hospital where you're being treated to make sure you really are ill.

www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/health/dwp-blasted-for-grotesque-hospital-visits-in-islington-1-5910490?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social_Icon&utm_campaign=in_article_social_icons

Do I need go on?

"Oh it never happens...."
Until it does happen and then the fingers go in the ears and heads go in the sand.

My friend advertised a job in her cafe. The job centre send 6 people for interview. 5 told her they could not take the job for all sorts of spurious reasons( can't stand for long, can't start before 9.39, got to,finish by 2.30). She was furious and reported it to the job centre. These people were just turning up hoping they would not get the job. They said they had to turn up because they had been sent.

Unable to stand for long - medical issues then.

Can't start until 9.30 and has to finish at 2.30 - school age children to look after, no one to do the school run, or other caring responsibilities.

And yes they would have been there because the Jobcentre told them to, you get sanctioned if you don't do what the Jobcentre says. The computer suggests jobs too based on your profile and you must apply for these suggestions. I remember reading on here about someone who had working in a school on their claimant commitment such as a school office or lunchtime staff but the computer algorithm threw up a teaching position. Despite having no teaching qualifications this person had to go to the Jobcentre-arranged interview for a teaching job and tell the interviewer they had no intention of taking the job, indeed couldn't take the job, as they were not actually a qualified teacher but if they didn't attend they would face a benefits sanction. An absolute waste of time and resources for all involved.

I know there are some people in need of support but unthread a poster says that the only jobs are in the care sector. Surely that is better than no job?

It takes a lot to be a carer - physically, emotionally, mentally - and it takes a certain kind of person to do it well without losing their patience. People in need of a carer are vulnerable and should only be cared for by those properly equipped and qualified to carry out that work and who want to do that work.

I'm sure they do all sorts of stuff. My point was don't get your information from inews if you are doing so. I remember Kye and his girlfriend popping up there along with the couple I mention. For example:

inews.co.uk/news/uk/universal-credit-error-pregnant-woman-loses-baby-homeless/

Implies they lost their home and baby due to UC and rent being missed. Meanwhile, other articles mention their drug habits that may have contributed instead.

So to clarify: I'm sure the bad shit happens but it'd be a shame to base stuff on inews when there are REAL stories out there.

Copper spurious reasons?
I currently don't work, no one would employ me. If anything happened and my husband left me I'd be in the position of trying to claim esa, if I was denied and had to go to the job centre and look for work I'd be one of these spurious people. I can't stand for long and have to balance mobility with rest. As for care work, I'd be sacked within a week, I couldn't do it.