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..

God almighty what a mess.

Oh @Frequency you just made me cry a bit!
Thank you for your lovely offer, we're ok for now food wise (we got the Farm Foods leaflet and I used the coupons and filled the freezer with crap and potato products )
But if you want a new friend, we could have a cuppa sometime? I live in the "poets" streets off Oxford Rd.

NOW THIS ^ has made all the crap some of us has got on this thread worth it.

Oh you're right near me. You must have heard all the music all the earlier did you? I'm next door to where to that was coming from [sigh] At the top end of that notorious street named after a lovely coastal place down south. The street where you can buy any drug or cheap fag you like by simply picking a door and knocking on it, I live in the cul de sac at the top of that.

And yes, we'll def have to meet up for a cuppa. I'll PM you tomorrow sometime.

N'Awwwwwwwwwwwww.

Enjoy your cuppas MN Buddies.. that's lovely. :)

Tinker How old is your DC if you dont mind me asking?

I'll look for the pm @frequency!
@weetinker join us! Why the hell not!

Aww trust me PomBear... You wouldn't want that.. 😂

Besides in a fair distance from Hartlepool..

Helena she's 5/6

Well i hope things get better for you once your ex has recovered.

For some reason I thought you were in Hartlepool @tinker
Not to worry, we'll dunk a (Farm Foods 3 packs for a pound) biscuit for you!

@WeeTinkerMonkey

Wow you really don't realise how completely wrong your analogy of contribution is do you?
You honestly think that giving people more benefits would mean they were contributing more because they could then buy more things which would mean more VAT contribution. Absolutely PMSL!

I imagine unless you are actually as dumb as rocks that you've probably realised by now how wrong you are but just incase;

The money you are spending hasn't been EARNED which means that nobody has benefited from it. Therefore the money you pay in VAT hasn't been money that you've got from providing anything. It's been handed out to you by the government so how is it benefiting them to get only 25% back of the money they've shelled out to you for nothing in return?

Using your way of thinking why doesn't the government just start handing millions out to everyone if they can all be such good contributers and help the country by spending it all as quick as they can.

That really is one of the dumbest analogies I've heard in a long time. Hahaha

If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you.
I warn you that you will have pain?when healing and relief depend upon payment.
I warn you that you will have ignorance?when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right.
I warn you that you will have poverty?when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won?t pay in an economy that can?t pay.
I warn you that you will be cold?when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don?t notice and the poor can?t afford.
I warn you that you must not expect work?when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don?t earn, they don?t spend. When they don?t spend, work dies.
I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light.
I warn you that you will be quiet?when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient.
I warn you that you will have defence of a sort?with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding.
I warn you that you will be home-bound?when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up.
I warn you that you will borrow less?when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.
If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday?

• I warn you not to be ordinary
• I warn you not to be young
• I warn you not to fall ill
• I warn you not to get old

I warn you that you must not expect work?when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don?t earn, they don?t spend. When they don?t spend, work dies.

Oh one of my favourite sayings

"Bring back Maggie Thatcher!"

There was a country i was reading about who gave their citizens £10.000 each to spend I THINK that was the amount. There was one caveat. They had to spend the money locally It was to get the economy going after the crash

Another thing people fail to realise is that if benefits were raised to above working pay then that would encourage even more people to think what's the point in working. We've already got a generation of people teaching their kids it's ok to not work and expect others to foot the bill we don't need any more.

And before anyone says increase minimum wage that just increases inflation and is nothing more than a gimmick it doesn't make people richer.

So you just want to keep ppl poor either way then. Well i guess you are one of those who needs a group of people they can feel superior to

Oh and another thing Dr Frankenstein Maggie is dead so there is no bringing her back.

@HelenaDove

Yes it's of course going to boost any area that cash is directed into that's obvious but cash is fluid it's only going to have a short term benefit whilst that cash flows through the area. It's investment that brings wealth not just handing out cash because cash has no value its just paper

Larry isn't going to live in it, he already owns several others, Larry is going to rent it out
Get your facts straight. A research looking at the profile of landlords conducted in Dec 16 by the London School of Economics showed the following:

• 60% of Landlords own only one rental property.
• 7% ONLY own 5 or more (which accounts forc40% of all rental dwellings)
• 50% ONLY were purchased by BTL mortgsges
• 30% of all landlords are retiree

So if you want to unlish your anger, do so at the 7% above but don't make them to represent the majority of landlords because they don't.

What is sad with this threads (and always tend to be with similar ones) is that all the focus is on moaning and accusing, usually with wrong assumptions as the above rather than focusing on the positives. There have been some great examples of how volunteering can be done and helped towards getting back on the work wagon but it's been quickly ignored because it's not what some people are interested in discussing. All they want is convince themselves that they have it very hard and that because of everyone's fault, never because of their own choices.

Many people find themselves on very hard time and deserve all the help they can get because they genuinely want to change their situations. Not enough is done for them but in the end, most make it back on their feet at some stage. Then you have those who will never consider what they can do themselves to help themselves but instead prefer to go on and on and on about unfair life is to them and blame those who've done OK for their misery.

A lot of us even from the North East supported Mrs Thatcher who in many ways saved the nation. However that was then and here we are now.

Labour has not won power since the 2005 election. It needs does not need to convince the Labour voters on this thread to vote Labour in 2022. It needs to convince people like I am and those who waver between the two parties and benefits changes across the UK have been quite popular actually. If you only mix with people like yourselves then we all just tend to think that is the view everyone shares which is why I like threads like this which are not echo chambers of clones but have views which are very different. It helps us to understand each other.

I hope Labour does not win in 2022 and it currently has quite an uphill struggle if it is going to do so.

It might feel easy to blame landlords but most don't let to benefits claimants anyway as their mortgages don't let them and those with mortgages are now taxed on profits they don't make and property is going down in value so certainly in London there has been a huge load of landlords moving out of letting altogether.

In fairness to @weeTinkerMonkey
My landlord owns 5 houses on our street alone. And another one on the street opposite. He has his "office" in another country. And those are the ones I know about. My last landlord was a professional who had inherited the house, he gave me a months notice which is ilegal but he said he urgently needed the money and had a buyer so me being an idiot said ok fair enough and left immediately getting myself into £3000 worth of debt for a new deposit, only to find out that he'd rented it out to someone else for £400 more. I was gutted and in lots of debt. Now I'm going to lose the £3000 because my new landlord has said that as I wil be late with my rent in April (I'm up to date at at the moment-always have been) it will be a breach of contract so I will lose my deposit which is another blow really because I was half thinking that at least I would have my deposit behind me to at least stay in a B and B if it came to it while I found somewhere else while waiting for the UC to come through.
However I really like @swingofthings too. You've both got really valid points. In the past I've had a great career, I'll never forget the fun times I had and the incredible things I did and NONE of it would have been achieved by sitting on my bxx. Again agreeing with WTM when I was working long hours (which I enjoyed. I'm not moaning) I was earning fairly decent money yet I still fell short every year of getting a mortgage agreed because truthfully by the time I'd paid my rent I couldn't afford to save for a deposit and this actually upset me a bit at the time because the bank kept telling me that a mortgage would be far cheaper for me and that effectively I was paying someone else's for them (I knew that!) but I still couldn't quite get there!! 😂😂. Rock and hard place!!! Haha. Swing of things, you aren't the sort of landlord that we initially attacked. It was aimed towards landlords like I have now really, but I often ask myself if I was in a position to, would I buy to let etc.. etc... and I have got to admit if I was in a position to buy a couple of student houses here and make some money off it I would. Before anyone tells me I'm two faced, I AM NOT and I don't care anyway but I am just saying different situations give you different perspectives and nobody knows the other persons situation. Despite my situation now would I deny myself or anyone else to snap up a business opportunity? No! Go for it!
Also WTM the houses I'm talking about are terraced 3 bed houses in nice areas and still don't go for anything near 250k so here that wouldn't help from what I can see but I can only talk about my street and my sons studenty street! Not trying to wind you ladies up, I agree with both of you. 💐💐💐

Oh, also when I wrote My landlord has an office in another country I didn't put which country because it might Identify him here as it's an unusual place to have an office but my point more about that was that he flies out there all the time and runs his property business from there so he's not like @swingofthings he's full on going for it!!! If you see what I mean?

AND my other lanlord IMO was perfectly entitled to ask me to leave and rent his house out for £400 per month more!!
But if he'd been honest with me I'd have still gone but I would have insisted on the legally required 2 months notice and then I'd have had less debt now, but I've lost the money anyway so it makes no difference anyway. My point again is its all relative.
I'm only peed off at the moment at the government saying I have to claim UC to look after my dad and making me wait TOO LONG for it to come through. If the UC came through in ONE MONTH this would not be an issue to me. I'd be super broke but I don't care about that, it's only temporary my dad will be gone in a few months. Then I'll be back to it again!! I have plans!!! The fact that UC takes so long is the major problem I'm facing personally. Because the impact of that means I lose my home.

I agree with swingofthings re volunteering. Quite a few people have explained how you can volunteer locally so no need to travel, and the benefits have been explained, not just employability but gaining life experience and transferable skills, free qualifications and the wonders it does for your MH. But no one seems very interested, even after the posters have pretty much addressed every reason people put forward as to why that particular person couldn't volunteer

*Swing of things, you aren't the sort of landlord that we initially attacked.
I don't think you are, I think wTM has it to all of them on principle.

Thats fine, everyobe is entitled to their own views but the reason why I've responded is because wTM is, doing exactly what the media are achieving and that is to put every benefit claimants in the same boat.

Having an issue with those multi-property landlords is one thing. I don't care for them myself but then again, there are not different to many money hungry entrepreneurs. However, refereeing to 'Landlords' as whole when the above applies to only 7% is building a hatred of all Landlords including most who are decent, don't make much money out of it and allow, families who can't afford to buy to stay in nice and well maintained homes.