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 do like rabbit -grew up on it and still buy it when it's in the butcher, but seriously, people in the UK in 2019 shouldn't be getting their dogs to hunt so they can eat ffs

@EwItsAHooman bus travel is reduced price or free for jobseekers in most areas as they get a pass from the jobcentre. The bus companies advertise this on the bus posters above the seats inside the bus.

Nope.

This is not nationwide and only applies if you meet criteria, from the gov.uk website:

Jobcentre Plus Travel Discount Card. This is provided to those unemployed claiming Jobseekers Allowance or Universal Credit for 3-9 months (18-24 year olds) or 3-12 months (over 25s). Other benefit recipients may receive a Jobcentre Plus Travel Discount Card from 3 months of their claim and if they are actively engaged with a Jobcentre Plus adviser. Cardholders are entitled to a 50% discount on selected rail tickets.

And even if you meet the criteria, whether or not you get one is decided on a case by case basis at the discretion of the decision-maker at the office where you sign on. There is no right of appeal if they say no.

Same for help with the costs of interview clothes and travel expenses. All discretionary.

I have zero sympathy for those types of people but it's rife in the area where I live. They think they're hard done to because they're expected to work to pay for their cigs, drink and drugs.

I have sympathy for them - imagine your life is so rubbish that you're happy to live on benefits and you're addicted to drink/drugs. Do you empathise with the child who was abused by her step parent and took drugs to blank it out? Or can see the bigger picture where she's crying out for help?

Those people that you hear on the bus, spending their money on drugs so that they can forget the fact that theounlikely to get a job, forget that they’re hungry and go to bed cold every night. Forget the abuse they’ve suffered. Forget they’re ill. You have absorbing idea why they using drugs but you can guarantee that someone loved respected and warm and well fed, someone happy with their life is rarely making that choice.

Bloody autocorrect. You have no idea why they use drugs.

@IfNotNowThenWhy I gave up smoking cause I couldn't afford it. I was stressed too. Again different priorities.

I was on jobseekers allowance for 6 months and was unable to get any help with travel costs.

Anyone who thinks it's a grand old life on benefits with wall to wall takeaways, free bus travel, and gallons of speed to ram up your nostrils is of course welcome to try it out for themselves. Quit your job, pop along to your nearest Job Centre Plus, and see for yourself what a cushy life it is.

And you do know drug addicts are unlikely to be able to hold a job down? Seriously would you employ them?

Rabbit provides 173 Calories per 100g.

WeeTinkerMonkey - first do fuck off, second - we are in the position we are in because we have to pay back the debt that Labour war criminal ran up buying the votes of the simple minded.

Rabbit stew is supposed to be really nice. I've never brought myself to try it, but sure I would if there was nothing else and I was hungry.
We used to eat hedgehog too, I even have a recipe, not going to try that either.
It's amazing what we would eat though, if really hungry/starving.

we are in the position we are in because we have to pay back the debt that Labour war criminal ran up buying the votes of the simple minded.

And nothing at all to do with the government doggedly sticking to austerity measures despite being advised time and again that they were putting increasing numbers of people into poverty....

I used to smoke when I was really poor. Really on my arse. When things got better and I became more financially sound I was able to give up because my mental health was so much better. Having been where these people are I would never judge them for smoking. If you've never been hooked on smoking that really is fantastic but if you have been unfortunate enough to be addicted when you are at rock bottom quitting seems impossible.

Fucking hell there are some bloody horrid judgey posters on this thread.
Has the daily mail been sending its arsehole readers this way?
Can't you people just have some compassion for your fellow men/women/children and count your own blessings rather than kicking dirt into these people's faces?

We ran out of money because of the banking crisis, tax receipts fell drastically and the economy shrunk. Prolonged austerity is by no means the only solution , in fact you'll struggle to find prominent economists who agree it is. Running an economy is not the same as running a household budget...

Trying to manage on jobseekers allowance and pay for travel to interviews, is bloody hard. I did it for 9 months. And wherever possible I walked. But sometimes it is not possible and I had to pay for fares.
If there is all this financial help out there, I never found it, in spite of actively looking for it.

Luckily though I already had clothes suitable for interviews.

Politician.

Rabbit provides 173 Calories per 100g.

So?

Rabbit is bad to eat because the lack of fat and too much protein.
If you are nothing but rabbit, you'd be in bad way because the nutrients it contains are correctly in proportion.
Protein Poisoning to give it it's official name.

And as for the position we're in... Bollocks.. it's proven UC has cost far more than its saved, that it continues to cost far more than it could save. That the 'flaws' in the system are designed into the system.

The five week wait... purposefully built in to the system.
The differing pay schedules cancelling claims... Purposefully built into the system.
Making it all online... Purposefully built into the system..

Should I go on?

Universal Credit as designed, as implemented and as championed by the Tories has nothing to do with saving the country money and everything to do with punishing the poor. Otherwise why design such cruelties?

Go check the pay schedules..
Anyone weekly paid will automaticaly have their claims cancelled several times a year..
That's rent not paid, that's food not bought, that's bills not covered. The government designed it this way, their advice,
"Deal with it"

I have sympathy for them - imagine your life is so rubbish that you're happy to live on benefits and you're addicted to drink/drugs. Do you empathise with the child who was abused by her step parent and took drugs to blank it out? Or can see the bigger picture where she's crying out for help?

I had this conversation with my mum when she asked why Hartlepool was getting worse for drink and drugs. There's literally nothing else for them. Even if they were employable, there are no jobs. There's nothing for them to aim for. They know they have no chance of ever having a semi-decent standard of living. I think, in their shoes, I too would turn to drink and drugs and illegally imported tobacco products.

Luckily, I was able to get good grades at school and so I don't need to rely on the dwindling NE manufacturing to find work. I have recently resigned myself to the fact that I always be in poverty. I will never have enough to live comfortably. I'm still going to try to finish my college course and then go on to Uni, though I'm switching from hair and beauty to health and social care in my next step of studying as that's the only kind of work I can find in Hartlepool.

To the PP who mention about high tech industry requiring specialised degrees is that in Hartlepool? I've never heard of it nor seen them advertising for staff.

knowledgenuts.com/2015/01/21/how-to-starve-to-death-while-stuffing-yourself-with-rabbit-meat/

Sorry, that was in response to a poster asking for 9-3 jobs that pay enough for people to not need huge amounts of state assistance.

I was on benefits for a while being a carer to my disabled dd. But now have gone back to work part time and had to claim uc.
I'm worse off now then when I was on benefits and even then that was hard.

I grew up in Hartlepool and my parents still live there. So so many streets are filled with the hopeless. There are no jobs unless you can do care work (and in the main they want you to have a car). The majority of the big employers have gone. (And there's talk of more pulling out.)

People are skint and desperate. My experience with Hartlepool job centre taught me it's run by a bunch of unfeeling bastards. They had me in three times in one week. Luckily I had a car but it would have been about a tenner in bus fare. They also got really nasty with me when an idiot on a bike knocked me over on the way in which made me a bit late. (I literally walked in with both hands and both knees bleeding and was forced to climb multiple flights of stairs)

I haven't lived in Hartlepool for a few years but there has always been a lot of people stuck on the dole who gave no means of making their situation any better. I was glad to move when I did!

Anyway LOL at mumsnetters - ie people who on threads about holidays list four or five international destinations per year - getting the vapours over someone spending a fiver on a kebab. Oh the waste!