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..

All our factories are employing immigrants and the main reason so many people voted leave.

Interesting thing is..when I worked in one there were plenty of British people starting but wouldn't last a day. Factory drug tested everyone starting on that first day and if you failed you were send home.

The town is like any other, good and bad parts, I'm lucky to be from the good part but have lots of friends from the bad parts and they get by just fine, the editing and angle of the programme is imo to take a small town and make it into poverty porn

I live in the area this was filmed in. They wouldn't need to have done much editing. Entire streets are filled with people like those shown last night. And it didn't used to be like this. I grew up in this part of Hartlepool, and yeah, it was always the rough part but most people worked. The drugs problem wasn't as bad as it is now. I was shocked by the change when I moved back here last year after spending ten years in Redcar (really, the state of Hartlepool shocked me after living in Redcar for a decade).

Admittedly, Nathan is not a nice person but the punishment for being a twat shouldn't be to starve, should it?

I also know the docu makers were looking for working people to take part as they cornered me outside the shop and asked me to take part in it. I'm not sure why they were looking for working people on the corner of Cxxxx Street but hey ho

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

In most jobs you don't lose all your pay because you miss one phone call. Being unable to pay for food for your family is a little different from being told off.

these people can afford cigarettes alcohol and drugs funny that

I hate statements like this. Unless you've ever lived in an extremely deprived area you have no idea. Yes some afford alcohol and cigarettes usually while their poor children go with out and they get their food from food banks and don't pay bills . I have grown up in a very deprived area and have seen first hand some of the neglect that goes on. It is however a very small minority who abuse the system like that and it pisses me off when everyone is lumped in the same boat. UC is JUST enough to live a no frills lifestyle and spouting shit like that implies we are all frolicking around having a jolly old time. 95%+ of us aren't and are trying to make ends meet to be functional adults with a system that wants to punish everyone for the 5% that abuse it. People like you @jellybears perpetuate that stereotype and you should be ashamed.

WhiteCat

My dsis said that British don't even go for the jobs now at her place because of the culture.
She said they drink milk out the carton and eat all the breakfast cereal, and take it home.
They can't use the toilet properly, she had to teach the women as only woman on her shift that isn't foreign.
They change the culture of a workplace, won't/ can't learn the language and treat any British woman with contempt. My dsis says she can't stick it much longer.

it's the way it is now and we have to get used to it, voting leave won't change immigration.

@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.

Where is this unicorn land? Because it's certainly not true in most areas at all.

Where's this generous welfare state for disabled people? If someone can point me in the right direction I'll pass the details on to people I know who've had their PIP/ESA removed despite medical evidence saying they are very unwell...

It was nicely done and from not far from where my mother's family are.
Like all these programmes it is edited and they choose which bits to show. rabbits - they think are shocking but we ate rabbits as children. Nothing wrong with it at all. Much better than junk food which is why rabbit man was slim and some of the others might have been better off eating more rabbit and less other foods.

The partially blind man shows how hard it can be if you can't get emails and don't have a phone to interact with the state these days.

I was surprised that rabbit man bought to home delivery takeaway when the money came in which has to last him a month. Even I don't buy takeaways as they are so expensive and the lady with the 2 girls bought them food when out and about which is quite expensive (never mind all the usual very expensive to feed dogs, drink and smoking).

LOL @ 'generous welfare state' for the disabled. That's hilarious.

Generous welfare state is a complete oxymoron.

Unemployment is at it's lowest rate for decades

Because Mrs May said so didn't she? The 'figures' back her up....except they fail to mention that you only have to work a couple of hours a week to be classed as 'employed'
It also doesn't tell you that many people who lose their jobs would rather use up savings or rely on family than sign on.
The figures are rigged to suit the Tories, that's why they love zero hours contracts and throwing people off benefits.

Unemployment is at it's lowest rate for decades, and our economy is flourishing. For those who genuinely are unable to work through serious disability we have a generous welfare state to help them.

On paper, I work in hospitality, I'm lucky, my hours are guaranteed, I'm certainly not indispensable but my role does not rely on changes in business levels. I'm needed if there's one or one hundred people. But others I work with are counted as employed for statistics, yet getting 4 hours a week? None some weeks. So technically they're employed, but not earning. There's a difference.
And even though I'm on full time hours, I still need tax credits to make ends meet, because my wage doesn't reflect what it actually costs to live. Unless I give up little luxuries like sleep I don't have much scope to do extra hours even if they're there, because (as already mentioned) the utter shit show that is public transport on Teesside. It takes 15 minutes to get from my home to work by car, due to the buses I leave 90 minutes earlier, spend up to 20 shivering at a bus stop and then have up to a 40 minutes wait before my shift starts when I get there. On Sundays I wait 90 minutes to get home after my shift. I can do that because I no longer need childcare, but that's hours every week wasted.
Two seaside towns and a retail park nearby, great for job opportunities, only if you drive. Retail park doesn't have a direct service from this side and the bus services end between 8 and 9 from those towns.
Teesside has been ruined by the closure of industry and job losses, hundreds of people without a future because there isn't one.

Where can I watch this programme? Just looked on Ch4 and it says it's unavailable.

I have just tried watching this on Channel 4 catch up, too, but it's also saying not available.. how odd!

People like me? Love you don’t know a thing about me.
I think it’s shit crying poverty whilst buying cigarettes and alcohol.

These people are low life’s, they don’t want to work, pop out child after child they can’t afford. They want to live off everyone else and cry poverty when the benefits get cut!! I’m not interested.

If an immigrant can do it with the language and cultural barriers so should a native who doesn't have those

It's not about being an immigrant, is it? It's about responsibilities. Fine if you have no responsibilities and are able to work and nothing else. Living with lots of people, relying on work to pick you up, earning minimum wage etc. is less of an issue. The minute you throw a child into the mix who needs to be at school and picked up from school and needs their own bed and can't be left alone over night, it's a whole different ball game. Ditto anyone with caring for people with disabilities or older family members. Moving away from family if you are a single parent makes little sense, even if the job opportunities might be better. Moving away at all can be difficult as a single parent if you want your child to be able to maintain a relationship with their other parent. And you can be legally ordered not to move if the other parent uses the court system to help them maintain contact.

There is no doubt at all that there are opportunities to be had and that many people don't take what is on offer. But there is a difference between not taking because you can't be bothered and not taking because actually, logistically it simply doesn't work.

The trouble is too many prefer to sit on their (usually very large) backsides and complain about living in 'poverty'

14 million people in the UK live in poverty.

60% of them live in a household where at least one adult works.

That's 8.4 million employed households.

In what world is right that someone who is employed is living in poverty?

You know nothing.

I didn't watch the Ch4 programme but I am surprised at some of the comments lacking in compassion for the most vulnerable people in our society. Surely we pay taxes exactly to support people in this situation. Benefits should be easier to receive, not harder. If people are supported they are more likely to afford the bus fare to go to the job interview etc and get back on their feet. And if a disabled person has an assessment by their own GP, why should they have to jump through more hoops to get some support. How much is spent on paying for these "computer says no" assessments that could be spent on helping those that really need it? Everyone deserves some dignity and help when they need it. Anyone can find themselves in a bad situation through no fault of their own.

They can't use the toilet properly, she had to teach the women as only woman on her shift that isn't foreign. They change the culture of a workplace, won't/ can't learn the language and treat any British woman with contempt

Did you mean to sound so racist or was it simply an unintentional side effect of your stereotyping?

People like me? Love you don’t know a thing about me.
I think it’s shit crying poverty whilst buying cigarettes and alcohol

You've said enough for us to know enough about you.
It's obvious you are ignorant of the realities faced by the poorest and vulnerable in society.
You actually think everyone who is unemployed or poor buys alcohol and cigarettes? Those that do, self medicate mainly because their life is shit with little opportunity and some are addicts.
You are a typically ignorant right wing thinker.

It's on again on 4seven at 10pm tonight.
Surprised it's not on catch up, though.

Plenty of people move to where the job is.

Moving costs money which people in poverty don't tend to have a lot of.

To rent a flat or house you need an admin fee for the credit check, the contracts, and the keys - typically a few hundred pounds. Presuming the credit check is passed you then need first and last month rent up front plus a month rent as a damage deposit. Based on a rent of £400 a month for a one bed flat that's £1200 before you can even move in. Then you need to move your furniture from A to B which again costs money.

Sign the child up for the local school at this new house and there's money for new uniform, their old one was blue but this new school is red. And there's no family nearby so you need childcare, 42 hours of childcare a week at £3.50 an hour is approx £580 a month, it's payable monthly in advance so the first lot of £580 needs to be paid to the childminder before you can drop your child off.

You don't qualify for free school meals now you're working and the school doesn't allow packed lunch. Dinners are £50 a month, payable in advance so that needs paying too.

Then you need to actually get to work. There's a bus every thirty minutes and a monthly pass is £90 which, again, needs paying in advance. And the council tax is due, £120 a month for a Band A property.

All that money needs to be paid before you even get a whiff of your first pay packet. Yes there's help in the form of housing benefit, council tax benefit, help a percentage of your childcare costs and so on but while you're waiting for those to be calculated and paid you have to pay it out of your own pocket which is impossible when those pockets are empty.

It's called the poverty trap for a reason.

@Lostmyshityear9 Even if you are single with no kids and live in an HA flat you cannot do it. A fellow tenant went away for four weeks and the HA classed his flat as abandoned.

And imagine the AIBU

AIBU my neighbour has been gone for weeks AIBU to think he obvoiusly doesnt need the flat and the HA should give it to someone else.

From what I can see, poverty trap doesn't do justice to the ever depleting resources. It's more of a drain than a trap.