To think the poor families on Rich House Poor House cannot be that poor?

[Sickmama]

I'm not well and have spent the last 2 weeks watching a lot of Rich House Poor House for no other reason than I've discovered that when streamed onto Chrome, the adverts don't play on Chanel 5 for some reason!!! So I'm exhausting anything I can on Chanel 5.

Anyway.... Most of the poor families have somewhere between £100 and £200 after bills to spend on food, fuel, clothes etc.
We make £42k a year and after all our bills, childcare etc I have worked out that we have exactly £192 a week to spend and I'm sorry, but that's not poor! It's not rich of course, but it's not poor! I've recently paid off a load of old debts too which were taking up a large chunk of this so easily I was on less than £120 a week to live on. And to be clear, the total amount the families have is clearly defined as disposable income after their debt payments too if they have them.
Am I missing something? Why is an average of £150 a week disposable income considered poor? In London perhaps but most of these families are not in London and many are in cheaper parts of the country than I live in.

Channel 5 sorry.... 🤦

Depends on if that £200 left for the month to cover all food and ‘disposable income’ bills like clothing/school trips/car/fuel. But I agree if it’s up to £200 a week left over that’s not poor. That was most families in my area would have left or less.

If it has to include essentials such as food and fuel, it's not disposable income.

The ones I have seen it has to cover food too. Does food come into disposable income? I'm not sure.

They're often well under £100 a week and many are on pre-payment gas / electric meters which come out of that amount. Most have less than I spend on my weekly supermarket shop for 1 person and they have kids to clothe and feed so I've no idea how they manage!

I don't think that's a lot of money including fuel/clothes/kids activities etc.

But you are also paying childcare and those years are hard, soon you will have more disposable cash.

Poor is a relative term. That's why the show works. Also, a small amount of disposable is fine until something breaks like white goods, or a car won't start and it's £300 to repair. That's when poor starts to make more sense.

If you want to see something abject, like extreme poverty, then go email Adrian Padmore if you like and ask for stronger poverty porn to get your fix.

That is a small amount. £150 a week to spend on food, fuel and extras. £100 on food, £30 on fuel leaves them with only £20.
Disposable income for me means not on essentials, food and fuel is an essential.

@Gennever it's not poverty porn I'm after at all. It's a mildly interesting show and I like watching a bit of mindless telly and have a nose into other people's lives whilst I'm ill if that's alright. It's as much rich porn as anything because I enjoy it in the same way I enjoy looking for milion pound houses on Rightmove just to be nosy

Food and fuel are bills imo, if you remove the amount you spend on those then that’s your true disposable income. I’d imagine those families actually have between £50 and £80 a week that is truly disposable which isn’t much if you have children.

If you take relative poverty as we define it in the uk, as in comparison with other people, then they are "poor"- meaning they have LESS than average.

If you take poverty as absolute and primary poverty, then of course they are far from it. But you don't use that in the UK

(which is not a bad thing!)

Disposable income is after all essential bills inc food and fuel both of which are very expensive. I have 4 kids and run a car and food is one of my biggest bills anything left after those is disposable yes, pre paid gas & electric is ££ too. Means you have no contingency if car breaks down or something needs replacing or whatever it’s not a fun existence all my bills are as low as possible I have no tv subscriptions etc just basic bills.

Are you including food in your bills and you have essentially just under £200 leftover to save or spend on whatever you want?

That's very different to having £100-200 leftover to spend on food, fuel etc. As those are still bills.

But food and fuel is included in ours as well and I'm still not buying that it's not enough.
We have £832 a month after all our bills but not food, fuel, clothing etc. That X 12 months ÷ 52 weeks is how I get the £192 a week figure.
In a month we spend roughly:
£280 food
£150 fuel
£150 'luxury spending' (days out, clothes etc.)
£250 a month saving (More or less depending how many 'luxuries we have bought)

Yes, I will concede that childcare is this amount all over again and in theory, that will drop in a few years time and increase the amount we have significantly. But we are not struggling now so I just don't understand why it is that poor.

Also to explain further, I'm a social worker and work with extremely vulnerable adults (many with children) and many have no where near this amount to spend. It's not a small amount of money.

I'm just saying the show tries to depict itself as highlighting the difference between the richest and the poorest in the country and this is not the poorest by a long shot.

after all our bills, childcare etc I have worked out that we have exactly £192 a week to spend

What are you including a ETC though?

We £250 a week disposable income after ALL bills, food, petrol, savings and kids activities. I don’t feel poor in real life that’s £1000 a month to spend on anything we want.

I wouldn’t say rich or well off, it just makes us comfortable which I know makes us very lucky.

@Sickmama How much do you have left after all bills, food, childcare and fuel every month?

I think the poverty porn angle is one to consider, though. As you say, OP, you’re not really there to watch poverty porn. I think they just say “poor” as in slightly below average. Yes, you enjoy having a nosy at the rich house, and the comparison is interesting, but you don’t really want to see true poverty porn and I doubt many other viewers do either - the absolute poorest could have houses either bereft of furniture, or with lots of broken furniture and possible hoarding issues, or issues with cleanliness as they might have mental health problems or have grown up in care which can (not always) lead to issues with working and knowing how to “keep a house.” What kind of show would it be, if on one side you have the rich family in a manor and on the other side you have a single mother with poor mental health and two small children, who are still in nappies yet trying to feed themselves cereal because she’s barely able to get off the couch, struggling without mental help, in the tiniest, grimiest council apartment where the sink is filled with dishes, there’s a pile of dirty nappies next to the garbage can, and there’s general absolute hopelessness? Because that’s what would happen if they got the true poorest in the country. Who would want the world to see them like that? And whose social worker would ever allow that?

Because that’s what would happen if they got the true poorest in the country.

it's still relative poverty.

@RightYesButNo that is a very very good point and I think probably spot on.
I stand by though that I think the show over exaggerates how poor the poor families are for effect though.

The show has always stated that food and fuel has to be included in the amount of spending for the week so I'm not sure why so many people are making a point of saying this should be considered after bills. I agree and I don't consider the money I spend on food to be optional either; I'm just making a like for like comparison with my circumstances to explain why I don't think it's that poor.

Usually dubious about the rich v poor programs. Don't watch them anymore. Depends on the individual characters but either it's: a. Spoiled lazy brat V hard done by single mum. Or b. lazy stupid irresponsible slob V hard working go getter who deserves their success.

Another truly vile program that used to do similar was Supersize v Superskinny. Glad they don't show that anymore

When I watch it, it is often under £100. Which is a still a big difference to your £192. I have watched all of the show and most of them still have to pay for electricity and gas from that £100, as well as food, and none of them are able to save either. It includes clothes, school bits, and emergency costs. Most of the families on there are in debt, have no savings, and have cheap cars and white goods which break regularly and they have to keep paying to fix short notice.

Thanks for the tip about Chrome not playing the adverts OP.

@Floogal I am not disagreeing in any way shape or form. I don't actually watch TV very much but what else is there to do when you're ill so I've just been finding things I like to watch. The other is a Country life for Half the Price I've been enjoying... Which of course is all very well when you have half a million pounds worth of equity as it is... But nevertheless, watching a city dweller learn to milk a goat is a good way to pass yet another hour of feeling like 💩.