Benefits street

[viagrafalls]

Anyone watching ?

Becky and Mark attended Selly Oak Trust School which is for those with Moderate Learning Difficulties. The students need a Statement of SEN to get a place there and yet Ch4 thinks they got "informed consent" from these two former students.

Shitty state of affairs.

it's not Becky. ...it's Tracy isnt it?

Some of the opinions on here are really sad.

I was on benefits for over 3 years. During that time I became severly depressed, my home was a shit hole and I hated myself. Its sad to say that I would have fit right in to benefits street.

When I decided I wanted to get a job I got almost no support what so ever from the job centre to facilitate this. I went to a group meeting where I was handed a print out to help me write my cv and told I could send my completed copy back to them for feedback.....they never responded. I would have been better off using google and looking at examples of CVs on there.

I am lucky in the sense that I wanted to get a job and that I am educated to degree level, however when you have been on benefits for 3 years and you self esteem is at an all time low trying to find a job (even an unskilled minimum wage position) becomes a nightmare. I felt like I wasn't good enough for any of the jobs. I didn't think I could do any of them. I didn't believe in myself. I handed out my CV and applied for jobs but I didn't hear back from any of them.

One day I was in the local library and I saw a leaflet for a jobs fair so I decided to give it a try. Went and had a look round and met someone from the national careers service. They were really helpful and booked me in for a one to one appointment.
I had my meeting with the national careers service which was great, the guy got me thinking about what I actually wanted to do and got me focused on a particular sector. He also gave me much needed advice for my CV and how to pad out the 3 year gap from when I had been on Income support. He really opened my eyes to the different approaches I could take to finding a job and advised me to try also signing up with a recruitment agency....which I handnt even considered before.

A few weeks later I had a job.

Why are these free services not advertised more. Yes people need to take responsibility for themselves but sometimes its really hard to know where to start and the people who are supposed to help you are useless. Sometimes you need that one to one and someone who believes in you. This is something the government need to invest in if they want to get people into jobs. Sometimes people need spoon feeding and a bit of hand holding. Sometimes they need someone to point them in the right direction or show them where their CV is lacking. These people need our help.

Benefits Street ,, , The modern version of Bedlam where rich/better off Victorians would go to gawp and to laugh . .

Those of you who sound stuck up and snobbish to me , and the "im alright Jack's" type, there for the grace of God go YOU.

Its a disgusting programme and Channel 4 should be ashamed. Oh and it IS propeganda. And using a couple with learning difficulties is sick, , sick sick .

Oh and the snidey little comments re "not seen no flat screen TVs" . .how pathetic and petty ..
TVs can be bought second hand, paid off by weekly payments, given to people .. Would you prefer the unemployed had NOTHING AT ALL ay ?? Horrible bitches..

Well said HoleySocksBatman , , and others Ive noted who are not shallow, closed minded and damn right offensive . .

So people who agree that people like and becky need support yet think that drug and arms dealing is rather shitty and illegal are shallow and closed minded. There is NOTHING WRONG with being on benefits if you cannot support yourself, many claim and manage perfectly well with what they get, but do you not see that people are sick of seeing this shit where they get enough to eat, rent paid yet its not eniugh and the stealing starts. I have no sympathy for drug users and alcoholics who have no desire to help themselves, if that makes me a bitch then so be it.
IMO the best thing for becky, mark and the kids is to move off that awful street where they are being dragged down by the rest.

all tvs are flat screen tvs

I think Cameron and his cronies found the worst example of benefits claimants they could and then used & paid the media to get people on his side of thinking that ALL benefits claimants behave and live like that!

I find it rather ridiculious this is how those on welfare are portrayed!
Me & dh were on benefits for little under a year, it was livable, wasn't fun and was completely demeaning. The jobcentre staff looked down on us as scroungers, their faces said it all. Dh tried so damned hard to find work but there was such a high volume of people going for the little jobs available that it took 11 months of soul searching to finally get a job.

And we didn't take drugs, steal, get pissed everyday...

Who mentioned tvs?! I couldnt give a shit whos got what tv!

Becky and Mark attended Selly Oak Trust School which is for those with Moderate Learning Difficulties. The students need a Statement of SEN to get a place there and yet Ch4 thinks they got "informed consent" from these two former students.

Shitty state of affairs.

Hmmm...not sure about that. If they are capable of living independently and raising children then they are capable of making informed consent about whether to appear on a reality TV show or not. If you disagree then perhaps they should automatically remove all children from people with moderate learning difficulties. We can't have it both ways.

Exactly Pumpkin, i dont think people are that stupid though to think that is what all claiments are like though.... are they
Being on benefits is bloody grim but i think thats the point.
We should feel sorry for theives now though.

It is a pity they didnt have more support in place when they had children, their situation may be very different, but they are adults and made this decision albeit informed or not. Tv companies are going out to shock and this last year or so its been all about benefit bashing, channel 5 are doing the same soon and then there was skint, set in the town next to me. But the tv companies dont pluck these people out of thin air, they do exist.
White dee is by far the least likeable person there, she has an education of some sort yet chooses to steal from her employer and then looks down her nose and patronises other residents.

I wonder what the "informed consent" was though.

"Hey, would you like to be on a TV show which will show people what it is like to live on benefits"?

I wouldn't want MY autistic son making that decision because NO WAY would he appreciate the wider implications of that decision. At the very least an advocate should have been present.

It IS a shitty state of affairs. I can almost guarantee that there was nothing "informed" about their "informed consent".

Totally in agreement Holey, they have been exploited....but that's nothing new.....those with learning difficulties are exploited often. It shows me what a crappy society we have become that we see this happening and people are DEFENDING it.

I have been keeping up with the show, in regards to what do I think about the people on there, It is not my place to say. But I will say it is up to them if they want to better themselves because it is possible.

They All turn to her because they dont know anyone else and she puts herself out there as this lovely person (who is quite horrid to her own kids and threatened other people on the show) its very manipulative.
If they needed an advocate to help make choices such as being on tv, then surely theyl need one for every other big decision they make i.e having more kids or anything to do with current dcs. Its not right but theres nothing put in place to stop it

It doesnt matter how edited it is, it doesnt take away from the fact she pushes and grabs her 5 year old, swears and screams at him....and is a thief!!