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Original poster

Benefits street

391 replies

viagrafalls · 06/01/2014 21:04

Anyone watching ?

OP posts:
hickorychicken · 08/01/2014 18:52

Create attractive incentives? Are you kidding? Having a better quality of life would be enough of an incentive for enough people.
Who would foot that bill?
Give me strength.

handcream · 08/01/2014 19:07

'Eventually they give up' - they already have despite all the help and support. They dont turn up to meetings, claim benefits they are not entitled and clearly priortise themselves first. Smoking and then moaning you have had your benefits stopped because you had been caught committing benefit fraud. Give it a rest. Lets stop making excuses for people. There are support groups, offers of help etc - they choose not to take them up.

They choose to stick two fingers at society and do what they hell they like.

What are the 'attractive incentives'. Surely working is one and supporting yourself as opposed to living off others. Getting qualifications (sorry too lazy), tidying up their houses (cannot be bothered), stop smoking (cannot be arsed), stop having children you clearly cannot afford who are very likely to copy their parent and fgs - tidy up the street you live in (that's the council's job!)

wetaugust · 08/01/2014 19:42

It's a bit patronising to excuse their behaviour by saying that they don't know any better because they are scared or because they have not learnt from their parents. That's nonsense. You are making them sound as though they have learning disabilities or possess no self-awareness, which is not true.

Throughout history there have been people who have had shitty starts in life but who have done well for themselves.

It's nothing to do with benefits, it's everything to do with apathy and a piss poor attitude to society.

Blondeshavemorefun · 09/01/2014 04:52

I thought white dee was trying to help people in the street

50p good for him for tryin to earn some money and legally - tho the small amounts of stuff for 50p seems insane. Double that and can have a whole bottle of say fabric conditioner or 6 loo roll or whole bag of sugar etc from 99p shop

Fungi - sad :( wants to see his kids but can't as stuck in vicious circle of drink (and drugs) but least again trying to earn some money with magazine selling etc

Couple/ think Becky /ginger hair - if they did be benifit fraud then yes they deserve everything they get and if they have to live off £30? A week then so be it

Black dee / I just see a scared kid acting bolshy brave

Fungis friend - seems so easy to shoplift remove tags and sell. Couldn't believe they have 5 policeman/lady on bikes following him
After his abos

Yes they all seem to find money to smoke and drink and obv have the large windscreen tv - but why as others have said are their houses such a tip :(

Is it te fact they just don't have pride anymore /cba?

Why doesn't the council pick up their Dustbins / rubbish/ sofa and mattress on street :(

Felt sorry for landlady who wanted black dee out / if she hasn paid her rent then landlady has got to find the extra her self (friend a landlady and so hard to evict a tenant - they have more rights then the owner :( even if they don't pay their rent )

Why isn't housing benifit paid Striaght to landlord? Would make things much easier all round - person doesn't spend it - rent gets paid - landlord gets their mortgage paid

xuntitledx · 09/01/2014 05:02

Just picking up on a point that's been made, I know it's almost a running joke now about the widescreen TV etc but did you see the size of it on the wall?! They also had Sky/Virgin, iPhone's, cigarettes, branded goods (lucozade etc) yet were still professing that they couldn't afford to pay the rent.

Bullshit.

Rent payment was de-prioritised over all of the above because people know how to work the system.
If you don't pay your TV or phone bill then you'll get cut off,
If you don't pay your rent then you can pay small amounts in installments but you won't get kicked out.

Not smart enough to go out and get a real job but smart enough to milk the system for everything you can get.

Understand that in some cases families will have to choose between keeping warm and keeping fed but I didn't see a single example of that on this show.

LetZygonsbeZygons · 09/01/2014 17:25

soz if this has been said, not enough time to read all posts.
only cought 2 mins last night while channel hopping.
so why are those growing weed in their houses so blatant about it and not arrested/fined/evicted?
esopecially if they have kids.
and the booze and fags brigade. they all look so smug and proud of themselves.

no excuse about making ends meet, I just manage.

and with all that what a sorry sight it is for all us GENUINE needing help.
in mt case disabled (severely) and disabled DC (severely).

so now everyone thinks were ALL like that. does my bloody head in.

LetZygonsbeZygons · 09/01/2014 17:26

and what xuntit says.

DownstairsMixUp · 09/01/2014 17:58

Never every single poster who has been quick to slag off benefit claimaints and call them lovely names like scumbags, failed to have answered other posters calling them out and pointing out how much money goes on tax fraud etc. Why are you only getting angry at poor people and not the rich blatantly taking "your" hard earned money??

BobPatSamandIgglePiggle · 09/01/2014 18:54

Umm - cos the programme and thread are about BENEFITS, if you want to talk tax start a thread.

DownstairsMixUp · 09/01/2014 18:58

Uhm no shit! I wasn't saying I want to talk about it because I'm not stupid and know that benefit fraud is not where the majority of money goes. There's far too many threads on mumsnet like this as it is, but very few of tax fraud etc. Because people would rather just listen to hysterical scaremongering newspapers and believe what's fed to them by cleverly edited tv shows.

rpitchfo · 09/01/2014 18:59

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2536208/Truth-White-Dee-Channel-4s-Benefits-Street-stole-cash-poor-fund-lovers-crack-habit.html

sorry dailymail link....white dee...not such a good person

BobPatSamandIgglePiggle · 09/01/2014 19:08

'but very few on tax fraud'

So start one. I wouldn't comment on it because i don't know enough about about it. I know about benefit fiddling because I've worked with job seekers. Many who wanted work. Many who didn't. Some who threatened me because i'd made an appointment with them which stopped them getting on the 'fiddle bus'. I've also lived, for a long time, on a street not dissimilar to the one shown.

DownstairsMixUp · 09/01/2014 19:24

Then can i ask why don't you educate yourself? If you are so concerned about where your tax money goes, why are you not concerned about tax fraud or politicians fiddling the expenses?

BobPatSamandIgglePiggle · 09/01/2014 19:58

Oh I'm not stupid, i just have no personal experience which is why i wouldn't comment on a tax fraud thread. Wouldn't this site be tedious if we all just quoted from sources and posted links instead of commenting about things we've known and experienced.

Blondeshavemorefun · 09/01/2014 20:30

Just read the dm link

Sad that white dee stole from her job but guess everyone has done thing they are ashamed of and she lost her job and did comm
Service

Always have wondered if you get convicted of theft do you have to repay the amount you stole?

Also prob why/how she knows so much to play the system - tho I did think she was trying to help the others

As someone else said earlier / you don't pay tv or gas/electric /phone and get cut off

But you don't pay rent and they won't chuck you out and so some do play the system

as I said a friend is a landlady and her tennant didn't pay rent for a few months and took ages to evict him - he had rights even tho wouldn't pay rent Shock

scarlettsmummy2 · 09/01/2014 20:37

I am truly stunned at the complete lack of understanding as to why the people on this programme live like this. They don't feel 'entitled', they just don't know any different. If they did they would be out protesting over the welfare reform measures instead of quietly accepting job centre sanctions and having to choose to eat or heat. Do you think people want to be accessing food banks? I work with vulnerable people such as those on the programme and have yet to meet one who does not have significant barriers to employment. Living on benefits is a truly horrible existence, it is a complete myth that it is a genuine lifestyle choice.

hickorychicken · 09/01/2014 21:08

Quietly accepting sanctions?? They dont stick to their jobseekers agreements so get sanctioned...why shouldnt they accept it?!
Fucking sick of posts saying us people who live in the real world lack understanding and empathy. Stop being so patronising and open your eyes!!!

scarlettsmummy2 · 09/01/2014 21:16

They job centre are now often using sanctions in the first instance. We have people being sanctioned for not applying for enough jobs for example, but these people are often illiterate with hugely chaotic lives or undiagnosed learning difficulties and no access to a computer anyway. It is you who is grossly ignorant.

hickorychicken · 09/01/2014 21:23

See what i mean....

scarlettsmummy2 · 09/01/2014 21:29

No I don't. I think you and many others like you have no idea what the reality of a lifetime of unemployment actually is. I am not making excuses, I am stating a fact- that joblessness and poverty is not a true lifestyle choice but a tragic situation to be in.

MorrisZapp · 09/01/2014 21:30

Depressing viewing. The professional shoplifter scared me. I just don't understand the mentality of people like that ie people who get genuinely angry and aggressive with others when they're the ones at fault.

When the police caught him breaking his asbo in Primark, he was genuinely enraged. He was furious to be accused, yet was bang to rights. What is the thought process? I don't get it.

MorrisZapp · 09/01/2014 21:32

Peking, you say the long term unemployed eventually just give up. This suggests they tried hard over a period of time to be self supporting, but when repeatedly knocked back, lost heart.

Do you know if that applies to any of the people featured in the programme? I didn't catch all of it but I thought they had been workless all their lives.

hickorychicken · 09/01/2014 21:32

There will be an excuse for his behaviour morris.

scarlettsmummy2 · 09/01/2014 21:34

In his case I would bet there was probably drug use and mental health issues, combined with a childhood in care or if not, he should have been. He responded in that way as he has spent his whole life on edge and responded the only way he knew how- to lash out.