Breadline Children on C4. Anyone else watching?

[somewherewest]

Or just me?

They were all in flats, too. We grow our own herbs and limited veg, but there are no allotments here and in cities, the waiting list is often very long and then you often need to use a bus to get to them.

You pay more for the pre-payment metres and you pay a weekly standing charge for using them because you are not allowing the company to use you as an interest-free loan.

I think people on prepayment meters should pay less than those obtaining gas and electric on credit.

I can't think of many other things that if you pay for them in advance are not cheaper

I feel pretty ashamed of the whiny thread I started a couple of weeks ago, complaining that I never have any money for larks after I've paid the rent and bills and stuffed my fridge with food. Things are tight, it's true, but I'm nowhere near the breadline. It's good sometimes to get a big kick up the arse.

I would really love to see a big change in this country, but I fear that actually it's only going to get worse for an awful lot of people. The inequality gap will only get bigger, and the poor and sick will just keep getting hammered.

What a scandal that Niomi, at her time of greatest need, had to worry about her dad getting by, and that he was getting hounded by the TV license people and buying meat once a week.

I also noticed that her wheelchair looked really perfunctory - no support at the sides and she had to keep her feet lifted or they'd have trailed on the ground. The shot of her skinny and shivering in a thin coat in winter was heartbreaking.

The initial chemo makes them sick and weak. With ALL, sometimes they are given steroids, which keep them up all night despite sedative and give most the appetite of Goliath.

You give such a paed patient ANYTHING they want to eat, at any time.

I can remember when DD1 came home, stocking the freezer and cupboards with whatever she craved. She was tall, but only 23kgs at discharge, so sent home with feed, as she had in hospital.

She wanted Magnum ice cream bars and Chicago Town pepperoni pizzas, Galloway cheddar cheese, ham, rolls and real butter and spag Bol.

You get up and get a child that skinny despite feed putting thousands of calories in her anything she wants, whatever the cost.

She went back in at a few grams short of 28kgs in just 2.5 weeks and her cons was pleased as punch.

A patient so thin, too, is easily cold. We bought an oil-filled heater, to stand next to her bed and warm her along with her duvet and blankets. She had no body hair and though she slept with a cap on, it often came off in the night with movement, so keeping her warm was priority.

I hope C4 helped/paid these people they filmed.

People who commit benefited fraud should think about people who genuinely need benefits as they are making it so much harder for them to claim without jumping through hoops.

Benefit fraud counts for a miniscule amount of cases, and financially costs far less than the amount of benefits unclaimed. It has fuck all to do with why this situation came about.

In your opinion. Some people wouldn't feel such a stigma claiming benefits if they went to the genuinely needy rather than on inappropriate claims.

The situations I could see on this programme came about because of people being over a barrel with gas and electric meter top ups rather than the much more affordable monthly direct debits, through crazy house prices and therefore crazy rents and unrealistic expectations like takeaways, meals out for children being a necessity.

In certain claimant groups, believe me benefit fraud is the majority of claimants not the minority. It's just difficult to catch them.

Can you provide some evidence for that assertion, turquoise? It's my understanding that money claimed fraudulently makes up a tiny proportion of the total benefits bill - and that in fact the govt spends more money making good it's own under payments to genuine claimants. Unfortunately I'm on my phone, on a bus, so can't link but I'd be interested to know more about these sections of society that are mainly fraudulent claimers.

DLA does stop when a person is in hospital or respite....I'm a little 'on the fence' on this one because IF you have someone in respite care for an extended period should the carer get DLA for the person at the same rate as if the disabled person was living at home 24/7? IF a person is in respite their food/board/daily living costs are provided by someone other than the carer so the expenses would NOT fall on the family to provide IYSWIM DLA will be suspended for the week/s that the disabled person is away which I think is fair because the 'extra expense' for heating/travel etc is NOT there...saying that nothing around benefits is plain and simple! I ALWAYS stay with my daughter when she is in hospital and provide 99% of her care..because she is in hospital her DLA stops..BUT I have the extra expense of LIVING 24/7 in the hospital which they will not consider because she is being 'provided for' in hospital LOL but without a team of trained carers...the food is inedible so roughly works out £15/£20 a day. There was a comment said briefly on the programme 'when she's home' which leads me to believe that the young lady featured does get some form of respite although didn't say for how many weeks she gets a year.
It's criminal that the Nan with her Granddaughter to raise didn't get more help...I knew an elderly couple who had to bring up their 2 young Grandkids after their Mum/their Daughter was murdered by the son in law...they had to raise 2 kids on their state pension (single pension when she became widowed) IF the girls were put into foster they would have had a much easier life!. I also felt it ironic that this programme was shown on the same night as '12 year old shopaholic' where the children on there were VERY much at the other end of the scale (spoilt and very indulged) I must say I know which children out of the 2 shows came across much nicer and more humble...although sadly old before their years.
NO person who is caring for anyone 24/7 should be living on the breadline FULL STOP! It's hard enough when we have to give up work to care for someone without having the added stress of can I eat/heat my home tomorrow, unfortunately my daughter sees everyday the hardships we face because of her disabilities...she has enough problems without that burden to bare too.

Maybe as well as sending so much money elsewhere to feed the hungry we should get our own house in order first! I would love a xmas box appeal where we donate xmas gifts to a local food bank.

I want aware that the prepaid costs more.
Im in NI and use a keypad for my electric. It's a 10% discount if I do it that way.

YAY! I have just rang my local food bank and they are looking for volunteers...I have offered my time and can take my daughter too.

This country has plenty of money to do both salsmum - that's the point!

It would have even more if we didn't let multinational corporations decide for themselves how much tax they'd like to pay... Foreign aid is not the issue here.

I would prefer a world where we didn't need to donate to food banks at all, because they would be unnecessary.

Just watching this now. It's v v distressing

For all the Tory voters, shame on you

Citrus I v much agree

Finally watched :(

It's amazing how easy and scary you can suddenly be on the poverty line if you have an ill child

Taking away dla when your child is severely ill and possibly going to die seems inhumane :(

Didn't reliese gas and electric meters were higher

All seems very wrong :(

But the kids were amazing and a true credit to their parents /relatives

I can remember the hell you went through Expat x

It's utterly horrendous.

Those kids were old before their time.

So sad .

The Trussell Trust just phoned, I e-mailed them last night and am now sign up, volunteering at a supermarket collection.

Years ago I gave up my job to care for my late husband.
His DLA stopped when he had been in hospital for 3 months (it was longer than 1 month at the time)
Consequently my Carer's Allowance, and IS, stopped and I was told that I would be ineligible for any benefits unless I went out to look for a job.........I was visiting every day to help with his care (I'm a Nurse, they were short staffed.......) and also had an 8 year old daughter struggling with the fact her Dad was probably not going to get better........
To this day I can remember being on my mobile to the DWP explaining why it would be difficult for me to find a job when the hospital rang, on the landline, to tell me to get to there quickly......The rest is history and, as a single parent I rang them up that same afternoon to ask them to restart my IS until I could consider looking for a job!................................