The Benefits Cap : is it working ? BBC 1 , anyone watching ?

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I'm preparing to feel quite depressed by it all,

She really must be exhausted. I know it sounds a cliché but it's true that as you get older you do have so much less energy and it takes longer to recharge it. I am 61 and only work part-time. If you had told me in my 30s or 40s how long it would take me to recover from a day's work (when only a couple of years ago I was working full time) and how little housework I try to get away with, I wouldn't have believed it.

She's receiving £50k a year, I'm sure she could pay for some help to ease the load.

Agree chipped.

She gets £49k per year with the cap in place - £29k for the kids, £20k (capped) for her.

£49k per year is plenty to pay rent & some help with childcare.

The grandmother will also be expected to save for her own care in old age.

Is this programme on iPlayer?

I forgot to record it and I can't find it on iPlayer

Yes. I watched it on iPlayer.

Do a search on Panorama.

Ok thanks, I'll try that

Thanks Lizzie

I found it!

The grandmother will also be expected to save for her own care in old age.

She brings in £49k per year.
This is entirely in tax free benefits.

She is in a far better position to 'save for care in old age' than most.
Regardless, as she is on benefits with no assets, she will not be required to contribute to any care that she may require.

fwiw, I am not 'benefits bashing', I am a single mother of 2 on ESA so know just how tough it can be.
The difference between me and the people featured on this program is that I have the advantage/luxury etc of knowing how to budget/search for the right help etc etc.
I'm also not scared of, nor do I feel cowed by, authority figures and I'm not in the least defensive or embarrassed by my position because I was 'respectable' before falling on hard times.
I cannot imagine what it must be like to not to have had the advantages I have had and to be trying to cope tbh.

That's why I believe that these people would be much better helped by proper one-to-one interventions - you don't magically know all this stuff on your own, it's learned.
And if nobody is helping properly then how can people ever be expected to get past the struggling.

The grandmother will also be expected to save for her own care in old age

Why? She'll be subject to exactly the same rules as everyone else? If she has assets above about £20k she'll be expected to pay. If she doesn't she won't.

But that still doesn't change the fact that her income is probably in the top 20% of all of the UK or perhaps more, especially when taking into account the fact that it's effectively an after tax amount.

I agree Of course shes in a better position to save for care than most. I just thought it should be included in the conversation.

I think the truth of the matter is that she actually needs emotional help but cant admit that to herself possibly because it makes her feel guilty because they are her grandchildren so she is focusing on income instead.

The Grandmother's income, after the cap, is £49K for God's sake! Plenty of money in the kitty to get a little respite from taking care of her grandchildren, help with housework etc. Plus, they all looked of school age, so she has 7 hours a day, totally child free.

Yes, it's great that she's taking care of her grandsons. But would she be doing it if it didn't earn her £49K a year, I wonder

I don't think the youngest was of school age.

I feel dreadful watching this. None of them are at all bringing out any sympathy. Could they not get anyone who wasn't workshy or just dreadful at budgeting to appear on this programme?

The program is trying to show how the benefit cap is causing people problems. If you're not workshy and you can budget, you probably won't have many problems.

You only have to work 16hrs a week fgs, take in ironing, knock on doors offering to clean windows or cut grass. If you're not workshy you're unlikely to be left in the shit long term.

And if you are good with a budget, an income of £20k per year after tax is hardly shocking is it .

These programs focus on those who don't bring out any sympathy because the ones we would sympathise with, who have fallen on hard times and just been dealt a bad hand will probably manage to scrape together the pieces and pull themselves back out the other side. The ones we sympathise with are the carers (not affected) the low income working families (not affected) the disabled (not affected). The people who are affected by the cap will be people with multiple children who do not work, and thats the group where most people struggle to sympathise with.

i was just watching it, and re the Grandmother, if she didnt have the boys (which no one disputes is a wonderful thing she is doing) she would be able to live in a smaller property - therefore the money she gets for the boys should go to the rest of the property

i really dont get her logic at all for not paying towards with the 'boys' money

Someone needs to set up a childminding service in the evening. People don't just work 9 until 5.

The problem is massive so many people are splitting up and wanting housing and benefits etc. Never heard of it in the 60's. People got married and generally supported themselves. Didn't expect to be kept.

dotty thats because back in the 60s women had no choice but to stay with abusive men. The first refuge didnt open until 1972.

I am not sure that's the case. People generally commited themselves and got married before setting down.

Its to casual now.

A lot of people have children expecting the state to pay. Times have changed.

Yeah the 60's were great.

You clearly haven't seen Cathy Come Home.

I have and I agree it wasn't good, but people expect so much from the state today. I used to work in a housing and benefit place and people would come in and say im pregnant what benefits can I get. The whole mindset has changed and less and less people even bother to get married and sort out some housing before they start a family.

When I was at school too I only knew one person whose parents were divorced now its the norm. Not sure how you can deny these shifts.

It has changed a lot in the last 25 years. When I was younger the emphasis was on getting a place to live around the same time as you got married. (Church or registry office) and then you would think about having children. To get pregnant without any place of your own to live seemed madness.

People did get divorced and became single parents years ago. But not many people just decided they would go ahead and have children without a husband. And on these threads I find it really puzzling when folk say well he won't commit to marriage but they already have two or three children together. .

I honestly don't think this huge increase in single parenthood has done a lot for women. It's made men irresponsible and left the woman struggling along with childcare and financial hardships.

The 60s were dreadful.
My mother left my father with two preschoolers, we had a few clothes, that was it. She was told to go back home to her abusive husband.
She didn't, we stayed with various relatives, lived in a mobile home, it took her three years to get a stable roof over our heads.
My mother worked full time the whole of my life, it was very, very hard.

51 Your mum is a brave awesome woman.