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

[HalfShellHero]

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

They picked the completely wrong families to evoke sympathy. I wonder why that was

At a guess, a bit of propaganda to wet the whistles of the masses ahead of the benefit cuts coming in today?

Didn't see this programme but have been disappointed with Panorama for years - usually interesting topics but they always deliver it with no depth.
On topic: it would be nice to see a 'benefits tv programme' that featured an 'average benefits family' not just ones that cause the most outrage. Used to think BBC was unbiased - seriously doubting that these days.

The woman pisses me off, ME and you can't work?! The kids side I sort of see the point of (don't have so many) but they've had that many before the cap came in so can't be helped, but don't bleat on about ME and not being able to work. I know 2 younger people both had ME and both now work or worked, one is a part time SAHM.

Could you please be mindful of the fact that everyone with M.E is different. It's a very cruel disease in that you can look very healthy and be extremely unwell. I look absolutely fine. You wouldn't have a clue there's a thing wrong with me if you met me, I still have to spend 80-90% of my life in bed. I can't talk for very long. My blood pressure is all over the shop. I can't even read or watch much tv, it's so excruciatingly exhausting. Some people are bedbound and live in the dark 24/7 and can't tolerate any noise or being touched. They can be paralysed and unabke to eat.

Obviously i don't know how ill the woman in the programme is and i think the programme did a terrible job of picking participants but i'd wager she's far more unwell than is first apparent. If someone with M.E can work, they're mildly affected. That or they're pushing through some horrendous symptoms and risking becoming very severely ill indeed.

I fail to see how people on £20k or £23k a year can't pay their (generally low HA), rents and feed their kids. There are millions of working people up and down the country on less than that, who manage to pay their rent and bills, and to feed and clothe their families. These individuals were a horrible set of people and absolutely justify the govt's benefits cap. Two long-term unemployed people with four DC. Four DC FFS! The single mum who hasn't worked for 17 years with SEVEN DC. The thing is that these people DO exist and they give everyone the rage. I have no idea why their rent isn't paid direct, since they're incapable of getting their priorities straight (fags, booze, fancy prams, hair extensions and iPhones all clearly much more important than a roof over their DC's heads). We should do what the US does and give people food stamps that can't be spent on anything else.

The family with mum with ME and dad with injured hand would surely be entitled to ESA if their medical conditions are such that they can't work - therefore not affected by the cap. Why are they not claiming ESA if their conditions are so bad?
(Although his hand injury is clearly not that limiting judging by his wii & table football dexterity).

The grandmother gets £49k per year.

The woman with 7 kids obviously has a massive backstory.

Interventions wrt budgeting, managing household finances (and somebody telling the grandmother to pay her bloody rent out of her £49k) would be money well spent tbh.

What exactly is the granny spending the £29,000 on its all very well saying its for the 'boys' but if the 'boys'lose their home then going on day trips and holidays isnt really worth it I get the boys have had a tough start but lots of kids do my son is severly autistic its tough on all of us but the most important thing is keeping a roof over heads, and the women with seven kids clearly had no intention of getting a job its all everyone elses fault not hers I would have had some sympathy with maria if the programme had focused on her pain and why she wasent gettiing ESA and PIP then she wouldnt be subject to the benefit cap but saying she cant work because she has kids[ children she chose to have when not working] is a slap uin the face for ordinary families struggling to work and struggling with child care, the liverpool guy i agree is just a tosser and Bruce i had some sympathy but perfct jobs with perfect hours dont exist and loads of people have to struggle with childcare.

dad with injured hand

Because his hand isn't really injured, is it! He's been swinging the lead for years and the DWP is well aware of it. I suspect they only got the hardship payment because they've got four kids who can't help having such a feckless and irresponsible pair for parents.

And another thing - all this talk of a rise in food bank use - who was the one pictured picking up three big bags of free food? The feckless mum of four married to a workshy smoker and drinker who blows £40 a week from the family budget on his habits. Who is going to want to donate to food banks when they see the kind of people being supported? People who could actually feed their families if they were spunking money up the wall on booze and fags?

This programme was basically a party political broadcast on behalf of the Conservative party and proves just how government controlled the BBC has become.
There was no attempt to show people who we could be sympathetic with at all. Why did that single Dad turn down a part time job? His kids weren't small and surely he could sort out child care.
The gran was equally confusing and that Mum of 7 was so rude and entitled. I will be watching the rich house poor house on Channel 5 as I thought that last week's was good and showed the real struggle for poor families who are trying to work.

I don't donate to food banks and watching that programme would make me less likely to give anything not more likely. I agree that the programme seemed to have picked on people very unlikely to generate sympathy in viewers. Sort of like government propaganda. But it was the BBC so it couldn't possibly be that.

Nobody forces these people to put themselves and their finances up for scrutiny on telly. It's their CHOICE to appear. Every time there's a programme of this sort of telly there is a chorus of "it's not representative" or "people on Benefits aren't like that" but there seems to be an ample supply of people who are exactly like that, unless you're suggesting they're being paid to smoke, drink and be feckless.

So many excuses, "I bring my kids up myself" or "I spend £40 a week on booze" or "the money isn't for rent, it's for ice skating" or "I can't possibly work as my hand is SO injured (but I can play quite happily on the Wii)".

The single dad would have finished at 5.30 pm and couldn't have got back for child care. He also had to do Saturdays and could find childcare for that either. Both things are reasonable really, unless you have family to help at the weekend what other choices are there?

I felt sorry for the single Dad who got the job and then had no childcare, that sounded like a real dilemma.

I try not to judge because I've not been on benefits and don't really know how it all works, but I did think that with their total income some of the families should have been able to survive on that. That said the lady interviewed (I think she worked for a group helping people on benefits) made a good point that working families on similar incomes would get tax credits etc so were probably better off.

I though the bloke who spent £40 a week on beer and cigarettes and was capable of playing the wii was taking the piss a bit. Equally I thought the grandma receiving discretionary allowance should be putting it towards the rent as keeping a roof over the children's heads is for them. I completely agree with her point about kinship carers should receive financial support automatically though.

I felt sorry for the lady who lived apart from her children. I generally think you shouldn't have children if you can't afford them, but I did feel desperately sorry for her and her children regardless.

I'll still donate to food banks. It's going to feed the dc, after all. Not that everyone who uses them has a waste of space partner spending the food money on cigarettes and alcohol anyway.

I woke up this morning to a £25 a week cut to my tax credits. Will I pay less on my rent now? No. I'll drop a bottle of wine, switch to a lower brand of food for a couple of non essentials, be thankful that the weather means more (free) outdoor activities. It's my responsibility to keep a roof over my kids heads.

I think some people unfortunately are going to get a huge shock and I feel for them. I do think a cap of some kind needs to be in place but lets see more documentaries about how people with mh/disabilities are being shafted. This was more like C5 than Panorama.

I felt very angry last night watching this show, and felt they had very cleverly picked the claimants out to maximise outrage from viewers.
But isn't the actual problem the system that allows this in the first place? Somewhere along the line, we've made being lazy socially acceptable and even desirable. There are genuine claimants out there, struggling to make the system work for them (my father is one) but in addition to that, there are probably 1000s of the families above who have no intention of contributing to society and just taking. It may take generations to change that attitude once more; and no one wants to go back to the shame of the workhouse generation but surely there is middle ground somewhere.
Especially post Brexit when we are likely to have a massive shortfall in the blue collar workforce - factory workers, hospital cleaners, agricultural work etc. Can we not take that chance to get the small army of workshy benefit claimants back out there and proud of themselves once more? What struck me last night was every family featured had iphones,ipads,tv's, Sky, cars, top of the range pushchairs etc. That annoys me more than anything - a system that confuses necessity with luxury.

Lois, with the hashtag keep coming up, i kept thinking it was an adbreak and it was on C4. Definitely not a usual style of BBC documentary.

So many excuses, "I bring my kids up myself"

She really didn't know what to say when the interviewer asked wasn't it a luxury to be able to stay at home with your children? I think she said that people had better stop having them then - certainly SHE should.

"the money isn't for rent, it's for ice skating"

I really couldn't understand this - did she think most children had more than seven thousand a year spent on them for presents and activities? How wasn't it blindingly obvious that having a secure roof over their heads was good for them.

I missed the bit about the £40 on booze/fags.

I wonder what criteria they use for choosing the families? I should think not many would want to volunteer - I know I wouldn't.

The presenter did challenge the man on his £40 a week spend on beer and cigarettes while in rent arrears and going to a foodbank but he didn't really have an answer, unsurprisingly.

I don't know where BBC got those people from but they are not the minority. They are certainly stupid especially spouting off about how unfair it all was and that Gran... Words fail me. The sense of entitlement was shocking!

There are people who help people budget on benefits. Its not meant to be easy. A friend of mine was doing this role and she lasted 6 months. She was truly shocked and depressed at the level of entitlement. She started off by getting them to list their benefits, then their outgoings and rarely did anyone volunteer to drop the evenings out, the iPhone's, etc. There was a view that as others had them were entitled to them too.

They really didn't see the relationship between working and buying things and had a raft of excuses around depression, lack of childcare as to why they couldn't possibly work!

Someone complained to HO that they had been asked to drop the Sky TV (I joke not!) and felt picked on so my friend left the role utterly depressed!

I swore at the tv and I consider myself very liberal and supportive normally. The way that woman spoke to her social worker. She 'performed' the minute she got on her phone to them, as though hurling abuse would endear her to the professionals. Christ, imagine that one living next door to you, with or without her seven children.
This is the first one of these programmes I have ever watched and whilst I understand there are people who make good tv, these people also appear to exist in real life.

Just watched this, it was like a very subtle advert for the benefit cap!
Mind you the idiot dad spending £40 a week on himself and the Vicky Pollard impersonator with her 7 kids in care did make me angry. I'd be interested to see if eviction rates rise.

The woman with 7 kids, Sarah, seems to not grasp the reality, I wonder if she's just a bit thick or a drug addict.

In my non-professional opinion I'd say she was addicted to having babies - the fancy pram, cot and toys which seemed a little too young for her baby. No reference made to the children's father either.

I think Sarah hasn't realised that the days gone by where additional children meant additional benefits have ended.
It didn't even occur to her to go out and get a job, after all once the baby was taken off her she had no excuse.