Did anyone see Ch5 benefits Sussex special .

Brighton Lines said:

I’m out of work at the moment, since my employer suddenly ceased trading without notice, and would now be what some love to term a ‘benefits scrounger’.

My benefit entitlement comes in at around £12,000 per annum, although the figures need to be broken down for a more realistic view. For after the housing element is taken off I am left with £74 a week which must also pay for any bills I have to pay. The reality is that the government assumes that between £40 and £50 a week is enough to live on for food, clothing and most other one-off expenses that occur. I know that it is an obvious struggle for many and understandably so. I need absolutely no sympathy in this myself, as for now, I can fall back on the savings I have as a result of my redundancy (although they are well below the threshold), but I will stand up for those who aren’t- especially those who I worked with who qualified for no pay-out whatsoever.

For most of those without personal resources, or supporting family, unemployment is a struggle. And under the draconian commitment to work they have to make these days (I’ve had to sign this myself) they are treated as scum. Yet the overwhelming majority don’t get ‘sanctioned’ suggesting their cases are real. It’s the obvious slackers that the rotten media love to create sensation over. But most do struggle, most do want to work, and most also struggle to meet their financial commitments.

So just because a scuzzy television channel seeks out scuzzy people to make a scuzzy show about the scuzzy situation a lot of people find themselves in, don’t assume that the majority of folk are like that. Perhaps HB&B might like to write an article about it, then I can use the word scuzzy again.

I’ve bought a £2 ticket for the beamback tomorrow and will be buying a pint. But don’t worry, I’m using my own resources for this. There is no season ticket for next year though. If I could get one of those off the state that would be splendid…

Click to expand...

Brighton Lines said:

I’m out of work at the moment, since my employer suddenly ceased trading without notice, and would now be what some love to term a ‘benefits scrounger’.

My benefit entitlement comes in at around £12,000 per annum, although the figures need to be broken down for a more realistic view. For after the housing element is taken off I am left with £74 a week which must also pay for any bills I have to pay. The reality is that the government assumes that between £40 and £50 a week is enough to live on for food, clothing and most other one-off expenses that occur. I know that it is an obvious struggle for many and understandably so. I need absolutely no sympathy in this myself, as for now, I can fall back on the savings I have as a result of my redundancy (although they are well below the threshold), but I will stand up for those who aren’t- especially those who I worked with who qualified for no pay-out whatsoever.

For most of those without personal resources, or supporting family, unemployment is a struggle. And under the draconian commitment to work they have to make these days (I’ve had to sign this myself) some are treated in a humiliating way. Yet the overwhelming majority don’t get ‘sanctioned’ suggesting their cases are real. It’s the obvious slackers that the rotten media love to create sensation over. But most do struggle, most do want to work, and most also struggle to meet their financial commitments.

So just because a scuzzy television channel seeks out scuzzy people to make a scuzzy show about the scuzzy situation a lot of people find themselves in, don’t assume that the majority of folk are like that. Perhaps HB&B might like to write an article about it, then I can use the word scuzzy again.

I’ve bought a £2 ticket for the beamback tomorrow and will be buying a pint. But don’t worry, I’m using my own resources for this. There is no season ticket for next year though. If I could get one of those off the state that would be splendid…

Click to expand...

Brighton Lines said:

I’m out of work at the moment, since my employer suddenly ceased trading without notice, and would now be what some love to term a ‘benefits scrounger’.

My benefit entitlement comes in at around £12,000 per annum, although the figures need to be broken down for a more realistic view. For after the housing element is taken off I am left with £74 a week which must also pay for any bills I have to pay. The reality is that the government assumes that between £40 and £50 a week is enough to live on for food, clothing and most other one-off expenses that occur. I know that it is an obvious struggle for many and understandably so. I need absolutely no sympathy in this myself, as for now, I can fall back on the savings I have as a result of my redundancy (although they are well below the threshold), but I will stand up for those who aren’t- especially those who I worked with who qualified for no pay-out whatsoever.

For most of those without personal resources, or supporting family, unemployment is a struggle. And under the draconian commitment to work they have to make these days (I’ve had to sign this myself) some are treated in a humiliating way. Yet the overwhelming majority don’t get ‘sanctioned’ suggesting their cases are real. It’s the obvious slackers that the rotten media love to create sensation over. But most do struggle, most do want to work, and most also struggle to meet their financial commitments.

So just because a scuzzy television channel seeks out scuzzy people to make a scuzzy show about the scuzzy situation a lot of people find themselves in, don’t assume that the majority of folk are like that. Perhaps HB&B might like to write an article about it, then I can use the word scuzzy again.

I’ve bought a £2 ticket for the beamback tomorrow and will be buying a pint. But don’t worry, I’m using my own resources for this. There is no season ticket for next year though. If I could get one of those off the state that would be splendid…

Click to expand...

Hotchilidog said:

Hastings gull said:

There you go hook line and sinker. C5 could easlily churn out documentaries on people who have been screwed by the benefits system, sick and disabled people who have died or comitted suicide after being declared fit for work, carers who have been f**ked over by the bedroom tax, people who's lives have been impacted by cutbacks in social care, mental health provision etc etc I could go on....Truth is they don't because it's easier to poke fun at and demonise at some fat waster getting a few grand from the tax payer and it keeps feeds the prejudice and ignorance that these are the people responsible for the state of this country.

Are there people milking the benefits system? Sure there are. Are there hundreds of thousands? I think not. Benefit fraud makes up less than 1per cent of benefit expenditure. All the while London is being turned into the money laundering capital of the world, and corporations devise their schemes too avoid paying billions in tax.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

LamieRobertson said:

Surely that should be working person?

Click to expand...

The Clamp said:

Did anyone see the tonne of programs about Britain's Biggest Benefit recipient yesterday?

Click to expand...

Hotchilidog said:

What's the point of watching crap like this. Cheap tabloid tv designed to demonise those at the bottom of society while those at the top who are really robbing us blind continue to get away with it.

Click to expand...

Pavilionaire said:

Real life example. In the village where I live there is a woman and her husband - they have 3 kids. She is a cleaner, he is a part-time car mechanic (and rumoured drug-dealer, but we won't go into that).

Last summer she posted on her Facebook status that she was going on a £4,000 all-inclusive family holiday to Spain. Last month she paid for a birthday party for her son and 16 of his friends at Laserquest. The woman smokes 30 fags a day.

This week she's again taken to Facebook to lament the loss of £100 per week in working tax credit. Apparently now she's left with a mere £3.50 per week.

By my calculations the cost of the holiday, the party and the fags is the same as the working credit she's lost - c. £5K

Based on this example the tax credit changes ARE working.

Click to expand...

AmexRuislip said:

You may be right, but the word pride has a lot to do with it.

Click to expand...

Horton's halftime iceberg said:

Did anyone else catch the first episode of Clare in the Community the other week - a humorous parody of this style of TV an entertaining listen

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0612n9l

Click to expand...

Brighton Lines said:

You paid your National Insurance, you would merely be claiming what you are entitled to.

As for your other comments, some people's positions are easily miss-understood. Like most, my anger at the demonisation at those out of work does not include those who don't give a feck and think the world owes them a living. The problem is that IDS and his mates gleefully allowed that tag to be extended to many others as part of their wider agenda. This is why I counsel restraint in rhetoric that, whether intended or not, gives unintentional credence to the mission creep in benefits policy.

But for God's sake, claim what is yours. Some of your pride may be coming from the stigma that is attached to doing so. I could be wrong, and apologise if I am, but your thinking may really be reflecting the very message that has been handed down the years. As you reassuringly said to me, you pay into this system, you have a right to take from it.

Click to expand...

Brighton Lines said:

That's clearly not her benefits paying for that though. Your inference of a second family income in the text of your passage could be the clue.

No one on benefits can afford family holidays like that without other investments or a second clandestine income

Click to expand...

Simster said:

There are always going to be hopeless sad-acts unwilling or unable to pull their weight in society. But let's be clear, most of society is NOT galled by someone for whom life has been a one massive wasted opportunity, simply asking for a free bus pass. It would take a very special bitter kind of individual to be galled at such a situation.
The solutions to the problems of tax dodging scroungers at the top, and the true benefit scroungers at the bottom are clearly not easy ones to solve. I think they both need cross party solutions and joined up thinking of the like we have never ever seen before except in war time. Until then, we will simply get buck-passing or wishy washy drivel cooked up by people unwilling to roll their sleeves up and solve the problems.


Just for a bit of context, it was clear that this old guy couldn't afford it either. He was down on his luck, he'd worked briefly, and decided "everybody deserves a holiday sometimes don't they?". It was an impulse purchase he couldn't afford, and he was sick with worry when reality hit.

Click to expand...