Benefits Street

You've totally confused me flick………I don't understand what you ars trying to say. Wanders off in search of inspiration.......

What the Victorians called the deserving and undeserving poor.

Modern politicians prefer the phrase 'hardworking families', although since they never tell us how you can tell whether a family is hardworking or not and how the benefits of economic growth can be showered on one group and not the other, it rather undermines the worthiness of his high-minded definition.

Jen I have a lot of respect for your opinions, but I think we have to be careful about this 'them and us' and asking 'who is the scrounged?'

Anyone who takes handouts, without any intention to earn them, is, IMO the scrounger. I know many who have no intention of working any more and who are up to every trick in the benefits book. I also know families who are working their socks off, holding down 2 or 3 part-time jobs a week just to get by.

We do need to separate those who genuinely cannot work or find work and support them from those who will not work. The latter are draining resources and public support from the former.

More recently, the blog, 'a girl called jack' has shown how to eat well on a very small budget. But it takes strength, determination, education and resilience to do what she did - and poverty was just a phase affecting her at the time.

For households where poverty is a lifetime sentence, being clever and determined and resilient to make much out of nothing, when you may have poor housing, poor health and are living in a poor neighbourhood and also be holding down one or two poorly paid jobs, is probably more than can reasonably be expected of anyone.

Thanks jingles

Dear flick your post was quite amusing to me and defnetly seeing life from the other side is a feeling that comes to mind.

The reason poor women are fat is because often food is the only thing they have to look forward to.

People that work and are "not poor" have a lot more choices in life and have the funds to do things and go places and can fill their lives up with positive things.

And as you may know depression can often be comforted by food and "poor people" due to lack of choices, are probably more likely to suffer from depression.

And of course what you say about cheap food being mostly processed is also a factor.

To close, not all poor people have bad diets, I have been poor in my past, but chose to by fresh veg and fresh fruit rather than a tin of something.

I think there is a link between poverty and obesity. When I was a child we moved from London to Carlisle and I can remember being puzzled by all the fat ladies I saw at the local shops in Carlisle.

I must have asked about them because I remember being told it was because they were poor, all the good food went to the men and children and the women filled up on bread, margarine and sweet tea.

Cheap food consists mainly of processed carbohydrates and sugar, it did then (early 1950s) and it does now.

Did you know that a lord can go to the House of Lords, sign in and be given £300 per day? An unemployed person signs on at the jobcentre and is questioned about what he or she has done for the week, and is then given a quarter of that to live on for the week.
Who is the scrounger?
According to today's news, jobcentre workers in the North East have been saying that they have been given targets to meet which means stopping some people's benefits. Of course the government deny there is any such scheme, so it will be interesting to see what happens next. The government is all for encouraging whistleblowers in the NHS. Lets see if the same happens in the DWP.

Aka he could get a letter to take round to the Food Bank and get a bag full of stuff and get even fatter! I cannot understand if there is food poverty why are people getting fatter and fatter, I know the excuse it costs more to eat healthy, but you could just eat less even if it is junk food.

So why lie moan that he has to survive only on soup? When I was a student and took on waitressing jobs we always got fed after our shift. Not a good example of genuine need but a good example of lying whingers especially as the same BBC news took a sly dig at pensioners.

We saw that. DH wondered if he put on weight by eating pizza?

Job perks?

Just watched the 10 o'clock news. Saw a young man who worked in a pizza parlour claiming he had to survive on soup as he could not afford to eat. He was well overweight (on a diet of soup?) ...and then we saw him drive off in a bright red sporty type car with a very recent registration. Am I missing simething?

And the same one who now has her own agent because she can see the mileage to be made out of this programme - as can the agent in quesion, of course. White D will be popping up on all sorts of daily magazine programmes from now on, probably complaining that she's been exploited...

Thank you Iam that's kind of you. I agree we each have some responsibility for how we live our lives. The trouble is when there is a father such as mine, who the mother is afraid of, she is unable to 'mother' properly as all her energy goes into trying to avoid conflict. (I have only realised this as I got older). She did her best I'm sure and she had no family in this country to assist and consequently the children were neglected, with, in my case (and my poor brother who later committed suicide), fairly dire consequences. She also had the Catholic church to contend with, unbelievably coming to the house to ask her for donations when she could hardly feed her kids. My DD told me about the last episode of Benefits Street and the young boy being screamed at by white D. This is the same white D who was inviting Nick Clegg round for a cuppa, telling him how well the kids are treated.

My daughter actually cried at the scenes you describe from the recent programme Iam.
I too believe that we have to take personal responsibility for how we live our lives, but early influences are insidious and can be extremely hard to shake off. This is not simply about poverty, but also about socialisation and cultural norms.

Eliza . You have a profound and deep understanding of the troubles besetting our society.

I have to say that there are two sides to benefits

On the one hand they can be a life saver and there for people that hit bad times for what ever reason.

Then there is the other side were by people choose to take the easy way out and go on benefits as a life style--believe me it happens I have witnessed it myself.

And for those people that think of benefits as the easy way = do not have to go to work-- it can be sad because there is a limit of what you can do on benefits and things usually do no progress from just having the basics in life. and so they can be a bad thing and make one complacent.

KatyK, you didn't tell a sob story imo, you told something of your own story, without any self pity. Whilst I agree with granny activist about the influences on the children we see on Benefits Street, I increasingly believe that we each have some responsibility for how we live our lives. My mum was determined we wouldn't grow up with instability, frightening rows between our parents and feeling abandoned. Her own mother had periods of depression, during which her behaviour was pretty dreadful. Mum was in a parental role from being about 5, to her 3 younger siblings. Luckily, her father worked hard, and had a calmer temperament than his wife. My father's father was handy with a 'clout', something my father was determined not to repeat with us. My parents lived up to their desire not to inflict the difficult stuff from their own childhoods on the next generation.
I found this week's episode particularly depressing. That little lad out on his bike in the dark, having earlier been shown talking to the two alcoholic/drug users. The 2 men were shown explaining to the lad how to inhale drugs. Alongside that, a clip back to his mum (white d) pondering whether he'd end up like the others on the street. The way she screamed and shouted at him when he came home without his bike was emotionally abusive.

Being loved is of course the most important thing. Never felt that in my childhood. Enough of the sob story now!

I don't think anyone could have come from a poorer - financially - background than I did. Our tiny rented house was falling down around us - had already been condemned as 'unfit for human habitation', and I remember a time when my mum could find nothing in her purse but a little gold safety pin. But all I remember is the feeling of being loved, and of being happy.

Nothing really mattered so long as Mummy and Granny were there for me. Must have been hard for them though.

Kids eh!

Jen - I have to be honest I didn't see this week's episode. DH finds it depressing. I felt very sorry for the Romanians in the previous episode. I too, grannyactivist, was taken pity on by a school friend in senior school. We never had holidays or days out. When I was 15 she asked her mother if I could go with them on a short holiday to Bournemouth. I thought I was in heaven. Bless them for that. Your description of a 'proper family' also rang a bell. I can remember going to another girl's house on a Saturday evening. Her parents were going out for the night (my parents never did). Her mother had had her hair done and was wearing a pretty dress. I can remember thinking 'I can't imagine living like this'.

durhamjen I have worked with very many people in similar situations to those we've seen on Benefits Street (remembering that all we've seen are selectively edited snapshots) and some of them do break the cycle - most often when they believe that working at something will benefit their children (not necessarily paid employment, it might be taking classes in parenting or getting into further education) or if there is targeted intervention; either with the community, the parents, the schools or the children.
If we believe that 'it takes a village to raise a child', we should perhaps look at ways of befriending or mentoring people who need a leg up out of difficult circumstances. In my case the family of a schoolfriend took pity on me and included me in their Monday family nights. We went swimming with friend's dad after school and then I went home with them to play games and eat a hearty, healthy, home-cooked tea (with cake for afters). They bought their own house and left the area when I was only ten years old, but that picture of what a 'proper family' was has stayed with me throughout my life. And fifty years later I still remember Mr. and Mrs. Cronshaw with a deep sense of gratitude.

Maybe some of them will break the cycle, KatyK. You cannot know yet that they will not.
I noticed the family where the father did not work and did not want to go and find out about work. At no time did his partner say she would go and look for a job and he could stay at home and look after the children.
However, when he did get a job it was with no pay, 100% commission, going and asking people to sign up to charity payments. It was so obvious he would not make anything out of that job in that area, I felt sorry for him.

Granny activist - Yes I agree. It is just a pity that some of them can't break the cycle. Maybe our strict Catholic school instilled something into us - I don't know really.

Your story echoes mine, KatyK, but that isn't what's happening here. The key is that at no time did you think what happened was 'normal'. Here we have a whole culture for whom the lifestyle of the parents and neighbours is the norm and is what the children are socialised into.

Well said KatyK.