90 Years on Benefits

Which channel was it on please ?

I'm very anti the welfare state; it makes people think that others should work to support their lifestyle.

There are many people on benefits, who deserve to be getting help but sadly also a large number who work the system and are in receipt of money they shouldn't be getting.
They make life more difficult for the genuine claimants.

It was on 5Star anniebach

Well of course a TV programme like this would be honest, truthful, balanced and non selective with facts and edits. I hate this type of TV and the goady threads it leads too. But the right wing will love it so well done. You’ve had comments already with no evidence base - quelle surprise.

We need a welfare state. Unfortunately the way it’s run leaves it open to abuse. The genuine claimants often get refused help they deserve and the unscrupulous receive money they aren’t entitled to.

Thank you Katek

SW your post crossed mine. I should add that for once I agree with you. I don’t like or watch these programmes as they are designed to stir things up.

I also dislike these programmes and the threads that enjoy believing that there are large numbers of scroungers in society when there are not.
I grew up with the welfare state and have never thought, unlike Quizqueen , that others should work so that I may not.

I never said anything about there being large numbers of scroungers. Perhaps you need to watch the programme to see what I’m talking about.

I can’t find a channel 5Star

Naive to think that everyone on benefits is genuine. Most are but there are those who aren't. I don't watch those sort of programmes either as it can give an unbalanced view.

There are people who are trying to get benefits, and need them but the system makes it difficult for them.

The genuine ones don't want to be on benefits but circumstances leave them no other option.

Was the title of the programme called 90 years on Benefits like your thread title? I can't find the programme.

Many years ago I was working in X and needed a place to stay for 2 weeks instead of the drive back home every day. I found a B&B which seemed to suit and the people who ran it were very hospitable and chatty.
When I left we kept in touch regularly and I would visit for an afternoon or take them out for dinner.
This went on for many years and I got to know them very well indeed.
Suffice to say they were receiving their pensions and not declaring their second income. Whenever the rare visitor from the DWP arrived, to all appearances, it looked like a large comfortable family home. The marque car had been put in the pub car park. The many many wines and spirits hidden and dining tables put down and removed to a shed.
The DHS visitor was made a fuss of with tea and home-made cake and when he went, it was all put back again.
Their grocery wine, spirits and cigarettes bill had to be seen to be believed. The amounts of cash (they only dealt in cash, no receipts) taken to the bank was in the middle hundreds, weekly, yet they were bankrupt...well, let's say, they had an arrangement to pay a nominal sum to their creditors of £1pm to each of the 8.
Besides their pension they received pension credit, plus of course, the usual extras.
The sad thing was that they laughed at being able to fool the DWP and their creditors and made no secret of living high on the hog courtesy of the government.
The bank never wondered how they were getting all the DWP payments plus another source of income but they'd been banking there for so long they were treated like family.
When I found all this out, I broke contact without telling them why.
I would never in a million years have thought they would be complicit in such goings on but you just never know how dishonest some people are, right under your nose.

A few years ago we were both having to survive on JSA. (No fault of our own, and long term members might remember the lengths we went to, Mr P, a highly qualified engineer eventually got a temporary job packing dog food)

Having to walk around Lidl with a calculator to see if we could afford a jar of coffee, people abusing the system make me

Where do you find a 5* channel ?
There will always be scrounges i m afraid but also there are many genuine people who get limited help and face really bad times
Most diabetics work as do people with COPD so really it s down to the authorities to be more scrupulous with checking people’s complaints and disabilities There are other people very ill or extremely disabled who are made to work, it just isn’t consistent enough
I used to work with the general public and have people tell me how they have got their doctor to believe this that or the other I had one young lady boasting about how she told her doctor she was depressed when I asked her where was her depression coming from she told me straight on that she wasn’t really but wanted to spend the summer on the beach not working

Things are slightly different at the moment, so I have NO idea if it's possible or not to 'play' the system while systems are being changed to support people under lockdown.

But under usual conditions, there is NO WAY anyone can fake a Universal Credit claim. There are far, far more people turned away who are genuine than who ever manage to fraudulently get money out. People die from starvation / from lack of medication while their claims are being challenged now.

What I DO think is positive about it, is that it has forced those who would otherwise have used benefits at times rather than work to look for employment (I know a youngish person like this).

Generally though, UC is cruel and deliberately designed to make life even harder for the poor. The old Victorian elitist view of the 'undeserving poor', ironically enough by those that have a huge excess of wealth stashed away.

Unfortunately there are people who think the Benefits System is there to be exploited and know their way around the system. The majority of people only claim when necessary. Programmes like the one mentioned seek out extremes and don't give any sort of balanced view. That wouldn't make interesting TV would it.

I had a neighbour in the village we lived in, she was a 5 star scrounger in a house worth upwards of £750K a fleet of expensive cars and a place in Spain.

She claimed she lived in a terraced house in a nearby town and was a single parent.
The terraced house was hers, but her elderly parents lived in it.

She would tell people how and what to claim, she understood the system inside out, she had a couple of my friends go to her as she knew some loophole on student loan forms at the time.

I despised this woman for many reasons not just her fraudulent ways.
So I made the call.

I knew from the line of questioning from the fraud team that she was definitely claiming.

She was successfully prosecuted.

Claiments of UC will now get higher benefits according to recent factual news statements. About £1k more pa.

quizqueen, 'anti welfare state'? Let's hope you and yours never need any support then!

5star. Freeview channel 30. Sky 128. Virgin 151.

We hear so much about benefit scroungers - yet so little about tax dodgers! How many are there of each, do you think?

I very much doubt that any government department deliberately instigates rules or designs benefits in such a way as to deliberately disadvantage the poorest in society.
That would mean the people instigating those changes are the worst kind of human being and enjoy knowing that that sector of society will feel the pain.
I certainly don't believe that to be the case.