Benefits Street

My father was a chain smoking, violent alcoholic who worked sporadically but still expected a cooked meal on the table every night. He used to beat my mother in front of us children, our lives were terrible, we were badly neglected and some of us beaten/abused. There were six of us kids at home. With the exception of one who didn't survive it all, each and every one of us has grown up to have a work ethic - we have all worked from the day we left school until we retired (some are still working not having retired yet). We have never become alcoholics, beaten each other or our children, never claimed benefits. At no point during my upbringing did I think it was normal - just horrible and frightening. I couldn't wait to get away and have done my best to avoid that sort of life for my own child and so have my brothers and sisters.

Well said GrannyActivist!

Look at the lives of some of the children we have a snapshot of whose parents took part in the programme.
Would you expect that child to think that drinking, swearing, smoking etc. was normal?
Would you expect that child to think that (what we might consider) chaos was normal?
Would you expect that child to think that eating ready meals/junk food was normal?
Would you expect that child to think that robbing Peter to pay Paul was normal?
Would you expect the child to fail in the current educational system?
Would you expect the child to see 'casual criminality' as normal? (e.g.shoplifting, receipt of stolen goods, benefit fraud, drug use/dealing, driving without insurance etc.)
If you answered yes to these questions then why on earth would we expect these children to grow up to parent their own children any differently? And whose 'fault' is that? The child's? (Who then goes on to perpetuate the cycle.)
We are all socialised into a culture that we regard as 'normal'; some of us escape because we are lucky enough to have educational chances and a questioning mind, or because someone takes the trouble to mentor rather than condemn, or because we just get lucky.
And if you've never been in that situation perhaps you should thank God (or think yourself lucky) for the accident of birth that placed you elsewhere and maybe contribute to interrupting that cycle. www.xlm.org.uk/
www.csv.org.uk/volunteering/mentoring-befriending.

Sorry, comma in wrong place.

I know someone who is tetraplegic, crippled from the neck, down due to a diving accident aged 17. He holds down a full time job.

Have you noticed that they may be living on benefits but can afford to smoke and drink alcohol ?
Makes me angry to see people that could work not even try, I had an aunt that was crippled by polio, was a widow at 42 and worked hard to support her family.

My DD, who has worked ever since she left school (apart from a year or so off when she had her daughter) is always telling me about people she knows who have never worked and have better homes and cars than her and SIL. After she had her daughter, she got an evening job so that SIL could look after DGD in the evenings while she worked and he worked in the daytime. When her daughter started school, she was asked to help a friend with a catering business. The friend agreed that she could just work term time so she was able to look after her child herself in the holidays. In her spare time she took a course to train as a teaching assistant (although she could barely afford the costs). She is now working full time in a school and has never had to have anyone else look after her child. No one helped her, she did it all herself. She has asthma, suffers with severe migraines and could well have sat back and claimed benefits but she didn't.

A friend came round yesterday, we were talking about her nephew, I had forgotten what a super scrounger he is!

Is now in his early thirties, hasn't had a job since he was 18, claims to have a bad back, but can sit on the floor playing play station or whatever, also goes fishing regularly.

Was called in for an assessment, but he's suddenly got agoraphobia

Now for the best bit, he and his partner have SEVEN children ! One of them has been assessed as special needs, so they get an extra £400 per month for that one alone. (Until Mr P started his job this week, we had £71.70 per week, and no other benefits, i.e free prescriptions etc)

It does make me think that if you have x number of children when you make your first claim, then perhaps there shouldn't be additional payments for subsequent ones, but perhaps I'm wrong in thinking that?

Apparently she's got her own agent now.

The lady referred to as 'white Dee' rang into Nick Ferrari's radio programme this week, when he was holding a question and answer session with Nick Clegg. She said they had been conned by Channel 4 and had been told that it was a programme about community spirit and that it had been edited to bits. She seemed in her element talking to Clegg, calling him Nick and inviting him for a cup of tea. She said he would find a lovely clean street, with nice decent people, clean children who all attended school. She said the amount of people in the street claiming benefits had been grossly exaggerated, at which point Ferrari interjected with 'it's actually 75%'. She said 'oh I don't know the figures'. She seemed to be enjoying her 15 minutes of fame. I am not judging, just found it interesting.

Aka - I also have increasing contact with my inner fascist. I didn't teach, but did work with children and still do some part time work with staff working with 'hard to reach' families.
I watched my first and so far, only, episode of Benefits Street last week. I'd avoided it for many reasons, but the publicity it's getting led me to think I'd watch 5 minutes. Needless to say, I was gripped.
The Rumanians were a joy to watch, I'm sure that as durhamjen says, your socialist feelings would emerge watching them.
The long term unemployed on the street just reminded me of being back at work. Third generation unemployed, no proper routines or boundaries for the children. Too much shouting, swearing and smoking around the children. Sense of hopelessness, combined with sense of entitlement. So depressing. I felt like Victor Meldrew, chunnering and grumbling to myself.

informers incomers

It's not the informers who bother me Jen less than 2% of the benefit bill goes to them. It's our own home-grown unemployable that get me going. These are the adult version of the kids I saw in secondary education whose dole sole (genuine slip, if Freudian) purpose was to disrupt the lesson, driving good teachers to drink and diminishing the learning opportunities of their classmates who wanted to learn.
If anyone knocked on my door they'd find this OAP 'scrounger' with three grandchildren under tha age of 5, about to go on the school run to get the 7-year old. And the playground will be populated with the over 60s all there for the same reason.

If you can Aka, watch last week's about the Romanians with 14 living in one house and being robbed by their gangmaster, having one mobile phone between them all to contact their families and not wanting to tell anyone back home how terrible the conditions are.
That will bring back your socialist credentials.
I watched it this week to find out about what had happened to them, but never saw any of them.
I admit the woman who had depression did not give a good account of herself this week, but last week and the first week, she was like the glue that kept them all together. That's what happens when you have over £100 per week taken away from a family.
If anyone interviewed people on my street by knocking on the door during the day, it would be thought that 90% of us are pensioners, and therefore scroungers on the state by some cohorts.

I agree that you could only avoid paying tax in France or England by acting illegally (of course you could be under the tax threshold, but you still have to declare). There is no a legal requirement to register for residency in France; I believe the carte de séjour went long ago for EU citizens. You do have to register with the tax authorities though and I believe the 180 day rule applies, so you pay tax in the country in which you are resident for more than 180 days. We were taxed in the UK until we had registered with the French tax authority so I don't know how existing tax payers would get away with it.
I have no doubt that there are people who live below the radar, but it isn't legal. You do hear stories of people who remain registered with their doctor in the UK and go back for medical treatment, but I am not sure why people would want to do that.

Watched it for the first time last night. I ended up shouting at the TV …I have strong socialist credentials but some people bring out the inner fascist in me, I'm ashamed to say.

I have just come across this. It probably gives a much more accurate description of the street in question:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/20/benefits-street-james-turner-birmingham-channel-4?CMP=twt_gu

The size of a State pension is based on contributions, with a minimum contribution of ten years. So if a couple left the country 40 years ago they would need to have contributed to the UK state system for at least 10 years before they left the country to get any pension at all so although they get a state pension it is probably not very much.

I am surprised anyone dividing their time between Britain and France manages to avoid tax, unless they are acting illegally and evading tax, but I am not sure that would be possible. There is something called the law of domicile, which is quite complicated, but if they were previously living in the UK and spend more than 90 days a year in this country they will be taxed as resident in the UK. If they spend much more than three months a year in France they will need to register for residency and with residency comes tax. If they are in receipt of a state pension, the tax authorities will undoubtedly catch up with them.

Some distant relations sold up their house in the UK when they retired and bought a huge camper van as their home and spend the year travelling around Europe. Their van has to be taxed and insured, their pension paid into a bank account. As far as I know they remain British tax payers.

POGS unfortunatly I know many people similar to the ones discribed by purple people who had moved abroad and claimed longterm sickness benefits for years then claiming their retirement payments,all they where doing was using a family members address for correspondence this does go on in a big way and it is about time the British Authorities tried to clamp down on it,we came across these types time & time again when running our business abroad whilst we where working long hours and paying into the Spanish Tax system some Brits just can't stop bragging about how easy it is to rip of the British Government so everyone is tarred with the same brush which is such a shame.

Many thanks to those who posted advice and support, it is appreciated.

Purple

I know I am being rude in asking but if you know 'a couple' who left. 40 years ago and get a state pension might I ask how old they were when they left and how old they are now.

The reason for the question is to answer whether nor not they are any better, it would depend on whether or not they paid any contribution to their pension.

My mind sees a couple in their 60's who left in their 20's, or a couple in their 80's who left in their 40's as examples.

I agree that Channel 4 seem to be doing the government's dirty work for them. There always have been and always will be, probably, people who take advantage of the system but what do we do - let them starve? A more balanced programme would have presented a more rounded picture of people in receipt of benefits - and maybe some who aren't but should be. What never seems to get the same treatment are all those who are allowed to avoid paying tax quite legally - Starbucks, Google, Amazon etc. I know a couple who live part of the year in France and part of the year in the UK so they avoid paying tax, but they still use the NHS, the roads and other publicly funded facilities - and another couple who left the UK 40 years ago who draw their state pension. Are they any better?

Go to

www.turn2us

and select benefits checker, it will tell you what you are entitled to. Its quite easy to use but you should definately not be on zero income. You should go to Citizens Advice Bureau or get some advice from Welfare Rights office. There are people out there who can help if you are on an extremely low income. And you should definately not be paying Council Tax so you need to get to your nearest council office and fill in a claim form

As for the Benefits Street programme. Its very selective. The producers are coming under attack for not making it clear to the people taking part that it was going to be about benefits and it was going to be called Benefit Street. The people featured are not representative of all the people living there. They are deliberately making themselves unemployable and a lot of that is because of the kind of background they come from, or have been brought up in themselves. And also a lack of education and opportunities. They are to be pitied really. Hopefully with the governments new line on benefit fraud they will have to change thier ways. They will have to look for work or they will have thier benefits stopped. Its up to them.

Good point ps, I was wondering why this had not been mentioned before. When One can't afford to run a car surely public transport is the answer especially when attending interviews.

phoenix I have been following this thread silently and am shocked that your situation is permitted to be as it is. I feel for you. I took the liberty of asking an aquaintance a question or three and came up with the following but you will need to check it.
Ask your jobcentre person about the 'travel to interview scheme' or 'advisor discretionary fund'. Apparently they can pay for travel costs to interviews but there may be a distance limit if it is in the immediate area. She told me she had paid for someone to travel to London and back at £230+ train fare.
In addition purchase of interview clothing could be considered under the advisor discretionary fund. Regarding you not having paid enough contributions to qualify for the unemployment benefit if it was during a period of unemployment and you were claiming benefit you should have been credited with contributions.
As I am not familiar with the system myself please do check it out. It may come to nothing but at least you tried. I am angry that all my taxes, and I do and have paid a lot, cannot be used for those in need of a little support when they need it but can be squandered on all manner of air brained, vote buying, incompetent ideas. NHS IT systems and corporate tax loopholes spring to mind.
I wish you well and sincerely hope your efforts are met with just rewards. Good luck with your interviews.