Channel 5, On benefits: 100 stone and on the Dole.

I know Phoenix I have seen similar programmes. I think we need to keep things in perspective, these are programmes designed to shock and I think not entirely representative of that group of people. Must admit I too was horrified and furious when I saw how some people live their lives. Sadly we are in an age when there can be three generations who have known nothing but living on benefits, how can we change things ?

By stopping paying them to school leavers and anyone who has never worked at a job for several years and paid into the system.
Harsh I know and I am the first to realise the people's circumstances change through redundancy ,illness, bereavement and being abandoned by a partner. But we all know or know of families where no one works and the children just follow on.

Phoenix
They don't call these programmes 'benefit porn' for nothing.

Agree annsixty they have no incentive to work, no role models. I also think young single mothers should not be given housing, in a ever growing minority of cases youngsters get themselves pregnant for a 'free' house and the cycle begins again!

It's the child which has to be given shelter not a single girl, our council has turned part of an old jail into bed sits, several single mothers plus child are placed there and have to go on the waiting list for a flat .

The teenage pregnancy rate has tumbled in the last decade or more.

I also think there is far more to the gross obesity found in some people than just overeating. I believe that excessively overweight(exact figure will depend on age, gender and height) is a mental illness not a physical problem and more should be done to deal with the underlying psychological problems and they should be offered similar programmes to those attended by anorexics, including sectioning them if necessary.

I remember watching a programme comparing how the benefit system works now compared with when it was introduced after WW2. The interesting thing was, that while the system was harsher, the amount of practical help and support given to failing families: in-home instruction on child care, housekeeping, even how to garden, was much more present. The modern family experiencing it said how it helped them get their lives under control and one of the adults succeeded in getting a job and keeping it.

Now we are told that we must be 'non-judgemental' and 'respect' these chaotic life styles and leave these families to sink or swim, and, of course, they usually sink.

When I was working and paying tax etc I used to get annoyed when people getting benefits thought the money just came "from the government". Yes but where do they get it from? My taxes.
But now I realise that we're on benefits - the OAP,which other people are partially funding.

The OAP is NOT a benefit. That governments over the years have chosen to fund pensions from current income and not invest our pension payments to provide a capital base for them is the result of government decisions. We have to contribute to it so have no choice in the matter. My OAP is no more a benefit than the occupational pension I contributed to for many years.

How does anyone "get themselves pregnant" Science has not advanced that far yet!
When the Govt tried to find families where three generations had never worked, they discovered that there weren't any of these families.
It always amazes me that people who purport to like children are willing for them to suffer if they are born to the "wrong kind" of parent.

MOnica - I've had this argument with others many times. I accept that you're more knowledgeable and uptodate than me on this, but just can't see how the money I paid when working towards my OAP is enough to cover the payments of the years I've had it. Unless inflation confuses the issue.
My occupational pension, yes. As I understand it my payments there were invested and this pension is from the profits.
Originally the OAP worked in the same way, but this was changed at some time.
Sorry this probably belongs to a different topic.

Our pension payments were hypothecated, that is the money we paid was quite specifically meant to go towards funding our pensions, instead it went towards paying the pensions of those receiving them when we were 'investing' in our pensions. We had no control over this, we could not leave the system, we had to accept what the government did.

To say that this makes our pensions 'benefits' is like blaming Pergamon Press pensioners for Robert Maxwell's misappropriation of their pension fund or BHS pensioners for the shortfall on their pension fund caused by Sir Philip Green.

I watched this for about 20 minutes and had to turn over as I was sickened. The pretence, the deliberate ignorance about nutrition, the self-deception, the gluttony.... it was all too much.

Correct Monica our pension deductions ought to have been invested.

By various governments.

I cannot understand how someone can be so grossly overweight they cannot move and yet they continue to increase their weight. Someone must be feeding them and that I would consider abuse!

Also if they are on benefits how can they afford to eat so much? When I was struggling (on a low wage, not benefits) I had problems maintaining weight, so that my children could eat and I normally do easily put weight on. Am I missing something?

Ilovecheese women "get themselves pregnant" by a spot of seduction during ovulation. Non-scientific but it's not that difficult if you're fertile - including recently a young married friend who wanted a second baby and her husband did not.

Re the three generations now working, very sadly, I used to see this when I worked in a community drug service all coming in for their appointments. Granted there weren't that many, but it certainly does happen.

That should be three generations "not working" - a Freudian slip wishing them to be "now working". Reward in exchange for one's labour is so important to wellbeing, being unemployed not by choice can be heartbreaking.

Grandma2213 their excuse was they could only afford junk food! This appeared to mean they went down their local Greasy Spoon and ordered, in one case a whopping great bap stuffed with a double beef burger and bits and bobs.

Beefburgers are not junk food.

Depends on whether they are made with 100% organic beef or the sort where everything is suctioned off the bones and includes the gristle and eyeballs.

I watched this and was so cross with the lady who was diabetic and was making no attempt at eating a healthy diet. Takeaways are not cheaper than meat and vegetables, people don't seem to want to cook from scratch now.

They only think they can afford junk food because they were not taught by their mothers to cook properly and the same life lessons will be be passed on to their many offspring, just like living on benefits for life.
I am sure that I ,like all of you, can produce cottage pie, large pans of stew and chicken dishes for half the cost of take away meals and junk.
They are not given an example so they don't know.
It will not be organic food but nutritionally will be as good.
Being flippant (very) this did not happen when there were no benefits at all and people had to apply for a few shillings poor relief or went into workhouses.
Perhaps a meeting ,somewhere in the middle of the two extremes, could be worked out.

Exactly Stansgran had this individual bought the ingredients himself, he could have had an insight into the make up of his 'beef' burger, the type of bun used and all the other bits and bobs that went into it. As it stood there was most likely the cheapest ingredients used in the 'beef' burger, white bread and goodness knows what else.

But so many CBA'd to shop for fresh ingredients, let alone cook them. I think ann60 is being generous when she suggests these individuals haven't been taught to cook as, though she is doubtless correct, there is no excuse these days with all the advice, TV programmes, books, etc. out there on the subject.

I was never taught to cook but I worked it out myself...having an 'A' level in Chemistry help too...same principle, just mix ingredients together in correct proportions and apply heat for a given amount of time

PS did see one husband cook a lasagne for his 'model' wife. The size of the portions were unbelievable. That would have fed a family of 6 and still had some left to reheat for lunch next day.