I watched a programme on channel 5 last night called Benefit…life on the dole. I sat there, scarcely believing what i was seeing and hearing. It showed families with 9+ children. One family showed a man who’d fathered 26 children with 15 different women. He was angry that the benefit cap had reduced his benefit to £500 a week!!! Another single mother with 8 children stated that she had more than enough to live on and the state makes it easy for her, so much so, she’s thinking of having a ninth child!!. Then i read on here, people being refused p.i.p…!! Oh it maddens me!! And what angered me more was, the man who obviously couldn’t keep a certain part in his trousers, when dating 15 women, then went on to successfully get disability benefit, so upping his weekly income to over £800!!! AND, the bloody social even provided him with a mobility scooter!!! where is the justice in this country!!!
Hmmm.
Didn’t see that particular episode, but my neighbour has warned me about such programmes before. She said: “Tina, don’t watch, it would make you seethe!”
Basically, I don’t qualify for anything, as I’m not actively seeking work, so no JSA. I’m not poor enough for anything means tested (can’t dispute that - I’d saved hard and amassed capital), and I’m not sick enough for anything non means tested, such as PIP.
My neighbour said: “It’s because you don’t play the system - other people do!” I know that if I tried to play the system, I wouldn’t get away with it, because I’m just not that sort of person - I’d be the first to get rooted out and made an example of. But some people just seem to have the knack of doing it successfully for years and years. 
Tina
The only thing that consoles me when I read of people having children to get benefits is that at some point all their children will have left school, therefor no more benefits for them. Hopefully the new assessment for PIP will sort itself out and only the ones who’s need it will get it. I do know of one person who has been taken off benefit (not MS) he now has a job, I’m not sure if this proves he could have been working all along or that his back has now healed. I didn’t watch the programme as it infuriates me to watch this kind of thing, it’s an old saying but it’s those kind of people give the genuine people a bad name. Jan
I think it’s difficult where there are children involved, as I don’t believe any child should go hungry as a result of having utterly feckless parents - they can’t help who they’re born to. On the other hand, where’s the limit? People used to have to consider whether they could afford to have more children. Now some see it as a way of getting a guaranteed income for years and years, if not for life.
Tina
That’s exactly my point. I come from an age when large families were the norm. I am the youngest of 9 but my parents worked to provide for us. We never went hungry, meals were always homemade and wholesome. Our clothes were made or second hand but we were spotlessly clean. We were brought up to be respectful and well mannered. My parents were both very strict but fair…and we were raised with the ethos that if you wanted something, you went out and earned it!
Hiya, can’t be British, must be immigrants, the press, the tories, BNP, UKIP, don’t lie, the country is under attack by the foreigners, who steal our jobs, dishonestly claim benefits, that poor man has nothing to do but have sex, why do you think he is now disabled, he’s shgged out poor soul, does he get a rest-NO. Hanging is too good for the likes of him, he needs a good boot up the ase, Brian
I don’t usually watch this type of problem as I get too annoyed. But did watch most of this episode, and am appalled at how easy some people seem to get every benefit going. And yet genuine cases like lots of people on here, have to jump through burning hoops backwards (Slight exaggeration!) just to keep their benefits when they change from DLA to PIP.
I’m fortunate enough to be on the higher rate for mobility and care, keep thinking that someone has made a mistake and they’ll stop it which would mean I’d lose my motability car and independance.
Maybe we should all have acting lessons to suck the benefits system dry!
Freckles x
There’s a man who still has an allotment next to the plot where dad used to have his. Dad had to give his up due to his crippling arthritis (I used to help him before I had MS) because he couldn’t sow the veg, pick the veg or even hoe the weeds. This man digs the whole allotment, sows the seeds, hoes the weeds etc. BUT he is on higher rate DLA as he has a bad back and cannot work or do his housework (in his own words!). My dad delights in telling him about the new PIP rules and how everyone has to go for an assessment. He says the man’s face drops at the news - yeah, I bet it does! It’s people like him that have ruined it for the honest people, grrr!
Tracey xx
Programmes like that are not good for my blood pressure. I fostered children many many years ago and when children are “looked after” by the local authority child related benefits to the parent(s) should cease but I know that they seldom did. One parent claimed for children that had not been living with her for over 10 years. She was living alone in a three bedroomed council house. When this was pointed out to social workers they just shrugged their shoulders and said “well we did advise her not to claim but there is not much else we can do”. I would imagine little has changed.Unfortunately those who abuse the system take the funds that should be available for genuine claimants. I worked with somebody who had dropped out of college but boasted that their mother was still claiming child benefit for him as he had signed up for a 2 year course and nobody knew he had dropped out and now working full time.
My parents both came from big families and like vinnygirl says the families were financially poor but morally and emotionally rich and well supported by those around them. My parents always told me when I was growing up “you can always ask for something and if we can afford it then fine if we can’t afford it you can’t have it”.I never asked because I knew it would mean hardship. There was certainly no spare money for any luxuries and my Dad worked two jobs and my mum worked as well but we just accepted as kids that the latest craze in toys was not available at the drop of a hat we had to wait for birthday/christmas if we were lucky. We never felt hard done by it was just a fact of life. I got myself a paper round and worked in a local hairdressers as soon as I could and my siblings got saturday jobs too as soon as they could. Family time comprised Sunday afternoons in the local park with friends and their families playing rounders, french cricket, and finally dropping exhausted on the grass for a picnic - ah simple pleasures.
Something is rotten in our society and I blame it on the governments past and present. They have and still are ruining our beautiful country. I was lucky to be born in a time when jobs were plentiful…my father always worked. I left school and went straight to work. My son works for someone, my daughter runs her own business. Why don’t they make programmes about the majority of people out there who are struggling to live on benefits?? It’s all propaganda aimed at encouraging people to look down on others receiving benefits. X
Hello,
Just remember the program is designed to royally peee you off, so you watch it again next week. Don’t fall into the channel 5 trap of hating people on benefits. Just look at the programs they have been putting out (Benefits Britain, on benefits and proud, gypsies on benefits and proud, etc).
The Gov must love reading forums with this subject, just shows the propaganda is working
Darren
Caught the end of this programme last night and after being turned down pointt blank for PIP just a few days ago. I will most definately be fighting my case. Its unbelievable, how these ignorant people think that tax payers (me being one of them) should pay for them to sit on their lazy fat backsides and take, take, take. I rest my case!!
Izzy
well said Darren
Darren I get your point but I don’t hate people on benefits, I dislike people claiming benefits they are not entitled to - it is fraud pure and simple and gives the genuine claimants a bad name. Channel 5 are only going to film those extreme cases to make their point. I don’t confess to know the answer but something needs to be done to ensure the correct benefits go to the right people at the right time for the correct period of time. Cut down on fraud and there would be more in the pot for those genuine claimants. See my previous post on this thread - how much did that woman I mentioned defraud from the system over ten years for several children and was anyone interested - no they were not. I am fortunate not to need support right now but I know there will be a time in the not too distant future when I will need to ask for assistance which is a worry for me because I know, after reading on here, how difficult I am going to find it.