Rochdale - benefits capital of England, and..........

brin

........on the news report, almost every house had a satellite dish.......food for thought?

shockedsoshocked

There's nout good on tele anyway.

Sirius631

If they banned daytime t.v. people would get back into work.

montriff

How about encrypting tv channels during the day so there was only a job channel on or something If you worked they could give you a card to watch normal tv. :twisted: Think about it no more Jeremy Kyle

finchy

I'm sure that not everyone in Rochdale's unemployed and some of them work to buy satellite dishes.

Did they give the unemployment rate?

Smokin Joe

There was a couple with two kids on BBC Welsh news earlier in the week complaining that the benefit cap was going to knock their £526 per week down to the new maximum of £500 and finances were already stretched to the limit. He apparently had that thing where you keep falling asleep so he was classed as disabled.

Not only did they have a Sky subscription but also a late model MPV which must have cost a good few grand. The good condition Astra I paid a thousand for would have been more than adequate, they lived in a large town or city so hardly needed a car anyway if there was no work to go to. Needless to say the whole family were "big boned" so it would be fair to suggest a fair bit of their income went on overfeeding themselves on expensive crap.

Some people need a sharp wake up call.

morstar

brin wrote:

........on the news report, almost every house had a satellite dish.......food for thought?

Yep, absolutely food for thought. And here is my thought, analogue television has been switched off in the North west and Rochdale is in a hilly area with poor signal reception, therefore the take up of satelite TV is disproportionately higher than lots of other parts of the UK. Maybe they're all on freesat.

I'm no fan of free loaders but your insinuation is ill informed so park it.

Tom Butcher

Don't most people have cable these days ?

Weejie54

Misinformed indeed. Probably stemming from tabloid hyperbole. One ward in Rochdale (Falinge) statistically had the highest number of claims for incapacity benefit.
One ward doth not a capital make.

daviesee

Tom Butcher wrote:

Don't most people have cable these days ?

Cable is not available in large parts of the Country.

pottssteve

Sirius631 wrote:

If they banned daytime t.v. people would get back into work.

Daytime TV is one of the few incentives I have to go to work....

northernneil

on Look North the other day - covering Yorkshire - there was a couple interviewed and neither worked, he was on disability benefits so fair enough but then when the presenter said to the woman "so if your husband cant work why dont you go out and work" she was GENUINELY surprised and said well I have 2 children and a house to look after ... and we have a dog .....

honestly .....

Tom Butcher

daviesee wrote:

Tom Butcher wrote:

Don't most people have cable these days ?

Cable is not available in large parts of the Country.

In Greater Manchester ? It has to be.

Cressers

http://www.amazon.com/War-Against-Poor- ... 0465019919

Cressers

http://www.amazon.com/War-Against-Poor- ... 0465019919

dodgy

Tom Butcher wrote:

daviesee wrote:

Tom Butcher wrote:

Don't most people have cable these days ?

Cable is not available in large parts of the Country.

In Greater Manchester ? It has to be.

Are you familiar with the terrain.countryside around Greater Manchester? A lot of it is moorland and hills.

Tom Butcher

I have been to Rochdale on numerous occasions working with their local authority at he town hall and on the Langley Estate (for anyone that knows the area). It may be a bit hilly but it's not some village out in the sticks - it is in effect a suburb of Manchester.

It's a bit like saying West Bromwich or Wolverhampton wouldn't have cable - I suppose it's possible but I'd be absolutely amazed.

amaferanga

Smokin Joe wrote:

....He apparently had that thing where you keep falling asleep so he was classed as disabled.

I know a consultant with that same condition. Doesn't seem to stop him working....

dodgy

Virgin cable is not available in some of the postcodes I've checked in Stockport, have a look yourself. http://shop.virginmedia.com/check-your-postcode/

Samknows http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/LCROC say's it's available in 'some areas' in Rochdale.

I don't exactly live in the sticks and cable isn't available here either. Don't know why some think it's widely availble - it isn't.

rick_chasey

Smokin Joe wrote:

There was a couple with two kids on BBC Welsh news earlier in the week complaining that the benefit cap was going to knock their £526 per week down to the new maximum of £500 and finances were already stretched to the limit. He apparently had that thing where you keep falling asleep so he was classed as disabled.

Not only did they have a Sky subscription but also a late model MPV which must have cost a good few grand. The good condition Astra I paid a thousand for would have been more than adequate, they lived in a large town or city so hardly needed a car anyway if there was no work to go to. Needless to say the whole family were "big boned" so it would be fair to suggest a fair bit of their income went on overfeeding themselves on expensive crap.

Some people need a sharp wake up call.

Jealousy is a cruel mistress

Tom Butcher

dodgy wrote:

Virgin cable is not available in some of the postcodes I've checked in Stockport, have a look yourself. http://shop.virginmedia.com/check-your-postcode/

Samknows http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/LCROC say's it's available in 'some areas' in Rochdale.

I don't exactly live in the sticks and cable isn't available here either. Don't know why some think it's widely availble - it isn't.

Thanks for that. All I can see on that link is that cable is available in Rochdale, I assume the bit that says "some areas" of Rochdale was another link - if it isn't available in some areas of Stockport then I find that surprising but I still reckon that it is widely available even if it isn't universally available.

Headhuunter

Tom Butcher wrote:

daviesee wrote:

Tom Butcher wrote:

Don't most people have cable these days ?

Cable is not available in large parts of the Country.

In Greater Manchester ? It has to be.

I live relatively centrally in London and we haven't got cable in our area....

Tom Butcher

I'm sure that all the exceptions to the rule are going to post they don't have cable. We need a forum vote on it.

keef66

Daytime TV is what got me back to work when I slipped a disc!

I didn't think narcolepsy was a disability. OK, possibly not a good thing for a pilot or a neurosurgeon, but surely he'd be safe behind a desk?

Anyway, I'm sure the reporters searched long and hard to find a family that would provoke this kind of response. Hinting at a marginal disability claim, benefits in excess of £500 a week, trappings of a comfortable lifestyle, and no obvious signs of malnutrition.

dodgy

Tom Butcher wrote:

dodgy wrote:

Virgin cable is not available in some of the postcodes I've checked in Stockport, have a look yourself. http://shop.virginmedia.com/check-your-postcode/

Samknows http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/LCROC say's it's available in 'some areas' in Rochdale.

I don't exactly live in the sticks and cable isn't available here either. Don't know why some think it's widely availble - it isn't.

Thanks for that. All I can see on that link is that cable is available in Rochdale, I assume the bit that says "some areas" of Rochdale was another link - if it isn't available in some areas of Stockport then I find that surprising but I still reckon that it is widely available even if it isn't universally available.

Well I wasn't going to do all the work, you have to type in a postcode yourself. So finally, look here http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/networking/ ... -40054982/

The company has 4.1 million broadband customers, of which 3.8 million are on cable. Virgin's cable services are available to 12.6 million homes, or 51 percent of the UK population, according to Ahmad.

So from that I guess you'll summise it's available to the majority of the country due to the 51% figure?

morstar

[]quote]"Rochdale is located approx 15 Miles from the Digital Transmitter at Winter Hill due to its reasonably close proximity and its elevated location reception on the whole is pretty good Multiple feeds can be take from one Quality Aerial go to our Multiroom page for options.

Whitworth transmitter also serves parts of Rochdale as a backup to the areas where Winter Hill cant be picked up due to the hilly terrain, unfortunately this is analogue only until swithchover and then there will be limited Digital service."


"The Digital Switchover for the Granada Region finished taking place 02 December 2009 when all analogue channels disappeared from your viewing."

[/quote]
Source

http://aerial-tek.net/tv-aerials-rochdale.htm

I reckon a good aerial costs as much as basic satellite or cable.

mrushton

The piece referred to the Falinge area of Rochdale which has 84% unemployment

Tom Butcher

dodgy wrote:

[

So from that I guess you'll summise it's available to the majority of the country due to the 51% figure?

OK I give up

My initial point was going to be though that having a dish doesn't make you rich - I'd have thought that if you were spending much on TV channels you'd have them through cable - having a dish on your house is a bit old fashioned round here.

I don't know how it works exactly in terms of paying to get connected to digital but is it possible that having a dish is actually a sign you haven't signed up to a pay package that they'd supply through cable - especially as Rochdale does have cable by the looks of it ? In other words the dishes are a sign of lack of cash not people with plenty to spend on pay TV ?

finchy

keef66 wrote:

I didn't think narcolepsy was a disability. OK, possibly not a good thing for a pilot or a neurosurgeon, but surely he'd be safe behind a desk?

If you could find somebody to employ them they would be safe behind a desk.

Would employers take on somebody with narcolepsy though, when they could just employ somebody who isn't likely to fall asleep when on the phone to customers?

Stewie Griffin

Headhuunter wrote:

Tom Butcher wrote:

daviesee wrote:

Tom Butcher wrote:

Don't most people have cable these days ?

Cable is not available in large parts of the Country.

In Greater Manchester ? It has to be.

I live relatively centrally in London and we haven't got cable in our area....

NW London and we dont have cable either. I have a mate with narolepsy, we used to work in the same dept and I have seen him nod off at his desk, I have also had to wake him up at a Sports event. Snooker so it might not have been anything to do with his narcolepsy

Weejie54

I didn't think narcolepsy was a disability. OK, possibly not a good thing for a pilot or a neurosurgeon, but surely he'd be safe behind a desk?

Any illness that is severe enough to have long term adverse effects on ability to carry out normal day to day activities can be classed as a disability. It isn't a checklist of particular diagnosed conditions. The charity Narcolepsy UK received a petition to the Government asking that narcolepsy be recognised as a disability, and the Government's response included these words:

When considering the definition of disability, it is important to take into account the specific purpose for which the determination of a disability is required, and this can vary considerably. Because of the need to consider individual factors when determining whether a person is entitled to protection under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), or may have an entitlement to a social security benefit or certain wider schemes or benefits provided to disabled people, it is not possible to establish a single means of determining disability.

The definition used in the DDA is specifically for the purposes of determining who is protected from disability discrimination in a range of areas of life including employment, education and access to goods and services. The DDA sets out a general definition who is a disabled person for the purposes of the Act. That is a person who has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Thus the DDA does not, in general, provide a list of impairments that are covered by its provisions, but instead it considers the effect of the impairment on each individual. As long as a person meets the Act’s definition of a disabled person, they will benefit from its protection, regardless of whether or not their impairment is immediately obvious. A person with narcolepsy will, therefore, be classed as disabled for the purposes of the Act if the effect of their impairment is substantial enough to meet the various requirements of the definition.
In contrast to the DDA, social security legislation does not include any definition of disability. This is because benefits are payable to disabled people on the basis of their particular circumstances or their care and mobility needs. Individual benefits have different qualifying conditions, which are set out in legislation and decisions on entitlement depend on a number of factors, which may include medical evidence.

Disability Living Allowance is not based on the diagnosis of a particular disability or illness but on the effects of disability on the individual person.

This means that entitlement to Disability Living Allowance is determined by the degree that each individual is affected by their disability. It is the information about care and/or mobility needs which a person provides on the claim form, supported by medical reports where necessary, which determine entitlement.

Disability Living allowance is not compensation for being disabled, nor is it paid for particular disabling conditions. Instead it is a contribution to the extra costs faced by severely disabled people as a result of their care and/or mobility needs. Therefore, if a person has Narcolepsy, entitlement to Disability Living Allowance will be based on the level of supervision or attention required inside and outside the home arising from that condition.

Nice that one or two posters seem to take on the roles of judge and jury in determining things like this, however.