Benefits culture

MattC59

I know that there are regular discussions on here about politics, the economy, etc, and the 'benefits culture' in the UK often comes into the conversation, however, I think that this story high lights very well some of the issues that people face. As you may have noticed, I'm not usually one to rant about these things, and when I do, I'm usually quite ill informed, but I found this quite moving.

Please watch, it paints quite a picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA9t61PuiDc

evil_breakfast

Matt, where do I send the invoice for a replacement keyboard?
Mine no longer works due to a flash flood of spluttered coffee!

Somedays I'll get exhausted just getting the cheque out the envelope

Classic.

vitesse169

Just wet my self over this.... wot a pearler, brilliant...!

y33stu

So whats her average speed over 20 miles then? Think I missed this in there somewhere.

Stevo_666

Though possibly a bit close to the truth for some...

Cleat Eastwood

Bit long for a tory party broadcast.

BillyMansell

It's what the Tax Payers Alliance practice their mutual masturbation to.

rick_chasey

BillyMansell wrote:

It's what the Tax Payers Alliance practice their mutual masturbation to.

Just had a look at their website. Do they just oppose all tax on the principal that it is tax and should be opposed?

CambsNewbie

It's truer than many people think!

Last year I had to attend an address which had been burgled the day before and the people living there had been out so we couldn't do the burglary report then.

So I turn up at about 8:30am and the fella lets me in. He's smoking a roll-up. I explain why I'm there and we sit down and start to go through the burglary pack and take a statement. He explained they were out yesterday because they had gone to Alton Towers. That's nice I reply, must cost a fortune knowing how expensive it is. It was ok, our case worker (ie social worker) organised it. Turns out the social paid entry for them (2 adults 3 kids), paid for them to have food there, paid towards petrol and get this, paid for a souvenir photograph and key rings for them!!!

I sit there gob smacked and carry out writing the statement. The fella chain smokes throughout. I have to ask him to open the patio door because I'm finding it increasingly uncomfortable to breath. While he is smoking the kids come and sit on daddies lap. For breakfast the kids get a large bag of haribo. A toddler comes into the room with a nappy so full I gag on the smell. Mum comes in with a huge belly over hanging tight jeans.

As we are sitting there I engage him in conversation to be polite, and he mentions he is currently signed off sick, mum doesn't work hence the social paying for the trip to Alton Towers. I say to him, if you don't mind me asking, why are you off sick, you seem ok to me.

No word of a lie, I am not exaggerating, he sits there, cigarette in hand, pats his chest and says it's my chest, I've got severe asthma and bronchitis!!!!! I said hope you don't mind me saying, but the smoking can't help. He replied his doctor has said it was ok to smoke because it stopped him getting stressed!!!!

This is a completely true story. Nothing is exaggerated. I left there fuming! Although not before I noticed the cannabis plants growing in the garden! Some of my colleagues nicked him two days later for cultivation. Made me feel a bit better!

The Ors

CambsNewbie wrote:

...I noticed the cannabis plants growing in the garden! Some of my colleagues nicked him two days later...

Nice one!

byke68

CambsNewbie wrote:

It's truer than many people think!

Last year I had to attend an address which had been burgled the day before and the people living there had been out so we couldn't do the burglary report then.

So I turn up at about 8:30am and the fella lets me in. He's smoking a roll-up. I explain why I'm there and we sit down and start to go through the burglary pack and take a statement. He explained they were out yesterday because they had gone to Alton Towers. That's nice I reply, must cost a fortune knowing how expensive it is. It was ok, our case worker (ie social worker) organised it. Turns out the social paid entry for them (2 adults 3 kids), paid for them to have food there, paid towards petrol and get this, paid for a souvenir photograph and key rings for them!!!

I sit there gob smacked and carry out writing the statement. The fella chain smokes throughout. I have to ask him to open the patio door because I'm finding it increasingly uncomfortable to breath. While he is smoking the kids come and sit on daddies lap. For breakfast the kids get a large bag of haribo. A toddler comes into the room with a nappy so full I gag on the smell. Mum comes in with a huge belly over hanging tight jeans.

As we are sitting there I engage him in conversation to be polite, and he mentions he is currently signed off sick, mum doesn't work hence the social paying for the trip to Alton Towers. I say to him, if you don't mind me asking, why are you off sick, you seem ok to me.

No word of a lie, I am not exaggerating, he sits there, cigarette in hand, pats his chest and says it's my chest, I've got severe asthma and bronchitis!!!!! I said hope you don't mind me saying, but the smoking can't help. He replied his doctor has said it was ok to smoke because it stopped him getting stressed!!!!

This is a completely true story. Nothing is exaggerated. I left there fuming! Although not before I noticed the cannabis plants growing in the garden! Some of my colleagues nicked him two days later for cultivation. Made me feel a bit better!

So that's where some of my tax is going! I feckin work and I know I'd struggle for to save for a trip Alton Towers!! my missus has had a pay freeze for 3 years which doesn't help. She has asthma (never smoked) and HAS TO PAY for her inhalers. Life is so fair, don't you think?!

Smokin Joe

Many a true word spoken in jest, anyone from a working class background will know more than a few people like her.

BillyMansell

byke68 wrote:

So that's where some of my tax is going! I feckin work and I know I'd struggle for to save for a trip Alton Towers!! my missus has had a pay freeze for 3 years which doesn't help. She has asthma (never smoked) and HAS TO PAY for her inhalers. Life is so fair, don't you think?!

I would say don't fall into the trap of wholly accepting what gets written on the internet as being the whole truth. CambNewbie's experience is a single point of view of a single encounter and shouldn't be accepted as the full picture or be catastrophised into the behaviour of all receiving benefits - leave the self-pitying and caterwauling to the TaxPayer's Alliance (people could easily believe I don't like the self-aggrandizing TPA ).

tim_wand

Sorry I feel like a hypocrite commenting on this. After being employed continiously for over 26 years , I fell unemployed from the end of January this year to the middle of April, I applied for JSA, the total I have received £67.50 for the entire period.

Luckily now I have a job again, I sent them their money back just so I could hold my head up and say I ve never had a f**king penny off them.

I still know people who havent done a shade of work since they left school and exsisted quite happily on benefits for years.

National insurance and PAYE isnt paid to help you if you fall on your downers, its there to pay for those who ve never even attempted to get up.

CambsNewbie

BillyMansell wrote:

byke68 wrote:

So that's where some of my tax is going! I feckin work and I know I'd struggle for to save for a trip Alton Towers!! my missus has had a pay freeze for 3 years which doesn't help. She has asthma (never smoked) and HAS TO PAY for her inhalers. Life is so fair, don't you think?!

I would say don't fall into the trap of wholly accepting what gets written on the internet as being the whole truth. CambNewbie's experience is a single point of view of a single encounter and shouldn't be accepted as the full picture or be catastrophised into the behaviour of all receiving benefits - leave the self-pitying and caterwauling to the TaxPayer's Alliance (people could easily believe I don't like the self-aggrandizing TPA ).

Yes these are my experiences but I could list plenty more. For example the woman with 12 kids by I think it's 5 different fathers, and who when we go to nick one of her burglar sons yet again never fails to tell us she gets more in benefits than we earn. Or a 20 year old bloke I was talking to who wanted to work but only for no less than £35k! When I suggested that maybe he be more realistic and work up to that level he said it wasn't worth it!

I can show you whole streets where working is very much a minority activity. Where people don't bother getting dressed until late afternoon. Where people are drinking alcohol at 10am watching Jeremy Kyle on their very large widescreen televisions.

The thing is I do believe there should be a welfare safety net. No pensioner should ever be afraid to put heating in case they can't afford it. People who are mentally or physically impared should be supported. If people weren't abusing the system then so many services currently being cut wouldn't have to be. The blatant abuse of the system makes me angry and people who think they can keep taking without putting something back in. Some people I've spoken to don't even realise that it's me and you through our tax that pay for this, they just think the government prints money to give them!

pliptrot

I always wonder when I read comments such as those above; if it's so good for the truly lazy, why aren't you? If it's all laid out for the indolent, why don't you learn that skill? If you can't get the same benefits as the terminally out of work when this misfortune visits you, what does that say about your skillset?

Come on guys, perspective is, I think, appropriate.

tim_wand

pliptrot wrote:

I always wonder when I read comments such as those above; if it's so good for the truly lazy, why aren't you? If it's all laid out for the indolent, why don't you learn that skill? If you can't get the same benefits as the terminally out of work when this misfortune visits you, what does that say about your skillset?

Come on guys, perspective is, I think, appropriate.

If its so good for the truly lazy, why are nt you? Well speaking for myself and a great deal of others on here I suspect.

Pride, Dignity, self respect and self worth, being brought up with proper values and a sense of responsibility rather than an overwhelming sense of entitlement. just a few reasons!

Prespective? Why do so many have a World owes me a living attitude. Only fools and horses work, used to be a comedy on the BBC , now it seems like the bloody mantra of a generation.

This country is in a mess because for too long we ve had to pay out more to those who dont contribute in welfare than can be generated from PAYE and NI of those who do.

The parents of the young Sri Lankan student mugged in the "good samaritain" Incident during last years riots on arriving in England to visit their recupperating son, commented that they couldnt understand a culture where those that worked paid to sustain those that didnt.

shockedsoshocked

CambsNewbie wrote:

I can show you whole streets where working is very much a minority activity. Where people don't bother getting dressed until late afternoon. Where people are drinking alcohol at 10am watching Jeremy Kyle on their very large widescreen televisions.

My Aunt is a Sergeant in the Police round here. Port Clarence (for those who know the Middlesbrough area) falls in her constabulary, and she was down there a lot. She had a conversation with a woman, which went along the lines of "I don't trust them Poles who've moved in. The bloke leaves about 8 in the morning with a back pack and doesn't come back till about 6 every day. They're up to something". My Aunt had to inform them they probably had a job.

Stevo_666

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

My Aunt is a Sergeant in the Police round here. Port Clarence (for those who know the Middlesbrough area) falls in her constabulary, and she was down there a lot. She had a conversation with a woman, which went along the lines of "I don't trust them Poles who've moved in. The bloke leaves about 8 in the morning with a back pack and doesn't come back till about 6 every day. They're up to something". My Aunt had to inform them they probably had a job.

I'm an ex-Redcar resident and that is just classic ! (Headed up there on Friday so I'll be on the lookout for shifty Poles )

shockedsoshocked

Stevo 666 wrote:

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

My Aunt is a Sergeant in the Police round here. Port Clarence (for those who know the Middlesbrough area) falls in her constabulary, and she was down there a lot. She had a conversation with a woman, which went along the lines of "I don't trust them Poles who've moved in. The bloke leaves about 8 in the morning with a back pack and doesn't come back till about 6 every day. They're up to something". My Aunt had to inform them they probably had a job.

I'm an ex-Redcar resident and that is just classic ! (Headed up there on Friday so I'll be on the lookout for shifty Poles )

Ha, well you'll enjoy this one as well then! She arrested a bloke up in the Skinningrove/Loftus area when she was over in that constabulary. His defence was "since when has it been illegal to have sex with your mam" :shock: :shock: :shock:

Stevo_666

Oddly enough it's not that surprising !

Apparently they never have nativity plays in Redcar because they can't find three wise men and a virgin...

byke68

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

My Aunt is a Sergeant in the Police round here. Port Clarence (for those who know the Middlesbrough area) falls in her constabulary, and she was down there a lot. She had a conversation with a woman, which went along the lines of "I don't trust them Poles who've moved in. The bloke leaves about 8 in the morning with a back pack and doesn't come back till about 6 every day. They're up to something". My Aunt had to inform them they probably had a job.

I'm an ex-Redcar resident and that is just classic ! (Headed up there on Friday so I'll be on the lookout for shifty Poles )

Ha, well you'll enjoy this one as well then! She arrested a bloke up in the Skinningrove/Loftus area when she was over in that constabulary. His defence was "since when has it been illegal to have sex with your mam" :shock: :shock: :shock:

And thought it was Consett and Stanley that was hill-billy country!

team47b

The Ors wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

...I noticed the cannabis plants growing in the garden! Some of my colleagues nicked him two days later...

Nice one!

Wouldn't have happened here, they would have just nicked the plants


Back on topic, would you want to live like these people of whom you speak?

Cleat Eastwood

team47b wrote:

The Ors wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

...I noticed the cannabis plants growing in the garden! Some of my colleagues nicked him two days later...

Nice one!

Wouldn't have happened here, they would have just nicked the plants


Back on topic, would you want to live like these people of whom you speak?

Funnily enough I was thinking that - what I find funny is the holier than thou attitude - what has being overweight or smoking got to do with anything -are peopel really suggesting these are signifiers of a lower moral order- its peoples choice how they live - two comments on here just reinforce the idea of a bigoted police force, and with a bro in law in th epolice i know this isnt true, but as often happens the minority tarnish the good name of the majority.

For what its worth - and topical giving the voting tomorrow - i was working as a poll clerk and this fat man comes in, slippers, dirty t shirt, uncombed hair. And.....Ever so politely he shook my hand and thanked me for the job I was doing - he was standing as a local councillor, in another county he would been branded a good for nothing sponger - funny old world - viva the bigoted apocrypha

finchy

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

For what its worth - and topical giving the voting tomorrow - i was working as a poll clerk and this fat man comes in, slippers, dirty t shirt, uncombed hair. And.....Ever so politely he shook my hand and thanked me for the job I was doing - he was standing as a local councillor

Still living in Liverpool?

Cleat Eastwood

johnfinch wrote:

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

For what its worth - and topical giving the voting tomorrow - i was working as a poll clerk and this fat man comes in, slippers, dirty t shirt, uncombed hair. And.....Ever so politely he shook my hand and thanked me for the job I was doing - he was standing as a local councillor

Still living in Liverpool?

hehe - he the conservative candidate.

freddiegrubb

I was only thinking the other day as I had the misfortune to walk down the local high st. "all of these people can't be on shifts/holiday". There were it seemed a high rate of seemingly fit & able bodied youngish folk around, they should be working & paying taxes to pay for my pension. But on a serious note the benefit culture has to be sorted out as it does appear to have got out of hand

CambsNewbie

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

team47b wrote:

The Ors wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

...I noticed the cannabis plants growing in the garden! Some of my colleagues nicked him two days later...

Nice one!

Wouldn't have happened here, they would have just nicked the plants


Back on topic, would you want to live like these people of whom you speak?

Funnily enough I was thinking that - what I find funny is the holier than thou attitude - what has being overweight or smoking got to do with anything -are peopel really suggesting these are signifiers of a lower moral order- its peoples choice how they live - two comments on here just reinforce the idea of a bigoted police force, and with a bro in law in th epolice i know this isnt true, but as often happens the minority tarnish the good name of the majority.

Ok I accept that saying the mother was fat was unnecessary for what I was saying.

On this occasion smoking has everything to do with it. He is signed off long-term sick getting all kinds of benefits for being so, for something purely self inflicted and which is preventable or certainly manageable. then he uses his benefit money to buy more of the one thing making him unwell!

And in this day and age with all the knowledge there is on passive smoking is it morally acceptable to smoke with two children sat on your lap? If that makes me bigoted then so be it..

Pross

freddiegrubb wrote:

I was only thinking the other day as I had the misfortune to walk down the local high st. "all of these people can't be on shifts/holiday". There were it seemed a high rate of seemingly fit & able bodied youngish folk around, they should be working & paying taxes to pay for my pension.

They were probably thinking the same about you

crispybug2

MattC59 wrote:

I know that there are regular discussions on here about politics, the economy, etc, and the 'benefits culture' in the UK often comes into the conversation, however, I think that this story high lights very well some of the issues that people face. As you may have noticed, I'm not usually one to rant about these things, and when I do, I'm usually quite ill informed, but I found this quite moving.

Please watch, it paints quite a picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA9t61PuiDc

Well that was a proper wake up call!!! I have the cheek to p iss and moan about things going on in my life when in reality I could be in that poor woman's shoes. Thank you for posting that.

Vesterberg

CambsNewbie wrote:

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

team47b wrote:

The Ors wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

...I noticed the cannabis plants growing in the garden! Some of my colleagues nicked him two days later...

Nice one!

Wouldn't have happened here, they would have just nicked the plants


Back on topic, would you want to live like these people of whom you speak?

Funnily enough I was thinking that - what I find funny is the holier than thou attitude - what has being overweight or smoking got to do with anything -are peopel really suggesting these are signifiers of a lower moral order- its peoples choice how they live - two comments on here just reinforce the idea of a bigoted police force, and with a bro in law in th epolice i know this isnt true, but as often happens the minority tarnish the good name of the majority.

Ok I accept that saying the mother was fat was unnecessary for what I was saying.

On this occasion smoking has everything to do with it. He is signed off long-term sick getting all kinds of benefits for being so, for something purely self inflicted and which is preventable or certainly manageable. then he uses his benefit money to buy more of the one thing making him unwell!

And in this day and age with all the knowledge there is on passive smoking is it morally acceptable to smoke with two children sat on your lap? If that makes me bigoted then so be it..

Ah the great british Police Force - giving remedial school bullies, jobsworths, bigots, right wing louts and armed forces rejects a career option since 1829.