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bumble
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03 Feb 2014, 5:57 pm

Is this behaviour typical of today's culture out there?

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bene ... od#3633547



starkid
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03 Feb 2014, 6:10 pm

I got an error when I tried to view the video. Will you please summarize it?



Willard
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03 Feb 2014, 7:04 pm

I find the very term "benefits" to be cruelly ironic. "Assistance," yes, but "benefits"? Like I'm coming out ahead somehow. :roll:



bumble
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03 Feb 2014, 7:17 pm

There is a lot of bad press over here in the UK regarding benefits and a lot of fuss regarding the program I linked to. As far as I can ascertain the people in the program (who were all on benefits) were sent death threats and had to be moved to safe houses.

Basically the program is a reality show that highlights life on benefits (some on unemployment others on disability) on a particular street in Birmingham in the UK. The program has apparently caused some fuss.



Willard
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03 Feb 2014, 7:41 pm

bumble wrote:
There is a lot of bad press over here in the UK regarding benefits and a lot of fuss regarding the program I linked to. As far as I can ascertain the people in the program (who were all on benefits) were sent death threats and had to be moved to safe houses.

Basically the program is a reality show that highlights life on benefits (some on unemployment others on disability) on a particular street in Birmingham in the UK. The program has apparently caused some fuss.


People who feel that all that tax money taken from them is going to support slackers who just don't want to work because they're lazy, get righteously indignant and you can't blame them. Any of us who's ever worked for a living knows what's it like to look at your paycheck and see what a large chunk Big Brother is getting and think "WThF is my good money being wasted on now!?" :evil:

The problem is, there really are a lot of people who are perfectly capable of being productive, but are just working the system because they can, but OTOH, there are also people with both physical and mental disabilities that can't be seen on the surface and it's impossible at a glance to tell the difference. So when reporters think they are being heroes by exposing abuses of the system, they don't take into account that they're also putting people at risk who are genuinely disabled and can't defend themselves from the irate haters. :?



KingdomOfRats
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03 Feb 2014, 8:25 pm

Willard wrote:
The problem is, there really are a lot of people who are perfectly capable of being productive, but are just working the system because they can, but OTOH, there are also people with both physical and mental disabilities that can't be seen on the surface and it's impossible at a glance to tell the difference. So when reporters think they are being heroes by exposing abuses of the system, they don't take into account that they're also putting people at risk who are genuinely disabled and can't defend themselves from the irate haters. :?

its a commonly held but incorrect view that people are screwing over the disability benefits big time-at least in the UK its untrue.
in the UK, the official DWP [department of work and pensions] statistics for fraud is tiny in comparison to the amount of legal fraud from themselves;ie the money they underpay people-the UKs disability living allowance has a fraud level of only 0.5% and its underpaid 0.8%.

that benefits tv show is full of sht,they portray the street as being entirely full of people on benefits but in reality theres only half the street on benefits and many of them are working,its unfair on the ones who live on that street who arent some of the attention seeking slobs on the show, clearly they were picked out for filming because they were more drama causing.

yes the country and others with a good benefits system have a lot of lazy arsed people who have gotten used to being on benefits, losing all motivation to do anything for themselves or to contribute to society,but they are thankfuly not the majority.