Have just watched this programme and i am fuming.

they all had more up to date tvs, better computers, the xxl tv package with virgin (we just had to cancelours because i have been unwell) plus rent and council tax paid.

OMFG - whats wrong with the country - we pay more in benefits than what we get in income tax - i paid over ??10 grand in tax and national insurance last year for people on benefits to get their rent and council tax paid.

I appreciate that the climate is bad with regard to jobs but my company has been looking for kitchen staff for months and no one wants it but its ok for me to bust my balls in the heat.

I AM FUMING!!!!

However - well done the 4 ladies who got work at the end of the course - i was routing for you

I didnt see this, I meant to watch it. I cant understand that in some cases how people who are entilted to benefits get turned down. My hubby is legally disabled and he does work but he does have severe days where he just cant work and eventually he probably will have to give up work, he has applied for disability living allowance with medical reports and recommendations from his specialist and yet he was still turned down, a friend of mine has another friend that tells people he is an alcoholic and when he has a meeting with the officers he pours a can of beer over himself so he can get benefits, she says that he rarely drinks, its people like this who takes the benefits away from the people who need it. Sorry for the rant but this just really annoys me!!

its really frustrating - thats what annoys me most is that the people that deserve the benefits dont get them.

One woman was offered a full time job but with 4 kids she was better off on benefits wtf.

With regard to DLA - have you been to your MP - i used to be a caseworker for an mp and i dealt with a couple of dla claims that on appeal were successful. Might be worth a go??

Grrrrrr still angry!

We havent done that, I want hubby to appeal but he seems to be sorting of giving up on the idea, I think part of him feels that he isnt entilted to anything. I will def look into doing this though, thanks xxxx

I know what you mean though, I mean I know it would be a struggle to work full time and look after 4 children but surely it would be better to go out and get a job?

surely if you make the decision to have 4 children then you should beable to support them. I certainly wouldnt have four becasue i couldnt afford it. I know one lady on here who is having her 4th and her and hubby both work really hard.

Tell hubby to definately appeal and keep on appealing - i have never known then to pay out straight away - almost like they are testing you. Without being nosy but what is your hubbys disability? Its just that if he was going blind for example - you have action for blind - heart - british heart foundation - these organisations understand exactly what should be on the forms - just a thought x

Hi hun had to read this post and comment as i get really fuming when i hear about benefit thieves etc!

When i was in ireland and ciaran came early i claimed child benefit etc as was alone, and obviously couldnt work! I got approved straight away no questions asked, i just filled in teh form and was recieveing the eqvilulant of ??167 a week!!!! I taught it was crazy but soon realised it didnt go far!
Anyway, me and OH decided to try work things out and i took leap of canceling all benefits and moving bk to uk. Oh doesnt earn much, so i put in a claim for child benefit (which i believe every1 entitled to) and they still havent awarded me it yet. i applied in March.Every time i ring i just get the dreaded response 'just have to wait sorry'. I find it so irritating becase i know as a fact the girl across from me recieves all the benefits of a single mum, she has no pride in hiding it, which is fine ,IF YOUR A SINGLE MUM, but she isnt her OH lives with her, yet the ??300per week!!! that our flat costs (and her is the same) is paid for her by benefits, her Oh works for cash down the local fruit/veg market and she is never seen without shopping bag in hand and both her her li girl and Oh are dressed to the nines, when i can barely afford to buy my son a pair of decent clarks shoes at the minute because of water , council tax bills etc coming out our ears!!!!!!!!!! And i cant get the pram my heart is set on because of cash problems!

im a nosy parker anyway, so i should probably keep my nose out lol, but i think its unbelievable!

oh and another thing, after coming back from ireland i never closed my account as my dad wanted to use it to transfer bday money etc over rather than using bacs tranfer, anyway he put some money in last week for me for my 21st this Sunday, and when i went to the atm i had to call him to ask how much he had put in, he said 50euros yet there was over 700 in there. i withdrew the 50 and went home and rang the telephone banking who cleared up the problem. my child benefit had never been canceled! I was petrified thinking oh my god they be banging my door down, you can get prison sentences, and was immediately on the phone to both irish and english child benefits.Thankfully they knew it wasnt my fault as they had copys of the letters i had sent asking for all benefits to cease etc, but a computer error had continued to pay me, i repaid the amount in full on the spot!!!!!!!!

The english people didnt seem bothered, just said the would check with ireland anyway! Hello wernt they ment to have done that back in march?????????????????????

anyway, turns out i could have kept that money as it wasnt my fault and because my claim hadnt been authorised here yet.but i felt better paying it back.

i just dont know how they do it, i mean i was literally shaking thining there would b a car watching me takign pictures of me and hubby together and on be on the stand ina court!!!

lmao

omg sorry jus realised how long tat was! lol

My mum is on DLA because after doctors messed up her cancer treatment she lost the use of her legs, she learnt to walk again after a lot of physio and strength and went back to work but it happened again and she has had to accept the fact she can hardly walk let alone walk and had to resign. She now has to claim all the benefits she can as still has rent, bills etc to pay. She has had to apply for a council house so she can have adaptions made so she can get around the house as current landlord wont allow her to here.
I was made redundant in Feb/March and since falling pregnant no one will take me on which is frustrating as i like working! So not i have become my mum's career unpaid and claim JSA. I hope to go back to work part time and care for my mum after baby is here!

My mum has worked since she was 14 and i have worked since i left school a few years ago. Its difficult when people have a generalisation about people on benefits being bad when there are some who actually need it and are not just sponging off the workers.

xx

Urgh, it does my head in too. When people genuinely need it and truly qualify that's fine but the sad truth is that many don't.

My cousin accidentally got pregnant with her boyf and my aunt is telling her to say they have broken up and that she's a single Mum so she can try to get a council flat/more benefits. It drives me crazy. Why should I pay for things like that. I work bloomin hard for my money.

Glad I missed the programme as I think it might have raised my blood pressure dangerously high!

My OH and I are both on benefits at the moment and it's the most humilating thing I have ever done in my life. Our business went bust as a result of the credit crunch, we lost ??50,000 in a start up loan we put in, had to move back in with parents, rent out our home because we can't afford to sell as it's in negative equity and start claiming benefits.

I have applied for loads of jobs and haven't even had a response from the applications. I was a company director of a high street retail business but can't get an interview at Burger King!!!

The jobcentre decided despite me earning almost ??50,000 in the last 2 years I hadn't paid enough tax in 2006 when I was a student so I am not entitled to contribution based benefits and because we own a house and are getting rent for it (which doesn't even come close to covering our mortgage!) I am not entitled to income based benefits so we are living on ??64 a week at the moment.

My OH spends all day every day applying for any sales/golf job he can find everywhere in the country and so far has had 4 interviews in Leeds, Glasgow, London and Birmingham one of which he has had a call back for this week but until he finds a job we are completely screwed!

It makes me so mad that these people get an absolute fortune in benefits and can live the life we did with a ??50,000 a year income and have absolutely no reason to go out and find work but when we are actively doing everything we can to find work we get next to nothing!! After all it's called jobseekers allowance, how exactly can they be entitled to it when they are openly not seeking employment??

I am getting close to being in the same situation as Wonderlandgirl, I am 16 weeks now, have the starting of a bump and will soon not be able to hide that I am pregnant. I won't be working anywhere long enough to be entitled to any maternity pay so any employer would have absolutely no reason to keep me on when I left to have the baby and who is going to employ someone who will be leaving in 4 months??

What made me really cross was the DJ woman who was sat there with her crocodile tears running down her face saying she had built up ??75,000 worth of debt trying to give her daughter the best start in life. Firstly that explains the financial situation this world is in if people who are living on benefits are deemed suitable candidates for ??75,000 worth of credit. Secondly would her daughter have had a crap start to life if she didn't have a 40 inch flat screen TV or so many toys she couldn't move in the sitting room or the top Virgin package so she can have the cartoon channels, forgive me if I am wrong but CBeebies is a freeview channel!!!

Grrrrrr, sorry really really long rant over!!!

my hubby was made redundant when we had 3rd son and we were 100% better off on benefits like you say rent council tax paid but we were miserable so hubby went out every day to get a job signed on every 2 weeks and had to show what he had done to try and get a job he tried sainsburys tesco everywhere and they ALL send too qualified (he has physics degree) he was off work for 9 mtonths and he felt that he wasnt complete he now has a good job pay bit low but he is stil training but is working and i work too (well did before mat leave lol)

we too cancelled our tv package as 1 couldnt afford and 2 boys were getting older and i didnt like them flicking through all the kids channels we now have cbeebies citv and cbbc thats it!!!

to get to my point really is that my friend who i went to school with has never worked she gets sent on these courses she turns up does as she is told then gets ticked off that she has tried then goes back to getting ??300 a week which is mainly spending money asd rent council tax paid etc so thats for food electric!!! makes me so angry her kids always in designer clothes mine primark ( i do love primark though lol) its just not fair!!! the job centre were rude to hubby as struggled to get job but these other people get away with it!!!

i feel for you miss impatient know how you feel.

we do get top up benefits to help us til hubby fully trained and cause i have 3 kids already i have a higher rate of tax credits (which is only just over ??575 a year so not as much as people think it needs to be) so we are intitled to the ??500 grant which i am grateful for as will help as having girl this time but i know how lucky i am i know people who get it and use for holiday as have so much money doesnt help!!!

i think ive rambled on long enough prob makes no sense LOL

wonderland girl - my mum had her first heart attack at the age of 49 and with the added issues of COPD (asthma emphasema sp) she is on dla. If you read my posts again you will see that i have no issue with people who deserve their benefits. It just infuriates me that i am buying second hand becasue i have a mortgage to pay etc - second hand cot from ebay and people who dont work get a lump sum and buy a bugaboo - grrrrrr


ajmum - you are a classic example of why we have a benefits system - you have both worked - hubby lost job - kept looking found job - off main benefits. The fact that you get the ??500 means its going to the right people some of the time. I just think 500 squid is alot of money to spend on a baby and there fore if they lowered it to say ??200 they more people could get a little bit of help.

Also - my final rant - child trust fund - i get the 250 for flump but if you are on certain benefits you get 500 for your child for when th reach 18.

How the hell do they know what position you will be in when you hit 18. The tables could be completely reversed which makes it unjustly unfair.

Rant over i promise

i do agree it should be lowered as it is alot especially as i already have my pram from last time. this is why those people have such expensive things to spend their money on.

and 100% right about the trust fund thing i think all should get the ??250 thats it i cant afford to pay in to it every month but i dont get the extra ??250 (not that i would pay into it as its a nightmare)

I didn't have a problem with most of the women - I thought their intentions were good. I also thought the woman running the course was great!

However, I did feel quite cross about the woman with 75 grand worth of debt who had Sky TV! My husband and I both work full time and don't have Sky because we feel it's an unnecessary expense - how can you justify it with that amount of debt! We spend money on lots of other stuff that could be deemed unnecessary but we can afford it!

It does annoy me though how single mothers are always targeted. Err, where are the fathers who all these children belong to?!! Are they working and supporting the families they've created?

I am one of the people who has worked since I was 14 and so has hubby and yet struggle to live sometimes on what we have. My cousin decided she wanted to move out of her family home so got pregnant to do so. She was quite shocked when I told her I was pg with twins and that id twins can happen to anyone. She actually said that she was so glad that she didnt end up pg with twins as she only wanted the house and wouldnt have wanted to spend 'her' money on extra stuff for 2 babies!!

I dont have to tell you how angry stories such as Miss I's make me. Surely furthering your career at university is what the government tell us to do yet if you do you end up not paying enough contributions for support whilst trying to get a job that everyone tells you that you are too qualified for!!! How does that make sense??

On a different note - Rosapenny - My mum gets mobility rather than DLA but it was originally DLA and she was turned down to begin with. She took a lot of persuading to apply in the first place, by us and her Dr, with all the necessary checks only to be refused and she would have given up. We persuaded her otherwise and she now has it for life through appeal. Basically, she was given Polio by the NHS when they immunised her and spent her first 16 years in full body casts to support growth in her legs. She now has one leg that is majorly lacking and will innevitably have to give up work before her time. These people deserve help and your hubby should definitely appeal. HTH xxx

I didnt watch it because I always end up so worked up about it I end up shouting at the screen.

back in 2007 I was made redundant whilst pregnant after working since the age of 16 I also had to come off my midwifery course early because I was pregnant. So my earnings went down to nil. My dh who has always had a fairly good paid job and has worked at the same place since 15 had a mental breakdown due to a lot of things really but he was a bused as a child which was a major factor in it. So anyone that has ever seen someone go through that will understand there is no way he could work. Bear in mind that in 11 years he had only 4 days off prior to this as he gos into work no matter how ill he is. So he didnt go to work for 12 weeks , in this time we couldnt afford to pay our ??800 mortgage and got behind with bills etc. He was only picking up 68.50 ssp a week which bearly covered food for a family of four . My duaghter was born in feb 08 and had to be fomula fed formula was costing me 15.00 a week at one point and we were not entilted to milk tokens. Social security wouldnt allow us any money as he was on ssp they told us to claim tax credits which we did, they awarded me 10 per week at first for two kids as they were going on the previous years earnings At this point we owed 3 months mortgage plus charges of over 100o pound . add that you all the other bills / charges we couldnt afford we were quite simply fecked!

after 3 months my dh decided he had to go back to work against the advice of the docter and the cpn he went back and there were a few problems to say the least but his work were good and put him office based for a while where he has more of a chance than welding fabricating (although he was bringing a lot of work back for me to do as I had experiance in an office. It was a long hard road but we got there eventially and although he wasnt 100% he managed to go back to welding and fabricating but by this time work was slow and hours were cut to a 3 day week which considering my dh used to work 7 day weeks some times is a massive drop in money so we struggled and stuggled again and stil we could get no help .

I went back to work nights for a while but because there is no one for the kids I was working 9pm to 7am then coming back home craig went to work I did the school run and came back by this time dd2 was toddling around so I was getting a hour sleep a day max then starti
ng again the same night. Child care would have cost more than I earnt so out of the question. I just couldnt take anymore after 8 months so gave up .
Now things are much better but not amazing at least though my mortgage is geting paid and we are clearing the arrears.

It make sit worse for me because I live on a rough estate that is full of benefit theifs and ppl who have never worked a day in there lives! So everywhere I turn I see these people and my daughter cant understand why other ppls daddys can stay at home and play with the kids but her daddy cant

I even know a cpl of ppl that claim disabilty for a child thats not disabled (well one is but no where near as bad as they make out) the other is fine but is made to miss out in other usual kid things incase anyone is watching. they get get high rate disabilty living allowance ( so a brand new car with insurance and tax paid) plus ??55 a week carers allowance (yes for her own child) they have just been moved to a brand new adapted house all paid for because they said the current house wasnt suitable for the child.


I dont knw if we qualify for the 500 grant tbh we never have before but things ar different now so I will apply I think its time the system gave us back a little of what we have paid in tbh x

i think you should def apply x

coco -) you always put me to shame - i have a one sided rant with blinkers on - i blame being an aries - bull in a china shop!!!

The tutor was brilliant. I really felt for the lady who had an alcohol problem but was impressed she found a job. But the one with the fab sky package - i really could have slamed her face into a wall (i honestly wasnt vilent before pregnancy).

She had an amazing tv - better computer etcetc. Who the hell lent her that money becasue it was rediculous and finally she applied for a dj job but couldnt do it because it finished to late - errrrrrr DJ??????????

You are right though - where the hell are the dads??

Wow its amazing how many of us are in very similar situations. Summer my hubby has ankloysing spondylitis (sp) he has very severe pain on his spine and eventually the bones will start fusing together. He has been on chemotherapy tablets which made him so ill. He is now on the government waiting list to get drugs that cost ??15000 so thankfully because the pain is so severe he has been approved. Today though he got up called and told them he wanted to appeal the decision, so he has got the ball rolling.

I feel the benefits system needs a massive overhall!

I moved out of home at 19 to live with my now hubby, I was at uni training to be a nurse and he worked every hour god sent to pay the rent. I worked bank shifts as a support worker to help out sometimes doing 50+ hour weeks as well as uni. Then in my final year as we were starting to make plans for what we would do when we finally had some cash I was diagnosed with cancer. I was off sick for a year and although I had been working because it wasnt permanent with regular enough NI contributions we didnt qualify for anything. I had been told it was likely I may die and we werent entitled to a penny. The only reason we didnt end up homeless is my dh worked yet more hours and some very kind cancer charities helped us out. But they are charities they rely on fundraising yet without them we would never have coped. I finished treatment and went straight back to work before I was ready so we didnt default on the rent, I have worked ever since.

It makes me angry when people get something for nothing when they dont deserve it there are so many people who dont get a penny, then people who get things handed to them. Why should you be better off on benefits rather than in employment, where is the incentive to work?!

Em 27 + 5 x x x