To respect fairness ...

Will it be alright to offer dishonest views too?

I don't think I can offer my honest view of some of the residents Benefit Street....otherwise I would get banned !  

Give a dishonest one then and balance out the views

Ok ....I think they are all thoroughly deserving people ....that dishonest enough  

I think they're fine examples of Britain today

*stands proud*

I've watched the series and missed the last one and the debate, so may have to catch it before I can comment too much.

But the people who feature on the programme can't be that stupid to realise how they are going to look on TV. Some of their attitudes leave a lot to be desired. But a couple on the street have jobs and are trying to make a fist of their situation.

What does get me every time is how many of these people smoke and drink. Stop both of those and you will have more cash in your pockets.!

Yes, not to mention flat screen TVs and mobile phones. .....but I agree , a couple of them were really trying....especially the 50p guy ......however , the likes of big Dee make me want to throw something at my TV screen !!!!

i get my baccy up the road

should be £16+

i pay £8

mark & becky met in a 'special school' in selly oak

i refused to let my step-son go there

what im saying is we all save money if we can

but we're not MP's

MP's steal 'legally'

and we let them!

we moan via the papers

but they take our money and justify it

we dont say **** all

we *tut*

look

digital tv took over

its cheaper to buy a digital tv than to buy the 'digital box' that goes with it

But where do they get the money from to buy these things pirate ? 

some of you are really missing the point here

we all have a mobile phone

we have wifi

government gave kids laptops

the tv went to digital

government did that

government encourage people to be on the net

and yet when they are you call them scroungers

not all of you do

but come on..

 . . . and they come for free - and the contracts are free too?

And if each of the family has a phone and a contract and a TV in their bedrooms.

And . . . come on Pirate aint it you that's  missing the point?

No offence - just sayin

dont ask me ask the government

they started it

it pisses me off

labour-tories-lib dems all of them posh boys

they say about hard working people

but i bet not one of them has EVER

actually done a stint of a 15hr day

i did-we have

thats why we own our homes

not cos Daddy gave it us

I pay around £42 per month for my Broadband, telephone and TV box. If I was not working I would do without. I was brought up to have what you can afford or can save up for.

I have a friend who works for the NHS part time. This friend earns a very modest wage and guess what, he does not own a TV, he does not have broadband and his mobile is on a pay as you go basis. His phone is 5 years old and a 'hand me down' from another friend. What he saves from his wages after bills and food he spends on his child. Everything he does financially is calculated and he does forgo certain activities so as not to get into debt or run short. Virtually everything is cooked at home and eating out is a real treat.

So as you see from above some people can and do work within their budgets.

dont know how old you are-but in 2000-ish blind bloke from labour gave EVERY kid a laptop-i think from labour bloke with the dog

i agree

i dont know why them lot dont smoke roll ups

ive been so poor at one point

i lived in the hallway of the flat cos it had electric plug

so i plugged my lamp in

me & the dog lived on oxo cubes & the nice neighbour who put them in hot water & gave us bread

i had some really hard times

I've only watched bits and pieces of a few episodes so I can't comment on the overall programme BUT what I did see was a few really messy, uncared for houses.  Don't get me wrong.....I'm in no way a cleaning freak, I hate cleaning, but these people are at home all day and get enough money to be able to spruce up the place even if it's just a lick of paint or a throw for the sofas.

And the way that couple (the young ones, the girl has red hair?) let their son rule the roost really got on my nerves.  But that's not something that can be blamed on benefits, my friend lets her kids rule her house and she isn't on benefits.  It just makes for really rude, bratty kids.  

off to kip

both the parents have got learning difficulties

C4 never mentioned that

I got distracted and didn't finish my post.....

I live in an area full of people on benefits.  Kids dressed nice, homes and gardens kept nice and people generally don't sit drinking lager all day.  I think channel 4 picked that street because it was one of the more shocking estate areas.  Not everyone on benefits sits around all down downing beer and not wearing a bra.

I wonder what else wasn't mentioned.....doesn't surprise me that Channel 4 hid it.

The issues and concerns surely don't boil down to 'who has a laptop' ??

Live to work or work to live?

They do for a lot of people.  Have a £200 lap top and you're king of the world, apparently. 

Hard working middle class families doing the right thing on £50k+, are to be pitied as they apparently can't even afford laptops and flat screen TVs.  Laptops, are such big ticket items, apparently, according to the Daily Mail brigade.  How dare people on benefits be able to, at any time in their lives - even if they were working, spend more than £300 on a TV!

We live in a funny country where the right touts ownership of a £300,000 property, a new car sitting in the drive and several foreign holidays a year as less 'aspirational' and costly than a Toshiba 40" TV and 'designer' trainers.

After all, who wouldn't swap their 4 bed detached townhouse, two cars, foreign holidays for a mid priced TV and higher end Nike trainers!

Firstly I should say I didn't see the programme in question just heard about it and saw a few trailers but...

I kinda hate reading threads like this about people on benefits and those that are working saying why have they got TV's, computers etc..

I am on benefits and have been for quite some yrs now. I suffer severely from anxiety based panic attacks and as a result am now agoraphobic. I don't go out, I don't socialise, I have no family left living, I am on my own. I rent a Telly, I have a laptop and an old desktop PC, I have the internet and a Virgin media STB.. I have a mobile phone cos it's cheaper to use than the landline..  I am addicted to smoking and was for 20 or so yrs before I was no longer able to work so I now smoke Asda cheap brand rolling tobacco. I had a glass of wine with my Xmas dinner and one with my new years day dinner.  but threads like this make me feel feel guilty for using my benefit money for those things when I read what people say about people having 'luxuries' on benefits.

I don't have things like the latest Ipads or Kindles or games consoles.. we'll apart from a cheap Wii Fit to try and help me and my joint problems.. didn't work tho.. or designer anything.. I don't posses a dishwater or tumble dryer. . my washing machine was a wedding present and is 32 yrs old. .My fridge and cooker are newer tho

The TV is my only company... as is the internet. .it also enables me to do my grocery shopping, thankfully. I have a 39 yr old car which I use once or twice a month if I need to get something urgent from the shops or prescriptions from the chemist.. I can manage the odd short trip to do these things now and then as I can't use public transport due to not having control about dashing back home asap if an attack starts coming on. .with my car I have full control over where and when I nip out and for how long and how far..

The whole of last year I went out twice.. .once to a pub and once to a cheapo all you can eat restaurant.. they were a treat from a friend.. and were on one of my very rare good days when I could handle being away from my safe place for more than half an hour..  yet I read a thread like this and feel guilty for my 'luxuries' ..

I used to work, I used to own my own house, I used to have a family and husband. .circumstances changed I no longer do or have any of those. . am I not allowed to at least not go even more stark raving mad by having some company in the house even if it is via the airwaves.. Silence is the deadly enemy especially if your anxiety has your brain going 19 to the dozen most of the time and the TV or puter helps to distract it..  it's not as if I chose for it to be like this.. 

Gawd who'd have known all those years ago when I was young and fit and had my life in front of me that I'd turn into such a saddo

ps I have a cat too

pps I am not saying all this for sympathy or cuddles just saying how being lumped as ' being on benefits' doesn't mean we are all the same even if some of us do have some 'luxuries'.

ppps And after all that, I have always voted Conservative

I can waffle for England too

I think that was the most offensive thing about the whole program

totally agree with all of this...and I am not on any benefits whatsoever! I hate everyone being tarred with the same brush, I know in my area of high unemployment, people are working two jobs and still claiming working tax credits just to get by and those that can't find work and using food banks in much larger numbers. 

I didn't watch the programme, I knew it was going to sterotype a minority of those on benefits and its not that black and white. I have loads of empathy for those struggling, whilst I have bucket loads of contempt for the greedy in society. 

The budget for those on jobseekers is a very small percent of the welfare budget, Pensioners, those in work and claiming working tax credits claim the lions share of the budget. 

I gave up wearing a bra a decade ago and have never claimed benefits....

It only happened fairly recently that pensions were taken under the wing of the DWP, before that  they were always called pensions, rather than benefits.It irritates me now that they are proclaimed to be benefits and shoehorned into any debate with the rest of the benefits.

The state pension was always a contract  between the gov. of the day and it's workers, you pay national insurance and all the added on bits that happened from time to time and  you do this  for 39 years, and we will pay you a pension,The state sets the terms and conditions , the worker has no say in it, and the worker fulfils their part of the contract.If the NI contributions were too low then that is the fault of the gov. not the pensioner.

I didn`t watch the programme but I read a lot about it.  I`m in agreement with the Carnelian and Dame.

He`s OTT but I also agree with a lot of what this guy has to say. There was an agenda behind Benefit Street.  Warning: cursing galore!

I never said that it was the pensioners fault Jackson and I would be against any cuts in pensions. Taking that out of the equation, Jobseekers is still lower than a lot of other things out of the budget, I think it accounted for 3% of the budget in 2011/2012. Also, IDS is thinking of privatizing the delivery of state pensions..gawd help them  Another 25 billion is to be cut from the the benefit budget this coming year..it will be interesting to see how much more Gideon heaps on the poorest in society.

I agree with loads of his rants, just wish he would try and put his point across without the shouting Scotty  He also did one about my cousins foster son, who died in prison whilst being on remand for pinching a cake fromGreggs in the London riots...

Sorry Dame, I wasn't having a go at you,I was just making the point about pensions now being known as a benefit.

So now the right wingers can point at the massive amount of 'benefits' pensioners receive and the massive benfits bill.

Remove the pensions from that bill and  it get's the social security budget into a more  reasonable area, but Dave and his pals wouldn't want that, it has no advantage for the divide and rule policies.

Nice rant, but  I think most of us know what Dave and his chums are up to.....surely...

A decade ago and a different country, but George was onto them back then and it's only got worse since...

I know you weren't Jackson...I was pointing out in my own clumsy way that the the propaganda of this government seems to be working and that's been call me Dave's agenda from 1997...its well documented and sadly seems to be working with the majority