I saw it RR. 

Bloody heartbreaking, and they were all such lovely kids. 

I used to live like that. We had very little money but mom always made sure we were fed. We always lived hand to mouth and all clothes were second hand.

I live in a council house that is covered in damp and the council's advice is to open all the windows and put the heating on full.

I also watched it RR. I was upset, but very angry with our fat cat government sitting on their fat ar**S who throw billions at  countries that could well look after themselves, but choose to fund space programmes, buy weapons ...........etc etc. allow millions of immigrants in and give them benefits.....etc etc. What about our own people, living in poverty like they do. I especially can't stop thinking about the single dad who was doing his best amongst all the squalor, and his children in there raggy clothes. The girls who lived with their mother were also living in squalor and playing in dangerous areas with goodness knows who watching them. It really did hit a nerve with me.................

Longcat.

I wonder if they are going to offer to pay the bill for you ?? .... it's bloody madness.

I watched this programme last night. To be honest what I saw didn't really surprise me. If there are those kids on that programme living in poverty, there will be hundreds more besides.

It was really sad for the older girl who seemed very intellegent. The peer pressure from kids at school etc must be dreadful for them, it's a bloody nightmare situation. Terrible to hear kids saying they go without dinner sometimes .... that's really bad. I've been skint but I was always able to afford 3 good meals a day ..... It's a sad state of affairs this country is in.

 Well said.  Good programme and pretty disturbing.  I am not sure if I heard right, but I think that I heard them say that one in five children in this country is living in poverty!   It's an outrage, especially as you say, because of how our government wastes so much money.  Sorry, but it's about time we STOPPED giving foreign aid. AND pulled out of other peoples wars!  We need the money in THIS country.

Heartbreaking that children or anyone for that matter are forced to live in these conditions.

I've just watched it on catch up, i have lived on benefits as a single parent and my house and bedding has never looked like that and my daughter has never gone without meals, also you get help with school uniforms, i'm not saying i wasn't upset watching it cause i was, but for me they must be spending their benefits on other thing's, the single dad said it was on electric and food etc, yet the electric went off and the fridge was empty

He had said some of his benefits were not being paid at the right time but were being backdated, but he had to borrow money to cope in the short term and as a result had to pay back the interest, so even though he was getting the money it was being spent paying off the interest of a loan.

Yes i get that, i can't remember exactly how much he said he was down a week but it was less then £15, his house and his children haven't got like that because of that amount of money and if he has had a loan off provident, then what has he spent the money on? cause it wasn't on the house or the kids

He seemed to be missing out on a lot of things. Free uniforms and free school meals. The eldest girl if she was still in full time education was entitled to something. Most of his electricals were rented including the TV and Washing machine and probably the Freezer as well. Trust me that can add up to quite a chunk out of your income.

 He was waiting for backdated payments but meanwhile had borrowed money to get by and would have to pay an awful lot of interest on it.

 He would always be playing catch up and there would be days when he wouldn't have anything.

As a child I lived like this. Mom did the best she could and always made sure we were fed and clean.

When i left home. I learned to budget pretty fast. All bills are paid as soon as they land on the mat. If I need something  I save for it. I don't borrow and I don't live above my means.

He probably spent the loan on gas and electric bills. Which would then leave him having to find the money to repay the loan and find the money for the next lot of bills. It's a vicious circle. I know it costs nothing to clean and keep things tidy but he's probably depressed and not finding it easy to cope. Living like that is enough to depress anybody.

I do understand Longcat, i've lived on benefits and know how hard it is too juggle the money, all i'm saying is there seemed to be something else going on in the 2 households were they were single parents (the woman with 3 young girls)  the single dad said he got £60 a fornight for himself, well dole money for him would be £130 a fornight, he did say that was less deductions he was paying back (for what?) they alll take deductions for loans you've had off them, bill's you can't pay (he was on meters) or fine's, i'm going round in circles here  i just think sometimes the parents spend money on other things instead of on the children

That poor little girl's legs made me want too cry and then the mum didn't even apply the cream for her, she sat outside in the dirt too do it herself

I haven`t watched this programme yet but to you longcat -

Take it to your local MP. 

My sister works in housing and no matter how much she tries to help people in the same position as you - the depts she deals with give the same stupid advice you were given. 

She now (on the quiet) advises them to contact their MP.

The results from doing that - local press coverage about their living conditions by their MP - make our council shift their bums pretty quickly. 

His massive flat screen TV and games console seemed to stay on though

Aimee I agree with you. There are a lot of things he could do to help himself. But he didn't seem to be getting all he was entitled to. Some people are just totally incapable of knowing how to budget and it causes so much trouble. And other parents are just totally incapable of raising children.

Thanks for the advice. We have council coming soon to do major work to the house and we are hoping that finally we will be able to solve the problem.

His tv and console along with his washer and fridge were all rented and all ran on meters. But I did notice he was on the internet. Another thing even though it sounds petty was the boy was eating custard creams. I would have brought a loaf of bread before I would have brought custard creams 

 Another thing even though it sounds petty was the boy was eating custard creams. I would have brought a loaf of bread before I would have brought custard creams 

Well yes, things like that... and I'm not begrudging the bloke a telly, but surely a big one like that must cost more to rent than a smaller one. The one he had was mahoosive - they could manage fine with a smaller one and would have more money for stuff like food   

I`m glad to hear that longcat. 

Keep us posted about how it goes. All the best. x

Originally Posted by longcat:

 Another thing even though it sounds petty was the boy was eating custard creams. I would have brought a loaf of bread before I would have brought custard creams 

Well yes, things like that... and I'm not begrudging the bloke a telly, but surely a big one like that must cost more to rent than a smaller one. The one he had was mahoosive - they could manage fine with a smaller one and would have more money for stuff like food   

Again I agree I would have brought a small second hand tv and used the rental money for food or if I had wanted a large tv I would have saved the rental money and brought one. But that is how my mind works and his probably doesn't work the same. Budgeting should be taught in schools but even then some people are always going to want things they can't afford and think they desperately need.

I am not holding my breath Scotty. They fitted double glazing and central heating not long back but because they didn't treat the walls the problem is still there. Which as I told them was kind of stupid. Then they have the nerve to increase my rent to pay for the heating and double glazing and which I will continue to pay for the rest of my council life thus making it the most expensive double glazing and central heating known to man. Like most councils it is run by morons who couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery.

which part of the country are you in?  there are all sorts of tenants groups/forums ect that can offer support/advice'  there is also the Decent Homes standards 2012

I live in the Midlands and the council are working on  bringing the houses up to date and remodernising them a bit at a time. But they keep running out of money and then it's held back for another year. We were supposed to have been finished years ago but it finally looks like it could be our year (fingers crossed) But anything could happen between now and then the council may need to spend the money on another useless piece of art to dot around our city.

Thats true, its just hard to watch the kids suffering for it I haven't watched it all yet - I'm about 20 mins in, but so far I'm feeling really sorry for the Scottish family - they moved to get away from the damp and got put into a flat with even more mould! 

the East Midland Tenant's Participation Forum is very active,  there is also TAROE and TPAS. Every home is to reach the decent homes standard by 2012 (there are penalties for not doing so) 

I am West Midlands and we have to be finished for 2012. 

TAROE and TPAS are national and there is nothing wrong at looking at other websites!

Exactly, these were some of the things that annoy me about programmes like this where people on benefits are classed as people living with nothing, i know the money isn't alot and it is a struggle to get by but say the woman with the 3 little girls must get about £200 a week, sure she could do a weekly shop out of that or buy 1 pair of shoes a week

The programme makers also did seem too pick some of the worse housing estates to visit, it also annoyed me that those little girl's were playing in that empty house, the little girl said there wasn't nothing too do and she didn't have any colouring books or toys in the house, yet again what are they spending the money on?

oh yay, the Scottish family have been re-housed Thing is though, the council will just move another family into that damp flat

They're on now saying they can't afford new school uniforms - I know there are 4 of them but places like Asda do school things quite cheap don't they? Plus they're all girls so surely the younger ones could have the hand-me-down uniform bits, like school branded jackets etc, cos I know that stuff is expensive. 

Im in a council longcat and had damp on the stairs, we've just had a new kitchen, bathroom and insulation on all the outside walls, so fingers crossed it will have cured the problem, don't think we'll really know until the winter, hope you get your's sorted x

and their house is filthy - the little girl is sat colouring on the floor and the soles of her feet are black from the dirt  

She would get about £25 each child towards their uniform, i had to have my brothers old school blazer when i went up to secondary school, my mum just changed the button to the other side

Oh blimey, they've demolished them! Well, thats good

She would get about £25 each child towards their uniform, i had to have my brothers old school blazer when i went up to secondary school, my mum just changed the button to the other side

oh I didn't know that, thats not bad - enough for a blazer/jumper at least

WHAT, that little lad has only just been put on free school meals?! Why didn't his dad do that before?

I notice the Scottish family haven't been featured as much - seems their problem was just the flat they were put into by the council rather than the way the family budgeted for things...

He would have been entitled to school meals so i don't know why he wasn't on them, when i worked in a school you did have children telling you that this was the only meal they got that day, one little girl came up to me after a week off and said she was so happy too be back at school, i said what to see your friends and she said no to get my dinner  i used to always make sure she had a little extra

The little girl's in this programme where eating what looked like pasties from greggs, which ain't cheap, surely it would have been cheaper for her to buy a big bag of potatoes and some sausages etc, i see it where i live on a council estate (many on benefits) get their money from the post office and the first thing they do is either buy phone top ups, scratch cards or go into Greggs

custard creams and greggs pies do not a millionaire make.

the parents shown may not be the most devoted scimpers and scrapers ever born, they may even be incomptetent, maybe they had  incompetent parents too,who knows, but  you guys maybe the best at feeding your  families on  whatever  the  dole money is now,  some of these parents clearly weren't.so many congatulations to you  and well done.the  fact remains that in one  of the wealthiset   countries on earth , families do not have enough knowledge or money to feed their kids is  a  grave indictment of us all.

the life chances of thses kids is curtailed and maybe even determined by the time they are 5, and most will  achieve nothing.a  few will rise  above it and make good and those are the ones that are held  up to the public gaze  to show its really not so bad.

 but in truth, is is.