Saturday 12 April 2014

”And the award for best comedy show of 2014 goes to…”

”…Panorama: Don't Cap My Benefits, BBC One!”.

Mainly because if you didn't laugh at this pathetic attempt to drum up sympathy for those affected by the government benefit cuts, you’d cry…
Councils such as Brent are also struggling because, in 2011, the government cut what they could pay private landlords.
Laurence Coaker, Brent's head of housing needs, said some private landlords were losing £200 or £300 a week, so they evicted tenants and refused to relet their accommodation to the council.
"By putting on a cap, which is for the whole country, it hasn't worked for London or the South East," he said.
"What we're having to do is to find accommodation which the households can afford by claiming the housing benefit, but that's outside of Brent, and families don't want to go there, understandably, because they've lived in Brent all their lives."
Well, it turns out, ‘all their lives’ is a bit of hyperbole in a lot of cases:
Large families, such as that of Awes Osman, who originally came from Somalia and has lived in Brent for 23 years, are worst hit.
‘Large families’..? On benefits? Well, why not? The taxpayer’s paying!
He has seven children and the rent for his four-bedroom house was around £500 a week, but that is the total amount of benefits he received after the cap. The council believed his only option was moving to cheaper accommodation, in Birmingham.
"I've never been to Birmingham. We lose everything if we go to Birmingham. If we lose the school, that will be the biggest damage. And we have to lose our job as well. I live all my entire life in London," he said.
You’d ‘never been to England’ at one time, but you sure adapted well to that, didn't you?

17 comments:

Tim Almond said...

at what point do these people start getting even the slightest inconvenience for their bad choices?

You want to pop out kids and not work? Through gritted teeth I will just about, just about accept that. I don't want kids dying on the state. But I don't see why you have to live in an expensive house doing it when you can live in Hull, especially when there's people working in London who have to commute past you.

Anonymous said...

I agree 100%. I don't like Cameron but the benefit cap has saved Britain.
Before the cap I would have to say for a 16 year old the best thing to do is have lots of babies now working is an option again.

Dick the Prick said...

'And we have to lose our job as well. I live my entire life in London.'

Hmm...is that 1 job between all of them, split shifts all for the goal of prosperity? Coupled with his command of the perfect tense one starts to perhaps think he can't even be bothered to learn the language. I think the give-a-fuck-o'meter may required.

Anonymous said...

If I was king, what you get from the system would be in direct proportion to what you have contributed. No or minimal contributions? You are housed somewhere I designate - like Gruinard.

Tatty said...

In the days before Benefits one of my great-aunts had ten kids to the man she married and the whole family lived in a three bedroomed rented house. Not one of them was a trouble to their neighbours.

When one after the other they hit 16, left school, started work and paying 'Keep' she felt rich beyond all her wildest dreams.

The children eventually left home to get married themselves but by then they'd all saved together and made the landlord an offer to buy that house for their parents.

The very idea of working together as a 'Family' instead of a 'Litter' seems almost fantastical these days, doesn't it.

wiggia said...

We did not need a program to tell us what is already general knowledge, but two things stood out in this.
Firstly, children, they are the shield by which no one can touch them, either single mums with never any fathers around or never ending large families.
Secondly the "refugees" coming from places that have no welfare no jobs, disease, no homes other than a tin hut, it did not take them long despite in most cases never working to start demanding we the taxpayer do more for them, I had to turn the program of after one of them started demanding they were treated better having after twelve years never contributing sod all.

bobo said...

Tatty: We lost the concept of the extended family years ago, and replaced it with dependency on the state. New arrivals to our shores have the old style ethic, but no reservations about latching onto the welfare state like limpets, no matter what they may think about other aspects of our culture and society. This gives them an enormous advantage as they have access to both the welfare system and their old style clan and kinship systems.

Furor Teutonicus said...

Can't find jobs?

Na ja. What do they expect when their mane claim to a qualification is turnip growing?

Anonymous said...

Panorama wanted that programme to drum up sympathy for the welfare kings and queens, but it has spectacularly backfired. The petulant, ungrateful, parasites condemned themselves out of their own mouths.

Monty

Anonymous said...

Well you all wont procreate - so somebody must.

Tatty said...

Bobo - I take your point but if the term 'extended family' applies to someone's own offspring then *they clearly don't understand the meaning of the words.

*regardless of place of birth or Mother Tongue.

Anonymous said...

Just watched this programme.. I am a private landlord. I noted all sympathy went to the evicted tenants... No mention of the amount of arrears accrued by the time it got to the point of eviction..which can ( depending on court lists) easily get to 6 months! And yes, I am a single parent ( 3 kids), and still have to find the mortgage payments somehow til the non-paying tenant eventually goes. Typically the tenant will wait until the very last minute to leave. Meantime the landlord has lost even more rent and forked out for court fees. I saw the tenant who thought it was hilarious to retain the keys to the property, thus adding to the landlords costs, as he had to then call a locksmith out to change the locks. The same tenant was then sobbing down the benefit office...

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX I saw the tenant who thought it was hilarious to retain the keys to the property, thus adding to the landlords costs, as he had to then call a locksmith out to change the locks. XX

Here they can be taken to court and made pay for the change, or the charge is added to the owed rent.

It does not help the tax payer, but the Landlord is not out of pocket.

In fact, refusing to hand over the keys could be seen as theft....

Anonymous said...

I tried everything in the past, but ccjs don't mean a thing to some people. And if they aren't working, I don't have a hope of getting any of the money back. Attachment of earnings can be implemented against working ppl, but the court puts a stay on it if their annual income is under a certain amount. Third party attachments can take money out of their bank accounts.. But if there's nil balance, I get... Nil. That tenant in particular, apart from her attitude towards her landlord and rent arrears, presented well. If people knew they'd have to repay their rent arrears, they wouldn't maybe let them accumulate, by staying until the last minute in a property. But unfortunately, the knowledge is out there that they are untouchable.

Anonymous said...

"I agree 100%. I don't like Cameron but the benefit cap has saved Britain."

Oh really ?

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/469953/Gypsies-on-Benefits-and-Proud-Romanian-gypsy-aims-to-earn-40-000-on-UK-handouts

JuliaM said...

"at what point do these people start getting even the slightest inconvenience for their bad choices?"

Spot on! Others have to suffer them.

"I think the give-a-fuck-o'meter may required."

*shakes meter* Nope, it's burnt out!

"The very idea of working together as a 'Family' instead of a 'Litter' seems almost fantastical these days, doesn't it."

For some people, yes... :/

JuliaM said...

"Firstly, children, they are the shield by which no one can touch them..."

And we complained when Saddam did that!

"Panorama wanted that programme to drum up sympathy for the welfare kings and queens, but it has spectacularly backfired."

Indeed so! Some people in my office were incandescent!

" I am a private landlord. I noted all sympathy went to the evicted tenants..."

It always does... :/