Poor Kids

I have just been watching the documentary on BBC 3 re the above and it was truly heart rending and all the children without exception were delightful.

It is very difficult to understand how anyone, watching this, can think people on benefits are living the high life.

Is that a repeat? I watched it or a similar programme a few weeks ago.

The tenaments in Glasgow were dreadful.

rune

I saw that the other week, it is truly awful.

It even nearly made me cry...and I have a heart of stone

All the mould in their homes, no one should be forced to live like that!

No good asking me if it was a repeat as I usually watch the beginning and end of programmes as I am either going to sleep, waking up, going out or coming in.

So I get my money's worth out of programmes!

On a serious note, I found the conditions that these people were living in unbelievably squalid.

You have obviously never met my cousin, brothers girlfriend and their friends. They have kids, don't work yet can afford tattoos, iphones, computers, to spend £100 a week on booze, buy cigarettes, buy new clothes, go to a spa and all sorts of things that I certainly couldn't afford while working full time.

I don't doubt that there are people who are on benefits and not managing to make ends meet but unfortunately there are also a lot who ARE living the high life on benefits and they give all those on benefits a bad name.

Going to have a look for this program and see whether it's available online, I know some of the bbc ones are.

Yes I saw this a few weeks ago, shocking. The children just broke your heart really, they just got on with it.....life as they know it.

I saw this the other week and it is heartbreaking but a sad reality of life on benefits unless you are cheating the system.
My son has bought his two children up on benefits as a lone father and he has had to go without basic things like food and heating because money wouldn't stretch somedays. Especially if they needed new shoes for school or new clothes because they had grown out of things.
There is real poverty in this country and thats why I get so mad with the goverment making it even harder for them, by cutting things and by their own admission saying the only people to be worse off working and hit the hardest will be single parents.
This is true as my son has tried to get jobs but after benefits agency worked it all out with childcare costs etc he was even worse off if that is possible.
The goverment should be helping genuine families here first before sending the money abroad to help other countries. But thats another story.

I really don't understand how some struggle so terribly on benefits while others live the life of luxury. None of the people in my above post are intelligent enough to cheat the system. They're claiming what they're entitled to but that's it, nor are they working (they're too lazy for that!).

I've been on benefits myself and I used to get £45 a week, that had to pay gas, electricity, water and buy me food. If I were very lucky I might have a fiver left at the end of the week. It was awful.

I watched this program when it was on originally a couple of months ago. It was very insightful.

Thank goodness they knocked down those awful high rise flats in Glasgow; they were appalling.

I felt especially sorry for the boy with clothes that didn't fit him (he wore his sisters white blouse to school and trousers that were up to his ankles). Funny that his dad could afford a wide screen TV and Playstation 3, but could not afford to get his son a school uniform that fits.