Famous, Rich And Hungry

[sherrardk]

For those that are interested this is just starting on BBC 1.

[naomi24]

They do need help .... but they also need to be prepared to help themselves.

[ummmm]

They didn't actually go into the history of any of them. The single bloke is/was a proud man, he probably insisted they knew how he arrived at such a dire situation.

[sherrardk]

The woman with three children enrolled on a training course (excellent,positive step) and five minutes later she was faced with losing her home - people can't keep getting knocked like that and maintain any semblance of a positive attitude. It is overwhelming. I just felt sorry for them all (for different reasons).

[anneasquith]

i watched half of the programme....................just what we nead, ' rich' people throwing their arms in the air saying ' I had no idea people are so poor '',oh really!!. useless programme served no purpose except publicity for the '' rich people''

[naomi24]

Ummmm, Apart from that woman with two children by two different fathers, they certainly gave a bit of background about the rest.

[ummmm]

I've only just watched it. All I know is Lady from Ethiopia, had child at 41, father doesn't provide. Lady with young children, father doesn't provide. Man, had to stop work through ill health, used to be a painter and decorator and earnt a decent wage.

[naomi24]

We were certainly told more than that - except about the woman with the young children. Perhaps you and I watched different programmes.

[emmie]

i think that is part of the problem, no men around, so they don't pay towards their children, so the women have to cope on their own, as to the proud man, why didn't he save some of the good wages he had earned, there was a lot of info missing on all of the cases. Theo Paphitis, who came from a poor family, gave some very sound advice to the Ethiopian woman, who seemed to believe that all the problems will magically disappear by ignoring it, which of course it doesn't, it compounds them.

[jackthehat]

I'm surprised that the programme makers missed the opportunity to give us full salacious details on the backgrounds of the families.

It would have enabled those so inclined to to look even further down their noses at these examples of undeserving and feckless layabouts. Perish the thought that the viewers should actually dole out some of their finite and precious reserves of sympathy on people without knowing the minutiae of their circumstances.......I mean.....where will it all end?!

[emmie]

ann, i actually thought, though it will sound very unkind this was another slant by the BBC, show the poor being subjected to horrendous deprivation, add into the mix the likes of Rachel Johnson and that guy from MIC, how would anyone not know that there are poor people in UK, she would read the papers, he came across as a stereotypical Sloane, it should be in much more depth, I would like to know what help they sought, and was given.
I did feel sorry for the woman with the three children.

[anneasquith]

this was '' benefit street'' done bbc style, families carefully chosen, am I the only one who noticed how clean and tidy the homes/children were . at least the participants wont receive hate mail/death threats and abusive comments on sites like AB.

[emmie]

sympathy is all well and good, but it doesn't put food on the table. I didn't ask for sympathy when everything went pear shaped, i asked for help. it took a while but it came through in the end. And i do know what it was like to go hungry, its not a good place to be in. I queried the point before that the figures put forward of how much the people had to spend a week on food, so low one couldn't possibly manage. most of them seem to be heavily in debt, which is why most couldn't manage, one woman paying 60 quid a week - which rather took the wind out of Rachel Johnson

why would someone send hate mail to anybody, that means they are stupid and ignorant.

[sherrardk]

Why wouldn't their homes and children be neat and tidy? As for the debt - I imagine they hit bad times, had no money and no access to benefits (it's not instant) and had to get a loan to get by. Apparently (read it somewhere) a surprisingly high number of us couldn't last very long if we fell on hard times, people just don't have savings these days.

Anyway, part two is on tonight - four more hopeless and lost families for some of us to disparage.

[ummmm]

// as to the proud man, why didn't he save some of the good wages he had earned, //

Emmie...he has 6 kids (or is it 8?) and he'd probably gone through any savings he had.

£50.50 a week. I couldn't live on that.

What I found quite upsetting is that how is someone who is barely eating suppose to find work? Where are they getting their energy from? Not from a tin of soup!!!

[silliemillie]

The bloke with the 8 kids must be able to claim Disabled Living Allowance if he is too ill to work, maybe he doesn't know, someone should have advised him to apply.

[Mamyalynne]

DLA has been mentioned a couple of times here, new claims are only for children - for adults it is now PIP.

Personal Independence Payment.

[ummmm]

And aren't they really strict? He would probably be deemed fit for work.

[Mamyalynne]

Possibly so , I am refraining from too much comment as I haven't watched it yet - but generally if you fall on hard times for a while and all bills are paid up and you have nothing on finance, you may struggle but cope.

However when hard times hit and you have bills in the wings and finance to pay that is when the bite really hurts.

[ummmm]

The gentleman mentioned had an electricity debt so they fitted a prepayment meter. They take an enormous chunk out of his benefits.

[DrFilth]

not seen the programme but at least 10 months back if you could walk 2 or 3 steps you would not get dla

some people think you just claim for things and get them , it does not work like that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rQmAfrKEic