Channel 4 Dispatches - Britain’s Benefits Scandal 2nd dec (trigger warning topic)

I too found it surprisingly well balanced. Compared to recent rhetoric coming from the right wing press, it made some relevant points

if you’re in London where rent for a basic studio flat is £1400-£1500 alone , your UC payment ( 35yrs + with LCWRA) could be around the £2000 figure and your right most of this is the housing element.

but if the local authorities had done what they were meant to do when they sold off the council houses ie spent the money on building replacement houses there would not be a shortage of houses or the need for all the private rentals instead they lined there own pockets

There has always been a shortage of housing that's nothing new.

We've had a lot of new houses being built around me and a fair amount are second homes that get rented out. I know that's not just where I live, but it means they are only short term let. There are not enough affordable places to get onto the ladder. Without the first time buyer, nobody can actually move as you have no chain.

I don't know what the answer is. I am just writing my thinking.

I watched the documentary tonight, bearing in mind the articles posted up the thread, I noted that the sickfluencer aspect was about 2 minutes of the show focus and yet it's a major part of the media coverage. Also, that PIP was never named once in the documentary yet was mentioned specifically in some of those articles. These are small details but they show how the media wants to frame the subject and not necessarily how C4 intended it.

The documentary didn't really upset me. I would have liked some discussion on the other side of assessments - how assessors don't always listen or record details correctly, especially as they talked about people using 'correct terminology' - just in the interests of balance. But overall I agree that it didn't scapegoat the claimants so much as condemn the system.

The reason I call out the mention of PIP is that the focus of the documentary was on work and getting back into work and there's still this conflation of PIP and work related benefits which really needs to stop. As a PIP claimant who works, it bothers me that there's still very little narrative about protecting and keeping disabled people in jobs they can do and feel valued, rather than talk about plugging benefit holes and the cost to the economy.

Yes, but as I said in my post, the above posted press articles tied it into PIP, whereas that wasn't what C4 intended :)

The local areas thing was also a factor. I couldn't get past the fact that the presenter, and the people he was interviewing in govt and such, were all probably earning very decent salaries doing their jobs, but didn't really consider that not everyone has those opportunities. Especially those who have sickness or disability.

And certain areas of the country do have higher incidences of sickness because of other issues like poverty or industry or whatever.

I think what got me the most is that the guy claiming for alcoholism etc is unlikely to ever get support to deal with that. Just money at best. And whether or not he ultimately gets back into work, surely for people like that there needs to be support of a different kind available :/

The alcoholic chap and anyone on drugs does need to be offered help. But is it going to come down to that famous lack of funding again, or they are simply not ready to engage?

The figures are wrong saying the increase in longterm sick is mental health if an addiction is also seen under the mh umbrella. We seem to have a black and white, physical or mental list don't we?

After watching the window cleaner, (in the 48 billion benefits deceitful content from channel 4) saying he learned from tik tok, he can claim PIP/LCWRA because he had knee pain and depression and then he literally ran up the ladder 🤣 I was in so much shock. Then he complained his son gets lots of money but he can't! Like it's a game.

I have a feeling these stupid people on tik tok and youtube are convincing everyone who has something wrong with them, even if it doesn't limit them from doing any day to day activities to submit applications. I laughed at him running up the damn ladder but it really isn't funny because it's going to cause so many problems for the people who actually need help.

What the hell is wrong with these people? They are treating it like it's a joke. It must be the able bodied who are listening to tik tok and youtubers but they have their health, so don't actually realise there are REAL PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO ARE REALLY SUFFERING AND STRUGGLING TO GET HELP.

I want to say in advance, I am sorry to everyone who is disabled or ill and need extra financial support. If things get worse it's probably because of these idiots making videos telling everyone to going and claim money they are not entitled to like it's a fun game.

It's not fun for people who are actually disabled, it's not funny and it's definitely not a game that you play with the DWP. 2024 fraudulent claims for PIP was 0%. This will actually create statistics of fraudulent claims now!

Thankful to have scope so we can share with others about what's going on.

I sometimes think about older people as well, they seem to just get pushed to the side and forgotten about, ignored, have their finances cut or not the amount they get increase and they are not valued. Sounds familiar? Just like people with disabilities 😄 the same old strategies. I will look for it but like you wait till I am in a good space. For a leading westernised country, we sure have not learned equality and to create a fair non-judgemental society, have we?

Some are still in the dark ages with their thinking.