Living On The Dole In England

What puts America's welfare recipients to shame is corporate welfare--400 times social welfare

At least they can go to a doctor.

What about a dentist? Or to get a mole removed? I watched the first half hour, not too far off from the US.

I'm not bovvered.

Really, I'm not. If that's what they want and t keeps them happy, I'm fine with it. There are some people who don't belong in the workforce of today. They haven't got social skills, they're stupid and I'd rather they stay home and amuse themselves rather than be in my workplace causing trouble.

If they get enough money to live on, their kids wont steal and go to jail like they do here in the US. The police won't shoot them.

I'd rather support a family in a house than support a family in jail, or in a squalid homeless shelter. In the US they put poor families in a motel room. Oh yeah, that works out well.

Also, its not like there are mindless factory jobs these people can do. Do you want them touching your food?

The problem with warehousing the adults of today who have never been adapted to the jobs available to them, or who have lost their labour utility over the decades is that keeping them well, they have a lot of kids, and the kids stray even further from being potentially constructive members of society. Rather than dying off, in a couple of generations you are manufacturing a very miserable class of people.

In the UK the more money that you pump into the welfare system the faster the economy grows (they spend all of their money and do not save). With 20% VAT, duty on alcohol and cigarettes they effectively hand 30 - 40% back to the government in taxes every week.

The whole system is bonkers but I'd imagine that if you take account of the purchase taxes they pay the cost of UK welfare is much lower than anyone would imagine? a huge amount is returned straight to the government.

Benefits should be based on sterilization. After one child, you are either sterilized or agree to no increase in benefits.

These grifter scumbags make me sick.

R7

It goes back to the government that wastes it on more bullshit.

Bitch has 11 kids! 11 kids in this day and age! WTF?

[Quote]Also, its not like there are mindless factory jobs these people can do. Do you want them touching your food?

No, but the government could offer them life skills training. There are also lots of jobs they could do like painting over grafitti, bagging groceries or street sweeping.

[Quote]Bitch has 11 kids! 11 kids in this day and age! WTF?

11 kids by 3 different sperm donors and she had her first when she was 14.

"It goes back to the government that wastes it on more bullshit."

Guess you would rather have the government spend money funding abstinence only programs and forcing women who have abortions to get ultrasounds

I've watched several UK entitlement benefits series on YouTube. They have the same moochers (they call them scroungers) and single moms with lots of kids like we have in the US. What was amazing to me was all of the council flats - it seemed like an extremely large percentage of the population live in them.

However, their lives looked beyond depressing and stressful - particularly when their electricity and other utilities are on a pay-as-you go system.

In the US, we could employ some of these people in infrastructure rebuilding - but there would probably be union outcry as well as a congress that doesn't want to pay for anything outside of corporate tax breaks (or new prisons).

OP is talking about us.

A lot of small businesses are started by immigrants because they don't teach business knowledge in schools.

"A lot of small businesses are started by immigrants because they don't teach business knowledge in schools."

But most businesses fail, so maybe starting a business isn't the best idea....

Decades ago a Social Services honcho in Orange County, New York suggested that additional benefits be denied to families . once they have two kids when collecting welfare. People screamed and hollered that he was in the worst person in the world. If his plan has been implemented there'd be fewer feeding at the public trough today.

Geraldo Rivera proposed that benefits be denied when a woman refuses to list the name of the Baby's Daddy on the birth certificate. . If she won't fess up, let her family take care of the kid.

Bring me a knitting needle!

"Geraldo Rivera proposed that benefits be denied when a woman refuses to list the name of the Baby's Daddy on the birth certificate."

Yes, a walking punchline like Geraldo should be allowed to dictate social policy.

"If his plan has been implemented there'd be fewer feeding at the public trough today."

Funny how all Republicans sound like Ebenezer Scrooge. Are there no workhouses?

[Quote]Decades ago a Social Services honcho in Orange County, New York suggested that additional benefits be denied to families . once they have two kids when collecting welfare. People screamed and hollered that he was in the worst person in the world. If his plan has been implemented there'd be fewer feeding at the public trough today.

But there are restrictions and caps. In many states, you can have your benefits cut off if you have a child within 10 months of the initial receipt of benefits. In other instances, you are not entitled to additional benefits after your 4th child. Many people in the system are not properly educated on the rules or are not properly maneuvered towards programs that will give them training or prepare them fir the workforce.

I wunt a brown baby this time. Not like 'ta other wuns.

The WPA or something like it needs to be resurrected in the U.S. These people could be given jobs helping to rebuild the country's infrastructure, restoring parks and revitalizing neighborhoods, demolishing parts of our crumbling cities and abandoned factories, etc. all for a decent wage that they can live on and raise a small family.

[quote]The WPA or something like it needs to be resurrected in the U.S.

And who's gonna pay for that? NOT MY TAX DOLLARS!

r24 Don't call yourself names. You're not a typical American asshole. You're a typical, uneducated moron from the lower classes with absolutely no vision for the future.

r25 is sarcasm-impaired.

According to the few minutes of this video that I watched, the UK spends about 40 BILLION pounds annually on these leeches.

Actually the British welfare state is rapidly going the way of the American safety net, and that includes the NHS, which is being systematically starved to death. Homelessness and the use of food banks has skyrocketed, there are prison riots due to overcrowding and inhumane conditions, health workers are leaving the country because of shitty pay and sweatshop working conditions, and disabled people are committing suicide after having their benefits cut off.

Normally under conditions like this there'd be a mass emigration to places like the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but at the same time there are millions of immigrants desperate to get in by any means necessary. So there's not only no safety valve to relieve the pressure for the deprived and unemployed but there's massive ethnic tensions simmering, with Trump's friend Nigel Farage leading the anti-immigrant hate wave.

Oh yeah, and there's going to be a mass transit strike. So before you go packing your bags in joyous anticipation of moving to England and living on the dole....

everyone is valuable and has something to offer, if you care to find it - but you have to consider them valuable to begin with

These are the angry , poor, apparently dispossessed people who voted for Brexit.

We know several welfare Kings and Welfare Queens here in Europe in AA meetings. As usual, they are perfectly healthy and able bodied, work for cash on the side, etc. Curiously though they seem to be pariahs in AA, nobody wants to socialize with these losers.

[quote] nd disabled people are committing suicide after having their benefits cut off.

link please.

Disability claims have increased exponentially in the USA. The program was originally intended for people who were injured or had a major physical impediment that interfered with the ability to work. Now it includes able-bodied substance abusers, those with varying degrees of depression, and HIV+ people.

Mass immigration is just madness if the country is going broke trying to support the native citizens.

And before anybody shouts "Racist!" I mean all immigrants, even the lily-white ones.

Interesting article on disability at link

The loss of manufacturing jobs has created such a clusterfuck in Western countries. An entire class of people are now on the dole ("welfare" in America) when in years past they would've worked in factories and been self-sufficient. It's terrible, and so far nobody has a solution to this problem. And of course the fact that they keep having kids means this is going to be a generational problem.

If you like trash TV about chavs, can I recommend the Nightmare Neighbour Next Door, which is on youtube. It's basically an hour of the most petty squabbles escalating into even pettier squabbles, mostly taking place on council estates.

Are council estates the same thing as what we in the US call Section 8 housing?

R27 The UK government collected almost 105 BILLION in VAT in 2014 (last year figures are available for). The UK also now has Insurance premium tax, Air passenger duty and Utility bill tax (I'm sure that there are lots more that I've forgotten about.

People on the Dole still pay in lots of tax, they help the economy keep going.

Exactly, r38 - cigarette tax is pretty high and, considering that they are all avid chain smokers, they pretty much pay back what they earn on the dole.

R33, you cunt. "Lily-white" is a racist expression. Fuck you and your notions of national policy.

I couldn't get past the teeth.

Good God.

R37 Yes, they're basically the projects.

Why are they all fat?

Obviously they are not starving.

Neoliberal propaganda designed to make the ending of the social safety net seem like a good idea to the people who need it the most.

Who are the bigge$t beneficiaries of socialism? The owners of the Fed/B of E/ECB!

r40 has been triggered! Quick, rush her to a safe space!

They are fat because they are not given enough money. The cheapest food in the UK is frozen crap full of fat and corn syrup.

Let's stop with the "get a job!" thing. There are no jobs anymore let's put that tired line to bed.

R47...can't speak for UK prices but that argument is used in the US all the time and it's complete bullshit. Yeah...you can get totally cheap processed crap food. But none of that is cheaper than rice, beans, potatoes, bulk carrots, oatmeal, eggs. Canned and frozen vegetables are cheap. So is pasta. You can also get reasonable milk and cheese as well as bulk fruit like apples and oranges.

People get crap food because they're stupid and lazy.

All I could think of after viewing that was her poor cooter after all those crotch droppings. Is there no concern for the vag?

The poor diet/health/teeth is a generational thing. If your mother only heated up frozen shit, that's all you'll do because these people are just too stupid/downtrodden to bother to learn for themselves. I came from a family of benefit bandits. They made poor choices in life and were as lazy as fuck. They looked down their noses at me because I went out to work and paid my way. Nowadays they say I'm 'lucky'.

I had to teach myself to cook/clean/keep house. My mother was too fat and lazy to lift her arse off the chair.

[quote]No, but the government could offer them life skills training.

Or they could just do it themselves. It amazes me how none of you have ever been around poor people. Only the lazy ones or the ones who are allowed to be lazy fail.

R49 Great idea for them to make everything from scratch. Unfortunately most of them cannot cook (and nor could their Mother's as R51 said).

Maybe the government should send them to a cookery school?

A lot of the hospitals in the UK also use processed food instead of fresh.

Whole food is NOT more expensive than junk....perhaps people are just too lazy to buy and prepare it.

Did any of you watch the whole thing? They won't work unless they get a job that pays enough, which is beyond what will pay the bills. The one women treated her daughter that got a job like shit telling her she'd be better off on the dole. The mom with 11 kids doesn't like healthy so she cooks what she wants. If they don't eat it she tosses it in the bin. Great stuff. Are these what the Brits call chavs?

They do not have the skills to prepare it, plus they have become used to the fatty sweet taste of processed food. If you gave them a freshly prepared meal they would probably hate the texture and flavor.

The people in their 30's now are most likely the second generation of families that were raised on frozen food.

And I bet you they stink to high heaven, but then, most Europeans do .

I will never, ever understand WHY people who don't have a pot to piss in and can't even afford to take care of themselves have children. Not only is it a terrible burden, but the poor children are raised in an environment of poverty and oftentimes violence.

I just don't get it. Why have kids when you don't have the means to give them a nice life? But then again, I think that this is an issue that most gay people cannot understand. We're pretty baffled by it.

[Quote]I just don't get it. Why have kids when you don't have the means to give them a nice life? But then again, I think that this is an issue that most gay people cannot understand. We're pretty baffled by it.

Well, it's one way to secure benefits for a set period of time. Very few people will stand by and watch a child, especially a white child, go hungry. Parents as the default caretakers, get a cut of the benefits.

Ha ha The Nightmare Neighbor next door is great viewing for a peek into broken Britain. Can't pay, we'll Take it Away is another ripper showing the rich tapestry that is British society. Weep.

that's right, make these people the 'crooks' while the real assholes, like Farrage and friends, steal us blind. This is just the Reagan era 'welfare queen' bullshit propaganda all over again. I'm sure these people exist. I'm sure we're all comfortable judging them. Fuck this shit

This is (real) England.

British people are the only people I know who wake up first thing in the morning and put on their clothes without washing their funky bodies or even brushing their teeth...ride a tram in the morning is like stepping into a double decked sewer...unwashed bodies and morning breath...*SHUDDER*

Yeah 'course that's true, R64.

[quote]The WPA or something like it needs to be resurrected in the U.S.

Obama was originally promising to do something like that. Then he got lazy and never began the program.

r56 is a typical racist, Trump-loving asshole from Dumbfuckistan.

This happens in many other western nations, France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Australia and New Zealand etc. Only a few developed nations like the US, Canada and Italy time limit welfare though most now have some form of workfare to go with it

[quote]This is just the Reagan era 'welfare queen' bullshit propaganda all over again.

Nobody forced that grifting bitch to pop out 11 kids. It's called personal responsibility.

R69, not making excuses, but if she had grown up in a better environment or had been mentored by a responsible adult, she probably would have made better choices.

[quote] Obama was originally promising to do something like that. Then he got lazy and never began the program.

Gee ya think it might have been an uncooperative congress? The president can't spend a dime with approval.

I'm amazed how much obama did manage to get done, despite the vehement opposition to every last fucking thing he ever proposed.

R71, absolutely. I'll always admire his poise and composure when dealing with Congress. No doubt, they deliberately colluded at every opportunity to undermine his effectiveness.

R62

How is Farage "stealing you blind" when compared to these grifters?

Government benefits should come with sterilization.

Maybe some of you eugenicist nut jobs should remind yourself that the media focus on extreme cases. Most of the people who claim unemployment benefit have worked and paid tax in the past, and will be employed again. These people aren't typical. But where's the story in that? And are you suggesting infanticide if someone with six kids loses their job? Try being human beings.

A great deal of the attitudes of poor people can be explained by consequences vs immediacy. In every aspect of their lives they want what they want NOW. There has been no long term planning /consequences taught.

I am not saying that this is intentional or not to be expected - years of never having enough money to save for anything or think of the future greatly contributes to this mentality.

I am the first person in my family - ever- to have put myself through college and support myself fully (for the most part, there have been periods of struggle) and even now, I have to actively force myself to save, plan longer term, think further than the 'now', it doesn't come naturally. It didn't come naturally with homework, bills, savings, relationships - the only thing that does is professional work and that is because I take such pride in it.

R74

Short term assistance is different.

If you get pregnant, are on benefits, and then get pregnant again, all benefits should be terminated unless you are sterilized, and a man with no job and more than one child should have to submit to sterilization before their children get benefits.

Subsidizing breeding age losers is NOT a facet of a healthy society.

Socialism makes people stupid.

Why are all of you who are so horrified by the money going to these people just fine with at least 100 times as much going to endless defense and more and more taxes for billionaires who never give a dime back to this country or any country? Why is it fine to see the super rich collect welfare but not the poor?

R74 doesn't realise that there are whole communities like this in England.

R77, you don't get it. The people who vote for the politicians that enable those situations are these reprobates. These are Britain's deplorables. They voted Brexit and, if they were in the US, they would have voted for Trump.

r44 nailed it. Get angry about corporate welfare and tax avoidance, even if corporations aren't as fun to judge and hate on as fat poor people.

R77

Corporate welfare is 100x more expensive than social benefits, but the effects of social benefits are far more corrosive to civil society.

I do not believe corporations should have ANY welfare (that includes "liberal approved green technology" corporations and banks) but they aren't purely parasitic like these chav wastes of calories.

I should add that corporate welfare for Military suppliers is worse than socialist benefits for poor people.

I would rather cut the military by 60%, and give it all to unwed teen mothers, than see it used to kill more innocent people that just happen to live in countries that defy their NeoCon masters in DC.

Jesus Christ...stop hijacking the thread with all this military corporate welfare blah blah. This is supposed to be about mocking the fat lazy trash that is too stupid to even bake a fucking potato.

This looks so fucking unappealing to me. If that's how people want to live, in squalor and fear of losing their cable and having a cap on their benefits any given day, let them. It doesn't look like a life of leisure to me, you couldn't fucking pay me enough to live with 8 kids or even 1.

OP, you'll probably enjoy the Jeremy Kyle Show. It's a daytime talk show that features toothless chavs being generally judged for their underclass shenanigans. It's basically the Jerry Springer Show with less humour, and is widely considered to be the worst show on British TV. Lie detectors and DNA tests are the most amusing episodes.

Loads of them are on youtube.

Americans have a REALLY REALLY REALLY weird shame about the dole. you live abroad and you realize immediately that five percent of that country's populace, no matter where, is on the dole, and doing possibly nothing about it, and NO ONE really cares. Americans are at their MOST fucked up about public assistance, it's so weird, and I will never ever understand it.

R86

Isn't that a great reason to end all government welfare?

If they're too trashy to work, why should the government take my money to pay for them to subsist and reproduce?

This in on par with Reagan's tails of welfare queens and big black bucks buying the best of steak and lobster on food stamps and then driving off in their pink Cadillacs. Sure there are a few bad apples in every situation but most people on the dole be it in the UK or the USA live miserable lives of poverty and hunger. I'll bet they had to look through ever record in the UK before they found the people they wanted with so many kids.

How come that Kate with 8 or whatever that bitch's show was called when money came in to support her kids from everyone and anything that had nothing to do with her or her husband actually holding a job. They did but once the kids came and the show started they lived off being celebrities which is way lower than living off welfare. Yet Kate was a hero to the right.

How do you figure r86, when England clearly shames these people in tabloids every week? I watched a few of these shows and it had them reading about themselves in tabloids and getting hate mail from people, I have never seen that happen to anyone in the US. And I'm being totally serious, what are they reading? Does the magazine they're reading do stories on welfare fraud each week?

[quote]If they're too trashy to work, why should the government take my money to pay for them to subsist and reproduce?

fuck off, you are deemed unproductive and fired, then what? eat shit and die, you cracker cunt

R89

These animals have no shame.

R90

There is a HUGE difference between people unable to work and those unwilling to work.

Private charities would take care of the former, and the latter would be forced to work or they would lose their children and starve.

I have no problem letting healthy grown adults starve if they refuse to work. Good, hard working, caring people would take care of their children after they die.

R85 is unaware that Jeremy Kyle not only based his show on the US versions, but he also has his own US show.

The problem in Britain, and the reason why we have entire communities that live like this, is because we have universal benefits as opposed to what happens in the rest of Europe, where you only get benefits if you've paid social security contributions. The fact that people in Britain don't realise how different our welfare system is from those in the rest of the EU - and how much more open it is to abuse - is one reason why it's easy to convict the less thoughtful that "all the European migrants just want to come here and get benefits" and, hence, vote for the moronic Brexit.

Bananarama used to be on the dole when they were in the charts! Keren said the three of them would wear headscarves and dress down so they wouldn't be recognized.

British people are the only people I know who wake up first thing in the morning and put on their clothes without washing their funky bodies or even brushing their teeth...ride a tram in the morning is like stepping into a double decked sewer...unwashed bodies and morning breath...

= ripe cheese resting under lace curtains!

But you don't know any British people, R94.

Here's an episode of another show called "Benefits Street." The format is more narrative and delves deeper into their daily lives.

I feel bad for Smoggy. At least he hasn't given up hope and is trying to stop the vicious circle. His case is a perfect example of the lack of support and guidance these people are given. He cleary wants to work and shows tremendous initiative and entrepreneurship with his 50 pence for any product idea, but still continues to struggle. If he received training in marketing and small business or were given a small loan to buy better goods and supplies, his chances for success would be better. Same goes for Fungi. He seems a good natured fellow. Early intervention and a structured youth program could have kept him off drugs. He's fortunate to have White D., but he's at the point in his life where it's going to be hard for him to turn things around. White D. could have easily been trained as a community activist or counselor. Her relationship with her neighbors and knowledge of the system could easily be leveraged to teach the residents to better themselves. They should invest in training people like her.

Also, Benefits By The Sea. It's the same sort of thing, but takes place in the crumbling surroundings of Jaywick, which has become notorious as the most deprived place in the country.

But living off the dole has become funny. That's what the tv sitcom Shameless (UK) and Shameless (US) is all about.

The problem is that successive generations in both the US and UK are caught in the welfare trap and can't (won't?) get out of it.

I'm just bumping this old thread to say that there's a hilarious episode of the Nightmare Neighbour Next Door tonight featuring a straight couple terrorised by an elderly hissing drag queen.

Someone's uploaded the episode of the Nightmare Neighbour Nextdoor featuring the toxic drag queen to youtube.

The Labour Party would be nowhere without perpetualizing the generational underclass.

White trash, through and through. Watching this would be great fun if it weren’t so depressing.

r10 To have 11 kids whilst on welfare benefits is terrible I agree but it is a VERY extreme and atypical occurrence .That is not reflective of your average welfare claimant in the UK or even the US I would imagine.

At some point western countries in particular are going to need to have a radical rethink on how to approach welfare when technology will make the demand for labour and workers permanently less. It is a very thorny issue but at some point an approach that includes compassion and an eye for sustainability needs to be found if you want to avoid societal collapse.

With automation on it's way, why is the West so committed to turbo charged immigration making the problem worse?

If you want to see the Australian version here's "Struggle Street" it's a bit kinder to the subjects

[quote] why is the West so committed to turbo charged immigration

Population replacement = dilution of white voters in favor of new "diverse" voters

R32 You don't get disability for having HIV unless you are very very sick. Coming up poz is not a disability.

I had to activate the subtitles to watch these people.

Please tell me the 11 crotch fruit skank's DOG wasn't pregnant too!!! There it was, big and about to bust a litter just like mom.

Do they get a package holiday to go to Benidorm?

r104 I am not sure that the west is overall committed to that?

More recent take on matters....

Another...

Good for them scamming the system. The rich do it too example Trump.

[quote] Why have kids when you don't have the means to give them a nice life?

R59 what stage of capitalism is it when only rich people can procreate?

I'm sure there was a movie about that R115.

r115 An intriguing question

The UK benefits system is far more generous. There are council flats in every neighborhood, even the best neighborhoods like Kensington & Chelsea. There is the free NHS and prescriptions. If there isn't a council flat, they will put you up in a small motel style room. It's not the best, but it's the streets. There aren't tons of stories of Americans living on the doll or being a "the queen of benefits| " as some woman are in these shows. You barely get enough to survive in the US, the shelters are frightening and not private. The UK system is overrated because of it's open borders. You have a lot of muslim families that have multiple children on the dole and cause a huge headache. Your system is far better than ours.

Those of you who talk about how they get a pass for not knowing how to cook because that's what they grew up with - has nobody heard about youtube videos/recipes that teach you how to do this? And maybe in the name of IMPROVING YOURSELF? and the woman that gets 900 pounds per WEEK for support - and none of that even goes to housing. WTF are these people spending their money on? presumably not transportation costs for the most part because nobody is working, although i did see in the first 2 minutes somebody eating takeaway gyro platter and four fucking happy meals for the kids. Jesus...this is ridiculous. I don't think anyone in the US, no matter how many kids they have gets 900 bucks a week PLUS no housing costs. this is crazy.

11 kids! That snatch is giving Momma Duggar a run for the money.

Why do skinny male chavs always marry those fat pigs? Do British men dig fat chicks?

r121 they probably dig more not having to work and the women on the dole are their meal ticket, no matter what their size. it's not as if them being skinny makes them oh-so-desireable, after all (those teef).

The UK, Australia, Canada & New Zealand was just big welfare states. Why do you think so many want to immigrate to them.

I'm on the dole in New Zealand. It's hell. I get $300 a week, $130 of that is on rent (luckily I live with a mate who lets me pay less than the standard in the city). I have a master's degree, but I am a woman with Aspergers. I interview terribly. The low jobs are taken by immigrants, the manager jobs by Brits and Saffas... There's really no place in NZ for me. Oh well, shit happens etc..

I met a Swede who travelled the world, and hadn't worked ever, because the benefits were so good.

What’s worse than the many welfare cheats are the enablers and the people who make excuses for those living on the dole.

r126 agreed. and how about having a little bit of pride instead of trying to make excuses for why you are accepting it while getting your nails done and saying "i want to go shopping." wt actual fuck. that shit doesn't ride here in the US unless you are dealing drugs on the side or have some other side hustle going on (i.e. we don't give people that much money).

In the United States we refer to people like the ones seen in OP's video as - WHITE TRASH.

The thing is: some families have large families intentionally because it gives them access to bigger council houses. However, this is also where immigrant families, who are predisposed to larger families, skew the system against native poor Brits, and dominate the larger council house pool. Until the immigrate tap is turned off, which may be never, it will continue.

immigrate=immigrant.

I'm already intrigued with England. if i can work for 6 months, get laid off, get a council house and claim i can't get work, i'm all set with my household of 1. maybe time to retire?

“Council estate” has a nice ring to it!

Let them pick up trash for the benefits. Why allow them to laze around doing nothing while everyone works to pay for them? I would ask AOC but she wouldn't understand the question.

Do you think you can live on £70 a week, R131?

I lived on 83 pounds. It was hard!

At least those on the dole in America don't have cheeze stinking cocks.

More should be done to improve the living conditions in public housing, most of these dwellings lack stainless appliances, granite counters, and engineered hardwood floors...no wonder there's so much crime and obesity.

R137 and high ceilings. Don’t forget high ceilings!

Running joke of Keeping Up Appearances is that Daisy and Onslow (along with Rose and Daddy) live in council housing. This is one reason (besides state of the place) Hyacinth Bucket doesn't want Elizabeth or anyone else she knows to ever see her going in or much less near the place.

Onslow is work shy and bone idle, what money he does earn comes from playing the fillies (horse race gambling). Onslow and Daisy are on the dole!

Historical tidbit; when dole was first introduced post WWI upper classes hated it not just for usual reasons (giving poor people their money extracted via taxes), but that it deprived them of servants.

Traditionally if a family was poor, especially females, they went into domestic service. Until laws were changed young girls and boys were put into domestic service where many (if lucky) worked their way up. This of course lead to all sorts of abuses, if you've seen film Angels and Insects you'll know what one means.

Widows, deserted wives and or unwed mothers all also went into domestic service. Children were left with parents, put into workhouses or whatever other care so their mother could work. This again often lead to horrible abuses and disastrous outcomes.

When dole was first proposed, introduced and began there was a battle between lower and upper houses in Parliament if not government overall. Those representing interests of middle class to wealthy heard nothing but complaints about how already dire the "servant problem" had become. Now the government wanted to pay perfectly healthy and strong women to sit at home.

OTOH those representing those women or other interests pointed out that many were widows (thanks to WWI), or young women due to various circumstances (again largely related to WWI), left to care for and bring up one or more siblings and other young children. They had never been in domestic service, and why should they be forced into that employment? More to the point who was going to mind and raise all those children?

[quote]The UK benefits system is far more generous. There are council flats in every neighborhood, even the best neighborhoods like Kensington & Chelsea. There is the free NHS and prescriptions. If there isn't a council flat, they will put you up in a small motel style room. It's not the best, but it's the streets.

Absolutely right. Some of the council flats even have stunning panoramic city views. Like this one in Kensington.

[quoteThe thing is: some families have large families intentionally because it gives them access to bigger council houses. However, this is also where immigrant families, who are predisposed to larger families, skew the system against native poor Brits, and dominate the larger council house pool. Until the immigrate tap is turned off, which may be never, it will continue.

Yeah, this is old shit and more likely, the family will be split up between a couple of rotting hostel rooms these days, that is, if they can get any housing at all. There was a programme on the TV fairly recently showing people trying to get council housing but there is precious little left these days thanks to Thatcher's big sell off of council stock for less than the market price, which basically made developers very rich. The reality is councils will now shove you somewhere on other side of the country, take it or leave it.

r140 Good post

I have a Master's Degree in Dole Studies and it's true, it is just a horrible cycle that no one can escape from. When you have a child at 10, you just don't become educated enough to not have another 14. You don't know any better.

You think you're being witty, R141, but that block DOES have panoramic city views.

That block was good enough for Corbusier

R133 That's a sensible suggestion. But the English are weak.

Robert Falcon Scott perished in the Antarctic expedition because he didn't want to overwork the husky dogs.

Husky dogs are trained to pull snow sleds but Scott was so much of a wimp that he his crew died rather than inconvenience the dogs.

r146 In what way are the english weak? Our benefit levels are less generous than most of Europes.