BBC1 Now - 10.40. Following 3 Families in Debt

The_White_Horse

PasturesNew wrote: »

This lot were a bit more "normal people" than the usual numpties they wheel out for the telly.

fair dos.

i feel for people that get into trouble. there but for the grace of god go I. but, i hate seeing people on benefits with tvs or anything else i perceive a luxury, to be earned.

harryhound

Scousebird wrote: »

Mastercard wasn't as easy as pressing 4 little numbers into a keypad 20 years ago was it-lol. And those people who had credit cards wouldn't of used them out of desperation to put food and essentials on like people do now.

Not quite true.
30 years ago, when I was furnishing the recently renovated and extended "hound hovel", there were two regular credit cards Barclay card and Access (mastercard).
Access was based in Southend on Sea and used to organise a regular "illegally obtained and legally recovered" auction sale.

About half of the stuff was self evidently stolen: lots of shop vouchers, cigarettes, booze, and jewellery - I even bought a suit case that nobody had noticed (including me) but I thought just the case was worth what I bid. On getting it home, I found it full of flashy clothes - The silk shirts were OK but he was a bit shorter & fatter than me. Interestingly every item had a prison identification tag pinned to it.

I always felt sad for the other half of the stuff on sale - it obviously had been snached back from families, some of the crockery still had evidence of its last meal.
There was a lot of unplanned purchase stuff, non essential luxuries. I kept thinking "What sort of idiot would go into DEBT for these kitsch status symbols?" - watching tonight's programme answered the question!
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/kitsch

The only two unexpected twists in the TV programme's plot were:
1. HMRC going after the elderly stroke victim after his carer had done a runner to France. He probably had no idea, especially if she said "I'm self employed", that they could get him for tax and National Insurance.
2. The deserted single woman with baby, had borrowed 700 quid from her mum and legally should not have treated her mum as a preferential creditor - presumably it never occurred to her that she was breaking the law and should have "forgotten" about it.

Did anyone else notice that these three examples all had problems with the support from their families?
The prematurely retired chef seemed to have no family.
The couple with kids seemed to have no family.
The single mother came from a background where there were no males to face up to their responsibilities (and perhaps try to "mentor" their spending pattern).

LilacPixie

I thought the single mum really did appear to 'age' during the program. I felt quite sorry for her. I guess for her she was in love thought they would be together forever then she was left in the !!!!!! with a newborn, maternity pay and 40k of debt to service.

The couple who were repossesed I was puzzled by the cars... were they repossessed or did they sell them?? Neither looked particularly special and probably 10+years old.

The disabled man confused me. I do wonder why he borrowed to 'do up' his home. I was quite shocked that he struggled to pay the utility bills because of his medical equipment. The whole 'tax' issue confused me too. If she said she was self employed then didn't file a return I don't think the would of co after him, I think its more likely he, or the council who paid some of the carer wage said he was employing a carer so the 5 k bill is for the PAYE that should of/was deducted from her wages plus employee and employer NIC's

Either way I thought I would hate the 'stars' but i think over all it was quite a reasonable program and not as sensationalist as i expected. I expected 42 inch plasmas in every room, flash cars, flash clothes and other 'stuff'. The media does tend to feed on peoples ott perception of things.

I notice that some on the BR board are picking apart the advice and circumstance so it looks like ti wasn't a 'true' representation on bankruptcy.

SingleSue

The_White_Horse wrote: »

fair dos.

i feel for people that get into trouble. there but for the grace of god go I. but, i hate seeing people on benefits with tvs or anything else i perceive a luxury, to be earned.

Quite a few people on benefits had televisions etc before they were on benefits....plus of course you can pick up televisions for nothing from freecycle.

misskool

I was watching it last night and the thing that struck was that all of them had problems filling out the forms and understanding what was going on. Perhaps financial forms etc should be made easier to understand for everyone? Maybe a KFI to show how quickly a CC debt can snowball, especially for the one who had a loan of 39.1% APR :eek:

SingleSue

You do have a point there misskool, I had to sit and explain to my brother about his credit card and how it was going to take many years to clear just by paying the minimim payment each month and how much he could shorten the time even by making small overpayments each time.

I am also the one who has to fill in all forms not just for myself but for my parents and siblings too as they get too confused by it all. My parents favourite saying is "Well ask Susan, she will know what to do or how to sort it all out"

They call me the sensible one! Grrrrr

Broken_hearted

Usual drivel if you have debt go bankrupt and wallow in self pity.

feeta

Is it worth watching? I set it to record last night but didn't watch.

Sounds like the same old same old.

McKneff

I must admit i did not have a lot of sympathy with the couple.
She was on the sick, she didnt look too sick to me.
He gave up his job to look after the son who had arthritis in his knee and ankle, sorry, while i am sympathetic with the little lad who had arthritis it doesnt take a full time carer to look after him. Presumably, he was going to school and dad would have been at home all day.
It was the little lads i felt sorry for, these people had no foresight.

As for the chef, i got the impression that he had borrowed money not to 'do up his house but to adapt it to deal with his disabilities or am i wrong.

Pobby

I watched it also. I have mentioned before that when I and my friends bought in the 70s and early 80s there was never any talk of being repossesion. I wonder why that was?

Could it be that the lenders were careful to whom they lent to? Certainly inflation wafted away much of the debt. Even during recessions the south of England got away with much of the pain.

Additional borrowing was harder to obtain so that temptation was a great deal less. Few of us were bothered by flashy cars or fancy furniture. Oh how we laughed when Thatcher said that if you were riding on a bus at 30 you were a failure.

I see so many now that are in danger. They are the borrowers. Some of them have been earning a packet in construction. One even threw a party so we could inspect his new kitchen. I am still smarting from not being invited.... lol!