The BBC's "Growing up poor". Poverty seen up close

LauraW10

IF THE BBC wants to justify its ongoing role in British life, it could do much worse than to produce more documentaries like this one: "Growing up poor", the first episode of which ran earlier this week. The programme follows three girls, all between the ages of 16 and 18, in Rotherham, Bradford and Glasgow, as they deal with the problems of poverty, unemployment, crime and, in one case, pregnancy. A second episode, which looks at boys, will run on Wednesday at 9pm on BBC Three.

For the benefit bashers amongst you (you know who you are ) - The Economist article concludes:-

But long-term benefit claimants, and young people going straight onto benefits without ever having worked, are presumably exactly who politicians mean when they refer to "skivers" (as opposed to "strivers"). This programme helps show quite how chaotic and vulnerable their lives are, and how the problems go far deeper than a simple problem of benefits paying more than work. It is hard to see how making them worse off will improve anything. It also helps illustrate more visibly the problems with David Cameron's proposals to cut housing benefit for the under-25s: his idea that young girls like these can simply return to their parents' spare bedrooms, as middle-class boys and girls often do, is bizarre.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2013/01/bbcs-growing-up-poor

Moby

LauraW10 wrote: »

For the benefit bashers amongst you (you know who you are ) - The Economist article concludes:-



http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2013/01/bbcs-growing-up-poor

Totally agree. The documentary showed the grim reality facing millions of people in this country brought about by an unequal access to life opportunities. One of the reaons I appreciate this site is because Martin Lewis is conscious of the realities faced by such individuals and gives good sound advice to avoid the sharks in this world!

roddydogs

So poor, they can afford to smoke?, let the Flaying begin.

antrobus

LauraW10 wrote: »

For the benefit bashers amongst you (you know who you are ) - The Economist article concludes:-



http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2013/01/bbcs-growing-up-poor

Actually the Economist's conclusion begins;

Politically, there are a few points worth drawing out. Clearly, these girls are exceptional—the vast majority of benefit claimants are not quite from such difficult backgrounds...

Is there are any reason you omitted the sentence about the girls being "exceptional"?

lostinrates

I saw some of this and the 'aloness' (rather than loneliness) struck me. Tbh I don't see how the present system was helping them much.

I think expecting all to have homes is ludicrous but expecting them to emerge from isolated Grimness I their young adult hood into socially cohesive older adults as things stand is a huge ask, those who make it deserve tremendous credit.

Generali

lostinrates wrote: »

I saw some of this and the 'aloness' (rather than loneliness) struck me. Tbh I don't see how the present system was helping them much.

I think expecting all to have homes is ludicrous but expecting them to emerge from isolated Grimness I their young adult hood into socially cohesive older adults as things stand is a huge ask, those who make it deserve tremendous credit.

I've not seen the program but is there anything in it that makes you think that giving young unemployed people more dole money would solve these problems?

TBH, my experience of young people from these sorts of backgrounds is that any amount of money won't help. Life experience, and in some cases access to mental healthcare, might well.

GeorgeHowell

Whatever the rights and wrongs, and whether them smoking and drinking discredits the case in their favour, the fact is that just throwing money at them to do with what they will does more harm than good. The purpose it does serve is making the comfortable liberal chattering classes feel better about themselves. There will always be an underclass of some sort, that is a sociological reality. But an education system that rewards effort and achievement properly and provides a proper conduit for the brighter and more achieving types to be encouraged and improve themselves would help greatly. It also should help to train the less academically able to do something useful in terms of earning a living. Furthermore things like work ethic, self discipline, punctuality, and personal presentation should be a key feature of state school life, as they mostly are in the private sector. It's not all the teachers' fault that we turn out so many unemployables. It's down to trendy, liberal, anti-elitist so-called educational experts who have been allowed to foist their damaging, politically correct ideas onto the system, and tie teachers' hands. It's all about giving people fishing rods, not fish meals.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

I've not seen the program but is there anything in it that makes you think that giving young unemployed people more dole money would solve these problems?

TBH, my experience of young people from these sorts of backgrounds is that any amount of money won't help. Life experience, and in some cases access to mental healthcare, might well.

No.

Infact, I think the throwing scraps of money a them to fend for themselves is an utter failure to address their needs, where they have already been failed through their young lives.

Life experience is good.....but they have to live somewhere. I don't think it needs, or actually was even beneficial, to be their 'own' flat. A private bedroom with shared facilities might be harder, as they struggle to reach agreement over share usuage, might it might also be more beneficial.

I am not convinced it would be cheaper ( I imagine a lot of damage could be caused) though.

N1AK

I watched the first episode of this and was pleasantly surprised. It didn't just pick sob story cases without blame and it didn't constantly try and skew the perspective to absolve them of responsibility.

What I think did show through is that at least a couple of the girls on the episode I watched had the capacity to become successful members of society but didn't have the willpower and belief required to get there without support.

It's easy to dismiss them because they were making 'stupid' decisions, especially from a more comfortable situation, like budgeting 25% of benefits for fags but that misses the deeper issues. If you've never known success and have no belief that you're going to make it to a better life then forgoing fags, booze etc for months to save a few quid to do something productive probably feels like a waste of time.

Sometimes though it seems like helping them help themselves is an impossible task. What do you do when you have no cash or food and have to borrow £5 from your broke mum? Go to McDonalds of course!

CRISPIANNE3

I felt really sorry for the girl from Glasgow. She had a 6 month placement working over 30 hours a week for less than £2.00 an hour. It looked to be in a small supermarket and at the end of the period she was not offered a job.

Surely this cannot be right. To me she was just being exploited and the company concerned should feel thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

N1AK

Generali wrote: »

I've not seen the program but is there anything in it that makes you think that giving young unemployed people more dole money would solve these problems?

100% not. Access to work, financial guidance, mentoring and in a couple of cases counselling is what was needed. The girl who did a 6 month placement (paid same as benefits) then couldn't find work afterwards was a really depressing part as it showed that even putting effort in often won't get you out of a rut.

We need to spend considerably more money to help these people but 9/10 times the way it should be spent isn't by giving it to them.