Friday, September 06, 2013
Meanwhile - in the U.K. - a welfare documentary
In the U.K. Daily Mail, Melissa Kite writes about welfare in the U.K. She begins:
"When we first meet Karen, star of a new Channel 4 documentary, she is driving a huge, silver Nissan people-carrier. The 54-year-old grandmother is smartly dressed in fashionable clothes, jewelery and sports an immaculate manicure. But neither her car nor her clothes are paid for by her wages. Instead, Karen is among the 20 million people claiming benefits in Britain. In Karen’s case, her lifestyle is funded by her incapacity benefit, which she says she receives because she has diabetes, irregular heart rhythm, arthritis, backache and high blood pressure. ‘Because people can’t see the pain I’m suffering, [they] look and think: “There’s nothing wrong with her”,’ she explains. ‘I feel like I’m being targeted, but I’m not out to scrounge. I’m genuine, you know.’"
