Here's a very good article on the actual topic:

iain-duncan-smith-53-a-week

I had forgotten in my first post on this the effect on having to decide when to take a shower - it goes down to once a week to save as much as possible on all the utilities - and the damage that using very cheap toiletries has on a more mature woman's skin and hair - your body does not recover!

You skimp on so much that you suddenly, one day, look in the mirror and realise the mess you have become.

As for TV?  I was lucky in that I don't have one so no need to find the money for the license fee - but maybe that is why there have been so many who are caught out are within poorer, run-down areas of the country and it's so often young women with children who are the easiest to target.

And here's another one on the darker side of anyone trying to emulate those who are totally disenfranchised from society for whatever reason

Film maker for the homeless

Bank - I didn't realise that crisis loans had ended competely.  Not surprised though, they were very badly handled and were open to abuse by the unscrupulous as I so often witnessed when I had to apply to have my fare refunded when I had to attend extra 'supportive' sessions at the JC.  It was a standing joke that those were my only 'social outings'.

But it leaves those who are in desperate need floundering as I believe you can only have handouts from a food back once a week??

And the other very bad downside to all of this is that those who are 'doing all right' start to develop an increasingly unpleasant approach to those who are not.

I found neighbours became demanding - wanting to know what I was doing to find a job, why hadn't I got one?  Why should they go out to work so I could stay at home - and yes, I had that said to me by some young woman up her backside who has money from her parents to go on holidays - someone I paid my taxes for to provider HER with an education and health care etc!

I had a neighbour who decided that I needed handouts and that I had to be taken shopping, whether I wanted to go or not - whether I was busy with my job searching or not.  It became not just intrusive, but effectively in the end, bullying as her behaviour changed to become downright aggressive if I didn't do what she wanted.

I stopped talking to all of them to save my sanity - but it gave me a whole new perspective on how society thinks, can be manipulated by the media and soundbytes that come from these eejits of politicians!!

Now, I'm retired - my life is my own again in many more ways.