Following public condemnation of the lifestyle and attitudes of the residents of “Benefits Street”, the highly controversial and much-criticised portrayal of a handful of benefits claimants living in the Winson Green area of Birmingham, the Mirror has published this article outlining the tragic reality for one benefit claimant:
Conservative Philip Davies demonised welfare claimants in the Commons while a man died waiting for benefit payments a mile from the MP's constituency
On Monday, in the House of Commons, the Conservative MP Philip Davies gloated over the portrayal of welfare claimants in Channel 4’s Benefits Street.
Esther McVey’s flatmate asked her boss Iain Duncan Smith: “Have you, like me, been struck by the number of people on there who manage to combine complaining about welfare reforms whilst being able to afford to buy copious amounts of cigarettes, have lots of tattoos done and watch Sky TV on the obligatory widescreen television?”{jcomments on}
All the while, on real-life Benefits Street, a mile or so from Davies’s West Yorkshire constituency, a man lay dead.
He died alone in a freezing cold flat, wearing several layers of clothes and two dressing gowns – waiting for benefits that had been stopped for months by the DWP.
Next week, the man will be buried in the Nab Wood Crematorium in Shipley, the constituency Philip Davies represents.
Read the full article and resulting comments here
