Wife Swap

Did anyone see tonights episode of 'Wife Swap' on Ch4??.....who on earth decided that Waynetta Slob would make a good candidate??, good lord...what a complete prat that woman was, but the thing that annoyed me the most was the fact that they get £37500 in state benifits each year....that is an absolute disgrace, i dont care if they have 8 kids or not, if you cant support your family then bloody well stop having kids...these spongers just make my blood boil....this country is just far too soft on people like that and it needs sorting out.

It was a good episode, eh Gizmo? She may not have been a good candidate, but her paranoia sure made for an entertaining 30 minuts :)

I know what you mean about the benefits... except it was £37k AFTER TAX!!! Just goes to show that it is possible to live off your kids if you REALLY try... and did you notice the leather suite, widescreen TV, amount they smoked/drank? On the webchat afterwards (am I sad, or what?) it was disclosed that 'waynetta' also spends £70 a week on Bingo!!!!

I work a full week and so does my partner. Between the two of us we don't bring in £37k after tax (not even close) - how these two can sit at home with eight kids and no jobs and bring in more is beyond me.

The two families are in the Daily Mail today. They give details of the benefits that the unemployed couple claim; it's quite a list.

Part of their £37,402.04 per year is made up of the following:

Carer's allowance (for their son with chronic asthma) = £5,691.40
Disability-living allowance (for the son with asthma) = £5,051.80
Disability-living allowance (for their daughter with asthma) = £3,754.50

That's a total of £14,497.70 a year in benefits because their children have asthma.

Also, during the three days that they managed in the 'wife swap', the mother of the house spent an entire day sitting in front of the television because she had become so stressed she'd had an asthma attack.

Now, before anybody gets the wrong idea, I'm not suggesting that their kids aren't asthmatic, or that there shouldn't be these disability allowances.

However, the couple also spend around £140 A WEEK on cigarettes.

I don't smoke and I can't say I've ever bought a pack of cigarettes… however, the average price for a pack of 20 on the Sainsbury's website (sorry, I just happened to be on there ordering my shopping) is around £4.30. That works out as 32.5 packs, which is 650 cigarettes a week. Those two smoke about 46 cigarettes each every day. They smoked throughout the program – including in front of all of their children.

First of all, the woman is asthmatic. How thick do you have to be to have asthma AND smoke 46 cigarettes a day?

Second. The government pay them £14,497.70 a year to care for their own children. Their local hospital (in Rochdale) had a vacancy this year for a Children's Nurse. The position (to be filled by a fully qualified applicant) had a starting salary of £16,525.

Surely, considering how much money is given to them to care for their children's asthma, it isn't inconceivable that the government should be able to add a proviso to the payout along the lines of 'thou shall not smoke around your sick child'??? I'm quite sure the nurse earning just a few thousand pounds more is not allowed to smoke around the children he/she cares for!

I absolutely agree jjc - the trouble with taking programmes like that is that they give the worst of the worst cos it makes good telly. Incredible stupidity on behalf of the woman.

and what made me cringe more was that she was from Rochdale.... gawd!!! my home town!!!!

I didnt know her though.

Waynetta slob was a good description Gizmo lol