Surely cancer patients can claim benefits especially when they cannot work like Carol. But Carol said she can't claim benefits?!?

She said she is claiming but doesn't get enough to survive on.

No - she said what she was getting on benefits wasn't enough. Which I can believe - contrary to what a lot of people believe basic incapacity benefit is nowhere near the minimum wage assuming you do at least a 35 hour week.

Ah I didn't hear that bit. Thanks for letting me know . Sadly she doesn't earn much

It might have been enough if Bianca hadn't taken a loan out.

Oh dear, still money problems for the butchers eh? There's a surprise

Exactly. They might just have been able to scrape by on Bianca and Whitney's wages and Carol's benefits if they didn't have a massive loan to pay back as well. I'd like to know exactly what Bianca needed the money for. She's implying it was just the standard utilitu bills, rent etc but surely David was dealing with all of those until he left (which was only 5 or 6 weeks ago) so they wouldn't have built up to that level of red reminders, being cut off for her to need to take out a loan that high. Plus, the usual standard companies might have been sympathetic to the circumstances if they'd been explained. They might have wanted to see proof that one of the main earners was temporarily unable to work but they'd have that with letters from the Hospital and the benefits paperwork. They wouldn't write it off of course but would probably have accepted reduced payments for maybe 6 months. Unless of course they've already done that and still can't manage even that.

They are so skint yet never out of the Vic every now and again free drinks or a line like keep the Change Line usually thrown in when they do pay 😠 then the cafe sometimes get away with not paying. :/ plus none them smoke why doesn't one of them go to max to help them out?

its shocking how little cancer patients (especially terminal patients) can claim its very little

What cancer patients get depends on whether they have treatment in hospital or at home (via tablets). As she is having hospital-based chemo, Carol should be getting a decent amount. (A friend of mine, who had the tablet-based chemo - which didn't work - was assessed fit for work three weeks before he died.) But it's still not going to be enough, though, especially in London.

Bianca should be claiming Tax Credits in order to make up the shortfall for her kids. Never heard this mentioned, however.

My brother has learning difficulties and has recently had to start paying council tax out of his (very basic) Income Support. If he didn't have my mum paying for stuff for him, life would be very grim.

The loan and bailiffs thing is ridiculous, surely one of their extended family would tell them how to deal with debt. Unless you go to an illegal loan shark, you can come to arrangements or let them take you to court, in which case repayments will be set at affordable instalments. If it is an illegal loan shark, they have enough contacts to deal with it informally, or they could tell the police.

The only bit of sense was "don't let the bailiffs in".

Bianca's an awful character now, nothing redeeming about her.

Still dining out in McKlunky's though. What a pile of old tosh.

Wouldn`t they be getting housing benefit ? Or are Bianca`s earnings from the market too much to claim it. How much rent per month is a big house like that in the East End ? Just checked - it would be about £3,000 per month.
ETA - Forgot it was Janine`s house.

Janine gets on well with Tiff and Liam (who are her relatives) so why not get money from her? It isn't as if they won't have an address, as she owns the house (why not just stop paying rent to her and save the money that way?)

It's Pats old house isn't it and I presumed mortgage free? Given that it's a house on a square in east London why don't they just sell it and move somewhere cheaper out of London. I an sure they would get £500k - maybe a lot more.

Or is that too logical?

They can't sell it because it belongs to Janine.

Logic and reality goes out the window in this case, there's no point in trying to make sense of it, the Butchers are destined to struggle to make ends meet and that's how it will stay until the end of time. It's as simple as that and it's the law.

You'd be surprised. I have a friend who 'Had to order a takeaway' as they didn't have enough money for shopping. £14 between 2 of them on a chinese, But couldn't afford any shopping

I stood there in shock as the words came out. It was takeaway or don't eat according to her, Some people are just built thick

Exactly. The writers haven't thought this through. Janine's abroad and staying far away. What would she do if they stopped paying? Not much.

$with Janine you never know. She has threatened to evict them before and turned down requests for help although she always relents at the last minute.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they aren't paying rent to Janine anyway and have got into this mess even without the rent expenditure. Bianca is just ++++ with money - as soon as she has any she does stuff like buying wide screen tvs (remember when she got that loan to replace the broken one but instead of getting a cheap replacement she spent hundreds on the best model?) and getting takeaways every night. I'm sure there have been other examples of her wasting money as well.

You can't get benefits to pay off your daughter's debts.

This is true. Yes Carol should be entitled to some benefits die to her being unable to work but that doesn't necessarily mean that the household would be entitled to lots as she isn't the only wage earner. I know that when I was signed off sick for several months I was entitled to very little as I'm married and my husband was still in full time employment so is expected to support me. A lot of benefits are means tested and if there is anyone in the house earning a even half decent wage then that is it but if your outgoings are worked out using both wages then you are somewhat stuck.

Also re utilities, it probably depends whose name the accounts are in. If they are in Bianca's then they might not give her much leeway as again, she is still in full employment even if it is a low wage.

It still isn't realistic they are in this big a mess so soon after David leaving thougj when he had been covering the bills.

Very true.

So instead of claiming benefits - whether they can in fact, or they can't - Bianca decides to go to loan sharks instead. Great idea - makes perfect sense. Bianca is a flipping genius haha.

Carol would be entitled to sickness benefit for being unable to work, and suffering from cancer she would be also entitled the full rate of DLA, not only that Bianca would be entitled to a carer's allowance for looking after her, so between them they would have a fair bit of money coming in, so the whole business of not having enough money for food is plain daft!

Carol shouldn't need to be struggling to pay for her grandchildren, thats Biancas job..and Morgan shouldn't be going anywhere near any fastfood places....thats a child obesity story ready and waiting....