Family who are 'too fat to work' say £22,000 worth of benefits is not enough

wishes

wishes

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The Chawners, haven't worked in 11 years, claim their weight is a hereditary condition and the money they receive is insufficient to live on.
Mr Chawner said: "What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It's not our fault we can't work. We deserve more."
The family claim to spend £50 a week on food and consume 3,000 calories each a day. The recommended maximum intake is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.
"We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner," Mrs Chawner told Closer magazine.
"All that healthy food, like fruit and veg, is too expensive. We're fat because it's in our genes. Our whole family is overweight," she added.
Each week, Mr and Mrs Chawner, who have been married for 23 years, receive £177 in income support and incapacity benefit. Mrs Chawner is paid an extra £330-a-month disability allowance for epilepsy and asthma, both a result of being overweight.
Mr Chawner gets £71 a month after developing Type 2 diabetes because of his size. He was on a waiting list for a gastric band last year, but a heart condition made the operation unsuitable. Their daughter Samantha receives £84 in Jobseekers' Allowance each fortnight while Emma, who is training to be a hairdresser, gets £58 every two weeks under a hardship fund for low-income students.
Emma, said: "I'm a student and don't have time to exercise" she said "We all want to lose weight to stop the abuse we get in the street, but we don't know how."
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OMG i just about peed myself laughing. The only thing running in the family unfortunatly is a lot of bullshit, and lies, and possibly low IQ if they seriously believe this.
 
ahahahahahaha.

WOW.

Take a walk. Buy good things, there are SOME good processed foods that don't cost a bunch, if that's how they just must go about it *eye roll*. Apples are like what? 2$ for a dozen? Fruits not that expensive. Junk food is pricey too.
 
This story makes me sad.

It confirms the negative attitudes that mainstream culture has towards low-income and/or overweight people. Especially in a struggling economy, it's impossible to read this article and feel any sympathy or understanding for a family that appears to not just be happy depending on others for their welfare, but to expect more. The people are presented (through quotes) as lazy, careless, and unwilling to make the slightest effort to help themselves.

The unfortunate thing is there are a lot of people who WOULD help themselves if they had the right tools. And buying healthy foods on a TIGHT budget, can be very difficult. I've watched my own family struggle with it for years. I think buried underneath the sensationalized content of this news story, there are some legitimate points that could be addressed. Of course, responsible reporting doesn't rake in the readers, only highly polarizing, sensationalized junk does ("fat family demands cash for being fat").

I'd like it if the newspaper ran a sister article offering practical advice for people who are in similar positions. How to shop healthy on a budget, how to exercise on the cheap, etc. Yes, those tools are out there (most of us here have used them), but if a newspaper is willing to call out people for not doing all they can, they can also step up and provide some useful information.
 
phatcat said:
This story makes me sad.

It confirms the negative attitudes that mainstream culture has towards low-income and/or overweight people. Especially in a struggling economy, it's impossible to read this article and feel any sympathy or understanding for a family that appears to not just be happy depending on others for their welfare, but to expect more. The people are presented (through quotes) as lazy, careless, and unwilling to make the slightest effort to help themselves.

The unfortunate thing is there are a lot of people who WOULD help themselves if they had the right tools. And buying healthy foods on a TIGHT budget, can be very difficult. I've watched my own family struggle with it for years. I think buried underneath the sensationalized content of this news story, there are some legitimate points that could be addressed. Of course, responsible reporting doesn't rake in the readers, only highly polarizing, sensationalized junk does ("fat family demands cash for being fat").

I'd like it if the newspaper ran a sister article offering practical advice for people who are in similar positions. How to shop healthy on a budget, how to exercise on the cheap, etc. Yes, those tools are out there (most of us here have used them), but if a newspaper is willing to call out people for not doing all they can, they can also step up and provide some useful information.
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I dont fully believe they'd help themselves if given the tools. There ARE free ways to help yourself, such as exercising outside and even making your own things up. You can get moving w/out the aid of money. You can eat healthy without spending loads of money, things like, a bag of chicken, around here it cost 6$ but it lasts a few days and a big bag of veggies is around 3$, that's 10$ that could feed the family for two nites. Bag of chips is around 3$, bag of french fries around 3$, fast food around here you can easily spend upwards of 10$ on one "meal". [that adds up, specially if you're paying 6 or 7$ on fast food, per person!] Water is free.

They have options. People like them have options. It's not impossible and I think it's a cop out that they are getting paid for being fat. Getting paid for say, medical issues is one thing, an understandable thing. But they seem to be making excuses as well.
 
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phatcat said:
This story makes me sad.

It confirms the negative attitudes that mainstream culture has towards low-income and/or overweight people. Especially in a struggling economy, it's impossible to read this article and feel any sympathy or understanding for a family that appears to not just be happy depending on others for their welfare, but to expect more. The people are presented (through quotes) as lazy, careless, and unwilling to make the slightest effort to help themselves.

The unfortunate thing is there are a lot of people who WOULD help themselves if they had the right tools. And buying healthy foods on a TIGHT budget, can be very difficult. I've watched my own family struggle with it for years. I think buried underneath the sensationalized content of this news story, there are some legitimate points that could be addressed. Of course, responsible reporting doesn't rake in the readers, only highly polarizing, sensationalized junk does ("fat family demands cash for being fat").

I'd like it if the newspaper ran a sister article offering practical advice for people who are in similar positions. How to shop healthy on a budget, how to exercise on the cheap, etc. Yes, those tools are out there (most of us here have used them), but if a newspaper is willing to call out people for not doing all they can, they can also step up and provide some useful information.
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my local newspaper runs articles about shopping healthy on budgets and how to exercise cheaper...they normally show up more often in the summer than during winter months because i can't remember the last time i've seen one to be honest. but i remember when i'd read the paper during work in the summer, there was an article or two, not only regarding adults, but for children too.

i think SOME families would help themselves if they had the right tools, but not all. and they have to want to help themselves, otherwise it's never gonna happen.

like the family in the article say that they cannot afford healthy food for it is too expensive, however, i'm assuming they probably own a television with at least basic cable or maybe more than that (premium + movie channels). if they were that concerned about their health, they could put that money towards healthy eating. that might be harsh, but that's my opinion.
 
PaperAirplanes: I'm definitely not saying the family from the article would help themselves if there were more tools available to them. For one thing, I don't know enough about them to make that assumption, and the way they were presented strongly suggests that's not the case.

But there are people in situations where tools AREN'T available to them. They don't know how to get started. And just focusing on a negative, sensationalized story like this one redirects attention from that fact.

Shep03: I don't disagree with you on any one point. And sure, some people would make use of more tools and some wouldn't. My beef with the article is that it doesn't acknowledge that lack of money can be a real barrier to a healthy lifestyle.

...

And in general, anytime I see a story that sensationalizes people in this way, it makes me sad. It's in the same vein as trash celebrity rags and TV programs that focus on presenting people in a way that affords the viewer/reader only one view – the view of looking down on someone else. It's pretty commonplace, and I realize my point of view is probably not shared by most others, but I feel like we'd all benefit if stories/programs were about educating and not just exploiting or sensationalizing.

It does make for interesting thread topics, though! :)
 
This family has combined incomes roughly 33% higher than U.S. poverty guidelines. Imagine if you had 10,000 extra dollars to spend this year?

I find the sliding 'pay per infliction' scale to be counterproductive and incentive-less for the Government to impose.

Two observations from the picture in the link: Mr Chawners wouldn't make the lap band list over here in the U.S. The family seems fairly well dressed and mostly proper an appearance. I don't see true suffrage in that picture. Maybe this is a U.K. equivalent for 'Poverty Poster Children' for reasonable press purposes?

It would take about 6 nanoseconds to find real poor, real obese Americans making the Chawners look like The Simpsons that they really are.

What a shitty mindset this family has formed.
 
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oh wow. im just glad im not a citizen in their country, using my tax money to compensate them for being fat and deciding they are a-ok with it... i think this article wasnt sensationalized. i mean the quotes came from their mouths right? and i cant stand when people say they are fat because "its in their genes" thats the biggest load of bull i ever heard. ur big because you eat too much and dont exercise!! last summer on a talk show this 300 pound woman was claiming that she got fat from a spider bite. ReAaLLLy?????? like stop making up excuses, thats just pathetic
 
Episode: Big Burden - Air Date: 4/27/2006 - Dr Phil Show

amagheti said:
last summer on a talk show this 300 pound woman was claiming that she got fat from a spider bite. ReAaLLLy?????? like stop making up excuses, thats just pathetic
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"Within the last nine years, I've more than doubled in size. I went from 290 pounds to 700 and change," says DeeDee, 47. Nine years ago, she was bitten by a brown recluse spider and says that contributed to her weight gain. "No matter what they treated it with, my leg got worse. My leg is so swollen and so painful I can't move it. The swelling got so bad that it compromised my circulation. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't walk. I had to give up work," DeeDee explains.



"A spider bite is a legitimate problem, but it doesn't justify a 400-pound weight gain," says Sherra, one of DeeDee's only friends who comes to visit her. "DeeDee is an overeater and always has been."



After DeeDee was incapacitated by the spider bite, her husband had to take on a second job, and her son and daughter had to take care of her. "I no longer was a mother and a worker and a wife. I've become a burden," DeeDee shares.



"The kids are just exhausted. They can't approach her without her asking for something," Sherra reveals. "They were really just children, so they started bringing her food trying to comfort her ... It turned into resentment. They share food instead of love. They stay in the house in a little cocoon, eat, and watch movies, and feel sorry for each other and get sicker and sicker."



"The only time I have for myself is school," says DeeDee's son, Sean, 22. His mom will call him when he is out and ask him to bring home food. "My mom has me buy a lot of things that we shouldn't have."



"Everything in the house is a snack. We have soda, cereal. We always have M&M'S available, Ritz crackers and huge blocks of cheese," says Jaime, DeeDee's 21-year-old daughter. "If I want to be by myself, she accuses me of not loving her. I resent her for that," Jaime reveals. "I focus on getting out of the house, even though my mom thinks I'm going to be here until I'm 26. I don't want to have to be her caretaker."


"My metabolism is so bad at this point that I hardly eat anything and I still don't lose weight," DeeDee says. "I'm a prisoner in my own home. That's really frightening." She says that she used to have a life, but not anymore. "I feel like I'm a rolling disease," she says. "I blame the spider."

Four more pages of the story at this link
 
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wishes said:
i saw the followup there
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I wonder if deep down she still says its the spiders fault? [i didnt read the entire article, just the first page] But at least she's taken the steps to get down in weight, I think she'll really realize how much it'll help her in the long run to keep losing!
 
Thanks for the follow up link, Liz. Congrats Dee Dee for coming to your senses and accepting your own reality.

I can't imagine facing your intervention on a national TV show but I guess that's what it took.

So now we have to get the Chawners over here for their own episode of Dr. Phil?
 
LOL thanks for finding that T2!! so it wasnt the magic potion in the spider after all that made her fat LOLOL reading that still made me feel bad for her though
 
So my husband got bitten by several brown recluse spiders a few years ago. 4 bites in all. Aside from a pretty funky scar and having to go to the Dr. everyday to have them pack the wound and get a shot and all hes fine. He didn't gain any weight and was back at work within 2 days. Maybe she should be more focused on the lack of medical treatment she received than the spider bite.
 
i love it how she also says at the end that she has a metabolic disfunction. HIGHLY unlikely. its these types of excuses and justifications that are keeping people fat :( i wish these people would become more educated on their own bodies
 
What an interesting and disturbing thread! It is so true that people will find excuses for EVERYTHING. Until a person is truly ready to change, it is not going to happen. But once they are ready, BAM! Look out, world...

ABBA
 
I'm calling bullshit on portions of the article.

I used to live in the UK so I know how much food costs there. It can't have changed that much in 2 years.

I don't know where they shop, but I believe I've put together a very healthy cart of food for these people at Sainsbury's, a shop not known for its low prices that includes:

270 g King Prawns
500 g yellow plums
500g natural yogurt
2 packs of flavouripe tomatoes
1 iceberg lettuce
2 romaine lettuce hearts
20g chilies
1 cucumber
2 boxes of 750g Fruit & Fiber cereal
500ml olive oil
2 800g loaves of Hovis best of both bread
250g salted butter
100g English mustard
3.4L semi-skimmed milk
900g frozen peas
1 dozen eggs
2 2.3kg whole chickens
2kg brown rice
800g pears
1kg oranges
800g apples
5kg potatoes
1.5 kg carrots
750g parsnips
300g broccoli florets


Total? About 53-54 pounds. You could trim that by buying less; you won't actually need to buy 500ml olive oil every week, for example, and you probably won't need 250g of butter every week either. That is also at one of the pricier stores in the UK; they could buy that same trolley for less at Tesco or Asda, or still less at Netto. But for them to say they can't eat healthy for 50 pounds a week is crap. It's wrong. They're lying. I think the food they eat now is probably more expensive.

Note what is NOT in the cart: chips, crisps, chocolate, bacon, beer, and cigarettes. When I saw people in the UK who looked like they were on benefits, that's usually what they had in their carts. If you're on benefits, you can't afford all that AND healthy food...you have to choose. They don't want to. Too bad.
 
:rant:
Just read an article about that family in a newspaper over here. It's ridiculous, plain and simple. I have no sympathy for them whatsoever, and I think they are simply too lazy to go to work, or to lose weight. They can't be that stupid though, because they have perfected how to abuse the system and live comfortably of the tax payers money while sitting on their fat arses doing nothing but pile on even more pounds!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...makes me wanna throttle somebody!!! :cuss:

I'm doing the grocery shopping for three people - my husband who insists on brand names, my stepson who has a very limited diet due to being autistic, and myself, trying to get as much healthy stuff as possible.

I spend between £50 and £60 per week on food for all three of us, sometimes less. And we have proper meals every day, always including some sort of meat, chicken or fish, vegetables and some sort of fruit every day. We've got snacks (nuts or the likes for me, crisps for the rest of the family), we have breakfast, lunch etc., just like everybody else, and I often throw leftover food out because it hasn't all been eaten.
When we lived solely on junk food, my grocery bill would be between £120 and £150 each week........:eek:

Yes, some of the healthy stuff is expensive. Fruit and veg can be expensive, but there are ways to get it cheaper. Buy on the market, go shortly before they close and you can get perfectly good fruit and veg cheaper. Buy seasonal stuff, look for offers on everything. If you get a good offer, buy more and freeze it.

Not having money is no excuse to be fat. If they were really that 'poor', how come they have the money to buy all the food that makes them fat in the first place? When I was on my own and really stuck for money, a bag of pasta, a bottle of ketchup, a loaf of bread and a bag of coffee would last me for a week. I lost weight at an alarming rate during that time. Piled it all back on after, but that's not the point....

Nope, not having money is no excuse for being fat. On the contrary. And while the story might have been sensationalised, the facts still stand. They are all overweight, too overweight to work according to themselves. Funnily enough I've been to Tesco's this morning, had a chat to one of the girls at the checkout. She's 480 lbs, down from 620, and has worked at Tesco's for the last 8 years. She said that there is nothing that stops you from working at the checkout, no matter what weight you are, and I tend to agree. Oh, and did I mention that my 450 lbs husband is working as a teacher and has done so for 10 years now? His weight never stopped him from working!!

So, it's not the weight that's stopping them from working, it's the fact that they don't want to, plain and simple. And why would they if they get money stuffed up their fat backsides??? :rant:
 
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