"tum And Dumber" - Front Page Of The Sun

[ToraToraTora]

Saw this front page this morning about a vey fat mother and daughter on £34k a year benefitsits. Anyone know the full story?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-30603495
Scroll down to the sun.

[Mamyalynne]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2909810/We-d-fat-benefits-working-Mother-daughter-weigh-total-43-STONE-boast-matching-mobility-scooters-receive-34-000-year-handouts.html

[-Talbot-]

Surely you knew where to look?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2909810/We-d-fat-benefits-working-Mother-daughter-weigh-total-43-STONE-boast-matching-mobility-scooters-receive-34-000-year-handouts.html

[ToraToraTora]

yes but clearly there is a major element missing, surely they would not be funded to this level by the state. The DM and the sun etc would just cherry pick I was trying to find out the true story.

[Mamyalynne]

I think put simply - their weight issues have pushed them over into the disabled category and all that that entails and brings.

[grasscarp]

They have eaten till a joint 44 stone. Now have mobility scooters and a car supplied. Disabled due to fatness so increased benefit. Houses cos they don't live together adapted with ramps etc. Mother says they would rather be fat and happy than thin and miserable working. That about sums it up. Oh and daughter drives the 50 yards to mums house.
You couldn't make it up!

[ToraToraTora]

they should not have a choice, halve their benefits and starve them slimmer then stop paying for their wheelchairs and cars. *** disgusting.

[Deskdiary]

Fat people (really fat people - not people who are just a bit porky) disgust me at the best of times, but fat people who are so brazen in their apparent delight at being fat, and their feeling of entitlement to other people's money, really does make me despair.

I say 'apparent delight' because I simply do not believe that fat people would rather be fat than slim.

I'm with Tora on this one - they may not see it now, but in the long run they will see it for the kindness it is.

[ToraToraTora]

DD I think you've nailed it there. I think their brazen front is just that, a front, I do not believe any fat person is happy being fat. As a semi portly fellow myself I can fully understand the difficulties and I know in extreme cases it is classified as a "disease". Yes I can hear all the bean poles out there screaming, "eat less move more" and they are correct but that, for some does seem very difficult to achieve.

[ummmm]

I agree that fat people would rather be slim. Being slim is just easier. I went to a size 14 once and even doing up my shoelaces was uncomfortable.

[Retrochic]

I reckon they are happy, they eat what they want, are given way more money than their earning capacity to sit all day munching through food paid for by hard working tax payers and when they go out jump into their mobility car which will kindly be renewed for them every three years because heaven forbid they have to drive an old car. As they have probably never been 'slim' they will not know what it is like to be healthy, they will huff and puff getting around, find it hard to bend and twist, but they are 'disabled' aren't they, we should feel sorry for them,shouldn't we? No -we should stop all extra benefits they are not disabled they are lazy and obese.

[factor-fiction]

I agree that being grossly overweight is not a lifestyle choice and virtually all such people would rather be slimmer but perhaps there should be more of a carrot and stick (of celery?) approach- which may include making benefits conditional on something such as attendance on a programme of exercise, diet advice, treatment if necessary and maybe something like hypnotherapy/counselling

[Retrochic]

Being 'fat' is subject, even BMI does not work. Some people with a large frame and relatively little body fat could wear a size 14 (hardly rolly poly size is it?) while someone wearing a 10 could have a large proportion of body fat on a very small frame. There is evidence that some outsize models have admitted they are much happier at a size 16 and making more money modelling than when they were modelling size 8 clothes.

[ludwig]

If being fat qualifies as a disability, the fact that the population is getting fatter all the time will have a big cost implications for the taxpayer.

It's another reason we need a fat tax on pizzas and the like, to recycle some of the benefits money back into the system, help pay for the extra strain on the NHS, and limit the number of pies people can afford to scoff in the first place, alleviating the problem at source.

[Retrochic]

Ludwig -many people eat pizzas and fish and chips occasionally and not to excess-why should they suffer because certain people can't control themselves?

[ummmm]

And fish & chips and pizza are cheaper to cook at home than getting a takeaway. I have loads of cod in my freezer and always have potatoes.

It's not so much what people eat it's portion control.

[Retrochic]

If I go to the sea side I'm not going to take home made fish and chips with me, and would not like them to be 15% more expensive because fatties eat them three times a week.

[Old_Geezer]

Being fat clearly disables one. But there is a limit on how much such a fact means authorities should throw money at fat folk. It's an unfair cost to the taxpayer. It is this automatic, 'Oh it's a disability, here's some money', attitude that needs ditching.

Unfair taxing of the public or specific groups of the public should never be encouraged. Folk should contribute according to what they get out of being part of society. And there needs to be a very good reason to interfere in someone else's lifestyle. Authorities think they have a right to do that anyway, which they don't, and they need no encouragement. Quite the reverse.

If there is a clear case of a mental issue whereby an individual is having problems with their weight, then fair enough, they should be given all the help they can to lose it and return to being healthy. But neither pilloried for their mental or hormonal or whatever is causing it, issue, nor funded to keep on with it. There are sensible balances to be reached that is neither maltreatment and scorn, nor letting them destroy themselves or allow folk to facilitate the same.

Help to get back to normality is what is needed. Not funding & aid to remain wasting their life.

[ummmm]

I agree that it's punishing people who only eat certain foods as treats.

[pusskin]

Cut their allowances in half, so cant eat too much?
Take away their scooters to try to get them to walk around a bit.
The fact that they are brazen about it, makes me cringe.

[New Judge]

"I agree that being grossly overweight is not a lifestyle choice..."

For heaven’s sake factor! Agreed that there are a very small number of people who are overweight because of illness or disorder. But most obese people are obese simply because they eat too much and exercise too little. These two seem to fit into that category and to throw taxpayers’ money at them because they are “disabled” is an insult to taxpayers and an insult to those genuinely disabled. They are morbidly obese (which is quite different to being "semi portly" as 3Ts admits to) because they have chosen to sit on their *** chucking junk food down their throats day in day out. Life is too much trouble for them. Nobody forced them to do it; they were not born with the condition. We all make choices during our lives and this was their choice. I don't care how fat they are but I do object to shelling out £34k a year to deal with their "disability".
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