‘People these days are taking liberties,’ pensioner Doris Peynado concluded from the doorstep of her Birmingham home yesterday. ‘They are lazy. And they’re a nuisance.’
Speaking to the Daily Mail just 24 hours after Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the highest tax burden in British post-war history to pay for greater welfare spending, Doris – who previously worked for a hotel on the city’s Hagley Road – revealed: ‘I’ve never been to the benefits office, never taken the dole. I worked all my life.’
The same, however, cannot be said for her ‘lazy’ neighbours.
Doris was just 17 when she arrived in Britain from Jamaica to start a new life. But as she looks out on her street today, more than half a century later, the dream has soured.
While many of her neighbours don’t work and live off state handouts, the pavement in front of her home is piled four feet high with bin bags, garden waste, a television set, baby swing, umbrella and loose plastic toys.
Go a little further down James Turner Street and the hideous, foul-smelling scene is repeated, pile after pile of waste lining the pavement beside rundown terrace houses.
Given the ongoing strike by Birmingham’s refuse collectors, this might be any suburban street in the city. But it isn’t. This is Benefits Street – the 1,000 ft stretch of dilapidated housing that shot to fame courtesy of the eponymous 2014 Channel 4 documentary which followed the lives of benefit claimants, making a living via a combination of taxpayer handouts and, in some cases, petty theft.
In her response to Rachel Reeves’ plan to scrap the two-child benefit cap while raising taxes on working people, leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch branded Wednesday’s announcement a ‘Benefits Street Budget’.
Pictured: James Turner Street in Birmingham, also known as Benefits Street. So what do today’s inhabitants – 11 years on from that now-infamous documentary – really think of the Chancellor’s cash grab?
Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers her Budget in the House of Commons. She announced the highest tax burden in British post-war history to pay for greater welfare spending
Commentator Andrew Neil, writing in the Daily Mail yesterday, summarised the Budget as ‘a massive redistribution of money from working people and savers to people living on benefits’.
So what do today’s inhabitants of Benefits Street in Birmingham – 11 years on from that now-infamous documentary – really think of the Chancellor’s cash grab?
The make-up of James Turner Street has changed dramatically over the past decade. Many of the colourful characters featured in the series like ‘White Dee’ have moved on, while drug addict James ‘Fungi’ Clarke is no longer with us.
Today’s cast of residents is no less characterful, not least because many are new to Britain.
No one is more aware of the changing face of Benefits Street than mother-of-four Elise – not her real name – who certainly didn’t mince her words when speaking with the Daily Mail yesterday.
‘I don’t think it’s fair for working people like myself who are having to pay more tax while all these foreign nationals get more money for popping out kids like there’s f***ing no tomorrow. It’s just bloody awful. It’s disgraceful.
‘Half of this street, there are working people, but the other half, no,’ Elise continued. ‘There’s a crowd over there and I think there’s about 12 or 13 of them in one house. And the woman is just popping out kids … It’s disgusting that we have to pay to keep them going. The foreigners that come into the country get everything – houses, cars, you name it!’
Elise, who works as a housekeeper at a care home for people with dementia, added: ‘I’ve got no choice. If I want money, then I have to go to work. Sometimes, when I come home, I can’t even stand up because I’m that tired.’
Your browser does not support iframes.
A software engineer, Matthew has never been out of work and is furious about the Chancellor’s plans to lift the two-child benefit cap
Doris Peynado was just 17 when she arrived in Britain from Jamaica to start a new life. But as she looks out on her street today, more than half a century later, the dream has soured
The make-up of James Turner Street has changed dramatically over the past decade. Many of the colourful characters featured in the series like ‘White Dee’, pictured, have moved on
Elise – whose partner also works up to 12 hours a day – moved to Britain from Ireland in 2002, first living in London before settling in Birmingham nearly eight years ago to escape skyrocketing rents.
But even living on this notoriously deprived street in our second city, Elise has had to call on a community trust fund to help with the mould in her house, for which her landlord, incidentally, has just chosen to increase her rent.
‘It’s gone downhill,’ Elise concludes of the country, while describing Prime Minister Keir Starmer as an ‘idiot’.
‘The Tories are the same; whoever gets in next are going to make promises they can’t keep. Nothing changes between any of them.’
Of course, not all residents agree with Elise that this is an immigration issue. Irene Renzeta, 48, a Sudanese carer who has been here for five years, told the Daily Mail: ‘When I first came to this area I was very shocked because it’s very dirty and a lot of people don’t want to work, especially white British people.’
However, she ultimately agreed with Elise, concluding: ‘I don’t think the government increasing benefits is a good thing because they should be encouraging people to work. There are too many people who don’t want to make anything of their lives.’
Matthew Stennett, 38, has lived on James Turner Street his entire life. Indeed, he appeared in the background of several scenes when the Channel 4 cameras rolled into town. A software engineer, Matthew has never been out of work and is furious about the Chancellor’s plans to lift the two-child benefit cap.
‘It’s a bad thing, because you’ve got some people who don’t want to work and all they want to do is just sit on benefits for life and push out loads of kids,’ he said. ‘They’re getting free money while the rest of us break our backs. Some people have got nine or ten kids now and they’re going to get loads of money for them.
While many of Doris’s neighbours don’t work and live off state handouts, the pavement in front of her home is piled four feet high with rubbish
Bin bags, garden waste, a television set, baby swing, umbrella and loose plastic toys are among the items strewn along the street
Given the ongoing strike by Birmingham’s refuse collectors, this might be any suburban street in the city. But it isn’t
‘This street used to be nice and then it just went downhill,’ he continued. ‘When the show came out, I was working so it didn’t bother me. There were people here complaining and I was like: “You’re not working, you’re just sitting here complaining – go get a job!”.’
Similarly aggrieved are pensioners Hyacinth Rattray, 83, and her 96-year-old husband. The couple have lived on the street for ‘decades’ and raised their now grown-up children here.
‘They are subtracting from us to give to other people,’ Hyacinth said, with the help of her carer, Pauline. ‘But you’re also creating a deficit in the workforce, because the more you get as a mother and father, the less you want to contribute. You’ve got people who are doing this for the welfare benefits.
‘What about the people that are working and are worse off than the people that are not in work?’
Inevitably, however, there are those living on James Turner Street for whom the Budget rang in their ears like the jackpot on a fruit machine.
Ikram Hassan, for example – who wished not to be photographed – lives on Benefits Street with her three children. Originally from Somalia, 34-year-old Ikram first moved her family to Sweden and then in 2008 came to the UK, where she lives on state handouts.
‘The Budget is good news,’ she told the Daily Mail. ‘I’m pleased to hear that it will help a lot of families on low incomes. They can use it for their expenses for the children, all their needs. It helps them survive during the week.’
Angelina Fosu, originally from Ghana, had no idea she lives on one of the most famous streets in Britain, despite having resided here for nine years. But what the 50-year-old does know is that she’s set to receive an additional £1,800 a year of taxpayers’ money courtesy of the two-child benefit cap being lifted.
Inevitably, however, there are those living on James Turner Street for whom the Budget rang in their ears like the jackpot on a fruit machine
When Channel 4 first arrived on Benefits Street, it was because this road was remarkable for its high number of welfare claimants. Today, however, it is no longer an outlier
As a mother to four children, she is grateful for the bumper payday. ‘If the Government will give us more money, that is good news,’ beamed Angelina, who also receives additional benefits through Universal Credit.
Angelina – whose husband, from Burkina Faso, works as a cleaner – is currently ‘out of work’ while looking after her youngest two children, though she did claim: ‘I want to work in the evening but I cannot find anything.’
An elderly lady living a few doors down – who didn’t want to be named after the backlash to the original Channel 4 documentary – blamed the shambolic state of the street on the legacy of the programme.
‘People drive over from elsewhere at night and dump their rubbish, everything from fridges to mattresses, because they know of our reputation,’ she explained. ‘The place is now rampant with mice.’
The pensioner – who has lived here for 17 years – went on to describe the documentary as ‘out of order’, accusing it of ignoring the many residents who were in work.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, she believes: ‘They need to give families on benefits more. What they give in benefits now helps a little, but by the time you pay rent and bills it’s finished. Big families with three, four kids need more help. It’s no good. Think about it: they need to feed their children, take them to school.
‘The Budget doesn’t do enough. I was listening to her [Reeves] last night and it was pure foolishness.’
When Channel 4 first arrived on Benefits Street, it was because this road was remarkable for its high number of welfare claimants. Today, however, James Turner Street is no longer an outlier but a paradigm for the nation as a whole: a street not divided on outdated lines of class, race or ethnicity, but split between the workers and those living on state handouts.
And whichever side of the debate you’re on, it is clear that Rachel Reeves has chosen the side of the welfare claimants, and it’s a decision the rest of us will be paying for over many years to come.
