Is This England? British Poverty In The '90s

Impoverished Britain (1996) - The loss of minimum wage in Britain has resulted in the gap between the rich and the poor growing hugely.
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Synopsis: Newtown just outside Birmingham is looking dirty, rundown and old. 50 % of its citizens are unemployed, living in grey towerblocks overlooking the urban devastation. The flats are poorly equipped with basic furnishings. All people can do is watch television. As the rich people get richer, the poor get poorer. Chris Pond from the Low Pay Unit blames poverty and hardship on the Conservative Government's free market economy and their opt out from the social chapter. Journeyman Pictures investigates the harsh reality of 1990s Britain.
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Journeyman Pictures - Ref. 0196

[@miket17uk]

The 1990s. My school years. My mum used to work all day at a school, then cook us tea and go off to work at sainsburys until 10pm. She and my dad gave us a great childhood and helped us go to uni. She was a bloody hero and gave up so much to give us a better life. Love her

[@CaymanIslandsCatWalks]

What happened if you were sick?

[@stuartmitchell1908]

Same here. My mum had 3 jobs and I’m obviously forever in her debt. We are lucky to have these kind of mums

[@Vibrant_Frequencies]

Same here mate, my mom worked at a care home in the day and sainsburys at night, dad worked at a factory which was slowly destroying him. All to give me and my brother a semi decent life. My gratitude will always be there for them. It wasn't easy growing up in brum in the 90's. Now I'm a telecoms rigger doing alright for myself 👍🇬🇧

[@MuslimJusticeNetworkAlliance]

Bless her, Ameen

[@LogicPak]

what did you do to repay her back?

[@thewalkingdad4537]

Only real difference is we have swapped Spice Girls for Spice Heads.

[@kell8721]

liam fletcher 😂😂 true!

[@joannehowe7513]

Absolutely! 🤣

[@notmyrealname9059]

This being a vast improvement

[@thewalkingdad4537]

@@notmyrealname9059 certainly more entertaining, and ultimately adding more to society.

[@notmyrealname9059]

@@thewalkingdad4537 I'd sooner have a bunch of homeless zombies swapping crack and heroin for spice than those hordes of tweenage girls skanking it up with their friends. "Making love's forever"? No it fucking isn't,, obviously. Pass me the Zig-Zags and Spice and let me exit this corporate pop abortion. Ahhh ,,, , .

[@JGreen1]

"Newly developing countries like Taiwan or South Korea." Shows how old this documentary really is. 🤣

[@colourfulcrafts5492]

You make me feel old having lived through the 90s as a kid 🤣🤣 😱

[@dragonofthewest8305]

@@colourfulcrafts5492 it's a blessing having the past on KZbin as someone who never saw the 90s

[@colourfulcrafts5492]

@@dragonofthewest8305 ahh the times where internet was barely available no playstations till mid 90s and, the worst, legal fox hunting. I used to spend my childhood walks putting table pepper down on the paths to deter the dog packs from smelling the foxes scent. Thankful at the moment fox hunting is now banned. And no more dial-up internet; yay 😉😁😁

[@DudleyBlue]

@@colourfulcrafts5492 But thankfully Fox hunts are still as frequent as ever.... They just say they are chasing a scent as no-one ever checks....

[@Kaerikillington]

@@DudleyBlue yeah and if they did get caught I'm sure they would just pay off the problem. Bastards.

[@maninahole]

British television was better in the 90's.

[@somelad3756]

It wasn't a perfect time but modesty and humility was around alot more

[@residentelect]

@@somelad3756 And the music was bloody brilliant! No disgusting, plastic-bodied, auto-tuned female "rappers" spewing bollocks about what gets their knickers all moist holding the number 1 spot in the charts. Give me Des'ree, Tasmin Archer, Shirley Manson, Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette, Sharleen Spiteri et al over any and all contemporary female vocalists/artists.

[@clovenbullet]

my missus has been watching 90s eastenders and it's like pulling teeth

[@sensimania]

@@clovenbullet IKR! It's so corny, and the "doof doof" scenes are absolutely rubbish 😆

[@ssss-df5qz]

Saw a bit of Blind Date and Grange hill there on the box

[@mcwolfus8824]

What people are not talking about is the fact that the richer have been buying up property and then leasing it to the poorer and getting rich off the working classes backs. The buy to let scam is disgusting but not even discussed openly.

[@shibuya3185]

Get over that chip on your shoulder about the rich. Immigrants have taken up far more property than the rich ever have.

[@TheWillog]

@@shibuya3185 the immigrants dont own properties

[@shibuya3185]

@@TheWillog : Er, they rent properties which forces up rents, especially for the poorer locals.

[@TheWillog]

Shibuya 😂😂 immigrants are forcing up rents ? How are they doing that most immigrants are poorer than the poor English

[@shibuya3185]

@@TheWillog : Wow! You're not very clever, are you? Where do you think they live, dumbo? They take up rental housing and rental apartments thus forcing up rents. I suggest you Google the law of supply and demand. It will relieve you of your obvious ignorance.

[@getthemusicout3212]

Poverty in the UK is nothing new. Universal Credit will save you from starving but will not permit you to live with dignity. Unfortunately, this will only get worse until enough people stand up and force the wheels of power to make it change. UK wealth inequality is a national disgrace. We must become a more equal and fair society.

[@Jba8179]

Universal credit doesn’t really save people from starving anymore

[@antoneckhart4010]

​@@Jba8179it's worse than that. The ukgovt have openly stated they will breedout brits by 2040. Yet no one takes notice. Not even all the murders and rapes that dont make the news. I feel like am in a game and everyone around me is a none playable character.

[@guyverjay1289]

There is no comparison to poverty in the 70's, 80's and early 90's to today. You people are clueless

[@terryj50]

why will people stand up when they want the tax payer to feed them. The only way to stop this is when the tax payer stops footing the bill for companies. So really nothing will change and it will get worse as people dont cry to their company when they want a pay rise they cry to the nasty tories to top them up more.

[@justdoit.86yearsago]

Benefits aren’t supposed to provide a comfortable lifestyle. The problem arises when people in full time work can’t afford the basics.

[@lodersracing]

Imagine living in a world where the government stops you working and puts you into poverty in case you get ill

[@bigred5287]

Oh wait...

[@andrewharris3900]

Sounds horrific.

[@nigel4570]

Nah it'll never happen you conspiracy theorist .oh wait !

[@oak1739]

there's a lot of waiting going on here

[@jjman002able]

Imagine also that what happened during those times ain't far off where we're living in now...don't we learn?

[@GeekyGrant]

Two lessons I got from this: 1) Education is key and keeps you employable. 2) Give the rich the choice on wages they will be greedy and squeeze people dry.

[@zakdank]

2) Give t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶c̶h̶ people the choice on wages they will be greedy and squeeze people dry.

[@avancalledrupert5130]

Depends what education. Only trades and stem get paid. Pick a trade pick it young get good. If you are particularly academic do stem. Everything else is a road to retail.

[@kuski655]

@@zakdank No, just the rich. Fuck off with that nonsense

[@zafirsheikh569]

@@avancalledrupert5130 well said.

[@PixelLife101]

@@kuski655 Commie spotted

[@ruthbashford3176]

21st Century Britain: Payday Loans, Food Banks, Buy to Let Landlords and Zero Hour Contracts.

[@240soundwave]

crisps

[@240soundwave]

poor people eat crisps

[@insanityrulestheday]

It's what Thatcher the Snatcher's successor, Tory "Death Warmed UP" John Major called getting "Back to Basics"! :-(

[@insanityrulestheday]

@macdonald tramp BRITAIN is today THE URIAH HEEP of the WORLD

[@greigsanderson]

Why do many of these idiots have 8 kids, smoke, drink, take drugs and have sky? Poor people make poor decisions, then blame everyone else. Take ownership and don't do stupid things. These idiots deserve everything they get. Clueless idiots.

[@jonh6912]

When I see people like this it really hits home how fortunate I am to be in my position. I was very nearly in this situation. Left school with no qualifications, thought I knew it all and wasn’t bothered about a good job. Soon realised shit jobs are soul destroying and managed to find an apprenticeship in my late twenties. I’m not financially well off, but I can afford to live a good life.

[@barrett7893]

Amen to that! May God bless you and watch over you in Jesus name.. 💯 ❤️

[@jonh6912]

@@barrett7893 God bless you too, brother 🙏

[@dannychong7842]

Your govt is the main problem here. They don't believe something call Empty City. They keep their criticism without limits yet ignoring, how much billions they spend for the project were actually building the society, creating job even the end result mean Empty City looks like ghost town but not for long... Every countries face this kind of problem, so do my country named Malaysia. 1998, Asia share market crumble down yet Malaysian survived that period without hardship nor poverty cos Putrajaya were an Empty City. Malaysia govt pawn almost all their land to banker in exchange for loan to built an Empty City that only occupied by strays dogs cos the nation were not bailed out by IMF. Malaysia ranked top in economy recover and Putrajaya project still on going as at today, being the new govt city beside Kuala Lumpur. Putrajaya indeed looks like a ghost town but that was the past. The main issue here, were how you build the city, creating jobs and flourishing the market with opportunities and indirectly supporting the whole econ sector or whats lack in your society. You need something to boast back your slumped econ, you must do something and cannot stand there and watch it slump. Get it? That is what UK doing, when crisis. They only increase your welfare payment without any development. That is how, Empty City pop up in Malaysia in 1998 and causes the whole econ sector booming after 3 to 4 years even other presume Malaysia already doomed by Asia financial meltdown. This thing really happen since Malaysia still exist in Asia or you can visit Putrajaya that once occupied by stray dogs. Cos the money that you invested in building empty city would keep rotating in the market creating more and more opportunities. The investment won't evaporated into thin air since Putrajaya owed by the govt, that slowly occupied back the whole city. Me don't understand, why West fear of building empty city cos after you completed the foundation, the whole econ sector grows by itself.

[@avengernemesis7990]

Good on you !! Australia ❤️

[@brownwarrior6867]

Don’t let the bastards grind you down brother. 🙏🏼✝️🙏🏼

[@toxicmartoc]

I was on the bones of my arse in the 90s and early 2000s but through hard work and sacrifice I climbed out of poverty, not that I have a lot of money now but I can pay my bills and feed my family

[@mavis1108]

Nice one mate, and I hope you don't vote Tory.

[@toxicmartoc]

@@mavis1108 lol believe me I don't

[@masterkaltz]

problem is that still many people work hard just to feed the family and pay the bills and thats it. just to live another month to collect the salary and pay bills and buy food to keep on going. working to eat and eat to be able to work. its a working class problem still, just like slaves but they are allowed to go home to sleep for the night.

[@thewackywizard2049]

It was also through opportunity you made it no doubt. In the 90’s there wasn’t the opportunities or rights we have now, ironically thanks to the EU. If you’ve got “new” money, don’t get too comfortable, they are trying to redress the balance now, it’s going to get bad very quickly

[@skullhunter06660]

@James Prediston This is worse then slavery because we convinced ourselves of doing this. Atlest the slaves knew they were slaves, we dont!

[@AdamOwenBrowning]

This is the Britain I grew up in. I never knew why my mother was upset that I was shaking in the morning, or why she was embarrassed at the condensation on the inside of the window. It was cold and we could not afford heating. It makes you harder

[@barryUFF]

Living on the streets makes you EVEN harder... Nice philosophy :) Or maybe the government could have built better housing.. Many countries HAVE managed it....

[@ObsoleteOddity]

@@barryUFF Living on the streets makes you harder, but also drastically shortens your life span.

[@customtoggle7938]

Isn't it about time we collectively vote something other than conservative/labour?

[@Hugh_Morris]

It’s too late for that, the wealthy are too wealthy and they run the two party system (as is the case most everywhere else). The only way things will properly change is a total breakdown of the governments we have.

[@afunnyman]

@@Hugh_Morris Welcome to the accelerationist synopsis. This is pushing the dichotomy of left and right further than ever before. Probably couldve avoided it with the alternative vote.

[@christina7215]

BNP!

[@myvideos9811]

PLEASE NEVER VOTE. YOU ARE GIVING THEM CONSENT TO CONTROL US. THEY ARE ALL THE SAME. MALC UK

[@ALPINA527]

We need to use the gov.uk petition system to vote no confidence, ignore the electoral vote use the petition vote en Mass ie millions of people petitioning not voting!

[@lovepeace4065]

Unbelievable this is the UK. Nowadays a job is not guaranteed even if you have a degree. Something is terribly wrong.🙏

[@maxthelab8457]

That's because education has been so diluted and devalued. It's pointless having a degree...esp when it comes with a crippling debt that sticks like shit for decades after graduating.

[@terryj50]

The issue in the uk is most people who have a degree have it in a subject no one wants.

[@EmmanuellaUdofia]

​​@@terryj50I've got a mathematics degree and I'm still struggling to find a job. It's been 3 months.

[@aleenasmakeup]

I’m 17 wanting to go to uni… any recommendations on what to do since degrees don’t guarantee I will get a job

[@lovepeace4065]

@@aleenasmakeup If I were you and I’m 62 try to get into an apprenticeship. Not only do you benefit from the theory side but also practical side. Today you need a master or a phd even then employers will ask what experience you have had. If you want to get into medicine that’s another story you must go to university. I would say IT , law, finance and medicine is a great career. You don’t need to go to university to study drama or art. Be prepared to make sacrifices as this word seems to be lacking in todays world. Good luck and be determined always remain positive and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something because you can if you really want it badly enough. 🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@meelodeshmeeelo2034]

I had a bailiff visit me (council tax) in the early 2000, I told him the council and benefits had made a mistake, he was starting to clamp my car, I got in, said to him I am starting this car and I am going to drive it, if you continue I will have no problem with it ripping your hand off.

[@chicka-chickaslimcheyney2914]

My dad got out of England in 1987. He's been back a few times but he much prefers New Zealand. I didn't really understand why until now.

[@Devenus20211]

I hope more people leave. Might bring grocery prices down, which is needed to lift people out of poverty. It is logistically impossible to have a population like France/Germany on a small and restrictive island. Victorians had plenty of food because population size was more realistic.

[@ginch8300]

@@Devenus20211 The Victorians also had a whole empire to loot from as well.

[@giansideros]

​@@Devenus20211Victorians had a lot of saw dust in their bread and industrial chemicals in their milk.

[@bodazephyr6629]

@@Devenus20211 Victorians did not have plenty of food. Malnutrition was rife, which was the main reason that many people died from infectious diseases. Now we have the opposite problem: obesity from too much food.

[@ObsoleteOddity]

@@bodazephyr6629 absolutely correct, but now we have obesity from too much JUNK food.

[@lydiaorr6270]

My mom did a degree in the 1980s at the Uni of Birmingham, apparently back then there was evidence of New Town being the poorest area of Europe! Not much has changed around that area, I'm from north Birmingham so past it on the too town every time I'm there, New Town still has a horrible reputation ...

[@ljduk7595]

It’s worst now, no employee rights for 2 years, zero hours contracts, fixed term contracts, over employing then getting rid of people they don’t need. it’s shit for employees who are not seen as humans but as targets, figures on an excel sheet. 🤣😂🤣 it’s a nasty system we are in

[@jimsy5530]

@j t I moved to Asia from the UK. Good wage (esp now pound is dead), and great quality of life.

[@paulholland5270]

dog tard on a pavement you mean ha ha ha ha ha ha

[@JC-nn4if]

Glad for you

[@sjordan7085]

Sob, sob, sob, and how do you think folk manged before there was welfare and the NHS? People survived and thrived and had self-respect and pride, both seem to be lacking a great deal now.

[@whatamalike]

@@sjordan7085 Utter bollocks, the poor before the welfare state was created were living in utter squalor (usually working 50 hours a week too!) with a myriad of health problems that resulted in an early grave. The notion of 'self respect' is completely subjective anyway and linked to social attitudes of the day.

[@solcutta-zt9uw]

It's always amazed me that here in the UK forever have the poor been advised by the upper middle and higher class how to live on low money.. How to budget.. When these people don't even know what budgeting it.. Its alright being a toff and going into a poor house for a week to learn how it is. I could manage for one week on low money but u do that week after week after year after year and that money now has to buy clothes, pay for utility break downs when ur cooker packs up, microwave dies., washing mashine, hoover on and on.. Absolute joke.

[@ZonkzUK]

Yeah man. You can be already struggling, then one day your fridge breaks, and a week later the oven stops working. Your kid's shoes are falling apart. Winter is coming up and you need new coats for the kids etc. It's a fuckin' joke.

[@howey935]

1993 i was woking in a factory on 3 shifts and i was getting £14:75 an hour. The wage was so good because it was a rothmans ciggarette factory. My town used to have 5 big factories in the 90s Rothmans, Black and decker, an electrolux cookers factory and a seprate electrolux refrigerator factory and thorn lighting factory but by 2002 they had all moved to eastern europe about the same time the eastern europeans came here for work. I ended up moving to amsterdam in 98 and i was a painter and decorator making good money.

[@saykoza8481]

And you make same move like eastern europeans

[@Stampistuta]

Having no minimum wage at the time is absolutely wild when you think about it.

[@outsidersongs2682]

I used to work in a kitchen for £2.30 an hour in the early 90s and it was hard physical work with a lot of sexual harrassment. That would be £5 an hour now. Everyone was desperate for bank holiday and unsocial hour shifts. Unsocial hours was double and bank holidays were triple.

[@barryUFF]

Germany did NOT have a minimum wage until 2015 !! The minimum wage is one small factor. Germany is better UNIONISED. It actually MANUFACTURES goods and does not just make money from the financial sector. Germany traditionally rents housing and has more social housing (although housing is becoming a problem in Germany too).

[@Stampistuta]

@@barryUFF I don’t know why you’re talking about Germany but OK.

[@barryUFF]

@@Stampistuta Germany is an obvious example of a country that had NO minimum wage. Not until 2015. More important than minimum wages are unions, social housing, and a country that makes products. The UK has only got the finance industry. So, do you undertsand that minimum wages did not exist in many countries until very recently, but those countries were still successful and fair?

[@Stampistuta]

@@barryUFF You use capital letters to emphasise words so of course you must be right.

[@NormanBatesIsMyMum]

Some of the comments on this video depress me greatly. Before you start judging people, walk a mile in their shoes.

[@th8257]

It's often forgotten how grim so much of the 80s and 90s was. No minimum wage until the Blair government. I remember a friend of mine had a Saturday job at House of Fraser in 1994. They paid him £1 an hour. I was paid £2.37 an hour and felt I was rich by comparison.

[@Pinkflare984]

Reading “£1 an hour” just gave me an aneurysm

[@raversrevenge8452]

The minimum wage takes away the individual worth. If you are good enough, you would leave and get the wage you deserve and can negotiate. This works up and down the wage scale for all roles. If EVERYONE worked their bollocks off and left or not even took a role that wasn't paying enough, this would solve soooooo many issues. But people are happy to accept shit money and not better themselves for more money

[@georgefloyd4479]

If everyone 'worked harder' nothing would change overall as the economic model remains the same. The lowest skilled would still remain as the lowest paid. In any society you have the bottom rung, people with lower iq, disabled and they're needed for the work that does not require a high intelligence.

[@smoke5607]

Utter ignorant nonesense. Minimum wage isn't the ONLY wage. "If you're good enough". Everyone deserves to be able to live a decent life with a full time job no matter what it is. If they can't afford to pay you a good wage they shouldn't be hiring. Minimum wage recognises the time and effort the human puts in and stops these places even thinking about undervaluing you. Time after time companies have to be forced in line. There are far more factors than saying "just work harder" to people that work 40,50 60+ hours a week with skyrocketing living prices.

[@guyverjay1289]

​@@raversrevenge8452- that is an overly simplistic assessment

[@evelynwilson1566]

I left school in 92. Here in my small industrial town in Scotland, it seemed like the only way to dodge working in a mill or unemployment was to go to University. Four years later, I got my first post Uni job, for a massive £3.10 per hour, twenty hours a week, working in a local tourist attraction. If I had left school at sixteen and gone into a mill I might have been well paid (although probably not because I would have been crap at it and you were paid by how much you produced) but only for a few years as the big mills closed within months of each other a few years later. I eventually got full time permanent (ie not seasonal) work but it took years and the highest wage I ever received was just over £18000. I was lucky, when I was first out of Uni I could stay with my parents. I ended up staying local to my home area due to mental health problems, which I won't go into but I need a lot of support. I was lucky, I wasn't in the most deprived part of town, and when I was wee my Dad had a job, and my Mum worked part time for 'a bit extra' sometimes taking home work in from the mills, or working in shops. I was one of the twenty kids in my year at school (out of about 150 who started at the same time) who stayed until sixth year and went on to University, and it didn't pay off. That woman talking about pensions was right, the future is very scary right now. What I really notice though, is how kind and non-judgemental this programme is. Modern t.v would be ripping into these people and suggesting they were lazy or benefits cheats. One thing is, at least there is a more compassionate attitude towards ill health and poverty from the Scottish Executive than there seems to be elsewhere in the UK. These days I would tell kids to get training, not degrees. We need good work based paid training for young people.

[@nervousheadache]

Interesting insight. It is a scary, heathen like world. I also have to agree on your point about how the media nowadays portrays those less well off, it’s incredibly classist and bigoted most of the time or bordering on or is exploitation. But I do have to correct you and say that the name of the Government officially is; “Scottish Government” and has been for over a decade now. It hasn’t been the officially named or really referred to as the Executive in the same amount of time. That is all!

[@notamused3715]

Yes, I agree with promoting skills-based training like apprenticeships, and that many degrees don't serve people that well. I know it's only anecdotal, but my son works in retail and a few people he works with have degrees in English and other non-STEM subjects, but were only able to get retail jobs and had been there years, only being promoted as far as lowest level supervisors. STEM degrees seem to be the only ones with potential to earn one a good living these days. I also think they should change the nurse-training back to hospital-based with student nurses as paid NHS employees, as we were when I trained. We were short of nurses then too, and why wouldn't we be? It was back-breaking, poorly paid work with unsocial hours and we had to study in our spare time, but from what I am reading and being told ( I live abroad), it's been getting worse and worse since they changed the training to the universities and making student nurses supernumerary, rather than paid members of staff. I know for a fact if the training had been university based back in my day, I wouldn't have chosen to be a nurse! Not a chance- I'd have gone into a job with better hours (9-5 or similar, with every weekend off!) for a start! I suspect that other potential nursing students may well have been put off too. All this pushing people into degrees and getting themselves up to their eyeballs in debt does not seem to be working out for the best for young people anyway.

[@dillinger1017]

There needs to be opportunities for older people to re-train as well though, give people more chances in life generally. And STEM aren't always paid well...lots of science jobs pay really poorly for the qualifications required. One day soon even Software Developers may find themselves competing with A.I and not so highly paid. Engineering is paid well and always needed but not everyone has the maths or aptitude for it. It's the Finance lot that rake in all the money.

[@newsbender]

You didn't learn about paragraphs at university, then.

[@baileyharrison1030]

@@dillinger1017 Yeah I think a lot of it boils down to this country having an economy that is primarily based off of shuffling money around and barely producing anything of real value. Many innovative and hard-working people have gone abroad where their labour is better valued.

[@paulheinrich3232]

I lived the 90s it was better than now.... Britain is in trouble now... trust me 90s were good and happy

[@robdubz1510]

Exactly I was a kid then, We played out etc and the drugs were less widely available

[@alexstafasani478]

Boomer

[@stephenmurray2851]

@@robdubz1510 Drugs were everywhere then. They were just better drugs. Ecstasy, speed cannabis. Relatively harmless. Now it's addictive and dangerous drugs like grass, cocaine, crack, heroine, krokadil, and the hundreds of others.

[@stephenmurray2851]

@sarah jones That's because the traitorous left and the corrupt EU are trying to make it a disaster. They are trying to derail the process and never had any intention of playing fair. We should never have saved Europe during WW2.

[@shibuya3185]

@@stephenmurray2851 : Er, grass = cannabis

[@TheFirstCalled.60AD]

2019 folks and ain't much changed

[@colinbenfield326]

Look at the rent prices today compared to then. It’s much worse

[@terrandroid]

import the third world, you become the third world

[@alexcarter8807]

It's the same in the USA, actually worse because we don't have the NHS.

[@dankrock]

We still survive ! May not have a lot of money but we got community spirit

[@sc-ju9nc]

Actually a lots changed

[@oweston89]

Sacked for asthma but smoking a roll up 🤣

[@no_soy_rubio]

😂😂😂

[@dondraper2488]

Fired from his job due to his asthma problems…. Sits there smoking 💨 😀

[@hasjan652]

1996 - things have got worse since then. In 1996 she could have gone to college or uni and improved her skills, got a job. today she couldn't. Taking away benefits, access to education, is designed to keep the rich rich, and the poor poor. As for cuts in benefits, in 1996 they had no idea how it would be today in 2017.

[@debbieharry387]

True, You cant even get benefits easily,and rent is no longer payed to cove rfull rents and you have to pay somecouncil tax.People are force dto take any job becaus ethe benefit system is so difficult to get on .

[@8G00SE8]

@@debbieharry387 People should take any job, benefits aren't designed for living permanently on.

[@radicaledwards3449]

@@8G00SE8 so fukkin stupid, if any job could pay the bills therd be no poverty

[@sjordan7085]

I was taught that one should work hard, and do anything necessary not to be on benefits, because living off the state was considered shameful. Some people have no pride or self respect.

[@chilli-iceolive-abode2447]

Have benefits gone down? Didn't the government increase benefits by £1,000 last year in response to the pandemic? I know in my line of work we've had extra work and pay freezes for the foreseeable

[@Aerojet01]

Before the minimum wage was introduced to Britain back in the 90's, at one stage I was earning £2.29 an hour working on a production line. In recent years, my career has taken off and I earn very good money. It's a combination of opportunities, hard work and a bit of luck. I can relate to people that are unemployed and stuck in a rut. If you're unemployment for more than a year, you become damaged goods very quickly in a vicious capitalist system. Most companies nowadays focus on a cheap foreign labour force, so they can maximise their profit margins. The poor are getting poorer, due to corporate greed!

[@lovebird08]

I had to fight for the minimum wage in my old job back then, even brought in newspaper clippings to show the stingy prick of a boss that he was paying me below what the law was. He made my life a living hell over it. I went off sick for 2 weeks because he made me so ill with shouting at me all the time. I was only back 2 days and he sacked me for 'letting him down' for taking off sick. It was the week of christmas. He handed me a christmas card along with my letter of dismissal. Well i got the last laugh in the end cause the little weasel went out if business shortly afterwards.

[@riverbankjohn]

Was in a very similar situation mate

[@HaggisMuncher-69-420]

You're talking about capitalism as if communism is the answer. Capitalism is the best we have. Don't ever forget that. Use some of your very good money to travel to some communist or ex-communist countries and see how well, even the poor people in the UK have it.

[@franktrautman2092]

You are part of the Vicious capitalist system

[@EldarianLegend]

@@HaggisMuncher-69-420 almost there but not quite. its about finding a balance between capitalism and socialism. everyone should contribute, but a safety net also needs to be there because almost everyone falls over at some point. finding the balance is the key, capitalism needs reigns thrown around it so it doesnt get out of control, but at the same time, nothing should come for free either.

[@vanessasimmons1175]

The chap has asthma yet smokes.

[@pieface3375]

It is what it is bruhh

[@tobyblythe-jones8212]

It was the 90s everyone smoked lol

[@user-kj1pq6zh3x]

@@tobyblythe-jones8212 people always smoked

[@mrpotatohead6264]

And hasn't enough to live on

[@banyam9690]

He seems isolated though,yoga health food etc is not for an isolated man.

[@stuartcunningham7666]

I would go back to the 90's any time

[@seansands424]

I won't 90s was shit ass well if anything I rather go back to the 70s

[@campervan-john]

And me i was working full time and plenty of over time with good wages for the time.

[@georgeskate78]

Yeah it looks great…

[@notamused3715]

Some top economists have just released a report in November 2017, stating that the standard of living in Britain is now at it's worst for more than 60 years! It only confirms what I felt last time I was in England, 4 years ago, when my previously always happy,bustling and friendly home town felt like a different place, with a sense of sadness and even despair about the place that I had never felt before. Ever since Thatcher, the gap between rich and poor has been growing but Cameron and Co. made it even worse with their cruel benefits sanctions policy, the refusal to deal with the toxic housing market or to prevent the suppression of wages! There must be a special ring of Hell being prepared for them,they are pure evil!

[@eccremocarpusscaber5159]

And you’re forgetting online business. It’s killing the high streets of towns all over Britain .

[@notamused3715]

@@eccremocarpusscaber5159 Yes, good point. Now we know it's because Klaus Schwab and the W.E.F.s "Great Reset" so we could surmise it's all been deliberate!

[@jacmar44]

​@@notamused3715 It's more than that, they actively pumped the housing market artificially with 'help to buy', stamp duty holidays, and an outdated planning system. Retail in Europe is going strong, it's not because of some magic advantage that Amazon et al has that the high street is dying. It's because physical retail is taxed up to its head, where e-commerce is barely taxed, add in Sunday trading hours on top. And don't worry the green new deal is coming, the poor and average person will be priced out of running a car or heating their house.

[@notamused3715]

@@jacmar44 You're right there, unfortunately and I hadn't considered the other points you made so thank you for pointing them out!. It's a multi-pronged attack, which they now added the Covid lockdowns to, on the ordinary people so they can bring in the WEF's "Great Reset" and the Green New Deal is a part of that. Agenda 2030!

[@scottking869]

@@notamused3715 oh shut up you paranoid fuck

[@sarahkipling3609]

I remember my parents having 5 jobs between them in the 90's! I even started working in 1988 age 11. I can still remember at 13/14 yrs working giving my mum some of my wages to help out.

[@GoonerB2B]

I used to do the exact same thing. 1992 as a 10 year old I’d spend my 6 week school holidays helping out on a milk float in Dagenham I’d get £8 a day (which was really good) I’d give my old dot £5 of that, the rest went on sweets 😂😂

[@WAKE-UP-BRITAIN]

I was born in south London in 83 I grew up in the 90s it was tough but for anyone growing up on a council estate in London during the 80s and 90s know that the poor families on these estates all helped eachother out, if you didn't have something and a neighbour knew it wasn't long before you got a knock...trust and loyalties seem to be a thing of the past now

[@hayleysiobhanwood9851]

Yeah you are correct ❤

[@benconner884]

You want to try Manchester, Liverpool or Glasgow.

[@WAKE-UP-BRITAIN]

@@benconner884 yea mate I remember the 80s quite well, if anything it's got worse 💯

[@WAKE-UP-BRITAIN]

@@hayleysiobhanwood9851 90s was by far my best decade

[@marshallcampbell6498]

Correct. More community back then

[@thomastallis7245]

This could have been filmed yesterday, there's not much changed in England.

[@mattpryokra2245]

That’s incredibly true.

[@marcusphoenixish]

Very sad but true. I think it's got slightly worse tbh with the designer cheap drugs like spice and monkey dust

[@PF-gi9vv]

Now they just have mobile phones, xbox, playstations & overweight biscuit eaters, its hard times.

[@jimmanycricket3756]

If anything it's worse

[@mattpryokra2245]

@@PF-gi9vv Sure but we’re talking about the rougher undeveloped environment and the people within,. It’s mad think some of these areas have been stagnant to fuck since the 50s-60s decaying in all sorts of shit with the people stuck in a cycle of hopelessness, feeling degraded with the whole ‘blame it on them’ mentality with no sense of conviction.... I wouldn’t say everyone but it’s been getting worse.

[@lebellees-double-you2827]

This brings me back memories of my childhood in the 80s/90s . It was just absolute shite. No food, no money and no heating. Education was the key for me, I was the only one from my family to go to University while everyone else quit at 16 to go work in the car factory or ended up in prison or pregnant. I got a green card and moved to the USA and I wont go back.

[@darrenlamb6279]

You replaced one shit hole for another one.

[@pjsmith2744]

Same here mate life in Liverpool in the late 80s early 90s was brutal. We had no money for anything and even Liverpool council was skint. Most of us didn’t even have the chance to go to university as our prior education was so lacking. I did my A-Levels in my twenties and like you got myself a green card and moved to the US. Moved back since mind 🙄.

[@reallyryan_]

we didn't ask for a life story.

[@pjsmith2744]

@@reallyryan_why are you being a prick?

[@sunnie734]

​@@reallyryan_It's the comments section. Nobody need request anything for it to be written. 😂

[@johneamer]

Hello from Canada. I am shocked at how low the minimum wage is in Britain. It seems to me that the government is subsidizing corporations who pay lousy wages. Talk about corporate welfare.

[@ElectronicPleasure]

+johneamer This is really old. Wage is now £7.20

[@allgoo1964]

ElectronicPleasure says: "Wage is now £7.20" == Can you afford a rent and food for a family with that?

[@Norfolkgal22]

No, people just get housing benefit, tax exemptions and universal credit... Also, Child benefit if you have children.

[@allgoo1964]

Norfolkgal22 says: "No, people just get housing benefit, tax exemptions and universal credit... Also, Child benefit if you have children." == The society would be better off without it? How many local businesses do you think will close if the people stop spending?

[@etoatoummhmm6391]

Janusha what the fuck are you talking about

[@imaloserbaby]

Grew up in the US. Worked hard. Joined the US Army. Got out. Went to nursing school. I didn't grow up with everything I wanted but definitely all I needed. My mother was a single parent. I always felt like if I work hard, I'll be ok. I still feel this.

[@paull3466]

I remember this. I was a teenager in the 90s. My dad was self-employed, so even though we were poor (by most standards) and his income could be unsteady, we had no government assistance. I remember being jealous of the free school meals kids at school because my parents couldn't afford the full cost of a school dinner. My mum used to work two or sometimes three jobs. (Her main income came as a school cook but she also worked intermittently in shops at weekends, etc.) The minimum wage came at a trade-off, with greater powers awarded to employers to put employees on zero hours contracts. This was under Blair and Brown's watch, so a Labour government in name but not in ideology. Not much improved. In fact, in some ways they became worse whilst in others there was some improvement. Things are just as bad now. Though I'm in a "professional" job, I'm on a fractional contract and working ludicrous amounts of overtime but in a position of constant financial insecurity - and have been for all of my working adult life (since '98/'99), so through consecutive Labour and Conservative governments. If my employer decides I can't have the overtime for one year, I won't be able to pay the bills. After tax and necessary outgoings, little to no extra cash for any pleasure or leisure activities. Just over the threshold for any government assistance. The stories in this documentary still ring true: selective use of heating, if we can afford it at all; struggling to buy food. Bled dry financially by council tax, etc. Unable to save or pay into a private pension for retirement. The last few years have got much worse, but this has been true all my working life - through the 2000s and 2010s. Honestly, I don't trust either main party to manage workers' rights presently. Maybe with Corbyn things would have been different, but he didn't fit the neoliberal agenda that has dominated in that party since the death of John Smith and the rise of Blair/Brown.

[@jordangayle7794]

I was a kid in London in the 90's and had a good childhood. My parents were working class but both had jobs and were home owners, yet I identify to this poverty as it was fairly common in London too and still is. Inequity is rife and it is deliberate. It needs challenging on a monumental scale, everyone needs to revolt against this before it gets any worse. Side note: That thick Birmingham accent is jokes!

[@chloebradley-almond5911]

yes it does it is worse now

[@strictlyyoutube6881]

How are you doing now?

[@HavanaBobChannel]

Ppl who want everybody live equal (socialists) is main part of problem. You never gonna make everybody live better, but only worst.

[@jacqueline8559]

The 90's? I was married in 1990. I didn't know a single person who was 'poor.' My new Husband qualified that year as a Registered Nurse, I was already a qualified Nurse & Midwife. We weren't rich, and house prices were horrendously high, but we 'just' managed to buy a small 2 Bedroom house with a nice sized garden, very near to the beach in North Wales. Everybody we knew ate nutritious, Healthy diets, could pay their bills, and lived within their means. I just don't recognise this ' Country' as the one we lived in. I'm confused by this documentary, but realise we must have been very, very Blessed. We didn't have anything left at the end of the working month, or money for Savings, but could manage to pay for good food, and bills. We have 2 sons and , thankfully, could provide well for their needs This is so very much like the UK nowadays, though.The appalling cost of Energy, and the huge APR connected to loans, will be responsible for many people's Financial struggles and misery, and my heart goes out to them all. We ( yes, myself and the very same Husband ❤) utilised our years of experience and our Qualifications , took our Sons and emigrated 14 years ago. And thank God we realised the importance of Education, and having a Career, for that's what equipped us to do so.

[@strictlyyoutube6881]

Where did you go to?@@jacqueline8559

[@weeddegree]

1990's fredo for 10p..

[@Kofi_Mensahs_BurnerAccount]

weeddegree *5p

[@grindeyyyyy]

Now Freddy £8.75

[@winstrolchurchill821]

Tangy toms 5p!,,

[@mrbrad4637]

Now 10 pounds

[@pizza7738]

Walkers crisps were 27p lol

[@bartvaneschannel]

One thing that has definitely changed in last 20 years was.... the date ;)

[@rnair7729]

Intelligent man

[@marychristmas4911]

I was a single parent in 1990, I got a job as a cleaner earning £2.80 an hour, my son got a scholarship to University and earns a six figure salary working in the oil industry in UAE. The poverty cycle can be broken.

[@kiwi0019]

Totally agree with you there. Cant have been easy for you but you can be very proud

[@traceyobrien4505]

I was born into a working class family in the mid 60s. My parents were young but quite strict and we were not poor but no way rich. I often tell my son how lucky he is to be able to travel the world, eat out in restaurants once a week and never want for anything. I had none of the above but did have a good education and first joined the civil service in the mid 80s and later moved to Madrid and became an English teacher which was a lot more lucrative than working for the govenment, You can move up a class by getting an education which leads to a good job and a good salary. Uneducated people are always going to be the ones in low paid jobs such as factory workers, cleaners etc. Education is the key to getting out of poverty.

[@skrapadelix]

Wow, those were the days. No food banks, little homelessness, plenty of council flats for all. A working class woman interviewed at home in front of shelves full of books...

[@xyzzy3000]

They look like VHS tapes. I spotted Willow among them.

[@skrapadelix]

@@xyzzy3000 yeah, you’re right. My rose-tinted glasses must have needed a clean lol

[@theuglyhairmonster2]

the trickle down theory will never work because the extra goes as bonuses to the big wigs lol. How thick can people get.

[@robert6106]

It doesn't trickle, it just pools up in bank accounts.

[@Kingtrollface259]

Just as grim in 2023 nothing changed

[@justmadeit2]

The days before smartphones, widespread internet and when the music was better. Ahhh

[@Johnycum]

the music was not better.

[@Lady_Jay]

wow this is from 20 years ago and we still no better off

[@pierzing.glint1sh76]

for first 5 mins I thought it was from 2016 lool

[@coopsnz1]

Labor party is the problem 20 yrs growing government bigger , makes workers and small business owners in private sector become poorer the taxes you are rapped with

[@JoseWhon]

Yes we are.

[@georginacat7667]

@@JoseWhon agreed

[@26juky]

These sort of problems will always be around its all part of capitalism

[@unknown-xf4ko]

We have a similar problem in the US where poor is getting poorer especially in the inner city areas such as Detroit, MI.

[@davidw3534]

The white people fled Detroit thinking it was black folks causing all the problems. Now the white communities they fled to are full of joblessness, drug abuse, welfare and now they don’t know who to blame. Look at the entire rust belt of the US-look at most of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania. The issue was always about corporations and the 1% taking more and more of the wealth for themselves and leaving the working folks (black, white, brown-doesn’t matter) with less and less. Bullshit economic theories like trickle down economics are the cause. Nothing trickles down but the misery.

[@dickterpene8697]

Poor Detroit, they're living in mad max times.

[@kinocchio]

Why did you recommend this to me KZbin? I was sad anyways.

[@pizza7738]

Aw

[@Tom-S1981]

I remember the 90s like it was yesterday. I had a Ford escort (same as the guys working on the engine at the beginning). I reckon life was better back then. No social media being the main thing.

[@ndyaarthurmartha8748]

Things seemed to get better 97 when labour got in. Now that we have had a long term conservative government, I am seeing society slowly go into decline again. I'm not an expert when it comes to the esoteric workings of our political parties; it's just hard not to notice the changes as you get older.

[@olivercuenca4109]

​@@BR-tq9wq .... yes they are. To the point of being direct competitors. Their only similarity is that they make a similar drink. Your analogy doesn't really work.

[@olivercuenca4109]

@@BR-tq9wq Nice to see that my first assessment of you was accurate.

[@olivercuenca4109]

@@BR-tq9wq Well it's certainly weird experience being called a "little boy" by some random too-edgy teenager, but I guess it's the unique things in life you remember.

[@chloeloleita7357]

@@BR-tq9wq I agree 2 ends of the same straw

[@urmum3773]

"Things seemed to get better 97 when labour got in." Until that smimey, smug coward opend the flood gates to the invaders.

[@Lifeisasecret-]

Education for children and young people should be for free !!

[@cobbwebb4501]

It should be free for all regardless of age or past. We have a wealthy country there is no reason education cannot be free.

[@Lisandro-xw2xr]

Alex Stephenson Assuming you’re British, you should know that it is free? Unless you earn a large amount, it’s free otherwise

[@izabelpom4341]

It is for free

[@agsrd4496]

@@Lisandro-xw2xr State education is free. The odds against getting out of the poverty trap are very slim. It's an unlevel playing field.

[@chloereed2434]

@@agsrd4496 state education sounds very American lmao

[@Monalisa-mp4qh]

Love how they are re-slapping these old programs up on the Feed of thousands to re-show us what's coming 👌🏼

[@beebad6787]

It's already here.

[@thisisyaren]

I was thinking exactly this!!!! I don't even look this stuff up yet all this year it's all over my feeds and in my country in Australia the cost of living is the highest it has ever been

[@h9ooo]

Watching it in 2024 -_-

[@adrianstevenson6454]

British people: I’m poor Also British people: I’m voting conservatives

[@tazzie2shoos]

I don't think people wanted socialism and thats all the choice we had, conservatives that don't care about the poor, and socialism which has been shown over and over again not to work except for the people running it at the top.

[@alikhalid349]

@@tazzie2shoos Have you ever seen the Scandinavian countries? Its not socialism. We also don't live in a capitalist economy. Its mixed in almost all countries, but the Scandinavian model takes what works on both sides and combines it. That's all it is intended to be in the UK as well.

[@agsrd4496]

@@tazzie2shoos Social Democracy is different from pure socialism. Centre Left policies are the best tried and tested model we have had. Even under pure socialism there will be very very wealthy individuals just to a point where it is not revoltingly excessive greed. Leaving a market to be totally unregulated only results in a Darwinian survival of the fittest. Then what do we do with all the "undesirables' ?? Super wealthy narcissistic sociopaths will find a solution to that. A total eradication of the "useless eaters"

[@coopsnz1]

@@alikhalid349 northern Europe and Australia highest household debt in world ( socal democracy ) to blame

[@alikhalid349]

@@coopsnz1 Switzerland, Australia, Canada top 3. Then Denmark and Norway. UK is nr. 10. Tell me, how did you even make the correlation? What has social democracy to do with household debt and why is the UK so high in the list?

[@AeronN7]

Damn, the 90's were bleak. Not much better now though really.

[@SaffireSanchezOfficial]

+Aaronmn7 The late 80's and 90's were fucking grim. The Docklands got a major million £ make over and the north got forgotten.

[@AeronN7]

Damn. California seems fairly immune. If I believe correctly it's the wealthiest state isn't it? I grew up in 90's north England in the UK and it was quite grim. Not sure there was a recession - just general lack of prosperity. Things look much better these days but after the global 08 bust there's just no relation to product/service/property price to wages any longer. Especially for the youth

[@SaffireSanchezOfficial]

***** I was living in Spain when the last recession hit with the most lucrative career of my life. There was no hint of economic issues... Money on paper looked good but in real time there was no money in the credit system. Scary indeed. Things are way worse now.

[@Red-Revolution708]

Aaronmn7 The 90’s was brilliant the country was thriving and the bankers messed it but the poor are paying the tab .

[@NYorkin]

No migrants is a plus.

[@meelodeshmeeelo2034]

“An economic model that doesn’t work” , yes it does just not for the average person, it ‘works’ precisely the way ‘they’ knew it would.

[@llxhs8]

I grew up in a single parent family on a council estate in the north east in the 80s/90s. I worked really hard at school and was lucky enough to get a scholarship to attend a fee paying school (those scholarships were later cancelled when Labour came into power). The local council threw money at me to go to College and Uni and then I got a scholarship for bar school from the inns of court. I also gained a scholarship for a masters degree. I don’t think it’s true that if you are poor you stay poor and that myth keeps people down. You can claw yourself out of the poverty trap but it is hard work and takes many many years. I’m a barrister and partner at a law firm now. I’m not rich but I’m middle class. I’m hoping that my daughter has the same level of motivation but part of my motivation was clawing my way out of poverty so who knows?

[@NonSequitur404]

Thanks for posting this insightful doc and I must say the video quality is excellent especially for something from 1996. You must have access to the master.

[@NiceBunnies]

I was a child of the 90's and we were struggling but we were doing far better than the people in this. For instance we live in Australia and don't need heating and my parents never had a problem paying the electricity. We didn't live in a council flat either, we lived in a 5 bedroom home with a large yard which my parent now own outright. I didn't realise how lucky I was.

[@darwincity]

In this case, it might not only be a question of earnings. It sounds like it is also a question of space and housing markets. Could you find a similarly-sized house in the UK that falls within the dimensions of the house you are describing in Australia? If this may reassure you, this is not an issue which is limited to the UK: I am a Frenchman who has left for Belgium, and housing costs in the latter are much lower than in the former, despite the fact that Belgium is a more densely populated country.

[@jasoncooke1999]

Bloody hell mate 5 bedroom house Trust me you weren’t struggling

[@Kai.burke1534]

Rub in why don't u fuckin hell 😂😂

[@Devenus20211]

Things haven't changed, Australia is just better than the UK and always has been. Interesting Karma for treating someone's country like a giant prison.

[@Devenus20211]

@@jasoncooke1999 It's because 90's Australia was a great place to like and 90's Britain was a horrid place to live. Britain never changes, Australia is awesome though.

[@johnmscott4556]

Working poor, once upon a time🕒 if you had a job, you were considered well👍 off, now there's no such thing, work, work, work, 💰pay bills, that's it really, the usual things, you know.

[@33wanwan]

Social housing filled with idiots who have kids to get a council house don’t help either. Left a generation of English people paying private rents and unable to start a family. Are t most schools now 80 non English pupils. Doomed generation can’t even rob a bank anymore. Many times I’ve seen homeless elderly people and the other side of the road is a South American family with 2 kids and a nice council house. I do wonder where this is all leading to tbh. Yes I’m English. Let’s not even get into class which severely limits your life options if your not wearing the right trousers so to speak. Working class people are shunned by the middle classes yet they enjoy invading our culture especially music. Gentrification is just middle class repackaging of working class cultures. Ever heard a pushy say bacon butty before. I have. It’s pathetic. Just go to your nearest boozer nowadays. If it’s not already a luxury flat you won’t like the prices.

[@jms2308]

I was a young single mother on benefits living in the same flats as the featured husband & wife when this was filmed (and judging from the balcony/window scenes we were on similar floors). I don't recall struggling particularly, my child was clothed, fed and happy and our flat was heated as well as a building without double glazing etc can be. Those flats were some of the worst in Newtown and were earmarked for demolition at the time of filming. There were tower blocks which were considerably less grim. Same goes for the shopping centre which was undergoing redevelopment at the time. Also one of the local schools was a Beacon school and doing incredibly well by it's pupils Newtown really wasn't that bad back then.

[@jjr1728]

Don't be ridiculous. It's a vibrant, enriched city. Of course it's bad.

[@DeezN1892]

say what you mean@@jjr1728

[@TheMRmatt007]

I lived in England in early '80s and '90s. The poverty, squalor, decadence and lack of dignity amongst the poorest is the worse I've seen in Europe .

[@franktrautman2092]

You can still be dignified and pour at the same time

[@SilverMist0121]

Still the same now maybe worse

[@chipbuttytime3396]

Albania, Greece, Romania to name only a few were leagues further behind the U.K in the areas you highlighted.

[@rymacreeks2k07]

England is nowhere near the worst tbh, Scotland, The Balkans, Italy etc are all way more destitute than England

[@williamwilson6499]

You exaggerate. I lived in England 85-90 and traveled all over Great Britain.

[@juliejr]

This brings back so many memories for me. Hard times very hard. I would love an update on some of these families, my life started to improve in 2020 and I hope there's did too. ♥ 🇬🇧

[@mikemer79]

Are you British? Age??

[@yeahtbh.161]

you don't know about hard times until you have no electricity, clean water, heating and there's bombs going off around you

[@craigjackson3744]

It was easier to get work in the 90s than in 2021, I did loads of labouring for good money back then not like the crap wage now.

[@rmg5111]

21st century britain is the worst unless your well off

[@robert6106]

It was, you could get a job no problem if you would take a job at any wage and there was some crap wages back them.

[@avancalledrupert5130]

Chat shit mate building trade is pumping . I tell them what they gonna pay me .

[@Ali-xq9hc]

most people are bums and don't wanna work. yet always blame others for there own misfortune. there's always work if your willing to work hard. people in general take rejection badly and just give up and expect jobs on a plate. its a snowflake society.

[@tysonfranks6408]

@@Ali-xq9hc every country has people like that

[@a4paper754]

2022 and we are nearly there again.

[@lilme7052]

Its no way near as bad as today.

[@starlaeuropa]

And almost 20 years on, we're seeing the same thing happen again...

[@marcusphoenixish]

Rang true hearing the lady speak about unions having no power barley any union power nowadays thanks to American companies buying UK businesses taking power from unions. Perkins for example bought by CAT

[@simonclark29041978]

this country has gone to the ground

[@allytaylor6338]

So very sad when I see my place of birth in this much poverty god give them straight to cope with their lives im live in Australia and people here don't know how good they have it

[@celabwilliams7344]

Litterally everyone says that about every country. Rather be poor in Britain than poor in Russia. It’s litterally ALL propaganda. You can’t see through your biased eyes. patriotic propaganda and anti patriotic prop. Someone will always be poor in a first world country. People will always be crying they don’t have enough. No nothing can get better because that’s not how capitalism works. Someone has to be on the losing end of a dog eat dog economy.

[@harryburrows2112]

It has always been on the ground, Simon

[@alexanderthegreat1356]

Simon Clark yes and voting right wing parties won’t change anything. The right have never been on the side of the working class but they pretend to be.

[@lucianraphael9527]

Celab Williams Being poor in Britain means you live in high crime social housing and means you have next to no money to survive. That’s not a life you absolute fool

[@mduffy5453]

The good old days when Grange hill was still on TV. Rich in other ways.

[@maaretrahkonen7706]

Clicked for the woman´s sweater on the thumbnail. Had to see it. But ended up really listening to the message here. So sad.

[@MrMakeDo]

Guy gets fired for his asthma and says he doesn’t get enough money to live off. Next scene he’s sat in his flat smoking. Can afford cigarettes. Smoking with asthma. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@pakopepefdez185]

don't get into private life, you are so stupid

[@pakopepefdez185]

​@Jay Cristoval the video is about povertry. People is what can be called "poor", so they must to show some poor plp. But it is not about their private lifes. Exposed... very very bad words.

[@evelien135]

He’s smoking rolling tobacco which costs a lot less. Especially in the 90s. In my country it’s still what all poor people smoke

[@gyorkshire257]

I can tell your age. I smoked 10 skinny rollups a day in 96, it cost me about 70p a day. There was no minimum wage until 1997, but working in a pub you got paid £2-£3 an hour. So ciggies were not something you worried about paying for. Everybody smoked in working class areas, as it was one of the few pleasures you could afford. Also, smoking is not something you can just stop when you lose a job.

[@serinadelmar6012]

Jay Cristoval A pack of smokes in the mid90s would be about two quid, maybe £2.20, not that it matters as that’s rolling tobacco which was incredibly cheap. Two or three quid would get you a big fat pack that would last for weeks, depending on your smoking of course… what curious judgements you make.

[@maisiesinclair2056]

The fact that this documentary would still be so similar today 30 yrs later says a lot

[@kamranhashmi1575]

It's worse now especially whith high energy bills

[@bea.watchingtv]

this feels old and current at the same time

[@kevinbaird7277]

|This was the biggest problem with the EU, we paid in, took all the EU workers that wanted to come here, but the working class never benefited, no job protection, no workers rights, no real membership benefits, British governments of all colour's have always let the poor down.

[@sachaaldis5282]

I agree Kevin, yet unions support Labour and mass immigration. That's the one thing I could never fathom in the mess of EU and mass immigration. I've come to the conclusion it's purely membership size and fees they are going for.

[@DeejayBecks1]

None of the eastern european countries been part of EU nor had right to move , work or like in the UK in 90s. Don’t think you had any European immigrants in the Uk in that time..apart from the polish folks that established in the Uk after the war and had families .

[@mariakiwi1428]

@@DeejayBecks1 yep, I’m not sure what EU favored immigrants the person is talking about, most Eastern European countries entered the EU in the late 2000s. Also, I think it’s a little bit ironic to say things like that considering how much immigration mattered in sustaining the British work force, this is what the employment crisis was all about with Brexit.

[@chrismooney1583]

This in an old film, one of the very few good things Tony Blair did was to re-introduce a minimum wage. The world hasn't collapsed in the way the new right claimed it would.

[@darwincity]

Quite sad to see that, nearly 25 years later, Tony Blair's premiership is now exclusively seen through the prism of the Iraq War.

[@nicholasbowden9111]

Minimum wage minimum work

[@monkeh86]

Wow, I’m in my mid 30s now so lived through the whole of the 90s as a young kid, I had no idea there was no minimum wage for part of that decade! That is nuts. Seems like something that would’ve been standard for decades but it’s surprisingly recent. Shame on the governments of those eras for not bringing it in sooner. I was on crap money starting out work in the early 00s but could’ve been a lot worse...

[@EldarianLegend]

yea they took it out, kind of an experiment really. 1983 to 1998. Its a big factor in a lot of things that happened at that time including poll tax riots, the acid craze and all sorts. Although Blair may have brought that back, it has not fixed the problem and many places are still rife with poverty. Sadly Britains economic fate is rather multifaceted, with little production of goods a huge rise in population and inflation. If I had to guess, much worse is to come.

[@nudisco300]

It's not nuts at all. I entered work in '94 - It worked pretty well because starter jobs like working in a shop had wildly different rates. Some employers paid £2.80 some paid £3.90. So the switched on people had a choice of getting better pay. All that's happened now is that all jobs pay the same LOW wage. There's no incentive for a shop or a bar to pay higher than the minimum wage. This wasn't the case in the 90s so some people could be on very good wages in quite basic jobs - I know because I was one of them. All the minimum wage has done has pushed ALL basic jobs down to the same LOW level.

[@gearoftones8585]

And if anything, things are even worse. Well done England for continually voting for tories time and time again. You never bloody learn.

[@dessean1]

This is an eye-opener for me as I wasn't aware that Britain had no minimum wage, no holiday pay, no legally designated amount of hours a person could be made to work. This is a very depressing system for the working population knowing that you have no legal rights basically within the workforce. How any country on the planet, much less Britain, could make such a ridiculous statement that poverty does not exist in their country goes to show you how out of touch your parliamentarians truly are with the citizenry, or better still, simply don't care. I just read recently that the queen was getting a several million-dollar raise in her yearly allowance & so I guess subtracting from the poor is how you balance the books so that the Queen & her family can continue to live in unparalleled luxury. Thank God that I'm a Canadian citizen & that Canada is no longer a colony of Britain as there is no longer any pride to be gained in such a relationship. Britain has sold her soul to the devil.

[@beverlybradley5485]

We do have a minimum wage, & holiday pay & sick pay, join a union !

[@grahamjonathan762]

Of course there's a minimum wage, holiday pay, maternity pay etc etc

[@ijustwannaleaveacommentony6511]

i was earning about 4 pounds ph in the mid 90s and it wasn't from skilled work and it was in the north of england, something about this vid doesn't add up. there was def a min hourly wage

[@RascalFlatts000]

​@@beverlybradley5485now we do yes, it's shocking we didn't in the 90s though!

[@manmaje3596]

Good we don’t want you anyway you can enjoy your lovely wet blanket Trudeau.

[@pps900]

I just remember the London clubbing scene back then, amazing the early 90's. Good quality drugs, the massive explosion of music, love and integration. So glad i forgot about all the shit going on outside of those club doors and concentrated on that moment inside.

[@shibuya3185]

The "shit" was happening because of those like you who take drugs.

[@charleskurth8250]

Imagine being so brain washed you think raves and ecstasy are to blame for the social degeneration you see here. Clearly a brexit means brexit kind of lad huh?

[@shibuya3185]

@Hugh Jones : "the conservatives were oppressing the working class"....Have you ever thought why the immigrants don't whine about being oppressed in this country? It's because they appreciate the opportunity of being able to "be oppressed" in the UK. I wish we had more like them and less of the eternally ungrateful like yourself.

[@shibuya3185]

@@charleskurth8250 : "you think raves and ecstasy are to blame for the social degeneration you see here"...Did I say that, Dumbo? Or is your conclusion just a symptom of your challenged mind? Those who complain about "all the shit" in the Uk are usually those entitled scumbags like yourself who take drugs etc and then wonder why all the "shit" happens to them.

[@OwenRhodri]

@@shibuya3185 I have taken illegal drugs, I am also being made a partner of a business which works globally in a niche market. There is absolutely no good reason for a first world economy to allow workers to be paid an amount which is not nearly enough to cover their weekly needs. It only serves the super wealthy. Some people aren't destined for a high paying job, doesn't mean they deserve to have nothing.

[@ADot-fi1ny]

I recently went to Newtown. There has been some recent housing developments but poverty still persists.

[@jonesroberts3640]

People are lazy and too laid back in Birmingham majority rely on the welfare and have no intention of working .

[@benson3086]

2023 and nothing has changed

[@gosienka23]

the only thing I don't understand is why people are complaining they have no money for food but they have money for cigarettes...cigarettes or tobacco in the UK are really expensive

[@Purplestraw]

How much is it in the UK? It's around 7 dollars in the United States.

[@gosienka23]

+lydia alouani 8 or 9 pounds depending on the brand.

[@Purplestraw]

+MalgorzataMikulska thanks

[@backdoor68]

per pack you mean? Depends on the brand. Marlboros about $5.50 - 6.00 per pack, but you can get off brands considerably cheaper maybe $3.50 a pack. There are many off brands. I saw someone smoking 'Tough Guy' cigarettes. Those had to be cheap. Cartons, Marlboros, maybe $45.00? In the US

[@ceilingsandfloors]

well this was 20 years ago. Cigarettes were a lot cheaper back then.

[@matthewsmith2787]

Back in the 1990s, was far better than nowadays. I don’t remember food banks

[@richardtuxford1812]

A direct result of ten years of conservative austerity. There is no coincidence that the worst times tie in with periods of conservative rule

[@dalegresty3211]

No they didn't in 90s but they was still needed back then

[@fawnieee]

@@richardtuxford1812 and people continue to vote and put their faith in them. How much does it take for them to learn conservatives are only on the side of the rich.

[@seansands424]

The 1990s was shit as well it has all ways been shit for the working class and the poor

[@thetruth1862]

Reminds me of the Southern United States, Appalachia that i grew up in , i was lucky my Dad worked a good factory job in East Tennessee, but my other family members grew up with nothing, no jobs, no hope, drug and alcohol addiction its a shame so many good people left to there own devices

[@acidrain55]

great upload learnt a lot thanks!

[@mrfugazi6713]

And we’re now in the year 2023 and nothing has changed, unbelievable, in fact it’s probably got worse.

[@TrueNativeScot]

Yes, less racially white than the 90s

[@howey935]

I left school in 1989 with no qualifications and after finding an apprenticeship (I started on a YTS and worked my arse off and was offered and apprenticeship after a year) I started my own business in 1996. I retired 2 years ago at 45 for my kids to run the business but I got bored after 4 months so now work 3 days a week.

[@gailvicente6854]

I mustn't have heard correctly. I thought the video said the man was let go from his job due to his asthma. But he's smoking, so it can't be possible that he'd smoke if he has asthma.

[@celticdollface]

almost 30 years ago the second woman is saying she couldn't afford meat when she was earning over £140 a week take home. Some people are still taking this home almost 30 years on, and expected to live on it. How is this right ? It's not uprising so many people choose to go on the dole, ( not that I condone it) but at least they get their rent and council tax paid , and keep a roof over their heads.

[@MrGreekstatue]

That's what happens when people consistently vote in Tory governments.

[@omgck8646]

Better to be poor than socialist

[@zargothrax9626]

Don't confuse communism and socialism.

[@leem8588]

Wasn't Labor in power for most of the 90s?

[@EmilyWalters]

@@leem8588 No. Labour came into power in 1997.

[@MrLaverybugsy78]

@@leem8588 labour brought in a national living wage, made education better and sorted out the NHS... Youre welcome

[@sarahharbert8944]

Fast forward 30 years and nothing has changed. Families still struggling to earn enough to keep their head above water

[@bigfig420]

Great documentary, gotta say tho at 2:42 them rizla greens mate

[@RileyFreeman_]

20:12 that’s some nostalgia I was in school in the 2010s but I remember this song word for word

[@zayn2476]

I grew up in the 2000s but there were strong elements of the 90s, it was like the 90s part 2. I’ve lived life rich, then poor and now as a 20 year old I’d say I’m doing good, not rich but not poor, enough money to enjoy a lot of materialistic things though. And I must say I feel a deep sense of nostalgia and find something attractive about the days of being poor, the things we did to get by, having to sell our TVs and tech, having the sky TV cut off, not having the latest toys and hence finding our own ways to have fun, I do miss it a lot. Although when I say poor I guess it wasn’t poverty, my basic needs were mostly met, we had food even if sometimes it was a bit of a joke and i had somewhere to live.

[@lolajenkins2674]

I grew up in the 90s and was a teenager in the 2000s, i was also growing up very poor, this documentary made me nostalgic but i don’t miss it. I always see those posts on facebook/instagram of 90s/2000s toys and the comments saying "omg i had all of these" and saying it makes them nostalgic, but the only thing that makes me feel nostalgic is remembering WANTING all of those toys but never getting even one of them lol

[@ammorreztristar]

Fighting 2 world wars.....for what ?

[@mrwilliecowie]

......for what ? for the Zionists that's what for, nasty bunch

[@voodoochild3859]

ammorreztristar so your royal family could afford their children’s weddings. Oh wait they charged us for those too !!!!!!’

[@jimjiminyjaroo300]

So the British ruling classes can continue to fuck us over.

[@grindeyyyyy]

To depopulate

[@thedon8639]

Companies pay what ever they want to pay you. maybe this is the reason people don't want to work

[@matthaeusrex5627]

It's an odd feeling to think '95 was 25 years ago. I was born in 95 do don't really remember, but I do remember as a lil one, lots of council houses without wallpaper or with damp and mould. Since becoming an adult in 2013, I've realised how difficult it can be to make money, and how easy.