Fee-Fii-Foo-Fummm I Smell the Stink of a PR One

So the Digital Spy Forum bods are discussing the unrealistic portrayal of Bianca's continuous poverty in 21st Century Britain, when one commenter, who happens to work in a Benefits' Office gives us the low-down of stuff to which Bianca is entitled as a single mum with children.

The commentator reveals this:-

 i work in a benefit office and this storyline makes me she would get plenty of tax credits to top up her wages and would have more dispsable income than many esp those paying morgages etc

wish she would just be a normal working mum. theres no need for all the poverty stuff, its so unrealistic

also, ricky and ray are not types who would not pay for their kids!!! 

Straight from the horse's mouth of reality.

However, as soon as she's said that, up pops the little PR fairy, someone who peeps from the confines of some leafy, well-off middle-class suburb and who has a background in public relations, to squeak out the approved and highly miffed message of just what it is the boys and gels in the writing room at Elstree are trying to get across about Bianca and the poor and destitute of Britain ...

EastEnders' very own Tinkerbell warbles:-

 Yes, because no one is struggling with money at the moment...

I'm not saying that the story is like a documentry on poverty in modern Britain, but it's suggestive of current economic problems, especially for those with children. I'm glad they've kept it an ongoing storyline. Yes, it's got plot holes the size of the channel, but poverty isn't an especially sexy storyline or one that necessarily garners a lot of sympathy.

I'm quite confused about all those suggesting that she would be raking in benefits. Yes she absolutely would be entitled to benefits, and maybe she isn't getting all she is allowed, but even with full allowance she would still struggle week to week. 

I may be on my own with this one, but it's something I feel strongly about. 

What is it this person does not understand about Bianca's circumstance that's fishy? Bianca works in a hair salon "for tips" - not a wage, for tips. In Britain that's against the law. It's blooming slave labour, and Tanya could be shut down for that. She should at least be getting a minimum wage. When she's offered work for a wage, she turns it down. She is entitled to all of the benefits mentioned above by the commentator who's a WPA employee. She also has three adults living in the house - Carol, who draws a wage from the cafe, Tyler, who's employed on a market stall, and Whitney, who - if she's still doing unpaid work at the nursery, should get up off her fat arse and find some sort of employment - and doesn't Michael pay her for minding Scarlett?

As well, Ray and Ricky pay for their kids. That's a given.

Like I said, there's a stench rising from this person's continuous comments which take on the tone of a hippy-dippy schoolmarm, but which always, always ship EastEnders as something we all should be viewing in a positive way.

I smell a plant - specifically a stinkweed.