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28 Aug
8:58pm, 28 Aug 2024
333 posts
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kaysdee
I’ve no doubt that there are definitely people who game the system and appear and do have very good lifestyles on benefits. I think the proportion of actual benefit fraud is microscopic though and everyone else is just trying to get through life. Often what is given in one hand is taken from another. That’s life.
I’m at a particularly low ebb right now and will try not to be too sensitive. I’m not perfect, far from it, but when this type of topic comes up and rhetoric of the rw press over and over, people don’t see what disability and illness do to not only the person, but their family… frankly, I’m 47 and would say broken by a lifetime of care and effort in dealing with social services for the absolute bare minimum. The restriction on my life because of other people’s disability? But they’re my family and I love them and their need is/was greater. The sacrifices my younger children have made throughout their life and their own needs unmet because my time and attention was elsewhere, the guilt can be overwhelming.
My son is now in in his own flat with 24/7 supported living/care as of a few months ago. He gets PIP and UC and will need financial and social care support forever. “Luckily” he is so disabled that he qualifies for CHC funding so that he gets to “keep” his benefits and enjoy a trip to the cinema 🙄.
OH, in what should be the best years of his life, went from always working, being the only breadwinner to losing his entire future. He gets (got) PIP and ESA. Now he’s in a care home, his PIP has been stopped and all but £20 odd a week is taken from his ESA to go towards care home fees. Still, he got to fund getting his toenails cut from his personal allowance, so can’t all be bad, right?
Rightly or wrongly, disabled benefits often become household income, so the impact on the rest of our family…? We have our own him and I’m not on the breadline, but barely make above minimum wage working full time, don’t qualify for UC as earn too much, tax credits for my younger son are about to end (I’ve been dreading the expected migration notice for the past year), but I need to pay for all the same household costs and utilities etc on just my income now, so can’t see how I will ever have more than I do now. How I dread coming home to brown envelopes in the post.
I did recently have a holiday though with my younger 2 kids. A whole week! First overseas holiday we’ve had in over 8 years and first time I’ve been away anywhere, at all, for more than 4 nights since before my oldest son was born 😀. But from the outside looking in, I’m on benefits and could afford a holiday.
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28 Aug
9:01pm, 28 Aug 2024
52 posts
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Dubairunner
Sorry to reply late, just off a flight.
I agree that there needs to be support for disabled and families - I just can’t believe there are 4.2 million people on these benefits. Surely some and I can think of a few from my home town that could work.
And yes I don’t live in the uk or pay tax but I am a veteran who served his country and saw things no one should have to, I got on with my life worked hard and yes put my kids through a private education!!
I’ve only just joined from runners world but didn’t realise this was a socialist running forum…
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28 Aug
9:01pm, 28 Aug 2024
334 posts
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kaysdee
* own home, not own him 😉
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28 Aug
9:21pm, 28 Aug 2024
19,074 posts
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JamieKai *chameleon*
What my housemate would give to not be on benefits. He worked all his adult life - far longer than he ought to given his atrophying condition (a form of muscular dystrophy). He has no quality of life, is isolated, but worst is that former friends of his berate him as lazy over Facebook, etc.
There are many, many people with hidden disabilities. I've got people with MS, ME, CMT, ASD, and more in my family. But sure, benefit scroungers.
You don't need to be a socialist to have a civil and kind bone in your body. People will respond to you better if when making such claims, you show evidence. Spouting ill-advised bollocks will not do well here.
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28 Aug
9:26pm, 28 Aug 2024
32,970 posts
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Johnny Blaze
Everybody - I mean everybody - is one or two life events away from penury and despair. Some people start off in that place and can never escape it. Mental illness, disability, physical illness, divorce, unemployment. They can all knock you down so you can never get up again. Wisdom is knowing this.
And wisdom *should* lead to displaying some compassion towards people who may never have got a break from day one - as opposed to tarring them all with the same brush.
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28 Aug
10:59pm, 28 Aug 2024
11,545 posts
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Fields
Surprised to learn that DR has just got off a plane. Thought his preferred mode of travel would be hauling himself up by his bootstraps!
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29 Aug
9:21am, 29 Aug 2024
22,078 posts
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Chrisull
I’ve only just joined from runners world but didn’t realise this was a socialist running forum…
I think fields would be surprised as well to learn it's a socialist running forum too, mildly social democratic most of the time. Crikey Corbyn was a SDP 83 rehash, and he's considered beyond the pale here ( just not a very sensible politician in my eyes, probably a great councillor)
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29 Aug
9:54am, 29 Aug 2024
22,079 posts
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Chrisull
Let's also not forget the disgusting able-ism too that often prevents many people with disabilities from working too. Was it just (checks notes) 2 days ago Tanni Grey Thompson one of our most decorated paralympians, had to crawl off the nationalised rail service, because no-one was there to arrange her getting off the train?
My wife is a teacher in a special needs school, they'd love to see their students one day get a job and support themselves, sadly for most of them, that will never be possible because their needs are so profound and difficult.
I also had a friend (now deceased) with very large mental health issues, who during a very rare stable period got a job, (channel 5 reprogramming) only to be sacked two weeks in, because he wasn't able get through the quotas quickly enough (daring to speak to people and treat them like human beings seemed to be the reason, if he couldn't repogram - as some TVs of the time couldn't be - he'd try and call in support, Channel 5 didn't like that, they wanted him to get out and go to the next house ASAP). No doubt the kind of person that those who say "those sitting on benefits" and "mental health issues don't exist" would have seen him as an example of idle people sitting on benefits. They tried to withhold his PIP only for a judge years on to rule his treatment had been an absolute disgrace and they had to pay every single penny they attempted to withhold (thousands) plus more.
I'm also not sure why we all have to work anyway? Didn't Adam Smith and J Maynard Keynes envisage a future where we only needed to work 15-20 hours a week? The vast majority of jobs (office jobs etc) are bullshit jobs with no societal value, no environmental value. Why are we so concerned about others living on benefits? And how about people who are just rubbish at their jobs, and we would be better off with them not doing them??
One - pie in the sky, never gonna happen - utopian ideal promoted by both the left and right (Milton Friedman) and almost implemented by Richard Nixon (got through the House), was the universal basic income. I know theres plenty of reasons why it's difficult to implement, might not be a universal panacea, but if it destigmatises the idea of benefits (and lets not forget the state pension is a benefit - which many forget), and offers people unconditional support to live their lives - I mean it's not socialism to think everybody should have a roof over their head, food and warmth WITHOUT having to work - then perhaps it shouldn't be off the table.
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29 Aug
10:14am, 29 Aug 2024
17,708 posts
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jda
It’s nice to see that the Germans have the interests of the younger Britons in mind even if Starmer refuses to contemplate doing anything for them.
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29 Aug
10:26am, 29 Aug 2024
11,548 posts
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Fields
David Graeber had a lot to say about those type of BS jobs, Chrisull
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Fantasy General Election
Jul 2024
