Whole families on UC, PIP, DLA and carers' allowance for each other?

There's a girl who lives near me who has a daughter who is around 17. She is in supported living now. She's in a wheelchair and she has severe learning disabilities. She won't ever work and requires 24 hour care. My neighbour has a nephew in his 40s with Downs Syndrome. He requires 24 hour care as he's a risk to himself. He lives in his own home but if he cooked a meal unsupervised he would potentially burn his house down. These are the people that some people on this thread are suggesting should get no disability benefits

But people cam choose to spend their PIP how they want

And that perhaps is the issue.

@YourGoldLurker the range of people who need high levels of support is huge. DD1 can talk the hind legs off a donkey, which makes people think she's more able than she is. When our shower power supply partially burned out, a horrible smell passed under the bathroom door. I went into the bathroom to find the water still running, the room full of brown, acrid smoke, and DD1 proudly standing under the water. Her words were "I've never been in this situation before, so I stayed exactly where I was." It hadn't occurred to her that the smoke was dangerous, that it smelled really bad, or that she needed to move. She, too, is going to need full time care.

No it's not the issue in my view. If it were just the issue people like me wouldn't have spent the last 18 months being called a scrounger and "not really disabled". There's far more to people on disability benefits being hung out to dry than what they spend their benefits on. People have always been able to spend their benefits as they please. Why should it be different for people with disabilities

But why? Why is it ok for people on other benefits to have the choice but not disabled people? I think we know what equipment, etc is best for us

The issue is that a lot of people think people with disabilities aren't really disabled. Are faking their conditions and should be out working rather than getting free money that all you need to do is say you have anxiety and then BINGO. You are rich.

Games consoles. Big telly. Cheesy chips. Lashes. Alcohol. Drugs. iPhones. Holidays. That's the way some people see those on UC never mind people on disability benefits

Free money. Disabled people spend their lives justifying their existence to complete strangers online. Sometimes for an extra 76 quid a week.

I personally think it's got worse since UC came in. There's just a completely negative view of anyone claiming UC. It was never this bad when people used to get working tax credit. There was a recognition that some employers paid so little people had to apply for a top up. Compared to the low paid who claim UC. The view is that people just prefer to work less hours to get more UC. No one blames the employers who offer crap contracts for min wage

This exactly. Do people on UC get asked every minute of the day what they spend their UC on

But it isn't different for people without disabilities.

We have the highest taxes in generations and a Labour government that refuses even to entertain reviewing spending to ensure they are being spend as efficiently as they can be.

Labour is at pains to push a narrative that carers and disabled people are somehow inherently more worthy than the rest of the population, and that questioning fraud, waste or how the system operates is an attack on the vulnerable. In the same breath, it increasingly vilifies ordinary taxpayers and the businesses who are funding the system.

For every person on benefits who is unfairly called a scrounger, there is an equal and opposite judgement being made about those who work, pay or have paid tax and about how they spend what is left of their already taxed income. Their reward is ever increasing taxes and judgement for the crime of not being disabled in some way. We are presented as the reason there isn't more money to give to those who genuinely need support; an obstacle to lifting children out of poverty; selfish, greedy "hoarders" who need to pay our "fair share". Imagine that - the ordinary people who actually fund the system are increasingly portrayed as the problem. Not billionaires, workers!

You can't continually judge and vilify people for what they earn, what they own and how they spend their own money, whilst expecting them to fund an ever-growing system without question, and then be surprised when some of them start to resent that system.

I didn't say it was ok.

But there does need to be some uncomfortable questions about what is reasonable spending in respect of benefits and what is not. The system in its current format is unsustainable.

Try being on benefits and being disabled and then get back to me. See some of the names you get called online just for existing. It's not equal and opposite on any level

Labour have no relevance to me. Im Scottish and I haven't voted Labour in a long time.

I don't vilify anyone. I worked for 30 years before I went on UC. Hth

That doesn't excuse some of the comments that people have made on this and every thread about benefits

No one and I mean no one ever asked me to account for every penny I spent when I worked full time. Ever. People are judged for not being disabled. I was never judged before I went on benefits over what I earned or how I spent my money. Ever. Not once.

I don't care what people earn. I don't care what people own. I am not that invested in complete strangers lives

I was on a thread the other day where I made it very clear that companies who don't pay their fair share of tax should be doing so. It really does help that you don't put words into peoples mouths and tell them how they feel about things. I don't resent anyone who gets disability benefits. If you do thats your right.

Your post is offensive and inaccurate with only anecdotal rather than statistical evidence. My DD has 2 ND children who cannot access mainstream school but special schools are not appropriate either as they are verbal and don’t have learning difficulties. She has had to give up her well paid job to live off DLA for both children and CA and home school. No universal credit or PIP as her husband works and she is not disabled. She paid a lot of tax as her husband does now and I think you will find many like her which do not fit your assumption of lazy entitled parents with disabled children living on welfare benefits. Have a little empathy as I would expect a teacher to have.

Oh well. Another benefit bashing post almost at an end

Like he's unemployed now so just lives with his parents claims UC and PIP because "he can". And uses it for his cigarettes, his alcohol and a holiday he's on where he's showing off all his drinking.

Yes. Because that's all us feckless people on benefits do. Smoke drink and go on holiday.

That’s totally fine if every single disabled person is spending every single penny of PIP on the costs of being disabled. But they’re not. There was a bbc documentary about people on benefits with an autistic woman saying her pip subsidies her rent - and that’s NOT ok to me. If she doesn’t need the money to meet the costs of being disabled we shouldn’t be giving it to her. It’s not ‘awww, wee shame’ compensation. And what about the worker claiming no pip that can’t afford her rent? Is it fair that someone with asd gets a subsidy and she doesn’t? Of course not.

Awe. Wee shame. Did you really type that about someone disabled. How do you propose that the DWP monitor the spending patterns of everyone on Pip. It generally gets paid into your current account with your other benefits.Oh yes and people with disabilities always have to be compared with poor people who work. On the daily.

Like they are the trash at the bottom of the pile because they get disability benefits.

Well its irelevant wether its ok to you or not you dont make the rules
Disabillity benegits are to be used to benefit the disabled person
I would say having a roof over her head benefits her .
I cant tell you exactly what we spend my sons DLA( soon to PIP) on as it all goes in one pot
I can tell you i spend an absolute forttune replacing he clothes hes destroyed
Fixing things hes broken etc.

The bigger picture is why can't she afford her rent. Probably in a private let and the UC rent element she gets doesn't cover all of it.

Just thinking about the possibility that I might have spent 55p of my Pip on a loaf last week. Should I be pelted with fruit.

Well yes because having a roof over your head is clearly not necessary if you’re disabled…

You realise that the reason PIP is very often used to pay rent or groceries is because the benefits you get to ‘live’ are so low that people have no other choice? That’s why theyre used that way.

Obviously you should ring fence it and keep it specifially for disabillity aids
Even if have no food in the house
You can sit there starving whilst admiring your shiny new disabillity aid.

Yeah it's around 434 quid a month UC for a single person over 25.