Can we have a dedicated benefits bashing forum?

I have just edited my post - which was correct in the first place, and I have no idea why it is auto correcting to thats'ople. Weird

Am I a claimant? Not at the moment, although I have needed to in the past. I do, however, have every sympathy for those less fortunate than myself, for whatever reason, and who need additional support.

There will always be a few people who claim benefits they are not entitled to, just as those on high incomes or run businesses will sometimes commit income tax or vat fraud on a much larger scale.That's people for you.

@imtheholidayarmadillo

However, @Spudthespanner I'll read and post where I like, thank you very much.

And so will those of us who want to discuss the benefits system 👍🏻

Well, both you and @Spudthespanner seem determined to miss my points on this thread, I won't be wasting any more keystrokes on either of you.

However, @Spudthespanner I'll read and post where I like, thank you very much.

The thing is, all systems like the benefits system are really open to abuse by unscrupulous people and really open to.missing legitimate claimants. There are also strange anomalies like having no means testing at all!

Super high earners can still get loads of DLA/PIP, even if they don't "need" it. I say that as someone with 3 DC with ASD (and 2 also have ADHD). I still work part time and I earn well so I save all the DLA for them for when they are older. I also saved my PIP for when I'm less able to work because I have a degenerative disease. I sometimes feel a bit strange getting over a thousand a month in benefits that we could afford to exist without for now.

If this is the policy why not get rid of loads of the other boards then? All the ones that get created when a topic is taking over the boards and people want more variety.

Also it seems a bit odd to allow people to shitpost misinformation all over the site without cracking down on it and then not just give it it’s own place when it’s starting to annoy other users.

@PickAChew

😂😂😂

Maybe they are but equally you could say that about anyone saying anything on the internet. Some people may not have all the details right but they may well be fundamentally correct.

The reality is that very few people will own up to being benefits cheats on a forum like this but they are often more honest and open with friends and family that they feel confident won't dob them in. So you will naturally get more anecdotal evidence about people that posters know as opposed to direct personal experience. It doesn't mean that it's any less true. My pet peeve is when someone will say that they know someone is a benefit cheat and there will still be posters leaping into defending the benefit cheat by claiming that the poster can't possibly know all the details of someone's life. It is ridiculous! You don't need to know everything to know someone is blatantly breaking the rules and in some cases even admitted what they're up to.

It cold be called "site stuff" or similar.

@imtheholidayarmadillo

I think you need to take a break from boards discussing this subject

A lot of the people posting about their dog walkers niece etc living it up on benefits are making it up though. You see people say they know someone who gets £1000pm in PIP when the max you can get is nowhere near that. Or they have been on PIP for 20 years, when it hasn't even around that long

And it's these deliberate lies and misinformation and exaggerations which are leading to frothing and outrage that make MN a hostile place for people with disabilities. The forum has had a problem with hostility towards disabled people and even disabled children for a long time and the attitude to benefits claimants is very much part and parcel of it. This is the issue not a blanket issue with benefit discussion at all but the insidious way benefit discussions on the forum are consistently used to demonise disabled people

This. And also the benefit fraud figures are those that they know about!! There are many more people who are scamming benefits than those convicted of it!!

Benefits should be there to help those who need it, not those who want a bit extra.

No separate board is required.

A lot of the people posting about their dog walkers niece etc living it up on benefits are making it up though. You see people say they know someone who gets £1000pm in PIP when the max you can get is nowhere near that. Or they have been on PIP for 20 years, when it hasn't even around that long.

@imtheholidayarmadillo In other words, you just don't want views you dislike to be expressed.

People are crafty, though. They stop just short of personal attacks on specific posters. Very often their vitriol is directed at that mythical person 'down the road', rather than anyone on the thread, making it more likely that any reports will be ignored in the name of 'robust debate'.

🫶👆

I think there is a lot of hypocrisy here.

Lots of posters come into these threads to share their experience of claiming the benefits in an attempt to prove that the benefits are hard to claim and necessary etc. They also share the experiences of their relatives and friends. This is often packaged under the guise that they are 'educating' posters that disagree with the system or think it's easy to claim.

However when other posters share their real life experiences of their own or people they know that prove that the system can be manipulated then they are instantly labelled malicious, liars or lacking a full understanding of the situation.

We either accept personal anecdote or we don't!

@Miley1967

This. People can scroll past the benefit threads if they don't want to read them surely?

That's not good enough. They don't want the topic discussed at all. They don't want to have to see a thread about it and not click on it.

This. People can scroll past the benefit threads if they don't want to read them surely?

@imtheholidayarmadillo

But I do think there's an argument for shutting down or least discouraging blind bigotry.

There is a report button for anyone flouting the posting guidelines

I don't think a board like that would be well used. Mostly people who post this stuff just do it for effect as a wind up. If people stopped responding they probably wouldn't bother.

@madaffodil Are you a claimant? I am. I think it's valuable to have an idea of how people are feeling about the system. If the whole of society became completely disenchanted with paying for welfare benefits, theoretically they could vanish altogether and I'd be in big trouble. I'd rather have some forewarning and stay engaged with the debate.

I would be overjoyed at a specific board for this sort of thing.

I could then hide it.

Briliant idea, yes. Unironically.

I totally agree with you.
Removing need for reassessment would save so much from the budget but that's common sense, to you and I!