I. Daniel Blake

[fem2019]

Anyone else watching this tonight? (NC due to an outing comment I made recently). Saw it when it first came out and as a SP some of it hit home. As a statement of how it is to be without resources it is bang on. Be interested in what MN thinks.

thought it was very one sided

Would you like to give the other side? Go on, I would like to hear it. Do you work for the DWP, do you cry at your desk after hours?

I know ex DWP who were in IDB. I would like to hear why you think it's one sided.

@FloatingthroughSpace
Seriously the absolute shame and degradation, along with the utterly ridiculas levels of red tape to even begin to claim ESA aka sickness benefit is soul destroying.
You get we all have to have humiliating medical interviews, with admin people. Regardless of medical evidence from our Drs, consultant, etc.
That was made clear in the film, it was a major part of the plot.
One day, our entire country will study this at school. Like Cathy Come Home. And be disgusted and ashamed.

I've have a friend who worked for the assessment service.
It sickened her so much she had to leave.
Retrained as an electrician.
So really not one-sided here.
Her final straw? Telling someone whose son have Downs syndrome he was fit to work.

The simple fact of the 30 odd hours of looking for work?

They - the dwp- assume you have afford internet access - £18 pounds a month when I was on benefits, but don't class it as essential to life if you can't pay the frigging bill.

*can not have

FIL was sanctioned last month for not returning a form in time. When he rang up to speak to them he told them the only form he had wasn't due back until 14th December and it was only the 10th, he was planning to drop it directly into the office on the 12th when he would be there to sign on.

No, that's not possible, they said. The form is late.

How is it late when it's not even due back for another four days!?

It takes up to seven working days to be processed so because it won't be processed by the 14th, it's late.

We had to lend him money over Christmas for his bills and food.

The system is shit.

LOL @ one-sided. Calling completely blind people in for PIP reviews over and over again, because surely the eyes which their medical reports say will never work (or in one case I know personally, have long been removed due to repeated infection as they never worked) will magically be cured - the PIP form isn't available in Braille, either, or in VI compatible software so she had to have help filling it out, but hey, it increased her points because you know, someone who can't see a fucking thing at all is surely going to be able to do all kinds of work, especially with Access to Work grants being cut.

Or the minimum five-week wait for UC, you know, that does include people who are terminally ill. No time to live, can't work, but go 5 weeks minimum with nothing and you've likely run through every penny you had keeping up with the costs of your illness.

There is a poster on here who is terminally ill and doesn't go to certain appointments as she cannot afford the transport, which you have to pay up from for and wait for reimbursement. And with some conditions, you can't use public transport because you are at such risk of infection.

But hey, so one-sided, these people!

I have a friend who does assessments for ‘fitness to work’
It makes her ill, and she nudges people up the points ranking as much as she possibly can without being disciplined herself. Awful. There but for the grace of god go we. Those who think it’s ‘other people’ who suffer these indignities, think again. And those who vote to keep these policies current, shame shame shame on you.

thebaronetofcockburn to add to your points above if you claim benefits in relation to having a terminal illness and then don't die within the expected time frame, they remove the benefits because hey, you didn't die so you must be cured. Right...?

I was off sick for 3 years and claimed ESA. I was disabled and was asked to prove my disability in the most humiliating ways.
Absolutely awful

I fucking hate this government. I'm a mental health nurse and have seen DWP staff publicly humiliate vulnerable people.

What has always got me, after living through the thatcher years, is why people think isn't going to happen to them. When are people going to realise that being a "good citizen' means nothing? All it takes is not being able to work/not having any money and all of us are Daniel Blake.

We just need to vote the bastards out.

EwItsAHooman it's like something out of Kafka. Fucking disgusting.

Oh, yes EwIts, I know someone who took too long to die so had to re-apply for everything. She died a month later.

Exactly, fem, but not a day goes by without a goady thread about it all here on MN.

Im pretty sure that even if labour were to magically be voted back in tomorrow they’d still carry on with it all, despite Jeremy jumping up and down about it. Whats it going to take to sort things out??

There's a goady thread about UC in AIBU right now in which the OP then goes on to state this 'person she knows' is also fraudulent in the claim but hey, no one should moan.

I thought this film is odd, anyone who has been there will know the futility and grinding desperation of trying to argue against the system. It seems to support/embed the noble and deserving poor notion, salt of the earth my fucking arse, hate that concept so much.

I have been in the Kafkaesque benefits system, where as a claimant I was sent on work experience to a job centre to help other claimants with the computer systems. The workers there didn't even have the self awareness to censor their contempt for their "clients" in front of me

It's all just a bit painting by numbers and facile. Tyrannosaur was very good, slightly less relatable poor though.

Yeah, I've got my objections to JC, but all I know is when Labour are in it's better then when the Tories are in. The Tories don't give a toss about us and they never will.

It seems to support/embed the noble and deserving poor notion, salt of the earth my fucking arse, hate that concept so much.

See, I disagree because the character of Katie was a single mum with two kids by two obviously different dads, the very person people like to target.

The only way any of this gets changed is through an overhaul of our political system. The democracy we live under is rigged in favour of the rich and powerful.

Voting for a red tie rather than a blue tie will do nothing to change the system of nepotism and inequality that still exists, even with our guaranteed right to 'vote'.

I found the film a bit odd tbh. I think the system definitely needs to be improved and the attitudes in the job centre is really bad. The thing I don't like about Ken Loach is his extreme left wing views where he politicises the problem which just polarises opinion as can be seen from this thread.

I have been claiming benefits for our two disabled children for over 10 years so obviously did it when their was a labour too which was just as difficult as it is now. I feel that there needs to be a much less politicised conversation by none political figures with practical ideas of how to help and not just bashing the other side all the time.

It’s been on my mind all night 😢

Hi - thanks for clarifying. What I meant was, why was his employer not responsible for paying sick pay? If I had a heart attack next week, I would be off sick from work but not immediately unemployed. My employer would not be allowed to sack me at once because I had had a heart attack. I get that being unfit for work and having to prove it can be a Kafkaesque nightmare - I have an autistic son- but I didn't understand why DB's employer was able to immediately wash his hands of him despite him having been a good worker for many years etc. I did miss the first couple of minutes so maybe it was explained then.