Is that money ‘mine’?

[MoneyMine]

I am disabled and receive ESA (so that’s my ‘income’)

Ive just been awarded PIP and have received backdated money. It’s quite a bit of money (for me). About the equivalent of 1 month of DH monthly wage.

dh wants to treat that money as ‘put it in the common pot’.
im thinking this is money to improve my quality of life, xtra cost due to my disability etc… Not to go and buy groceries or do some decorating.
ESA goes in the common pot.

What do you all think?

It is a lot of money, one person alone I know has 1200 per month, so I do know what I am talking about, also their rent gets paid, council tax paid, extra for energy ( 300, 3 x times a year) plus a 10 per cent increase to help inflation on their money, better off than I am

Your resentment about the help they get with the cost of living blinds you to the reality of living with a disability.

What's their disability? Do you want that as well?

You sound like a class act.

Maybe there is a need to start a thread on what it REALLY means to live with a disability.

Not the sugar coated version we see in magazines, full of ‘oh look at that amazing person that did <insert unusual experiences that few able people would manage> despite <insert whatever disability where people feel their life would be finished>’.

It seems many people have wild expectations about the NHS and what it can offer, about medicine and what it can do for people, about what being chronically ill means (like a holidays right? Because you’re not working so…) etc…. which are so far off the mark that it’s becoming funny (if it wasn’t so sad and infuriating)

@MoneyMine there have been a few over the years, but you can't educate the ignorant who just want to scream "Yeah, but..." to all points. People have no comprehensions of what a disability really means.

I live with a disability - a chronic, complex neurological condition.

It blinds me in one eye periodically, the pain in my head is so severe it can make me suicidal, I can vomit for days and I get so dizzy that lifting my head off a pillow to try to drink makes me sick again, I can't keep medication down. My head gets so hot in places that I feel like I'm baking from the inside-out and you can feel the heat to touch as well.

I get facial paralysis, lose the ability to speak or am so slurred you'd think I'd had a stroke and struggle to recall simple words (aphasia). I often wake up in the middle of an attack and unable to treat it.

It's migraine, but people think it's just a bit of a headache. 27+ days a month of attacks nearly lost me my career, my husband and my ability to live. I'm now on a great treatment which has given me my life back, but it's still a disease in living with day to day.

I don't claim PIP as I'm currently well managed so it's pointless trying but when this treatment fails (as they all do eventually), I might have to think about it again. The cost of taxis as I can't drive, constant ice packs, medication, alternative therapies (massage is the point thing that helps though) etc....

So you know nothing at all about them. What's a deserving disability to you?

PTSD locked my mate in constant flashback for years and she would cower in her bedroom for weeks at a time. Deserving enough?

Someone with a brain tumour leading to frequent pain throughout the body and partial blindness. Deserving enough?

Breast cancer leading to a double mastectomy, the surgery causing major nerve damage so she can no longer lift anything heavier than a plate or brush her hair. Deserving enough?

Schizophrenia with frequent hallucinations, voices telling them to kill themselves or hurt other people, insomnia leading to a hospital stay, inability to wash. Currently has the worst symptoms controlled with lithium. Deserving enough?

All these people have PIP awarded in various levels.

You seem to be determined to stay wholly ignorant of the significant extra costs disability brings, despite the fact that even a cursory read through the thread will give you a good idea of what’s involved. Disabled people and charities have fought long and hard to put these things in place so that disabled people can live independent lives on the same terms as everyone else. If these things weren’t available what do you think would happen ? Disabled people would go back into the institutions they were hidden away in sixty years ago. How much do you think that would cost ? Based on social care costs these days you’re looking at an average of £1000 a week for full time care - how is that better ?

And once more, since you clearly didn’t pay attention the first time it was said, not everyone on benefits is feckless or greedy. People like the OP have worked and paid taxes, and are entitled to fall back on the benefits system into which they have paid for as long as they were able. You clearly know nothing about disability or the benefits system, but you feel perfectly entitled to comment on something you weren’t asked to by the OP. Your comments are offensive and ableist and you should be ashamed of the fact that you have posted on MN simply to make things worse for someone posting for advice.

Better off financially, perhaps, on the face of it, but in reality, is their life anywhere near as easy as yours?

My sister has MS. She's not entitled to anything financially at the moment. She has regular hospital appointments (transport, time off work, parking). She has regular medication she has to pay for. She has days where she physically cannot get out of bed (SSP, at higher risk of redundancy) and an uncertain future.

Eventually she'll probably end up in a wheelchair with limited mobility.

You’ve posted some really offensive comments on this thread but this one takes the cake !! Are you disabled ? Are you a doctor, or do you have any kind of medical training or experience ? If you’re neither, how exactly are you qualified to decide whose disability is deserving or not ? In case you haven’t noticed, the DWP doesn’t exactly give PIP or any other benefit away. Disabled people have to go through harsh and demeaning medical assessments and provide robust medical evidence to support their claims, and even then a lot have to go to independent tribunal to get what they’re entitled to. And they don’t just have to do it once - these assessments are carried out regularly, even for people whose conditions are never likely to improve. So you can be pretty sure anyone who gets these benefits has been put through the wringer to prove their entitlement, but you seem determined to only see the money, and not the disability.

I’m severely disabled and I volunteer at a disability organisation, helping members to apply for PIP and other benefits, and every day I see people with disabilities that would have people like you on your knees begging for mercy. I see people who are reliant on medical equipment/mobility aids who can’t afford to plug them in because if they do, they won’t be able to pay their bill. So they struggle. I see people whose disabilities make enduring cold conditions much worse, who can’t afford to turn on even a bar of an electric fire, never mind the heating. And yet here you are telling everyone how they’re paid too much !!

Disabled people are historically the lowest paid cohort in the UK. They are routinely discriminated against in every walk of life, and they are made to jump through hoops for the benefits they do get. And, newsflash, not everyone who claims benefits is a scrounger - lots have worked and paid their taxes, so they’re perfectly entitled to claim.

You’re not a ‘class act’, you are an ableist, offensive individual who seems to take delight in sitting in ignorant judgement on people you know nothing about, who have health conditions and disabilities, the effects of which you can’t possibly know unless you are that person. Why don’t you do some volunteering and open your eyes to what’s happening in the world outside of your very narrow and uninformed view. Then maybe you can comment on issues like these from a different point of view from the closed minded one you are currently treating everyone on this thread to.

Very very few people are actually like that.

They might look like they could just get over it with a bit of exercise. Don’t be fooled by it.
People who are chronically ill, in pain etc…. Are aware winning actors. They can put a brave face on when they are out and about whilst crumbling once at home. They will look like they are ok, even go to work etc… You’ll know nothing from their struggles from seeing them fur a couple of hours.
Thus doesn’t mean they are not seriously ill.

I know I did and do. Very few people have known I have been ill for the last 10 years. I was working, looking well. It wasn’t visible.

Btw, if the issue is too much meds from pharmaceutical companies, have a go at GPs and consultants. People don’t take medications from their own back, bought from the internet. They get them from HCP….

The 1200 will be a combo of Pip and ESA or the equivalent from UC.

Rent, even on benefits and in social housing, the tenant has rent to pay even with housing element, just like anyone else on benefits. Just like those in private they will pay any shortfall the local allowance doesn’t cover. Assuming the household income isn’t above the income freshholds.

Free council tax is only for people who have profound mental health or learning disability.

Getting all the COL payments is for those on UC disability payments. Those on ESA only get the £150 payment which imo is wrong.

people who work can also claim PIP. Same with people who work can claim UC depending on income.

PIP is to pay towards costs to make the recipients live a bit easier.

How do I know? I am one od those who have had assessments with DWP and PIP to assess if I can work.

I am jealous of those who can work because they can increase their earnings via promotion and/or additional studying. I don’t have the option to ask my employer for a rise.

Please don’t be put off from applying for PIP, even though you are well managed. You can claim PIP for variable conditions, and the amount and type of medications needed to manage a condition are all taken into account. It would seem from your post that you are disadvantaged when it comes to mobility issues, so even if you don’t qualify for the daily living component, you may well qualify for some element of mobility component, which would help with transport costs. I have extensive experience with PIP applications so if you would like to try I am more than happy to help however I can - just PM me if you want to talk it through.

Bloody hell.

My own Nan thinks I shouldn’t get disability benefits, she thinks I’m privileged because I get free money from the government.

Youre so unbelievably ableist, and discriminatory against disabled people.

I work, I have severe tourettes, autism and adhd, as well as various mental health issues. Is that qualified enough for you?! I can walk, work and do things. But still qualify for adp(Scottish version of pip). I need various accommodations to work and all that jazz. I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but I’m so bloody put out at your opinions. Honestly, think before you post.

Who pissed on your chips?!

Your attitude baffles me.

you wouldn’t last an hour with tourettes.

I have clearly touched a raw nerve, I come from experience, not rudeness

Take a chill pill I talk through experience, you have a lovely way of expressing yourself well done

You mean you’ve at least LIVED with someone who wasn’t that ill but git £1200 of benefit each month?
And you know that it was as easy as that to get better than a bit of exercise because you’ve seen it happening right in front of you?

Or are you IMAGINING they could with nothing to prove that it actually would be enough?

The only raw nerve you’ve touched is that I’ve been dealing with people like you all my life who sit in smug judgement on people they know nothing about, and who think they are somehow entitled to decide whether people who suffer from disability are ‘worthy’. And I’m not the rude one.

Going back to your original point OP - that money is yours to use as you see fit. It's up to you if you put it in the general pot or not. However, I agree in your situation you should not. It should be ring fenced for your benefit if you would have to 'justify' spending money from the general pot on your needs.

I am applying for PIP. I have a very rare genetic skin condition which causes extremely fragile skin which tears and blisters. In my case feet and hands are the worst so it affects my mobility and ability to cook etc. I will use the money on things I need, taxis, buses, special socks and shoes, replacing clothes and shoes etc. as my creams and dressings damage them. I have about 20 items a month on prescription (including non EB things like inhalers). So it will also help pay for my annual pre payment certificate.

My DH doesn't resent me accessing any of the above from the general pot. I'm horrified at your husband's attitude.

@EpidermolysisBullosa i hope it will go well for you.

Experience of what ? Based on your posts, your only qualification seems to be your own sense of importance in making unwanted and unsolicited judgements as to whether people are worthy of the benefits they are claiming. Do you not think the people themselves, their healthcare professionals and the DWP assessors, who have all been involved in these peoples’ benefit decisions, are better placed to make that judgement than you ? They are privy to a lot more information and evidence than you basing your opinion on just what you see in front of you. When it comes to disability, what’s on the surface is rarely all there is.

@EpidermolysisBullosa
Good luck with the process. One thing that PIP never mention is once the assessment has been done, you can ask for the reports.

PIP usually text you to let you know the assessment reports have been submitted.
one you get this, ring and ask. If you don’t get a message, ring about a week or two later.

Getting those will help if you need to do a mandatory reassessment or even have to go down the appeal route.

if you need help filling out the form, there are charities that help. If nothing shows up on google your GP will probably know.