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?

I don’t know anyone that uses their pip for hoists or electric chairs- they get them for free.

Interesting because I have seen several people trying to raise funds for wheelchairs and scooters including a good friend who had to do a just giving collection to replace theirs when it broke down.

@MoneyMine I think you've had a hard time here which doesn't surprise me at all but I do think your OP could have been clearer.

There were a lot of things people seem to be expected to know which would have impacted some answers. You mention people hadn't considered your kids but you hadn't actually mentioned any specifics about them until late on.

I'm not having a go at you at all, just giving some insight into what might have frustrated some.

Ignore the ones that just want to have a go.

I'm guessing you don't know many people with mobility issues then.

No, they don’t. There’s a rigorous assessment for electric wheelchairs and if you’re deemed able to use a manual one, then your only option is to buy or lease. And the OP is talking about a wheelchair hoist for her car - they’re not free, mine cost £1500 and my quickie wheelchair over £3000. The only way I could afford them was to save up PIP. Thankful I was in a position where I could do that, not everyone can.

The local group of my disability charity has a fund specifically for aids and appliances - so many people can’t get what they need without paying. Amazed that so many posters seem to think disabled people are just freely given everything they need.

@GoodChat I processed benefits for years and signposted claimants to organisations and adult social services/other areas of the local authority (who may have signposted on)who provided the equipment. In Wales if that makes a difference. No idea if it’s means tested etc. Hospitals can also signpost, some patients aren’t discharged until the work has been done. I don’t know the ins and outs of the whole thing but it definitely happens.

Yes there may be an assessment because not everyone on pip needs a wheelchair.
Pip can be used for anything- anything at all and sometimes nothing at all and it’s just saved. 🤷🏼‍♀️ It is up to the individual what they do with the money.

You seem to know the intricate details of their finances so I’ll step back.

I apologise about my lack of understanding about how disabled people live… I’ll ask for an update for my disabled son. We’ll catch up whilst I’m caring for him.

I’m disabled myself, and have an extensive background working in benefits, and volunteering with disability charities, so yes, from the details OP has given, it’s fairly easy to work out what she’s claiming and how much. The OP’s husband is a high earner, they’ve been married for a number of years and the OP has worked up until her disability prevented her from doing so. So it’s not as though she hasn’t contributed in the past, and is still doing so now. You’ve completely missed the point that she has backpay from the PIP award, enough to buy something she needs to make her life easier. She says that they can easily afford it, and isn’t suggesting that her PIP shouldn’t go into the pot - the issue is about what the backpay is spent on, and that her DH would rather spend it on the house than make sure she has what she needs. Would you watch your disabled son struggle with his disability while you spent money on something else that wasn’t essential ?

Equipment and alterations to disabled peoples’ homes is done via local authority disabled facilities grants, which are means tested. The NHS is responsible for provision of wheelchairs, and a power chair requires a referral from primary or secondary care. If it’s deemed patients can manage with a manual chair, a power chair won’t be provided, and the only other avenue available in those cases is private purchase.

Chill yourself out love, I’ve not missed anything. I’m just not bitter ❤️

Neither am I. Just accustomed to supporting disabled people, so finding the level of hostility to the OP unfathomable.

@Rosscameasdoody I think you are interpreting posts as being hostile and reacting as such when they really aren’t. You don’t know the OP as far as we know and have no idea what they may be able to access for free. 🤷🏼‍♀️The word free seems to trigger you. I believe the op has esair and is therefore low income and may be entitled to adaptations for free. If it helps one person to know they may not have to shell out for equipment themselves then it’s worth knowing.

I believe the op has esair and is therefore low income and may be entitled to adaptations for free.

I am afraid you are totally wrong @Missingmyusername .
The 'new type' of ESA is contribution based and has no relation to my DH wage. Actually DH is a high earner...
So the fact I am in receipt of ESA bears no relation to my ability access free support/grants that are income based.
As @Rosscameasdoody mentions, I will not get any of those grants and will be self funding any adaptations, appliances etc... Hence why PIP is so important for me too...

@MoneyMine then if he’s a high earner then 🤷🏼‍♀️ I’m not sure why your asking on here who gets your pip. Spend your pip on equipment
and again not everyone is a high earning pip household and will get things for free. Just because you don’t, others might.

Not everyone has esa conts either.

I don’t disagree with any of that. But I have a benefits background, as do a few other posters and the plain fact is that if her DH earns enough to be a higher rate tax payer, she won’t be entitled to anything income related as far as ESA is concerned. She’s worked and paid NI, and the amount she quoted suggests contribution based ESA paid at the support group rate, so not all of the gateway benefits that means tested ESA opens up, will be available to her. And the word ‘free’ only I triggers me when I know from experience that the information given is wrong - that doesn’t help anyone. Powered wheelchairs are not available on the NHS unless the claimant has very high needs - and even then they’re not always available. Motability actually lease power chairs so that they can be accessed by the substantial amount of people who simply don’t qualify for NHS issue.

The OP’s original question was whether people thought the back pay she received from the the PIP award should go into the pot, not the benefit itself. She asked if people thought it should pay for home improvements her DH wants, or whether it should pay for things she needs to make life easier for her, such as the wheelchair hoist she needs for the car - many posters then interpreted that as a hoist for the house, and wrongly advised her that she could get one from the local authority or NHS. And even more posters waded in and told her in no uncertain terms that her PIP should go into the pot because she was either selfish, greedy or grabby, or didn’t contribute enough - how else would you interpret that other than as hostile ? Sorry if you think I’m OTT but I’m used to supporting disabled people and very aware of the consequences of giving wrong information. It’s not my intention to offend, it’s just that when you know the answer, it’s hard not to hit the buzzer.

Don’t need to chill out thanks, and I have nothing to be bitter about. Interesting that you didn’t answer my question though.

Very well said @MoneyMine

None of my relatives were able to access many of the helpful grants/support available due to either them having a pension/partner having a wage. Felt like they were being punished for working!! Every single penny, beyond the basic provision, came out of their own pockets and they suffered a lot of indignity in their final years, despite work in civil service education sectors where they had contributed so much. A real slap in the face.

Despite having supposedly modernised the benefits system the gov appears to have made many things nauseatingly complicated to understand…

https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/help/support/benefits-entitlements/other-support/employment-support-allowance#:~:text=There%20are%20two%20types%20of,Income%2Drelated%20ESA.

Despite having supposedly modernised the benefits system the gov appears to have made many things nauseatingly complicated to understand…

It also means people don’t know the conditions to receive certain benefits until they absolutely need them.
I’ve seen many people discovering they can’t get the ESA because you need the last 2 years of NI contribution and they don’t. Because they tried to work until the bitter ends, part time, And therefore dont qualify anymore (they haven’t earnt enough)
And they dint qualify fur the UC equivalent either because their DH earns too much etc….
It very much feels the whole thing is there to ensure as many people as possible will ‘fall through the cracks’.

The PIP system isn’t fit for purpose either. I’ve been involved with it since it replaced DLA in 2013 and despite supposed ‘improvements’, which amount to nothing more than tinkering at the edges to make it harder to claim, the assessment and decision making hasn’t improved much up to this point. There are plans to do away with the work capability assessment for ESA and use PIP assessments for both benefits. Not sure how they’re going to do this unless they modify the activities assessed because ESA looks at the ability to work, and PIP assesses the effects of disability on care needs and mobility, and has nothing to do with work. One thing I do know, is that you can bet your bippy it’ll be yet more stick dressed up as carrot.

PIP was purposefully designed to get less people claiming it than DLA, despite it being underclaimed and having a very very low fraud rate, the whole aim of it was less claimants.

They made it harder to claim for people who should be entitled to it and at the same time much easier to defraud as it’s now all about giving the “right” answers to unqualified assessors rather than based on medical evidence.

Lots of people protested it at the time, but as always when it comes to issues around disabilities, if it didn’t affect people they didn’t pay attention.

Yep, spot on. The coalition government wanted to scrap DLA at any cost so they launched a campaign to brand claimants as fraudsters and as usual the public fell for it. Then the government lied, telling disability charities that they knew how important DLA was to claimants and pledged to protect it. It was even pledged in their manifesto, but by the time the first spending review rolled around after their election, they’d announced PIP would replace DLA and had clearly done a lot of planning under the radar. I remember being involved, via a disability charity, with the public consultation prior to its’ introduction, and there was objection after objection raised about the proposals, all of which was backed up with solid reasoning, and all of which fell on deaf ears. It’s very telling that although PIP doesn’t assess the ability to work, the assessment criteria are totally different and much harsher for disabled people of working age than the existing DLA for children under 16 and legacy DLA claimants who were aged 65 and over when PIP was introduced.

Also quite telling is the very high percentage of people who are successful at tribunal…
It certainly is about knowing what to say…. 😢😢

A review was carried out some years ago by the chairman of the tribunals service, and the report was scathing of the DWP. It found that the mandatory reconsideration process for PIP routinely returned the same decisions, forcing claimants to go to tribunal, where those decisions were ultimately overturned. There were a number of proposals for change, but I don’t think any of them were implemented.