To be scared about how we will cope with more tax rises - council tax

[partytimed]

i really loathe this government. Usually with politics I feel like whoever is in charge I don’t notice much of a direct impact on my day to day life. Yes I’m aware of slow erosions in public services and I was no fan at all of the tories, I voted for this government im ashamed to say, and they lied and lied about their plans. I am so much worse off and if they double council tax bands virtually all of our disposable income is going to be gone. It feels like theft. I don’t trust them to spend the money I make properly it all feels corrupt and it’s just so depressing and upsetting.

Without sounding too heartless, if unemployment benefits weren’t available to him, he would probably find the wherewithal to overcome that anxiety.

I was mugged in my 20s in south London years ago just outside my flat. It was horrible but I got on with it and carried on with my life. Frankly, we are mollycoddling young people / medicalising things that in the past, people just accepted as part and parcel of the human condition. Sometimes shit happens and you get on and deal with it.

Genuine question, what if the treatment just doesn't work. Take Autism with co-morbid anxiety, OCD, sensory issues and demand avoidance. Autism is neurological and not curable. The other conditions that often occur alongside can be helped, often with years of intense therapy and support, but in a lot of cases still persist.
What then?
I see anxiety bandied about a lot on these types of threads. Usually it is just one of many conditions someone with poor mental health will have, for example I know someone with ASD, anxiety disorder, thyroid problems and learning difficulties.
Not many people will be claiming for just anxiety alone, and if they are it could be because cbt therapy and medication just aren't working.

We also do phone interviews, a Covid introduction which hasn’t been rolled back. How can you assess someone over the phone adequately for PIP?

Demand avoidance is really difficult. I have an autistic child and have worked with SEN children - so many were capable, achieved a lot and were fantastic members of our school community.

I've also been at several work places with autistic colleagues who had anxiety issues. Both made adjustments and a lot of information was available to my colleagues on how/ what to request.

Again, someone shouldn't be limited to a life on benefits because of learning difficulties. I see people on the community all the time with learning difficulties achieving a lot.

It would work for some with the right support and adjustments in place, but not for all.
People don't seem prepared to accept that support and adjustments are needed, the suggestion is just whip away the benefits and see what happens.

I agree, it shouldn't be for all. But what I've seen, and what i want for my own child, is that a supportive workplace is fantastic. I know work adds a lot to my autistic colleagues lives, and we get so much out of having them at work!

There have always been people that are genuinely so disabled by their health conditions that they rely heavily on state support. However the amount that disability claims have shot up over the past few years suggests that we either have some kind of epidemic or that people that previously would have pushed themselves to cope without disability benefits now are claiming.

Personally I think we are getting sicker and older as a country so it makes sense that there are genuinely more claims but I also think people's tolerance and motivation for coping with challenges has lowered significantly. There has been a shift where people begin to feel that difficulties aren't a relatively normal part of life but that they are disabling and therefore must be dealt with accordingly.

Using the man with anxiety example where he was mugged and now uses PIP to get to work. What would have happened if PIP wasn't an option and unemployment benefits weren't easy to claim? Would he really have just lived in abject poverty rather than walk to work? It's timely when we are so near to Remembrance Sunday to understand that anxiety and trauma is a common part of the human condition. Imagine what those soldiers saw and had to endure and yet not many of the veterans lived as recluses and were as crippled with anxiety as today's young people. Where has our resilience gone? Why do we assume that people can't push through anxiety and difficulties when we have proof from previous generations that people can go through the worst things possible and still be productive members of society?

Where should they move to? What if they have been made redundant and had life circumstance outside their control and they’re paying all they have just to keep the house going? Yet have paid higher rate taxes for years - they should still be forced to move …

Sadly I have to agree with you. Our grandparents lived through the war(s). But in our generation there are people can’t cope with walking to work… (sorry to use pp friend as an example). 25% of the working age population today reports having a disability. 25%z

No wonder society is failing. As humans we have not evolved to live this way.

Frankly we all need to do a bit more hunter gathering and put the world back into perspective again. If 25% of us back then had been incompetent we’d have been left for the wolves and the world would look very different.

(maybe we’d all look like XX warriors from whatever part of the world you wish to insert)

In the animal kingdom it has always been survival of the fittest.

Of courses but would humans have become the dominant species at the rate we did if 25% of them had some sort of disability all the time.

In the past they just wouldn’t have survived. Now our role as a society is to keep people alive who can’t support themselves…

Perhaps I’m taking the analogy a bit far … but you see the difference??

Exactly - that was my point. Most people didn’t vote for this complete utter waste of tax payers money! Yet we are now all expected to pay for their unilateral decisions.

Or he stays in room, starts low level dope dealing and never works, becoming more ill, placing additional strain on health services... or shall we stop him accessing them too.

We are all different, he isn't you, so why are you pretending what works for some doesn't work for all?

Aside, during his assault, carried out by at least 4 men, he was held down, his arms pinned behind his back, so he couldn't protect his head or groin and repeatedly kicked in the head, once he passed out, he was stamped on, he had a broken arm, ribs, eye socket, jaw and is now deaf in one ear.

Yet you think he should lose his only life line to work... & be refused unemployment benefit.

We clearly have different views of how much society should step in and pay others to live their lives.

There is such a thing as trauma therapy. PTSD and trauma can be overcome.

My goodness, this kind of negative foreshadowing is really unhelpful, especially for young people. Writing people off and suggesting that he can't walk to work ever again because of a traumatic event is so damaging. Does this mean you think he can never walk anywhere again? This is so restrictive for his quality of life and not something we should be tackling through him paying for a taxi to work everyday.

You're effectively trying to blackmail the taxpayer. If we don't keep paying his PIP then he will become a drug dealer. It's crazy really and highly manipulative

I know a person of fifty who was assaulted and injured as a 19 year old and has literally never worked since. He made a full physical recovery. He's become completely reliant on benefits and has never got over it. He stays in his room the whole time

It's such a waste of a life. Nothing has been asked of him since. How can this be a good thing?

I don't think someone too anxious to walk to work would make a very good drug dealer. You gotta have confidence and nerve.

I think technology hasn’t helped with this sort of scenario

without wifi I think a lot of people would be more sociable and pro active (myself included)

100%.

We should be encouraging him to overcome his barriers, not succumbing to it - especially in fear of him becoming a drug dealer. What an absolute stretch. The same could he said for anyone becoming a drug dealer or criminal if they don’t receive benefits 😂 You get people in work who deal drugs and engage in other illegal activity!

Also, I wonder if he has any issues walking to other places… or is it just the workplace, hmm? 🤔

(Not trying to minimise his trauma obvs, but be an interesting question).

The whole scenario is odd when you think about it.

The man can't drive or presumably learn to drive for some reason? He also can't use public transport to get to where he currently works or an alternative place of work? He also can't look into working at home opportunities assuming all of the above is true and the only option is to pay him PIP so he can get a taxi to his presumably minimum wage job at a pub? The tax payer is probably paying more in UC top ups and the taxi fare than it would cost to pay him unemployment benefits...

I understand working can be good for people's self esteem and mental health but it has to be done in a sensible way too. The current situation sounds terrible for the man in question and the taxpayer.

There's a real danger we are now classing negative feelings as things requiring stare support.

When actually a lot of the time life IS hard and sad.

I agree. And he needs support for getting back on his feet, not reinforcing being couped up at home.

Its clear that many on here have zero compassion or understanding, none at all.... until its them that needs help, then they have the sharpest elbows in the room.

His PIP is around £120 per month, Mobility only, NHS therapy for him has a 4 year waiting list.

I don't think that's what's being discussed. What people are discussing is how can we carry financing this escalating level of apparent need. Compassion can't produce everlasting money.