to envy/hate people on benefits to be as well off if not better than us

[chocaddict]

I know that this post may have some mixed reviews and may even get me slated but I can,t help it.
Someone I know although she is a genuine case her and her husband have as much as me and dh coming in and with a brand new car thrown in for good measure.
I can only dream of a new car and I work my tripe off 5 days a week as well as dh whilst some people can sit at home and get the same income coming in it seems really unfair.

Anyone want to swap? I'll take on your low paid job, whatever housing you're in, no car, etc if you take on this child's cancer and she's cured. You can have all our benefits. She has the adult form of leukaemia, so a swap could work.

(((((expat))))

btw, you might all be interested to know in the government cover up of the resistance to the DLA reform.

here

Alistair Campbell

I'll explain my situation and you figure out exactly how 'well off' we are.

I've had my hours reduced at work due to company in financial difficulties. My DP got made redundant when I was on maternity leave (I went back to work last month) My wages are £700pm, I get £200 ctc. My DP recieves £180 HB and £260 JSA pm. Add that all together.. Around £1400. We live I. A high rent and council tax area, those combined is just under the total figure. Add in water rates, gas, electric, a baby to clothe and feed, a car to run, tv license, phone bill. We are left with sweet fa after bills come out. On top of this, the HB people fucked up our entitlement whilst I was on maternity leave, are now claiming we owe them £800 due to overpaying us, expect £400 back in council tax arrears by the end of march and will be taking £60pm from us so we can pay back the £800.

I've never been so financially fucked in my life. And with a young baby to look after makes it doubly hard. DP is hopefully getting into work by the end of the month and I will be so glad to get away from being on benefits. It's put a huge strain on our relationship, and I want to get back to the normality of having what we have in our bank as our own.

If you want to swap, I'd be glad. Benefits are not what they are made out to be. How anyone copes being solely dependant on them is beyond me.

Oh, us being in arrears with council tax isn't our fault. The HB people were helping us pay then turned around and said last week (yes, last week) that we actually hadn't been entitled to it so what they payed has been taken off and added to our remaining council tax bill for the remaining tax year. Bastards.

bakelitebelle you have completely misread my post. And I do know a lot of genuine, deserving, proper disabled people. Myself, my mother, and quite a few of the patients I look after at work.

Feel free to back track and apologise when you're ready.

Oh my word, I can't articulate myself today. My rent and council tax combines is just under half the total figure. Sorry.

Tongue If you can't afford the extra CT this year, ring the council and see if they'll spread the excess over next year, I've had to do that before and they were v helpful. Good luck and I hope your DP gets back to work soon :)

Op, you hate me and envy me?
Please, please have my life and my circumstances.
I have two disabled children and am a single mother. My sons father died aged 30 and my daughters father ran off when my daughter was only 10 months old as he couldn't cope.
I can't cope either, but I sure as hell aren't running anywhere.
My son has cerebral palsy. He cannot walk far and has a lot of pain in his legs. He struggles to make friends as he cannot join in with football and other sports with the boys at his school.
He can't go to the park alone and hang around with other children as he can't walk well enough and if he falls he can't get up.
He's had numerous operations on his legs to improve his ability to walk. Its major surgery and it hurts him a lot and the physiotherapy afterwards is bloody hard work for him and me.
He is brilliant at acting but gets in major bouts of depression at only 11 years old as he knows that disabled actors very often don't make it. He cries to me about wanting to be normal and it breaks my fucking heart. But you hate him and envy him op? Because he can claim support to help him live as normal a life as possible.
My daughter has scoliosis and joint hypermobility. Her back is so deformed that it causes her constant pain. she has to wear a big ugly back brace 23 hours a day.
Just last night she woke me 5 times in pain from her back.
When she gets older she will suffer arthritic type pains from the joint hypermobility, she will have to get through her teens, an age where she will be feeling self conscious about her looks anyway, wearing a huge, ugly brace with a deformed back and she too will need major surgery to try and correct her back.
You are more than welcome to take either of my childrens disabilities for your child. Please go ahead. In fact you'd be better of having my sons disability for your child as my daughter isn't classed as disabled enough to require DLA.
I will gladly take your husbands health and support and your childs health, then I would be able to pursue my career choice of becoming a carpenter.
I work far more hours than you will ever have had to op. I am up through the night, I'm doing physiotherapy constantly and am in and out of hospitals constantly with my children.
You may also take my poor mental health as a result of this glorious life on benefits I live. I've been admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice following breakdowns I've had from leading my "easy" life, where I was convinced there was nothing to live for and I'd be better off dead.
Take my childs disability please and take his DLA. Him and I would be very glad for you to do this.
I'd love to have the chance to just work a 40 hour week and have weekends and evenings off. What an easy life you live op. I could do night classes and further my career. I could really work at being what I want to be. I'd love to have the opportunities you have. I'd make the most of them rather than whingeing about them blasted horrible people with disabilities and their carers who have such an easy life!

Thank you DoesNotGiveAFig I'll definitely be on the phone to them soon :)

This thread is heartbreaking. I hope the OP and those who feel the same way are truly ashamed of themselves.

We have to watch our outgoings but are lucky enough to have our health, careers we have chosen and an element of freedom of choice within our lives.

I do not begrudge others a bit of financial help, I wish it could be more. All children should have nice things and holidays and no parents should be going without food to provide for their children.

Never judge a person till you have walked a mile in their shoes.

i agree that benefits are shit for people who need them. but my personal experience is:

1. DP's brother is a single man who has lived on benefits for the majority of the last 10-15 years. he has told me he is lazy & does not want to work. he broke his leg a couple of yrs ago (his early thirties). he claims it still causes him pain & hobbles about for show but walks normally when he forgets. his dad has been to see the consultant with him who told him it has healed really well & there was nothing wrong with him. he claims for his 'disability'.

he worked for a year or two, signed up for mortgage protection, then did not apply for any new jobs when made redundant. hid large sums of money from DWP etc. owns his own home, now with no mortage.

1. DP's uncle (single man) who is on benefits (claiming MH problems but is able to give speaches to hundred of people regularly & his problems only manifest when he does not get what he wants) and involved in various frauds involving £10,000s. a family member has reported him.

family members who are teachers and social workers, who deal with children & adults with real & significant needs, think they are lying, lazy so & sos who devote their lifes to getting as much money for not working as they can.

they have obviously screwed up their own lives by such choices but it seems really easy to work the system.

as for the 0.5% fraud figure, either DPs relatives are criminal geniuses or it is quite easy to not get caught. so you dont get recorded as a fraud.

So because some are lazy and screwed up, everyone should be made to suffer, geniune or not. How warped.

very warped
but that is what this thread is

In terms of the fraud figure, logically fraud with disability would be hard to legally prove. With housing benefit for example, it is relatively easy tgo prove if someone lives in a house e.g. surveillance, asking neighbours etc or to prove if someone is working when claiming jsa.

But how do you prove for example that someone isn't in pain or isn't as depressed as they say they are. Very very difficult to actually prove.

Tilly
0,5% is DLA fraud, not all benefits fraud.

and get real. You know a couple of people who scam for money.

Do you know anyone who has been dishonest in other ways? Maybe insurance fraud, or stole something, or tax evasion?

There are dishonest people in all walks of life.

How can anyone read Blueballoon's post and begrudge DLA recipients a penny?

If you know people who are fraudulently claiming, then shop them.

But envious and hateful of people on benefits?

My daughter is writhing around in pain right now till they site her morphine pump. Her gut is ravaged by the aggressive chemo needed to save her life and her cramps are agony.

You envious of that? That we claim money because we can't go out to work due to her illness. That our worst nightmare is she goes through all this and then dies.

Is that worth whatever you think is hard done by in working life?

Full of endless stories of lazy frauds so feel everyone should be punished?

I'd trade you like a shot.

So because some are lazy and screwed up, everyone should be made to suffer, geniune or not. How warped

where did i say that? it just makes the debate pointless if you read it as me saying everyone on benefits is at fault.

expat no. my dad was paralysed so i do know something about disability.

Because that is what 'benefit reform' per the government is about, RealTilly. Universal assumption the jobless are so because they are lazy and scrounging. Look at the ignorance about DLA shown by our own government.

That's the plan, make everyone suffer.

Benefit reform is primarily about cutting the amount of money spent on benefits. This has risen so that we spend a large amount of GDP on benefits. The "argument" is that we should be spending less on benefits.

Tilly
I think that you are saying that it seems like it is easier than reported to screw the system (the 0.5% stat)

The problem is that when someone says that it generally increases the "benefit scrounger" myth.

And this makes it more difficult for those who have to claim because of illness.

Yes, there are people who are dishonest, but what is the solution? Make it harder for everyone to claim to weed out that small percentage who are faking?

expat i largely agree - i do think the tories are using the current economic crisis to dismantle the welfare state. & the speed at which they are pushing the ATOS stuff through is very suspicious.

i favour a slower, better thought out reform.

And the largest percentage of benefits money, lesley, is pensions. It goes to follow, as the population is ageing. But no, we can't talk about cutting that, let's just go for disabled people and their families instead.