To be taken aback this woman is getting DLA?

[lesley33]

Was talking at work with the receptionist about the changes to DLA and the move to PIP. I am worried about how this will negatively affect some people. However I was taken aback when the receptionist said that she would lose lower rate DLA which she got for depression.

I know she had depression a couple of years ago. But since then she has been in work every day and always seemed fine at work. I know people can be depressed and seem fine, but really if you can manage to work with depression then surely you shouldn't be getting DLA?

Just to say she is a very honest type of person and I am sure wouldn't have lied to get DLA. She hasn't been off sick. And what sticks in the throat a bit is I know there are other colleagues on low wages who have honestly struggled with mental health problems during this time such as anxiety and depression.

And I know you can work and get DLA. I just think if your disability is depression and you can work fine then you shouldn't get DLA. I am her manager so I know she has had no sick leave and there are no special measures in place to support her.

I have epilepsy. I have, on average a seizure a week. I used to get DLA when I was working. It covered the costs when my employer insisted I had taken my annual allocation of paid sick leave (of 4 days on a FT, 60hr/wk night-shift job), and I had to take unpaid sick leave because I had either had a seizure before my 10hr shift, or even DURING my 10hr shift. If I went home before I had completed 75% of my shift, then the whole shift was unpaid. Even if I went home via the hospital. I got the sack in the end, due to having yet another seizure at work, losing control of my bladder over a customers shoes. I was already ON a final warning for time off work, this was just the final straw for them, having to pay compensation to an aggreived customer. So, yeah, it was the ONLY thing that had kept me in employment as long as it did.

What about the NHS? If you are in employment, the amount you pay to get your appendix out when you are diagnosed with appendicitis could be paid for on a sliding scale based on income.

Don't want to see the end to your free healthcare? Or free education for your dc? . That's because society bears the costs for those things as a whole. And it should be the same with financial support for the disabled.

Thank you yellowraincoat. I fear though that it's entirely pointless. Attacking disabled people seems to be too popular a sport on this forum.

Did you read my link unperfect?

Where do we draw the line?

my friend has only got movement in his one arm, his DLA pays for a carer to help him 24/7 but with that carer he employs 11 people, is 2/3 through his degree, has a good name in a hobby that is how I have got to know him

Without DLA he will not work. Actually he would literally just sit there until he died, he only speaks because he uses a Voca bought with his DLA.

DS1 has ASD, severe enough that he attends an SNU. I expect him to work one day, we use some of his DLA to buy things to encourage a talent he has that may just make that possible. Without the DLA we'd have been evicted by now from his damage, quite possibly had to hand him into care.

I have another disabled child who can never ever work so I know the difference but without DLA help I suspect he'd have been stuffed. He can't do so many things- at 12 he ahs never been out without a parent even in our quiet Welsh town, his younger brother can; he has no real friends, no social skills, is aggressive- but DLA means we can help him find a way to secure employment working for himself and we can help him with that as Dh has a shop anyway.

DLA cuts down what the state spends on many people.

And yes Kladdaka: as someone said earlier on FB the cuts to disability wo8uldn;t rankle as much if they were made equally to the non disabled- but they are not taking £25 PW off the tax credits of everyone, just those with a child getting MR Care.

(Apols for typing, have my glasses for once but now have an injured finger!)

'If you have some other evidence that says ATOS are actually evil then go ahead and post it.

Well really it's gross incompetence but that borders evil- if you can't cope in this sector you fuck the fuck off.

Why yes it is my sector; I would do that if I harmed anyone.

The 31 people who have died between being assessed as fit for work and the appeal.

The one or two cases of people dying within a day or two of the assessment that found them fit for work

The disabled people killing and threatening to kill themselves over the cuts

this here- that writer is well known and respected in the Sn world, not a faceless blogger at all.

and I almost did it too, if I had not had the sense to see my GP I was so stressed about everything changing i would not be here now. trying to work out how to give your kids a decent life when 3 have a disability, one SN and your DH was made redundant and then the whole system changed can do that.

Luckily I have a good GP.

If you have depression you already receive more help than 99% of people in the world - councilling, medication, doctors, psychaitrists. Now you want money too. Maybe a house would help? Or a car? Or food stamps? Or winter fuel allowance?

How about giving that to people who actually CANNOT help themselves - the impoverished elderly, the severely physically disabled, children from abusive homes. How about not expecting a fucking handout just because you're miserable but are able to work and apparently function without ANYBODY being able to tell otherwise. How incredibly selfish.

The cost of the Welfare State in this country will exceed income tax revenues. Good job. Now the entire thing is being cut to ribbons because every fucking with a limp wants a handout. It's this attitude of taking whatever you can get that is causing people to turn against what was and is a very sound idea.

The Govt took on ATOS to deal with the Medicals because ATOS are actually a very successful American company who do very well throwing out insurance claims ....
( True ).

Ha ha ha. Are you kidding me? Medication? Counselling? Psychiatrists? You clearly have no fucking clue, mate. I get zero help from the NHS.

The elderly and the disabled are also helped.

Misery and depression are totally different things. I hope for your sake you never find that out.

really?

I get meds

NOTHING else.

We even lost the placement at the summer scheme that the boys attend- EVERY NT kid in my town gets a free palce but they haven't got enough staff for the disabled ones.

We get nothing for my depression thanks.

And I don't claim DLA and have no palns to, I want to go back to work and use the degree and MA I have spent eyars accumulating but I would not class myself as severe, more exhausted and beaten down. unsurprisingly it was the alst diagnosis that knocked me. I think I did well staying sane through the first two tbh (a diagnosis not apparent at birth, no I didn;t know, no scans etc etc etc)

I claim DLA for 2 / 3 of my children because they are severely disabled enough to attend special schools; I don't for one becuase I don't think he needs it. DH had very severe depression years ago and never claimed a penny, likewise me now (depression rates in carer families are sky high).

Entitlement complex? the opposite; I have a guilt complex about every bit of help the boys need and who might be missing out instead. But I also see people around me suffering; I worked in a Psych unit (you know where those ;just a bit miserable' people end up), even trained whilst living in at an old style big psych hospital before it was bulldozed.

Am thinking I seriously Get It, somehow. But not DLA, becuase I do not need it. Yet- who knows what tomorrow brings.

oh good, Yellowcoat posted exactly what I was going to.
TUNPF - take your Daily Fail opinions and shove them where the sun doesn't shine - or perhaps take your blinkers off and LEARN something.

And if the bill exceeds tax revenues, then perhaps you should turn your spite and bile towards the people who spend their lives tax-dodging instead.

As before typing injured middle finger etc etc etc yawn sorry

Now the entire thing is being cut to ribbons because every fucking with a limp wants a handout. It's this attitude of taking whatever you can get that is causing people to turn against what was and is a very sound idea.

"every fucking with a limp"? wow, you're a piece of work, aren't you?

It is this sort of entitled, blinkered, selfish attitude that is the real problem.

Don't feed it .....trip trap. Too obvious.

Why can't we tackle both the excess of the welfare bill and tax dodging? Why does it have to be split along those lines?

I think it's split for the same reason people are defending unaffordable government handouts - because liberal politics is based around the idea of "redistribution" of money. i.e. taking it from people, then deciding who "deserves" it more.

I don't think depression can be treated by giving people money. I don't think anyone has ever said "I was depressed until the government gave me a little bit of money". It's nonsense.

Hearhear brdgirl

Dilly stop denying me my fun (although am going to bed now, ds1 seems quiet which either means he is asleep or has got something naughty in process! DH is checking so will go see)

Night!

Dilly - you have a point - but on the other hand, letting him/it expose the staggering depth of his ignorance does have a small point, it lets others (who can bear to) refute his ignorant posts so other lurkers who might be nodding along can see the depths of their ignorance as well. Always good to get the real situations as opposed to the DAily Fail/ Torygraph/ Daily Record style propaganda - but I can also totally understand why some people really CAN'T bear to write down their own situations for edification of numpties.

'I don't think anyone has ever said "I was depressed until the government gave me a little bit of money". It's nonsense.

Erm they called it melancholia years ago. Shakespeare described it. I am currently reading the history of Bedla, and it was about in the 14th century: IIRC beveridge came about a leetle bit later

We had patients at the psych unit in their 80's who had been inmates since they were teens

but the WHO say it so much better!

I bet most of you would defend the fact that everybody, myself included, gets a child benefit allowance even though I don't need it.

And the girls that work at the same shop as my Mum and have all got kids out of wedlock by their own choice because they "want kids"...they get money too. Before they had kids they even found out how much they would be entitled to before deciding to have kids because the benefits would make it just about affordable if and when they decided to quit their jobs or go part time.

Nice isn't it? The way we have enough money in this country to go around. Oh wait a minute. We don't. I know, lets blame the bankers and the rich, that always works.

By your thinking TPF, then noone should get DLA. Giving a deaf person £20 a week isn't going to suddenly make them hear either, or make Stephen Hawking leap to his feet and start pole-dancing.

Weirdo.

That's not my thinking at all. I even said that DLA should be for people who cannot help themselves. People who have no means of income, because they simply cannot get or keep a job because of a serious disability.

As it happens I know a deaf couple, and they have good jobs and don't claim DLA. I doubt their life would be improved if they had a monthly benefit paid to them, andmore than mine would be if I got the money instead.

Look, it's nice to get free money. But someone has to pay for it. Do I think that being depressed is reason enough to get DLA? No. Do I think that people WITH DEPRESSION are going to see my side of it? No of course not.

For anyone left over ask yourself just where you would draw the line when it comes to giving money to people to make their lives easier. There has to be a line, I'm just curious what you think it should be since nobody else has said yet who they think DOESN'T deserve a benefit payout.

I meant "anymore than mine would be"

Giving someone with epilepsy £20 a week isn't going to cure their neurological disability. And taking it away isn't going to make anyone employ someone who is going to have to take significant time off sick. It helps to keep people with disabilities in work. Who, in actual fact, would be paying MORE than £20 a week in income tax, in most cases. So why do YOU get more say in where the tax money is spent than they do?

Do you advocate institutionalising every person with disabilities?

Dave, is that you?

OK, what's YOUR definition of 'People who have no means of income, because they simply cannot get or keep a job because of a serious disability.'?

Does it include those who have been sacked because of their time off sick due to their disability? Does it include those that have been medically retired?

I cannot 'keep a job because of a serious disability'. And I was medically retired from my original profession due to it being barred by law to ANYONE who had had a single seizure after the age of 5yo. Yet due to the welfare reforms, no longer receive any disability benefits. Can't get or keep a job, yet don't get government support EITHER.

And do you know what? When I was suffering from depression, just AFTER my epilepsy diagnosis, I was LESS capable of holding down a job than with 'just' the uncontrolled epilepsy. Oh, I tried. And the DLA helped with that. But ultimately, depression is JUST as severe a disability as uncontrolled epilepsy. And uncontrolled epilepsy is a bitch to live with.

I lost my career, my home, my friends all because I was diagnosed with epilepsy. As an adult. I had a job earning £50k+ pa eight years ago - I would be earning considerably more now. Had I NOT been diagnosed with epilepsy, and had my profession barred to me by law and lost my driving license. I'm sure that the £20 a week DLA made up for that. . I'm SURE it was a lifestyle choice to 'give up' be medically retired a career I had trained hard for, and earnt enough to afford the mortgage on a 3-bed detached house in the SE, within communting distance of London, and instead claim £20 a week DLA. .

Disability doesn't only hit the poor - lots of people are, like me, poor BECAUSE they have been diagnosed with a disability.

Disability doesn't discriminate - People do!