to think that none of the Benefit Frothers..

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

will be man enough to read this article and admit they may have been wrong and misled..

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/05/benefit-cuts-fuelling-abuse-disabled-people

Pp should have read 'dishonestly claiming'.

Seriously wondering if there are two different MN now... Anti-sn crap?

Bumbleymummy, its pretty depressing that you haven't taken anything from the article and it's sort of what I was saying in my OP

I have actually recently seen a poster suggest "institutions" be re-opened, so not much of a step from there to workhouses. Am hoping it was a shit-stirring troll.

Bumbley
This is exactly the point of the thread.

The constant benefit scrounger rhetoric from politicians and press makes it sound like benefit fraud is rife. In fact, the fraud rate is very low and it is extremely difficult to get DLA, even if you are disabled.

Not to say it doesn't happen, but not on the scale that many assume.

And those who have seen for their own eyes that the person is healthy - you would think that my Dad was healthy, if you saw him on a good day. If you catch him on a bad day, when he struggles to catch a breath, you would realise that he gets DLA for a reason.

Not sure why you think I haven't taken anything from it. I just don't see the disability benefits bashing that your OP suggests on MN. IME most people on here are quite sympathetic towards those with disabilities/sn. Unfortunately that isn't reflected in RL.

Seriously, Bumbley? You haven't seen it on MN?

Have you only been posting on Style and Beauty?

And quite frankly I'd rather my taxes went to one person who really is fiddling the system if it meant that 10 others in real need also got the support they deserve.

I'd agree with that, but I'd want to see steps being taken to reduce the number of fiddlers in parallel. I do also think the charities don't always help their cause, because they are prone to cry wolf a lot.

This is a time to cry wolf though!

Well, I hope you have, and am very happy if I am proved wrong on that point :)

Not sure where I've suggested that I think it's rife....anyway..I'll let you get on with your discussion. I'm just not sure your OP actually applies to too many MNers is all...

Whatmeworry
Reducing the present 0.5% benefit fraud is going to be rather tricky. Not sure it is possible.

bumbleymummy Mon 06-Feb-12 21:47:07

"Eh? Where have I said that? I was simply saying that I don't see too many people frothing about disability benefits on MN- most of the frothing seems to be over people complaining about the benefits cap while still managing to buy cigarettes/alcohol/sky tv/mobiles etc"

Are we reading the same MN, bumbley? I have seen plenty of posts in the last few months along the lines of "I know someone who claims DLA, but they are clearly a fraud as they don't look at all disabled/are able to work/walked from the car the other day/can go swimming."

These posts make me deeply uneasy, as I have a dd whose disability is both invisible and intermittent: she has good days, or good half hours, but not enough to be able to attend school on a regular basis, let alone to hold down a fulltime job if she were old enough to do so.

We do not claim any benefits and have not applied for a blue badge, as dd also suffers from depression and we reckon a few choice comments from curtain twitching neighbours might just be enough to tip her over the edge; it's not a risk we can afford to take . But it comes very expensive: everything is more expensive when you have a disabled member of the family.

I have never been near Style and Beauty!

Whatmeworry..I do hope you have read the article before going on about 'reducing the number of fiddlers' on this thread

bumbleymummy, Just read the article, properly. Read it and you might understand what people are telling you.
There have been many threads on here showing animosity towards disabled people. I remember each and everyone of them I've seen, as it saddens me greatly as a mother of two disabled children to see the hatred and ignorance that is being shown towards disabled people nowadays.
Just one thread I can recall was a woman who said she hated disabled people who had more money than her. She knew a genuine claimant who had received a motability car and was jealous- of a disabled person who needed a motability car!
She said she "hated" disabled people! She HATED them.
There have been many similar threads all showing extreme hatred, ignorance and misunderstanding.

Reading the article is not going to tell me anything about people's opinions on MN blue balloon. Maybe you should read my posts again, properly because you seem to think that I'm saying something that I'm not. If you want to change my opinion you could ask me to read the threads that you are talking about. All I have said is that I have not seen that type of animosity towards disabled people on MN . I certainly don't think it is the norm here - thankfully! I hope the people who contributed to those other threads put that person that you mentioned in their place.

That should be reading the article again because I have already read it...

Anyway, good night ladies.

This is the one I was talking about and there has been many, many more.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1378882-to-envy-hate-people-on-benefits-to-be-as-well-off-if-not-better-than-us

Looks like she was slated by the majority...good! My opinion of MN has not been tarnished. Very few people share her opinion - they are just probably quite a vocal minority.

Twas I that made the flippant comment re workhouses, I was commenting on the articles alone rather than linking directly to mn. Although admittedly I too have seen DLA fraudster alert threads in which neighbours are amazingly diagnosed by curtain twitching neighbours.
As someone who works in the mental health system, workhouses/institutions are unfortunately too expensive these days so it was genuinely flippant. I am more likely to visit someone in an unsafe hostel who has none of the benefits of an institution - is socially isolated, unable to get social housing, unlikely to get a landlord that accepts housing benefit/mental health, has been turned down for ESA several times despite being under consultant care & genuinely needing it, day centre has closed due to funding, nhs visits reduced due to funding.
The odd case of the living it up on benefits that is reported is mostly crap, I wouldn't change places, it is a miserable existance for the vulnerable even with the help that we are able to give. The health of the people I work with fluctuates & it is not the role of the general public to decide what they should receive.

Whatmeworry..I do hope you have read the article before going on about 'reducing the number of fiddlers' on this thread

I'm thinking more about the politics. Much easier to sell if there is a "reduce the fiddlers" story.

But the whole point was that these 'easy to sell ' stories are causing misconceptions and real abuse of disabled people.

in the years I have been on mn I have seen so much sn bashing it used to shock me, now Not so much, the jealousy and omg they have something I don't is rife.
the government and their blatant targeting of disabled people was always going to end badly.

I'm someone that has openly said on her that I support some of the welfare reforms. That doesn't mean I agree with cuts to disability benefits.

I completely believe that the £26,000 benefit cap is a good thing and I support it, but again, that doesn't mean I agree with the change to DLA.

I don't think you can complain that welfare reform is wrong just because some ignorant twats go out and abuse disabled people because of it. That is the fault of the media, and the fact that everyone is stuggling financially at the moment, not the reforms.

The media should take more responsibility to report things accurately and to educate people, but if someone is scummy enough to hurl abuse and insults at a disabled person then I doubt it would make much difference even if they were educated.

IUseTooMuch - you are missing the point of the article I feel, it is that disablism has INCREASED in the last year, under this Government and since the increase in hostile (and incorrect) media coverage of disability benefits.

so it DOES make a difference, clearly.