Vaguely know a lady from a slimming class and bumped into her yesterday in supermarket.
Made the mistake of saying hello, how are you and then the floodgates opened up - that her benefits had been stopped and she was waiting for a doctors letter to be sent to office to see if they would be reinstated. How did they expect her to survive on just housing benefit and child benefit and how she had to borrow £50 to do the shopping, her son needed new shoes and on and on and on...
I said well, it is understandable that if certain claimants are using a bad back as an excuse and they are roofing on the side then it is right that they are being assessed, to which she replied that she had a bad back and was being assessed, how she couldn't walk far etc etc and yet was quite happily carrying a basket and swinging it around!!!
I am very black and white re benefits and think you have to be incapacitated to receive them and not just have a bad back occasionally but that could open up a whole other thread!!!
Anyway, politely said hope it all gets sorted but was actually thinking, if you can afford a pet, run a car and pay for a weekly slimming class you are not in dire straights and perhaps should think about looking for some paid employment instead of bitching about your benefits being stopped.