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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think this hardship payment is slightly unfair?

176 replies

RoseRedder · 05/12/2013 20:06

An old friend of mine contacted me to ask if I would buy his asda vouchers from him so he could shop at farmfoods and put some money on his electricity meter.

It transpires that his ESA benefit has been stopped (no appeal) and he applied for a crisis loan however this no longer exist so was given a hardhip payment which was 2 cards for Asda each with £10 on that can be used for food (so no tobacco etc)

I had heard that this was being considered but I didn't realise it had happened?

Is this not the equivalent of saying benefit claimants can't be trusted, or I'm I reading to much in to it?

The other problem is he has no Asda within walking distance and no money to get the bus there and back to one (£3) but does have an Aldi, Lidl, farmfoods and Iceland close by.

Would it not make more sense to be able to use shops that offer more value for money?

OP posts:
IamInvisible · 05/12/2013 22:20

If people should be showing a bit of "gratitude for the states generosity", let's start with the champagne swilling wankers who are running the country shall will?

Instead of them having a "John Lewis list" and being able to claim £4.5k a year for gas and electric, then food etc, let's chuck them a few Asda cards, limit them to essentials and see how they get on! I bet they show fuck all gratitude, just like they do now when they are milking us dry!

Fontofnowt · 05/12/2013 22:23

I would be really interested to see factual data on what people do spend benefit monies on.
I know we are supposed to believe the shock stories that benefit scroungers are watching sky on their flat screens smoking weed and popping out kiddies twice a year....
I've seen, and been outraged, the pantomime characters on the dole and proud etc.
Still doesn't convince though.
The frothy mouth appetite is satisfied with those extremes but the small quiet bits like the facts I.e. pensioners account for the biggest slice of welfare budget or the majority of housing benefit claimants are in work.
We are being led by the nose and our common sense blacked out by shock media reports.

IamInvisible · 05/12/2013 22:23

A blind woman with spinal injuries, who can not walk unaided was declared fit to work by ATOS after only one question. They asked if she came to her medical by bus, she answered yes, that was it medical over, fit to work.

They are criminals. They are given bonuses to declare people fit to work!

WooWooOwl · 05/12/2013 22:23

You could suggest your friend get in touch with the MS society. There's a helpline that might be able to give him advice.

NigellaLaw5on · 05/12/2013 22:23

The old adage "beggars can't be choosers" springs to mind.

Misspixietrix · 05/12/2013 22:25

Urbane no she means failed a medical with Atos. They're the Health Care Professionals who only have to take up a two week 'accredited' not by any medical profession course to be qualified to diagnose and have a wide range of knowledge in a million different health problems which takes most GPs years to diagnose.

Misspixietrix · 05/12/2013 22:28

"isn't it a wonderful thing for the State to declare you not needy of ESA". It is also a wonderful thing to think you will never fall ill. End up paralysed from the waist down after a freak accident but shit happens. Thank goodness there's still some support out there for such unfortunate or they would all be in the Workhouses.

perplexedpirate · 05/12/2013 22:29

Beggars?! Fuck me...I just can't even start with that one.

Angry
ShylaMcClaus · 05/12/2013 22:31

My DC has a medical condition and according to her consultant, "she knows more about this as a child than most GPs or A&E doctor's will ever know"

ATOS will be just fine, then Hmm

minsmum · 05/12/2013 22:31

One of the London boroughs , I think it was Islington but could be wrong, did a survey of the people in the borough who failed the atos test. 87% won on appeal. It is a scandal

Fannydabbydozey · 05/12/2013 22:31

It's made me angry too. Dehumanising. How are you supposed to pick yourself up if you keep being pushed back down?

Urbane, don't you feel "there for the grace of god etc?" I do. I'll tell you a story. A friend was once in a highly paid job in a glam career. He had a great apartment, lovely life... He was well respected. One job move later and he was made redundant. A couple of years later his savings were gone, his flat was about to be repossessed, his job hunting was hampered by the hideous depression he was fighting ever since his jobs loss. He was fighting for money to pay the bills virtually all the time. Three weeks ago he killed himself.

Things are a struggle for so, so many people, last christmas I hadn't a bean. I've managed to save a bit this year, but a couple of pounds a week would be eaten up way too quickly if I didn't earn for a month. Unexpected poverty could hit any of us.

ShylaMcClaus · 05/12/2013 22:32

Erroneous apostrophe Shock

I am seething a bit.

sutekidane · 05/12/2013 22:32

Do any of the people who are making snarky comments realise that it's only luck that stops you being these "beggars"? I think some people get a certain joy out of looking down on those whose life isn't going to plan and don't realise all it takes is a change in your life and you could be in the same boat.

IamInvisible · 05/12/2013 22:33

Beggars!!!Angry

Fucking Hell!!!Angry

You do know everyone is an accident or illness away from a disability? No job is 100% secure?

That could quite well come back and bite you on the arse one day!

Misspixietrix · 05/12/2013 22:35

minsmum that's what you would expect given 2weeks 'medical' training is meant to be sufficient. Then again I would not expect more of a registered IT Trademark Company who decided to make a branch company and pretend they knew all about Health. Sad really isn't it.

Original poster
RoseRedder · 05/12/2013 22:36

MissPixieTrix he tried but was told they whole claim had been closed and there was no appeal?

From what I've been able to gather today that is wrong, however until he gets it sorted through the red tape etc he is essentially without any money what so ever.

I'd like to be able to help him but I don't have spare money. I have swapped his vouchers for £20 cash but that's about all I can personally do at the moment (I'm on benefits myself)

It is also worrying that his landlord is now threatening eviction as his housing benefit also stopped when his ESA got cancelled

It just all seems like a huge mess, I'd like to help more but I'm not sure what I can do?

I'm feeling like crap a bit now because I worked for years too before circumstances found me in a situation unable to work and reading Urbans post on why don't these people have savings just makes me , and I sure many other people feel like worthless, embaressed idiots

OP posts:
carabos · 05/12/2013 22:37

Once you realise that the only thing this government is interested in is making life easier and more profitable for big business and better returns for shareholders in big business then it all makes sense.

Nothing demonstrated that more clearly than the Chancellor's speech today. Real incomes are at 2003 levels and our public services have been decimated, but business is flourishing. Each and every one of us has personally paid for this growth and has nothing to show for it.

Misspixietrix · 05/12/2013 22:38

ShylaMcClaus they are very sly and slightly stupid too. All I will say is document and question EVERYTHING when the time comes.

GobbySadcase · 05/12/2013 22:38

There you go. The arseholes have erupted.
I know it makes me evil but I do wish disability or sickness on them which makes them reliant on the benefits they so deride.

GobbySadcase · 05/12/2013 22:39

Oh Rose, get him to reapply for HB on. 'Zero income' claim

Fontofnowt · 05/12/2013 22:41

I hope some of these opinions are just goady I'm alrightjack people who will never know a days discomfort.
And if you do fall on your arse I hope someone like me, a gullible sod who doesn't listen labels like beggars or scroungers or feckless or workshy etc, gives you the help you need.
It'd be funny if it wasn't so fucking desperate for some.

Misspixietrix · 05/12/2013 22:41

It's Bullshit OP. Tell him to get in contact with his MP. They have so much clout with having contacts to people at 'the top' so to say.

minsmum · 05/12/2013 22:44

Housing benefit should be easy to sort out. Tell him to take in his bank statements which will prove that no money is going into his account and make a statement that he has no income and is appealing the esa decision.

IamInvisible · 05/12/2013 22:45

Rose ignore her. Most of us don't have savings. The cost of living is spiralling out of control and wages/benefits are not keeping up so there is no spare money for most of us.

We are a one income family because I am disabled. This Government think I am the lowest of the low, they want other people to think people like me are the drains on society, but we aren't. We didn't cause the problems in this country.

The Government could sort out this mess without all these cuts if they went after the Phillip Greens, Amazons, Starbucks of this world, but they don't want to. The millionaires are actually better off now than they were before the Tories got in because of tax cuts, while the rest of us suffer. That speaks volumes.

Misspixietrix · 05/12/2013 22:46

Housing Benefit can do a Nil Income assessment. They won't tell you that unless you let them know you're aware such a thing exists. Get him to take the eviction letter down with him if he has one it helps moves thingsto tthe top of the pile. Don't mean to sound patronising but does he have a foodbank near him? the Jobcentre should be able to refer him in such circumstances or failing that some local churches and doctors etc can refer to I believe.