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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to be incensed at the inequalities in the benefit system? (long sorry)

258 replies

Libran70 · 27/01/2014 10:48

I read MN every day and think how awful it is that so many people are struggling to cope on inadequate benefits and of the nit picking interviews they have to go through to get anything extra. And then there's ASOS causing so much upset and forcing disabled people to justify their existence.

I know there is a very small minority who play the system but they seem to be the only ones we ever hear about. So many people are struggling, no one should have to go to a food bank to feed their children.

However, there are cases where the money could be shuffled around and aimed at those really struggling.

My cousin is autistic and she lives in a wonderful complex within the community. She has a flat (bedroom, kitchen, living room, bathroom) and there is a care worker on call 24/7. SWs call daily to help her prepare meals, do her washing, take her shopping and so on. She also has an active social life, organised by SS and a local charity. She also has a supported job washing up in an old people's home close by. She sees her remaining parent every weekend and they go on holiday together. She pays for her own holidays and some of the care from her allowances.

This really is an example of excellent care. She was recently reassessed and she is entitled to every penny she gets in allowances and benefits.

However, she has a five figure amount of money in savings. All of this is saved from her benefits and allowances. I hope she has a long life ahead of her but when she dies this money and a lot more, I guess, will go to her family.

AIBU in thinking that this would not be fair? And AIBU in thinking she is getting far too much (at the moment) and there are people out there who need it more?

OP posts:
jacks365 · 27/01/2014 17:07

Because of the way the government is trying to divide and rule I would expect them to inflate the rates of false claims rather than lower them. Lower rates implies deserving cases and we all know the government want to discredit anyone who claims to justify cutting the welfare bill.

JakeBullet · 27/01/2014 17:10

Given the obvious agenda of this Govt to cut public spending Woo I think it would be definitely in their interests to give the numbers of fraudulent claims as accurately as possible. So if they say 1% or less I believe them!

5HundredUsernamesLater · 27/01/2014 17:10

fanjo
Why do you presume that someone with a difference of opinion to you on certain things knows nothing. I will read the DLA forms AGAIN when the renewal is due, sometime later this year. Then I will fill them in AGAIN.

I know quite a few people who have stretched the truth and been awarded benefits they shouldn't really be getting and like I said, if you haven't been caught then you haven't been counted.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 27/01/2014 17:14

Well I am frankly astonished you are acquainted with the forms and still think it is easy to commit DLA fraud and loads of people to do it.

Almost cant believe it.

WilsonFrickett · 27/01/2014 17:15

I don't think it's mean spirited to wish that those in need has more resources from the limited pot.

But your cousin is in need because she is disabled. I cannot get worked up about her having a few grand in the bank. She will never live on her own, never get an independent job, never be able to do 1001 of the things I do every day and take utterly for granted. I do not care that she has managed to save some money. I wish she could take it all and spends it on a big, huge, massive, fuck off party or holiday or car or sensory room or something that will give her pleasure because her life is full of challenge and difficulty at every turn. Instead she will end up spending it on her care at some point in her life.

So meh. YABU.

Owllady · 27/01/2014 17:17

Let's not forget the figures don't actually show a true reflection of those who have been awarded a lower rate than they should have either. I would bet this figure is . Much higher

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 27/01/2014 17:17

Hear hear.

Id be ashamed to post that OP, tbh.

JakeBullet · 27/01/2014 17:20

How many people out there "haven't been caught" then?

Personally I don't know ANYBODY getting DLA who doesn't need it. People have good days and bad days....so you might see someone doing well one day who would not look so able on another day.....but there is space on the DLA form to say this. DS gets DLA as he is autistic....he gets middle rate care and lower rate mobility. Some days he is great.....other days....and more commonly he needs more input.

Likewise his request to meet from school....."up the road by the shops Mum" filled me with horror as he is a dizzy daydream by roads and totally thrown by noises (the reason he gets lower rate mobility DLA). I have declined this request.....but sit in the car by the school so he doesn't have the indignity of his Mum meeting him Grin

Thing is disability is not always obvious....so even if you think someone is being fraudulent then the chances are they are not.

candycoatedwaterdrops · 27/01/2014 17:21

Your cousin's supported living is most likely funded through social services, NOT the benefit system. So, why are you making this about benefits? Also, every single person is expected to contribute to their social care package, so she will be using some of her benefits for that.

TheLightPassenger · 27/01/2014 17:23

what wilson said in her 17:15 post. in its entirety.

candycoatedwaterdrops · 27/01/2014 17:23

DLA should be means tested? Are you serious??!! Bet you aren't disabled or in receipt of DLA!

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 27/01/2014 17:24

Wilson is on fire today Grin

JakeBullet · 27/01/2014 17:25

Candy is right a lot of her benefit will be taken to contribute to her care package. What you are seeing is what is left over from this, my grandmother built up nearly £9k over several years in a nursing home. The money paid for her funeral and the headstone when she died. There was little left after that.

JakeBullet · 27/01/2014 17:28

DLA should definitely NOT be means tested. I got it for DS while in work and it helped fund several therapies designed to support him. It has also ensured that while he needed me I could take a period of time out of work and concentrate on him.

5HundredUsernamesLater · 27/01/2014 17:29

fanjo
I really don't want to argue with you but I know lots of people who grossly exaggerate their disability to make sure they get money and I know of one who has nothing wrong with him but laziness. He has the doctors baffled as he seems unable to move without being in excruciating pain. Scans etc have been unable to she'd any light on it but this mystery illness has prevented him from working for a while. He has been awarded DLA and still gets it despite one of his neighbours reporting him and sending photos of him digging his garden and up a ladder cleaning his windows.
As i said before he hasn't been caught so he hasn't been counted.

candycoatedwaterdrops · 27/01/2014 17:30

Also, her social worker will have done a financial assessment, so I'm sure she can't have had that much.

Dawndonnaagain · 27/01/2014 17:32

Give up 5hundred, nobody believes you.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 27/01/2014 17:34

Yes ..what dawndonna said

wetaugust · 27/01/2014 17:35

5HundredUsernamesLater

If you feel that strongly then you should report him too.

As a veteran of 4 DLA assessments I can assure you that they don't dish it out on heresay. There will be supporting medical evidence.

5HundredUsernamesLater · 27/01/2014 17:37

I do give up.
But think that you are very naive if you think fraudulent claims are really that low.

AmberLeaf · 27/01/2014 17:41

Anecdote is not data.

5HundredUsernamesLater · 27/01/2014 17:47

wetaugust
That is not the sort of thing I would do. I try to live and let live.
I think it's quite sad that someone pretends to be more disabled than they are for financial gain and is an insult to people that are genuinely disabled but it is still a fact that people do it and get away with it.

wetaugust · 27/01/2014 18:00

I try to live and let live.

No you don't.

You come on internet forums moaning about supposed benefit cheats you personally know of.

But when there is a course of action you could take you prefer to stand on the sidelines, clutching your pearls and expressing disgust at all these frauds.

You are the fraud here.

Does this guy you know who leaps tall buildings with a single bound also keep a goat, perchance?

twinkletoedelephant · 27/01/2014 18:00

My brother is in full time residential care we have always been told if his savings go above 8000 this can then be taken away from him - we try to make sure this dosnt happen and he pays for activities he enjoys horseriding / skiing for the disabled etc
And has at least 2 holidays year - it's good he has some money put aside for things New bed / clothes DVD player can pay a extra carer to take him out etc...

The staff in his home quite like taking him for a work assessment - to be honest he does like a day out and new people to chat too :)

He can absolutely not be left for any length of time which is why ss pay for him to have 24 hour care

WooWooOwl · 27/01/2014 18:02

I believe you 5hundred, I know someone who does the same.

If you are a good enough liar, getting the evidence you need isn't difficult.

Given the obvious agenda of this Govt to cut public spending Woo I think it would be definitely in their interests to give the numbers of fraudulent claims as accurately as possible.

The government doesn't need to make one of its own departments look completely incompetent to drum up public support for cutting the welfare bill, there is already enough.