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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that people who are well enough to volunteer stewarding at Festivals every single weekend are well enough to work?

274 replies

TalkinPeace · 07/07/2015 08:36

Person has never worked due to MH and back pain - both of which are directly linked to morbid obesity.
Tells the MH people they are agarophobic, but seem OK in a field all weekend every weekend

and are thus getting into festivals for free when other people have to pay

the whole lot being funded by benefits.

The person is nice enough but if I put it on my FB feed they will see and realise I'm being judgy.
But am I being unreasonable to be annoyed?

OP posts:
MistressDeeCee · 07/07/2015 16:02

If he's morbidly obese how on earth does he stand in a field for hours on end, or even get a role as an event steward?You have to be reasonably fit, you're responsible for attendees health & safety.

I work festivals a few times a year. Im paid, although its minimum wage but of course I do it because it means I can get in without paying 100s for a ticket, and I can see the concert....! Thats what this guy is doing, clearly. Im not a steward btw but still baffled as to how this man passed the basic requirements & initial training, which you are supposed to do even if a volunteer.

Still, Im loathe to judge him tho, its for the authorities to find out about what he's doing, DWP aren't paying me to do their job

AnyoneForTennis · 07/07/2015 16:04

What are the DWP rules on volunteering those amounts of hours whilst claiming?

SunnyBaudelaire · 07/07/2015 16:07

'Agoraphobia' is not 'fear of open spaces' but 'fear of the market place' eg stressy cramped crowded conditions. From the Greek for 'market place'

anyway YABU, why don't you just mind your own business?

vvega · 07/07/2015 16:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RandomMess · 07/07/2015 16:12

If my disabled friends were well enough to even 7 hours per week reliably week in week out they would be thrilled, as it is they're not able to.

If it is 24 hours per week each week for several months of the year for several years then I would report - they will be due a PIP assessment at some point in time anyway as all lifetime awards have been cancelled.

Certainly one of mine less disabled friends did lots of voluntary work at an arts centre so he was able to take on paid work with them as it came up and it took a few months rather than years!!!!

RandomMess · 07/07/2015 16:14

Can I just remind people that the ILF - Independent Living Fund has now been got rid off by the Government so those most disabled people who need assistance for basic care and any sort of social life are being hit hard again...

SoljaBonita · 07/07/2015 16:16

Some people with disabilities can work, but they cannot hold down full time employment.

It used to be that those on esa could do up to 16 hours 'permitted work" per week without it affecting benefits.

SunnyBaudelaire · 07/07/2015 16:18

well I volunteer with a person who claims various disability benefits but looks just fine, inc going to set up a stall at a festival.
Guess what she suffers from epilepsy which caused her to be sacked from her last paid job.
Should she stay at home weeping?

SurlyCue · 07/07/2015 16:18

and are thus getting into festivals for free when other people have to pay

the whole lot being funded by benefits.

Hmm This makes fuck all sense. How is them getting into festivals for free being funded by benefits? I its free its not being funded is it. Did you just get carried away with your frothing and start throwing benefit bashing terms onto your keyboard for good measure?

MaggieJoyBlunt · 07/07/2015 16:21

Did you just get carried away with your frothing and start throwing benefit bashing terms onto your keyboard for good measure?

Grin

Jeremy Kyle!

Sitting on their arse! (what else? Confused )

Leaching!

Ungrateful!!

Other people's MONEY!!!!

SunnyBaudelaire · 07/07/2015 16:22

yes I was going to pick up on

'the whole lot funded by benefits'

ffs, any right thinking person would not give a FUCK about a disabled person getting out by doing some voluntary work at a festival.

To feel aereated by this would suggest someone must have a really really sad life.

Pumpkinpositive · 07/07/2015 16:24

they will be due a PIP assessment at some point in time anyway as all lifetime awards have been cancelled.

Which is questionable in itself.

A colleague posted on FB about the case of a deafblind lady who previously had a lifetime award under the old rules. She now faces being recalled to justify continuing to receive an award, with all the attendant stress and hoopla.

She has an acquired profound hearing loss. But the blindness she was born with, namely, because she was born with no eyes.

What is it about those circumstances that could actually change in the future? Hmm

AnyoneForTennis · 07/07/2015 16:25

Disabled due to obesity? I'm not massively sympathetic to tha tbh

vvega · 07/07/2015 16:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BrendaBlackhead · 07/07/2015 16:29

'Agoraphobia' is not 'fear of open spaces' but 'fear of the market place' eg stressy cramped crowded conditions. From the Greek for 'market place'

Well, unless it's an extremely unpopular festival, I doubt whether a person being a steward could avoid crowds. Can you imagine being an agoraphobe at Download?!

ilovesooty · 07/07/2015 16:30

DLA is/was not an out of work benefit.

I know a volunteer in the support ESA group who has severe mental health difficulties coupled with severe social anxiety. He volunteers when he feels well enough - usually a day a week, sometimes more. He lost his last job when he couldn't reliably get out of bed several times a week and interact with people. Since his breakdown he struggles to talk to people he doesn't know and will only answer a phone to one or two people.

I'm glad he doesn't have to be judged by half the people on this thread. His volunteering placement are happy to accept what he can turn up and do.

deriant · 07/07/2015 16:30

Except you don't get agrophobia because you are fat.

MaggieJoyBlunt · 07/07/2015 16:34

Except you don't get agrophobia because you are fat.

Says who?

It could be complex and multi-factoral. It might well be a chicken and egg puzzle or a downward spiral.

BreconBeBuggered · 07/07/2015 16:35

Christ. Is anyone here doing a spreadsheet now?

Disabled due to obesity? I'm not massively sympathetic to tha tbh

I know. Some people need to get off their arses and go and do some w...

Oh.

AnyoneForTennis · 07/07/2015 16:36

At is is true, but they need to sign off the benefits first....

MaggieJoyBlunt · 07/07/2015 16:36

Incidentally what part of their anatomies DO the reactionary, poor-bashing types sit on?

SunnyBaudelaire · 07/07/2015 16:36

" Well, unless it's an extremely unpopular festival, I doubt whether a person being a steward could avoid crowds. Can you imagine being an agoraphobe at Download?! "

I have no idea, I was just picking up on OP who seemed to think that agoraphobia was something to do with fields.

" Tells the MH people they are agarophobic, but seem OK in a field all weekend every weekend "

It is a common mistake and I am a pedant, OK. But it is not ''Agri-phobic' as in agriculture.

LegoComplex · 07/07/2015 16:37

yabu.. it's not your business what he does at weekends, and as a pp said, it doesn't sound like their life is a barrel of laughs so why not be happy that they can get out and enjoy some social interaction now and again. If anything it may aid recovey fo future employment so good on them!

BeyondTheWall · 07/07/2015 16:40

Does anyone here have any idea what it is like for a 'genuine' disabled person to read these kind of threads?

To never know which things you do are being judged by people you know and viewed as proof that you are 'not disabled enough'. To be worried of mentioning how you spend your money for fear of people being jealous of your "free money from the government". To be scared every time the post comes that it will be the DWP taking away the money you need to feed your children, because someone has reported you taking a bag of rubbish out to the bin.

Oh and yes, if someone speaks to me about it, i will be blasé about my needs. Funnily enough, i dont want to go into details about my exact care requirements with every nosey person who asks.

"But we dont mean genuine disabled people"

SurlyCue · 07/07/2015 16:40

Well i dont know about anyone else but i stick my finger up my fat arse and sit on my elbow. Only possible due to many hours spent perfecting the manouevre whilst not working.

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