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

[TalkinPeace]

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?

Moving on to a different aspect of this - I've never been to a festival. What does a steward do? If it involves getting training and being on duty for 12 hours at a stretch, why isn't it paid? That sounds very like those unpaid internships to me. The people who run festivals are not all doing it for love, are they? How can they get away with making money out of an event they organise and not paying the staff?

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

I do agree, but if you stopped frothing for two seconds you'd realise that isn't the issue here.

MH problems are not a permanent, incurable disability in the way that being born with no eyes or cerebral palsy (for ex.) are. Yes, they do "ebb and flow" but if in the case of the OP's friend they ebb and flow when it suits the sufferer to go out and work then it isn't unreasonable to question someone's entitlement to them. Disability benefits are not granted based on whether you want to work or not, but whether you are physically/mentally capable of working.

I don't think the OP's friend is a fraud btw, but rather that they've got themselves stuck in a rut of claiming benefits because they're afraid of taking the next step of coming off of them and returning (or joining) the rest of the working world.

" Funnily enough, i dont want to go into details about my exact care requirements with every nosey person who asks. "

spot on wall.

beyond - nah.... I just know there are a bunch of wankers on here tbh

How can they get away with making money out of an event they organise and not paying the staff?
FWIW they pay most of the artists a pittance too ...
there is lots of money being made at festivals but no trickle down at all

Ps, i have agoraphobia and went to download.

" do agree, but if you stopped frothing for two seconds "

you know I HATE THAT, being told you are 'frothing' because you have an opinion. No I am not fucking 'frothing' the OP is.

Saucyjack
you have described the person very accurately indeed

• they have never worked for money
• they have always lived on benefits, even in childhood
• it scary to make the change

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.

If what you are saying is true OP, this person won't get PIP anyway. Everyone on DLA is being reassessed for PIP, and it is hard to get.

It is hard to know from the outside. Some people work with severe disabilities, but sometimes people who seem fine when you meet them, can have a crippling disability.

Although I have read some rubbish on MN such as saying that someone who is incontinent can't work.

ESA is spit into two groups. Most are put into the "work-related activity" group, and are expected to do various things - on pain of benefit sanctions - including work placements (aka workfare) for up to 30hrs a week; this can go on indefinitely.

These are people who are considered too unwell or disabled for paid employment. The reason they can be sent to work for 30hrs in, say, Poundland, is because the government has re-branded this work as "work-related activity".

So it looks like your friend has found their very own "work-related activity", without even being forced by the DWP! Good on her/him! Just the sort of keen, positive attitude needed, you should be applauding them

Oh, and it's incredibly hard to qualify for help/support from "the MH people" so if your friend does, there must be an awful lot you don't know about.

Plus if you envy this person going to festivals etc, "standing round in a field", and would rather they volunteered elsewhere, it rather suggests you see it as more fun than work. So you've answered your own question as to how the person manages but can't manage paid employment.

If it was paid they would still do it. So why can't they get a job doing this kind of work?

As long as you don't mind employees who only turn up on days they feel well enough, leave early when things get too much, and you're planning to pay them enough for one day's work to cover a whole week, then of course you can offer them a job doing this kind of work, AnyoneForTennis.

There must be tonnes of employers like that.

It is always hard to judge from the outside what people have to deal with on a daily basis, so I would always be cautious. I realise more now than ever (having been ill since the beginning of the year) that just because someone can function for short bursts of time doesn't mean they would be capable of working 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

It does sound very strange though - an agoraphobic choosing to help at a festival.

How unlike you to focus on the person's weight, Talk.

How can you do 30 hours work placement if you are ill?

This person is off doing a 3 day festival stint! What are you on about.... Leaving early/not turning up? At they also sleeping in a tent in true festival spirit?

No. Can't be. They have a 'bad back'

Going back to the business aspect of running a festival:

People are paying to attend.
People are paying for the privilege of a food concession.
Some people are being paid to work there.
There are health and safety requirements to meet.

In all these circumstances, why would a festival organiser take on a volunteer who couldn't be relied on to turn up and do a good job? Surely just like an employer they would want the roster to be filled with people who can be relied on for the whole shift?

This sounds a totally different kind of volunteering from doing a few hours in a charity shop where there are usually lots of volunteers and rotas are put together on the assumption that on any given day at least one won't be there (judging by the one my mum used to help in).

As I said in my previous post, how on earth do festival organisers get away with not paying for this amount of work?

Thread here recently with HR person saying she thinks people on sick leave who go to coffee shops are swinging the lead.

My big target for myself this year is to get out of the house by hook or by crook at least once a month. On a good day, after the chore needed to justify the taxi fare, my reward and recuperation is to sit in a coffee shop getting my dose of Outside World ("Is that what they're wearing now? Good grief!") before crawling back indoors.

I am now beyond caring how anyone punishes me for this. As a PP said, you can be accused of fraud just for taking rubbish to the bins, or hanging laundry on a good day, or watering the plants.

Thread here recently with HR person saying she thinks people on sick leave who go to coffee shops are swinging the lead.

What a twat. Is someone supposed to nail your door shut, like a plague house, if you're off sick?

It depends why you are off sick. If you are off sick with flu, then yes you shouldn't be in coffee shops.

Thread here recently with HR person saying she thinks people on sick leave who go to coffee shops are swinging the lead.
That HR person in an arrogant fool who has clearly never had any sort of chronic injury or illness.

Gasp
how on earth do festival organisers get away with not paying for this amount of work?
Same way the Fashion industry and the meejah and political parties get away with not paying.
People think they are getting into the glamorous lifestyle at the big festivals
and the little festivals could never afford the number of staff that H&S gone mad expects them to have now.