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Original poster

Disability cuts

298 replies

Springsummer123 · 12/03/2016 08:35

Name changed as obviously sensitive subject and don't want to put myself .i possibly don't know enough on this so am interested in other views . I may have only seen a small percentage - I'm insure ?
I have 2 sisters . One has had a stroke .which had devestated the family . She is quite well off yet has been upset she will loose a benifit that I believe is for her husband being her carer . Ok discussion to try to ease her fears it's very clear they don't need it . They can afford all care , holidays good standard of living on her payout . Number of property's all fully owned out right . Yet she thinks she should get it as some sort of compensation for the stroke .i can see why she would be angry with life but she doesn't need the money ? Surely it's right to be cut ?
My second sister works with adults with autism . She was saying they are struggling to spend the last part of their money entitlement before the next claim . I know they have holidays etc and their is still money over ( my sister accompanied many times )
So I'm wondering in some cases should the disability benifits be cut ?

OP posts:
exWifebeginsat40 · 12/03/2016 15:47

I live on benefits - ESA support group, higher rate Care PIP, lower rate mobility. however, to look at me you wouldn't see most of the reasons I get these benefits or understand that I'm disabled.

I bring in a spectacular, giddy £800 a month. I get housing benefit but of course it doesn't cover my rent. along with my bills (live alone, 2 cats obviously!) it's very difficult to make ends meet.

I consider myself lucky that I'm not in the firing line, yet. this government is disgusting, inhuman and inhumane. I attend a support group run by Mind (there is no therapy available here on the NHS, just like there are no crisis admission beds, or adequate secondary services) and week by week people are picked off by the Tory snipers and lose support and services.

also, just for fun, my physical issues mean lots of surgeries so in addition to this I'm also in constant pain.

£800 a month. hardly lavish, but sadly more than some people get. we are sleepwalking into more and more cuts, and legislation is being either forced or snuck through so what chance do the sick and disabled have?

doesn't exactly help with anxiety, Mr Duncan Smith. try it for a month or so, see how you get on.

ExConstance · 12/03/2016 16:49

The news item today said that people who needed help to use the toilet and get dressed would be subject to cuts, and that the 40% rate of tax would be paid by less people with the savings made. I find it hard to see there is any justifiable reason for this. The OP raises the issue of whether savings might be possible through means testing. I'd prefer to see some form of compulsory insurance (not NI) which would pay out when rare but catastrophic events happen to people. I don't think OP is being unreasonable on attemtping to discuss means testing of certain benefits.

Bubblesinthesummer · 12/03/2016 16:57

I'd prefer to see some form of compulsory insurance (not NI) which would pay out when rare but catastrophic events happen to people.

And how would people pay for it? What if you are born with a disability?

AYD2MITalkTalk · 12/03/2016 16:58

Means testing is quite expensive. Lots and lots of disabled people are on a low income - putting all the admin in place to means test would probably cost more than the meagre savings you'd get from denying benefit to a few better-off people (many of whom may not be claiming anyway - applying is hard work and probably not worth it if you're well off enough; before my partner was too ill to work, he'd have only had to work an extra half-hour a week to earn what I get in DLA).

MrsVamos · 12/03/2016 17:10

So shall we means test the Winter Fuel Allowance for the elderly, then ?

Oh no, that wouldn't work would it - because its too blooming expensive. Hmm

Can't have one set of rules for some sectors of society but not others. Oh, but we do !

Some people need to think before they type.

MrsVamos · 12/03/2016 17:12

Page

Much as its a lovely idea, its far more likely the Chancellor will not raise fuel, fag or drink duty by as much as he wants to appease the public. Sad

Potatoface2 · 12/03/2016 17:16

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

ilovesooty · 12/03/2016 17:20

DLA and PIP are not out of work benefits. When did you get your medical qualifications then?

AYD2MITalkTalk · 12/03/2016 17:20

Cool, next time I'm forced into a psychiatric hospital to prevent me killing myself, or piss myself in bed because I can't summon the energy to go to the toilet, I'll just remind myself that depression is a con and I could work if I really wanted to. What a relief.

MrsVamos · 12/03/2016 17:23

No words...Sad

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 12/03/2016 17:33

You can work and pay tax while on DLA and PIP.

I'm sick of us working and paying taxes to help support whinging Tories.

BeckerLleytonNever · 12/03/2016 17:40

HQ- instead of deleting threads like this, (and please don't-diability hate crime is worse than ever),

why don't youget the tory partys web address and send all these disablitly threads to THEM......

not that theyd bother to read them,or even care.

fucking bastards.

they are MURDERERS, that's what they are.

Samcro · 12/03/2016 17:48

my adult child would happily change places with the "hard working tax payers"who begrudge the benefits she gets.
but they have to have her severe disability in exchange.

gosh poor things having to go to work....cos not being able to walk/talk/feed your self/wipe your own bum and so on......thats fucking breeze.

Dawndonnaagain · 12/03/2016 17:53

everyone of us knows someone who is playing the system
I don't.
i know it must be stressful to be asked to prove your disability, but its also stressful going to work day in day out as well... (sic).
How dare you compare the two. Although having said that, the sentence is a clear demonstration of the total empathy bypass that seems to have taken place in your brain. Certainly the hole where your soul used to be is as black as can be. Don't you think that there are thousands of people with disabilities, disabilities like bad backs, like depression that want to work? Obviously not, but there are. There are thousands of people with other disabilities that would like to work too, just as there are some people with disabilities already in work. However, your beloved government has changed the rules thereby making it harder for those with disabilities to work and harder for those with disabilities to claim benefits. Mind you, they've done well conning some folk, haven't they.

Bubblesinthesummer · 12/03/2016 17:57

i know it must be stressful to be asked to prove your disability

Your ignorance shines through.

You really have no fucking idea.

DontCareHowIWantItNow · 12/03/2016 17:58

i know it must be stressful to be asked to prove your disability, but its also stressful going to work day in day out as well

How can you even compare the two situations.

Ignorant to the extreme.

MrsVamos · 12/03/2016 18:00

Becker, Samcro Dawn Bubbles

Thanks Thanks Thanks Thanks

Appreciate all your hard efforts. Won't do any good though.

Hopefully, because Dawn allowed the thread to stay people will read and be stunned at the ignorance of some.

Some. Not all, unfortunately. Sad

NeedsAsockamnesty · 12/03/2016 18:02

I can say this has a lot of truth in it. I know this for a fact as I worked in a supported home for adults with DS and we had to go out for meals and extra holidays to spend the money or we ran the risk of losing the funding. I also have a relative who works with adults with LD and they have to do the same and they struggle to spend the money

You are talking about a totally different benefit to PIP

LuisSuarezTeeth · 12/03/2016 18:03

i know it must be stressful to be asked to prove your disability, but its also stressful going to work day in day out as well

Bolllocks of the day award for you.

PhilPhilConnors · 12/03/2016 18:03

I don't know anyone who is playing the system, however, I know plenty of people who believe that anyone receiving DLA is playing the system.
Claiming that two parents not working to care for two disabled children are making a lifestyle choice in not working.
Suggesting to everyone listening that so and so claims thousands in DLA every year for her disabled DC just to fund her extravagant lifestyle.
Comparing a child's need for a certain very expensive household item which will give better quality of life and improve the child's health with their need to have a flash car to improve their lifestyle.

The only people I know who are upset about this government's shitty decisions are those affected by them. Those that aren't couldn't give a fuck, and I suspect they won't until it means they are personally affected.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 12/03/2016 18:05

potato

No everybody does not know someone who is considered to be disabled enough to claim PIP but faking it.

Most people will never even meet one person in their entire life who is

PageStillNotFound404 · 12/03/2016 18:11

I go to work day in day out. I wish I didn't have to. I'd love to win the lottery so I could give it up.

I wouldn't swap it for my disabled DH's situation if you offered to give me double my current salary in benefits. Not for one second. And that's not empty rhetoric. He has half a life. He's a good person. He has hopes and dreams, just like you do. He deserves so, so much better than his lot. At the very least, he deserves to be treated like a human being with dignity by a system supposed to be in place to support him and his ilk. He deserves not to be judged by people who have no fucking clue what it's like to live with a crippling disability.

AndNowItsSeven · 12/03/2016 18:14

Potato I consider working a luxury that will never be afforded to me again.
Don't you think I would give up my " free car" and and my care allowance in a heart beat to be able to walk ,have the dignity to wash my own naked body and be pain free.
Next month I have to prove my disability yet again.

PageStillNotFound404 · 12/03/2016 18:15

And I don't know anyone playing the system. Through some of my DH's support groups I know plenty of people who have been let down by the system, and some more who have given up because the system involves so many hoops to jump through, and a rare few who, with expert help from the likes of CAB and Pathways have navigated their way through the system in the way you'd expect it to work and received what they are genuinely entitled to in a relatively straightforward way. I probably know a damn sight more who are in receipt of disability benefits who I know nothing about because it's none of my fucking business.

But fakers and system players...no. 'Fraid not.

Potatoface2 · 12/03/2016 18:17

i myself have been hospitalised after being severly depressed....trying to kill myself and self harming....i find that working gives me something else to focus on now that i am well (ish) i still have anxiety/have episodes of dread and sometimes do not feel like going to work, but i do....keeping busy has been proved to be beneficial in depression....im not ignorant....im not someone who expects everyone to be the same as me.....i also know someone who claims carers allowance and has done for the last 4 years but they dont even live in the country the person they are supposed to be caring for does.....how is that not a con.....its to stop this that the government are placing conditions on any sort of benefit.....and it is stressful going to work....there are different types of stress.....and im not on about the severly depressed who cant feed, wash or look after themselves....im not going to defend myself because the non workers of this country will never agree with the tax paying workers.....i have great empathy for people who can work and the people who care for them ....i have no empathy for people who wont work, because they feel they are owed something for nothing....disabled people deserve every penny they get, but there is nothing wrong in being assessed for this....there is not a non stop pit of money to be given out without proof of why you should have it....proof you CANNOT work, not DONT WANT TO work