"Benefits scum" ***[[ quote marks added by MNHQ for clarity ]]

[TheseLittleEarthquakes]

I've had three separate conversations this weekend when this term has come up. My mother got wind of me applying for PIP and let me know in no uncertain terms that she thinks it's disgusting as DH earns a good wage, and I'm not actually 'disabled'.

Then my sister was complaining about the ratio of disabled spaces to p&c spaces and told me in a shocked way that you can get a blue badge even if you can walk, and that its scummy of people with MH issues for eg to have a blue badge. She said that benefits scum were making it hard for parents (wtf?).

And then thirdly my mum was having a bitch about her niece, who has never worked and has a child, and how she's living the 'benefits lifestyle' when benefits should only ever be a safety net and not a lifestyle choice.

I'm on ESA and have been for a over a year. I'm applying for PIP. I have quite serious MH issues.

AIBU to think my family are just utter arseholes and that all these comments are really fucking hurtful? I ended up just walking away from all three conversations because I don't have the headspace to argue with them.

Anyone claiming tax credits has no business calling anyone benefits scum IMO. It's a benefit and I see plenty of people deliberately cut their hours to claim them.

who has never worked and has a child, and how she's living the 'benefits lifestyle' when benefits should only ever be a safety net and not a lifestyle choice.

This bit I agree with. Nobody makes a choice to be disabled though.

So many peoples attitudes towards people on benefits is ridiculous and offensive. Unfortunately those on low income seem totally fine to target with disgusting comments.

Oddly enough, these attitudes don't seem to extend to those avoiding their tax and such, to which we lose like 10x more than whats lost in benefit 'fraud'. Its certainly odd...and helped along by the poverty porn programs on c4/c5 that so many people seem to be into relatively recently...and the few families with 600 children by 787 different fathers who the daily mail regurgitate every few months to make out this is the norm. Ugh, it annoys me so much...the whole fucking thing. Even those few who are actually playing they system and don't want to work...honestly, until there are the jobs available for everyone who needs one and people are actually turning work down, I don't see the need in caring about them. They chose to live on pennies, so be it. I don't see the need in frothing at the mouth about it, especially while turning a blind eye to a lot more money being squirreled away by others.

Good luck with the PIP claim. I hear it is very hard to get for mental health issues, but ESA is also and its seems thats gone ok for you. My personal experience of PIP is that they actually bother to contact your consultants and such, where ESA just assume you are lying and say no making you go to tribunal. For me, PIP was much easier to get, but I have a mountain of evidence behind me and a quite obvious physical impairment and the amount/how strong the medication is speaks for itself, thats before you factor in no end of hospital visits, pain clinic appointments and such...

If they turn you down , please appeal.

Good luck and ignore people who speak like your OP...they are either cruel, ignorant, or at the very least have just been lucky enough to never have to go through this system that is apparently so easy to fool and gives us thousands of pounds a week (lol, would be nice)

snowgirl I've read some dreadful cases of obviously severely disabled people having to appeal to keep their benefits. It's degrading, totally ridiculous and utterly wrong that they should have to go to such lengths to 'prove' they need their allowance.

So if they are being doubted, then what chance do the rest of us with less visible conditions, stand. My situation is compounded by the fact that I look a fair bit younger than my age (this is one of the 'nice' aspects of my condition - smooth, unwrinkled skin) and look, if anything, the opposite of what a disabled person is ' supposed' to look like. The things that make me feel totally crap are largely undetectable even though I wear wrist, ankle and knee supports most of the time. People tend to assume I've got some sort of sports injury or had an accident. My Father thought I was just clumsy! :(

"Its based on my own family experiences not some government statistics."

Wow basing your worldview on your own experience only is obviously foolproof!

I wish these kind of benefits had existed 30 years ago when I was a child. My dm suffered years of mental illness and could not work, but there seemed to be nothing back then ( or if there was she didn't know about it).

It always makes me wonder when people on here say they know all these people who cut their hours to get benefits or fiddle their disabilities.
I don't know anyone who openly discusses in public what benefits they get.
Possibly I do know some people who do this, maybe I don't.
Fact is I don't know their circumstances or the nature of their disability so even if I did know they were claiming I wouldn't judge.

:( I'm sorry you have to put up with that from your own family members - the very people who should support you through difficult times the most. YA def NBU

Why would they even link MH issues with a blue badge? That doesn't even make sense, the two things have fuck all to do with each other. Any more than needing PIP does with your niece's situation. Nobody has any of these problems for fun, do they!

I hope you have some good friends instead!

I certainly know a few work colleaugues who won't do over a certain number of hours or never do overtime as they would lose benefits.

save

In order to claim CA for a person that person has to be in reciept of the relevant higher rate of DLA/PIP.

Many people think that you only need a carer if you need direct help with toileting this is not correct a great many people need help in other areas but not that one a great many need help that is not of a personal care nature. For example some people may need help with socialising or journey planning or the more mundane aspects of daily life like managing nutrition or budgeting or comunicating with others or just keeping safe.

Someone who may need a carer may not appear to be disabled to others, they may have no physical disability or one that is masked well due to the help they have.in order to have someone to be considered to be their carer they will have had to prove their need and that is not easy at all.

Babyroobs but you can hardly blame them can you, if they have to declare a couple of hours overtime one week and then not get that overtime for the next few weeks then the rigmarole of declaring it, the stoppage of any benefit, the reapplying that takes weeks to sort out and be awarded.
It isn't worth it, people rely on tax credits and HB and the like, they can't afford to have it stopped every time they do a few hours overtime.
Those few hours don't make up the loss in the benefit.

Surely you don't have to declare income to tax credits week to week? I don't know, never claimed them but got the impression it was worked out once a year or if there was a change in circumstance?

Anyway it's another discussion, but people claiming work (loosely) related benefits have no place criticising anyone on PIP or ESA bar obvious chancers but they're generally being weeded out.

Yes , tax credits are worked out over the year and you can usually do some overtime ( earning up to an extra £2.5k I think) before benefits are affected. I think benefits like housing benefit are affected more quickly though.

They've been swayed by populist media. They don't need to know the ins and outs of your finances. Don't tell them this stuff.

I am a member on another forum, and just from what I have seen there, the most vicious people about benefit claimants are the very same people who went mad about child benefit being removed from higher earners. So it seems its fine if they can claim something but a massive problem as soon as they can't, suddenly everyone else who claims anything shouldn't be entitled, scrounges, etc etc.

For the record I actually swing more towards all children, no matter the wealth of their parents, should be entitled to child benefit. I wouldn't be bitter (maybe peed off a bit but not bitter) about it though if I was a higher earner and it had been removed, you do not NEED it like some others if you have very high wages. And while all benefits and the likes are being cut, it makes sense to start with those who actually do not need the money they receive. The rules about it are fucking stupid though...if between two you earn 79k (each 39.5k) its fine and you can get child benefit still but if one of you earns over 40k you can't get it even if the 40k wage is the only wage in the household. Seems stupid.

(figures may not be accurate, but its something along those lines)

People with mental health illnesses are not prioritised for blue badges.

"Its based on my own family experiences not some government statistics."

SaveSome, did you type that deliberately or was it a mistake?

OP the best thing you can do is say something like, 'well, live and let live' or any other slightly less rude way of saying mind your own business. Who knows what's going on with the niece BTW - maybe her child is having exceptional difficulty but doesn't have a diagnosis yet, for example. Or maybe not, but what good does it do to have a whole load of bile about her going around?

I work at times with people who are going through cancer treatment. Some insist on trying to work through it and if I raise the words 'financial support' they look at me as though I am insulting them. Now, i don't want to stop anyone working for the sake of it, but I've seen a lot of people go through that treatment, and i know at least in theory what it can be like. What has the discourse of this country become that 'benefit' can only be paired with 'scum'? As if needing help automatically makes you a scrounger?

Sadly there are just too many people who believe the Daily Fail and benefits tv programmes. OP, just put it down to ignorance. You know the truth and that's all that matters.

Of course they aren't DailyMail I really can't understand why anyone would think they would be. Mental health hasn't got anything to do with mobility at all. If someone with MH problems needs a blue badge then it isn't because of their mental health problems!

Don't think anyone would want to be a carer instead of working except as an absolute last resort either - the payment is less than peanuts. Stupid thing to get jealous and judgey about.

I think some people just don't think their thoughts through into logical conclusions.

manic 2 of my adult children have newly issued (replacement) BB because of a mental health issue or what is widely considered to be one.

They have them because it is not possible to keep them safe and leave the house without one

I can think of a few reasons why someone with a MH problem might need a blue badge, they aren't just given out so people can go to shopping centres.

I worked from the age of 14, paid tax and NI from the age of 16, worked for 30 years, paid higher rate tax for the latter part of it. I paid in for most of my life.

Then my mum got cancer, I resigned to look after her in the latter months as I was working at the other side of the country at the time . Whilst I looked after her I claimed nothing, lived off savings. Went back to a new job a few weeks after she died. Then got made redundant about 6 months later and had a nervous breakdown due to the stress of the previous year.

And I still got treated like shit whislt claiming a few weeks ESA and then a few weeks Jobseeker's allowance as I tried to pick up the pieces, get some counselling and let the anti depressants kick in.

A rude, unsympathetic ESA assessor who lied about what I had said to meet her targets and a rude, unsympathetic Job Centre advisor who lied to my face about whether I was able to claim JSA. I had been paying more in tax/NI in a month than I would have claimed in a year in JSA as I wasn't going to claim housing benefit etc, just needed some money for day to day living expenses as I had depleted my savings whilst looking after my mum.

People can do nothing wrong and really through no fault of their own end up needing some help for a while. And they get treated like dirt at a time when what they need is support and help. Our society is deeply poisoned.

needasock really? As in 'just' MH issues, not MH issues caused by dealing with a disability? Do you mind saying what their problem is? (Please don't feel any pressure to say)

waiting could you share you ideas, I'm failing to see a link. Between us, me and my kids can cover 6 different illnesses but could never need a new badge unless for possible physical complications. I suppose possibly severe depression? Or agoraphobia?

Not really relevant to the OP anyway, I suppose. Sorry.

People with mental health issues can get the higher rate of mobility for PIP. I believe it is if you cannot plan/follow a journey safely on your own? Higher rate mobility as far as I am aware usually entitles you to a blue badge.

According to citizens advice you can have a blue badge if you have a mental disorder whereby you are unable to follow the route of a familiar journey without the assistance of another person.