£10 Christmas bonus.

[recklessruby]

Just curious as to if you got yours from DWP (PIP etc). When? And what amazing thing you bought with it?
Mine came yesterday and I bought electric and gas top ups, chocolate and painkillers.

Shit, not shut!!

It's pointless responding to @Edwin, she is still out in the pouring rain (with her kids) handing out her champagne and cheese board to all the homeless 🤣

I'm not applauding anyone who posts about booking panto tickets but then berates somebody else for doing the same for their child who has disabilities, or brags about spending £40 on a bottle of wine and then tells somebody on disability benefits that they shouldn't spend £8 on prosecco because children are starving. I don't care what 'good' they may have done, that person is an arsehole.

I received a tenner for my DS who gets DLA. I’m using it to get his hair cut at the only hairdressers he likes (children’s one) which is a bit more expensive. Well, actually I was going to take him regardless of the tenner anyway, so I might just treat him to something nice like a cake afterwards!

Personally I think those on the likes of jobseekers should get it too.
Being on benefits isn’t a life of luxury like some people make it out to be. Christ, getting working up over a fucking tenner.

Try working for the NHS. Our bonus would be to not work over Christmas! So, as you work for a government agency why do you get a handout and we do not?

I did work for the NHS before I had to leave to be a carer for my disabled child because even with family friendly policies we simply couldn't make it work.

When you work for the NHS you accept that it's going to involve some element of unsocial hours and working on public holidays because healthcare is 24/7, much like caring for a disabled family member actually.

Don't worry, I'll be working on Christmas Day too. My son is going through a phase of withholding and doesn't understand that physiology gives you no option, you will shit whether you like it or not and he really, really likes it not. No doubt I'll be cleaning up his shitty underwear and arse when he leaks and then coaching him through using the toilet to clear his blockage while he gibbers about in a panic. He'll need to be supervised very closely all day because Christmas Day blows his circuits and there's no telling which way he'll land when he comes back down, extremely happy or extremely upset, either way it'll eventually end in a meltdown but if I watch for the signs he's about to blow I can attempt to head it off. His lunch will be chicken nuggets which must be taken out of the oven when they're cooked but before they go golden because if they go golden they're "burnt" and can't be eaten. He'll want to play out on his new scooter (can't have a bike because he hasn't got the coordination skills to pedal one) so one of us will need to take him out on it, he can't go himself even though he's nearly 10yo because he has no sense of danger, poor risk assessment, and thinks absolutely everyone is his friend. Family will probably drop by, it stresses him out even though he loves them because too many faces in too short of a time frame. He doesn't sleep much, around 4-6 hours a night is enough for him unless he's going through one of his insomnia cycles, they arrive every few months this and last a few weeks, he's due one soon. If he's in an insomnia cycle then he might not sleep at all for anything up to 48hrs. He has to be supervised in that time so DH and I have to split the night to make sure we both get some sleep. His mood understandably takes a nosedive in that time. If he has a meltdown he can turn violent, he'll hurt himself, hurt others, throw things, break things, and he's not in control so there's no sense reasoning with him. The best we can do is get him to a safe space where the damage can be limited, have you ever had to manhandle an almost 10yo who is thrashing about, screaming, shouting, and hellbent on simultaneously punching and kicking you in the face because their fight or flight reflex is triggered and their brain chose fight? Or, conversely, trying to chase down said almost 10yo because their brain chose flight and they're pegging it up the street and away from you in nothing but a pair of jeans and one sock?

But yeah, you're right. Why the fuck should I get a £10 handout for sitting on my arse doing nothing?

I knew someone at work who was heavily involved in helping the homeless and always gave up her Christmas Day to volunteer at the shelters. She was also a terrible bully and lots of her team left because she made their work life unbearable. What she couldn't understand was that by bullying people to the point where they felt they were forced to resign, could result in someone becoming homeless when they could no longer pay their bills. Perhaps if she bumped into her former colleagues at a homeless shelter one day she might have been able to have more empathy than she did when they were her colleagues.

I worked nearly 30 years for the NHS as a nurse and midwife before I had to give up work to support my DS who was struggling massively, he is autistic and was just falling apart with the stress of school. He badly needed me at home and I have no regrets that I made the decision I did.

I saw people over many christmases who struggled with life and would never have begrudged them anything,

As an employee I didn’t get monetary bonuses. I did however have a regular income, work friends and colleagues and a social life.

I am fortunate, I have a place on a Return to Practice course coming up next year and will be able to return to work. DS is still strugglungvut doing better, he will go to college next year.

All in all I have spent four years on benefits. I don’t get them now as DH earns well. In fact this Christmas we are hopefully doing well.

I will never ever begrudge anything to anyone struggling. I get the extra £10 too but it’s alreày been donated on Xmas pressies for the Trussell Trust to give out,

I am lucky.

Thank you Delores

Try working for the NHS. Our bonus would be to not work over Christmas! So, as you work for a government agency why do you get a handout and we do not?

^ probably because you chose to work for the nhs?! those who are disabled/terminally ill didn’t choose that. Fucking hell.

I do think that the bonus should be for everyone who receives benefit, including state pension. It's great to give it to people who are disabked and that should not stop. I'm sure though with UC and other benefits, other people are also struggling this time of year. It should be given to all people who receive benefit in December.

And the amount should increase. 200 would be nice, but that would never happen. Not with a Tory government, could you imagine the newspaper articles kicking off a fuss? 50pounds though is definitely doable and I see no reason as to why it shouldn't increase to that. Everything else had increased since the 70s, including wages, petrol and bread, however the bonus hadn't. That is wrong

This thread has gone mad!
I opened it asking people like myself on pip or similar what you will buy with your extra tenner.
That was the question. It wasn't an invitation for holier than thou I work 80 hours a week and still do charity work people to bash the disabled and their hard working carers.
It's said that Christmas is for children but some of you seem to begrudge a disabled child a nice day out.
Until you walk (or wheel) a step in our shoes hang your heads in shame!!

one I'm so sorry for your son's experience. You're right in that most recons don't change things, but some do. Especially if you've sent in more evidence. One thing you could do is ring up and ask to speak to a decision maker. Tell them you've sent in lots of further medical evidence in support of your claim and would like it looked at. They're meant to do it anyway. But decision makers (or at least the majority I speak to daily) do care. If you speak to one person, chances are that one decision maker will take ownership of that case themselves or at the very least put a strong note on advising the evidence is looked at.

Appeals are more common, but if you've sent evidence you have a good chance. It's people who can't send anything who nothing normally changes for xx

And it has been a great thread for that people to share that reckless. Sadly a similar thread opens each year and each year the usual suspects turn up moaning because their lives are perfect enough bit to need disability benefits or Carers Allowance. They sit there with their healthy normal children begrudging an extra £10 to the likes of my friend whose child has quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy and who needs total care which she largely does alone. He’s a teenager now but she’s still changing nappies .
People who bedrudge her that tiny extra amount at Christmas need to take a good long hard look at themselves,

One year when money was especially tight I used the extra to buy a Costa Coffee card. My Mum added another £20 to it and for around 2-3 months I could occasionally go into town and have a huge mug of coffee and sometimes a slice of cake. It was a lovely little bit of luxury I couldn’t usually afford and definitely made a huge difference . I no longer have to do this but by god I would never ever begrudge anyone who needed it,

I always assumed those of job seekers got it too, that is even more disgusting. If you live in a area of low employment rents you probably do not have a choice but to claim job seekers.
All jobseekers get a bonus at Christmas too.

Your government needs to increase the amount for all employed, or disabled. I know there are some chancers on JS but most people need the support.

Those on working tax credits and I once claimed them myself in the North. Get much more every week in payments and creche fees. A similar FIS payment here doesn't get bonus either but I have an extra wage every week and I'm grateful for having the energy and health to get to work.

*Unemployed.

I know people who volunteer, they're usually quiet about it, or state the charity and move on. I know people who work in hostels, they are not usually open at two in the morning. I know people who begrudge an extra tenner because they don't get it at work or because the bloody benefit scrounging scum don't deserve it or do anything for it. I know benefit scrounging scum who work 18 hour days looking after their family whilst having disabilities themselves. Who save the government millions per annum by doing this for a pittance. I know people on this thread and in real life who should hang their horrid, begrudging heads in shame.

Mumsnet, I really wish you hadn't deleted Edwinbears posts and some of ours where we had copied what they had written. Because people really need to see what we're up against. Those of us who are carers - paid or unpaid are treated like shit by the government. The work we do isn't reflected in how we are expected to live.

People say that if you have a disability you're treated fairly and not discriminated against. What, all because we have the paraolympics? What shit. This thread and the posts you deleted show the exact opposite, and people need to know this.

Gilead well said!

Onefoot I totally agree. I think MN should add a note to usually deleted posts saying it has been flagged and deemed to be disabilist, perhaps.

The other issue is these offenders get deleted but not banned, so when they are an offensive fuckwit on other threads it's not so easy to see their history and show how clearly what an arse they are.

Right, really sorry OP. To get back to the point of your thread.

In October, all of DS's PIP was stopped, I'm at the MR stage now. So we haven't had our Christmas bonus this year.

When we did get it, it went on an ice cream and a programme for the panto we went to each year, that my nan always paid for us to go to. For years we went to the Hackney Empire to see the panto, I don't know if you watch Eastenders, but Kim Fox used to be in the Hackney Empire panto every year before she joined EE and she was great. Then we found the Shaw Theatre, cheaper tickets and easier to get to so we went there. A tradition that we love, and he still has all the programmes!

Someone who volunteered at a homeless shelter would know that if a parent brought a child, in that child would not be going back out onto the streets. Hence my now deleted comment about a certain posters volunteering.

Try working for the NHS. Our bonus would be to not work over Christmas! So, as you work for a government agency why do you get a handout and we do not?

Fucking hell! Could you be any more ignorant

If that poster isn't going to get banned then I would rather the posts stayed up.

Until you walk (or wheel) a step in our shoes hang your heads in shame!!

I think what’s upsetting about some comments on this thread is the assumption that people who work and haven’t ever been on benefits can’t have ever walked a mile in your shoes: as has been expressed multiple times, there are many, many people who really are too sick to work but due to the draconian and nonsensical thresholds put in place by the government for those wanting to claim PIP, they have no choice. I’ve been there, I get where people are coming from when they say they don’t begrudge people receiving this money but they are sad and feel invalidated as the support isn’t there for them. Reading about people receiving benefits highlights what they are unable to access, when it could make the world of difference to their lives.

It’s shit having a disability, and not working. It’s shit having a disability and having to work because you can’t get a claim accepted. It’s shit having a disability, being employed but being able to actually attend, running out of sick pay and spiralling into debt as there is NO SAFETY NET. It’s all shit. Whether one is worse than the other is a matter of perception to the individual. I’d have been better off on benefits when I was at my most unwell, with fentanyl patches stuck to my skin 24 hours falling asleep driving cos I couldn’t afford not get to work, than I was ostensibly employed but not able to go, no benefits and no more sick pay.

For all there’s a valid claim that some posters here lack empathy towards those on benefits or with a disablity, there’s also a staggering lack of empathy from the latter group who keep saying ‘walk a mile in my shoes; here, take my disability if you like’ who seem unable to grasp that maybe some of the people on this thread are current dealing with the same issues, ill in a lot of pain, and bitter because they could only dream of being accepted for PIP and the slight burden it would ease.

People act like everyone who should be entitled to PIP gets it. They don’t. A quick glance at any newspaper shows that. Listening to the experiences of people on this thread shows that. It’s not that everyone who expresses upsetness that they don’t get it is fully healthy, working full time with no issues, and being a miser, checking their neighbours bowl to make sure they don’t have too much. Those people exist, but it’s not everyone.

Still, don’t know what else I would expect from MN. It’s not exactly full of people reading other posts and assuming good faith or good intentions. This thread was guaranteed to descend into a nasty bun fight, people leaping all over one another to pick on everything. Even when the vast majority of people have said they don’t remotely begrudge this bonus. Some people just know how impossibly shit it is to have to struggle on without any help.

I’m sure people that work for the NHS chose too? People don’t chose to be desabled or to care for a desabled relative?

My dd’s Both get the £10 bonus as they both get DLA, they don’t chose to be desabled, I chose to work part time in mental health, I will be working over Christmas but won’t get a bonus for doing it, I chose to work in a job that doesn’t stop because it’s christmas.

Madein95 thank you! I've spoken to 2 different people at the DWP since they made their decision in October, and they were both really nice and helpful. They both explained how to do the MR the best way and restored my faith (a bit)

Fortnitels yes I agree with both points.

Come the revolution!