£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.

Mines going towards a new washing machine as mines broken down this week, or more likely its going on bus fare to MIL's house so she can do my washing for the foreseeable future until we can scrounge up the money.

My Nans will go on tena lady since she spends a fortune on them every week after a catheter fuck up means she can no longer tell when she needs the loo.

Life of fucking luxury with our bonus.

If you are a pensioner you get £200 winter fuel payment too

I didn't want to stir up shit by making this thread btw. It was meant to be pretty light hearted. Plus I m not a benefits scrounge whatever that means (and some of you have shared very sad stories).
I worked 18 years in retail sometimes 14 hour days as a manager with undiagnosed bipolar disorder until I had a nervous breakdown.
But I guess us on benefits can't have a laugh or a little treat. I work part time.

I'm hanging my head at the shame of being British. We treat our own like shit.

I think it’s worth remembering that the transition from DLA to PIP has cost an awful lot more than a tenner per person given the assessments, the lost tribunals/appeals, the fact that if you’re awarded higher rate you’re actually about £120 a month better off on PIP than DLA. The whole process has been an embarrassment from start to finish especially when you consider that it was apparently aimed at saving the government money and weeding out those alleged claimants who were claiming unlawfully.

It’s worth remembering at this point that pip claims are said to be the lowest which are claimed fraudulently with the rate estimated at around 0.3% but it was clearly easier to go after society’s most vulnerable.

They used to write to confirm the bonus when I was on DLA but as they didn’t write this year I did wonder whether it was going to happen at all so I was surprised when it was.

Penalised for you working?!
I would bloody love to work!!!! But with a shattered pelvis, severed nerves so I can never feel the left hand side of my body again, a leg amputation, being in pain 24 hours a day, spending day after day on the sofa for eight years now, screaming because my pain is so so bad.
Do you want my tenner? And we will swap?
You people are selfish, horrible, thoughtless idiots.

My dh works full time and gets pip due to severe MH issues.

I'm surprised that the government haven't stopped people who work full time from getting PIP.

PP, That's not at all saying that your husband isn't entitled to it or doesn't deserve it because if he's got through the awful assessment process he must really need it.

I'd be ALOT better off if I was able to work instead of being a full time carer. Imagine being so stupid that you think someone else getting an extra tenner once a YEAR means you are being penalised for working.

takeaway.

fucking deserve it as well.

£64.60 per week. or perhaps someone can find me a job that will give me all school holidays off work, fit in with school hours so I can take my disabled children to school as they are not yet able to do that themselves, and have 16 days off in the term to take them to appointments....

and one that I can do with my own conditions, the ones they seem to have inherited.

My son's dla one is going on replacing his winter coat that someone decided to steal this week, leaving us with only £16 to pay towards it.
Mine will be spent on a coffee and transport costs to yet another hospital appointment next week that I probably won't get home from until 8pm and knowing my luck it'll be -5, the bus will be packed and I'll be a miserable old cow

I haven't had mine yet but is going towards getting my nails done next week. That's the only thing I do for me, and it's a real treat considering I don't go out from one week to the next.

I'd love to give up my PIP because it would mean giving up my pain and my immobility. I'd be able to go to work and I wouldn't be socially isolated and quite lonely.

I know perfectly well that not everyone gets bonuses but apparently not everyone realises that benefits aren't a choice either.

I have 4 disabled children so that's £40 here....possibly enough for much fabled goat ....

In reality it will pay for half of a speech and language therapy session as the LA dont fund enough...just need to decide which child needs it the most

But I guess us on benefits can't have a laugh or a little treat. I work part time.

I guess those of us who struggle mentally, physically and financially, but don't qualify for PIP or anything but tax credits don't deserve to feel shit about being ignored, and left to struggle without even a token tenner. Oh and jumped all over because we dare to say it.

And that's what it is, a token tenner. It's nothing at all, it'll go nowhere, but to me it's someone, somewhere recognising your struggle and yes, I feel fucking shit because mine is ignored. So shoot me.

Reallybad Unpleasant

For some of us that tenner will go somewhere .... it could be the difference between a parent eating a hot meal a couple of times this week or going without to fund therapy/ seamless socks/ etc

@imnotaceleb it meant I didn't have a cold house this week as I topped up the gas. The week before payday is grim usually.

I’m buying my son a few books with his.

Oh and to the naysayers, I’ve given up my nursing career for a poxy £64 a week Carer’s Allowance, the £10 bonus is a great trade off

Merry Christmas to all those getting the hefty sum.

Thanks lala, that wasn't clear from the OP.

I'm going to drive to Aldi/Lidl and put it towards one of their fancy gins. Which I'll likely need over xmas as I'm waiting to hear back about my PIP renewal which who knows which way it's gone. shrug

I understand Buswankeress. I went through a horrific period of being seriously ill while not qualifying for any benefits at all, I was deemed not to have a disability (despite all medical evidence to the contrary), too young for WTC, not eligible for anything else. There was absolutely no safety net for me, I ran out of sick days at work and had to pay for food and rent on a credit card and ended up spiralling into bankruptcy. I was so so poorly. It shocked me that the much discussed ‘safety net’ wasn’t available for people like me. If this news had come about then I wouldn’t have begrudged anyone from getting it at all, but I’d have been bitter as hell that despite desperately needing help there wasn’t any for me. At that time I remember going for a week without being able to afford my prescription fee of £7 with a developing chest infection cos I just didn’t have the money for the medication, seeing the back of the slip where it says people on benefits get free medication and feeling so disgusted and upset and desperate.

So I hear you. It’s even harder when you’re struggling but there’s no help there and nobody to even acknowledge that you’re at the end of your tether.

I got the bonus in my carers allowance it come in really handy to get more electric I get PIP as well but I think you only get the Christmas bonus with one benefit.

PS When my health was better and I was able to work FT my Xmas bonus came to 5 figures. No wonder I gave it all up for benefits!

Just like it’s awful for people who are earning well to look down on and begrudge people on benefits, I think it’s just as awful for the people on benefits to look down on and judge people they think ‘have it better’ cos they work. When in reality there are thousands, millions probably of working people on the absolute bones of their arse entitled to absolutely nothing. Just cos someone is employed doesn’t mean they’re not struggling, and it’s a very frightening place to be where you realise there’s no safety net.

@Imnotacelebgetmeouttahere

Yes but it's no where near what's needed is it? That was my point, it's the gov saying "Look what we did, aren't we lovely?"
While cutting back left right and centre and making people live in misery.