It's so sad to read this thread, how anyone can think people on benefits live a life of luxury I'll never know. Yes there are rude people, lazy People, people who can't budget - you meet them in all walks of life not just benefits.
It's sad and infuriating to see how disabled people are treated too. I work with PIP on the phones, in no position to change anything at all. I know all too well how some people are let down by the system. The descriptors are very specific and not necessarily a true reflection of people's lives. The assessment process is shocking - most of my colleagues feel the same about the assessors but have no authority over them. It seems to over simplify things, and even if you do get a well meaning assessor is, their work environment is shocking and stressful so recommendations aren't always accurate. Never mind the fact that they see you for one day. How is that a true reflection of someone's life?
I feel for a lot of people I speak to daily - even with the angry ones there's often a reason, eg long waiting times and beauracy. Which I can't do anything about of course, but it is still frustrating. You do get some rude, vile people but tbh you get that everywhere, I did when working in a supermarket. I think it's easy for some staff to take the them and us approach
That said, staff aren't well equipped to deal with it and it's the government who are to blame. The system is frustrating, it's frustrating for us too, because we can give the best advice we can to try and help, but ultimately we can't change anything. Training and staffing is shocking. One of the new girls on my team was shoved on telephony within a week. Bear in mind she'd never done calls before, had a limited understanding of the benefit and was basically a fish out of water. That certainly wasn't fair to the people ringing up, nor was it fair on her.
I hear UC staff are striking, good. Against being short staffed yes but I also understand they're protesting the current system. And understaffing affects benefit so much, waiting times have doubled in pip yet all they do is faff about moving teams about
I've no clue about UC, to be honest. But as someone who works pip, it is a shit system. I apologize for it and feel awful daily. I do the best I can and go above and beyond for claimants. But something needs to change. It is ridiculous that someone can wait a year for appeal, for example. I feel so shit sometimes, I know it's not my fault in any way, but it's still bloody hard when someone's desperate and all you can do is give them a few phone numbers and some pathetic advice. It beggars belief that people are stupid enough to still believe the 'gkat screen telly, big car, foreign holiday ' lies
To the person who mentioned fraud. It's easier said than done, bit please please please don't worry. We (my team alone) recieve tens of accusations a week. Usually staff like 'shea out drinking ' or 'he put the bins out last Friday'. Unless someone has credible evidence (for eg, someone has someone's mobility car but they live 100kiles away, or someone has photos of someone in a muddy (those sporty tough things) competition when they've said they can't walk a step) they get noted up but ignored. It's very rare for them to even get passed to the fraud tram. They usually discard things. If they do think there's something up, and there has to be a good reason, they ask claimants to come for a review - filling th form and an assessment. Not nice, I appreciate that, but not the kind of spying on people in a van, looking to catch them out, thing people tend to envisage. Staff are very good at recognising malicious, petty jealous comments. Usually we laugh at how sad that person's life must be and note it up and pass to the TL. Who tutts, rolls his eyes and files it under Bin. There has to be a very good reason for fraud to get involved