to wonder why Rishi Sunack hates the disabled?

[drinkingcherrywine]

I am just not sure I can feel any worse right now about how the U.K. is treating its most vulnerable but tomorrow may tip me over the edge. We have had what little societal, health and charitable support there was swept from under us during the pandemic, costs of living have gone up massively (especially for shielding), medical care a distant memory, rent evictions are underway, it gets worse every day.

The government has increased the standard allowance in Universal Credit and the basic element in Working Tax Credit for one year. Both have increased by £20 per week on top of planned annual uprating. This applies to all new and existing Universal Credit claimants and to existing Working Tax Credit claimants.

So no uplift for carer parents of disabled children claiming child tax credit. Or anyone on legacy benefits who will be worse off on UC (majority disabled). If you are a shielding adult you will be vaccinated soon hopefully but will still be told to continue shielding. If you are a shielding child no vaccination for you, stay in for however long we say, could be another year could be longer - no one cares, you are invisible and shall remain ignored.

Shielding means staying in so expensive due to;
no budget groceries via yellow stickers, end of day reduced etc
no going to library to use computer/ask for help
no going to friends/family/public buildings to reduce home heat/electric/food budget
no going to visit offices who won't answer the phone drs/ council/utilities/citizens advice etc
no taxis/public transport
no sharing childcare favours
no organised affordable group trips

Some of this list was all that kept people going before. Life is more restrictive and much much expensive in many more ways for shielding. The assumed 'local' help that keeps being touted as a fix all simply isn't in existence sufficient to bridge the growing chasm.

www.swlondoner.co.uk/life/25022021-disabled-legacy-benefits-claimants-struggling-with-pandemic-poverty/

If you aren't working due to disability you aren't worth it right?

And no being a ft carer and saving society a fortune in caring obligation doesn't count. Being unable to find a job that flexes to include disability or being too unwell to manage paid employment doesn't count.

If you aren't working due to disability then you aren't part of society. No thousand pound uplift so no worries about uplift continuation. As long as everyone understands the disabled's place in our billionaire budget maker's societal hierarchy, right Rishi?

www.jrf.org.uk/blog/20-weekly-uplift-must-be-extended-legacy-benefits

It cannot be right that some of the most at-risk members of our society have not been thrown the same lifeline as those on Universal Credit. It would be operationally simple to extend the £20 uplift to legacy benefits as part of the usual annual uprating decision later this month. The Government has an opportunity to right this injustice, strengthen social security and help many families stay afloat in these turbulent times. This would send a clear signal that they are committed to supporting everyone in our society.

www.z2k.org/latest/why-the-20-uplift-in-universal-credit-must-be-extended-to-those-on-legacy-benefits/

We want to see the 2.2 million ‘legacy benefit’ claimants get the extra £20 a week too. For us, it still beggars belief that the Government thought it was right to give the increase to one kind of claimant, but deny it to others, especially when you realise that three-quarters of those 2.2 legacy benefit claimants are disabled people on Employment Support Allowance.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/100-groups-demand-20-benefits-23025818

Tbh as a carer parent we manage just fine as it is.

I'm a full time carer, my dp can only work part time due to ds needing 2/1 care and our income is over £600 a week with dps wages, tax credit uplift, my carers allowance and my son's pip. We're even entitled to a £500 a year holiday grant.

Each to their own but I for one am a bit fed up of being painted as hard done by........compared to the rest of the UK on low incomes and caught up in the effects of the pandemic we're absolutely fine. And if so had to give up work we'd still roll along ok financially. I don't want or need an extra £20 a week when the country is fucked.......give mine to some poor sod having to manage all bills and expenses on £70 a week or whatever dole is these days.

^ you are assuming people can get certain benefits. Not everyone caring is able to get DLA or PIP.

I have 2 disabled children on dla and we definitely don't get 600 a week x

Generally the disabled get shafted thrice. Obviously the first is being disabled - immobile, unable to feed or wash or cloth yourself with the attendant lack of dignity and regular exclusion from everyday life.

Then your family are also shat on from a great height by not being able to get jobs (because no one can employ someone with caring responsibilities) and also not being able to participate in everyday life.

Finally you do briefly pop your head out the door and get told that not only are you a borderline scrounger that needs to repeatedly demonstrate your worthiness for crumbs of comfort, but that it's actually a bit of a hoot being disabled and really a lifestyle choice.

But I am sure I'm wrong. As any number of posters will be along to tell me shortly.

Also dla is the child's money. So the carer is still not entitled to a bump up despite not being able to work full time.

The decision not to include legacy benefits has been, since the uplift was first introduced, a way to try and encourage people to move to UC voluntarily in the belief (probably mistakenly) they’ll be better off.

All the people who have moved for the £20 a week have forfeited their right to transitional protection so when they discovered they’re not better off there’s nothing they can do.

It’s a clear move on his part.

@Countrygirl2021

**11:50DGRossetti

Nacknick

@Countrygirl2021 can you provide any evidence of widespread cases of people wrongly claiming benefits? If that is a significant issue then how is it fair to penalise legitimate claimants without first resolving that issue?

Whenever people peddle that bollocks, it's always time for this graphic.

Notice how no one (except me grin) ever mentions the unclaimed benefits exceed any fraudulent claims by a factor of fuck off to one.**

Your graphic is interesting but doesn't focus on working age benefits does it? There are many who can claim and do. Many people capable of work who don't that don't feature in your pretty picture.

Most definitely not ignorant of CFS. If you manage the psychological causes and use grading, exercise, good diet and enforced routines around sleep rest and activity it can be managed.

😂😂😂

The Tories have never cared about disabled people. I remember when George Osbourne mooted a particularly spiteful idea to cut some of the PIP points that are awarded for peole who need to use aids and appliances, because they didn't represent an "ongoing cost". Luckily it didn't come to fruition.

Despite working for a PM with a disabled child, Osbourne had no idea of the reality of disabled people's lives or their carers.

No not a nasty party at all. They believe that you get out of life what you put in and where that is not possible because of a true disability then there is support

Are you on the Rishi PR Team?

Just off to tell complex needs terminally ill dd that she just needs to buck her ideas up, thanks so much for enlightening us all.

Now would you please explain to me why I would be in receipt of a £20 pw uplift if I had a healthy child but am not entitled due to my dd simply not trying hard enough at life? Can you point me towards the support for children who are too ill to attend school? How about the magical job that will ignore the caring cv gap and pay me to take (all) time off for a gazillion ongoing medical emergencies whilst firefighting hour to hour on little to non sleep? How about the 3-5 people needed to replace me in my role as carer - who is going to cover that expense?

Newsflash - none support!!! Really, there is not - I live this life, I know what I am talking about!

For those engaging with Countrygirl2021 , particularly those with health issues defending themselves, I’d recommend not feeding the troll.

@FedNlanders anyone who claims carers allowance and doesn't work also gets a bump up in their income support / UC. It brings it up to around £100 a week.

Those who do work and claim tax credits / UC also get disability premiums. Imo it's more than enough to live on.

I looked up carers allowance, and the amount is pitiful.

£67.25 a week.

To claim this veritable fortune you need to be providing a minimum of 35hrs of care each week and the person you care for must be in receipt of specific benefits.

You must be over 16, you not earn more than £128p/wk from other sources (roughly 14hrs at minimum wage), you must not be studying more than 21 hours a week, and so on.

£67.25 over 35 hours is £1.92 an hour. Many carers are providing around the clock care so over 24/7 it only equates to 40p an hour. That's how little the government thinks of the work carers provide.

If you care for more than one person, you can only claim one amount of carers allowance. Over one million carers are providing care for multiple people, I myself am caring full time for two disabled children and part time for an elderly relative.

If more than one person provides care, even if you are doing 35hrs each, only one of you can claim carers allowance.

Carers Allowance is a taxable benefit so it affects the amount of other benefits you can claim. It is also not a gateway benefit in itself so claiming Carers Allowance doesn't entitle you to other help such as help with health costs such as prescriptions, dentistry, or eye care even though it is known that caring has a negative impact on health.

If the person you care for loses their entitling benefits, e.g., they get bumped off PIP at their reassessment (happens a lot), then you also lose your Carers Allowance even if they still need care.

Carers save the government approximately £132 billion per year in social care costs - over £19,000 per carer.

Most carers are women so it is an issue that predominantly impacts on women, yet another reason the government and society at large don't give a shit.

OP, you are definitely not being unreasonable. The tories dislike of the disabled is blatant and unashamed. I’m sorry to hear about your daughter. Sadly I think joe public have been convinced that disabled = scrounger and are ignorant to the fact life can turn a sixpence. They could find themselves sick or disabled at any point, I expect the only way they’ll change their views.

@Countrygirl2021

Message deleted by MNHQ. Quotes deleted post.

A few years ago I had the fallacy of this statement brought into stark relief.

My work colleague, a fellow psychologist with 20 years experience and much valued by the company, had a terrible bad back. She was assessed by occupational health, given a standing desk, change of duties, and it was arranged for her to go part time. Sometimes during periods of hospitalisation she was able to log on to her work computer and complete work from hospital. What a trooper.

I then saw had a meeting with a parent who was completely distressed throughout my meeting and their head was not with me at all as we talked about her child. I asked whether she was ok and she burst into tears. She had been for a PIP assessment the previous week, just found out she had been assessed as fit for work, and that her child's free school meals were being stopped as a result. (No idea if this still happens, it was a few years ago). She had a condition not dissimilar to my colleague and tended to end up in hospital for a few days every couple of months. On top of this she had obviously fairly limited intellect.

I reflected on the difference in their situations. Whilst medically they may be the same and medically if one could work, so could the other, the reality was that one was a valued professional whose skill set was worth the employer making adjustments to keep hold of her. The other lady didn't stand a chance - who would newly employ a person to what would have to be an unskilled role, knowing that they would be unreliable and need significant amounts of time off? The conditions might be the same, but their value to employers was very different.

I often wonder how that poor woman feeds her child now.

Carers are more likely to pop their clogs early though, so that saves some pensions. Swings and roundabouts really.

I think @Countrygirl2021 is being unfair in suggesting there are plenty of disabled people who don't want to work. I have CP and work but there was a time I couldn't because I needed lots of surgeries. Also, anxiety can absolutely prevent you from being able to work. I had a breakdown nearly 10 years ago and couldn't leave my house, anxiety for me is way more debilitating than my physical disability. Also, disability discrimination is very real and a lot of employers aren't willing to give disabled people a chance or won't be flexible. I can't imagine many people are happy to live off benefits, it's soul destroying and the medical assessments are humiliating

@DGRossetti

Generally the disabled get shafted thrice. Obviously the first is being disabled - immobile, unable to feed or wash or cloth yourself with the attendant lack of dignity and regular exclusion from everyday life.

Then your family are also shat on from a great height by not being able to get jobs (because no one can employ someone with caring responsibilities) and also not being able to participate in everyday life.

Finally you do briefly pop your head out the door and get told that not only are you a borderline scrounger that needs to repeatedly demonstrate your worthiness for crumbs of comfort, but that it's actually a bit of a hoot being disabled and really a lifestyle choice.

But I am sure I'm wrong. As any number of posters will be along to tell me shortly.

You aren't wrong at all.

regular exclusion from everyday life

Lockdown has been hard on everyone and the restricted life we have all had to lead has been difficult. I wonder if people will use their experience of lockdwon to better understand how restricted everyday life is for some disabled people and their carers.

I wonder if people will use their experience of lockdwon to better understand how restricted everyday life is for some disabled people and their carers.

You'd hope so but they won't.

Oh and 20 years as a carer I can tell all and any that things have got worse in that time.

Remember that golden age that everyone is taking us back to ? That'll be the golden age when the disabled were kept securely out of sight so as not to scare decent tory voting folk.

I have two disabled children, one on HRC and one on MRC. I save the government a fortune. No childcare will take them. No social care support. They literally do not care

Sending to all the carers on here. I am one too, and we really are forgotten about a lot of the time. Not only in terms of the paltry amount of CA etc., but in terms of the stress and difficulty of what we do. I didn't know carers pop their clogs earlier, but I am really not surprised.

some poor sod having to manage all bills and expenses on £70 a week or whatever dole is these days.

Carer's allowance is less than the dole.

Just saying.

Anyhoo question still stands.

Pandemic. Gvnmt announces those on benefits get extra £20 a week help (which doesn't even keep pace with a decade of inflation). This is to protect the vulnerable.

All cheer, finally some realistic kindness in a time of need.

Great yup, all the vulnerable. Shout it loud across the press.

(don't anyone mention the disableds, there is only a few of em, this money is only for the vulnerable not the disableds, just ignore them - they'll go away eventually - they just don't try hard enough and are probably all loaded anyway).

Why is this ok? I don't think it is. I think it is disablist.

It is a bit hateful to say the Tories hate certain people. Labour has not won an election since 2005. Lots of lovely kind people vote Tory in the UK including in Bishop Auckland for example which is now a Tory area, where my father and grandfather were born and brought up in my native NE England. Most Tory and Labour voters alike tend not to hate anyone and most of us in both parties support the welfare state. I certainly do support it.

Why are we expected to assume, when such discussions, that every disabled person is in the same situation?

There are families of disabled people who struggle whilst others are better off than if they were working.

My colleague who was a lawyer and had to give up her job to care for her twins with cerebral palsy is finding herself much worse.

My other friend who was a sahm to two kids by choice finds herself much better off with her third child who has mild autism, and now claims CA and associated benefits.

Just like workers, some will be worse off, some better off.

JesusAteMyHamster I don't agree with you. What I do day in day out (and will be doing for decades to come) is worth more than £67 a week. Even an extra £20 a week would still mean the government and the taxpayer is getting a 24 hour service at a bargain basement price.