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

Glad the offensive post got deleted, but yes it is complete nonsense.

I guess Countrygirl missed all those cases where terminally ill people were found 'fit for work' and in some cases their grieving families received the "you are fit for work and have nothing wrong with you and received zero points" letter after they'd bloody died.

The bigger issue that Countrygirl touched on is this part: "Few people are unable to do any work at all." The reason this is an issue is because there are so many barriers for disabled and chronically ill people being able to find work, and because it's almost impossible to find work unless you're either fit and healthy with loads of stamina, or have a really good education and CV. Most careers that offer flexibility require an elite career history.

I actually do work in a pretty elite career and I'm very lucky because it's basically one of the few jobs that's flexible and physically undemanding enough for me to do it. Most jobs simply aren't accessible for me, not because of my body but because of the way those jobs are set up. My industry has basically been shut down entirely for a year and while I'm lucky to have savings, I've actively been looking for temporary work (temporary as in "until my industry re-opens and I can go back to my old job"). I have multiple graduate degrees and a pretty impressive CV, but it's just impossible to find casual or short-term jobs that will accommodate a disabled person who has physical limitations.

The only casual / short-term jobs I can find are physically very demanding and usually involve minimum 12 hour shifts. I physically can't do that.

The days are over when you could easily just pop in to a shop, talk to the owner, and get a little job working two afternoons a week, or working an easy five hour shift while the kids are at school or to accommodate a fatigue disorder (not assuming that all people with chronic fatigue can work 5 hour shifts of course.)

Now it's all zero hour contracts and 12 hour shifts.

It's missing the point to say "few people can't work at all." There are tons of disabled people who can and who want to work, but accessible jobs just aren't there, and the support to access jobs isn't there. I have a wonderful, very well-educated and experienced friend who is deaf, who had to leave her (very high end) job because the support budget for her to have a BSL interpreter was cut.

I remember a heated debate with a forriner relative a few years back when she was berating the UK for the House of Lords and their undemocratic status, she was quite upset when I pointed out that they are the only ones who ever stick up for the likes of me on matters of govnmt policy due to them not actually having anything to lose by doing so

@drinkingcherrywine

I remember a heated debate with a forriner relative a few years back when she was berating the UK for the House of Lords and their undemocratic status, she was quite upset when I pointed out that they are the only ones who ever stick up for the likes of me on matters of govnmt policy due to them not actually having anything to lose by doing so

To be fair, all the disabled MPs do as well.

I agree that the disabled and their carers are, on the whole, treated very badly byt he Tories - and not much better under Labour. I was a carer for 22 years to my severely disabled DD. I cried the day I had to hand in my notice at work because finding suitable childcare was just impossible. Carers allowance didn't even come close to replacing my lost salary but we were fortunate that DH had a wage sufficient to support us. The bit that riled me was that even when a disabled person is deemed to need 2:1 care either due to moving and handling or behavioural issues, it is still assumed that one parent carer can manage by themselves because they're not covered by the health and safety at work act. We were lucky to get respite for DD but it required 2 paid staff (one fully qualified nurse plus one carer) to do the job that I did 24/7 for the pittance they call carers allowance. Also when DD moved into adult care and had overnight respite the cost was £350 PER NIGHT. Compare that to the £60 per week they paid me to do the job. DD continued to live at home until the day she died and I don't regret a minute of the time I spent providing the best care that I could for her but the difference between what it would have cost if I'd put her into specialist residential care compared to the pittance I/she received in benefits is still a bitter pill to swallow.

I really feel for all of you who have had to endure all the usual challenges of living with a disability or as a carer on top of what Covid has thrown at you all in the last 12 months. I miss my DD every day but I'm actually glad that she has not had to live through the last year as we would have been very much abandoned by the system.

True,and the motion tabled on uplift for legacy benefits was well backed just wish the mainstream press and the public would get onside.

Irreplaceable.

The bit that riled me was that even when a disabled person is deemed to need 2:1 care either due to moving and handling or behavioural issues, it is still assumed that one parent carer can manage by themselves because they're not covered by the health and safety at work act. ...When DD moved into adult care and had overnight respite the cost was £350 PER NIGHT. Compare that to the £60 per week they paid me to do the job.

@bigbluebus for you and your dearly missed dd.

I agree that the disabled and their carers are, on the whole, treated very badly by he Tories - and not much better under Labour.

There is a school of thought that if you are stupid enough to care for someone, you deserve all you don't get. Hence the contempt for carers that is only marginally less than that for the disabled themselves.

drinkingcherry wine Thank you.
My own long serving MP is also a Tory. I wrote to him twice over disability issues and got nowhere. On one occasion he actually wrote back and said "these are austere times and we are all in this together". I don't think there is any way he could compare his lifestyle with mine or the lives of most of the people on this thread. There is no hope.

Tories hate those with disabilities, even Cameron made provision worse when his family no longer needed DLA due to their little boy sadly passing away.

My partner has arthrogryposis, there are a wide range of things he can’t do such as chopping food, lifting anything heavier than a can of pop, washing his hair/touching his own head. Yet when his claim went from DLA to PIP the person carrying out the assessment didn’t allow it to be recorded despite my partner asking for this in the correct manner when booking his assessment, she lied on his assessment multiple times leading to him failing to gain PIP, which then meant he had to go through mandatory reconsideration.

Why are people still encouraged to lie on claims? Why are these companies not held to account? Why aren’t they sacked for telling blatant lies?

A PIP assessor stated in their report that FIL was "mobile and active". He had one leg and arrived to the assessment in a wheelchair.

@bigbluebus

drinkingcherry wine Thank you. My own long serving MP is also a Tory. I wrote to him twice over disability issues and got nowhere. On one occasion he actually wrote back and said "these are austere times and we are all in this together". I don't think there is any way he could compare his lifestyle with mine or the lives of most of the people on this thread. There is no hope.

@bigbluebus that is a phrase I have heard repeatedly over the last year, it angers me too. ( If we were all in it together then everyone in the benefit system would have had the uplift).

I think it is a truly devastating condemnation of our society that a grieving mother in the UK today prefers her child no longer here than having to live through this. No parent should ever feel this way, our government is wrong to have made you feel this way.

The PIP assessments are just jobs for the boys, they are completely unnecessary - a GP letter can confirm a medical condition. Anything else is unrequired cruelty for the sake of it.

PIP assessors make things up. I once accompanied someone close to me who has bipolar. I told them they needed their finances managed as they can spend ridiculous sums of money when unwell. The report said they could manage their own money, and accordingly awarded them less points, which means less money.

Remember that PIP assessors aren't allowed sight of your claim, nor are they allowed to take anything away with them when they assess you.

I learned this when DWs assessor visited from Capita.

Anyway OP yabu.
The Tories don't hate the disabled, if you were rich, they'd love you. It's the poor they hate and unfortunately disability often causes poverty. If you have any doubt at all that the Tories hate the poor, their policies of cuts have been linked to 120,000 deaths and life expectancy (pre covid) was actually FALLING in some communities. And unbelievably even after this, they won majorities in elections and the public love them.

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/tory-austerity-deaths-study-report-people-die-social-care-government-policy-a8057306.html

They do hate the poor, that's a given - however they did give everyone except the disabled a £20 a week uplift. Which is the point of this thread...

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/4293-dwp-slammed-by-judge-for-trying-to-rely-on-evidence-of-disgraced-capita-assessor

Yup no money for the disabled here, nothing at all...

I remember the story a blind MNetter at the Jobcenter who was asked to apply for a job as a traffic warden - where you need a full driving licence.

I think she said 'my guide dog drove me here'...

The irony is not lost on me that the same people who berate me for my lack of team spirit and poor communication skills see me as the AntiChrist when I demonstrate team spirit and communication when encouraging different people and departments to talk to each other.
No jobcenter should encourage someone to sabotage their PhD write-up in favour of unsuitable employment. Not to mention the strange deafness that descends when you list the requirements needed for a more inclusive workplace.

PIP assessors decided that the narcolepsy of someone I know was “predictably unpredictable”. So because she knew she may drop down any second she could “refrain from dangerous activities”... you know like crossing a road or making food or walking down stairs.

It’s disgusting.

I’d also like to the proper figures on just how much money is wasted on unnecessary appeals. All those independent panellists being paid to make decisions that should have been made by the DWP months before.

Years ago, I went to apply for ESA on account on being unable to work due to mental health. My area was full UC then so it was on UC I went. I got the £20 uplift..... so to say that everyone except the disabled got the £20 is untrue because plenty of disabled are on UC. SOrry if it seems I have over simplified things a bit. It just seems like some people see an 'us v them' when it comes to disabled on ESA and UC...

@XenoBitch

Years ago, I went to apply for ESA on account on being unable to work due to mental health. My area was full UC then so it was on UC I went. I got the £20 uplift..... so to say that everyone except the disabled got the £20 is untrue because plenty of disabled are on UC. SOrry if it seems I have over simplified things a bit. It just seems like some people see an 'us v them' when it comes to disabled on ESA and UC...

The point is that it’s been badged that disabled people got the uplift.

They didn’t. Some disabled people got it. Many did not and that is being conveniently ignored by the Tories and their media.

He hates small business too!

I’d also like to the proper figures on just how much money is wasted on unnecessary appeals. All those independent panellists being paid to make decisions that should have been made by the DWP months before.

Remember that to those in government it's money well spent. They don't give two shits about any money government spends - why should they ? They do care that it makes a moral point when it's spent. And that means not subsidising the feckless and - let's be honest - people who are never going to vote for you anyway.

Did you know the ancient Greeks had accessibility laws ? Better than ours.

I'd like to ask a question of those of you that are in the situation of needing to claim, prompted by the mention of a gp letter upthread.

I've heard that no medical records are used in assessing people, is that true? Because it seems utterly crackers to me that medical professionals opinions on someone's health condition they're treating is not taken into account.

In the eyes of the Tories we are all cogs in the machine that keeps the wealthy and powerful cemented into their positions of wealth and power

if we are disabled we are therefore merely faulty cogs:(

@XenoBitch the uplift was absolutely a demonstration of 'us and them'. The 'us' being the normal, hard-working people who were forced to claim UC this year due to circumstances out of their control. Those on older legacy benefits are the 'usual benefit claimants' (as one mumsnetter referred to them) and as such deserve fuck all for their moral failings.

@Maverickess

I'd like to ask a question of those of you that are in the situation of needing to claim, prompted by the mention of a gp letter upthread.

I've heard that no medical records are used in assessing people, is that true? Because it seems utterly crackers to me that medical professionals opinions on someone's health condition they're treating is not taken into account.

No, the DWP only say they “may” ask for your medical records.

Our GP won’t do support letters for claims as they say it’s a complete waste of their time as the DWP just disregard them. They will send one if asked by a tribunal because they know it’ll be read and taken into account.