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

@FoxyTheFox

Do you want me to give you a couple of the names I know?

If you believe someone is claiming fraudulently you should report it to the DWP or HMRC, depending on which benefits they are claiming. Based in statistics, I can guarantee you are almost certainly incorrect as less than 2% of claims turn out to actually be fraudulent.

What a stupid question, you think you know the people I mean?

No, I really don't. Feel free to elaborate.

As you don't know them, again, how is it going to help?

I don't buy for a minute you don't know, or don't know of, people who don't work, have no income but benefits and go on holiday abroad.

It's easy to pretend they could not possibly exist to fit your narrative, but in real life, they do.

Why do these people then post on social media or local facebook group about their holidays is anyone's guess.

I am waiting for the usual
"so only rich people are allowed luxuries/holidays etc"? They don't need to be humiliated and can spend all their money exactly as they like.."

Of course they can, the point was that if you can afford holiday abroad, we are far from an emergency safety net, and the system needs to be revised!

You sound very bitter. If you think living on benefits is such a fun time, why don't you quit your job and go claim them yourself?

I really don't know anyone on benefits who goes on foreign holidays, everyone I know who is on benefits is more or less - usually less - just getting by.

I don’t agree but the £20 wasn’t given to people on legacy benefits or child tax credits (without etc) because it was meant to help with the extra pandemic expenses of working claimants only.
It just down to rubbish IT systems that non working people on UC get the extra £20.

@Pinkfreesias

Thank you to this poster for acknowledging that lockdown is nothing new to many disabled people. I get so angry when I see people selfishly moaning about being stuck at home, only able to go out exercising once a day (I wish!). I hope some people will realise that, while this is temporary for them, it is permanent for many, many people with disabilities.

Sorry lockdown life is no different to yours but for everyone else, their lives were turned upside overnight. For many people with mental health issues, the lockdown made their disabilities worse, so they are perfectly entitled to "selfishly moan" about lockdown. It is not a race to the bottom.

@MyDcAreMarvel

I don’t agree but the £20 wasn’t given to people on legacy benefits or child tax credits (without etc) because it was meant to help with the extra pandemic expenses of working claimants only. It just down to rubbish IT systems that non working people on UC get the extra £20.

I didn't know that. I am on UC (LCWRA group) and got the £20 uplift which baffled me seeing as none of my living costs have gone up due to Covid. Everyone on UC is on a basic rate and that is the one that the uplift was applied to. I do worry that it will get clawed back from people that got it but are not working.

@pepeleputois

I am waiting for the usual "so only rich people are allowed luxuries/holidays etc"? They don't need to be humiliated and can spend all their money exactly as they like.."

Of course they can, the point was that if you can afford holiday abroad, we are far from an emergency safety net, and the system needs to be revised!

If benefits were truly an 'emergency safety net' then why are working people on minimum wage, getting them? Why are there such things as in work benefits? It's not an emergency safety net. It's the government propping up businesses who don't pay enough to live on even on ft hours in the case of the working claiming benefits, and it's the government's way of saving money by paying a pittance to people to provide care to those in society that are disabled/too ill to work. If every carer were to go out and get a job tomorrow, therefore meaning the people they care for are in need of the care they'd usually provide, do you think that'd save the tax payer money?

I'll give you a clue, I get paid £8.72 an hour to do what many of the people on this thread get about £1 an hour to do.

If every carer were to go out and get a job tomorrow, therefore meaning the people they care for are in need of the care they'd usually provide, do you think that'd save the tax payer money?

As long as the cost of burying or burning the disabled left to die was kept low, it might.

Probably best not suggest it here. Some posters might start lobbying their MP to see it happen.

Now might be the best time actually. You never know, combine a surplus of meat with a shortage of pet pouches ?

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.

Oh right, that’s what I was missing! I should have enforced routines around sleep, rest and activity while caring for my autistic twins (who don’t sleep or give one tenth of a shit about my need for routines). Why did I not think of this?

Also, by “grading” I assume you mean “graded exercise therapy” which is no longer recommended as it has been shown to be more damaging than helpful.

Or perhaps you mean pacing, which is possibly achievable if you have no job, no caring responsibilities and no responsibilities of any kind. And even then, doing these things does not make it “manageable” for many of us. Certainly not manageable enough to reliably hold down a job.

Oh and I get no disability benefits by the way, despite ME and having been on morphine daily for over a decade for severe endometriosis which doesn’t respond to surgery, and an ongoing excruciating back problem. I physically can’t work a regular job, but can’t claim either.

Both of my twins get higher rate care DLA but I don’t get carers allowance because I earn too much... and I work 7 hours a week.

As long as the cost of burying or burning the disabled left to die was kept low, it might.

I know this isn't a true reflection of what you feel, from your other posts, but I'm just so disappointed and disillusioned with society because some do seem to think that this is a way forward, a way to treat people, anyone. By just leaving them to rot so that some people aren't seen to get 'free money'.
This country would be utterly stuffed without carers looking after the more vulnerable in society, we'd either be paying a lot more to have them in care facilities (making more profit for those companies ) or they'd just be left to their own devices.
Some society we live in that either are seen as an option worth considering, or those doing that caring are treated so badly.

Low wages in care, and the attitudes towards that, and the way carers who care at home are treated and viewed tells you a lot about the way society views the vulnerable and disabled doesn't it?

@XenoBitch it’s only carrying on for six months for anyone on UC/£500 one of payment for wtc.
I am disabled though don’t get any benefits expect pip. The government hates us. Could not claim esa because of my dh income.

@SinkGirl that’s not right, you should be getting pip. Could you you get specialist advice to help you claim.

[quote MyDcAreMarvel]@SinkGirl that’s not right, you should be getting pip. Could you you get specialist advice to help you claim.[/quote]
I wouldn’t get it. I remember speaking to someone at the Job Centre when I had to leave my full time job because of my health and she said I was “the wrong type of disabled”. She wasn’t being ignorant or nasty, she was totally right.

I’ve been discharged by everyone, so I only see the GP - I have no evidence other than anything they would write and I barely bother to see them any more since they can’t do any more for me. I had two phone consultations in January when my back was so bad I couldn’t get out of bed, and I was told to “push through it” and most back issues get better in a few weeks (it’s been 4 years since mine started, although it’s not always as bad as that). They told me they’d call me in a few weeks and they’d booked in a phone call in February, never happened. It’s been awful the last three days but what’s even the point in calling? They won’t even refer me for a scan. Only reason GP ever wants to talk to me is to reduce my painkillers (which I have, by about 80%, without any support) but apparently I need to reduce it more. No actual interest in helping though. And ironically this is the best practice I’ve been with for years, and definitely the best in my area. Trying to get any support with chronic health issues is futile, it seems.

I know lots of women with the same conditions to a similar degree - most get nothing either. Unfortunately the PIP scoring system to disregard chronic pain and chronic fatigue. Can you walk 100 metres, can you lift a bottle of milk in each hand... yes. The problem is what happens after doing those things, which is basically ignored.

Phew, sorry. Had a bad week and that was a bit of a rant!

I’m not even going to try to claim it unless we physically can’t manage without it, which we can. I’ve lost all faith in medics, and have enough to deal with without PIP assessments to worry about to be honest.

But yes, I know far more people like me (disabled and who should get help but get nothing) than that old cliche of people getting benefits for a bad back while going out swing dancing or whatever bollocks people go on about. DLA for children is better but I still see posts from many who’ve been refused and shouldn’t have been.