To not understand benefits of £7k a month!

[CoastalWave]

Awful story in the paper today (apologies, Daily Mail! But I'm sure it's in others)

Beyond distressing what has happened to the children (and the dogs) and I'm delighted this pair have been jailed.

But what also stood out, was the comment that they received £7000 a month in benefits.

How?

When my DH lost his job during cover and we only had my part time wage to live on, we were told that £1k a month was absolutely fine for a family of 4 to live on and we were entitled to nothing. Zero. Nada. Out of that £1k a month was our £600 mortgage, £200 council tax, £150 gas/electric etc etc. Basically there was no bloody chance we could live on £1k a month. We lost all of our savings and we're still paying back the debt we accrued now.

How do scumbags like this even just get handed that amount of money per month? And moreover, no one is bloody checking up on them clearly. Those poor children.

link

Can someone please enlighten me as to how these even happens/is allowed? What on earth is £7k benefits made up of? Are all families with 7 kids and not working getting £7k a month because if they are I'm sacking off work and popping out a few more children.

We have highly trained medical professionals (i.e. GPs, specialist consultants, psychiatrists and nurses) in addition to social workers already conducting these assessments annually for each claimant. Home visits do occur when patients have CPNs or social workers, but usually the patients are required to attend regular medical appointments.

Agreed. It’s shameful how the tragedy of these poor children is treated as on a par with animals.

@JustLyra read again what I have said, I can't put links due to the job that I do, what do you think I do?

I tend to hide these posts as they usually get hundreds of replies spouting opinions not facts. Unfortunately due to the official secrets act I'm unable to posts links.

@Babyroobs sounds like we have similar job roles, yes it is totally shocking, it's got so bad that I'm looking at changing jobs.

The difference is it is your money. The Op is talking about adults who were getting money on behalf of their children. That’s where the checks should be.

They have effectively by their neglect likely made the children disabled to a degree that when the dla forms are filled out they then pass the criteria to get the award just answering the questions honestly will get it, ie describing a 7 year old in a nappy

You don't just answer the questions. DWP don't simply believe what you put on a form. They look for evidence and they look for what you say to be consistent with the diagnosis (yes I know you don't need one to claim)

Unfortunately there would be evidence of a disability through neglect, professionals would note developmental delays that can be environmental or neurological.

If they were lashing out in school they'd qualify for support.

In their case I've no doubt the severe neglect Impacted their development from pregnancy onwards, classifying them as disabled.

Absolute sickos.

Labour really need to crack down on stuff like this if they want hard-working people to vote for them. They claim not to be the party of benefits claimants anymore. Let's see some evidence of this.

The difference is it is your money. The Op is talking about adults who were getting money on behalf of their children. That’s where the checks should be.

Oh well if it helps I get high rate CDP for DD too.

But let's not pretend OP was just talking about money given for children. OP was talking about everyone.

I don’t think a lot of people realise just how much services have been cut.

My youngest DD has a complicated life-limiting health condition. Her mobility is limited and her communication is extremely limited.

When she was very little we went to a group at a children’s centre locally. That’s closed.

My other children went to a couple of clubs for children with terminal or limited life siblings. That’s closed.

DD went to respite once a month. That doesn’t happen because of shortages.

The parent support group - closed.

Local drop in clinic that was like an extension of the HV service, you could chat about feeding worries or have them weighed - closed.

She’s had 7 different social workers this year. I’ve spoken to 2 on the phone. None of them seen her. One was her allocated SW for such a short time the letter telling me that X was now her allocated arrived only 3 days before the one saying that Y now is.

She goes to a specialist school 25 miles away. She goes by taxi. Due to covid, then Dd being ill on the latest parents day none of the school staff have met DH or I in person. Her attendance last year was 32%.

All bar one of her consultant appointments in the last couple of years have been cancelled or done by phone.

Now Dd has multiple A&E admissions so she has an element of safety in that, but if I was neglectful and didn’t take her who would notice?

Social services and other intervention services are almost non-existent.

Rather than frothing about the money people should be up in arms about the absolute abandonment of vulnerable people that has been caused by repeated slashing of services.

I don't disagree my point was more about the flippant suggestion you could write it on a form and it would be taken as read.

And honestly, people on the left claiming that this is lies, and that people who read the Daily Mail are idiots etc, are incredibly counterproductive. Just about every working-class or lower middle-class person has first-hand knowledge of someone that is swinging the lead or has done so in the past. Telling them they're wrong, they don't know what they think they know, and waving "official statistics" in their face doesn't get people on your side, it just makes you seem credulous and out of touch with reality. Most people, given the choice of believing numbers on a sheet of paper, or their own knowledge and experience, will go with the latter every time.

Given that there are well known posters who frequently job change from 200k a year lawyers to supermarket workers depending on the thread you can’t expect anyone to put any weight behind a “I know but I can’t say” post. That was my point.

Correct. Although I would happily not have any of that money and have a child that had a chance to live until adulthood. He likely only has a few years left to live, so.

Well I reckon if there hadn't been so many cuts to services then maybe there would have been checks/action on the concerns raised to help these children.

And I doubt that the suffering caused would have had any less impact on those children if the money hadn't come from benefits but from earned, inherited or lottery win money.

It's really distasteful that this story is being used to slate people on benefits, the problem here isn't the benefits, it's the actions of the parents, but seemingly people are more outraged by the tax payers money than what these children have been subjected to. Perhaps with better funded services around them they'd have been identified sooner - those services have failed here, and most likely because they're underfunded and poorly managed.

Ok well I got my arse well and truly handed to me and rightly so .

My post below wasn't exactly clear having reconsidered it.

I'm not suggesting that recipients of PIP/DLA etc should have to account/justify every penny they spend having already been assessed as eligible (which is a gruelling process).

I do appreciate that the way the money is used to improve/facilitate someone's life depending on their need can be very variable and the link not always obvious to someone without experience of similar circumstances.

What I was trying to do (and did poorly) was compare and contrast the level of scrutiny that PB holders come under to ensure their money is spent as assessed vs the clear lack of any review in this case.

By review, I don't mean questioning if the purchase of a veg chopper (as per one example cited in reaction to my post) for a person with a disability was valid.

Rather, I mean any "broad" checks whatsoever, such as an annual home visit (as PB's get) simply to check if needs have changed and budgets need to be reviewed (which can be upwards as well as downwards).

The report stated that the home had been neglected for a long time.

I'm shocked that given multiple agencies must have been involved to accrue benefits of that amount, that seemingly none of them were aware of the living conditions of the occupants and that it is clear that the benefits were absolutely not being used for the purposes for which they were claimed.

What makes you think those who don’t join in on the benefit bashing aren’t working or middle class? I’m working class and don’t know anyone gaming the system. I’ve never been entitled to anything but I know some friends and colleagues who are, and I know how stressful the process has been for some of them.

I can't understand how this family wasn't reported much earlier.

Where is the community in these situations.

DC living in shit.

i agree with many. The story makes no sense.

Multipke disabilities in the house and mentions that children didn’t know who to use cutlery or still in nappies at 7 (think the 7 year old was also sleeping and wearing a nappy). I wouldn’t be surprised about this tbh knowing that disabilities can impact these things.

Children not knowing how to socialise outside of the family group. NDS such as Autism can also impact social interactions. One of my dcs wouldn’t talk to strangers because of the stranger danger talk in primary school, it’s only recently that he has started talking to strangers and he’s 16. If his home was invaded now by strangers and put into an unknown environment he would retreat back into himself.

Okder child discouraged to go to school to care for the younger ones - where was the school safe guarding and even attendence officers - why weren’t they flagging up concerns. Fines for repeated missed days which should have triggered something. News reports say the neglect was ongoing for years.

Probation services for the dad who already had a prison record? Never mind this according to news reports it wasn’t the first time police had been called to the address for domestic reasons.

The parents own family - why weren’t they reporting concerns? Or even just bloody removing the kids themselves. I know I would and face kidnapping charges if it meant they were out of an unsafe environment.

Neighbours because of the horrific stench that would have leaked out of the house?

The constant loud barking etc. Weren’t neighbours reporting to various animal welfare charities, if they were why didn’t they intervene?

We either believe that no one was reporting years of neglect or no one bothered to investigate. That is what is shocking to me. Having someone from dwp making checks wouldn’t have made an iota of difference if reports were already getting Reported and ignored. If anything it could have made the situation a lot bloody worse whilst money was cut during investigations.

No one is ever allowed to question or suspect anything benefits claimants do. They are simply salt of the earth people who can do no wrong.

'Benefit claimants' are not one. People are all different. If I am suspected of a wrongdoing then I welcome investigation. The idea that I am wrong-doing because I am disabled and claim the appropriate benefit is disgusting.

I imagine all the children have a pretty poor experience with these parents and so have challenging behaviours and then get DLA so no benefits cap. Rent can be a large amount for a lot of people.

It's easy to get DLA for a child with challenging behaviour and these benefit families know the way to get it and maximise to get the most. There are a few than make a great living from their kids. Sad but don't tarnish everyone since most people are not like this at all.

Hopefully social services will remove these poor children - their lives must be a living hell.

I agree that there is sadly a lack of understanding of how deep cuts have gone by people not in need of services and the impact that has had.

My observation would be that this is many years in the making (made worse by COVID).

The cuts focused on early intervention services and that has resulted in far more crisis referrals in social care (that ironically cost most to address). There is a backlog that's been a decade in the making.

The nearest parallel is seeing A&E overrun and everyone appalled at 10 hour plus waits without questioning where all the walk in clinics went, the lack of availability for GP/Dental services, closure of localised healthcare services, reduction in district nurses etc

Given that the parents have been sent to prison, the kids aren't in their care.

Depending on the disability it can take years to get an official diagnosis by which time more children are brought into the situation.

Many parents of disabled children are single parents due to the often man walking out. many of whom have mh issues in their own right.

A parent dies impacts the financial situation of the household.

Redundancy as so many people find themselves in.

CompNies and their bullshit zero hour contracts. Minimum wage that doesn’t cover the basic needs of a family.

Adults having to stop working/reducing hours to take care of another family member saving government how many millions a year.

Accidents including work place ones that have a massive impact on the individual.

There are so many bloody scenarios of why people suddenly find themselves on benefits.

Anyone’s circumstances can change at the click of a finger. Just look at Twitter mobiles companies, ferry companies, hospitality maplin and many more thousands of companies that have let staff go. Some only finding out when they show up and find the shutters closed.

What do you suggest these families do? Starve? Die? Become homeless? Give their children to more “deserving” parents?