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.

I fully support powers to go into peoples homes, ask the difficult questions and look into the corners of their life.
that’s fine if you’re willing to have the same in your home. Disabled people have exactly the same need for privacy and dignity and it’s actually part of their rights.

That is an insane amount of money and insane amount of disability etc in the household for social services not to be knocking and seeing what life was like inside. Never mind the noise and nuisance of 35 dogs, surely there were complaints by the neighbours and investigations by the Council and Social Services?

It's disgraceful that people advocate removing my privacy dignity because I am disabled. I wonder if it's a bitter thing, because I get 'free money' or if it's just sheer ignorance, or plain old nastiness? It can't be jealousy, surely? I mean if someone wants to take my disabilities (yes plural) they can have the monthly payment. I swap my mobility allowance for a 'free' car too - amazing deal, isn't it? Oh, but wait a minute, I'm fucking DISABLED.

In regards to checks, this is for the adult disability teams and children disability team social workers to do every year. However, extremely high case loads mean that they can’t keep up and people fall through the cracks. Not social services fault, the result of cuts to public services by government.

The cuts for vital services started with Austerity and we are all in this together.

Remember those?

There were countless people who saw what was coming and the impact this would have. There was also many more who didn’t give a shit because at the time it didn’t impact them and as a country we really weren’t all in this together.

Then Covid hit and school closed. Again people mentioned the stark reality of what this entailed for abused/neglected children. But of course there were many more who had blinkers on.

The neglect these children have gone through is not an isolated incident. There have been many many high profile cases that have been reported on, anyone remember Daniel?

Until money is poured back into vital services cases of neglect and abuse will slip more and more under the carpet, and those few still running will issue worthless statement like lessons will be learned. High profile cases will increase.

We shouldn’t be pissed about how much money the family had, but at the government for cutting funding to vital services. To complaints made not taken seriously enough.

We should be doing more as a community to report concerns when they arise not just bury our heads in the sand. If there’s nothing going on they won’t mind a knock on the door from social services. I know I didn’t because it was reassuring that my community gave a shit about those vulnerable and possible abuse.

However after going through various claims, my medical records poured over, interviews etc I am not happy to be further scrutinised to ensure I am not claiming falsely. I find it invasive already when my mh team for example have to come into my home. What more could someone from dwp do for me? Nothing. What happens if I get someone from this thread who thinks I am not worthy due to their own misconceptions, and they cut that money? I wouldn’t be given anymore money, if anything it would more likely be stopped whilst additional checks are made? How does that help families with disabilities other than helping them to the grave quicker?

If they think a claim isn’t valid they can gather evidence behind the scenes and send out an agent to monitor my movements just like they already do. Then and if only then can and should they question me further under caution just like anyone they consider making a fraudulent claim.

I am not and should not be treated as a neglectful criminal simply because I have the unfortunate luck to have a household that has disability’s that impact the day to day care.

In regards to checks, this is for the adult disability teams and children disability team social workers to do every year

What checks do you mean and what teams? I have never had a social worker.

YES!
Dogs don't get dole, surely ?

That was a myth perpetuated years ago, but surely dole payments don't include £20 a week for a dog?

There is so much wrong about this case. Not least that the names and images of the children are still visible on the mother's FB account which isn't even private.

It's not just uncommon it's rare. Less than 1% according to the official figures.

That's simply not possible on UC if the household income is £50k. Someone is telling fibs.

Check one of the many calculators and see.

Yes I was rather perplexed by this along with other inconsistencies in the DM and other news outlets.

The article doesn't say anything about £20 a week for a dog though

Just done a calculator based on 50k wages, twin 10 year olds, council tax D, 1600 month rent (average private for a 3 bed near me) both parents 40.

They would get just under £2 a calendar month without any dla.

Care component for 2 at the highest rate would be 736 pcm. This would bring it up to over 2.6k a month without adding the highest rate of mobility for the 2 at 516 pcm.

When combined over £3 a month.

earlier on at least one source was mentioning this.

1600 month rent (average private for a 3 bed near me)

That may be the average rent but you have to put the LHA amount in the calculator - that can be considerably lower than average rents.

Also the benefit calculators can be very inaccurate, especially with housing sums. For example sticking similar figures in the amount doubled or halved depending on which of the parents - the working or non working one - I put in first, which isn’t remotely how it works in reality.

This is the original comment about £20 a dog - I don't think it was serious.

Depending where they live, a large proportion of the 7k will be housing benefit . They may also be claiming PIP if any of the children have sent or physical disabilities

Oh joy.

Another thread which is a subterfuge for bashing disabled people getting freebies off the state.

You can get disability benefits even if you work full-time because even this shit-show of a government recognises that things are a ton more expensive if you have a disability. For example, things like a car become an essential because public transport may not be accessible, due to your disability.

My 13 yr old disabled DS is still in nappies - and they cost an absolute fortune every week. And that's before you even add in any of his other costs.

But sure, because disabled people are absolutely raking it in and loading up their bank accounts with tons of free cash, they deserve to have their dignity stripped and offer themselves up for inspection every six months.

It is HORRIBLE having to apply for these benefits. The questions on the forms are so demoralising. The process of getting approved in the first place is incredibly robust. Lots of people with legitimate disabilities get turned down. You have to provide lots of evidence to PROVE the disability. It's not just about saying how you feel.

And then you have to reapply regularly to see if the award will be stopped or continue. It might be every year, or every two years. My dad was terminally ill but had to reapply once a year and even got asked to go for an examination. He died before the appointment date.

Disabled people do not deserve to have every element of their life put up for scrutiny every six months as the OP is suggesting. Medical evidence is supplied to assess the claim in the first place, and this might also include an examination from the government's own medical assessors.

Checking what the money is being spent on and if it's being used properly is a fucking insult.

While we're at it, let's go round and check that pensioners aren't pissing their state pension away on cigarettes and booze. You know, because they're also getting "free money" as well.

I work full-time (self employed) and I could probably claim DLA (autism/ADHD) but I don't because I'm coping financially and quite honestly, I don't want to put myself through the interrogation. It's invasive and I just hate the idea of it. So no thanks. My DM has cerebral palsy and I fill in her forms for her, and I cared for my dad before he died, and I did his DLA forms too. I also have two disabled DC. My life has been surrounded by disabilities in various forms, and I absolutely despise the way some others think disabled people should be grateful for the crumbs they're thrown.

I am so sorry @exhaustedflamingo. These shitty rags have a lot to answer for, whipping up hatred against ordinary people who are suffering already.

I find this hard to believe for a number of reasons. Firstly, 7k in benefits would assume that every single child would be on disability benefits, both the parents too, plus universal credit and whatever. It doesn’t tie in with the level of neglect.. to get child DLA you have to have masses of evidence, professional reports and give details of the specialists you’re working with. If the children were under specialists they would surely pick up on them being undernourished? At every NHS appointment we’ve ever had, they’ve been weighed etc.

I don’t believe 7k in benefits is anywhere near the correct number.

Either way the parents are both total scum, hopefully they rot in prison and the children are thriving 🤞🏻

My child is autistic, he was diagnosed age 6 and we were signed off from paediatrician on diagnosis, never seen a health professional since other than gp and Ds is physically healthy so don’t think we’ve been to gp for about 5 years. Desperately tried to get re referred to paediatrician/ cahms when we were having a particularly hard time a few years after diagnosis and got turned down as they said “ issues relate to previously diagnosed autism. I get dla for Ds so it’s not surprising at all the kids weren’t seeing health professionals.

It would be administratively harder to try and combine as the systems are operated completely seperately. You could potentially try and code it into paye codes but that would create an issue where the benefit entitlement was more than the tax, plus there are people not on paye that would still need the current system of payments so they’d then be operating two systems. It wouldn’t save on assessment as you’d still need asssment to qualify in first place

there are no highly trained medical professionals conducting assessments annually and/ or no social services involvement for most claimants. Most claimants would actually welcome further support from the medical profession / social services. I claim dla for my son, he was diagnosed autistic age 6, now 12 and we’ve not seen a medical professional other than gp since diagnosis, even been turned down when asked for help. Social services the same, most people don’t meet their criteria for help so no involvement. There is no requirement to attend regular appointments, I don’t think he’s even seen the go for about 5 years as he’s physically a healthy child. Our additional evidence for dla came from school as he has an ehcp

The criteria for being even eligible for a disabled childrens social worker in our area is extremely high, much much higher than the criteria for dla. I requested help from social care for ds who is autistic but was turned down but we do get dla. I know I could probably fight the social care decision but I haven’t got the energy to do for the miniscule amount of help we would prob get anyway. A disabled lady at my work gets pip but she has no involvement from ss as she has no need for extra help, she lives independently and can manage fine, the pip just gives her a little bit of help with additional costs due to her disability. Disabled people who actually have a social worker and very few and far between

Ds 16 with higher rate both for DLA has seen one medical professional in 3 years. He is supposed to have regular checks 6 monthly from some health services but since covid they have disappeared.

He has regular social care involvement but only because he has overnight respite which has only been for the last 18 months. Even then we don't get anywhere near the support we are supposed to get ie no day to day support for a child that has 3:1 at respite because social care say they haven't got anything they can provide.