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.

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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.

Anyone getting benefits should be checked , as it’s so easy to commit fraud , if you’ve nothing to hide why should it bother you.

And it is estmiated that £15+ billion goes unclaimed www.entitledto.co.uk/blog/2021/january/15plus-billion-unclaimed-means-tested-benefits-but-the-sketchy-take-up-data-makes-it-hard-to-say-for-sure/

Yep, some really big flaws in the system when they aren't ensuring that the most vulnerable people in society get their entitlements.

claimants are checked at the point of application and in the case of dla/pip at renewals

How is it easy to claim disability benefits fraudulently?

They do get checked when they initially apply, and when they get reassessed.

I think anyone claiming any more off the state should have a check.

We apparently don't even have the resources for enough health visitors and education welfare officers and social workers who are meant to visit homes to prevent these sorts of situations, and you want some another group to visit everyone who gets disability benefits?

Who exactly would be doing these visits? And why should the resources by put to them rather than any of the above?

If you've nothing to hide, no problem surely?

I actually don't claim disability because having helped others in the process, I just haven't yet been able to face it for myself.

Maybe try looking up stories of people who've been rejected the first time around who gained it on appeals? People who've died while jumping through hoops? And then tell me who exactly is going to make these checks because the people doing it now are repeatedly fucking up.

Anyone who visits my house can see the handrails and adapted toilets and bathroom, but anyone can buy those - in fact, they came with the house, it's why we live here. I'm really not sure how visiting my house is going to prove the state of my health more than information from a medical professional.

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I've just said I have zero problem, zero, with HMRC questioning my income and wanting proof etc in order that I've paying the correct taxes. Actually laughable to think i'm even able to be creative with the level of money I earn but I take your point that some self employed people may do so. Every single penny i earn goes into my business account and is invoiced.

On the flip side you are actually being given money , free money, to help with whatever disability you have. Presumably that money is to make your life easier -= so maybe pay for adaptations to your home, pay for therapy, medicines, I don't know - whole host of things it could genuinely be used towards to assist with the fact you have claimed it in the first place. Obviously it totally depends on your disability. I have a friend for eg who claims for her child with ADHD ( I don't actually claim for my child although it now seems I might as well, as everyone else does!) and uses the money to pay for karate classes for him - so fully, trackable. However, it appears that she could use that money to pay for her own bloody nails to be done each month and no one would actually give a shit?! That to be seems madness.

Why shouldn't you be checked to see where the money you have been given is going and how it's helping? Surely if you need that extra money, it's easy to show where the money is going?

Check by way of medical evidence. Consultant reports. Medication. Treatment regimes etc..

Terminally ill people get turned down. Fraudulent disability claims are minuscule and genuine claimants go without. That's why so many get overturned by tribunal.

It's easily done with that many kids. We are on benefits and get just over 3000 a month just for 2 children who recieve DLA highest rates and have bags of evidence to support their claims.
My husband can't work as he has recently just had cancer so I'm now every one's carer. I had to miss out on a brilliant career to basically be a full time carer for 4 people. If he gets awarded the sickness elements it'll go even higher but it doesn't take the stress away or make life any easier to be honest. It's hard work having to do all of this and cope at the same time.

Because a lot of money is already spent on the initial and renewal entitlement checks. Further checks will cost more money, and with how strict the initial checks are (if anything they’re far too strict, so much money is wasted with appeals) where is the money for the additional checks going to come from, and it’s unlikely to save more than it costs.

If you think you are entitled to claim OP then go ahead and do so, will certainly be a character building experience for you

🤣 Don't be so ridiculous. If you include UC, childcare top ups, PIP, DLA, Tax Credits, HB, JSA, Income Support, Child benefit, state pensions, that's impossible. Also over 70s tv licence. Free bus passes. Where does it end? You are grossly underestimating the amount of people on sone kind of state benefit.

"23 million people claimed some combination of DWP benefits in February 2021 (of the benefits included in these statistics). Of whom:

12.5 million were of State Pension Age, 29% of whom were claiming more than one benefit

9.9 million were of Working Age, 31% of whom were claiming more than one benefit

550,000 were under the age of 16 and in receipt of Disability Living Allowance as a child"

From www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statistics-august-2021/dwp-benefits-statistics-august-2021#headlines

So 6 months into the claim that takes several months to get an award in the first place, you want further checks to see if the money is helping?

If it isn’t helping then what? The money gets stopped or increased further?

See how they are coping? In which way? If they aren’t coping then what?

As someone SE you aren’t awaiting a knock on your door. You are invited for an interview to go over your record’s initially and depending on that further checks on the business are made including looking at the average for that area.

Many parents have multiple children with disabilities in the household as many are passed down from parents/ancestors. Never mind people having an accident later on in life. You also have other occupants siblings/parents who are suffering with their own MH due to the circumstances of living with/caring for someone with a disability. Their declining mh is sadly how they have to cope because due to cuts there is no bloody help.

Where would all the extra money come from to employ more people to due in house checks? What department should do these? Dwp? Social services? Medical professionals? CAHMS? Local authorities?

Probably supported with the application by social workers or mental health support workers. I help a lot of people with PIP claims but during covid all forms done over the phone so there would be no way of picking up this kind of neglect. In the past 3 working days I have visited people at home to assist with PIP forms and had to complete two referrals to social services for people struggling with alcohol abuse, living in homes with no heating and holes in the roof, sleeping on a sofa because the house is too cold to go upstairs, not taking medications. people living in this kind of squalor with severe social problems is rife. I am just a benefits advisor but sometimes feel more like a social worker, I am shocked by how people falling through the gaps . I can absolutely see how a family with numerous kids could be getting £7k a month. Disabled child element of UC, child element and top rates of DLA just for one child is over £1200 a month. Multiply that by a few disabled kids or parents claiming disability benefit plus a high rent for a large house due to having a large family, plus both parents probably claiming carers element for the kids or each other, it could absolutely come to £7k. Child benefit on top too and no benefit cap. These families are all over the place, mental health issues , chaotic lives etc. Poor kids.

Oh, and by the government's own figures that are often quoted on this, the fraud rate for DLA is 0.5% and for PIP 0.3%.

They are routinely the benefit with the least amount of fraud except for state pension. Total fraud across all benefits is 1.4%. Not sure why we should sink more resources into these checks because we're assuming this case involves benefit fraud when clearly the checks that should be happening are in areas where we've under resourced professions already making home checks for the vulnerable.

And they all seem to have a few dogs or multiple cats in the home being neglected also. One of them had recently been given an elderly rescue dog whilst barely able to walk herself and totally pissed most of the time. There should be better checks on where animals are re-homed to also!

Your getting your facts from the daily mail ffs !

7k a month sounds like a bargain compared to what they'll be costing the state now.

Yes exactly.

At different times I have been successful in claiming higher rate DLA for both my children and consequently carers allowance for myself. Completed the forms without any help and just read the guidance. I was absolutely astounded how much money I was given based just on the (incredibly long) forms. Each award was for three years and no one ever verified the information I provided at point of application nor during the term of the award.

Who is going to pay for that and who is going to do it? Social services can’t cope with investigating all situations where there have been reports made already never mind checking up on the whole country

On the flip side you are actually being given money , free money, to help with whatever disability you have. Presumably that money is to make your life easier -= so maybe pay for adaptations to your home, pay for therapy, medicines, I don't know -

@CoastalWave Right, that's it. No YOU DON'T F*ING KNOW!!! That is the most intrusive, insulting and offensive comment that you could possibly make to a person with a disability. I HAVE ALREADY PROVEN MY DISABILITY in getting PIP, and if you think the process and sytem is easy then you haven't a bloody clue. There are people who DIE because their disability isn't believed DESPITE MEDICAL EVIDENCE. Do you think that's fun? And I am NOT being given "free money" - I am not some bloody charity case. I have worked for decades, and I still work, and that money helps keep me in work so that I continue to pay (a lot of) taxes to support society in general, paying for the NHS, for schools, for social services and everything else. I am not some bloody scrounger and I DO NOT HAVE TO BE GRATEFUL to you or anyone else.

You seem to think that disabled people are stupid thieves out to defraid the system. Your comments are disgusting and get worse the more you open your mouth. So yes, you are right about one thing - you don't know. And perhaps you should refelct on what you don't know and shut the hell up until you do know. I do not have to account to you or anyone else - including the state - about what I spend MY MONEY on, and how dare you suggest that I should have to? If the state - or you, or anyone else - wants to call my GP's, and three consultants, liars, then they can bring it on. But I do not have to prove anything because I have already proven it.

Your moral terpitude disgusts me, and your attempt to make the tragedy of those children into a thinly veiled benefit / disabled bashing thread is beyond low. Before you start judging the mote in everyone elses eyes, perhaps you should take the beam out of your own???? Disgusting.

The Telegraph is just as bad as the Daily Mail.