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.

Meant to add above, that in total, I receive over 3k a month. And most of that is due to one of my four children being disabled.

How can you say benefit fraud is uncommon?

The idea of fraud is that most of it won't be known. It's like tax evasion I would hazard a guess that what's known about is the tip of the iceberg.

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) you can't claim your child can't walk unless you have evidence that they can't walk. You can't claim they are in a nappy still at 7 unless you can evidence this to be the case either by GP records or it being consistent with a diagnosis of X/Y/Z.

To the pp who was outraged, and gets disability benefits but still works and pays taxes I've always thought that is a bit of a waste of everyone's time. So with one hand the govt is giving you money and with the other taking it. If they are similar amounts it seems a tad pointless.

They don’t.

The level of fraud in disability benefits is tiny. Even the government admit so.

Dig into the stories and the majority of the time they’re either third hand stories - so they know fuck all - or they are full of bullshit simply their opinion (like the ‘my sister gets too much for my disabled nephew’ ones).

But you continue thinking you know better than everyone else.

government needs people like you to help them with their systematic attacks on vulnerable people

Putting the money aside.

Those poor children living in filthy conditions alongside 35 dogs.

I hope they've a better future.

The father obviously has no intention of ever getting a job with his tattooed face. 🙄

Where they breeding the dogs for money? Maybe if they were pedigree they were getting a few thousand a month from puppy sales?

Being a nosy parker according to entitled too if everyone in the house got full whack of dla/pip and 2 adults claiming carers it's around 5k a mth benefits, plus 468 a mth child benefit. That's assuming they pay a mortgage of £1600 I saw someone mention.

If they didn't claim carers they're would actually get more at 5.5k a mth.

If they rented at £1600 a mth they could get £6,741 a mth plus the child benefit. So £7k certainly seems possible.

What I don't understand is how they would get evidence for such dla claims for the children without professionals seeing them, who would surely be concerned about things like matted hair? Did school notice anything? If they were missing surely red flags should have been flying?

Get a life! They're laughing at the likes of you!

I'm really not sure where to start with this..

@itsnotdeep the cap isn't always applied and only applies to kids born after a certain date as well

The disability benefit is to put you in the same position as someone who isn’t disabled due to the additional costs that come with being disabled, to try to level the playing field. A lady at my work only has use of one arm so she has to buy pre prepared veg which is more expensive and she has to have an automatic car which tend to be more expensive, these are two examples I’m sure there’s lots more.

Ah. You enjoy insulting people but don’t like it when people reply.

gotcha.

as I said, keep doing your part 👌

I'm not sure if you mean me as I don't relent relate to being 'outraged' but I do work and claim disability benefits. Do you think I should not work? Or not claim? Which? Why not both? What do you think is the problem here, me claiming or the governments 'method'?

Covid is the excuse not to do confrontational home visits. having been in a similar profession I know how difficult it is to knock on the door and have these difficult sorts of conversations. so add in covid, add in staff shortages and people just arent going out to check where our money is being spent or how children and animals in our society are being treated. This may be controversial but I will say it anyway. in my experience the real poor are not those on benefits but those working several low skilled low paid jobs falling just above the benefits line. I fully support powers to go into peoples homes, ask the difficult questions and look into the corners of their life. if you are so ill that you cannot work then you wont have any objection to this. we need to make sure that the limited and growing smaller amount of money available is actually targetted at those in the most genuine need. too many people are able to work but choose not to because the job is not exactly what they want. they could do something but they wont so they bandwagon on something that gets them signed off. Just ask any employer desperately trying to fill vacancies at the moment how many just turn up to interview because they have to in order to continue claiming or work for a few days then stop. the number doing this local to me and to my knowledge is staggering.

Surely many more of us know many people struggling because they can't get the benefits they're entitled to, as the system is rigged to make it very difficult and to deny people their basic needs?

I have four friends who attempted suicide or self harm because of the ATOS fiasco. The benefits system has been investigated for human rights breaches by the U.N. because of the poverty, harm and deaths. All this is publicised and known, yet instead of campaigning for better benefits people complain that disabled children are given money.

Yes it's horrific that their parents abused the children and animals and in doing so misused the system that was intended to help them care for their children. But that is the issue here, not that society provided for disabled children in the first place.

You'd rather I quit work and lived on benefits would you? Don't be daft. I would still get PIP and then I would get other benefits and not enough to live on, but it would cost the taxpayers more because then I would be claiming all benefits and not just one. Not living in poverty is not pointless. Nor is being a productive member of society and using my skills and experience to benefit others - or don't you think that disabled people are intelligent enough to have skills and experience that are useful?

Surely if they were getting disability for kids etc then the kids would of been having check ups for their conditions etc so this should of been picked up earlier
And i can believe that some people get £7 k when you include rent / ctax etc
But to get such high levels you would think they be under regular drs

What I don't understand is how they would get evidence for such dla claims for the children without professionals seeing them, who would surely be concerned about things like matted hair? Did school notice anything? If they were missing surely red flags should have been flying?

They may have had the evidence and since covid lots and lots of appointments have been cancelled, done online or by phone.

Theres nothing in any of the articles to suggest the claims weren’t correct - as in the children may very well have qualified. The issue is the spending of the money.

Social services are cut to the bone and in some areas basically non-existent. A frightening number of children can easily fall through the cracks. Especially those who have sporadic school attendance (or those who do attend but can’t easily communicate).

It's people like this that give a) people on benefits and b) the benefits system itself, a bad name. The benefit cap should apply to all claimants. All. Regardless of their circumstances. If they can't look after their kids they shouldn't have them. No-one that does not work should be better off than someone that works even part time, let alone full time.

SOrry, I wasn't clear, I was meaning purely on an administrative level, surely just reducing the tax to cover the amount of benefits would be easier ( assuming the tax is higher than the benefit). Rather than 2 lots of forms and assessments etc.

Don't worry, I've still got COvid and probs making no sense.

I love it when people reply with all the stamina of a rinsed cabbage! Your replies wouldn't make me turn a hair-I don't give them any heed at all.

The papers are fibbing! It is part of a government conspiracy! There is no such thing as benefit fraud! This family just need love-bombing!

It's like Jackanory!

Covid is the excuse not to do confrontational home visits.

Covid has nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.

This may be controversial but I will say it anyway. in my experience the real poor are not those on benefits but those working several low skilled low paid jobs falling just above the benefits line. I fully support powers to go into peoples homes, ask the difficult questions and look into the corners of their life. if you are so ill that you cannot work then you wont have any objection to this

It's not controversial, it's stupid. People can work and claim disability benefits. It's not about being 'so I'll you cannot work' - lots of people claim PIP/DLA/ADP and work.

But the direct quote doesn't actually say that that's what they received in benefits.

And further down it says they "would have received" £84,000 a year. What does that mean, "would have"? Would have under what circumstances?

I knew someone who used to work at the Fail and she said that just literally, unashamedly, make shit up. And then construct carefully worded articles around it like this. And no, I don't believe the Telegraph gives it significantly more credibility. They're both determined warriors for the culture wars, and I can't believe people don't actually see the agenda here.

I'm sure there are benefit cheats and people who get far more than they should. As for specific details reported in the Fail - forget it.

There are very many news outlets reporting this.