There's too much animosity towards benefit recipients.

[Threadkillacilla]

Any and every flavour of benefit recipient, disabled, pensioner, out of work, low paid, single parent etc etc.
There's a mean and nasty cohort on mumsnet who are vitriolic in their hatred for them all.
What do people want instead of giving people a basic level of existence?
What do they think will happen without benefits?

There are charity organisations that will help fund holidays for low income families..there's even Government funding for weekend breaks. Maybe that's how they can go on their "lovely holidays"

Might I suggest we move swiftly on from the wall-of-text 'contribution' from the 'medically trained' bloodyplanes, please?

It is (was) proving to be an interetsting discussion and that ^^ is a derail.

I agree, this cannot be correct unless the ‘lovely holiday’ is a weekend at a camp site for £20 tent pitch fee.

@Asher33 i have! Nothing has been done because DWP don't have the capacity to follow up every single report! One family i have worked with ( mother and two teenage dc) are raking in £1500 a month in PIP alone, then add to that universal credit, child benefit, disability premiums etc! Its astonishing!

It's people like @bloodyplanes that scare me. You shouldn't be making decisions that affect people's lives with that much prejudice.

@AutumnCrow you clearly don't like the truth!

@Threadkillacilla I don't make those decisions! I work in a medical field that deals with these people day in day out!

For that I'm relieved.

but have you a solution? What would be better?

@bloodyplanes

ADHD diagnoses are not for sale.

How else does a single mum with two kids earn more than £36000 a year if she doesn't have even a GCSE to her name let alone a degree? Just point blank refusing to accept this is happening is what is doing a disservice to those with genuine claims!

Come on then, how are they all getting PIP with no evidence?

PIP is not easy to get. You need tons of medical evidence as in specific reports from consultants outlining exactly how the disability they are treating you for affects your day to day living and cognitive abilities. I know many people wrongly denied it, but no one wrongly awarded it.

YANBU. The anger against pensioners is horrible. There was a MNetter on here last week whining that she and her spouse, earning more than £100,000 were struggling (🙄) while it was unfair her parents had been given a 10% raise. ie £18 a week

Today's pensioners are people, 90% of whom started work at 16 and have for the most part worked through to 65, so they've paid in for 49 years. Fourteen years longer than the requirement today !

And the fantasy that boomers all have final salary pensions is completely ludicrous. It's a teenage fantasy. Compulsory pensions started in 2018. Until then, an employer didn't have to provide any pension at all, so a lot of pensioners literally have their state pension and nothing else. Some civil servants and ex-IBMers etc may have ended up with final salary pensions but they are the tiny tiny minority.

I felt embarrassed just reading such self-pitying rubbish.

In my profession when every single person i work with considers fibromyalgia to be a made up disease!

Best let the NHS know then. I'm sure they'll bow to your superior medical knowledge 🙄

www.nhs.uk/conditions/fibromyalgia/

@bloodyplanes ……

”These people” …… is that a government sanctioned term?

Full marks for othering and scapegoating.

I must've been doing pip wrong then because I found it very hard to get.

@actualnamechange that is the funniest thing ive heard! Trust me I work in the medical profession and these people know exactly what to say and if that doesn't work making complaints and asking for second opinions usually does!

Why blimey? I can't afford a child so I don't have one. It is what it is
That's why I use long term contraception. It isn't I don't want children, but I can't afford them so therefore I don't have any
If you can't afford childcare, nappies, clothes etc etc then...

But how is that the fault of disabled people ,pensioners, carers, working people on low wages who get benefit top ups? Why blame them? You should be blaming employers who pay such crap wages that people need help and the goverment for their spending policies.

Housing is expensive. I remember being in my early 20’s house sharing and hating it. I really resented the fact that at that time, the girls in my cohort who had gotten pregnant could ‘afford’ their own place and were showing off their keys etc on social media. It just seemed so unfair.

@TimBoothseyes it is the NHS I work for! Just because it's recognised by the NHS as a system it doesn't mean the actual professional people believe it is real!

I don't think I know anyone who found it easy to get, myself included. And I know at least one person who migrated from DLA, applied twice, got turned down twice and hasn't bothered trying again

@Onnabugeisha absolutely not true! The family i mentioned before have never had any medical records requested from dwp for proof! They provided name of GP on the forms and also Drs at the hospital and no proof has ever been requested!

My mother claimed benefits all her life.
So the system can definitely be played!
The problem with allowing those that don't need them claiming, is it just takes the money from where it's needed and tarnishes everyone with the same brush

Well it was actual professional people that diagnosed my mother with fibro. Oh and if you had heard her screaming in pain and begging to die on her bad days than you'd absolutely believe it exists.