Suicide because of Benefits Being Stopped

[StridTheKiller]

Another casualty of our brutal benefits system. RIP.

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/dad-who-took-life-days-28813953

Disabled claiments, widowed single mothers and those made redundant to the side, the benefits system is not "brutal". It is generous. Far too much so. I'm sick of reading about people complaining their handouts are too low or "brutal". Try existing in the myriad of countries with no welfare state, then come back and complain about the system here.

And before the "most people on benefits are in low paid work" comments come in, and? I started off in low paid work and never claimed a penny. I made life decisions that ensured I always lived comfortably within my means. Now I'm very comfortable.

It's good there's a welfare state. But there needs to be perspective.

Yes, and I hate saying this but pre-2010 disability benefits & social care was a different world compared to recent past & today.

Try living on £77 a week and out of that you're paying 20% council tax.

£11 a day really isn't "generous". It's nearer £60 if you're under 25

I don't think you keep the money while in appeal and appeals take ages. The benefit system suits families with children because they get money for the child but as a single person on the £70 a week it's not possible to even live a normal life. I have two neighbours live separate but one doesn't speak to the other used to be good friends due to one getting full pip with mobility car and the other mustn't get the same. She said shes had to fight to get the money she gets while the other with the car didn't and hasn't got mobility issues to be walking her dogs around all the time and she tells everyone how she went to the assessment in a wheelchair but never seen her in one.

Sal

I don't know how high people would want benefits to be. Should people who don't work (regardless of whether they are unable to work or not) expect to have the same lifestyle of someone who works? I would say not, but I know some will say otherwise, that we are a wealthy, civilised country etc etc.

Should people who don't work (regardless of whether they are unable to work or not) expect to have the same lifestyle of someone who works?

@FlorenzThe majority aren't expecting the same lifestyle, they just want to be able to survive!

I do think that someone who is unable to work should have a lifestyle that is average. Right now, it is below the lowest paid worker. And this is literally punishing people with poverty for not being able to work. It’s disgusting imho.

When you save "average" what do you mean? Above the lowest paid 50% of workers but below the highest paid 50% of workers?

Both died this year, so claimants from the ‘90s. I have no idea what benefits they were receiving, but they seemed, with regards to financial adequacy, to be doing ok.
They never mentioned financial hardship, though they obviously had ‘no money’.

what @PurpleButterflyWings says.

When I was working in NHS primary care MH so many people had a constant battle to survive. Their mental health problems so often created by poverty and a system that viewed them as worthless.

just one example: I remember one young woman who had found her sister dead in bed one morning and in the ensuing horror missed an assessment appointment with the DWP. She moved temporarily to stay in her sister’s flat to help care for the sister’s young children and so missed a letter to her home; only responding to it a few hours later than the 24 hours they gave her. Her money was cut off and it took her around SIX MONTHS to reinstate her disability benefits. By the time I saw her she was desperate; grieving, depressed, undernourished and actively suicidal. It was shockingly callous and just one of many many examples I could give of people being sent into utter despair by a system’s poor administration, by unqualified assessors, by callous assumptions that people in their positions had put themselves in that position and deserved no mercy.

Unless you’ve seen first hand what people are put through you are not in a position to look up from the pages of the Daily Mail and announce our system isn’t brutal.

@DomesticShortHair, you really must write post haste to the Cambridge University Press to let them know that their definition of third-world is incorrect as it does not agree with you.

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/third-world

But we are a European country, one a close shared history.

We pay out a lot in Welfare to people IN work, to the employees of some fabulously wealthy companies.

Of course you can pick countries that do far less, i ve lived in them, i have stepped over the bodies of people who have died over night, i believe that happens here too.

As i said, we should have contributory benefits, pay more for longer & get more help, it actually helps people get more suitable jobs - what a waste when someone with a skill has to do a low skilled job just to eat? when with a bit more help and time he/she could get a job where they don't need in work benefits and would pay more tax.

If Germany and France can do this & they have far higher productivity, why can't we?

I've got little to no sympathy to people who miss or are late for DWP appointments. It's literally the only thing they have to do and their money is dependent on it. Get an early bus. Set an alarm on the phone. Make it your utmost priority to be there on time. People with jobs have to be on time every day.

How is that relevant to the story in the OP/people on disability benefits?

Damage to mental health filling out forms? Surely it isn’t unreasonable to expect them to prove their disability before receiving the money? Or is this the point MN is at now in its socialist utopia, that you can just declare yourself unfit to work and get generous benefits, no questions asked?

Fact is there is only so much money to give out.

Fact is we have plenty of people complaining about other people striking for wanting to earn a decent wage. Some of those might be having to take benefits to survive. Society as a whole doesn't support people being paid properly only have to see all the complaints a out the strikes.

If people didn't need uc to top up wages that money along with rest of the pot is then only needed for those who truly cannot work, disabled etc. A bigger piece of the pie.

There is no bottomless pot of money, you cannot keep taxing people endlessly to increase pots of money for welfare, NHS etc.

At so.e point you have to look at the wider picture and go well if people were paid properly then £x billion wouldn't be needed to pay ppl to top up their wages. That could be used to give people who truly are unable to work a better standard of living.

I dont know anyone who begrudge their taxes going to help people who really cannot work, through disability, caring for someone full time or ill health. But people are getting mighty pissed off when you have like one mumsnet poster on this thread who says why should I work full time I can work 18hrs and pick up benefits to make up the rest...that is what pissss people off. But to fix that peolle need to be paid better.

France & Germany do and housing costs are much cheaper, generally speaking, than UK, just in case someone comes up with Paris/Berlin housing!

But its a good point and why i referred only to unemployment benefit.

Average for their town/city. So for Birmingham, a disabled adult who cannot work through no fault of their own should have an annual gross income of £28,998. A disabled adult who can only work PT, should have their income topped up to £28,998.
www.birmingham.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/2867/average_earnings_2019.pdf

This is because while low paid workers can change their circumstances and get better paid jobs or work more hours, a disabled person cannot. They have no way to improve their lives. So they should have an average lifestyle.

At so.e point you have to look at the wider picture and go well if people were paid properly then £x billion wouldn't be needed to pay ppl to top up their wages.

@Spectre8 completely agree, the current welfare system spends more money subsidising companies paying low wages to maximise their profits. Companies need to be paying higher wages.

I don't think Britain needs to worry about having the most generous benefits system. Job seekers is 77 pounds per week in the UK and meanwhile in Ireland which is open to every single unemployable person from across Europe, the personal rate is 208 euro with an extra 138 for an adult dependent and 40 for a child under 12 and 48 for a child over 12.
We are the new suckers. I'm not disputing the personal rates, just the add ons for dependents. It makes sense to stay uneployed.

I see this crop up a lot about being sanctioned for turning up 30 seconds late for their appointments. It’s totally inaccurate crap. My brother works for DWP, and people are never sanctioned for being 30 seconds late - it’s usually an hour late, or not turning up at all. In which case they should be sanctioned. There are always circumstances which can be taken into consideration for late attendees such as unexpected travel disruptions, or accidents, but certainly not the most common excuse - alarm didn’t go off.

It’s pretty crap for those of us with a hidden disability. Can’t work (full time or at all) but entitled to nothing because we don’t get enough points.

Dreams is fit for work because she can walk her dog, wash herself, drive etc. whatever it is that you can actually do is used against you. It doesn’t matter how many negatives you give, one positive and you’ve ruined your chances of receiving anything. Go to the assessment looking human and you don’t stand a chance.

If you’ve got a good reason or excuse you just add it to the notes on UC and still get paid. I’ve seen that written on mn and Facebook loads when people are worried that they missed the phone call. As long as you book your next appointment all good.

Most people in this country haven’t had to apply for benefit since the 90s, when, frankly, it was actually okay to live on unemployment benefit, it was manageable.

I had a brief stint between university and starting my new job on £50 a week which was okay. Paid pretty much immediately without question and actual support and help to get me into the workforce.

Its all gone.

Although it seems bloody everyone who ever managed to get off tax credits got hit with an overpayment of often more than a year’s entitlement which was bonkers.