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

I've been asked in assessments why my previous suicide attempts were unsuccessful.
That wasn't brilliant for my mental health tbh.

Name change for obvious reasons.

A year ago I made an enormous mistake. I left my job through ill health and went to tribunal and claimed Universal Credit. After claiming benefits I received a payout through employment tribunal, got holiday pay returned and was subsequently awarded backdated PIP. I thought I was fine because I thought you were allowed up to £16,000 and I only had £13,000. What I didn't realise was that you can have up to £16,000 but anything over £6,000 counts as bringing in an income regardless if it does or not, and benefits are reduced accordingly.

I carried on thinking I was within the threshold and used the excess money to pay off debts I had been drowning in since my mother died a decade ago. Paying these debts flagged up on my credit file and the next thing I knew my benefits were stopped and I was being investigated for fraud and had to hand over all of my financial details which I willingly did as I genuinely didn't think I had done anything wrong at that point. The most I ever had was £13,000 but the decision maker decided I had over £20,000, had never been entitled to any benefit and owed them £25,400.

I was terrified. I thought I was going to prison and would get a criminal record. In shock because I knew I had never possessed over £20,000 I'm my life, I insisted on a mandatory reconsideration. The new decision maker found that I had only ever had £13,000, was always entitled to a reduced amount of benefit and because I used the money to repay debts which I had been struggling with for years I was found not to have deprived myself of capital. And the overpayment? £733.00! less than one month's money!

This happened over Christmas 2021 and I didn't get the final outcome until the spring. I went through months of hell, ended up feeling suicidal because I thought I was going to prison and my mental health suffered. The Jobcentre sent the police to my door to do a welfare check because they were concerned I may harm myself as a result. And all along the original decision maker had made a huge mistake. I genuinely didn't realize my own original mistake and believed I was allowed more in savings. The case was found in my favour and I was exonerated. It is a bit of a jump from £733.00 to £25,400. The case was closed and I was told to repay £10 per month. I've never had a formal apology and was too weary and Ill from the experience to complain about the original decision maker. I was just thankful it had been properly sorted out.

The DWP really do make huge mistakes sometimes. My mistake of course was not properly reading and understanding the rules, but their sums were like a fairy tale which I was able to prove was wrong. Had I not insisted on a mandatory reconsideration my experience could have ended very differently.

You ever filled a form out? You ever ‘squatted down’ because you’ve been told to by a ‘medical professional ’ during an ‘assessment’ you ever been asked why you don’t just take your own life? Nah. I didn’t think so. Wake up!

And yet it transpires that they’re actually was a bottomless pit when it came to supplying dame Malones, PPE company with a contract.
If a war starts tomorrow, the money will be found.

Is it reasonable to have to fill out forms every few years? Many of us live with incurable and permanent health conditions. We're not going to suddenly wake up and be cured.

I think the forms are stupid. The claimants doctors- GP and/or consultant should simply write a report covering basic areas that goes to DWP and that is used to determine disability benefits. So many disabilities, especially mental health ones make it almost impossible for the disabled person to fill them out properly.

@Notallroses
Sorry you had to go through that. Sounds like psychological torture, and it’s exactly stressful situations like that which do push the vulnerable into even deeper depression.

I know people have talked about "£77 per week" so I have put my details into entitledto.com. Not working, no children, no disabilities, no caring responsibilities. 44 years old living in Buckinghamshire.

Apparently if I can work but don't work I am entitled to £254.20 per month which as a safety net seems very generous. As a lifestyle choice; less so.

Lockdown was always going to end. Wars end. The amount paid out in benefits has only ever increased since the start of the welfare payment. Look at all the furore over the temporary increased in benefits being reduced once lockdown ended.

There are two stages to challenging a DWP decision.

The first stage is to ask for a mandatory reconsideration. If benefits have been stopped then they stay stopped during this stage. There is no time limit for the DWP to complete this stage, it can go on for months.

If the decision is not changed at the MR stage (it very rarely is) then the second stage is to appeal to a tribunal. When you submit the appeal form, benefits are started again for the duration of the appeal.

If you win the appeal you get backdated benefits for the MR period, however if you lose, you have to repay the benefits you received during the appeal.

You do know the temporary increase of £20/week was not given to those on legacy disability benefits of ESA? Or those disabled already on UC prior to the uplift?

So, literally disabled got less than the unemployed….

I have to get up at 6am and work most of my waking hours to earn money to survive. Filling in forms every few years is more than an acceptable requirement to get thousands of pounds of free money.

Generous as long as you don't need to eat or pay bills.

And there’s the nasty steak of ableism.

Sorry, should have said £254.20 per week, not per month.

Benefits have had to increase because wages are so low & we have done away with Council Housing so now we pay billions into the private sector instead, with no chance the tenant will be able to save and better themselves. :(

There's nothing nasty about it, it's the simple truth. Filling in some forms every year is a piece of piss compared to working 40 hours a week in a physically or mentally taxing job in order to earn a living.

Why is it ableism? I’m disabled but work (physically, lifelong and quite severely in terms of pain/treatments/management). Although whether I’ll be able to keep doing so for years is doubtful. I would expect to have to prove my disability if I needed out of work benefits.

It's not just filling in forms though. Most people are "invited" for an assessment to determine whether they can work where most of your evidence is ignored.

You can have my "free" money, blue badge, etc and I'll have your job. In return, you're at the hospital several times a year constantly having tests done because no one can decide on a proper diagnosis. Most of those tests will have to be repeated because it's difficult to get an accurate reading. Some of those tests will be painful. Oh and you can't drive. Sounds fair?

Housing costs?

The court case appeal for legacy claimants was heard at the beginning of this month - hopefully should get a decision in the next few months

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/court-hears-universal-credit-20-uplift-appeal-as-activists-vow-to-fight-back/

It is cruel and brutal. It adds further stress to those already disadvantaged in life. Further mental anguish to those already suffering with severely compromised mental health.

I was once sanctioned. I was sanctioned for not turning up due to having an allergy induced asthma attack. I couldn't afford a taxi and couldn't walk up the stairs in my house let alone to the bus stop. I called, and called, and called the job centre to explain and didn't get through to anyone until close of day. Gave my name, NI number, begged for note to be added to the system.

I was still immediately sanctioned. I learned later that I was sanctioned the same day, within hours of me not turning up and no one even bothered to call or send me a letter.

When I finally got into the job centre, I was spoken to like dirt by a girl young enough to be my own daughter who told me in an imperious tone that I had brought it on myself and wasn't going to get any money that day and 'I knew the rules' given a number to call.

I cried all the way home. I have just over 8 quid in my pocket.

I spent 7 days calling department after department and person after person trying to get my benefits reinstated. I finally gave up. I didn't have the mental strength to do anymore and my self-esteem was in the toilet. I felt strong suicide ideation.

I have gone childhood sexual abuse, and rape. Ok, so what. Many have it worse. But now I was getting the message that I was worthless as a human being, again. Worthless as a mother to boot.

I relied on my overdraft which was £200 at the time. Barclays wanted to remove it, as I was in it all the time and I phoned and begged them to keep it installed. They had more compassion than the JC did. They kept it installed. Thankfully my rent was kept going. I looked after my two children on the £200. I was very grateful and remain grateful for every penny. I preferred that to the indignity of dealing with the JC.

Don't get me started on disability Pip. If you think it's reasonable to be asked whether you have ever called an ambulance to prove your mental health is bad, then I honestly don't know what to say. Those are the sorts of questions you get.
There are stories everyday of people getting turned down because they were carrying a cup of tea in a flask (so you can handle money, a kettle, are mentally cognizant enough to ask for a cuppa, you're well!!) walked across the car park too quickly, got up from a chair too fast or because they made eye contact with the assessor when depressed. Some of these people have strokes, parkinsons, multiple-sclerosis, cancer, or chronic fatigue/M.E. (god help you with that as you don't look unwell)

I love this country and we are blessed to have a safety net, yes. Very, very blessed. But it is harsh and I can see why suicides happen. I think it has to be under-reported, actually.

Several of my patients have killed themselves because their benefits were stopped or they had to really fight for disability benefits.
They were just too ill to fight anymore and killed themselves, usually overdose but one went off Beachy Head, I used to live there.
We did our utmost to help writing letters and reports but these were largely ignored.
I won't be voting Tory anytime soon.

Wells that's as maybe but many on benefits are in work and pay tax!

Me! I had that shock! I was raised in a Conservative household and genuinely believed nearly everyone on benefits was at fault and therefore undeserving of much help. And that, because our welfare spendings are relatively high, that meant we had a generous benefits system for the individual, as @Cuppasoupmonster believes.

Lord no. When I got Long Covid, I suddenly found myself with £95 a week in SSP to live on. That was it. Try going from a healthy salary to just over £400 a month to live on overnight, to cover everything, while your bills remain the same. The state expected me to live on bread and beans while seriously ill and just shrugged their shoulders. Then, after the 28 week SSP allowance ran out, I went onto ESA instead - at £324 a month. Great bloody fun that was. The financial stress absolutely worsened my illness, and has had continued impacts.

Eventually, thank god, I got assessed as having LCWRA (i.e, I'm deemed long term unfit to work), which upped my allowance to £689 a month. But that was on the strength of now being so disabled I can't walk more than 50m with any reliability. The criteria to meet eligibility for the higher rate I'm on are so extraordinarily stringent that few meet them, and it does not catch everyone who is too ill to work, who are suddenly thrown into poverty living a mean little existence on £324 a month, with no ability to improve their circumstances.

PIP is even worse. It's literally designed to deny as many people as possible, and the assessors set out to do so.

I can't begin to describe just how inhumane our benefits system is towards the long term ill. It's been utterly demoralising having to fight DWP for scraps, while already chronically exhausted.

You really do feel like you're thrown on the scrap heap if you lose your ability to work. You go from being a person who is seen worthy actual respect to someone unworthy of any quality of life. Subhuman almost, or certainly a second tier. We're made to feel like we're bludging off other people's taxes. Well, no - those were my taxes. This is what we pay in for. Life throws a curveball sometimes, and it can happen to any of us. It's not my bloody fault a pandemic happened, and someone sneezed in Asda.

Part of me wishes everyone with these beliefs had their own wake up call like this, just for a few months (cruel though it may be). Our society would sure as heck be better for it afterwards.