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

Apparently includes £155.77 per week for housing costs. Take this out and, for a single person, it remains a generous safety net but a difficult lifestyle choice.

I’m not sure that’s correct, unless it includes some sort of housing benefit which isn’t going to benefit you at all. It’s going to your landlord.

Yep. I know what all my medication is for and I didn’t “sound” like I was in pain during my telephone interrogation therefore I do not qualify for help.

The fact that I’m only able to shower around 4 days a week because I often don’t have the energy, and last month didn’t eat an actual meal for 17 days, because I was unable to stand and prepare one, is apparently neither here nor there.

I hate it when someone drops a post and never comes back. It's borderline trolling.

Despite the headlines the man suffered anxiety and depression for over 10 years. He had COPD and after 5 yrs of payments they confirmed whilst he couldn't do painting and decorating he previously did, he was fit for other forms of work.

They continued paying him fully up until his death through the appeal.

The headline is a smokescreen for what was actually a fair process. Whether you agree with the amount of benefit being paid or not, it's likely he actually could have worked and got paid equivalent of £70 a week.

The U.K. has a big welfare bill (re tax v benefits) so if you up how much is paid or have more relying on it it’s going to become too onerous

So anyone not on benefits is either cooking ghe books or earning £100k plus. OK.

Yes true. The article indicates that the man had severe depression which would have likely been a major cause of suicide. Very sad

There’s definitely a school of thought on MN that anyone who is NT and not on benefits has somehow won the lottery of life and has much fewer struggles. Which simply isn’t true, it drives me nuts tbh.

A lot of disabled people can work. As this man was looking to be declared too just maybe not the job he wanted or originally had. Not that many people are actually so disabled to an extent they cannot work at all.

This. Plus making a quite significant payment out of said £77 towards rent since housing benefit rates have not anywhere near kept up with private rents. People are therefore relying on food banks as they have no money left after bills , rent and council tax.

Our benefits system is an absolute disgrace , yes it does assist people but in actual fact it's not the great help that the dwp will have you believe .
The fact that carers allowance is £69.70 per week to care for loved ones with disabilities is completely unacceptable , but to then have this classed as an income to be taxed on tells you everything that is wrong with the benefits system .
Tv shows like benefits Britain are also picking the worst examples of people on benefits it's a great piece of Tory propaganda.

I work full time my husband is unable to work due to illness so stays home taking care of our 2 children one of which has additional needs .
We do get help from universal credit with our rent but not much more on top , money is tight we make it work but it's not easy it's a lot of adjusting the budget each month to accommodate for things like holidays , birthdays etc

My opinion also.

Thankfully that's all it is.

The ones that can, do work? I think the latest figures are around half of disabled people work.

Some people have become suicidal dealing with the benefits system, having never been a "suicidal person" before. I suppose you can say they have an underlying tendency that needed a certain situation or series of situations to push them to the edge but then we don't always know what could push us to the edge until it comes.

That you didn't hang yourself, as you say, but he did doesn't necessarily mean he's mentally vulnerable and you're not. You may well not be but it simply means this was the straw that broke the camel's back for him. We don't know his full story. Hopefully, you never get to that point because we all have it. No one deserves to get to that point.

If you draw a venn diagram of some of the posters saying ableist things on this thread and some of the posters who made racist comments on the lady Susan threads, there are few very vocal posters in the middle cross over...

UK unemployment benefit is £78 per Week, it is ridiculous that the contribution element of benefits has been taken away in the UK (You get nothing if you have some savings)

That sounds brutal to me. Where I live you get more a week, and they don't care how much you have in savings, as that is capital, not income, so they only take into account the interest you earn on those savings when calculating how much to pay you.

Thank you for the explanation @LangClegsInSpace so I'm guessing that the benefits were stopped after the first appeal was dismissed and because the next stage of appeal hadn't started they had not been reinstated.

Mr Dooley had, presumably, already been assessed to be in receipt of benefits so my next question is that the second set of assessors clearly thought the previous ones who assessed him some years ago were lying? Surely the paperwork for the original assessment and the reasons on there must carry weight?

Surely people who have life long medical conditions from which they will never recover shouldn't need to keep proving that? Especially not to people who are not medically qualified and have zero knowledge of the condition.

I get more than some because I’m disabled. It’s a struggle, even more so since my utilities went from £70 a month to £150. I have cancer too so not really up to managing with no heating.
we actually have one of the worst benefit systems and payments in Europe.

I would presume that the majority of those who can do indeed. It wasn’t a dig. Just with this particular case it looks like he was going to be declared fit to work a job just not the old one he had / wanted.

Since you can claim pip and work it makes sense to do both if you can really obviously there are some who could who possibly don’t want to however a minority.

Just so that you get an idea.

The problem is part time working/family UC is too generous and disabled/single people benefits are too low.

The trouble is we already have such a high bill v tax paid do people want it to be higher?

With Child Care so costly, whats the answer? people can't access the free portion of CC as there isn't enough nursery provision, most expensive CC in europe.

If we pay less, children go without.

I just don't get why very profitable companies are allowed to pay wages that are below what the Govt considers a living wage.

I think it is reasonable if it’s just every few years yes. Things can change. If you are asking for public money it’s fair enough that there is a criteria for claims.