To be frightened about the Government’s plans for benefits reform?

[PilgorTheGoat]

I am one of the millions of people currently on long term sickness benefits. I receive the LCWRA element of UC and PIP due to poor mental health and autism. I have severe anxiety and depression and I am awaiting an appointment to see if I also have PTSD due to sexual abuse in my childhood.

I have tried every element of support offered to me. I’m maxed out on 2 different types of antidepressants. I have had back-to-back (excluding the 6 month wait in between) 12 week sessions of counselling offered via the NHS. I am on a waiting list for intensive CBT due to my possible PTSD. I am currently having twice weekly private, video counselling appointments.

I can’t leave my house alone due to panic attacks. I struggle to meet my own care needs and my husband has to do a lot of the work for us both (although he works full time). I have a very understanding friend whom I force myself to go for a short walk with twice a week in order to stop myself becoming completely imprisoned at home but I find this very distressing and we have to take the same route each time.

I am so, so scared about the government’s plans to end sickness benefits for people like me. We don’t have a load of spare cash, we’re just about getting by. There is no support available. I’ve taken everything offered and my husband has been very proactive in seeking out other services for me to be involved with. I’d love to be better, I’d love not to live in fear but there is no help.

A few stats from Gov.uk

if you think it’s ‘unpleasant’ that there needs to be a degree of scepticism to ensure our (finite) funds go to the right place, then fine, I’m unpleasant. It’s very easy to take the popular ‘oMg So MeAN’ tack but your unrealistic worldview that everybody tells the truth, and nobody exaggerates, is a fallacy and simply not representative of human nature

I wonder how many people have been convicted of claiming disability benifits fraudulently. Yes I could Google, but if it was so widespread, as they would have us believe, then it seems to have escaped my notice!

I have not come across these groups that you speak of, I am not saying that support groups for people with various conditions don't exist. I am not a part of any, is what I mean, so I cannot comment on the content within these support groups. I guess it could be said to be a matter of perception. Advising people on what language to use, which could be the difference between being successful with a claim, or not, could be perceived as 'massaging the facts' to some people. And to others, it could be perceived as being nothing of the sort.

It's tiny. PIP fraud is something like 0.2%

I'm referring to the comments on this thread. Some of them have been ableist and highly unpleasant.

Yes, many aimed at OP, myself, and another poster.
Fuck knows how people like us that are reading the thread are feeling by reading it. OP wanted reassurance, and wanted to voice her worries. Instead gets told she could still work as she can post on MN.

@XenoBitch @PilgorTheGoat

I'm not sure those comments were aimed at the OP.

I've read the whole thread and there seems to be a suggestion that any type of assessment of somebody's fitness to work is inherently cruel. I think it is an essential part of the system.

I think it is unreasonable for people to consider themselves entitled to a lifetime of financial support without any safeguards/checks to see if they still require/qualify for assistance.

You've said yourself that you'd probably like to work, but you're scared of admitting it because you might lose your benefits.

Would it be genuinely unreasonable for you to be assessed as fit for work? Just because you might find it hard to find work due to your 15 year employment gap and criminal record, it doesn't mean you have the right to just opt out of ever working again.

How many people are there with ongoing claims who are in a basic, but comfortable life, who are simply afraid of change? Why shouldn't they be assessed as fit to work?

The entire thread’s been a litany of unpleasantness aimed at three posters, including OP.

I said I would like to work... not that I was able. I wish I was able to work. There is no support out there to help people like me. Just the threat of poverty like some sort of sick incentive.

If I was found fit for work, my benefits would be halved to the point I would not be able to pay bills or feed myself. I would end up spiralling to the point I would be found unfit for work again. The truth is, I would be taking my life long before then. I guess that would save the taxpayer a tiny bit of money in the long run. I wont be alone feeling like that.

There has been a heavy emphasis on the suggestion that more people with disabilities should be found, fit to work, and the system is enabling people just to sit back on benefits. This ideology is being pushed, as we have seen, from the top brass in Government, with no regard for the people likely to suffer from finger pointing, or abuse from people who have no idea of their daily life struggles. I really hope that we have a change of Government soon. One that will show some compassion for its citizens, living with disabilities.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/health/27163216/nhs-waiting-lists-surgery-abroad/

Just the threat of poverty like some sort of sick incentive.

That's life, I'm afraid. If I couldn't find work, our house would be repossessed. Very few people are rich enough to never work again.

If I was found fit for work, my benefits would be halved to the point I would not be able to pay bills or feed myself.

Again, that's just the reality of unemployment benefits. If you could live comfortably on them without working, why would anybody bother doing low paid work?

I would end up spiralling to the point I would be found unfit for work again.

Or you might surprise yourself and get a job that you can manage.

The truth is, I would be taking my life long before then

That would be a very silly thing to do.

I guess that would save the taxpayer a tiny bit of money in the long run. I wont be alone feeling like that.

Probably millions when you factor in healthcare and retirement costs, but please don't consider that to be an endorsement of the idea. If the government can get you back into employment, it would also save a large amount of money, so I can see why they'd want to try.

@ThisOldThang the problem is people being left on NHS waiting lists not @XenoBitch claiming a few quid.

Can you not support yourself? You’re very eloquent, lucid, you write well, you have good critical thinking skills. Are you not able to think outside the box? What about a small business which you can pick up and put down such as a coffee van? A lady near me does this, she has a small child so will work around that and can just sack it off for the day if her child is unwell for example.

Did you try the Facebook idea? Again, a few people have done that here, and were met with a lot of replies.

At the risk of being told I’m overstepping it feels a little like you’ve written yourself off, when I think you have plenty of room for optimism.

To be fair she posted on AIBU.

There’s been a couple of comments close to the line but I think most have just been robust challenging of a certain narrative. Because benefits is such a touchy subject pretty much anything outside of ‘if somebody says they need something they should have it’ is seen as controversial.

Why?

She says she needs support, and seems open to suggestions.

@GoodnightAdeline You know what you’re doing. You’re poking the situation with a stick

Maybe she hasn’t thought of some of the things I’m suggesting. It sounds like she hasn’t?

For the love of God will you two please, please give over. This is turning into wholesale goadiness now. Just stop.

There are millions claiming tens of thousands a year, plus their healthcare, policing, infrastructure, etc.

There is only a finite amount of money. Overall taxes are at their highest since the Second World War and the government still doesn't have enough cash.

The government has a duty to try and get people back into work and I, personally, think it would really help a lot of them to be in work.

@ThisOldThang so you are against disabled people getting healthcare now Your mask has well and truly slipped Eugenics much! You are fucking shit scared that your taxes are going to go up to tackle the NHS waiting lists.

You are not alone.

I wouldn't be getting a "job I can manage" if someone halved my benefits because I would be so stressed financially I would be in crisis and not even able to look for an adequate job, and then I would fatigue crash because my fatigue condition always flares in times of stress.