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.

Source?

By me too.

My point was he is virtually unemployable after so long. Maybe I am too.

Nonsense.

The fraudulent figure will be a government estimate based upon the number of prosecutions they bring each year.

If somebody walks into the doctor and claims to have a list of symptoms, they will be diagnosed with the associated condition. At that point they won't have to work and won't have to apply for jobs. They also get another £400 a month in disability payments.

I can see why some people with mental health conditions should be excluded from the requirement to find work, but i can't see why that's a blanket outcome or why it results in additional payments.

It's begging to be taken advantage of by anybody that doesn't fancy working.

Poor MH that prevents you from working attracts extra money because it is fucking impossible to live off of just shy of £400 per month.

Please don't be down on yourself, if you want to work there may be organisations in your area which can help you with courses and getting back to work

Your feelings are valid obviously but how is society supposed to function if able bodied, working age people are choosing not to work? And it is a choice. You obviously feel like shit while you’re not working so you might as well work and contribute? Maybe a stay at home job? Maybe a few hours a week? Less time then to focus on your feelings and yourself.

Thank you.

You get an extra £400 on top of whatever else you're claiming.

No. Try reading it again. Slowly this time.

@ThisOldThang I’m a MH nurse working on an inpatient unit. We have patients currently under section who’ve been rejected from disability benefits. They’re really really not that easy to get.

Thanks. I have tried. When I was with my ex, he supported me lots and I was just about able to do an Access course and go to uni... but had a huge breakdown (lots of sections etc).

I hate being on benefits, but there is little support where I live. My local Mind ran a job club thing but it died during Covid. I have tried the government funded level 2 courses, and can not even do them. My brain is mush.

I am on UC, and worry that if I even try a course or something now, my money will be stopped.

So you accept that there's a big incentive to rip off the system by claiming mental illness?

I can't work due to mental illness, and all I get less than £800 a month to live on.
If you think that is a walk in the park, then go right ahead and claim.
I would rather be well.

You could apply for a skills council coding course. They have intensive 13 week boot camps due to skills shortages.

There are also free courses, such as Harvard's CS50.

Your success will obviously depend upon how mushy your brain is.

They said nothing of the sort.

Sorry, but it makes me laugh when people suggest coding to me.
I have an ancient IT qualification, and I had to get someone to do the programming assignment for me. I am totally inept at stuff like that!

If UC is just shy of £400, but UC + MH is £800, and you can't see an incentive, then perhaps it's your comprehension that's the problem?

The sad truth is a lot of British people don’t want to do the jobs which we employ foreigners to do now (or did since Brexit probably less EU nationals. This includes supermarkets work, fruit picking and so on.

I was in hospital for the first time in a long time for an overnight stay recently. Almost all the doctors, nursing staff, MRI dept, everyone there was foreign, not English. That’s not me being racist as I’m not, it’s a fact. The sad truth is a lot of British people simply don’t want to do lower paid jobs.

I do know of people, one woman was on benefits for a few years mostly due to injuries but hated it, started her own business once (franchise) and now runs her own beauty salon. The latter business however has partly been funded by an inheritance from her stepfather and not everyone has the luxury of additional help.

My friend and NDN’s adult son (22 now) is “on the spectrum” but he can’t write though he can read. He wanted to work for a train company but they’d never employ him even in an admin dept. He works for Co Op and has also worked for M&S but gets everything else paid for as he lives by himself in a flat.

Another school friend of mine had SEN but was never diagnosed as it wasn’t a thing back then. She worked in a supermarket and then as a nanny for a while, got married, worked a bit more and eventually became sick, I think with lots of health issues but she didn’t like to speak about them. On the one hand I knew she had SEN (she was my best friend at one point) but on the other hand when her health deteriorated and her DH died, she had to move in with her mother and she gradually became worse and worse. Sadly she died of cancer in her early 50s, which may have been with her for a while, undiagnosed, luckily it was fairly quick so minimal suffering.

What is this mythical MH of £800?

You've misunderstood their post.

I must say, the number of well-written, not anxiety induced posts (and threads started) from/by many on MN saying they have MH, cannot socialise, cannot send emails, cannot leave the house, cannot talk to strangers without panic attacks, cannot engage in normal activity (MN is normal activity), cannot work but would LOVE to work, do baffle me.

Because of that, I agree 'Rishi's new assessors' need to check 'what work people can do'. Had it not been for these articulate MN posts, I would have been arguing for all people with MH to get all their disability benefits.

No, it is £800 and shit mental health.

@XenoBitch my ex did a degree whilst on UC and it was fine as his hours were less than 16 per week.

Hope boyfriend is supportive, this is one of the barriers I mentioned upthread, it can take a while to get up to speed 🌺

Your feelings are valid obviously but how is society supposed to function if able bodied, working age people are choosing not to work?

Are you including all those people who no longer need to work ? Who are financially independent and have chosen to give up work/retire earlier than 67 ? Maybe the Government needs to make a law that states nobody can retire before 67 regardless of income, that should boost the number of useful working age people ?