People who work have anxiety too

[Fedupandgrump]

Anyone else on the verge of a breakdown with work, kids, mortgage and cost of living?

I’ve read a lot of threads recently about people with mental health conditions worried about being forced into employment when they feel as though they would not be able to cope. Whilst I sympathise, it’s come at a time where I am completely overwhelmed, burnt out and wonder how the fuck I’m going to get through the week. I treat myself to a half hour sob in Sainsburys car park every couple of days and I wake up every morning with dread, fear and anxiety about what the day will hold. However, I go and work because I. Have. No. Choice. I have two kids and a mad dog that relies on me and my husband to keep our shit together and a roof over our heads. Every day I can feel my heart racing and I feel permanently like I’m in fight or flight mode and I wonder if this is going to lead to a premature heart attack in my 30’s.

I sometimes feel like people who don’t work due to poor mental health thinks those of us who do work, are suffering less than them. I know IAMBU but I can’t help the way I feel at the minute.

£65k is well in excess of an average wage.

I think to understand long term disability, and its impact, you have to live with it.

Yes and if there was social housing and the housing element of benefits didn't need to be so high to feed private landlord profits and buy to let mortgages then they wouldn't need to get that much money

I do. Every day. And will until it kills me I expect

But therein lies the issue - a person on an average wage / the average person simply can’t compete so it just lowers the standard of living for them. Then it’s not worth working and we have a much larger proportion of society relying on UC. The economy cannot sustain it. There’s not a magic money tree.

Then I can empathise because it’s not easy. It’s exhausting.😗

So, are you saying that perfectly healthy people restrict their working hours so that they can claim more UC?

@WalkingonWheels, I suspect @KeyboardWhinger thinks that asylum seekers are given free cars.

Yes. I am.

Not least women with small children, for
who work doesn’t pay, which is a huge issue for women in terms of sociable mobility.

I've read it. The OP gets benefits that high because she's caring for disabled children.

Oh right. I thought the argument was about disability claims. I can’t comment, as I worked when my kids were little, because I wanted to.

Again, for the third time, you are using a part time worker to prove that people arent working...

Where are the stats to back that up?

Glad to know the problem is now not just disabled people but also women with small children, plenty of whom I know are working full time

It's just moving the goalposts because a lot of the previous arguments on this thread about disabled people have been disproven by the actual stats

So now we are punching down at women instead apparently,specifically mothers 🙄

And saves the taxpayers a fuck ton of money compared with disabled children not being cared for by a family member

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/18/english-councils-pay-1m-per-child-for-places-in-private-childrens-homes

I think the arguments are getting to the point where no-one should have any state provision regardless of circumstance cos "not fair" judging by posts I've seen on other threads. You should only have what you work and pay for directly. If that comes to pass I'm looking forward to "bin wars" and ambulances fighting over people who need them.

I'm sorry I know I'm being ridiculously flippant but the whole debate is getting more convoluted and surreal by the minute. It's not just me is it?

It's not just you and its persistent at the moment, I've never seen such a flood of "screw poor people let's fuck them over and that will fix our problems"

I think it's obvious that the Tories can't blame the "foreign people" for all the countries problems any more since their handling of brexit was supposed to fix it,along with "stop the boats and Rwanda"

So now if it wasn't for those pesky disabled and poor people we would all be living the life of Riley. Not the Tories mismanagement at all, just disabled people, single parents, lower income earners doing those jobs that were so heroic in covid etc, they are the real problem 🙄🙄

I've said it before but I suspect the Apocalypse will not be nuclear annihilation but collective nervous breakdown.....

Pregnant then screwed has some excellent research which shows why women can’t be as economically productive as they’d like and it follows that those who can’t earn need to claim (whether that is unemployment or under employment). Lack of childcare is another contributing factor. There’s lots of factors at play.

The system is at fault and not fit for purpose, nor sustainable. But as is so often the case people spend so much energy defending it rather than engage in a sensible discussion.

Im not demonising individual claimants - just discussing some of the issues.

@TwelveAngryWhiskers I didn’t even think that the OP was specifically talking about UC, tbh. She was saying that her family would fall apart if she doesn’t keep battling on, even though she’s crying in car parks and on the verge of panic attacks. Her point was that many people are in this situation.

I have two kids and a mad dog that relies on me and my husband to keep our shit together and a roof over our heads.

I felt the same when my anxiety was out of control. I knew that my children would be taken into care as we don’t have family support and as I’d grown up with a suicidal parent, I wasn’t going to put them through that.
People need to be seen by their GP when they’re in this state and helped.

That literally makes no sense! One of the strangest things I ever read on here. Of course you can understand a concept like 'disability' while also understanding it affects people differently. I'm sorry but you sound very ignorant.

Yes. I know a few people who do this. One turned down a promotion because the pay rise would result in lost benefits, which were worth more.

@Fedupandgrump - how are you doing now? Have you managed to see your CPN/Psychiatrist?

Pregnant then screwed talks about the lack of childcare issues, the lack of flexible working opportunities etc

They don't demonise mothers for claiming UC because they can't be bothered to work

So rather like the poster who proved that people don't work because of benefits, who was I'm fact part time, you are now using the childcare issues to prove women don't work because they want to claim UC 🙄

Except that’s not what I said.