£3 busfares will ruin me

[Deportationsensation]

Busfare cap to increase to £3. That’s £6 a day for buses. £10 extra a week.

My food budget for 1 person is £10 a week. So that’s my food money gone to pay for buses.

I can’t work more hours. I do what I can in working part time because I have health issues that would not qualify for PIP but affect me every day. Not qualifying for any benefits other than probably food bank use. Which I will now have to do.

AIBU to just start wondering what is the point? Life isn’t supposed to be like this. Some of us are just trying to survive with no enjoyment in life at all.

Because people who are actually living on the breadline and in poverty have already explored every option available to them

That is untrue in many many cases. Many people could come up with endless examples of people who say they have no money but the merest glance at their finances shows that significant savings can be made. We had a friend begging to everyone because she couldn't afford food but she was sending screen shots of her bank account with a £90 pm Sky bill (and no, it isn't 'cheap entertainment' and the 'only way to have something nice').

Typical fucking Mumsnet.

OP: I hate being poor
Mumsnet: Just don't be poor then tinkly little laugh

I’ve said I have as little money as I do because I work in part time due to health reasons that aren’t recognised by my GP, the DWP. No one has taken me seriously

Is it perhaps time to recognise that something has to give and you're unable to live independently, assuming your wages are going on rent, bills and travel to work?

Could you move back into your DMs or into a shared house?

Wow.

What's your solution for the OP then @RedToothBrush

If she can't work more hours and isn't entitled to benefits her situation isn't magically going to get better overnight. Should she carry on as she is until she becomes ill due to lack of food and can't work at all and is made homeless?

😱😱😱

You see bus fares was always going to hit those struggling most. And give climate concerns too, I think it's a massive step backwards.

I'm dumbfounded that it's been touched tbh. It should have been a priority to keep low.

But instead we are hell bent in a 'blame the poor and bring back the workhouse' type mentality.

You obviously have very generous friends because on your other thread you are, and I quote “high maintenance, eyelashes, hair extensions the lot”.

If these are all gifts then perhaps these generous gift givers can help you out with a bit of food.

So what would you suggest?

OP is struggling, and needs to change things in her life, so she can live a nicer life. Maybe a houseshare isnt a bad idea?

or moving closer to job, or getting another job

What she is doing now, its not working

This tbh.
It’s threads like this where the MC really make it obvious that they don’t understand poverty. They say they do but they really, really don’t.

I would apply for universal credits limited work capability

The £2 cap was due to end completely at the end of this year, so it was going to have to be touched one way or another.

I would imagine the increase will be due to the £2 model not resulting in enough usage to make it permanently viable at that rate. An extra year extension of the scheme with just a £1 uplift is far better than the alternative of letting it stop completely.

So why don't you get universal credit?????

There's a good reason you're avoiding this question.

Bit difficult when the OP states "I work in part time due to health reasons that aren’t recognised by my GP, the DWP. No one has taken me seriously."

Anyone who is aware of the gaps in NHS care and how fucking dreadful the DWP are, has something of an appreciation of this.

Tbh, I think there still is an arguement here that the £2 should have been maintained everywhere - its been maintained in Manchester and London. And I really don't think the cap shoud have gone up by 50%!

@TigerRag limited work capability is also for people who can only work part time due to health reasons, you don't need to be in receipt of PIP to get this

Lots of PPs have been helpful OP.

Here's my contribution.

Look on turn 2 us and see if there are any small grants you could apply for. It's seems to me (based on the info given in this thread) that if you were able to get a tiny cash injections to buy one month's bus pass you'd be better off.

You see the cash injection allows you to buy the bus pass for one month then you save what you would have spent on bus fares each day of commuting to buy the next bus pass and so on and so forth.

How much is a bus pass/travel pass in your area? Do you have anyone that could help with the first month? Maybe as a gift/one off?

Given you've been suicidal in the past please speak to others there must be something that can be done to help you. Either therapy or supporting your income.

I know

But how do you even get that when your health reasons aren't accepted by your GP? You need evidence. And depending on the OPs situation, they may not fit the criteria.

And please don't ignore turn 2 us! There are so many possibilities.

If you've ever had a (for example) a Saturday job in retail when younger there is a charity that supports retail workers past and present.

Are you actually diagnosed with a condition?
I don't understand why you say your GP doesn't listen.
I posted upthread my ideas which may help. If you're able to give a little more information then posters may suggest other ideas
I live on lifelong disability benefits and do understand the difficulties of meeting your needs

www.turn2us.org.uk

Sadly with how underfunded our NHS has chronically been, being diagnosed for many conditions is ridiculously hard. I received a diagnosis last year after 20 years of back and forth! And this is further complicated when it comes to anything MH related in particular.

To get certain things you need a diagnosis. To get a diagnosis you often need a referral. That can go one of two ways - you either get one or you don't. The problem being that if you have a doctor who is shite for some reasons and won't believe you (and we know that women in particular are known for being dismissed and not believed by doctors and this is recognised as an genuine issue which the medical profession needs to address), you have no power of revisiting this, because of the way our GP system is set up by local areas so you pretty much can't change your GP (I actually have - it took me years and I had unusual circumstances and was lucky the GP I now have did so. They were not obliged to).

If you DO get a referral then it goes a number of ways. Firstly you probably have a very lengthy wait depending on what it is. If its anything related to mental health or neurodiversity then you are shit out of luck for waiting lists. If its physical, you have to go through the process of assessment - you can be on a waiting list, see a specialist and they say 'oh its not this, but it could be this however you'll have to go back on a waiting list for that'. Thus you get passed from department to department and no one seems to give a shit if you can be passed off (Lets not forget the cost of getting to all these health appointments by bus). Its very easy to fall through the cracks of being passed around by a bunch of people who don't see you are their problem to fix and in fact are happy if they can offload you to someone else.

During all of this, which can take years and years, you are screwed. The DWP are inhuman and unsympathetic to this. You can't apply for anything because you haven't got a diagnosis.

If you havent experienced this fiasco or don't know someone in this situation it sounds implausible and just making excuses. The reality is the NHS Doom Loop exists and its horrific to anyone caught up in it.

A huge problem is the box ticking. If you don't tick the exact boxes in the exact way, you are screwed. It doesn't mean you don't have a problem.

Unfortunately I know this all too well. After 35 years someone finally decided that just maybe there was more going on. I've been told I may never get a proper diagnosis.