Dispatches- Britain’s Benefit scandal

[Sunnywalker]

Anybody watched this? It’s made me so angry. Some highlights include a company that can’t recruit an apprentice on 26k because sickness benefits would amount to 24k so it wouldn’t be worth it. 500,000, 25-34 years old on long term sick, a woman who has never had a FT job and claims 35k in benefits, this lady would like to work but says will never achieve the same income if she worked.

This country is bankrupt, public services crumbling! What is going on? Why isn’t there an overhaul!

Absolutely. The huge rise in sickness claims comes from young people, who have been royally shafted by successive governments, being let down further by the shocking state of mental health services. They need help, not punishment.

100% - my DS with ASD and more than capable of holding down a job is one of the shafted ones. He was desperate for paid work and to feel a valued member of society but no one was prepared to give him a chance, over 18 months he applied for many jobs, shop work, cleaning, gardening anything really. He ended up spending his days wandering around our area for hours on end just picking up litter in a bin bag. We asked for support for him many times but it wasn't there. Fast forward and his MH spiralled to such an extent that he now has full blown psychosis and is under the mental health team. Who knows if and when he will now be fit for work, but if he had got the help and support when we first asked he would likely be in work and our family wouldn't be in this nightmare we are currently in.

He has been in receipt of PIP for a number of years but currently no other benefits as we are supporting him as I'm not prepared to put him through the DWP system and have him sit in front of a DWP employee who has no experience of ASD or mental health illnesses. We won't be able to financially support him for the rest of our lives though so at some point the state will need to step in if needed.

The DWP going into Psychiatric wards would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.

I'm always very skeptical about these claims. I have a couple of close friends who were on benefits for short periods of time due to illness and redundancy and they got very little, they really struggled to pay the bills and eat. It was a terrible time for them and not that long ago.

I am not saying that there aren't folk who abuse the system or families that qualify for multiple benefits) although I would stop short of calling it a package as the OP has.

I would be very interested to see some detailed data about what benefits are being paid, how much etc etc because I suspect for most claimants it's a pretty bleak picture and that there will be some isolated cases that the sensationalist journos have jumped on.

Except for those who are working full time and claiming universal credit.

Well done on not needing SSP or benefits. I would love to work properly but am seriously ill. Want to switch places?

That, too.

IAPT came about because of a report from an economist called Richard Layard who wrote the infamous Layard report. It was essentially about how much poor mental health costs the economy and how we need to get those back into work ASAP. All long term therapies and resources were either shut or massively underfunded, e.g therapeutic communities, day centres, relationally-based therapies. In favour of short term CBT which has the greatest ‘evidence base’ because it is where the vast majority of funding and research goes. Employment is considered a key indicator of ‘recovery’ in IAPT. I wonder why a mental health system based on the recommendation of an economist hasn’t worked…?! Short sighted neoliberal nonsense.

Universal credit is an odd one though, at one end of the scale it's a benefit people live on, at the other end it's a top up for people working on poverty wages (who should just be paid enough to live on).

SPOT ON
Entitlement is palpable and there are people who are experts at working the system

I don't think I have seen anyone saying that seriously ill peopll should not get benefits. It's disingenuous to suggest this.

Funding a car isn’t a ‘need’, it’s a ‘want’, unless you live rurally. So if you have no job, then a car is simply out of the question. Would need to be public transport. I didn’t get a car until five years after I past my test. I couldn’t afford to run one. I would imagine the majority of people not in work wouldn’t have enough money to tax and insure a car.

@RecallRecall totally agree.

I'm also from an area where some of us (friends and family) grew up and went to work where others went to claim benefits. As we approach retirement, those of us who worked have better lives overall than those who didn't - most of us own our homes, have pension provision above the state pension and our children are mostly making their way more successfully. The state is making a rod for all of our backs as the more people are given, the more they need in the long term.

Outside of those people from my childhood the one incident that really showed a flaw in the system was someone I knew whose husband was a very wealthy business owner, they lived in a large 6 bedroom detached house on a private road, very nice cars, holidays, etc and had 3 children in private school. One child developed T1 diabetes and mother then claimed a benefit that was not means-tested and, apparently, they were entitled to as the child needed help and supervision to manage their condition. The fact that mother did not work (never had through choice and no need) and the child was actually having county level trials for a sport they played was irrelevant

I work full time teach in HE earn £32k I have to pay my rent from this obviously no topups. I DK if the benefits quoted is true but I don’t have a high standard of living. I have a car, no holidays very old TV, no fancy clothes or IT . I am not saying it is a crap wage but for a single person it is difficult.

The problem isn't benefits - those salaries are barely enough to live on nowadays. We need a much higher national minimum wage

I'm not talking about more severe mental health problems like bipolar or schizophrenia but more general anxiety. Do we need to put a timescale on sickness benefits for anxiety. If someone knows they would only receive help for 3 months would that make them more incentivised to maybe help themselves with self help books, seeking help from family members? It's surprising what someone can do when they literally don't have a choice.

It makes a huge difference though. DC have thrived since support was put in place and now applying for uni. We couldn't have achieved this without the money to pay for adjustments.

A large percentage of the prison population have ADHD/neurodiverse. It's far more economical to pay for therapies and support for children and give them opportunities than it is to pay for incarceration later in life.

That’s the point though. They don’t have to live on that. They can just get a job. So the fact that many choose to live on it means that it’s worthwhile to them.

And I know people who are seemingly without any obvious disability ( and I appreciate that not all disability is visible) claiming PIP .
It seems that there are people who know how to play the system

people with such conditions did and still do get lifetime awards to my knowledge (and rightly so). I am shocked if there are claimants where this is not the case.

It really is an enormous amount of money.

The system needs an overhaul. Disabled people should not be living in poor conditions but this is a luxury/high end standard of living provided for this family by the state. That’s bizarre quite frankly.

So they're comparing bananas with elephants and asserting they're alike.

You can only get one of DLA/PIP etc and they're non means tested benefits covering the extra costs of living with disability.

ESA overlaps Universal Credit. You can get both bit you're no better off as UC is reduced £/£ for ESA.

But they are! There's this myth that benefits are great. They aren't! I would much prefer to be well enough to work. My illness is physical, but other people have mental health problems. It's living hand to mouth, no option of progression, no paying into pension, no savings. It's really, really not the better option and I genuinely think - as someone who has experienced both - that people need to realise that the percentage of people 'cheating' the system is actually very low. Most people would prefer to work and feel they were contributing. It's pretty bleak.

We get ongoing awards which are reassessed after 10 years

You don't need to live rurally to need a car for work. I live in town but there are few jobs here and the public transport links to the nearest cities do not operate at the times you need them for shift work.

If I wanted a role similar to my last one I'd have to be in Newcastle business park by 7 am. The earliest train/ bus combo gets me there by 10:30 am. All of the jobs, local to me, in my industry, are in that business park or other ones closeby.

If businesses paid proper living wages then why is Universal credit needed to top up peoples finances, bottom line modern businesses cannot survive without cheap labour, look at the national insurance contributions that will be going up and some businesses saying they cannot afford to take on new employees because of costs etc

Completely agree with this.