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!

However many people are saying that those who are genuine are a minority as though this is an indisputable fact, which is ingenuous.
There will categorically be a few who take this piss.
We are all closer to someone on benefits than the billionaire wankers peddling this nonsense in an attempt to divide the ordinary folk.

No but if they've lost a leg it's not growing back.

I agree with you it wasn’t.

This is exactly it.

No my award was 4 years. I have to go through the whole thing again in 2 years. It was so degrading all of it. A complete stranger asking me about my bladder and bowels in spite of a raft of medical evidence. Ironically I was almost penalised because of my stoicism because I wouldn't describe myself as depressed. Thankfully the assessor nudged me at points to stop me shooting myself in the foot. I also went straight onto the highest level of everything first time but why on earth do I need to repeat it?

Essentially the process is designed to disempower disabled people because anything we do to help ourselves becomes a reason to lose PIP. So if I use PIP to fund specialist neurophysio to improve my mobility I no longer qualify. If I no longer qualify I can't afford the physio so I deteriorate. So, I have to start the process again.

Many people who work cannot afford a car. To run a car, you’ve to take account of lease cost - for a basic car this can be £200 per month, insurance can be at least £300 a year, and petrol/Mot/tax could add another £200 a month, and these figures are at the lower end. For someone on minimum wage, this would be a large chunk of their take home pay. But you think benefits should be increased to accommodate these costs? Really? Buses and trains run pretty much out of most towns and cities, so can’t be used as an excuse not to use them. Only if you live rurally might it be an issue.

I read that 50% of nurses who graduated in the UK last year failed to find employment (largely due to the amount of international nurses taken on). This is terribly sad as these youngsters have worked so hard to gain their qualifications and have had to pay for the privilege.

Re finding a job in retail, I know that it's not that easy at all. A 19 year old neighbour had 3 interviews for a position at Asda, including one that was a group interview with 18 other applicants (for one post).

YABU.
I am on benefits and I’m stuck.
i want to go to uni and get qualified and get off benefits, but I can’t afford to and UC doesn’t support it.
if I want more I’m worse off, and so are my kids.
It’s a shit life, of stress and fear, the UC system is based on shame, and it’s difficult to get out of it.

Yes, I do, But only after a wealth of info, consultants reports and scans - simply because I’m on the old DLA.😉

A friend of mine is a landlord with multiple properties. She rents one of her most expensive ones for £1500 a month to a non working couple who are both on sickness benefits. They have a teen dd who goes to a mainstream secondary school full time but has some additional needs. So there are some benefits for the dd.

The mother gets carers allowance for looking after the dad and the dad gets carers allowance for looking after the mother 🤷‍♀️. Surely if you are so ill you need a carer you can’t also be a carer. It’s stuff like this which is taking the piss.

Also my friend has smaller three bed houses she rents out for £700 a month. But this couple are obviously comfortable enough to not have to take a smaller house. They don’t even need a three bed house, never mind a massive Victorian semi!

I just think it’s a shame that there’s people like this and then there are other people on benefits who are really struggling to get by and using food banks. It’s like some people don’t get enough and some people get too much? It needs to be fairer in order to avoid the people really at the bottom struggling so much.

I also wanted to add that it's not a race to the bottom. Before I had my daughter I still struggled to find somewhere to live affordably on minimum wage, and it was impossible to complete my degree as student maintenance etc wasn't enough to live in and I couldn't juggle all the extra shifts I had to do to pay my rent and study and attend lectures. I ended up sofa surfing as it just became painful and wanted to save every penny. I don't think anyone is better off than anyone, unless you truly have a very well paid job.

You are missing the point.I know people with a physical diagnosis claiming PIP and other persons with same diagnosis not claiming.
Unfortunately, those who are perceived to be abusing the system spoil it for those who are in genuine need. And in some situations (not all), ability to work/number of hours to be worked is attributable to the individual

Yeh, get a buy to let mortgage and give it a go then.

They will be paying bedroom tax for the extra bedroom, so they would still only get the rent allowance for a two bed paid by benefits.

I've absolutely seen recruiters cast aside people for being over qualified, they give the reason as "well they won't stay, they'll be looking for something better ASAP".

Benefits is low, mostly, one way of getting people off benefits is to make work pay.
If a cleaner (often thought of as the lowest job anyone can do) was paid more than basic benefits, enough to run a single home and a reasonable holiday every year, there would be zero incentive to be on benefits. But as it stands cleaners get min wage and often poxy hours to boot. So you can be a cleaner, still have to claim some benefits, and also jump through benefits hoops on top of shitty hours and a back breaking job or stay at home and get the same money. If I was a cleaner and didnt have back to back jobs lined up, I too would look at benefits.

Yes that must be it as I know people who rightly have got lifetime awards and are never reassessed- must be the legacy DLA benefit before PIP as you say, although seems ridiculous to not still have lifetime awards for some cases.

Yes not only did I have the misfortune to become disabled but I had the misfortune to do it under the PIP regime! And ironically I actually had MS pre PIP change but the absolute mess in the NHS delayed my diagnosis by over a decade.

Fair enough, but they could also be renting a much cheaper (but still nice) three bedroom house. If I was privately renting as someone with a decent enough job I’d struggle to justify/afford paying £1500 rent when there is cheaper available. Both in perfectly nice areas.

There are special rules for people that are terminally ill. Get your GP to fill out the necessary forms. Google it - there's plenty of advice online. Your dear Mum should definitely be getting financial support - I remember when my very wealthy brother was terminally ill and he qualified.

But that’s not relevant here. It was the system which let your friend down - very slow, which unfortunately is the case for most public services. She did eventually get what she was entitled to. It wasn’t that the amount was too low initially, as obviously people have to be assessed prior to relevant funds being allocated to them.

It's not about the diagnosis. It's about how your life is affected in certain areas. The diagnosis is evidence to back up what you say, but you don't get PIP for having x diagnosis.

Yes, but if rents fall or are capped as in some other countries the theoretical worker gets more money in their purse to spend on what they want. The benefit claimant gets less money, therefore saving on the welfare bill.
As it is, the HB element barely covers rent, and in many cases doesn’t cover the rent and lots of places are unfit for living which is driving up spending on healthcare.

We can sit and argue about it all day but the truth is that if rent goes up benefits go up, if they go down benefits go down and the person that ends up with that money is the landlord.

Used to know somebody who couldn't work because of illness but could manage to stand and move about in the middle of a sports field 3 nights a week for 'expnses' [hour and a half at a time] and could referee cricket at weekends.
The whole family, loads of kids, none of them worked.
There are, of course, genuine people who cannot work.

David Cameron claimed DLA for his disabled son 🤷‍♂️