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!

In no way judging here I just have no personal experience and would like to understand what costs extra when someone is disabled?
£5500 is equivilant to earning £95000 it’s an incredible amount of money that most would never ever achieve

I do not know whether such sums are real, or not, but even if they are, it would not sicken me, as it would make no difference to my actual life!

I disagree. I would say that the claim people ‘can just get a job’ clearly applies in many cases, and that it doesn’t apply in a few cases - severe disability obviously being one of them. Disability covers many many conditions over a wide range, but I would guess many who are currently claiming are able to do some kind of work. There are people on here saying similar to ‘my friend is paraplegic, what kind of work should they be forced to do??’. Of course people in this situation should, and do, get help financially via the benefits system.

Extra heating, washing, aids to help with basic everyday things such as communicating, adapted clothing, transport, non prescription medication

There is this, plus my wages and DLA (which is about 800 every 4 weeks) plus my husband gets pip every 4 weeks as well - I would rather he was fully healthy and able to work and have less money tho!

I love how people say this, as though you just waltz in to your nearest Tesco and they grant you a job. After all, it's only working in a supermarket.

I've been a legal secretary for over 20 years. That's what's all over my CV. I've applied for 5 jobs at 2 different supermarkets in the last 6 weeks. I haven't heard back from a single one.

Agree with this. Excepting genuine cases (I would guess they are in the minority) who cannot work due to illness or disability, those who choose to live off benefits should be housed in dormitory style accommodation. Same for illegant migrants. So a roof over their heads, utilities provided, meals etc, but no they should not be provided with what the rest of us have worked and paid taxes to achieve by our own efforts. (I also think the same about MPs - instead of expensive second homes at our expense)
The genuine benefit claimants should be investigated too - if I were in that situation then why would I object?

Two members of my own family are in their early 20s and have never worked a day in their lives. Both have expressed that they don't intend to as why should they?

They were diagnosed ASD, anxiety and depression as teens. I also have ASD but not diagnosed until adulthood, and have had significant trauma during my life which absolutely dwarves anything the two of them have experienced. I also have severe endometriosis which I have to take morphine for and some days cannot physically leave the house. However, I've always worked since I was 14 and now at 39 am paying 40% tax to help fund their lives.

From what I can gather they received DLA and both reached adulthood during Covid so were transferred over to higher rate PIP without an additional assessment. Case in point - one is apparently too anxious to leave the house therefore cannot work - yet they manage to go out regularly to the pub, including in towns/cities that are unfamiliar!

Interestingly I did my own PIP application out of curiosity and scored 0 in every single category. So it's the sickness benefits that are needing an overhaul here!!!!!

The benefit system traps people instead of empowering them. I know families with children who are disabled who get 95k a year for their dds. They could never match that by working. I’m not begrudging this btw, as I have 2 children with SEN myself. I’m not sure what the answer is.
Ive been on benefits when my family was young and it was very manageable- I was desperate to get back to work but I can totally understand why people who struggling with health, confidence, lack of skills would stay on UC
The other side is that UC regularly fuck up, completely stop your payments if you’re paid twice in an assessment period and can suddenly demand a review which is very stressful and means collecting loads of paperwork. If your SE or a student it can be impossible to navigate
im still entitled to UC but I don’t claim it and work more as I don’t want to be beholden to them.

Who cares if it’s in rent ? It’s still money from taxpayers pockets, it should be capped, they have to move to cheaper areas just like working people do.

She should have claimed carers allowance if she was not working, and looking after your Father.

No nothing as there is no jobs literally.

I personally wouldn't want be on benefits but can understand why some stay on benefit. I have a friend who had minimum wage job in social care. She was sacked without investigation because a colleague made a complaint - the come was dodgy and sacked her without investigation. She has been off work since and now cannot bothered to find another job as it doesn't pay much more than benefits and she doesn't want to deal with the stress. I know some other people who like to work or work full time but are trapped due to their high rents or cannot afford childcare.

This is what everyone gets so cross about

They should be made to get a job or the money stops it's just not good enough

How the hell is someone supposed to move when they have no money? This place is LaLa land sometimes.

Okay can I ask a question (being very genuine, no hate at all). Do you feel well-off?

£5,500+ a month is a huge figure.

If you’re a two-adult household, with only one adult working part-time, you must have loads of disposable income (I’m thinking no wraparound care/holiday club/nursery fees etc)??

As I’ve said in my post, we earn less than that with two parents working more than full-time. I personally consider us very privileged and well-off. We can afford nice holidays etc.

£5,500 a month is £65k a year take-home.
That is what people on £100k a year take home after tax. That’s very wealthy by anyone’s standards.

I just wonder if you feel/acknowledge that you’re very wealthy from benefits. Or is there something I am missing.

I hate - really hate - how people have fallen for these lies perpetrated by a right wing government. You work hard, get a job, earn well, pass on the same ideals to your children. And, great, in a perfect world that happens. But it's not perfect. People get sick, have accidents, become paralysed, children are born disabled, they can't get jobs, no one wants to employ them, that creates a cycle of low self esteem so they are less likely to get a job. Anything could happen to anyone at anytime. But rather than support one another, or look at the root cause, we finger point and say "just get a job". It's not that easy, sometimes it's impossible. It's heartbreaking.

Okay I’ll bite. Our situation we have a severely disabled child, I’m disabled, husband works FT, we own our house outright as we are older parents and paid it off quickly.
we get £1600 UC after deductions (no rent or housing costs) £800 DLA a month £800 PIP a month £105 Child benefit £330 carers allowance - so total like £3500 benefits.
I understand this would upset and annoy people, I’ve never claimed benefits until 7 years ago following the birth of my child and coincidentally me almost dying in child birth. I’d give anything to not be in this situation. I’d rather be working, well and not have a disabled child- believe me. But I get why people are angry.

even on here on the DLA child boards you have people trying to claim high rates of DLA for quite frankly nonsense reasons (DLA for children is very lucrative as it’s £800 a month THEN you get £500 extra on your universal credit too…) we get a lot of our Universal Credit reduced because of my husbands’ pay, it would honestly make more sense for him to not work but it’s important for us for us to feel pride and show our son what a working parent looks like.

i do feel trapped though. If I start to feel better and even want to work part time, I’d lose my carers allowance, probably some of my PIP and a lot of my UC. So what’s the answer?

@Ladybyrd
my cousin gets weekly carers allowance to look after her mother
Her mother lives in the London area whilst she is a student in Liverpool.
She doesn’t visit her except for Uni holidays when her mum picks her up.

You would think the system at some point would realise if her mother needed someone to give daily care her daughter living over 200miles away probably isn’t doing it.

Of course it applies in many cases....do you realise how many people become seriously disabled suddenly? There's over 100, 000 stroke victims alone.

If it takes so long to be assessed ( my friend was nearly 18 months) then what do you expect people to do?

I say again....could you live on £400 a month?

They run, not early enough for say 5 am, when some start work or late enough

@AmberHiker

I might watch it after the Dispatches; Corporate Welfare Scandal, Banking Scandal, Corporate Tax Scandal, Child Poverty Scandal and the Wealth Inequality Scandal.

I also agree about money being funnelled in to non working folk’s housing in expensive areas being a complete joke. London is full to the brim of non working people and the folk who work have to live outside of London and commute in as they can’t afford it- make it make sense.

I have went part time due to health issues but still earn a very decent £50k. (Which is still a lot more than the average salary.) My net pay is around £3k a month.