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!

I wonder if they will be making disability benefits means tested soon..Something has to change and I wonder if this will be it.

I don’t think I could even watch it. Until recently I worked full time which I recently dropped to 4 days. I have a life long chronic health condition and was denied any support. I have worked since I was 15 and not looking to give up work whatsoever. My parents had to give me a deposit to switch to a manual car as it wasn’t something I could afford after dropping my hours. I have an acquaintance who gets full disability including a car, blue badge, doesn’t work. She is very open about it all and will limp from the disabled spaces and claim she has issues with mobility yet nothing stopping her getting steaming on a weekend and uploading videos of her dancing at the pub to tiktok! Really scunners me tbh.

I can afford to cover void periods and I have far more than 35 percent equity in my houses. I have 11 so in a better position. Most of my houses are in ltd company structure so I can write of interest against tax on those. I have a mixture of repayment and interest only. I'm just pointing out in OP's situation it sounds like she would not be in a position to cover tenant repair and maintenance costs.

Can I please ask what costs more about being disabled?
throwing no shade here genuinely I have no idea and I am interested

I don't get this. We have had to go on benefits in the past and we never had any money. DH and I used to go without eating so our DDs had enough. Didn't have anything other than basic TV package, no Sky or Netflix, no mobile, no holidays or days out. That's the reality of benefits. And, of course society looks down on you.
I never understood people on benefits who have so much, unless of course they are lying..
We were about a million times better off when we were working . Luckily we both did get jobs after being on benefits for a year. I've had to give up again and get carers allowance and DS gets DLA but DH works full time and the thought of just being on benefits again fills us both with dread.
If people are living the high life on benefits I'd love to know how but these programs tend to find the few people who are doing well on benefits and ignore the hundreds that struggle..
Although I agree wages should be higher.

@Crikeyalmighty I can't sell because CGT would be prohibited. I've had several of these houses for almost 20 years.

Regular assessments maybe.
I know this is very unpopular btw.
However
The answer may be regular assessments ( or even joined up writing between gps and the benefits system ) and so if you do get better or your ability to work outside the home ( or wfh ) increases you lose certain benefits as you are fit to work.

Sure, I understand. my child has a severe learning disability, he requires nappies, changes of clothes (bites through them), special food, things such as headwear chew toys and special sensory equipment etc. it also pays for us to be able to access things such as therapies swim therapy for example

No one loses PIP by working and if you have the LCWRA element on UC you can still work whilst receiving that. I mean obviously if someone is on PIP and then started working as a carer or something suspicion would be raised but as long as the work does not contradict the reasons you claim PIP then most people are fine. PIP is a benefit claimed by huge numbers of people who work.

Sorry, but I have to put you right here. Asylum seekers get free housing (a private company called Serco [look them up!] rents tens of thousands of houses direct from owners and gets funding from the government - contributing massively to the housing crises!). They get free council tax, free heating and lighting, water, and transportation. That's not £40 per week.

Going to work doesn't make you a good role model. Being on benefits doesn't make you a bad person. I'm not on benefits but I'm a SAHM, am I bad role model becuase I don't work? No. My exBIL works, he also beat my sister, is he a good role model? No.

I think it does make a difference to all our lives though, because it comes from the public purse. I am very socialist and believe in the benefits system. Everyone deserves housing, no children should go hungry.

But £5,500 is what a person on £100k a year earns. That’s wealthy beyond most people’s wildest dreams (teachers/nurses etc). That’s holidaying in Florida every year territory. Do families on benefits need to be supported by the public purse to that extent??? The NHS is in shambles and school budgets too. The money could be spent elsewhere, while STILL supporting families on benefits (just not to such an extortionate extent?).

You said he can’t type, speak or walk. What kind of work is he doing?

Yes agree it needs to be a taper. But my issue is also with the NHS. I’m awaiting 3 operations, one has been put back 2 years now. There’s no chance I’ll be able to work until these are done (one’s a knee replacement) so how can w fix the benefits mess until these NHS is fixed?

Or you can run a 15yr old Aygo on around £250 a year.

I know. Me and dh both have professional graduate jobs and don’t have this income! We’re in our 50s so not just starting out either!

A benefits crack down needs to come. The sooner the better. At least it would be one positive impact of Reform building popularity moving that far to the right will see benefits slashed.

He isn’t, he is currently expected to work due to scoring 0 for his PIP renewal, he has also been served notice on his assisted living facility as they are no longer getting rent.

The NHS and schools might manage better if they were not having to pay millions in rent to multi-millionaire, tax-dodging slumlords.

PIP & DLA can't even keep up with the numbers of people requiring assessments as it is. They struggle massively to recruit assessors and they don't stay long as it's a shit job. Re-assessments/ reviews are currently more then a year behind and people rarely report a change even if their condition does improve because they just get reliant on the money. DLA claims are taking nearly six months to process. The system is a mess.

It’s too scary to admit our own vulnerabilities. It is easier psychologically to ‘other’ people as it keeps them at safe distance, we can reassure ourselves that we are so different from them, it won’t happen to us. They are lazy or lying or unmotivated - we cast moral judgements as an attempt to ignore the fact that ANY one of us could become sick, mentally unwell, disabled or otherwise vulnerable and in need of government assistance.

There is always so so much of this in these threads.

PIP is nothing to do with work. It's the UC or ESA work capability assessment which would determine whether he was fit for work or not.

As a genuine claimant I have no issue with ‘crackdowns’ or reforms, usually the only ones who do are the ones swinging the lead.

No, some of us have empathy for others.