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!

Did he actually? Or did they lie? Surely as a wheelchair user they should have provided an accessible venue.
Also, why did he attend an assessment if he can’t talk? Most people in this situation would have an appointee to attend on their behalf

Most venues for these assessments aren’t accessible in the slightest.

@YourAmplePlumPoster

Thankyou for sharing the You Tube item.

Perhaps these work gangs could all wear some sort of uniform or emblem to cement their "lesser" status in the eyes of society?

Or if these jobs need doing, the council could you know, offer them actual employment with rights and things. Just a thought.

By the already hard to pass work capability assessment, which is about to get tougher, as are the rules and criteria for disability benefits. There’s a perception on this thread that most are shirking and that’s just not true. Fraud and error in the disability and sickness benefits system is very low. But the government is trying to push through new laws in the spring which will see eligibility and other rules for these benefits tightened. Now how do you think they’re going to get the public onside ? Well for a start by getting the media involved - hence the Dispatches programme last night. Or do you think that’s a coincidence ? Expect to see more in the press about supposedly disabled people playing golf and all manner of other workshy and deceitful pursuits. How else are they going to get the prolls to accept having the safety rug pulled out from them. Yet again. 14 years of Tory rule, in which they clearly demonstrated that they hate the sick and disabled. Not much has changed since July.

Her child,her responsibility to support ( as mine has been).
Different mindset and neither is against the law

Attending training is hardly hard work
Its beneficial

And this is the problem
Although I do agree some charity work or something would definitely support a CV devoid of any work experience

But we all have a work allowance so why would they deduct nearly £200 from her based on a £400 wage?

I was working part time up until a few months ago when my caring responsibilities increased dramatically. I just looked at my September UC statement. I earned £544 from work so only had £77 deducted from my UC. So I received £3352 UC AND £544 payslip from working.

It’s always beneficial to work because the money adds up. I do hope to go back to work in a couple of years because of this.

Your asking if someone who can’t walk walked up several steps, surely the answer to that is fairly obvious. It isn’t unusual for venues not to be accessible, the one my husband attended was on the first floor with no lift and no power assisted doors. It isn’t unusual for an appointee to be refused, its an all too common tactic to put people off applying.

Maybe job seekers should be required to treat it like work. You turn up at 9 and stay till 5. Then you get your allowance. If the ability to play on an xbox all day was removed I suspect many would find a job more interesting than sitting there.

I was a disability outreach worker. I had a claimant who had to travel an hour each way by train to an assessment - he was in a wheelchair. When he arrived he was turned away as there were stairs up to the assessment room and no toilet.

Another who had polio and wore two full length rigid callipers and walked with two sticks was told her benefit would be stopped if she couldn’t manage a short flight of steps up to the building. We sorted that pretty quickly but that didn’t stop the assessor from deciding that this lady could happily sit on a perching stool at a counter top to cook. The way we treat our sick and disabled people in this country so often falls short of common decency and in this case even common sense.

I do NOT think that increasing stigma and shame is the way forward. That’s quite a horrible thing to propose.

My suggestion would be caps, I guess. But sensible ones. Eg. A family of four’s benefits capped at equivalent of £40k salary (so £2,700 a month). The cap should be proportional, so families with more children can still receive proportionally more in benefits (thus not penalising or punishing children). But the current situation where a family of four can (apparently! If it’s true!) take home £5,500 a month - equivalent of £100k take home pay - feels unnecessary.

Equivalent of £40k salary is still comfortable and not punishing people for being on benefits or disabled.

Extra costs associated with being disabled (such as bathroom refurb and physio) should be paid in full directly by government grants. I believe that mobility cars work this way already.

The money saved could go towards equalising the playing field for all members of society. For example, public sector workers such as teaching assistants, HCAs and carers should be paid more, so they receive a liveable wage for their hard work. Refugees who are currently expected to survive on less than £50 a week should receive more assistance. Safe & functional housing should be provided for refugee and asylum-seeking young people, instead of the dangerous and traumatising group-housing that 15 and 16 yr olds are currently living in. That sort of thing. This would result in a more equal society overall (in my opinion).

In a nutshell:
a) Family of four where 1 adult works 20hrs and the rest is topped up benefits (due to disability etc), can take home £40k salary equivalent in total (instead of the current £70-£100k in some cases)
b) Family of four where 1 adult is a working full-time Healthcare Assistant will earn £40k salary (instead of current £23k).

Thus evening the playing field?

Rare as rocking horse shit I’d have said.

And where are they all going to ‘be’. Who’s going to to provide the space for this….

Taxpayer's money is what's left of your wages after tax. It was never yours, it isn't now, it's government revenue.

If you think any money cut from the welfare budget will end up in your pocket, or even in better public services then you're naive.

So that would increase JSA significantly as it would need to be at the age appropriate NMW.

Not against the law but choosing not to work when you can should not be a possibility once a child reaches a certain age.
They should be required to be in work or training to receive benefits.
Being unemployed should not mean you are financially better off than working.

This used to happen in employment rehabilitation centres for the disabled, and in skillcentres all across the UK. Until Thatcher decided it was easier to park them all on sickness benefits to hide the true impact of unemployment. We’re still dealing with that legacy today.

But how many actually get £35000?
A single mother of 1 child receives very little
About 7000-8000 a year and about 14000 if rent is included! (Yes London rents are higher but most people do not live in London)
Not everyone is long term sick(and why would you have an issue with them)
Or have 6 plus kids all born before 2017. Cuz you only get paid for 2 kids born after 2017.
So, yeah who are you actually upset with?
Who's living an easily life?
Most youngsters live with their families these days, and if their on UC, they get about £300 a month.
Are you angry that they chose to live on that rather than get a job for massive amounts more?
You know nothing about people's lives and their actual situation.
Everyone that can get a job, usually gets one. People who are comfortable on benefits are rare

I tell what I will go and throw myself off a bridge- one less disabled person to leech off the system. I suggest some posters take their benefit basing to social media- might get a few others with disabilities to do themselves in as well- all saving money.

ok I won’t because I would not do it to my daughter but that’s how some of you have made me feel.

this also
I have tried to work a physical job and kept losing it ( them ) because I am physically not fast enough, am menopausal, have swollen ankles and asthmatic lungs

Really sorry about your husband.

That is FAR too expensive. I feel bad for you. After school club is £6 a day here (so like £120 a month if they go every day). I think it should be standardised, national provision across the country so parents in certain areas aren’t penalised.

100 agree

That's not how social housing works.

I think you've done a pretty irresponsible thing starting this thread and spreading so much total crap about disability benefits when you clearly have no understanding of any of the issues you're commenting on at all.

The level of pure nonsense I've read here is concerning.

General comment which applies to a few people here - if you're actually interested in an issue why don't you actually make an effort to learn at least a little bit about it before just writing pure shit on the internet?

And then you have the many people who want to have a permanent role, but always find horrible managers, abusive colleagues and feel do not fit in - there are people like that. Especially undiagnosed autistic women whose only solace has been that they got married to a man who loves them and work and provides