‘Game the system’ disability benefits

[Tomatochocolate]

WTF
just read a bbc article about welfare reforms

Apparently ministers think that it’s an incentive to claim disability benefits as the incentive is no work commitments on UC. That claimants ‘game the system’

It’s a long process and really hard to get awarded dla or pip. It’s not just ticking a box that says ‘I’m too sick to work’.

AIBU to think this is just horrific

Any reason or studies that show £400 is plenty enough?
Very interested if you’d had links tbh.

Esp because it’s pretty well known that been disabled cost a lot. From food, to heating, to specialist equipment etc etc…..

We as taxpayers don’t exist solely to support a minority with ‘needs’.

Grim.

I worked as a Benefits Advisor in a previous job. I saw people who had never claimed anything, but given their health issues, definitely should have.
i also saw a small but significant number of people who I felt exaggerated the impact of their health issues, symptoms and difficulties.
I’m thinking of people who told me they could barely walk, but were then repeatedly seen around walking briskly and reverted to stumbling about only when they noticed me….
This group seemed to know what to say and do and were very single minded in accessing benefits.

It’s not at all grim. Most people are good people, and are happy to pay towards others in need, but not to the point those people have more than they do and everything else is cut. It’s not at all selfish. Council tax is basically a social care tax now - libraries being closed and bin collections reduced for yet more social care. How much will taxpayers put up with?

Akso we know that giving enough money to ,I’ve in to disabled people actually helps the economy.
Because that money is used to buy stuff.

Whereas tax discounts etc… for the wealthiest just end up in tax heavens, savings and the likes but not directly used to make the economy run.

Whatever we suggest will never be ‘enough’ according to disability charities and claimants will it? I am disabled and I would put my extra expenses at £100 a month or so. I absorb this, just, because I can. Sure I could throw in a PIP application but why add to the country’s strain when I don’t absolutely have to? We need people to be more community minded and less individualist.

You do realise that the current levels of benefits are calculated by the government as "the minimum amount required to live on" or words to that effect? And that often, especially for the disabled with significant extra needs, due to the increasing COL is doesn't actually meet that criteria?

Just a slimming down of what we have now as it’s wildly out of control, to the extent we are now scrabbling around for military funding when Europe is under threat. We as taxpayers don’t exist solely to support a minority with ‘needs’

Jesus christ. What have I just read. Are you being sarcastic? It is the fault of the disabled that successive governments have underfunded defence?

Halving disability benefits is not "slimming down".

God, it is sickening to see how much people resent those who are disabled.

"If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population" vibes 👍

Nah most of it is going on foreign holidays if mumsnet is to be believed !

But defence has to be underfunded if there isn’t enough money allocated to it.

£400 is very generous. The fact you think it isn’t shows the expectation has risen far too much. It’s the equivalent of around 25 hours of work. So somebody, somewhere is working 25 hours (nearly a whole week) just for 1 person’s PIP. Does that put it in context?

I don’t think anything I wrote is ‘sickening’. Many other countries would find it generous.

"Are there no workhouses?"

I knew that would be wheeled out at some point but last time I checked, receiving 23k benefits a year for not working and having your own home is nothing like being an unpaid slave sleeping in the dorm of a workhouse?

Same her my dh will likely qualify for PIP for two serious health conditions but he doesn't claim. He works and can support himself and actually doesn't have much in the way of extra costs. He has just turned 60 and his medication costs are covered. He has expensive injections on the NHS which cost over £1k a month which keep his health condition reasonably under control. I've read that one proposal for PIP is that people would need to show what extra costs they are actually incurring although I guess that could be tricky with variable conditions.

You do know that many people on PIP work?

I really hope you never find out how difficult and expensive it is to be disabled.

Yes but most don’t.

i am disabled. I’ve said this multiple times, nor am I rich. In fact I earn below average

Oh here we go, the "actually my brother's dog's hairdresser's cousin's husband twice removed isn't just disabled, he's SUPER disabled and needs PIP way more than any of you people but doesn't claim because he's SO virtuous and actually CARES about society" posts.

Come on, let's hear more about the deserving disabled and continue to feed the narrative about these grabby disabled people stealing from the hardworking taxpayer.

Maybe next they should ban ppl knocking out kids one after the other. Want 12 kids well pay for them.

House!!

What a treat, they're making it too easy!

I can't stand these sorts of threads.

It is a very small proportion of people who fake it. There are genuinely people around who cannot drive and need taxis or train/bus, if they're up to it. Perhaps they can't cook themselves so rely on takeouts, sandwiches etc.

Perhaps they need a mobility aid or it might assist with counselling.

Are some people really that paranoid and self centred that they think it's a money grabbing lunge at their wages? Do they have an incapacitated relative or friend and if so do they turn their back on them?

I have a cousin on PIP. Trust me, he's not faking and he needs it. He gets too anxious having to walk by himself as it makes him nervous so catches taxis. It is not a life of joy.

@iwentjasonwaterfalls actually it boils my piss that those that do indeed game the system affect what can be given to those who truly aren't in a position to help themselves- either long term or short term - and that goes for those with undeclared live in partners, cash in hand jobs claiming full benefit, pensioners with £250k post house sale declaring no/liw savings ( I know of two who put money in kids names to be able to claim themselves) ) a whole range of situations - not just disability

Yes, get that a lot, I do home visits and have had many patients state they are housebound or bed bound due to various disabilities/conditions so can’t use hospital transport, I turn up early to find them walking around the house completely unaided, even had a few who weren’t home and when called said they had popped out to walk the dog/go to the shops etc.

I have had patients pressuring me to write letters to say they are unfit to work/need pip etc because of their medical condition, but there is absolutely nothing about their condition that means they wouldn’t be able to work or would be classed as disabled. I think they just saw what they thought was an opportunity and tried to exploit it.

Of course, you see the opposite as well, where people do far too much and won’t ask for help that they definitely need. I’ve had patients who won’t seek help/treatment because they are worried about not being able to work too. I find it varies a lot depending on the area I work in.

I'd love to have disability costs of £100 a month. I've spent that this week, alone on disability stuff

Well, in the same vein why should I pay tax to help pay for child benefit and the education of other people's children. Have done so for 40+ years and will until I die.