To be confused by benefits cuts to the disabled and ill?

[AllyHayHay]

As luck would have it, I have not been in this position, but I do know of one disabled lady who has struggled. She was incredibly fortunate to already own her own home prior to her accident.

I am not what you'd call politically astute, but I have been reading about the proposed spring benefits cuts and wonder why people always discuss this ONLY affecting the sick and disabled.
I am also aware that there are many, many rough areas with families who have never worked, people who are struggling with addiction, prison sentences (their kids, spouse, etc) and these people never seem to be included in the Guardian articles and opinion pieces online.

Why would a system wish to make the life of a disabled person worse, yet ignore the growing issues of illiteracy, generational poverty and other issues which are going on in most urban areas just out of sight of the comfortably off?
Why not address the reasons that great swathes of people are living on benefits across the UK who are NOT disabled? I imagine this would drag up questions of why those issues persist - and no one in government wants to address that.

Since benefits claimants who are not in work of on the pension are a minority, are these cuts more of a populist tendency?

So you would target pensioners, most of whom have paid into the system for 5 decades or more. What about starting with the very wealthy corporations who proportionally pay less tax .

I blame businesses for being so greedily profit-led that they make the lives of their workers absolutely rubbish and underpay them for it at the same time. It’s been going on too long.

The government wouldn’t dare blame businesses, so they blame the little people.

@XenoBitch , would you like to work?

And there are studies that also link it to people who have suffered from depression.

She would like her life back, free of MH problems.

I don't think being vague is helpful - maybe the aim is to sow fear - exactly what benefits are being referred to when talking of long term sickness benefits?

Those potentially affected want to know if they actually are and know what benefits they receive and why (or their carers do).

The vagueness only benefits those with little understanding and no personal experience and supports statements that it is unaffordable.

You could just as well argue that plenty of other stop gaps are not affordable - the ambulance service is unaffordable as is A&E given increase and inability of services to cope and say people will just have to cope without.

All well and good until a service you need is not there. You, your family and your children may die because care is unaffordable and if they survive may be disabled but care can't be afforded.

I assume that all those who say disability care can't be afforded are OK with that. Because once doubt is cast you will not be able to prove that you are genuinely in need of support - no personal testimony, no health practitioners report. Just a non medically trained assessor saying you are fit to work. And wait to see what happens in a sink or swim scenario. It doesn't take a genius to work out the genuine majority would sink.

Nearly 1 million young people (under 25) are not in education, employment or training...why not look at that first instead of disabled people?

My DH worked full time in manufacturing and all was well until he had numerous pulmonary embolisms all of a sudden at 58 yrs old. He was very very ill and we nearly lost him twice. He was put on warfarin for life and attends hospital weekly to check his levels then he had DVT might have been the other way round but so much has happened in 18 months I forget..anyway because they could not get his warfarin levels stable his job would not allow him back and he was on the sick for over 12 months they then sacked him. Because of his illness and the coughing which was severe enough he developed a hernia. So he was put on LWRAC or what ever it is and he is so desperate to go back to work but is in constant pain with this hernia and he has been waiting over 7 months for an operation to repair it. We lost our income,nearly our house and his health ..the problemis not fraud or laziness in this case it is an NHS system that is so broke we are left hanging. Infact the NHS even send us questionaires to see if we want to remain on the waiting lists fo rthe OP he needs. Can they punish people like us anymore ? This is not our fault and if I wasnt scared for the future before I am now.

The govt are looking at that.

@Katiesaidthat , you know her?

I agree @Cartwrightandson. If a large number of under-25's are unable to work or study, the reasons why urgently need looking into.

Probably a lot to do with CAMHS waiting lists I’d imagine in a huge amount of cases.

Like a poster above whose husband is being let down by the nhs and needs a hernia op.

The reason why so many are now on sickness and disability benefits isn’t fraud or because it incentivises not working but because the nhs is not functioning at a level to maintain a healthy population. There’s no preventative care there’s no early intervention. Waiting lists are huge. People develop problems and when they are fixable or treatable they can’t get seen so they deteriorate . That’s why so many are sick and out of work !

Yes, they're impacted - and I'm not downplaying that they are very real - but actually if you delve into the data, claims for many conditions NOT just mental health have increased. MS, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, stroke. Now, as I understand it, it's rather difficult to be awarded PIP. So I'm rather intrigued a) how people are faking physical conditions such as the ones mentioned above b) why they would? Let's investigate why all disability claims, not just ones you can "fake" are going up. Perhaps - and I'm prepared to accept this for a moment - there's genuinely been an explosion in them over the past five years - if so that should be investigated! But more likely it's one of three things: a) the economy hasn't recovered post-covid so legitimately disabled people have been forced to claim benefits (do you know employees largely employ disabled less, as they're seen as less reliable/can't do certain jobs?) b) there's more awareness of PIP so people who are entitled to claim are claiming c) there's a backlog. Either way it's sickening that disabled people are having their poor lives made poorer. And I include people with mental health conditions in that, who are fast becoming the acceptable "face" of disability-bashing.

Because the wealthy corporations are not doing anything wrong.

So where are you getting the money from now?

I don't think being vague is helpful - maybe the aim is to sow fear - exactly what benefits are being referred to when talking of long term sickness benefits.

Overall I think the aim is to keep all of us plebs squabbling about the peanuts that disabled people get. Deflect, deflect, deflect! They don't want us talking about the rich getting even richer while everyone else suffers.

I would have thought the same as you but my mum had a friend, sadly now died. She’d lived through ww2 and said she found the covid lockdown worse than ww2. Granted she lived in the midlands rather than London in ww2 and for the Covid lockdown she was in a nursing home so stuck in her room all day with no visitors for months on end. She said at least during the war you could still go out and see people (her words not mine so don’t shoot me down for them).

What if you have anorexia nervosa? They need the heating on for long periods of times. They also have to buy lots of clothes like thermals to keep their core temperature at a safe level.

Someone mentioned up thread that she had never registered for pip previously, can’t remember exactly what condition it was but she managed it by working part time and claiming tax credits. When universal credit came in as it has a work criteria she had to claim for pip so that she was able to continue working part time.

also I expect part of it is to do with the retirement age going up. Women previously retired at 60 which has gone up gradually to 67 and men were 65. Pip isn’t available to people of pension age and people are more likely to develop conditions as they get older so a 65 year old can now claim pip whereas few years ago they couldn’t

It is looking as though the plans are to freeze PIP, and to cut universal credit for people who are unable to work. Unbelievable. Pushing disabled people further into poverty.

I didn't realise that the charges had been announced.

So PIP freezes and UC reduced, by how much? I didn't realise that it could be reduced, I assumed that not increasing is usually the way to make savings

I am hoping it isn't set in stone; however, i've just seen it in the independent online and reports are that the plans were leaked to ITV over the weekend.

It doesn't say by how much UC will be cut. Just states that for people who are seeking work - it will be increased, and for those who cannot work - it will be reduced.

There was a supposed leaked paper that ITV reported about.
The proposed changes are - PIP being made harder to get, PIP being frozen in 2026 (so not going up with inflation), and UC going up for people who are job seeking, and going down for people unable to work (which makes no sense). The amounts are not mentioned.

I can't get my head around it! I'm trying not to panic in truth. How can it possibly be beneficial to anyone to push disabled people into further poverty?!

I imagine it is some misguided belief that being more broke will suddenly make you well enough to work.

Either that or just go away and die.