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?

As opposed to staying where you are and getting the lot for free off everyone else? Is that a human right?

Makes me wonder how on earth so many people are disabled to the point that they cannot work.

Would you move for a zero hour minimum wage job? If not, why not?
How much does moving house cost? Do you think someone on benefits would have that sort of money?

What about all the money we spend keeping the dregs of society alive in prison for years.
It must cost millions.
Free board and lodgings for the rest of their lives for some.

Claiming benefits if you satisfy the criteria is not illegal. It's the dregs in prison that are costing loads.

Yes I would, and have.

The excuses are wearing thin. Work should not be optional. Living off others because you don’t fancy X job or Y area shouldn’t be optional.

Your beliefs are luxury and paid for by others which is why you hold them.

In my universe, I know how to use filters to winnow out jobs that have closed or are duplicate announcements of the same job. ;)

But anyway, for the sake of not arguing, if 283k jobs is correct, then we still have an issue of 6 unemployed looking for work for each 1 job.

How are you going to magic up enough jobs? Labour has guaranteed a job for everyone who wants to work. How?

I’m sure you wouldn’t have if you’d had a family and a mortgage at the time.
It’s easy to fare dodge on a train to where ever as a sofa surfing 20-something with your life in a back pack.

We are a large country with a failing health system that hasn’t recovered from a pandemic. It’s completely unsurprising.

I am not making excuses for me, as I refuse to make this about my personal circumstances, as it gets personal and people attack things they know nothing about.

But if you think someone on benefits with no savings is going to pay a few grand to move across the country for a job that they only get 4 hours work for when they first started... then you need to give your head a wobble.

I honestly do not believe you would move house for a zero hour NMW job. It is so over the top that I can not take the rest of your posts seriously. You are are either attempting satire, or actually believe it. In any case, I am not going to engage with you anymore.

Yep, someone older with family, a house they have settled in, a support network etc... they wont move.

A younger person who is lodging/sofa surfing, no real ties to where they live.... that is possible.

I don’t think it matters. Nobody is inherently entitled to have the state support them so they can live in an area of their choosing. Immigrants make these tough choices all the time, why can’t Brits? I find it ridiculously self indulgent.

@XenoBitch
they wouldn’t be allowed to move anyway. A skint person on benefits in rural U.K. would never be allowed to move to a London borough or any large city (that’s where the most vacancies are!) to take up a zero hour NMW job. They would not have the money to, and they’d be deliberately making themself homeless. There is no way any borough council in London or any major U.K. city would agree to take on another under-employed person.

That’s because, to you - a person who is presumably not working and hasn’t worked in a while - it seems ridiculous. I’ve spent my life working, I’ve never claimed benefits or been unemployed. So to me, it isn’t ridiculous. I would move for work if I had to.

They wouldn’t even need to do this.

I guarantee if @XenoBitch shared her home location with me I could find hundreds of entry level jobs in the local area. I’m not asking for that. But I’m confident I could.

“Live in an area of their choosing”

You obviously have no idea how the system works.

Do you work?

How would you move?

How would you cover the moving costs, the deposit and first month's rent?

Bearing in mind we're talking about someone with no job.

So what! You haven’t addressed the issue that there are nowhere near enough jobs for the abled and well unemployed actively looking for work much less the sick and disabled who have been judged not fit to work by medical experts.

The rental market is brutal out there.
It took my DP months to find somewhere.... about 25-30 people interested in each property. He works. Landlords can't say no UC claimants, but they can price them out with sky high rents and 6 month deposits needed up front.

I am retired.
I have never claimed any out of work benefits.

I do think we should stop paying people in prison so they can buy tuck.
I also think they should have to work within the prison environment to earn their keep.

Each prisoner costs the UK tax payer £52,000/year including their pocket Money of between £10 and £25/week.
Meanwhile some in open prisons earn more than the guards.

In 2023/24 we spent £ 6.85bn on prisons.

Excellent point! And, we do have some very recent scum bags, who’ve been locked away!

The rental market will get worse. Landlords are selling up.