Benefit cuts will cost the economy.

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/29/labours-benefit-cuts-will-cost-uk-economy-billions-charity-says

Interesting article which repeats what some of us have been saying about the likely consequences of the proposed measures, including increased pressure on services.

So you think eating jacket potatoes cures chronic fatigue?

What an utterly ridiculous question.
Do you think pot noodles and coke are a cure 😂
Better nutrition is better physically and mentally - empty calories help no-one.
Appalling that posters think the disabled deserve only to eat rubbish, rather than educating them to be able to feed themselves better, and as I have pointed out if you have RTHT less effort and dexterity required.

No, I don't think they are a cure.

I also don't think disability can be cured by eating a specific food group.

I agree, but eating a diet, poor in nutrition, is going to help nobody, disabled, or able bodied! It is bonkers to argue otherwise.

Of course it won't help anyone. I'm not arguing that. What I'm arguing is the relevance of someone's diet on their PIP claim.

If someone with chronic fatigue finds Pot Noodles the most affordable and easy to prepare...I'll let them do as they see fit safe in the knowledge that while potatoes and salad would undoubtedly be healthier...it won't cure their illness.

All benefits people get are put back into the economy because that money gets spent.

In theory, we'd all have a perfect, healthy, nutritious diet.

But when you're disabled, particularly with chronic conditions, it gets a bit tricky (to say the least) to prioritise all the things that have to be prioritised.

For my own diet:

• can I make it myself?
• does it conflict with my diabetes
• does it conflict with weight loss goals
• does it conflict with Gastroparesis
• does it trigger IBS
• does it meet my ARFID safe foods?
• can I afford it

And that is just diet... because I also have to prioritise:

• managing my energy levels
• getting enough sleep
• managing meds
• earning a living
• managing a home - financially
• managing a home practically (keeping it clean and tidy and not falling apart)
• medical appointments
• managing on-going wound care
• prompting ND partner to do the things he must do
• managing my own personal care

You cannot put every one of those things at the top of the list. It is not possible to have everything as number 1 priority.

For a healthy, able bodied person, managing all that might be a breeze (though from posts on MN it seems it probably isn't). Add in doing all this on insufficient sleep, with physical disabillities or mental disabilites, or both, in significant amounts of pain and with a third the energy or less of a 'normal' person...

As I say, it gets a little tricky. Some shit slips, particularly when unexpected things happen (eg. Today I was woken at 10am, now it is lovely that the DN turned up so promptly, but it means I have had 3 hours less rest as I could not go back to bed afterwards. I feel ok now, but I can guarantee that I will be running on empty at 7pm when I have 3 hours of work left! and this will impact me for the next couple of days).

Also, in amongst all of that most people try to squeeze a bit of enjoyment out of life if they can... but that also takes up energy, time, mental and physical resources that are in short supply.

You mean the benefits system that ensures that people in poverty aren't able to afford healthy nutritious food? The one that you want to be cut even lower so they won't be able to afford food at all?

And yet you know that it's important to eat right, for everyone - the healthy and the disabled?

How's that logic working out for you?

Ok, I see.

I don’t think you should judge the whole country by the standards of your social circle.

I know very few people who have ever given up and plumped for the “free money” and the two I can think of who weren’t left with any choice were understandably terrified. Actually I don’t know anyone who has willingly chosen “free money” over work. People normally fight quite hard against being eased out of the workforce.

We all fell for that blatant pot noodle detail didn’t we? 😂

You jest, mid stage Parkinson’s, I never know it will affect me day to day, 62, yes I get pip, under new review hardly get anything ( I don’t claim UC, as I have some money).
I obviously can’t work, luckily no review until 2032, I got 10 yrs till review unless they don’t change things.
Realistically we need better funded childcare, to help the working population, who currently struggle

Prob due to severe, arthritis, dexterity, with conditions like Parkinson’s, severe tremors, lack of strength, or maybe only one hand.
Please enlighten yourself, this poor person, will be very limited on choices, and prob doesn’t have a support system

I was genuinely curious.

Great post. It is hard to comprehend the complexity of living with a life-long condition - or conditions - that requires both medication and careful handling to ensure the best outcomes for the person concerned.

Unforutnately, the 'don't buy pot noodle' brigade have no understanding of that. And hopefully never will, what with all their healthy salad eating. Cos healthy people never get sick, do they?!

Life can change suddenly, I was one of those I expected better health ,based on my parents health at my age.
it changed

That was my thread. And no I didn’t disclose that at all, I said that on that particular day I had stopped for a can of coke in the morning, needing the caffeine boost to be able to drive home safely. And I’d had a pot noodle later on because I neither had the energy to cook or go shopping. Which then descended into a whole thing with posters assuming that Coke and pot noodles were all I ever consumed, which is not true. I’d have probably died a long time ago if it was.

Probably very outing but my CFS was caused by living in high amounts of stress for a number of years due to abuse, literally living in fear of my life 24/7, until my nervous system eventually collapsed. I had a book published about the abuse I suffered, trust me the whole thing was a living hell for a long time. I’ve had years of counselling, CBT etc but none of that can undo what I went through, the damage is done. I have a first class science degree, before I had CFS I was working 60 hour weeks. There is no part of me that is by nature a shirker. But now I have been ill for the last 10 years, and I am very limited. My house is a mess, I can only manage an hour or so of work before I need to sleep (eg today, I worked for an hour and now I’m back home in bed before 3.30pm when I have another hour’s work booked in, I will need to sleep to be able to do that).

If there is an employer out there who will understand that I can only manage very short stints of work before I need to rest or sleep, and some days I will be bedridden so unable to work at all, and if I catch a virus it will affect me a lot worse than your average person I will be stuck in bed for at least a month, then I’m completely up for it. But most likely I will have to carry on doing what I’m doing, self employed work as a when I’m able. Without PIP (which I will lose under these proposals) I won’t be able to afford the monthly therapy I have to manage my pain, or the supplements I take which enable me to have the small amount of a life I have now. So I will likely not even be able to manage the small amounts of work I’m doing now.

To answer the more general question by the OP - yes of course it will, the more unequal a society is the more social problems there are. There’s an excellent book out there called The Spirit Level for anyone who has trouble understanding that.

So just to clarify, my illness was NOT caused by pot noodles, nor will it be cured by avoiding pot noodles.

There's always some wanker who thinks they know your condition and What You Should Do better than you do.

Most of MN apparently 🤣. To put that to bed, I have eaten a number of jacket spuds over the last decade since I got ill, and sadly they didn’t cure me.

Also, while I’m ranting, I did not study for a degree with the aim of living off the £400 a month I get from PIP, and having to go through the gruelling and dehumanizing process of getting that money. For the hard of understanding, I did not choose to be ill. I would love not to be. Once I had a successful life and now I’m just battling to get through each day. I have no friends or social life because they all fell by the wayside years ago when I was unable to go out and be sociable. I wouldn’t feel jealous of that, and if you do you need a reality check. But by all means cheer on taking the small amount of money I get away which will mean that I have zero quality of life.

Haha my friend bought me some lovely healthy sushi last night. I've only gone and woken up still disabled!

It's an outrage!

It is an outrage - I had a 'massive salad' yesterday and would you believe it, woke up still disabled this morning!!

The cheek of that lettuce!!

That was shit, I get it, I worked hard before mid stage Parkinson’s, keeps making my life more disabled over time