Ok who wants to swap £2500 a month in benefits for my husbands MS and my epilepsy, narcolepsy and fibromyalgia.

[bluebirdblackbird]

Well according to a lot of people on here we are on a good thing.

the 20 seizures I have in a week, chronic pain and night terrors, losing my memory after a seizure, pissing myself, hallucinations. They are all great fun. Not to mention the amount of times I have been accused of being drunk after a seizure.

or there is my husband. Diagnosed with progressive MS. Cronic Pain, shaking, cronic pins and needles, weakness in limbs plus losing mobility. Had to give up his teaching job 4 months ago after gradually reducing hours.

Not to mention the judgement when we use a blue badge because we look ok in that moment. And apparently labour are going to find us both work. Yippee cant wait to meet the employer who is going to take us both on. I am sure pissing my chair on a reg basis won’t matter to them or the losing counciouness at least a couple of times a day.

i am just fed up of yet another they are on benefits and get money and it’s not fair stamp stamp stamp. The bastards have saved up for a holiday- it’s not fair. The bastards have a mobility car but they look fine, OMG- they have got new carpets or a new sofa.

since I am guessing they none of the moaners would actually swap places with us if they could then STFU.

oh and that pip that is easy to get- my husband gets lower rate for both and that is despite providing all the evidence and appealing so we are off to tribunal. He can’t even dress himself most days and he can’t hold a pan safely or manage his medication plus many other things. If he stays on the points he is on he will lose his pip completely under these new labour proposals.

but most people know someone who’s friends, aunts, nephews, stepdaughters, cousin twice removed who lied and got it. I was taking to a lady in a wheelchair who does not get any mobility component of pip at all.

Or we could give everyone benefits just in case!

I never said I had the answer but I don’t want my taxes going to fraudsters thanks.

A few posters upthread yes. Directly comparing it with wage earners.

Well, a huge chunk of your taxes are going to MPs, so you're fighting a losing battle on that front, I'm afraid.

You can make the same argument about any barrier or additional challenge though. It intrinsically makes life harder. So it's hard to be a child who has been in care but it's even harder to be poor and a child on care etc. Poverty makes everything harder too. As does lack of family support etc.

I’m not sure what point you’re making. Are you arguing that people with disabilities shouldn’t receive a good level of support because everyone has challenges, or that no one should get support, or that everyone should?

Im in Scotland, there have been huge initiatives to support parents to lift children out of poverty, significant supports for people who are care experienced as well as people with disabilities. Recognising one group needs support doesn’t deny others do to.

No, we've not misunderstood at all.

People are complaining that:

• other people are getting more than me, for doing less.
• some of these people are liars

The 'we don't mean genuine claimants, we're not talking about you of course' is the bit you tell yourself so you don't feel guilt when genuine claimants can't make a successful claim/lose their claim.

After all... if they were genuine claimants, they wouldn't lose their claim would they, so they can't have been genuine.

What we're saying and you're not hearing because the media and the government is trying to make damn sure you don't, is this:

• genuine claimants will suffer
• your taxes will not go down
• your wages will not go up
• your cost of living will not go down

Yes, the number of people claiming disability benefits has gone up - the standard of living has dropped, health care is rubbish, peoples stress levels have gone up, the toxic work culture has not improved a jot, and we now have a significant number of people affected long term by chronic conditions as a result of this and the pandemic.

On top of the cost of living has increased in pretty much every aspect but wages have not - people are absolutely primed to hate the idea that anyone is getting more than them for apparently doing less.

Wheel out a few examples, instagram influencers claiming to be making a killing with loads of kids claiming DLA and spending it all on holidays or nail art... or some newspaper articles about how you can claim PIP if you broke a fingernail... light the blue touch paper and stand well back!

This

Anyone can make up numbers based on what they think is going on. But it’s completely meaningless.

In the end, she did a MR and was awarded HRC. I'd class NG tubes, G tubes etc along the same lines as oxygen. Definitely much higher care than just feeding a baby normally.

When people are bashing benefit claimants OP I don’t think they mean you x

I hear you early inherited degenative disc disease
And spine arthritis. Spine cord injury and plus about 8 more things wrong with my spine. My son is nursery at the end of the street. So use roller to get him there then home. But yesterday jobcentre to declare I'd even on ESA for years ! Went bank closed old account down, spend 10 voucher in m&s then jobcentre. By the time I get there lower back flaring up feet are going numb. Unless I have fully recliner wheelchair I will struggle how I'm I sposed to travel in that across London. Even going to job center had to wait 3 busses to get on as people pushed pass me. I was the last person on so bus moves before I can sit down which then hits my spine. 11am need recovery nap!

Thanks the replies I have had a few seizures this morning so going to make my way through them later. Yes it’s 2500 between us.
I did forget to put that I do know of a few people who shouldn’t be getting it but believe me they are the ones who know how to play the system. And they will carry on playing the system. I firmly believe that it’s claimants that find the while process difficult or don’t have someone to support them but really need the benefit will miss out. A lot of people just give up. If you are playing the system you won’t give up.

So out of hundreds of posts very very few which I hope would be heartening to those who think that everyone goes around bashing people on benefits. I think the conversations always comes down to the grey area. We can absolutely identify those who should absolutely be assisted by the state but we can’t all agree the middle ground.

Sorry for your troubles.
I am almost 100% certain that you will not be made to get a job - I am not certain why certain charities and organisations are terrifying those genuinely in need of support (such as you and your husband).

I wish you both well.

I hope your day improves. Sorry to hear it’s been a bad morning x

Oh and I was diagnosed with epilepsy at 21 and my husband MS at 43. I do managed to work till 3 years ago when the other issues started and the seizures got out of control.

my friends husband who always mouthed off that he would work whatever disability he has has found himself diagnosed with severe mental heath issues and has been sectioned a few times. He has now apologised to me when work let him go and he is in no way fit at the moment to take another job.

it can happened to anyone.

I wish I could work. I enjoyed working it was not the best paid job in the world but I felt like I was making a difference (carer). Believe me if they ever find the right medication it treatment I will be banging the door down of the job centre

You say that we all know someone who games the system. But then you also go on to say "The fact is that unless you live with someone 24/7, 365 days a year, know and understand their medical history, are privy to the information on their benefit claim and have sat in on the assessment carried out to determine their eligibility, you can’t possibly make that judgement.". So how can you make the judgement that there are people gaming the system and that we all know them? Surely based on what you said, we can't make that judgement that some folk are indeed gaming the system?

The fact is that sometimes, especially when it's a family member, you do just know that they're at it.

There is a breakdown of the percentages of claimants by individual condition available from the Benefits and Work website. It details what percentages of the total number of claimants with different conditions were successful in their claim. It’s intended for the use of professional advisers and outreach workers.

Unfortunately the internet has made this information freely available to people who have no idea how to interpret the information and who use it to weaponise their argument against the payment of these benefits. Lots of threads on disability on MN try to utilise it for purposes it was never intended for. For example someone mentioned what they thought was a trivial condition, for which 75% of claimants were successful - completely overlooking that the total number of claimants was four. And three had been successful, simply because that condition was in addition to a much more substantial one, which was the main qualification.

I think where mental health is concerned, the take away should be that it’s nigh on impossible fr someone who has anxiety and depression as a stand alone condition treated by their GP, to be awarded PIP. It’s intended for those who have serious MH conditions treated by consultant led secondary care. The only occasions where PIP is awarded for GP led anxiety/depression treatment, is if it is part of a wider condition or a combination of MH and physical disability.

It beggars belief that so many people seem to think that disability benefits are handed out like sweets on the self identification of claimants, and without the need for supporting evidence. It’s just not true, despite what the government of the day would have you believe. All you have to do is google the assessment criteria for an idea of just how difficult it is to meet the thresholds.

i think the worst thing that has happened was when playing football in my 20s I had a seizure. And I was kicked on the floor by 3 of the opposing team who say I was faking to waste time. On the plus side my team played the last 10 minutes of the match against 8 women. The league suspended the players for the rest of the season.

i have also had a handbag nicked on a bus station when I had a seizure. He told onlookers he was related to me and they let him take the bag. Lucky there was only a purse with a tenner in and a bag of clothes covered in piss. I got changed earlier that day at work after a seizure.

Going to have a sleep now.

"Lots of people Try and claim for very tenuous reasons I see it daily on the DLA Facebook im.on it doesn't mean they are successful though"

On those Facebook groups people usually get told when they won't qualify. Some people don't understand the level of need that is required.

I find it difficult when both the benefit bashing posts and the ones defending PIP for "the people who really need it" inevitably end up blaming people with mental health problems. We are not all making it up.

I have multiple and complex mental health problems, including severe ADHD, which was diagnosed decades ago. I receive PIP, but do my very best to work until I simply can't. I have an MSc, was an Oxford PhD candidate, and used to manage complex projects. I have had to become a self employed artist because I couldn't manage this level of complexity and stress in my life as my disabilities make normal living really difficult.

I stress can't - it wasn't a choice to have this life and depend on at least some benefits. I feel like a failure and like I have been robbed of my potential by my mental health complexities and neurodivergence. Without these, I know I would have been a high earner and high achiever, someone who made a difference, was remembered. I find not working, not having a strong purpose and challenging ambitions to fill extremely hard. I usually push myself too hard and then end up in burnout.

Receiving PIP is a lifeline for me when I can't work. Again, when I can't work, not don't want to. It also pays for the higher costs of my disability which many people don't appreciate for mental health conditions. It keeps me on the edge between managing some sort of working life and falling into the benefit trap where I'd be receiving UC, housing help and whatever else, so losing PIP for me would inevitably cost the government more money.

I know it's hard to understand what crippling and chronic anxiety and depression is like when you haven't experienced it. It's not a choice. I wish more than anything it was a choice. The feeling of not wanting to live despite having a 'nice life' is so horrendous, confusing and painful. Despite years and years of various treatments and fighting to get better I am still unwell. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I would trade a whole lot more than my £500 PIP to feel 'normal' and to have had the life that I could have had without my disabilities.

I didn’t say we all know someone who games the system. I said we all know that some people game the system - two different things. The expectation of fraud is built into the system. It’s the way it’s presented by successive governments who have a benefit cutting agenda that’s the problem. The incidence of fraud in disability benefits is low, but from the government rhetoric trotted out at each round of cuts you’d think half of claimants were fraudsters. And it’s that which engenders the ‘you don’t look very disabled’ attitude that sets people against each other.

And no. I don’t agree that family members are better placed than others to know if someone is cheating. I’m disabled myself and no one outside of a couple of my immediate family knows the full extent of how my disability affects me. And this is the crux of the matter. It’s not the disability that you can see that’s taken into account for disability benefits. The disability itself isn’t what’s important. How it affects you is what matters, and IME only the disabled person themselves knows the true extent.

I did forget to put that I do know of a few people who shouldn’t be getting it but believe me they are the ones who know how to play the system. And they will carry on playing the system

These are the (low life) people everyone has an issue with and there are many many of them around, people screwing the system, not contributing anything and depending on others to fund their scummy lifestyles

@Stripeysuitcase

interesting though when you say ‘PIP is a lifeline for me when I can’t work’. Surely the money is for use specifically and only on things which improve your quality of life whether you work or not. It is completely separate to any income (whatever the source) coming in.

you say ‘It also pays for the higher costs of my disability which many people don't appreciate for mental health conditions’.
isn’t that the only thing is should be spent on?

not trying to bash, just trying to clarify my understand of what PIP is.

Sorry that you're struggling so much. Nobody begrudges the money you get. It's just that sadly there are some people - albeit in a very small minority - who cheat the system and end up with money they shouldn't have. And, naturally, it's all over social media, newspapers etc who focus on what will rile people up, rather than the people who are using the system as it's supposed to be used.