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.

Very possibly. But hey, it's not just terrorists who have to semi undress at the airport and lose any bottles of liquid more than 100ml. Often it's the shitty criminals who ruin it for decent folks.

Yes I hate seeing this line all the time - the genuine wont be affected. It is like people are saying that anyone not scoring 4 in the daily living part of PIP is a piss taker.
Most of the people I know on PIP are going to be hugely affected by the changes, and all of them are genuine claimants. They are all terrified.

Solidarity ❤️ MS is a bastard.

I don't understand how some people get a ten year award and others much shorter. I only got 4 years. Exactly the same condition, currently on highest rates, except now I will have to go through the process again in 2027. It's making me wonder should I appeal it and ask for a longer award but I'm terrified they will just take it away.

No, but there is thread after thread of disability bashing - posters complaining the country can’t afford benefits for the disabled, the criteria need to be tighter up, umpteen posters talking about how that relatives scam the system, etc, etc! It’s just bullying and ableism, when far more money is lost to the economy by tax evasion - posters must know of acquaintances, friends and family, who evade taxes, by working for cash, but they don’t set up threads on that, iirc?

On a good day no one would look at me and see 'seriously disabled'. I'd be sitting in a cafe chatting with a friend. Hair and makeup done etc.

They'd have to be an MRI Machine to see my disability and the literal brain damage it has given me. And on the bad days no one sees me at all. I'm at home in bed using a rollator to get to the toilet, unable to wash, my family bringing me food up in bed.

Interesting. Not doubting you at all, but they sent someone from DWP via video link when I appealed my DD’s DLA. The DWP has the chance to speak and question me, but had nothing to say whatsoever. I’m not sure why he was there at all.

I was on DLA ( before PIP came in) for 11 years until l got my payout ( couple of million). But I'd give my money up .. to not have been thrown under a moving bus by an ex.
Left in a coma for 9 months.
Not be double incontinent.
To have an whole pelvis.
To have a vagina and clitoris again. To not be in constant pain.. relying on more medication than a pharmacy ( joke.. l do take loads).
To not be in a wheelchair 90% of the time...relying on my wonderful carer / cleaner to help me shower etc... she has become an amazing friend to me..
30 plus years later I'm still in therapy.
Luckily l can pay private rather than rely on the NHS.. for anything... l could list loads more mentally and physically symtoms l have..
I have a wonderful loving close family and friends..
I'm blessed in some ways.

The problem is that people think they have the right to decide who is and isn’t ‘truly’ disabled.

Yes I know i.have repeatedly said it goes on care needs not diagnosis.

No. They impact different areas of life. Bipolar is a mood disorder characterized by periods of mania or hypomania alternating with depressive episodes. The mood swings can last for weeks or months. BPD is a personality disorder where mood changes are more intense, shorter-lived, and triggered by stress. They are also often accompanied by fear of abandonment.

Especially on MN

Nitpicking. The poster is clearly talking about child DLA. PIPonly kicks i at age 16.

I wasn’t nitpicking I was suggesting at a very basic level that might have been the reason people said their children would not get it.

The poster has already replied to this comment and I have thanked them, so no need to pick it up

We’re talking primarily about PIP, which is not an out of work benefit and does not assess the ability to work.

Nope. UC tops up shit wages so the tax payer is footing wages the bill for rich companies so they can pay huge bonuses to their shareholders and executives instead of paying the actual workers a wage they can live on. Same with landlords. So many people working and yet still qualifying for housing benefits to pay rent. Why do you think disabled people should have their benefits reduced if they genuinely can’t work ? Perhaps you’re angry at the wrong people.

So why not scrap UC wage top ups and legislate for a living wage to be paid by employers, so that the tax payer isn’t footing the wages bills of companies who can well afford to pay better wages if their execs stopped awarding themselves huge bonuses ? Then legislate for landlords to charge reasonable rents instead of again relying on the tax payer to foot the bill via UC.

The disabled are the low hanging fruit at the forefront of every round of welfare reform and l suspect that if it were child benefit or nursery fees in the firing line, the conversation here would be very different.

I can't work. My benefits would need to go up to fall in line with what working people get. I would feel rich!

Not everyone is employed by big companies. Some people on NMW that get top ups are employed by small businesses that do not have huge profits or CEOs on millions.

I def agree about the landlords point. A lot of the UC bill is housing.

There is no restriction on what PIP is spent on. Disability related costs cover a wide range of things and PIP is there to help disabled people take part in society as fully as possible. There is nothing wrong with putting some of it aside towards a holiday. Unless of course you don’t think disabled people should have holidays.

There are ways around that. I don't mind my taxes propping up small and medium businesses. I do resent them propping up the likes of Tesco, who made a profit of over 3 billion pounds in the UK alone last year. It's wrong.

Businesses earning above a certain amount in profit should have to pay either a dividend to the government to cover the wage top-ups their workers need or a higher wage to their workers.

That we are taking from the sick and disabled while shelling out to pay billionaires' wage bills is disgusting.

This. The two go hand in hand hand but government always puts the cart before the horse because it’s easier to cut benefits than engage employers to take on more disabled people.

Sorry to quote you again!

I saw that post earlier and thought it was too far back to quote.
The last point really pissed me off.

If I really cut back, get just reduced food, not go out at all. I can save a bit. I can put that towards a holiday (and I am at the moment). But that person thinks I should give it back to be redistributed? Fuck that! If I was not going to use it for a holiday, then it would sit in my bank account. I thought it was wise to have some money saved anyway. It could be for a holiday, or to buy a new fridge when mine breaks.
People on UC can have £6k before anything changes anyway. The way some people on here speak, £25 over means you are getting "too much".

Yes, poor wages are the reason but taxes are also too high! The cost of living is through the roof! Imagine work long hours and having nothing to show for it other than declining mental and physical health! I would definitely fund any family who could not work due to disability. I am asian and we take care of our family. It is intrinsic to our culture.

I think your post shows how little you understand the economy. If you force employers to pay staff a higher wage then this will drive inflation in a way that UC doesn't (the business will try to recoup the money spent by charging the consumer more), make us less competitive when it comes to global exports and ultimately lead to higher levels of unemployment. I know you will find this hard to believe but lots of businesses are already struggling to survive and increasing wages could well be the (not so little) straw that breaks the back.

In short there are a number of major problems behind your idea of increased wages. I'm not even getting into your other terrible idea of basically introducing rent caps but it's fair to see it's deeply flawed as a premise.

We have to start to pay our way as a country. We have an unhealthy and unaffordable welfare state that people have become far too reliant on. Our national debt is crippling us and we simply need to pay it down. Disability benefits are a massive problem and need to be tackled. Levels are too high and rising too quickly to be ignored.

You do realise that many pension funds are invested in these successful companies don't you? These businesses being successful and being able to deliver a profit is literally what millions of people rely on to be able to retire. Don't get it twisted, it isn't just rich investors benefitting from profitable businesses. Most of us do.

We need economic growth to have the best chance of avoiding very deep cuts or painfully high taxes for the individual. Taxing successful businesses into oblivion and making the UK a hostile place to do business in is not the way to go. I know it feels like an easy answer but it just doesn't work in reality. We need mature and sensible discussions, not pie in the sky ideology.