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.

You seem to find all my posts funny

Think a previous poster has just helped you out with that. Otherwise you could be proactive (as you are so much on here) and do your own research.

What kind of qualifications do you have out of interest? I doubt these jobs would be open to me because I have to work at night and can't do phone calls due to speech disorders and I'm also just too slow at anything to be competitive and have to work double hours to get the same amount of work done as a normal person but I'd still be interested to know.

Yes rather, you expend a lot of energy with your side remarks, so how about doing something useful, instead of wasting your time putting down disabled people. So I await your useful contribution, in the form of a list of jobs. You seem so keen that all disabled people are able to work, after all.

I am absolutely doing something useful? I’m at work on my coffee break. Got to go now but you keep posting…catch up later.

Right! How nice for you, I'm sure. Moving on...

Much as I sympathise there are so many people who have many more health problems than your partner and you who continue to work and fund their own lives. I think it all boils down to how much you value your standard of living and whether you have cautiously planned for health problems in the future.

My DH no longer works because he had a stroke that left him with cognitive damage and longterm extreme fatigue. I had breast cancer and I work very part time, the meds I take cause side effects similar to fibromyalgia. We don’t qualify for benefits because we lived within our income and had savings and pensions we were able to fall back on. Paying all that tax and NI gave us no support when we needed it.

I don’t begrudge people the benefits they need to live but I do think that they need to realise the true value of the money they are paid. Maybe the government should structure the awards to include PAYE and NI to reflect the real value. They may not be quite so quick to moan about their monthly net income.

My highest qualification is a PhD so I get that it's a bit niche! Covid was the worst time for me as everyone was wearing masks so I couldn't lip read. There are so many more adaptive technologies that are just part of every day life that never used to exist - if I'm on a Teams meeting, I will turn on captions, for example, even though I stream audio to my hearing aids using bluetooth. The biggest ask I generally make is not to have meetings/catchups in cafes at work -they are difficult environments for me.

How come you can only work at night (you don't need to answer, just curious).

Imagine being a grown adult and thinking that writing a couple of comments on Mumsnet is the same as working full time.

Then volunteer, go the extra mile, top up your qualifications, practice interview skills.

People that want to work mostly do (some really cant)

Interestingly through my family, friends and professional experience I know several wheelchair users, someone with hemiplegic cerebral palsy, two significantly visually impaired, someone with MS all work. The two visually impaired people became so in their mid adulthood and had to have a lot of adaptation.

My friends daughter has an acquired brain injury with physical and learning disability
Desperate to work. She works part time in a family fun cafe in oyr village and is doing college courses to develop life skills.

What I see through my job is its almost always the people with all mental fatigue/ fibromyalgia/ anxiety that don't work.

My friend with the daughters with an ABI worked full time throughout her adult life, however I see other people that claim carers allowance and "can't work" as they have a "disabled child" who is actually a mainstream child with ADHD / mild ASD.

Those not motivated to work will find a thousand reasons why the "cant". The thing that makes me so furious is this takes money out of the pot for those that want to work or used yo work but really can't now and truly deserve to be well supported by the state.

If someone claims mid or high rate care for their child, they hardly have a "mild disability"

These types of extreme responses don't really help. Suggesting that disabled people will need to work a 16-23 hour day and earn a pittance isn't going to be the reality for lots of people. I'm not saying they will earn a fortune but it is totally possible to earn at least minimum wage freelancing and working virtually. Most disabilities don't cause people to work at half speed but this would obviously have a catastrophic impact on what you are paid.

Copywriting and writing in general is an oversaturated market at the moment and AI won't help this but there are other areas that people can look into. At the very least it will help build skills and add much needed experience.

Also - more CVs than not are gappy these days. Loads of people are taking breaks for all kinds of reasons. We generally ask a question as to why the gaps arose, we get an answer that satisfies us, and we move on.

When did anyone suggest this? But imagine being a grown up and thinking that because someone is limited in some way that they can't do anything and must be unable to work at all.

The anger and sarcasm expressed at anyone that suggests that some people could be trying harder to find some kind of work is ironic when in the same thread we are repeatedly told that low earners who aren't able to earn as much as disabled people are getting in benefits should simply try harder and get another job.

I can't work at all. The implication that I could, because I can manage a couple of posts on here now and again, is frankly ridiculous.

I don't need to "upskill". I have a Doctorate. I can't work because of my many disabilities, as confirmed by the DWP.

It's not the same AT ALL.

You are not all disabled people. There are lots of people that post prolifically on MN on a daily basis and claim to be unable to work. This seems far fetched when these skills would make them employable and they clearly are able to sustain the effort for a reasonable number of hours. Does this mean they can work FT in a demanding physical job? No. Does it mean they can do something economically productive? Almost certainly.

And there are posters who post a lot on here, who make no mention of whether they work, or not, or how they are supported. A lot of assumptions are constantly being made, imo.

Undoubtedly, but some posters will give you their back story quite readily so there really isn't any need to make any assumptions.

@Mashbutterfly

Do you have lived experience of supporting someone who you consider has "mild autism"

No such condition btw.

My dd would be in your assessment

She can't work full time due to sensory overload. She just about manages very part time

Dropped out of sixth form so her highest exam is gcse but she is extremely intelligent and feels she has failed compared to peers

She Has anxiety and self loathing as she feels she is rubbish at life.

I hope as she matures she will realise she can work from home or find a job that will suit her.

If you met her she would mask so well you would over know any of her struggles. She masks at work and in social settings. This is exhausting.

It's attitude like yours that damage opinion of autistic struggles

Again, making comments on an Internet forum is not the same as doing a job. Answering to someone, schedules, deadlines, having to attend meetings, concentrate, write coherently, stick to commitments, put a certain amount of hours in, etc.

Using myself as an example, but I can lie on my side in bed and type a comment on Mumsnet on my phone. Takes a few seconds. I can't sit up and use a laptop. I can't present myself in such a way that I could visibly attend a meeting. I can't do a certain task by 4pm today, because I'm likely to lose consciousness, need to recover, take meds that render me completely useless, and need physical rest.

No, I'm not every disabled person, and I haven't claimed to be. However, to suggest that disabled people posting on Mumsnet could work, is a ridiculous statement. No matter how much you protest, it absolutely isn't the same, and you know that. You just want to continue the rhetoric that disabled people are lazy scroungers.

And unfortunately some posters will not hesitate to try to use their honesty against them, even if it means digging around old posts!

No, I don't think all disabled people are lazy scroungers. I think there are lazy scroungers in all parts of the population. It's a normal part of the human condition and there will always be those that will take advantage of any system to suit themselves and do as little as possible. I also think there are quite a few people in this category that lean into their difficulties to make sure they are categorised as disabled and then they receive the same enhanced benefits as those that genuinely cannot work. I actually know a few in real life so will never ever be convinced that it's not reasonably widespread. Note though that I certainly think there are genuinely disabled people that should be supported by benefits. I just know that no group is homogenous and there are chancers in all areas of society. The tax evading rich, the cash in hand tradespeople etc.

I also think you have a very narrow view of what work is. I have my own business and don't need to dial into meetings at specific times etc. Work needs to be done but generally there isn't such a tight deadline and there is lots of flexibility. I know people that get commissions on Fivr, resell on Vinted/eBay and work in user generated content. This is work that can largely be done from home and can be managed to avoid super tight turnarounds. Same goes for creating templates on Canva, being a social media manager for a business or selling through Amazon or Etsy. My point is the world of work extends beyond being employed by someone and all that this entails.

Just to be crystal clear, i'm not suggesting you can do any of the above but I do think there are opportunities that people don't generally explore because they want to be employed. If being employed isn't really a realistic prospect though then trying something else beats being unemployed for the rest of your life. I'm not sure though that everyone on here shares this mindset though when benefits are relatively generous and doesn't really pay to work.

Well isn’t that a completely different issue?

It depends really, seeing as some disabled people may have missed out on an significant amount of education, due to factors relating to that disability, and may have been hindered in getting qualifications, working experience, which will have a knock on effect, on the type of jobs that may be open to them.