PIP Fraud- now even the DWP staff themselves are it!

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Clifford Redman, 57, claimed he had severe mobility issues and needed daily help - but he was caught out after being filmed going to the gym and on long walks https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2105390/dwp-fraudster-claimed-19k-caught-gym

Tip of the iceberg, serious reform needed.

True, but if the system were geared to give disabled people what they actually needed, it would still pay out more. People on this thread would spontaneously combust.

From experience Motability are very conservative when it comes to adaptations. Certainly once you get into the realm of WAVs.

Last time I got involved their response was to come off the scheme and arrange a private purchase from a dealer.

When I visited the dealer, the very first question was not "What are your needs ?", but "What finance deal are you looking for ?". To be fair it's rare that you learn all you need to know about a complex subject with a single sentence.

Anyway, back to benefits bashing. Surely we are overdue a story about someones' friend mate cousin aunt third stepbrother 5 times removed or even just "I know" who has a Rolls Royce for each day of the week which they use to visit their third home just to to the cisterns up with caviar.

It may well pay out more. But if those that benefit can actually get to work and do a job, it would certainly reduce the "cost".

Shitting on the disabled is financially illiterate. Probably why it appeals to people who look at the Mail and Telegraph where words aren't really needed.

I agree with you so hard. But this thread (bar a few people) shows that it wouldn't fly. People enjoy hating the disabled too much. Me, I prefer archery as a hobby but who am I to judge?

I'm sure there are folk here who could easily combine archery and hating the disabled. Made only more stomach turning by knowing that while some would do it for free, others would actually pay for it.

(Checks we are still in AIBU).

What would you do though? Vouchers have been suggested in the past. But that would cost far more and I'd rather choose what aids suit me rather than being told what aid should suit me . And I'm not sure my electricity company would accept vouchers

There are so many hidden costs of disabilities, including the often debilitating side effects of treatments. Many treatments suppress the immune system and cause hair loss / brittle nails / muscle pain / a plethora of unpleasant physical symptoms which the NHS does not provide help with. Therefore PIP is spent on things like supplements, orthopaedic pillows, sports massages etc which can cost a small fortune but really improve someone’s quality of life. There are some ignorant comments on this thread about the audacity of disabled people getting their hair and nails done; often medications and illnesses can cause hair loss and skin changes which leads to psychological distress. How bitter do you have to be to moan about a chronically ill or disabled person getting a hair cut.

Discrimination and ableism in the workplace is a very real thing. Those who are chronically ill / disabled are often unable to work full time, and may be less able to take on the additional work required to get a promotion, that they would have been able to get if they hadn’t have got sick. Often work places have crappy sick pay policies, and there’s the additional financial stress on top of being chronically ill. A person who is relatively ‘high functioning ‘ and able to work with adjustments still incurs costs as a direct result of their health, which is why PIP/ADP is not means tested.

I don’t claim. I also got ill and have been unable to work since (over three years now). Doctors recording stuff as fact?!! I’m a high healthcare user now. I am far from alone in doctors stating your opinion as fact. The boards on here are full of people asking for help as so many doctors don’t help. I sometimes wonder who health professionals have seen when I look at my notes.

Why are you so hell bent on insisting that disabled people shouldn't be allowed to be human, and that we ought to be arse out of trousers poor?

you do realise that our PIP goes into the same bank account as our UC or our Wages? In my pot is my Child Benefit, my UC, my Carers Allowance, and my PIP. If out of that entire monthly income i choose to spend some of it on getting my hair/nails done, and say it's out of my PIP.. why is that different than if i said i budgeted for it from my Carers Allowance?

You're just making yourself sound heartless, and like you want sick/injured people to be living on the bones of our arses, begging for handouts for having the audacity to be disabled.

Those who are chronically ill / disabled are often unable to work full time, and may be less able to take on the additional work required to get a promotion, that they would have been able to get if they hadn’t have got sick.

And the same for any carers.

For all the bollocks posted by people who "know" etc etc, there will be at least two couples where one has sacrificed all the "get a better paid job" energy that they will be told they should have had in order to care for the other.

Meaning, in a "when threads collide" moment, they were unable to stuff their pension pot to overflowing for when they retire and thus become the poorer pensioners that will be the next to suffer when the benefits nemesis scours the land.

It's absolutely true. Reporting them would have been pointless as it would have been my word against theirs.

If it's true, there will be proof.

They don't i used to be a mental health nurse, it's a bit insulting that people might think other Health professionals just take a GP and patients word for it and not do their own assessment.

You have "no time", are too busy for hair appointments etc but are able to lounge around chatting away on mumsnet. I think there are probably plenty of those 'lucky' full time working, single mothers carrying out normal parenting duties as you described them that don't have a spare second for mumsnet..

Sorry, I meant I’m far from alone in not experiencing doctors taking your opinion as fact.

Do those mothers have spinal degeneration, severe arthritis and require painkillers and wheelchairs to move around?

Also, not 'lounging around' i'm resting/recuperating around the 4 college runs i've had to do today with two disabled kids, who i had to get dressed, make lunches for, and get out the door.. while also being productive, making phone-calls, writing/sending emails, while being in enough pain that most people would be in A&E begging for pain relief, and running on 3 hours of very broken sleep.

But don't let that stop you from sticking the boot in.

Any of those mothers are welcome to swap with me.. i'd quite like to be up/about, not in pain, not needing to haul my wheelchair in and out my car, wheel myself around, ignoring the pain in my hands, and my spine, and my hips and ankles, while not being drugged on some very powerful medications that affect my mental acuity, but stop my nerves in my legs from burning.

OMFG.

OMFG. Seriously?

I couldn't give a shit tbh. When someone speaks to me the way she spoke to me - "fucking dumb" then I will respond in kind. Should she learn to speak to people respectfully then she'll be treated with the same level of respect 🤷‍♀️

nice isn't it.

And? I'm also in a wheelchair when my condition deteriorates, it certainly doesn't mean that I'm banging on about how others don't have it hard in their own ways and calling random people online "fucking dumb" just because they've seen both sides of the coin and have a different opinion.

i wasn't calling you 'fucking dumb' actually, it was a general comment to people who don't understand the difference. If you do, then it doesn't apply to you, does it?

Early on in the pandemic, I can remember feeling disgusted by some of the ‘othering’ of people with disabilities or who were vulnerable. I was fit and healthy - I didn’t have to worry about a DNR or shielding or being blamed for policy I had no input into or the state of the NHS. The ‘othering’ is on fucking steroids now.

I was very lucky when we got ds adapted motability car.

I was clueless 😂😂

The company who fitted the adaptions guided me to what people get and they suggested the steering ball. I hadn’t even considered how he’d turn the steering wheel Chen his right hand was driving the car with a push pull lever.

Also the same when they said about the indicator on the push pull lever.

'At least I'm not fucking dumb enough'....if you can't see that by saying that, you're basically implying that the person that you're directly quoting and replying to is "fucking dumb" then I guess you are. Please mind your mouth in future and don't go around talking to people like that, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't in real life.