To feel the Disenfranchised have been Scapegoated.

[Gilead]

Just fed up with a society that has become so incredibly selfish. The vilification of disabled people and the drubbing of benefit claimants whilst managing to forget that most of the people on universal credit are working families. Forgetting that most pensioners have worked and saved all their lives, some still paying tax. And let’s not forget those lazy bastards who are putting on an act in order to get a ‘free’ car.
I predicted this was the way we were headed on mumsnet in 2010. Got called all sorts of names, but, at that point in time people were a lot more understanding of the issues encountered by the disenfranchised.
If you want to come on here and tell me you don’t want to pay extra for someone else to have kids you can’t afford, research it first, look at the (myriad) reasons for this, the figures, the number of women who had extra children during the period. Then think how it would be if you suddenly became disabled, or more severely disabled.
Im off with my carer in a bit. In my Citroen C3 that actually cost me a wee bit more because I had to pay for the wheelchair hoist as well as the (approx) 350 quid every four weeks to cover the lease, and the insurance.

Quite.
She's been offered a promotion and turned it down. She's been offered full time hours and turned them down

I agree with you OP, it was ever thus. Its all a big distraction though, blame the migrants, blame the poor, blame the sick and disabled, blame the old or the young. They want people pointing the finger anywhere but at the real culprits and a surprising amount of people fall for it hook, line and sinker.

So why is the welfare bill so high in your view if it’s not immigrants or people swinging the lead?

That doesn't count all the schemes and things you don't have to pay for though. Council tax, prescriptions, winter hardship fund, dental, housing element, after school and holiday clubs, holiday food vouchers. That's thousands in savings. There's even a savings account called right to save that doubles your payment.

Ahhh

Fucking Reach Media

They own all of the "local" papers and I keep seeing out the same bullshit rage CLICKBAIT anti benefits rhetoric.

You'll notice they all post the exact same shit that usually isn't in anyway actual "news" and just is regurgitation of bullshit meant to divide everyone and drum up social media engagement from people frothing at the mouth at people getting so called "pip perks" 🤦🏼‍♀️

Then they are committing benefit fraud as its not possible to earn £2000 per month and get £1500 per month in UC if you don't believe me put those wages into the benefit calculator plus 2 dc and the award will be 0 not £1500 per month
Edited to add that the £2000 per month wages would be after tax so their actual before tax income would be more

I put their wages into entitled to and it said they would get £1500 per month. They have 3 DC .

We do live in an area with expensive housing though (albeit hers is a lot cheaper than mine)

They will only get benefits for 2 dc right now so your sums are wrong and remember to put the before tax earnings in

Quote from another thread for those who don't want to believe how much people can get

*This is lifted from the Guardian today looking at whether hypothetically people stand to lose or gain in today’s budget: ‘The Smith family have three children and live in a rented flat in the Midlands. Jack works 35 hours a week in a distribution centre and is paid the NLW. His partner Mia isn’t working. After tax and NI his take-home pay is £1,627 a month. This is topped up with a monthly universal credit and child benefit payment totalling £1,457.
Under the two-child cap parents could only claim universal credit or tax credits for their first two children. The decision to abolish this rule , and the uprating of benefits, mean the family should be able to claim £304 a month for their third child. They will also benefit from the 2026 uplift in the NLW.’ I read this to mean that this hypothetical family are now going to get more in UC than if the mum were working full time at the minimum wage. How on earth is that incentivising work? Their combined income with his salary and their new monthly UC amount will be £3381 (including the uplift for their 3rd child) It would take one salary of £52k to get that after tax. *

No because all 3 children are pre benefit cap age

And it's the net salary we each get that is relevant as that is what we actually get to live off

This is the issue in a nutshell isn’t it? These conditions are too easy to fake

Who are the ‘culprits’ then? Me? I earn a lot, I also get up at 6am every morning, work 7.30am-7.30pm in the office 5 days a week, whilst my kids get themselves up and to/from school. £70k of my annual salary goes to HMRC, I don’t use state schools and now pay £10k pa VAT on school fees. I have no personal tax allowance, no personal savings allowance, HMRC are going to be taking 47% tax on the interest I earn on my savings - money I have left over after I’ve paid 62% tax on part of my salary. Am I really the problem here? Am I the drain on society?

Exactly this but most who comment on them don’t even bother reading the article anyway just the headlines.

I'm disabled and I work and don't get any benefits. So please don't use disabled as shorthand for claiming benefits

Is it high? We spend less on welfare as a proportion of GDP than many other European countries, we spend less than most others relative to wages making our system one of the least generous in Europe and overall social protection spending is low. We do spend quite a lot on housing benefits which is hardly surprising and who do you think is the ultimate beneficiary of that public spending?

You are being too kind. The woman you are talking about claimed she deserves the PIP because the process of filling out the form to claim it is traumatic.

To use such strong language to describe typing in your name and address into an online form just goes to show how much people are taking the piss. And it’s taking money away from people who genuinely need it.

I would love for more money to go to improve the lives of the disabled. I know people who have professional roles despite having hugely limiting physical disabilities due to conditions they were born with.

Instead - as seen on QT - this money is being siphoned off to sedentary twenty-something women with facial piercings and badly dyed hair who “really want to work”.

Which is ironic, because I really particularly want to work at all, but still manage to work full time in a stressful, underpaid role.

I'm quite reasonable to point out that the disabled people who do rely on benefits are used as in the national press and by some in government as a way to misdirect peoples frustrations. I never said every disabled person claims benefits and it isn't some kind of covert insult. I know a consultant doctor who claims PIP because he is a wheelchair user as he is entitled to. Whether you chose to claim is neither here nor there the point stands.

@SpoonBaloon Pip forms are not available on line. And they are bloody traumatic to fill in.

@Hoardasurass you have no idea what it took for that woman to speak out on Question Time. Your assumptions are just as bad as staff telling me in hospital that I don’t seem autistic.
I can barely have a conversation with people outside my circle, but if I need to I can talk to pharmacies and hospitals about diagnosing and prescribing for autistic people.

I used to work with a blind, Paralympian gold medalist. He did an absolutely outstanding job, was incredibly talented and was quite rightly, very well paid for it. He’ll be furious about handing over more of his income to a welfare society.

No they are not traumatic to fill in, lengthy, confusing, frustrating all words that could be used but not traumatic. Your last sentence is interesting as you state you can barely do something, which suggests that you are basically incapable of doing it. However you then go on to say you can in fact do that exact thing if you need to. I think people are fed up of people saying they are unable to do something when the actual situation is that they can do it albeit they find it very difficult. There appears to be a sector of society who now believe that they and their children should never have to experience any level of discomfort or challenge, and it is the responsibility of the government and rest of society to ensure they don't.

@kornwall quite. DH has absolutely crippling social anxiety. I remember him breaking down in the car once and calling me at home, to ask me to call the AA on his behalf to collect him as he just couldn’t bear to call them himself. He couldn’t call a pizza delivery firm, much less answer the door to them.

Having been made redundant, being out of work for 2 years and it getting to the point where we were going to struggle to pay the mortgage, he realised he needed to get any job he could. He got one in a pub, aged 54. Just about the worst job he could imagine when he couldn’t look at people in the eye, let alone speak to them. But needs must. So that’s what he did. Unsurprisingly, he’s much better at talking to people now. And since managed to get back into his career job. He didn’t much enjoy the first few months, but wasn’t ’traumatised’ by it. And didn’t get any benefits.

This is your misunderstanding PIP does not have a requirement to be spent on a specific thing…it is for the additional costs of disability…your error

Do you use the roads, healthcare or just float separate in every way from society ? 🤦‍♀️

Are you a bit simple? It is clear the pp pays a high level of tax, why should she not use services.

I don’t agree with scapegoating disabled people but Scraping the two child limit is a joke. I’m not perfect got pregnant at 15 fave birth at 16 but 4+ kids and expecting other peoples taxes to pay is surely taking the piss? I think two kids was a reasonable cap at a push they could have raised it to 3. Shit happens but how did you not learn your lesson the third time
I mean seriously? Raising taxes for THIS?? I doubt many people will vote labour again