Don't like Farage but..

[TheBlueKoala]

I do agree with him that foreign nationals shouldn't be able to claim benefits and to scrap PIP for mild mental health issues. And that the money saved should go into mental health care so that everyone with mild mental health problems can access NHS care rapidly.

Explain to me why a foreign national who has dedicated years working in this country and paying taxes should not be entitled to pensions or other benefits if they need them?

Foreign nationals, by and large, contribute far more than they claim from the state. Farage talks shite for clout and the worship of his gullible followers.

I get less than forty pounds a week in ADP which is the Scottish equivalent of Pip for my mental health. I hope that clarifies to the people that think it's a fortune. It also helps some people stay in work. Not everyone on Pip or adp or lcwra don't work.

My recovery has nothing to do with money. Not having to look for work for the last 18 months when I was ill has made all the difference to my life. Lcwra. Not adp.

Imagine actually thinking that someone just wants cash so they don't need to recover. I'm out. There's one poster on here who is offensive and it's not worth arguing.

I got a life award. Then at the ten year "light touch" review they took it off me. I'm now awaiting the tribunal

So, even a life award isn't for life necessarily.

I think we had the same assessor. Mine had me painting murals. A level of fantasy I can't even fathom. It was ridiculous. I'm bed bound and in constant chronic pain.

It was like fantasy island. But really upsetting as I answered her questions in good faith. Like my mum spent three months coming down to my flat making me sandwiches but according to the assessor I was up and walking a week after I got two screws and a ten inch plate in my leg. I couldn't weight bear for months. I spent months crawling round my flat on my knees to go to the loo and the only reason I could get myself upright to go to the toilet was because of a hand rail in the loo the previous tenants had. And after I went to the loo I had to get back on my hands and knees to get back to my bed - I couldn't properly weight bear for months and I was in massive pain for 6 months. I'm still in pain now two years on

I also had depression anxiety and ptsd and insomnia at that point but I was told that I was fit to work with all of that and a triple leg fracture on top. Zero points But apparently some people think getting disability benefits is easy. Like - how can you work when you are in pain 24/7 and you can't leave the house?

Try it. It's difficult, dehumanising, exhausting and stressful.

The PIP department of the DWP is full of liars with little to no medical qualifications or experience and absolutely no conscience.

They willfully ignore testimony and evidence and then write trite little sermons on your decision notice about how there's actually nothing wrong with you.
So go on. Try it. I dare you.

You keep saying this but there are disabilities both physical and mental for which there is no cure or effective therapy/management. Progressive conditions which only get worse as time goes on. How is starving these people and/or making them homeless going to help anyone?

Not to mention those people with terminal conditions.

Exactly. I'm so sorry it was like this for you. They really suck, don't they?

If people think all I care about is the cash so I can get "worse". I would give anything not to have ptsd or depression or anxiety or insomnia. And I wish I hadn't smashed my leg to pieces either.

I was treated much better by the adp assessor. The Scottish equivalent of Pip. They didn't make me feel like a scrounger or undeserving. Lcwra on the other hand was completely degrading and demeaning

I wish people would recognise that when they are shouting about how easy people on disability benefits have it

I was told twice I was fit for work when I was more or less suicidal. Then I broke my leg and I was told I was fit for work too. I actually had tried to get lcwra that time due to mental health but by the time my assessment came around I had fractured my leg and it was clear even during the assessment that the assessor didn't want to find for me

Like seriously - how can you work when you can't walk and can't leave the house. And there are people on here going on about lashes and beauty treatments

How would any of them feel being less than four weeks out of hospital having smashed their leg to pieces and have the dwp go - nothing wrong with you. Fit to work

People have no idea how stressful the process is. They've just been conditioned to think everyone on Pip does drugs and has a drink problem and goes on holiday and is living the high life.

I'm 57. I worked all my life. Until I couldn't. And actually I had just been offered a job when I shattered my leg. Even though I didn't feel well enough to work at that point due to my mental health. I wanted to.

My uncle was pulled from a river due to killing himself due to mental health and there are people on this thread sniping at my posts saying that I want pip so I can be stuck and not get better

They know nothing. I've just finished an online degree. I spent the first two years of it crying down the phone to my mum because I was suffering from so much trauma I didn't think I would ever be ok again.

I'll never have the life I had before but I'm trying and I would give every penny of disability benefits up to be the person I was ten years ago.

I don't have a life. I just exist now. That's pretty much it .

I'll never have the life I had before but I'm trying and I would give every penny of disability benefits up to be the person I was ten years ago.

I could have written this myself. But you're right, some people will never understand. Lashes forsooth!

I am just going to assume you are joking?

Seriously, no one believes that receiving a benefit for people with significant needs, who have to prove they need it, because they have significant needs, will get better if they no longer get it, do they?

I think you’re saying, taking PIP away from people with mental health issues will cure them? Am I right?
Oh thank fucking god, I so wish I’d known earlier x

So my DDs real life experience is trumped by your 2 court cases... ok.

Is there fraud, of course, it currently runs at approx 0.4% around £90m per year.

Totally wrong of course but show me any system where there is no fraud?

There are some things I agree with him on and some things I don't. Like most politicians really.

He lost my support when he said he was against people working from home. I havent listened to a word he said since then and won't be voting for him on that basis.

What if they go for the Swiss insurance system?

The Swiss government spends more per capita on health than the UK does. And has done for years. On top of that is the private insurance element.
Their total population is similar to the population of London.

Yes. So in an ideal world all the money the Govt spends on Pip could be invested in the NHS to give people with MH issues therapy to make them better instead of being encouraged to get "worse and worse" so they qualify for Pip. The Govt spends money on lots of things - it always seems to be people on benefits who are told they are undeserving - particularly disabled people, those with mental health issues.

I think there's a suggestion that people exaggerate their symptoms to get money. Well in my case the first time I applied for lcwra - I could barely function. I was suffering from trauma - I answered all the questions honestly. Zero points - off you go. Fit for work

I didn't apply solely to get money. I applied because I was unwell and I needed some breathing space to get better instead of having to apply for a 35 hour a week job that I would have struggled to hold down - which didn't happen

Also. It's been said on this thread that people get support to get forms filled in. The second time I applied I got support from welfare rights to fill the form in. I cried all the way through the appointment - having to talk about the reasons I was unwell. Didn't make a blind bit of difference. Zero points again

Unbelievable isn’t it?
The sheer level of inhumanity to anyone who might get more off the government than they do? Even if you are on your knees, if it is poor mental health, just pull yourself together. No safety net here, we don’t care how ill you are.

Yeah. Free money that they might spend on lashes or going to Benidorm or having a takeaway - because there's always someone that knows someone who gets Pip who works 50 hours a week or is in the pub every day or is out dancing when they've said they can't walk

I was on Facebook the other day and someone said that people on benefits have IPhones. Smoke. Drink. Take drugs, drink alcohol eat takeaways. Before I went on disability benefits I was running a home on 393 pounds a month. I'd like someone to show me how I could manage all that and pay my bills - it's the suggestion that that's all people on benefits are good for or aspire to. Drinking and smoking and taking drugs. Some people really see those on benefits as some kind of underclass and that's before you factor in disabilities.

Then you are told - your universal credit is "spending money" - as if people on benefits don't have bills to pay.

Doesn’t mean they will implement the US system though.
And in any case, changing the NHS is a multi-term operation. Nothing will change in one term, by which time they will be out.

You need to improve your comprehension skills.

I said that the money that is spent on PIP should be spent on therapies for people with MH problems instead of just giving them cash because giving them cash does not help them as very few ever come off PIP because they are worried they will stop receiving it.

People with MH problems need help not cash.

Would you just give cash to someone with cancer and tell them to get on with it and not give them cancer treatment?

They need both. Because while they are working to get as well as they can, they still have bills to pay. They don't magically have to stop paying for rent, food, utilities, transport etc.

In the Mental Health trust where I work, there is a service aimed at getting people with serious long term mental ill health back into work. It's highly effective. Their success rates are astonishing. But their work isn't a quick fix, and while they are working with their clients, those clients do actually still need to eat, be housed etc.

This really shouldn't be hard to understand.

Except that's not true - most people on Pip are regularly reviewed - getting Pip once doesn't mean that they'll continue to get it at review

Pip actually helps some people stay in work. Both people with mental health and physical health issues. That was made very clear to me by the assessor who awarded me.

I get 76.70 a week for adult disability payment for my mental health. Do you think people actually want to stay locked in a cycle of being unwell for less than 80 pounds a week?

It shouldn't be a case of either or either. People should be able to access mental health support and get disability benefits if they meet the criteria.

There are people with cancer who get Pip. Your focus just seems to be removing Pip from people who have mental health issues. What's your view on people who get Pip for physical issues?

Have to disagree. Improving the nhs is a multi term commitment. Selling it off to your mates can easily be done in a single term.

The damage that arsehole can do in 4 years is immense. And there will be no coming back from it.

Also (to add to my earlier post) reform party politicians have seriously suggested (and not been sacked for)

a negative child benefit tax.

Yep - that is what you think it is. A tax on women who dont have children. Suggested with an entirely serious sentiment.

They also want to end the no-fault divorce.

What the fucking fresh hell handmaid's tale is that.

They have lost the plot.

Exactly. Local elections. So for England at least nothing much is going to change, although if Reform UK Ltd take control of any more councils we can sit back and watch the disaster unfold I guess.