AIBU to question no hosepipe ban exemption for people on benefits?

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No hosepipe ban for people on benefits .

I don't understand how being disabled or being on benefits means you need to use a hosepipe more? We don't even have a hosepipe I don't think. If we do, I've never used it. Is it because some people can't carry a watering can for the garden?

I do wonder whether the people fuming about their right to use a hosepipe despite the ban (put in place to try to conserve water for everyone when the reservoirs are low) are the same people who romanticise the Second World War and the way the country pulled together for the greater good...

Just to check you think it’s bad for anyone to use a hosepipe when there’s no ban?

Yes, it's more to do with the possibility of not being able to use alternatives, like watering cans (which you obviously can and should do if on benefits, but people on benefits aren't really the target of this exemption, it's just that some of them are caught by it because it avoids complex messaging that could lead to confusion about who is and isn't exempt).

I may be wrong, but I thought it was for those who would struggle with buckets/a watering can for the garden? As most non disabled people would manage to carry out buckets of water from the kitchen to fill a paddling pool, for example?

So I get that people who are disabled are in a tariff because they may need to do more washings etc. Totally understand.

But why are they entitled to use their hose pipe and we are not?? What does watering your gardens or having filled pools got to do with having a disability?

Surely the hose pipe ban should be universal and the people on the tariff can still benefit from lower rates (or whatever it does)

The theory is why can’t a child with a disabled parent have a pool or why can’t a disabled person have flowers / crops.

Just because that person cannot carry a watering can or bucket. Obviously some disabled people would still be able to depending on disability.

I think if you can use more environmentally friendly alternatives, like a watering can and water butt, you should. I think in general we should be following the Monty Don approach of changing the way we garden to account for and mitigate climate change, rather than blithely continuing to use unnecessarily large quantities of water with no regard to the environmental impact. Most of the time a hosepipe isn't necessary for watering, and is a very wasteful means of doing so.

That said, if there is no hosepipe ban in place and someone wants to fill up a (reasonably sized) paddling pool for their kids on a hot day then fine, go ahead. There's a balance to be struck between trying to be a good, environmentally conscious citizen and still living your life.

I don't have kids so DH & I will no doubt use a fraction of water than those that do.

I see the likes of The Daily Mail has succeeded in getting people to froth about benefits again.

It is aimed at people who would struggle with a watering can, such as people with Blue Badges and/or people on PIP who have disabilities that would make using a watering can difficult, rather than all people on benefits.

That makes sense and I understand that no-one wants their entire garden to turn to the Sahara after every heat wave. Regarding pools though, isn't the whole point of the ban to save water, so people shouldn't be using them right now? There are plenty of ways to cool down without a paddling pool and I'd argue that paddling pools aren't essential for anyone.

If you're regularly filling a pool large enough to take 3 hours of the hosepipe being on, I think having a kid is neither here nor there.

The reason that the middle classes are paying more tax is because billionaires are not paying any. They are a black hole sucking money out of the economy.

Therefore either the middle classes pay more tax or the welfare state is demolished (I'm quoting Gary Stevenson). Both of which are happening but the middle classes don't realise this because they're being told that more and more money is being paid to benefits recipients. And they've never tried to claim PIP so they think it's easy, when actually it's far more difficult now than it has ever been.

I'm wasting my breath. People just ignore it because there's nothing anyone can do.

Write to your water company and ask why they’ve enacted that policy

Why not just say, those who cannot carry a bucket may use a hose to water their plants ?

It’s ridiculous to extend the exemption to the non-disabled on a social tariff and imply it’s fine for them to wash cars/fill pools with a hose.

But you could take statements and twist them to create a situation, just as you have done here.

What's interesting on here is that I'd bet a fair amount of money the average IQ of the membership is significantly above the mean IQ for the country. Despite that, people are so ruled by their biases that they will not apply their usual standards of assessment to things they want to believe that align with their prejudices.

Like what? Seriously? I haven't found a better way for kids or dogs, frankly. Hosing Hinself down when he was hot and grumpy even put him in a better mood!

It achieves what is has always achieved. It gets ordinary people blaming each other instead of banding together.

Divide and rule.

Maybe this story was seeded by one of the water companies, so that Non- Benefits Brits would froth against Benefits Brits about who is more or less entitled to use a hosepipe and that will be the massive argument, rather than what the fuck have the water companies been doing that this has happened in the first place!

Well it's in the interests of water companies for us to use water isn't it, so I can't see why they'd cause a hosepipe ban on purpose. Water companies are willing to evacuate and flood Welsh villages just to obtain and sell more water. I'm sure if they could control the weather, we wouldn't have water shortages.

I am surprised no one has asked how anyone on benefits could afford to live somewhere that has a garden, or who can afford plants in it.

The pool and plants come free with the big tv and goat 🐐

Along with the free house with big garden.

Your title says no hosepipe ban exemption for people on benefits, but your post says there is an exemption.

@ImImmortalNowBabyDoll no, it is in the interests of the water companies to reward their shareholders. We all have to use water, so that's neither here nor there!