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

[Crosorbled]

No hosepipe ban for people on benefits .

I'm going to hazard a guess that people on benefits rarely have highly demanding gardens.

Perhaps there are a few people out there who have put a lot of money and effort into creating a really nice garden and, because they are poor, wouldn't be able to afford to replace the plants if they died in the drought. But I cannot imagine they are very numerous.

I actually would include people who are disabled or can't work in this instance. Why should someone not being able to work mean that the hosepipe ban doesn't apply to them? I understand a few cases of disability where you can't carry a watering can etc (although, I could still argue, does their need to water their garden trump the need for everyone to maintain a sufficient water supply?) but for the most part everyone should be included in this ban. It feels like working people are being trolled at this stage, almost like the government are trying to cause a divide.

But most people are on a water meter so the more water we use the more they (and their shareholders) make. They can't control if/when there isn't enough water to go around.

The plants here are fine with the water they get. There’s a few threads with posters admonishing others but for using a hose when there’s no ban.. not great.

Plus we’re all online, that uses water. And as much as mn or SM is what people like to do it’s far less use than watering plants.

No one is banned from watering their garden. It is just the method in which you do it.
Also, you can still use your hosepipe if you are watering food crops, and you can still use a sprinkler system if you have recently had new turf installed.

Oh, and there are working people who would be exempt from the ban because they are also disabled.

Scary, isn't it?

Read a claim on the Internet.

Immediately believe it, don't check it in any way

Get angry about it

Add it to your list of reasons you hate X group

(The list likely being the result of reading other claims made on the Internet and just believing them without checking them at all)

It’s one specific water company that’s used their low income/priority water tariff as a proxy for um who gets exempted from the ban. Other companies have different criteria - read the full news article

I chose an indoor pool.

The reports actually said no one grudged it to those with disabilities, but that it wasn't fair someone on benefits who had 3 or more kids (and no one in the family with disabilities) should be allowed to fill a paddling pool while those who wer working and not on benefits couldn't.

They can still fill a paddling pool, just not with a hosepipe.

Yes.

I doubt those shouting the loudest about disabilities and how it’s not about benefits have actually gone to the trouble of a simple google.

Slightly off topic,but a hose pipe ban ,when there has been a water leak on our road for 4 months,and it's not small,1000s of gallons a day Severn trent water have done fall about it, 100s of villagers have reported it. So until it's fixed no one in our village will stop using a hosepipe

My dad gets an exemption because of his COPD. He couldn’t walk that much carrying a watering can but can cope with a hosepipe.

When I saw a headline about this in the Telegraph I just rolled my eyes and thought 'How dare those benefit claimants get to water the large, luxuriant gardens I'm sure they all have when other people don't?!' 😅

As pp said. Get people up in arms about benefit claimants instead of the real issue, which is the utter incompetence of the water companies as in your example.

I’m jealous disabled people are getting to use more water than me. Aibu?
fixed it for you 🙄

I would counter this by saying that since privatisation, water companies have not done enough to conserve the huge volumes of water that we have available to us in the UK, because they have sought to reward their shareholders via dividends. I do not believe that they have invested enough into the existing infrastructure or have looked at clever ways of harnessing grey water etc. I believe that the water companies can do much more than they have done in the last 30 years to ensure in our very rainy country that there is enough water to go around during a dry spell. We had a very, very wet winter afterall.

What is the purpose of a "hosepipe ban" then?

Either it's acceptable to use X litres of water watering your garden or filling paddling pools (I cannot think of any other uses for a hosepipe, but please enlighten me), or it's not.

What difference does it make if the X litres of water is through a hosepipe or a watering can? Therefore what does this have to do with being disabled or not?

Actually, this thread illustrates that posters are able to bring up both issues, the restriction exemptions and the waste by the water companies.

After all, you did read about that leak in a post here

I didn't say they weren't nice to have.

But you can go and stand or sit in a cool shower just as easily, or spray yourself down with a water bottle, or sit in front of a fan, or any other number of strategies.

It doesn’t at all.

Basically it’s a hope people will use less. If I want to fill be pool by bucket I can it will just take longer so they hope I’ll give up and not do it.

Same with watering if it takes so long and lots of trips they hope I’ll water less.

If however I give no fucks and have all day I’m still using the same amount.

Kids and dogs? Or middle aged book reading mumsies like us?

The purpose of a ban is to trick the public into thinking this is their fault and they can make things better.

It is a hosepipe ban, not a ban on watering your garden. Can you not think of any reasons a person might not be able to water their garden with a watering can/bucket?