Has media coverage of benefits made anyone else feel guilty claiming PIP?

[JustHereForthePIP]

With all the fury in the media about benefits and scroungers, has it made anyone else feel guilty they get PIP, like it somehow makes you "less than". Or you shouldn't claim if you could scrape by without it?

I realised my household (me and 3 disabled DC) get quite a lot in disability benefits. But as none of us had any issues applying for PIP/DLA (all went through with no appeals, just accepted on the medical evidence) we're probably all quite far over the threshold to need it. As in it's bloody obvious we're disabled.

I think part of the guilt is that I still work as well, although I know it's not an out of work benefit. Oldest DC is in final year at school and also died a supported weekend job to build life skills. So we have other income, but still get DLA/PIP.

I don’t feel guilty. I feel scared though. The attitude and hate aimed at the disabled recently is awful. People see crap online and think we are living in luxury at their expense. Then they see other people slagging off disabled people and it becomes normalised. People are becoming very comfortable in showing their hate for people like me.

im not long in from work. I’m a wheelchair user. Today I’ve had someone at the traffic light give me the middle finger and shout something awful and a customer at work called me an ableist slur. I should be euthanised apparently. This is becoming more and more common. I’ve even got family who’ve refered to me as lucky! Because I had a car through motorbility. Lucky would be to be able to walk, not have someone have to wash my lower half and to not be catheterised.

no guilt here. I use my pip to employ a carer and hire my wheelchair. I no longer drive.

ONLY if you get the very highest award for daily living and mibility and do you know how ill and how much evidence you would need to claim that?! Most people get daily living rate which is about £30 per week. Standard mobilty rate is even lower.

£30 is standard mobility. Standard daily living is around £70

I think you have to at times because it can be very hostile out there. A lady I know who is in her 40's but has severe heart failure was quite literally verbally abused in a super market car park for parking with her blue badge. She can walk into the supermarket from the disabled spaces but then needs thode little buggies to get her shopping with the help of staff. Because she didn't fit the image most have of someone disabled, people thought she was fair game. She is receving palliative care only now. The ignorance, rudeness and sheer lack of compassion is astounding!

Still not a vast amount and I am sure that most would exchange it happily if it meant a normal life again.

Probably not fuck all to most people but if you factor in the extra cost of just being disabled it’s not a lot at all. My power chair alone is costing 200 a month. My carer Monday to Friday to get me washed and dressed at 7am and ready for work costs close to 400 a month. And then there’s my physio that I’m paying for as the waiting list is huge, my shopping costs more as I have to get it delivered, keeping warm in winter to stop my muscles going into spasm (oh and the taxis as I’m only really able to use the bus in my chair during good weather) listen the list is endless. It’s money to bring my standard of living up to a normal persons and it’s allowing me to stay in work. Because if I was relying on council funded carers I’d lose my job, they don’t turn up on time nor early enough plus I’m sick of having to be intimately washed by a stranger.

I’ve just done a Tesco whoosh order because I literally could not get out the door to go to the local shop for groceries and I’ve no bread. I thought I had a loaf in the freezer but I don’t.

I ache everywhere today. My tinnitus is horrendous. My fingers are like claws and so painful so I’ve ordered a dinner to ping in the microwave and some bread for tomorrow’s breakfast.

I can’t even self propel to the local shop.

anyone who wants my pip can have my disabilities for a month

I bet you have additional costs associated with living with a disability. That's what pip/dpa is for.

This 100%. It disgusts me that British born disabled people are treated this way and made to feel like such an inconvenience, when asylum seekers get everything for nothing. It is really upsetting. No one chooses to be disabled. I desperately wish I didnt have severe depression and could participate in a normal life.

@Trivialpursuits I feel your pain. I was going to have soup but I’ve snapped the opener on the tin. Bowl of cornfkakes it is lol . hope you’re doing a bit better tomorrow x

I’m afraid I have to be the spanner in the works here… I think if you feel guilty for it, you know you’re getting a lot of money that realistically you could live your life without. You mentioned you have other incomes so it’s not like your disabilities are stopping you from living a fairly normal life. I don’t doubt for a second that it’s not a lovely supplement to have. I’m on side just because you can claim it, doesn’t mean you should. But I know I’m in the minority here.
4 x PIP/DLA is astronomical money on top of everything else or wages.

Have you any idea what it costs to get a car adapted?

How much do you get?

Still a far cry from the £600 the other poster quoted! Starmer's govt and now Burnham's in conjunction with the Tories and Reform/Restore clowns all guilty for demonising a group of people in a way they simply wouldn't be able to for any other group with protected charecteristics! Even the DWP said the rates for combined fraud and overpayments was almost statistically negligible!

No. I feel attacked and scared that vile people like Farage don't believe in mental illness. Well why was I sectioned then?! Why do psychiatrists have the ability to take away people's volition and consent? Over something that doesn't exist? Ok then. I'm mad but I'm not that fucking mad.

It's absolutely disgusting what some people say about the mentally ill.

I received full PIP on my first attempt. I am seriously ill with autoimmune disease and feeling worse all the time. I hate the uncertainty of knowing it can be taken away at any time. My condition is incurable and gets worse over time. How it can be taken away is beyond me.

I am so sorry to read this. You don't deserve this. None of us do.

Hate is hate. Don't try to direct hate elsewhere, it makes you no better.

Yes
But most people don't have the additional expenses of disability, which can (and usually do) far outweigh that amount, when eligible for the full amount, due to the severity of disability.

So....yeah it is actually fuck all, in one of the richest countries on earth.

What exactly do you think that they are getting? Pray tell.

No. I've been claiming for almost 35 years (started a claim a couple of months after DLA was first launched), I have one of the longest running claims in the country. I've been assessed many many times over this time and repeatedly been found to have high levels of care requirements.

I'm not going to let a bunch of idiots who are angry over something they don't understand make me feel bad for claiming what I need to maintain a decent quality of life.

I do feel scared though. The level of attacks in the media do correspond directly to the number of attacks I receive when out and about in real-life. I've been shouted at, hit, spit on, been tipped out of my wheelchair, had things stolen and destroyed, and barred from service over the years, and it's always worse when media is pushing the narrative of fraud and fakery.

Can I ask which autoimmune disease it is?

Pushed out of your wheelchair is surely assault. I hope you reported this.

I pay for my own therapy as the doctors are useless, I very rarely leave the house so need to have most things delivered, If I leave the house I need a taxi there and back to minimise the time I am out of the house. My DH can't work as I can not safely be left alone for any amount of time due to how quickly I spiral. I have to pay for certain medications I need as again I can't make it reliably to doctors appointments to be prescribed the medications I need (Omeprazole, large amounts of painkillers (hypermobility causes injuries.)
I'm sure theres more things, we're always paying a premium since I won't leave the house and my OCD means I won't let others do certain things.