Ah, the disabled benefit cheats at it again

[bialystockandbloom]

So the govt about to try to push through £2bn cuts to DLA. So, the govt spin puppets DM run huge front page feature on the "cheats" again.

All the usual bilge designed to convince the ignorant masses that disabled people are at best a burden to the "taxpayer" (as if disabled people never pay taxes), and at worst money-grabbing cheats who are almost single-handedly solely responsible for the financial mess the country's in. To pave the way for a resounding silence from the media and public when huge cuts are made to disability allowance, services, education and support.

FYI Daily Mail:

1. DLA is not a 'benefit'. It is a direct payment to provide assistance to people with disabilities who struggle as a direct result of those disabilities. It has nothing to do with whether you work or not.

1. One glaringly obvious reason why a % of recipients get it without 'attending an interview' is because they are children.

1. Another is that they provide medical evidence of their disability.

1. Ian Duncan Smith: "At the moment, hundreds of millions of pounds are paid out in disability benefits to people who have simply filled out a form." I simply filled out a form today (for a loyalty card at a local shop). Where the fuck's my money then?? Oh, that would be because the 100+-page DLA form isn't quite the same as simply filling in your name and address.

1. "More than 70 per cent of existing claimants are on DLA for life without facing any regular checks." Hmm, would that be because they have disabilities for life perchance? Blindness, deafness, CP, chromosomal conditions, autism, learning difficulties, ataxia, and all the other hundreds and hundreds of lifelong disabilities.

FFS I have never linked to a news story on MN before but am so spitting mad about this.

Mumsnet is there any chance of getting Ian Duncan Smith and/or DM editor (is it still Paul Dacre?) on for a webchat?

And who is the lovely poster who has only one leg? Who has to go back and have her disabled driver blue badge reviewed every 3 years, isn't it, just in case her leg grows back?

Applecider, I hope you're getting the picture here.

Oh it gets better than that, thumbwitch.

When my Incapacity Benefit/ESA was stopped because of their error, I was informed in arrears. Like, two weeks after it had stopped going into my account.

As it happened, there was enough in the account to cover the utilities direct debits, otherwise I would have had:
a) 0 income for all the weeks it took to discover and then apply and be processed for Income Support
b) bank charges for bounced DDs.

If you're made redundant, you're paid notice even tho you're sitting on your arse, precisely because of the financial chaos it causes.

You can't get a mobility car for ADHD.

You can get high rate mobility DLA (and therefore qualify for a car) if the following apply

1. You are unable to walk.
2. You are virtually unable to walk.
3. The exertion required to walk would constitute a danger to your life or would be likely to lead to a serious deterioration in your health.
4. You have no legs or feet (from birth or through amputation).
5. You are both deaf and blind.
6. You are entitled to the highest rate care component and you are severely mentally impaired with extremely disruptive and dangerous behavioural problems.

DS1 qualified under (6). He gets higher rate care (correctly - aged 12 he needs 24 hour supervision and has no speech at all- well except one word), he is classed as severely mentally impaired as his measurable IQ is below 60 or whatever it's meant to be to be classified in that wat and he shows challenging behaviours (to the point where he need someone holding onto him at all times near roads).

That's the reality of the type of child who qualifies despite being physically able. Not the DM ADHD bollocks.

haka

DLA has no link with working. My son qualified at 3 so not even able to attend school never mind work. You can claim DLA when you are in work applecider may be confusing DLA with Incapacity benefit

My son also got a car on mobility and he has autism. He can walk perfectly fine but he knows no boundary so can't walk straight down a path without meandering into the road. he is terrifed of really loud traffic which makes his meandering worse. He doesn't understand traffic and danger and has tried to grab onto moving cars. Public transport excites and scares him and whilst a 4 year old getting upset and pushing teenage boys out of their back seat is just laughed off it isn't when the boy has grown into a lanky teenager himself.

All of those problems have been worked on but they are still there and we wouldn't of been able to take him anywhere without the car. Yes it is just another form to fill in but I would rather walk everywhere then have the right to get a mobility car.

The miniscule amount of cheats do need addressing and reporting but this whole general idea to sweep through every claimant and try and catch them out so they get their benefits stopped is a very scary thought for us

Whoah. Tianc, that's dreadful - but just shows where you're placed on the courtesy level, doesn't it. :(

Haka ! Disgusting. Poor bloke. Shock probably killed him. Still, fits in with Dave's plans, doesn't it - the sooner they disappear, the less we have to pay them. [no emoticon fit for how that makes me feel]

this might be a better place to start with recouping funds...

"The official Department of Work and Pensions fraud rate for Disability Living Allowance makes it very clear that only 0.5% of the total number of claims are fraudulent. That's approximately 14,500 fraudulent claims out of an overall 2.9million. So, less than 15,000 Disability Living Allowance awards are fraudulent" by thehumancaterpillar

1. Only 15 thousand -
2. and that is official from the DWP

So if you believe that, you must believe anything.

Bit like me with the adhd then?

debs - yes, was corrected up top of thread. Was talking about those who choose not to work but are fit and able.. Not those who work and claim.

what about those who can't get a job due to the nature of their disability? Are they scroungers too?

What do you expect from a person in a top-level position in government when he does not even know the difference between DLA and ESA (this was formerly Incapacity Benefit, nb: there is no more Incapacity Benefit and there hasn't been for a couple of years, there is now Employment Support Allowance). The former is as explained and has nothing to do with being in work, the latter is a benefit paid to those not fit to work due to disability.

The most common form of benefit fraud is not disability-related. It's people claiming Income Support as a lone parent or Jobseeker's Allowance when they are living with someone who is working or working cash in hand and not declaring their earnings.

But hey ho, this government also wants to persecute the working poor for not earning enough.

if you listen to some people Xenia for example then yes, uniCorny, indeed they are. There is always some way to make money, apparently, even in the middle of recession. Dog walking - surely people in wheelchairs can manage that? There you go. Leaflet posting? Definitely!

There is a firm belief among a certain type of person, including the ATOS, that most people with disabilities simply aren't trying hard enough.

Great, innit?

AppleCider I don't understand.

Are you
a) worried about fraud? In that case, so am I. Great. Lets catch fraudsters.
Or
b) trying to cut the overall bill for disabled people? Which means cuts to actual, you know, disabled people. Which maybe you're cool with.

It's been explained to you that doing (a) won't cover (b).

So don't go to bed at night with your conscience wrapped up nice and cosy pretending that these cuts to disability benefits don't affect disabled people. They do.

I hate the media who print this shit. I'm not sure how I feel about the mindless sheep who believe it though.

Guardian article quoting the 0.5% rate applecider

Given how low the fraud rate is for DLA it would appear to be more sensible to spend limited funds on chasing proper systems cheats, rather than harrassing disabled people.

Of course many people in receipt of DLA cannot work. Those with SLD's or PMLD's for example are never going to be able to work unaided (if they can work at all).

I am a}

I think that is quite clear from my posts.

If the fraudsters from across the board, disability, IS, tax creds and anything else were sorted there would be a shit load more for those who genuinely need it. Which was my whole point.

So why target and harass those in receipt of DLA where the fraud rate is extremely low?

'If the fraudsters from across the board, disability, IS, tax creds and anything else were sorted there would be a shit load more for those who genuinely need it. Which was my whole point.'

LOL! No there wouldn't. They're going to cut everything anyway to bail out Italy and everyone else to the tune of £40bn. Getting people angry about welfare is the way they are trying to distract the gullible from the fact they are paying for Greeks and Italians to retire at 50 and not pay tax.

And pay a french owned private firm millions to do that??

Bizarre way to save money.

Exactly, saintly! Why not target the wealthy who collect universal monies like Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes, the seasonal foreign workers who claim Child Benefit, Child Tax Credits and Working Tax Credit on children, real or fake, who have never set foot in Britain, on the thousands of those who are illegally in this place because they were allowed to abscond by the Border Agency.

I could go on and on.

well there you go then. Nothing we can do about it is there.

Money being spent elsewhere, and all we can do is sit and watch it happen.

A banker, a Daily Mail reader and a benefit claimant are sitting at a table sharing 12 biscuits.

The banker takes 11 and says to the Daily Mail reader: ?watch out for the benefit claimant, he wants your biscuit?.

You might be willing to sit and watch it happen, AppleCider, but plenty of us won't. Why should we? Why should we slave for the folly of others and saddle our children with a debt for no good reason and no jobs or decent future? Bollocks to that if I'm going to just take all that lying down. I actually care about this place and its people.