Cap on benefits to 26k- am I missing something?

[buggyRunner]

As far as I can gather it's the normal benefits ie housing/ cb and wtc. This seems like a large sum. Is it accross the board or does it include disability related benefits? Are the figures misleading?

Nilgiri, it's ok and obv I'd be appauled if someone twisted my posts in that way. That's just ONE family and I don't quite know how they manage to wing in a free holiday or car and petrol allowances or earn enough for her dh to stay at home, but they do.
I suspect they are cheating the system.

Rhubarb I am sure you are right about cheating but please readers we are not all like that. Many of our friends adopt and all our children are treated as if we gave birth to them (we have 5) (children not friends ) oh sod it I'm making a pigs ear of this.
PS I do have a cleaner funded by DLA

Ooh, where's my post gone? Here it is again.

Sorry Spike that was me. I hadn't thought that as well as DS2 there might be a DD! But I did think the baby element had been abolished hasn't it? I thought we just snuck in there with DD 18 months ago.

2old2beamum, I have two adopted brothers and they are just as dear to me as if there were my blood brothers. It's other people who sometimes say "which ones are your real brothers?" To which I reply "All of them."

My point was that it is people like my sister who take everything the state has to offer and more besides regardless of whether it is needed or not, who are the reason the government are planning the cap. Unfortunately you get a family like that or the ones with 14 kids living in Notting Hill on £35k funded entirely by taxpayers and everyone thinks that ALL people on benefits are taking the piss.

In fact I hardly know anyone who claims that much. However there are many people who take the piss in other ways. I used to live in an area where 95% of residents were unemployed. They had never worked and their children often bunked off school and grew up to also land on the dole. Their poor education meant they couldn't read or write and therefore employment chances were very very slim. So you would have entire families on the dole and then they would get their girlfriends pregnant and the whole cycle would be repeated. Yet they never wanted for material possessions. We all know families like that.

It would cost more money but it would save in the long run if every family on benefits was individually assessed and those benefits means tested according to their needs. So someone like Hunty whose circumstances mean that she cannot find work, is entitled to every penny that she gets. Whereas my sister does not need all the allowances she gets and they should be cut accordingly.

Also I'm not sure that supplying cleaners is the best use of money. Sorry but I don't.

But then who cares for a child needing constant 24/7 supervision while the cleaning is done? Or should the cleaning just NOT be done?

In many cases Hunty, the child does not need constant supervision and if this were the case, how do you manage to cook? Or look after other children?

Yes there are families who could do with someone coming in to give them a hand, much like the charity HomeStart does. But just sending in a cleaner isn't, I feel, the best use of money. Those families would surely be better off with a carer who can visit a couple of times a week to give them a break? The money could be better spent on more useful help rather than paying to send a cleaner in.

Just my thoughts, I could be completely wrong but am basing my opinion on experience.

Hunty - there you go, the government forces reliance on charities when they should be funding this kind of help. And the kind of help that HomeStart gives is much more useful that a paid cleaner.

You'd think help on the caring side would be better, Hunty, but in practice looking after a disabled child can be a specialist task, and the child can also be distressed by (a changing parade of) strange adults.

In that circumstance it's better to let the helper do the generic tasks like cleaning and have the family do the specialist tasks.

But I think this taps into a very specific underlying "jealousy" issue (not talking about you here).

The theme I've noticed through many of these screaming matches debates is the disability adaptations that get questioned are the ones overlapping with perceived "desirable" general-use items.

You want an expensive trained carer to use and clean a child's feeding tube: fine.
You want a cleaner so you can sort out the tube yourself: not fine, cos I'd like one of those.

Your child gets boring therapy in a hospital from trained hcps using specialist equipment: fine.
Your child gets therapy through riding: not fine, cos I'd like that.

You get a wheelchair: fine.
You get a car: not fine.

You get an adapted special entrance round the back with the bins: fine.
You get a parking space near the front door: not fine.

The thing that's really startling is that the "desirable to the general public" items are often a lot cheaper than the specialist adaptations. So it's not about efficiency. It's about "I want one of those!"

Bollocks, that post was to Rhubarb, not Hunty. Soz.

I see your point I just think that funds could be better managed. For instance, a family might get funding for a cleaner but be told that there are not enough funds for respite care. Now I think that respite care is darn sight more valuable than a cleaner because caring for a disabled child can put a strain on many relationships, make other children feel left out and leave the mother exhausted.

So many families who have children with SN are being denied respite care or are having carer hours slashed but they still get their cleaners.

It's about prioritising. I'd be insulted if I got given a cleaner 3 times a week but no practical help to bathe, feed and care for my child.

Well I'm willing to stand corrected by someone caring for family needing specialist care, as I only need generic care (I really did use my care DLA for a cleaner-cum-general-factotum).

But IMHO a cleaner often is good management of funds. Unskilled cleaners are the cheapest of all possible help.

Having someone to lighten the day to day load means the parents are less exhausted and have more time in the day for each other and the other children.

That doesn't mean that specialist care or (very expensive) respite are unimportant. But atm I don't think we're in a position of, "Would you like a cleaner OR a carer". It's more like, "You can't have a carer. So we'll take your cleaner away too."

Nilgiri

your right ds3 would be destressed by carers in and out the home .

and your right wheelchair is seen as acceptable but not a car .But what people miss those wheelchairs often not suitable for the job .

And that often travelling on public transport is a nightmare in a wheelchair .I hate it , ind buses worse than trains .Downside of trains you need 24 hrs notice and not all stations accesibile

distressed*

oh and disclaimer , Neither me or ds3 have carers coming in or a cleaner

and your so right i have moved into a new build 9 houses we all got spaces outside our doors

But i got a car port built over mine due to how long takes for me to get in and out and theres been quite a few grumbles to the H/A .Also my 3 bed bit bigger than theirs due to the wheelchair access etc

I feel a cleaner is necessary for my family.We have 2 children with complex
health needs 1 has PEJ the other has a PEG, the others are delightful people who need support. We get no help from SS in fact the 2 little ones have not got a SW. We have no inhouse help we just get on with things and as Nilgiri says it is better to use DLA for a cleaner than have nurses in at the tax payers expense. I use the time to do their cares, drugs and feeds, any spare time is spent stimulating them and giving them quality time. Cleaner only comes in 4 hrs a week

I have no issue with people having money for a cleaner, I am lucky to have two perfectly able children but still struggle to get all the housework done, I can't imagine how people do it with all the extra work that comes with children that need special care.
Infact think you should have a nurse and a cleaner so you can sit down with a coffee and cake and relax once in a while :)

God almighty, THC how in the name of everything do you do your housework? Especially anything to do with the floor?

While some people with disabilities manage to get into work every day, not everyone can. For a day after I have had a seizure, I am either asleep in bed, or I struggle to move through exhaustion. When that happens and I'm working, there isn't a hope in HELL of me being able to go into work. Even worse, is having a seizure AT work.

Do you want to know why I haven't worked FULL-TIME in 6 years? Because I was 'let go' after having to go home, or to hospital too many times after seizures that I had had AT work. I was already on a 'Final warning' for having too much time off sick (even half a shift going home ill classed as a full shift off sick), when I had a MASSIVE seizure right next to a customer, ended up losing control of my bladder and ruining that customer's shoes. That was when I was sacked.

Try GETTING AND KEEPING another job when you have something like THAT on your CV.

Or when there's loads of bits of equipment that you aren't allowed to use. NO heavy machinery. Which includes the rubbish compacters that shelf-stackers need to use as part of their job.

According to the disability advisor at my local jobcentre plus, he can place people with Downs Syndrome, blind people, paraplegics AND amputees in employment easier than someone with uncontrolled epilepsy.

Which makes the reclassification of the severity of epilepsy needed to qualify for disability benefits like ESA all the more baffling.

Did you know that there are still a LOT of people out there in the real world who think of epilepsy as being a mental illness rather than a neurological problem? And all the associated stigma that goes along with that. It was only 35 years ago that people with epilepsy were being kept in institutions. There is still a LOT of predjudice against epilepsy.

Nilgi

i have become rather inventive and manged to minamise things so have no carpets all lino floors so easier to clean and i am fortunate my house is adapted so i can get into every room ( well bar the pit of dss1 and ds2 room )

butpeople wonder why im so tired some days[consfused]

houseowrl

yes please to both and someone to provide coffee and cake,jonny Depp will do at a push

Nilgiri's post at 11.37 was spot on. It's astonishing that some people think they're better qualified to decide the optimum way for a family to spend DLA or access charitable services than the family themselves. Literally unbelievable arrogance. I'd have more respect for people who just admitted they were envious: that's a normal and understandable response to someone who's got something you'd like.

therhubarb I would be insulted if some judgy person assumed they knew best what kind of help my family needed.
I wouldn't have a carer come in as we don't have the room, I would end up still doing it. so no point, yet a cleaner would be a great help. especially when dd is 19 and no doubt I will be caring for her full time due to the cuts.
tbh your post about your sister is awful, I do hope my family members (who do nothing to help me) don't judge me like that.
I am sure she will let you have her childs disability and you can have all the benefits as well.

As usual Sevenfold well said! My cleaner is my sanity. I don't feel I have to justify my reasons but the last drugs should be @24.00 then the morning drugs @06.00 I am a knackered old hag.