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Original poster

Heartbreaking. Grandmother commits suicide due to bedroom tax.

210 replies

Darkesteyes · 11/05/2013 22:33

This is heart rending. She left a note before heading to the moterway.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bedroom-tax-victim-commits-suicide-1883600#.UY6lhlQGgMY.twitter

OP posts:
OP posts:
Wuldric · 13/05/2013 17:40

I am aware of only one suicide arising out of what has been dubbed the bedroom tax. That list doesn't add any further numbers.

It is interesting that it doesn't apply to pensioners. If not why not? What's the logic? Not that it's a particularly logical piece of legislation in the first place, I suppose.

cory · 13/05/2013 17:42

Re the mythical register, dd's HT had two main arguments for refusing to recognise her as disabled:

the first was that she wasn't on this non-existent register

the second was that she was not statemented- the LEA told us quite distinctly that they never statemented for physical disabilities and that she was therefore not eligible

These two together apparently proved that she couldn't possibly be disabled.

You seem to hear more and more of this kind of thinking today.

usualsuspect · 13/05/2013 17:44

Maybe people need to do a bit of research before they stick their their oar in.

Original poster
Darkesteyes · 13/05/2013 17:47

Exactly cory.

These two together apparently proved that she couldn't possibly be disabled

"If theres no conviction in the courts then the rape couldnt have happened" Jerry Hayes rape apologism on Question Time last week.

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FasterStronger · 13/05/2013 17:51

I don think anyone is saying she was not disabled, but she did not access help for her disability/MH problems.

OwlLady · 13/05/2013 17:53

and it is that easy is it?

if you think it is you really do not have any idea at all and you do not have any idea how the council treat you when you try to access any more help or services

OwlLady · 13/05/2013 17:55

do you know I have had the most disgusting letter off the head of children's services at my council that I actually feel like naming and shaming he, He does the blame thing 'oh you are entitled to this are you? you cannot have it because of xyz that you haven't done' type thing Angry I think they forget I am a Mother and I just care for my daughter and no-one apart from me gives a shit. I am not even difficult

PeneloPeePitstop · 13/05/2013 17:56

Four requests for Carer assessments - denied by local authority.
Four referrals to the child disability team by different health/education depts all rejected as we 'cope'

laughs hollowly

Ah, I know, I'll go out get us some HELP today. Cos it's THAT easy.

OwlLady · 13/05/2013 17:57

exactly my experience too penelope

Wuldric · 13/05/2013 18:04

She may not have been entitled to any help in terms of additional benefits etc. The GP seemed to fob her off with sleeping tablets. It's just not so easy to access help, and unfortunately when you are ill and at a low ebb, that's precisely when it is impossible to be pushy. Pushy patients get better outcomes.

cory · 13/05/2013 18:10

FasterStronger Mon 13-May-13 17:51:36
"I don think anyone is saying she was not disabled, but she did not access help for her disability/MH problems."

Do we know that she had never tried to access help?

The Mirror's wording is totally unhelpful:

"Doctors had told her she was too ill to hold down a job, but she had never been registered as disabled, so she lived without disability benefit."

As explained earlier on the thread, you cannot be registered as disabled, there is no such register, so there is something wrong with the Mirror's statement here.

What you can do is apply for DLA. The forms are very difficult to fill in and many, many people who apply are turned down. This is no proof either that you are not disabled or that you have not tried in every way you could to get help. Speaking from bitter experience here.

What the Mirror claim happened cannot be the case, so something else must be the case instead and we don't know what that is.

FasterStronger · 13/05/2013 18:14

cory - I would agree with you if she was recently disabled - but she was life long.

and it has not always been as hard as it is now.

cory · 13/05/2013 18:19

That is a point, Faster. Though it's a fair old while since it was easy if it ever was, certainly wasn't easy when I tried for dd under the last government either.

Anyway, I still think we need to know more: the strange wording of the journalist makes the whole situation difficult to understand and makes me suspect they haven't really understood it either.

PeneloPeePitstop · 13/05/2013 18:20

No, but there was more stigma then.

PeneloPeePitstop · 13/05/2013 18:21

That's nothing. The Mirror interviewed me at length regarding Universal Credit then produced an inch square 'article' that got all the facts wrong.

At least Polly Toynbee did a decent job.

cory · 13/05/2013 18:22

Agree with Wuldric about pushy patients.

When dd first became obviously disabled, I believed anything I was told: so when HT said I must not refer to her as disabled, I accepted that, when the LEA said there was no help for her, I just took it for granted that they were right. It was only with the help of MN that I began to learn about how to access support. Also, I became exhausted and started weighing the energy that went into making claims against the need for energy to look after dd.

OwlLady · 13/05/2013 18:27

My late sister was chronically ill when I growing up, she was born in 1980. My Mum said there was little you could claim or what was available to claim then.

Original poster
Darkesteyes · 13/05/2013 18:37

Its NEVER been easy My DH was turned down for DLA in 1995 . He wasnt really well enough to work but had to work part time in a supermarket because the job i had in a sex chatline office wasnt paid enough to pay for rent council tax etc and ALL HIS PRESCRIPTIONS. He had a massive heart attack in 2006 and didnt get his full entitement until late 2008 two and a half years later.

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MrsSalvoMontalbano · 13/05/2013 18:42

Every thread about benefits always gets hijacked by the disability lobby trying to top-trump each other over the treatment they have received by the evil government. Not everyone in receipt of benefits is disabled, and your anecdote, however oft repeated does not apply to all benefit claimants.

KittensandKids · 13/05/2013 18:46

Meh meh meh meh meh meh meh.... same crap always!

Lets just hope some people lives never take a change for the worse, or maybe that would be a good thing.

OwlLady · 13/05/2013 18:49

hey mrssalvo! head of children's services in my county

Cherriesarered · 13/05/2013 19:00

There are many people who do not claim disability benefits even though they should. Had she called Solihull Council and asked for help she would have got a lot of help in many ways. They are a really good council! It sounds to me like she was a proud person that didn't ask for help! Housing would have offered her a smaller house as all councils are having to do. The problem in Solihull is there certain areas where some people do not wish to go and it is unfair to expect people who have lived in a property to move (likewise, unaffordable to not ask them to move) no easy solutions at all! Poor woman :-(

PeneloPeePitstop · 13/05/2013 19:03

Oh do one.

PeneloPeePitstop · 13/05/2013 19:04

The disability lobby is relevant here. This person, this human being was disabled.