Sickness Benefits

[dubsie]

With nearly 20 billion in political fraud wasted, billions wasted on PPE, millions spent on decorating ministers office.....they decide that 3 million people on sickness benefits are shirkers and scroungers.

While I accept there is always a minority that play the system the fact is most of us fear being left reliant on benefits because they are so poor. I pitty anyone who becomes to sick too work especially when we have a state healthcare system that is leaving people in a desperate state.

I've got a prolapsed disc in my back and the NHS has been useless, thankfully I'm still working but that could change. I could spend nearly 25,000 privately to get it sorted but that's 25,000 I don't really have

This government is sickening...off the scale.

I’m not disabled, have never claimed benefits, always worked etc.

And I’m horrified by the ppl who support this.

I don’t even care about the small % who might be ‘shirkers’, esp when some public figures claim huge amounts for doing feck all.

It’s the culture war at play, we’ve done asylum seekers, black and brown folk, Khan, this weeks outrage is the disabled, next week single mums?

It's disgusting we should be able to prosecute these ministers and hold them personally liable for the damage they have caused.

Sadly, there are plenty who buy into this rhetoric. There regular threads bashing the ill and disabled on here. It is horrible. This government is disgusting. @GKD is right, there seems to be a different minority group rolled out to bash each week.

Sorry about your disc issues. Very painful.

I await the tales on this thread about Uncle Fred's cousin who goes water-skiing, then jumps in his wheelchair to claim PIP.

The irony of Braverman accusing the police of failing to be 'politically impartial'

Perhaps if the police truly were politically impartial a few more of her fellow criminal cartel and their cronies would be facing prosecution.

The day the government launches a scheme to ensure that the annual Billions in unclaimed benefits people are entitled to actually reaches them, they tax businesses appropriately and compel them to pay employees a proper wage rather than further subsidising business with employee tax credits, then I'll give them some leeway to talk about the piddling amounts claimed by 'scroungers'.

I work predominantly in people's homes and I see people from all walks of life. But when you see real hardship it shows the reality of what is really happening in this country. This is exactly how Hitler got away with killing millions of people.

If westrip away this already fragile safety net then I'm afraid it will accelerate our problems cost us more money further down the road.

@dubsie sorry you've jumped the shark with me here referencing Hitler.
Do you really think (unfairly) cutting benefits that a huge number of other countries don't give us akin to people being herded up, split from family forced into death camps to be gassed, starved or worked to death??

The Nazis did do some negative campaigning around disabled people before they moved on to killing them.

Of course the Tories aren't going to actually kill the sick and disabled (well not directly), but they aren't averse to using similar tactics to the Nazis in terms of "othering" certain groups of people.

Have a look at the poster on this article, which flags up how much disabled people cost the taxpayer. Only a few weeks ago there was an article in the Telegraph bemoaning the very same thing.

www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/a-memorial-to-the-nazis-disabled-victims/379528/

In fact, just four days ago the Telegraph printed this:

Supporting those deemed too sick to work will cost the taxpayer £26 billion this year alone, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies – £6 billion more in real terms than before the pandemic.

^www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/05/sickness-benefits-crackdown-will-not-be-in-force-until-2025/#:~:text=A%20crackdown%20on%20people%20claiming,and%20Pensions%20Secretary%20has%20admitted.^

They will be people claiming sickness benefits what don't need to but it's not right that the people who need it will be targeted with the same. My son has a genetic condition he received dla not the highest rate he's not entitled to a mobitity car but at his special needs school they all have one or are entitled to one. That's because I filled in the forms he can walk but so can the other children with downs and other conditions in his school and they get higher rate mobility. I don't know if he will every be able to get a job when he's older he's non verbal. He will have to rely on benefits for the rest of his life and I hope they don't go for people with learning disabilities.

Hmmm I wonder how much of that £26 billion is because so many people are having to go to tribunal and win?

It's funny (not a dig at anything PPs have said, talking generally) how people talk about how much disabled people cost taxpayers but no one talks about how much is wasted on repeat assessments and tribunals.

The problem is with the huge rise of people taking sick benefits for "anxiety and depression" and there does need to be a crackdown on this. I personally know so many people who play the system, and it does bother me.

I wish there was a way of preventing benefit fraud, and giving that extra money to the people are actually really need the sick benefits so they have better help.

People with anxiety and depression should not be off work for decades. It's ridiculous.

The mobility side has 2 criteria, not juts 'can you walk' - perhaps those children qualify for high rate because they need support in that area. Maybe the problem is not them but you and your DC may be under awarded?

Have you reported these nang people you claim to know? Just maybe they have other diagnoses that they don't want you to know?

I have never had depression but I have had some crippling anxiety where I have been unable to function at all - the problem is where it comes from. I have a list of contributing factors and these are not 'fixable' so I will always suffer bouts of anxiety. I don't work anymore but I almost broke myself completely by trying to keep on top of things so people didn't make snap judgements like this.

I think mental illness is as serious as a physical illness. Depression can be life threatening and life altering and it's not just feeling a bit low....huge difference.

This figure of 27 billion seems like it's just a figure plucked out of thin air by political people with an objective. Even if it was 27 billion then the money has to be found one way or the other....it's like saying cancer care will cost 100 billion so let's write off people with cancer.

In the end unless we secure the safety net the result will be excess deaths and rising inequality. Remember many children will also suffer if these people are cut loose of the welfare system and there's no guarantee of jobs regardless.

This government is hell bent on culture wars and nasty politics as a way to somehow secure the next general election....I just hope people have the brains to look beyond the daily mail.