Unemployed Dh now signed off for a year- fed up and skint!

[Stressedgiraffe]

Dh has been unemployed for over 9 months. He's been applying for remote work but not getting any where. I think he's now given up as he has diabetes and side effects .
He was on jsa but has now had a meeting with the disability person who has signed him off as unfit to work.
But he's capable of working. He spends all his time on the computer. He walks the dogs for miles, potters in the garden etc.
He's late 50s so I think he's subtly retiring
But we can't afford it.
I work ft and can just afford rent bills and food. There is no spare money. We have spent our savings.
We have teenagers who want to go out with friends and spend money.
I'm starting to feel really resentful of someone I see 24/7 who now has a cushy life.
How do I stop feeling like this?

One of the questions he will be asked at a PIP assessment is if he has a pet. If he tells the truth and admits he has a dog, their next question will be does he take it for walks. Once he admits that, unless there are any problems with the reliably, repeatedly, safely and in a reasonable time frame part of the assessment, he’ll almost certainly be assessed as having no mobility impairment.

If he can walk 200 metres without significant pain, safely (without injury to self or others, and without exacerbating his condition) as often as he needs to throughout the day and in less than twice the time it takes a non disabled person, he won’t qualify for PIP mobility. OP says he walks the dog for miles.

My partner has diabetes and has neuropathy in his feet. Moderate exercise in appropriate footwear has always been recommended because it encourages blood flow and helps to lower blood sugar. If the OP’s DH is advised the same, they’ll take this into account for PIP too. And his ability to walk the dog, along with the ability to drive, if he does so, will all impact on their assessment of his abilities in the daily living section of the assessment. I’m not saying any of this to be a gloomy gus, and I’m not saying he shouldn’t apply. I’m just pointing out to all the people here who seem to think the PIP assessment is a walk in the park, that it’s not. Passing the work capability assessment and being found eligible for ESA will have no bearing on it either, because the WCA looks at the ability to work PIP does not.

@Neriah mine isnt an opinion though - it’s a fact

There can be metrics against which results are compared, though. Not actual targets as such, but IMHO targets by the back door.

So you could both be right.

At one of my WCA the assessor stated quite bluntly that he started from an assumption that claimants were malingering. I don't believe he'd been trained to do so (but this was in the worst ASOS days so maybe).

What a change from the Thatcher years! She reduced the unemployment figures, particularly in Wales, by encouraging the migration from unemployment benefits to sickness benefits...

I never got asked if l had a pet.

i knew someone who asked if they did ironing, random, watch the soaps, and he is on oxygen!

What kind of job did your husband do before he left work ?
You say he has been applying for remote working with no luck - most IT jobs require you to be at least reasonably skilled and up to date with office systems.
At lot of remote jobs I have looked at, require you to have your own set up at home equipment - ie - does he have a home office for instance - also does he have the office skills and level of qualifications - degree etc - would he be able to compete with a 21 year old Straight out of university - if the answer is yes - then I quite understand how feel - but if your husband has worked in another career perhaps in a physical manual labour job then it is going to take time and money to retrain and being in his late fifties he is not going to be considered for any employment over a much younger person regardless of his medical probs.
He could sell stuff on line to earn a bit extra though ?

Been reading through with interest. Lots to think about.
He works an IT architect. All skills upto date. Home Office, laptops monitors etc
This isn't the problem, gets the interviews but no further.

Unfortunately their are some clear indicators to me here why he is struggling to get work

1. I know from personal experience that it doesn't matter how keen you are, how many qualifications you have - there are some facts that can't been changed.

His age - late 50's - job websites use filters for employers to put in what they are looking for. His age is against him regardless of experience

1. His Cv is against him if he was fired from his last job
2. Health issues should not be a barrier by law - but in reality they are, as is his age.

If an employer has a choice between your husband and younger person with a good cv - no health issues etc they will take them even if they have less experience. Acceptance of the fact that your husband is no longer able to work is how you deal with it - you say you can just about afford to pay essentials and you have no savings but lots of people are in this situation. That does not mean that you can t make some extra money - may be your husband could sell things on line or do some freelance work etc. What about your teens ? Depending on their age if they are over 16 they could get jobs at mcdonalds etc. Have a clear out sell things they don't need etc.

I know you can't get PIP for type 2 diabetes - not sure about type 1 - unless you are very severely affected - loss of limb or heart / kidney probs etc.
Also regarding buss pass - you can't get one unless you have severe disability blindness or in a wheelchair
Blue badges criteria varies depending on your local council
But it is based on mobility- if he can walk the dogs for miles then he won't qualify

You can actually get PIP for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes - it depends on the severity of the symptoms. Again, I think this is one of the myths surrounding PIP. There is, theoretically at least, no disability for which you can’t claim PIP because it doesn’t look at the disablility itself, but at the symptoms and the way in which it affects the person who has it. There is no standardised disability for which you automatically do or do not get PIP either - the starting point is how it affects you and that two people can have the same disability or health condition and not be affected in the same way, or to the same degree. And for information, the blue badge isn’t always issued for direct mobility issues. Those with stomas or conditions which cause severe bowel or bladder urgency can be issued with a blue badge, as can those who have very severe mental health, cognitive or sensory conditions. Or a mix of all, depending on how each affects the person.

@Stressedgiraffe If he voluntarily declares his health problems on application forms then that could be why. Places aren't supposed to discriminate, but of course they do.

Also if he doesn't want to work, he maybe isn't putting in the best CV or interview. I can't blame someone who's ill for not wanting the extra burden of working.

If he has neuropathy in his feet a driving job is a stupid idea unless he has an adapted car.

If he has diabetes and neuropathy he might be thinking that his life expectancy is not that good. There simply might not be "old age" for him.

If he has diabetes and neuropathy he might be thinking that his life expectancy is not that good. There simply might not be "old age" for him.

I'm pretty sure he'd be kind of wrong if he did think that. Unless the person's diabetes has caused severe major organ failure, there's no reason to think that necessarily. Yes it can reduce people's life expectancy but that of course varies from one person to the next, and although it can effect their life expectancy, they can still live an indefinite amount of time.

My DP has T1. Most people with the condition (especially one that is not perfectly controlled and almost everyone at some point rebels against it) believe their life expectancy is severely reduced by the illness. The stories about diabetics living full lives well into their 90s are there because these are exceptions and not the rule.
It's not impossible but unlikely, especially for people diagnosed 40+ years ago. The tech and medicine progress makes the difference for those diagnosed recently.

@Wakemeup17 Yes and type 1 is different and tends to be more severe somewhat earlier than type 2. I assume it's type 2 OP's DH has.

Ok, I posted that 15 isn’t too young to babysit. I had to babysit for money from age 12. I agree 12 was too young, which is why I said initially that 15 is not too young to babysit. I am also autistic with ADHD.

We had a tap washer disintegrate and the bath hot tap wouldn't turn off. I froze on the spot, no idea how to deal with it. This had nothing to do with you being autistic but you not knowing how to shut off the water supply in a home, what the shut off looks like, or where they usually are. As you said, no one told you or showed you I didn't know where the water stop valve was, the gas stop lever, the electrical shut off, anything.

I had a rural, practical childhood on a small holding farm as the eldest of a large family so I’d been taught a lot of this and more by then.

Total GDP is not a measure of the wealthiness of a country.
You need to look at the GNI per capita.

Government debt is not a meaningless concept because it is borrowed money that we pay interest on to service the debts. The interest on U.K. government debt is £110bn per year, or 10% of total government revenues. This is almost as much as the entire cost of the NHS. That’s not meaningless, government debt is a serious business.

No government can just print more money without there being serious consequences to revenues, the budget for civil services, the overall economy as currency loses value internationally and to the country’s credit rating. It often makes everyone more poor.

We can increase taxes. That tends to make everyone more poor as governments tend to protect the income of the rich & business and go after the middle and lower income brackets. Especially our government- when you hear them talk about the way to prosperity is to stimulate business, work people harder, cut benefits you know they are raising taxes on those the least able to pay more.

“Printing more money” (quantitative easing) would cause accommodation costs to go up, not down, as that deflates the value of the currency. The only way to reduce accommodation costs which I am reading as housing costs would be to increase the supply of housing because the costs are caused by high demand and low supply, something which would take decades to address ergo can’t be fixed tomorrow as you thought. You can’t stop the transfer of wealth overseas by adding in land value tax because most of the wealth made and invested in offshore tax shelters is not linked to land. Land value tax would simply be translated into higher taxes for landlords and we know the disaster that has been as the U.K. has been increasing income taxes on landlords such that they are selling up and rent costs are soaring, making the housing crisis worse.

Nothing ever changed because people sat making snarky comments about ivory towers. I agree with this, unfortunately there are no short term solutions to the current state of things. A succession of poor governments both Labour and Tory have hollowed out the U.K.

They normally do ask. The line of questioning is whose responsibility is it to feed, walk and generally attend to its needs on a daily basis. I’ve seen many claimants denied mobility component when they answer truthfully and it’s a difficult one to challenge at appeal.