Disability hate on MN

[IClaudine]

Hi MNHQ

Since Sunak’s announcement on disability benefits, there has been a big increase on MN in hostility towards people who receive then.

The abuse, hate and outright lies (my neighbour’s son’s cousin’s wife climbs Mount Everest but gets PIP etc) being spewed on MN towards disabled people, a group with protected characteristics, has been dreadful and very distressing for disabled people and their loved ones to read,

Please can you do something?

Here is a small selection of the threads where the disability benefit bashers have paid a visit and had a field day. There may be more, but I can’t face searching for them!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5064828-to-be-terrified-about-pip?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share  

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5065470-people-who-work-have-anxiety-too?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5066670-aibu-to-hope-that-able-bodied-people-will-support-disabled-people-against-the-tory-attack-on-pip?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/money-matters/5064856-pip-vouchers-to-replace-money?reply=134966246&utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/money-matters/5066331-do-you-feel-bad-for-receiving-a-high-amount-of-uc?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

So go question it on a thread that is questioning it.

Happy to engage with you in a constructive way.

What makes you think that you know who is 'deserving' and who isn't though? Unless you've read their PIP form or their child's DLA form, it's unlikely.

Some people bashing PIP/DLA didn't even know the difference between PIP and DLA yet seem to be experts at if someone should or shouldn't get PIP/DLA and that's what rubs people up the wrong way.

and as the mother of a disabled child, I feel like I can't win. People have moaned at me for daring to have my child in a mainstream school yet have also moaned about the cost of sending disabled children to special schools.

My 'favourite' suggestion from a recent thread was paying parents to stay at home with their disabled children if they are incontinent like my child is sub human and doesn't deserve an education because he needs to be changed at school.

Yes, that’s totally wrong - you evidently need all the help you can get.

I wonder why there is such ‘ignorance’ surrounding the issue - rhetorical - I don’t expect people to have the answers.

Yet you didnt answer my question?

What was your question?

What you expect disabled people who lose a job to do if they have little to no chance of finding another one

Absolutely.

They should apply for, and obtain, state support in the interim.

But that interim may be forever. What then?

Just have to suck up comments like the one of yours which has now been deleted?

There is an obvious risk to ‘forever’.

You are exposed to the changing whims and policies of the government of the day (not to mention fickle public opinion), which is the topic of this thread, if I am not mistaken.

Secondly, there should be a distinction between those who are long-term unemployed - is the support enabling a return to work sufficient, for example? Data shows that, for able-bodied, at least, the longer people are out of the workforce, the harder it is for them to re-enter it. Pretty obvious, really.

I am not going to engage with our interloper.

I will say this though.

I wonder why someone would choose to behave like this on a thread that was started for posters concerned about ableism on MN? Is their life missing something? Do they have low self esteem and need to feel superior?

I feel sorry for them in some ways.

The topic of the thread is "Disability hate on MN" BTW. Not the "changing whims and policies of the government of the day".

Perhaps someone should start a thread on the "changing whims and policies of the government of the day" instead of derailing this one.

Government policy is topical and ripe for ongoing discussion.

Yesterday the Government's Universal Credit Bill passed on the final vote, with 336 votes for to 242 votes against, giving an overall majority of 94. The Bill, which had its name changed from The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill after the Government was forced by Disabled campaigners to make concessions on the PIP clauses, will now go through the House of Lords.

The passing of this bill is of deep concern to Disability Rights UK, as it will further push Disabled people on the health-element of Universal Credit into poverty, removing £3,000 a year from their pockets. We know Disabled people on Universal Credit already struggle to make ends meet, with 1 in 3 people who use a foodbank being Disabled.

NOT ON THIS THREAD. My God.

And the support I'd need to get back into work would be being able to work remotely. Which is another thing which is looked down upon by a lot on here and some in government.

Even if people do work, which I do, I still claim PIP.

I'm not able bodied. And neither are the vast majority posting on this thread about disabled people I'd assume.

The notion that there is a two tier of deserving and undeserving PIP claimant is part of the problem

PIP is very hard to claim and the fraud rate is 0% - the idea that there’s just loads of people sitting off claiming for minor conditions is a media promoted lie that the ignorant fall for. PIP is not an unemployment benefit and many people claiming it work

I have heard so many times “they need to do something about all these people claiming PIP, but not you of course, you’re obviously genuine”

Who are these mystery (imaginary) people who aren’t genuine?

But no instead of being an enquiring mind just throw mud at an already vulnerable group of people

I'm on dialysis right now. Life long because I am unsuitable for transplant.

I also have other disabilities and illnesses.
What gets me is the number of people who just have no idea how ill people can actually feel.

The nurses here are lovely but even they don't get it.
They ask us what we have planned for the rest of the day or weekends?
Dialysis is 4 hours, three times a week. Most of us go straight home to bed but we feel too embarrassed to say that.

Now and again we might manage to meet with family or go to hairdressers but the push and effort that takes is unbelievable.
Then it takes days to get over that effort.

If even our the nurses caring for us regularly don't understand, who can?

This 100%

Did @MyNameIsX even read the OP? It is not about money, or the policies. It is about the shitty ableist comments many of us have been subject to on MN, and the frustration at MN for doing little about it (all in the name of "educating" others about disability).
FFS, start your own thread about benefits if you want to talk about it. This thread is not for that. Read the room.

Sadly, MNHQ are OK with the thread being derailed. I give up. This is the email I recieved:

While we absolutely understand that this is a sensitive and emotive issue, particularly for posters affected by disability and the current rhetoric around benefits, the thread sits in Site stuff, which isn't a designated support area. It's intended for users to raise concerns with us and, as such, tends to attract a broad range of perspectives. It's also worth noting that while some areas of the site are less suited to in-depth ideological debate, there’s no board on Mumsnet where respectful disagreement is automatically out of bounds.

The post you've highlighted appears to be sharing factual information, and while we appreciate it may come across as provocative or upsetting in the current context, it doesn’t breach our Talk guidelines. We’d typically step in if a poster were being personally abusive, engaging in hate speech, or persistently derailing a thread that is clearly intended to be supportive. In this case, the thread has developed into a wider debate and includes a variety of strongly held views from multiple sides.

I assume the Talk rule about no deliberately inflammatory behaviour no longer applies.

I suspect this post might be deleted. I might even be banned.

I certainly hope not!

I think MNHQ are being eminently reasonable.

There is no attempt at provocation here. I remain keen to share information I come across in the public domain however, and in order to stimulate discussion - which may help address some of the concerns raised in this thread, namely awareness.

This thread is about the hate disabled people are getting on MN. It is not a discussion about policy or the amounts people get.

I get that MNHQ say no rules are being broken, but surely you should read the room, be a decent person, and take the topic you want to discuss elsewhere.

There is NO place for hate, anywhere.

I shall otherwise post with your comments in mind (I must confess to being disappointed that the PP reported me)

We move on, however.

We see you.

If you're referring to me reporting you, you're mistaken. It wasnt me.