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

Totally understandable.

Its like the pits of hell in our bedroom currently.

Very simplistic.

You do realise you can work full time AND claim PIP don’t you. Most conditions get worse not better.

If you have certain conditions, you don’t need a car adapted. The car is because you can’t walk far, you could have a heart condition. You could have aphasia and be unable to walk and the car is so your children can take you out. (No money or medical intervention can ‘propel’ this person anywhere- real life examples).

It won’t let me edit but there’s always hate on here. The vegan posts, the dog posts always get battered and derailed. Mostly because people can be nasty little pricks, especially when left unattended with a keyboard.

I do realise you can be employed and claim PIP, yes.

As to adaption of motability cars, I suppose that Badenoch’s point was - approx 1.4 million claimants, or 38% of PIP awards are to those with psychiatric disorders (the largest element). If we extrapolate that to the c. 815,000 people using the scheme, that equates to over 300,000 people, with 9/10 cars apparently unaltered, and eligible for replacement every three years.

Furthermore, the CEO received £750,000 last year, whilst the CFO took home £691,000, and they are sitting on a GBP 4 bn surplus.

Scrutiny of the scheme in these straightened times, is therefore understandable, perhaps?

@MyNameIsX So they’ve already been ‘propelled to their feet’ that’s an awful turn of phrase.

I think Badenoch might not have a scooby doo about the make up of that 38%. I don’t see how you can extrapolate the data- not everyone opts for a car for a start. Are those stats accurate?

Why do cars need to be adapted? How can they be?

What Badencoch wants to bloody scrutinise is benefit and health tourism. The millions handed out to people who do not live in the U.K. but have homes here that are empty, frequented occasionally, lights left on. Women entering the U.K. to have babies, claim their benefits and catch the next flight out.

DWP don’t have the balls to investigate PIP that’s why it’s a zero per cent fraud rate. We aren’t allowed to look at it- or very, very rarely.

It isn't just those on PIP who can be eligible for a motability car though, if a child receives HRM DLA, they can be eligible for one too.

Unless they need WAV's for their child's wheelchair, they are most likely not going to be adapted because the parent is obviously going to be driving the car.

What a lovely start to the day. Now we have flavours of bigotry on the thread.

Women entering the U.K. to have babies, claim their benefits and catch the next flight out

Made me chuckle a little, though.

I would like to see the stats on this, but I guess you don't have any. Whatever the truth of it, I don't think Badenoch will be "scrutinising" it any time soon, for obvious reasons.

I am off to the shops before it gets too hot.

I am hearing a certain Alanis Morissette song in my head.

@MyNameisX Aw bless you! 10 out of 10 for persistence if nothing else.
Personally I am fed up of this heat and its effect on my sons breathing. Can't wait for it to break . Summer adds a whole other level of jeopardy to keeping him alive ! Such fun !
How is everyone else coping?

Shopping done, now cooling off.@flapjackfairy I find keeping windows and blinds closed after about 11am keeps the house cool.

yes my house is like a cave all summer. Blinds and curtains all shut . I get up.at 5.30ish and throw everywhere open until about 7.30 then shut it all up.again. We do have an aircon but it is v noisy so we put that on if we are desperate.Otherwise we cope with fans and all have a neck fan which is really helpful. Luckily our old house stays a bit cooler than our last modern house. I don't know how people cope in well insulated new builds.

I'm sat in the shade reading and its currently quite pleasant. DP is lying in full sun on the lawn and I just don't know how he does it

My curtains are closed. This heat is hellish!

I’m a fraud manager - I don’t have stats but it happens I assure you. We investigate it but can’t really do anything.

Not sure why you find that so difficult to believe?

@Kirbert2 Absolutely. Many disabled people aren’t using the car themselves because they can’t, they aren’t physically able to. I’d rather have my health than a car or a bit of extra cash.

Benefit and health tourism is absolutely a thing. I find it incredulous you think it isn’t Pandora. But I’ll leave it there.

I’m off for a cold lemonade!

This thread on the feminism board is one of the worst threads I’ve seen on mumsnet relating to disability. I found it upsetting to read
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5369916-girls-using-walking-sticks

The OP on that thread seems to have convinced herself that there is a trend for people who are autistic, trans and have funny coloured hair to fake a disability and use walking sticks. It sounds bonkers but the thread has been running for days and has become quite upsetting to read!

I am sure it does happen. Most forms of fraud one can conjure up in one's head are made real by some enterprising soul somewhere. But perhaps not in the great numbers you are suggesting.

I do remember way back before Brexit benefit tourism from the EU was a hot topic for the likes of Carswell. Which is telling.

I am surprised DWP doesn't keep stats on benefit tourism that you, as a DWP fraud EO, aren't able to access. Are there not even stats on people/gangs convicted for it?

So, I remain unconvinced that there are significant numbers of women flying back to their own country straight after giving birth, pockets jingling with UK tax-payers cash.

Hitchen's Razor.

Anyway, all of this is nothing to do with ableism.

Yeah, I saw that one. It has turned pretty nasty.

I don’t work for the DWP and I’m not an EO. I never said I was, so not sure where you are getting that from.

I am a LA fraud manager.

👍🏼Clearly you know better and have all the answers.

PS it’s generally not the women who rake it in, it’s the men. Anyway off to have a chickpea lentil bowl and a g spot drink.

Wow that is depressing.
Bet MNHQ don't care though, it's open season on fakeclaiming young people with blue hair!

DWP administers most benefits. So how can you be a reliable source on benefit tourism if you don't work for DWP and don't have access to any stats?

Eta: scaremongering around benefit tourism was debunked over a decade ago, which perhaps explains why there is very little said about it now, and no stats collected. It happens, I am sure. But not to the levels you keep suggesting.

It goes to show how little you actually know.

Every LA fraud dept will joint work with DWP, intelligence officers, compliance, serious and economic. There are separate LA fraud depts too.
It’s absolutely rife here and it’s a small ish town, often entwined with organised crime. The benefit side is seen as low level, almost always the male is the one who moves around and will retain children’s passports. Wife and children aren’t in the U.K. or it’s certainly not their main home. They have a residence and school elsewhere.

There’s very little said about benefit fraud in general, because it’s very political. Our LA doesn’t even like to prosecute and certainly won’t publish stats on it!

So it is rife in your town (how rife is rife, though? You must have stats to be able to say it is rife, otherwise how can you know it is rife?). I can well believe that benefit fraud is linked to organised crime. That is very well documented.

But you often post as if benefit tourism is "rife" across the UK, but have no evidence to back this up.

Our LA doesn’t even like to prosecute and certainly won’t publish stats on it!

So why investigate it if the LA doesn't prosecute? What a waste of resources.