Why must a person pay for this...?

victoriav

A friend of mine with MS often looks at various disability forums, and gets quite a lot of very valuable help from them, as the local CAB is on a system where they can just see the first 6 people every morning if they queue around the block at 8am or earlier.and in the first 10 mins they are unhelpfully refered back to the dwp or council......then the next person is ushered in. So this isn't an option for her.

She mentioned that all the sites are accessible, except for one called benefits and work which you have to pay £16.50 a year for apparently., to access it. SHe was told normal people have to pay so that people who are fiddling can't access it! I don't get it? would someone who wanted to fiddle and access this be prevented from doing so just because they would have to pay £16.50 to view it? I think not, infact I dare say they would be in a better position (moneywise) to view it! ie is a fiddler going to think 'oh I have to pay £16.50 - to get my hands on valuable information i won't bother then..!!' I don't understand the logic behind it at all.....and they say that if you are in a bad situation you can view it at a library if the library has paid the fee to them... so would a fiddler not go in a library? they also say sorry if you are struggling but we can't tell you either who would let you view it/is a paid subscriber such as an organisation like a library or maybe an internet cafe. So then you would need to pay after all. Seems crazy that vulnerable people are made to pay when the information could just as easy be on another similar website....or have i got it all wrong?

Ames

I pay and it's worth the money, it's a great site.

The forum used to be free but then someone got on and sent emails to everyone on the list, I can't remember exactly what it was but it was a scam, or something really offensive. They reasoned that whoever had sent the emails (everyone got about 20 a day for a few days) would have been less likely to do it if they'd had to pay.

As for the rest of the site which you get if you pay. It's run by one guy, and obviously it incurrs running costs, he's constantly using the freedom of information act to get as much info as he can on different things, and has written some very good guides to claiming benefits. It's far more informative and useful than any of the others that I've looked at. Other sites are charities or get government funding, so why should Steve use his expertise and time and end up out of pocket?

victoriav

That's rather interesting to know, Ames, I'll tell her, especially as there are government funded ones - wouldn't have thought they would help you win against the government though! myself I didn't know this, the ones she looks at are, if I remember rightly, there are welfare rights on the net, youreable, disability now, rightsnet, which of those are government funded? and which are charities?

Also are a government funded help source such as CAB for instance limited in what they could tell you in order to win your case versus say a council (government) or dwp (government)? just curious now! If not a tad cynical perhaps....

Ames

I'm just looking at them. Disability now is subscription for the newspaper and published by Scope (a charity). Yourable has adverts all over it. Rightsnet also is subscription and has icons for CLS (government run) and Association of London Government.

For some reason I thought one of them was connected to the government, I could be wrong, but benefits and work is the only one I've found which is completely neutral and not funded from outside sources.

I've no idea what limitations there are for CAB against the council's, I've only had help from DIAL in those circumstances, but if CAB do become a pathways provider then I'll not be going to them for anything remotely connected to benefits.

ohreally

Ames wrote:

, but if CAB do become a pathways provider then I'll not be going to them for anything remotely connected to benefits.

I understand CAB is already a junior partner in the Pathways project.

bigbill

Dont think http://www.welfarerights.net/ could be called anything but fully independent, look at their home page and who they are page to see why.

https://www.Benefitsandwork.co.uk are likewise fully independent