MSE News: 'I'm on benefits but I'm no scrounger'

Blind_Hope

crociato wrote: »

In fact if you are incurably long term disabled there are schemes to assist you buy a home yourself supported by the government, you just need to find someone who knows what is available and how to go about claiming.


Cro'

I've never heard of this scheme. Can anyone tell me any more about it?

jumbo4349

I have luckily never been on benefits but it seems to me that if we could cut out the fraudsters people like Ross could be paid a decent amount to live on. However, we must not forget that there are people in work who get very little more then he does.

kathrynklear

jgriggle wrote: »

People tend to forget that the majority of benefits claimants are in work.

Blame the Government for this one! With one stroke they put millions onto Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit after getting reid of the Married Tax Allowance!!

I will never forget the horror on a posh friends face when she had to fill in a claim form for something that she and her husband had taken for granted!

jocene23

Its humiliating enough to live on benefits, that you've worked all your life contributing towards, but the social stigma that's heap on by society can sometimes be too much to bear. Also in the midst of all this is the relentless pain and suffering from being disabled as well. Disabled claimants are made to feel like criminals. Its like a prison sentence with no time off for good behaviour, or a possible release in sight. When I get asked why I need that parking space or why I have a Blue Badge at a young age, I want to scream out..'just be happy you don't need one!'

Thanks Ross for speaking out, its a case of 'there but for the grace of God go I'. It can happen to anyone at any time.

kathrynklear

looby75 wrote: »

and don't get me started about the waste of time that is the work program.

For everyone who thinks it's all fun and games being on benefits for ANY reason, try it I think you'll soon change your minds.

Oh yes... The Work Programme! An excuse for a team of people to be IN WORK doing exactly what their 'clients' have already done!:mad: Still.... it looks impressive!

Didn't Portillo try living on benefits for TV once? He was supposed to do a month, gave up after two weeks and promptly resigned as an MP due to the hopelessness of it all?

Cerisa

"I've never met anyone in my whole life who has called someone with a disability a 'benefit scrounger', epecially a person with such a visible obvious disability."

Key word there is 'visible' - which can be a double edged sword. A lady wrote an article in the Guardian recently about getting abuse in the street for having a disability and being a 'scrounger' - despite having a job!

When people say "But there is work they / he could do," without acknowledging the lack of jobs in Britain and the lack of employers willing to employ the disabled, that implies they are scrounging.

When people say things like "but I only survive on £10K a year, why should he get more," they are disregarding the fact that having a disability is expensive - and they are suggesting he should get less, whether or not he needs it.

Fraudsters account for much less wasted money than clerical error. But whenever anyone discusses benefits, it goes straight to talking about so called scroungers, rather than systemic inefficiency.

Perhaps people should think more about MPs - on £65,000 a year salaries paid for by the taxpayer.

Personally i'd much rather subsidise a person with disabilities than a politician.

robpw2

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

I agree. I was once told by an interviewer that I was a Health and Safety Risk because I had to use crutches :eek: You see people could trip up on them or over them So we are Idle scroungers who are not looking for work eh?

we are in a lose lose situation though ,
thing is someone told me i should consider suing for discrimination the women who i have mentioned before who wanted to know if it was a permanant feature .. but i do not think that suing is the right way to go

Mrs_Arcanum

Blind_Hope wrote: »

I've never heard of this scheme. Can anyone tell me any more about it?

This was one of the first things cut for the disabled following the election for this current government. A whole department at work was wiped out as a result. Thankfully due to the corresponding problems the loss has caused most have been able to keep a job within the company.

Biggest irony. It is cheaper to keep a disabled person in a shared ownership property than pay for the alternative residential care.

zigzigzag

jgriggle wrote: »

Also, when bashing benefits claimants ...

It is far too easy to write-off and discredit people's valid opinions by calling them 'benefit bashers', thereby saving you from having actually to engage with their viewpoints. I would never consider myself a 'benefit basher', but I personally know lots of people who bend (if not outright abuse) the system - eg choose not to work or even look for work when they are fully capable of finding work for years and years (so they can happily enjoy their hobbies), ask their employer to lay them off so that they can collect benefits and enjoy spending all day at home with their kids, hide income and savings to qualify for more benefits etc - and these are intelligent, able-bodied friends and relatives of mine! And I've read of families who enjoy more luxuries on benefits than many working families do eg http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16812185. Like jumbo said above, I want these people taken off their benefits so that people like Ross can be treated decently.

So let's not pretend that the benefits system is only there for people who need it, or that all benefits recipients are as honest and decent as Ross, or that benefits = poverty, and let's allow both sides of the discussion a voice without writing-off people who simply happen to have a different view.

66chorisia

Behind the problem of unemployement for the 'able' or disabled is the globalisation which implies the unemployed 'get on their bikes' and find a job,we all know the most jobs are going to countries like China and India where wages are low and there are virtualy no benefits for anyone. Even in South China they are loseing jobs to the North where wages are lower.Multinational companies move work to where the regulations and wages are lowest with no reaction from the politicians who they have bought.Politicians who never discuss this 'elephant in the room' maybe because there is nothing they can say on the subject that will see them voted for again.