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

alexcross

you are right what can we do but muddle on
i only hope the discrimination is seen for what it really is ignorance and lack of empathy (not sympathy!!)
sorry for calling Ross Russ opps I wish you and your family well and good luck for the op and I def think you got your point across some people just can't see the bigger picture but that has no reflection on you or me or anyone in our position.
take care all
xxxx

dktreesea

Lifes_Grand_Plan wrote: »

Incidentally, a couple where one parent works for minimum wage and the other stays at home with two kids, would take home £10,424 a year.... which is LESS than the guy in the article claims to get.

Also one very important bit that is often overlooked is the amount of time parents who work miss out on spending with their kids compared to those who don't work.

Sorry, but that's misleading. A couple in that position would still get child tax credit (around £108 a week, source: entitledto.co.uk), considerable help towards their rent if in privately rented accommodation, child benefit, and even some working tax credit (around £46 a week). Just for the sake of the example, say the LHA for this couple's area is £150 a week (three bedroom property). Then they would be entitled to £97 a week in housing benefit. If council tax was £1200 a year, then the CTC would be around £7 a week. Throw in child benefit at £33.70 a week and the total entitlements come to £291 a week.

More power to the sole breadwinner in this situation for working, even though it's a minimum wage job, but the benefits for a person in this situation, paying private rent come to well over what the person earns after tax.

dktreesea

Lockstock66 wrote: »

There are always times when people both ends of the situation are misinformed in some way.

For example my wife has been Out of Work for the last year seeking a Job, Nay Searching the length and Breadth, She is with Agencies for contract work but nothing. No Perm/ Nothing

The question is What does she get paid from the JSA to help us struggle thru.

Answer is nothing, Zip. Because The government deam that you have to have paid 24months NI. Its no fault of my wife to have been made redundant twice in the last 3 yrs.

So we get no help, I get £1500 a month, My home costs me £600 Interest Only, My Car and Petrol/Maintenance around £600(£450 in petrol alone) So I have £300 for paying Bills/Council Tax/Food etc., So every month we are out of pocket.
My wife wants to work and is very skilled but in our area there are no jobs even at minimum wage, 300+ attempts in the last six months with only 2 Interviews with 30 being Interviewed!

So People think they know other peoples Situations and they do not always but can only go on what they perceive/told and secondly the Government haven't got it right.

Thanks for Listening

Why does your wife have to work for someone else? Why can't she become self employed? £10 a month for a car boot pitch, go to the first one with stuff around the house, raise, say, £100, and re-invest some of it into stock at jumble sales/auctions and the like over the coming month. Sure, maybe she only makes £30 a month for the first six months or so, while she gets on her feet, but at least she would be working. What's wrong with a bit of leaflet delivering? We have three or four a week trudging up our stairs delivering leaflets. Most of them seem to be delivering 3 or 4 leaflets at a time. The going rate is around £25 to £30 per thousand households.

I don't mean to pick on you, but I am sick of hearing from people who can't get someone else to give them a job when there are so many self employment opportunities , including those that require not much capital, out there.

It's about time we all stopped relying on other people, either for benefits or to be given a job, and started to depend a bit more on ourselves.

thedrsmisses

alexcross wrote: »

you are right what can we do but muddle on
i only hope the discrimination is seen for what it really is ignorance and lack of empathy (not sympathy!!)
sorry for calling Ross Russ opps I wish you and your family well and good luck for the op and I def think you got your point across some people just can't see the bigger picture but that has no reflection on you or me or anyone in our position.
take care all
xxxx

He can live with being called Russ its when he gets called Rose he cant handle lol someone on here called him Ian earlier so i wouldn't worry about it at least you were close. Good luck to you and your family to. Lets hope the article does what we hoped it would and opens people's eyes to the discrimination of genuine claimants XXX

dktreesea

CazGreg wrote: »

The only thing that confuses me about this article is the lack of mention of his prognosis. From what I can work out, his condition is treatable, even if there is a later chance of recurrence. Living on a small amount for a short while is very different to living on that same amount for the foreseeable future.

And as has been already said - all those NHS travel costs can be claimed back, often cash in hand on the same day.

That in itself says something about our benefits system. For people who are ill, the preference seems to be to label them disabled and pay them, rather than fund the treatment for either curing or managing the disability. Take mental illness. If a doctor diagnoses you as mentally ill and unable to work, you can get a disability allowance. But it's really hard to get the treatment you need funded by the NHS. It's as if, once you are labelled you don't have to get better, and the state doesn't want to fund the cost of you getting better.

I noticed this when I was first diagnosed with osteoarthritis. One of the first things one of the physiotherapists at the hospital counselled me about was getting disability living allowance. She had the leaflet and documents all ready for me, including a contact to someone if I couldn't manage filling out the forms properly. She said it wasn't means tested, and that I would qualify so I "may as well claim it". When I pointed out I lived up 3 flights of stairs, she said that was okay - it was about entitlement, not individual circumstances. Being already able to support myself didn't come into it. The attitude was, it's like an accident compensation scheme. You're sick and it's not your fault. We don't want to fund the cost of treating this because it isn't curable. However, the S.t.a.t.e. (Signer of the Tab At the Taxpayers Expense) is prepared to compensate you for this unfortunate state of affairs to the tune of (at that time) £17.55 a week.

The guy downstairs has a bad back. Some kind of fall at work a few years back. So why, in all this time, haven't the NHS given that chap the help he needed to heal his back? He says it's a healable condition but he can't get access to the physio he needs and three months (the max he could get from the local NHS) isn't enough to heal the problem. What's the point of the NHS if it is unable to give people the care they need to heal and get back to work?

Maybe it's about time Britain stopped shoving money at people and concentrated on helping them fix their problems instead.

jgordon_2

tonymint wrote: »

He seems to have a lot of skills.Hope someone gives him a start/Job.

He could very easily begin his own eBay business, or some kind of online business. Maybe this will require startup capital but businesslink/ government grants are available.

casa111

I can not believe some of the negative and upsetting comments regarding Ross and his families situation it seems people are more concerned about the financial help he is receiving rather than his medical condition or his employment status both of which he didn't ask for, unfortunately there are many people out there in a similar situation as this unemployed and suffering ill health and they will sympathise and relate to your situation, the anger and frustration of long term unemployment coupled with ill health is certainly not an enviable position to be in. Long term unemployment is demoralizing and erodes ones self worth, so I understand your anger regarding peoples attitudes to unemployment and people in receipt of benefit. To Ross and his family I wish you well in the future, it seems in life when crap comes your way it comes in bucket loads. My daughter has RAS so i know only to well the seriousness and frightening condition you are faced with, fortunately my daughter is showing signs of growing out of this condition. I don't know if you know there is fantastic support group and web sight on helping with advice for this condition called STARS.(Syncope Trust And Reflex Anoxic Seizures).the forum will not let me post a link straight to the sight as I am a New user. I have never posted on a forum in my life but felt so angry and in disbelief at some of the nasty comments you have received, god knows how you feel !. It seems more people are angry about people who are in receipt of benefits than actually sympathising with your plight, so it seems this governments proper-gander campaign to discredit and even viler-fie benefit recipients is sadly successful.

OhDrat_2

Is it really scrounging? If hubby and myself had paid into a private health insurance/income scheme at the amounts we had paid in National Insurance, as both employee and employer (plus all the taxes we have paid), for the combined total working lives of 67 years, we would be on easy street.
Just remember the one word that should be remembered by everyone. Its National INSURANCE, its an insurance against the bad times, payable when you have good times.

I do so wish wholeheartedly that my husband wasn't disabled, that he could walk with me in the hills, that he could dig in the garden, that he could fly a kite with our son, that he could dance with our daughter at her wedding, but he can't, and a pathetic few thousand pound is not enough money to make it feel good. To have some pathetic Neandrathal, come up to him swearing and spitting that he's putting it on, and trying to tip my husband out of his wheelchair is not civilised behavior. If you are one of those people who are JEALOUS of the fact that he gets a couple of thousand pounds a year more than you, I dare you to swap the life he has, the pain he has, the dreams he no longer has. You are the scum, not people on benefits.

My husband is entitled to Motability, a lease hire system where we pay (yes its not free) £52 PER WEEK for a leased car. We will never own it, its not free. His present term is coming to an end in a few months, he has decided that life is too risky now to trust that he will still be on benefits at the next round of ATOS assesments. (He is in a wheelchair with hands that can't hold a pencil and he needs special toilets to clean and wipe his bum, yet he believes as do many, many others that his income will be ripped away from him on the whim of an ATOS stoolie and deprive us of our income and importantly our car). Therefore we are getting a cheap second hand one and hoping that it doesn't breakdown to often, but at least it won't be taken from us.
As an aside to the Chancellor, what is the Government going to do when more and more disabled people decide that a Motability car is not to their liking any more. 60% of all new cars in this country are owned by Motability and leased to disabled people. What happens to the new and second hand car markets (nearly all 3 years old second hand cars on the market are ex-disabled cars) when there isn't as many new cars being bought?

smellycat_2

I have felt shocked by the replies on this thread. When I joined this site some years ago I was under the impression that it was for the sharing of tips, hot deals, support, etc. It now seems to be a haven for over-opinionated trolls. What support have any of you offered this man? (those who have been personally critical). If you felt you had information about budgeting that would help, did you write a supportive message of suggestions? No. Reading all this bullying - if i was a first timer looking for help in a similar situation I wouldn't go near you with a barge pole.
Congratulations for destroying a community.

Paul_Herring

smellycat wrote: »

I have felt shocked by the replies on this thread. When I joined this site some years ago I was under the impression that it was for the sharing of tips, hot deals, support, etc. It now seems to be a haven for over-opinionated trolls. What support have any of you offered this man?

Stop being professionally offended on behalf of others.

A significant number of posters have pointed out, for example, that if £11K is all he's getting at the moment, then he's probably not getting all the help he's eligible for.