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

Joyful

I too thank you for the information you shared Ross. I'm sorry for anyone that was not polite to you. The benefits are there to help people like yourself and family. Employers need to see past disabilities. I'm pleased I work for one when I see how many people with wheelchairs, crutches and other conditions that work with me.

So we can move on with discussing what your article was really about in raising awareness can I just ask you to put to sleep the other discussion which took over the thread please? Do you get housing and council tax on top of the income you quoted? This then lets people see everything in context.

I help people everyday who get lost in the system of claiming for benefits and my first thought when you posted was that you needed help in claiming all you were entitled to. Many others on the boards also help in this line of work. No one was saying you should not have been claiming. It was the other way around.

I've just had a thought. After you posted about setting up a Blog have you ever thought of writing articles to raise money? I recently joined one of a few sites to raise awareness of my website and I have found this one very informative in how to style the writing and get it noticed. https://www.ezinearticles.com

I wish you and your family all the best.

wagonsroll

Hi

I have to admit to not having the time or energy to read the whole 11 pages, i have only read 3pages which i would term, frankly, vitriolic comments.

I am a disabled person on NO benefits, i have a poorly paid husband and a poorly paid job, three horses which cost me a fortune in vets bills and feed as does the dog and 3 feral cats!

I have inflammatory metabolic syndrome which means that i have been 38 stone, currently 23 stone and a blip in between when the docs gave me steroids to save my life but i put on 7 stone in 7 weeks. My weight is contrary to popular opinion, nothing to do with what i eat and so yes i truly can say that i understand and empathise with your daily struggle, not only to maintain your own self respect but also to keep facing all the battles with illness etc., what i wanted to say here is that what so many people dont take into account is the following:-

1. Central heating is a luxury!
2. You only have to have 2 meals a day, 3 is greedy!
3. When people comment on the holes in your clothes/footwear say there is no shame in being poor only in being too lazy to wash, I'm clean so get over it!
4. Not having a telly, cos we cant afford a TV licence means that our conversation is more interesting...tsunami..where?!!
5. Opening up your vocal chords can be counted as singing lessons when you're shouting at your husband "you bought what?" and you can hear the falsetto tones developing nicely!

Do you know this list is endless but one thing i've learned in my life is that people are nasty, like to feel superior to others and will always find some reason to treat you as inferior, so you must get over it and get on with life, there is only one...live it!

Flyboy152

Why are you not claimimg any benefits?

PhiltheBear

I'm on benefits too. I'm 62 - nearly 63 and I've been out of work for about 4 years. Do I try and find work? Yes, I make at least 20 job applications a day - usually twice that. The reality is that there is a huge shortage of jobs. I'm told that I'm 'over qualified' for most jobs I go to (who wants an IT expert with a PhD to serve burgers?) or the broad hint is that they want someone younger. I'm sick to death of the ignorant people who believe that everyone on benefits is a scrounger. Believe me, I want to work - not scrape by on the pittance I get as a weekly 'allowance'. I don't get any other benefits - no housing, council tax, disability, or any other things.

Look at the news - the number out of work is rising. That isn't happening because everyone wants to shirk. It's happening because firms are failing and putting people out of work or contracting and laying people off. Like the guy who wrote his story, I'm in Southampton. At my last signing on day I was told that the person prior to me was being told he was too old for jobs - he was 50 - so what chance have I got? (And, yes, I know it's illegal to say so but who is going to know?)

I paid taxes (high ones most of the time) for 40 years. Any benefits I get now, as far as I'm concerned, I've paid for in advance. So, no, we're not all scroungers and layabouts - it's a myth that is strengthened by dangerous people like Ian Duncan Smith to push through cuts on to the poorest people in society who can't do a damn thing about it.

meher

quietheart wrote: »

iamthedoctor77 wrote: »

The object is to increase understanding of people who aren't raping the system.

I think you are doing a good job of debunking the myth but I wish you hadn't using the line 'raping the system'. It's tasteless.

it is indeed

iamthedoctor77 wrote: »

Its very easy for the smug ones to sit in judgement.
1. Assumption is the mother of all c*ck-ups.
2. Pride comes before a fall, so does ignorance.

Hang on in there, it will change.

sure it is, but by the same token it is ok to examine if there's an assumption that employers don't employ disabled people; if you fear it is the case, you have the discrimination law for rescual - use it by all means

An employers' priority is to recruit the right job for the person - a person who has something to offer to the company. Some people might not be that qualified, others probably not skilled, and yet others probably sport an attitude that is detrimental to their job and company prospects etc. I wouldn't blame the employer who puts each candidate under thorough scrutiny; they should be under no obligation to bring about equitability in peoples lives. It is up to the person, regardless of their disability, ethnicity, gender, to behave equitably, I'd make no mistake about that.

beanielou

iamthedoctor~Jumst want to wish you & yours all the best.
I know that words are not any real help.
Anyway I hope that you can get your operation soon & I hope that you can then find your dream job.
Take care of you all.

Mrs_Arcanum

kennethfryde wrote: »

Thank you Ross for telling it like it is. Your story should be on the front page of the Sun/Mirror/Star etc but it won't be cos they know kicking people when they're down sells papers. You are a hero to all of us who have no choice but to claim - and then take the insults from mugs who like having someone to spit on.

Correct = they are

Flyboy152 wrote: »

There, just corrected that for you.

Sorry but your correction was wrong


People forget for the most part we are talking about relatively small things that make a huge difference to the disabled. Simply having to find the money between LHA based Housing Benefit and what they are able to find to rent can mean the difference between eating or heating.

Flyboy152

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Correct = they are

Sorry but your correction was wrong

:huh:

What are you on about?

ladyelaine

As someone who has several members of my family on benefits, I know only too well how easy it is to con the system. Benefits are not meant to provide an easy life, nor should they be there to provide extras, regardless of whether you have paid into the system or not. I have a job and get well paid for it but I'm fed up of helping to pay for a system that is broken. I want my taxes to help support the genuinely needy. It's our own fault for allowing politians to use the benefits system as a means to securing 'cheap' votes. Everybody should have to do 'something' for their benefits, no matter how small their input. Not only would it weed out the work-shy but it would give meaning to those who want to work. Our priorties should be for the underclass of people who work but are finacially penalised because they have pride. One other point, why are we paying people to have children? Have as many as you like...just don't ask me to pay for them!

x_Bunny_x

They are trying to get everyone on incapacity benefit into a job, or unpaied work. I went to one such interview and the woman said she didn't know why, when most people are genuine in their claims.

I'm not mentioning anyone but...... there is someone i know who fakes having a bad back, and i've seen him on his hands and knees, and actually moving a washing machine!. Yes they have a job, but still claiming disabled benefits. Now they want to put 20,000 jobs into prisions. David cameron is worse then maggie thatcher, or trying to be like her. thinking he knows everything. im sure he will be on his holidays soon whilst he leaves us all here, whilst he flees the country to somewhere sunny.

I dont think the government is very intouch with people.