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

sarahg1969

rickbonar wrote: »

But back on this subject .... if any of you think this guy is on too much benefits.... ask yourself would you like to swap with him?

No one knows how much he gets. No one has suggested he is on too much.

And no, I would not like to be in his position.

However.... I do not think that the purpose of benefits is to compensate someone for being dealt a poor hand.

Millionaire

After reading the article I felt the same way as other people. He genuinely deserves the benefit but why is it only £11,000?

I think it needs to be clarified if its £11,000 in total or £11,000 after Rent etc is taken out.

If it is the former then that is very very difficult, however, personally I think £11,000 after Rent/Council Tax is not too bad, depending on debts.

Joe_Bloggs

What struck me about the story is how many family members are in a poor state of health. Is there a common cause ? Should a Consultant Epidemiologist be consulted ?
J_B.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

@martinlewis I have been on Benefits for 15 years and have lived in Supported Housing Mental Health for the same and I don't feel SAFE BEING MYSELF on these Boards to get the kind of intimate help that MSE so excels at.
I feel MSE is too ready to jump on 'undesirables' and other Misfits in an effort to gain the moral upper hand. As a result people who are people are NOT listened too and I feel this takes away from the overall experience of the site which is to save as much money as possible, spend absolutely brilliantly bargain wise and get thorough life in the most financially viable way possible.
People on Benefits who wish to escape have the most dreadful problems in achieving this.
NB My Social Policy is make love not War I don't wish to have Enemies unless I have too, but I am forced to on these Boards. It should not be the case as we really need to realise that we are [all] in this together up against incredible odds.

marie-20

I also hate the 'scrounger' attitude!

I have worked full time from home for around 3 years before being made redundant and after we moved to our new house (more disabled friendly as it's a new build, downstairs toilet, wide staircase, no steps into the house, etc) everyone at the kids new school looked down their nose at me as I went dressed in jeans etc so they presumed that I didn't/wouldn't work - how wrong were they!

Our household income is reasonable but nowhere near to what it was before OH's accident - it doesn't allow us mass amounts of pleasures but we manage.

The above said I have gone SE and started an online business as I don't want to be claiming when I can work so I won't be claiming CA for long (fingers crossed!) and it means that I can still work from home and care for OH and kids without too much of a problem.

I personally think that people are focussing way too much attention on the disabled that can't work - why should the unfortunate in our society be forced to live in complete poverty without anything just because they are ill?? I do understand why people think that they shouldn't receive more than a 'working household' and can agree but as a working household you can and most likely will increase your wage - a disabled person generally can't and to be honest I don't think that there are that many people with only 1 disabled person in the household that will get abouve the £26K. It's not their fault or a way that they choose to be. It could happen to anyone, it happened to us!- what about the people on JSA that choose not to work??? My bro-in-law & wife haven't worked for 10 years and have 3 kids and claim JSA and everything that goes with it - they both can work but don't want to!

The government have managed to do EXACTLY what they wanted to do and get most people against the disabled and ill by repeatdly releasing extreme figures rather than the average. I had an interesting chat about it this afternoon with my mother-in-law as she was disgusted that 'most' people could claim £60K!!!!!

tryingtoruletheworld

It's a shame that so many of the financial issues in this country at the moment are being blamed on benefit 'scroungers' etc, when the government's own figures show that fraudulent claims are in fact a very small proportion of claims made. The more unpopular benefit claimants become, the more the government can get away with, from 'fitness to work' tests (with predetermined targets for how many claimants should be classed as fit), to cuts in payments. There are a great many money pits that could be targeted, but I guess this is one of the easier ones, and doesn't annoy any rich people that may well be happy to donate to any political parties/be best buddies with MPs/give them high paid jobs when they leave parliament.

I think one of the saddest things in the article is that people with disabilities are still regarded as being some kind of 'liability' in the workplace, I can't believe managers still behave like that in interviews!

I know it irritates working people when those on benefits complain about how little they have etc, as seems to be the case with some on this thread, but when you lose the life you have worked for and hoped for, to be left with having to scrape by everyday with nothing to look forward to and seemingly no way out, made to feel like scum by everyone that hears how you pay your bills, it is very hard not to feel downtrodden and depressed, no matter how thankful you are to live in a society that offers help in your time of need.

Brightness

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

I am on DLA come bash me if you dare Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
I have worked from the age of 15 non stop until I got Osteoarthritis and am waiting for both knees to be replaced. I also have Osteoarthritis in both hands, COPD and continence issues .
My DLA goes towards mobility aids and copious amounts of drugs that I need. I also have to pay for compression stockings because I have had 2 DVT's in the last few years and have venous insufficiency in my legs.
My husband and children help me with showers, getting me dressed and cooking etc and my husband works full time and does not receive carers allowance . Both of the children are in college.

Have a look here about prepayment certificates http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcosts/Pages/Prescriptioncosts.aspx mine costs me £10.40 a month for 10 mths of the year. Your compression hosiery should be covered by the prepayment - make sure you get it on prescription!

Also, see if you can get an Occupational Therapist to come in and have a look to see what mobility aids they can help you with. They did it for my friend and she has had so much more of a 'quality life' since the supplies arrived. From what I can remember it was her GP who got someone from Social Services to go in and have a look at the house and also chat with her to see what they could help out with.

It has saved her a fortune

smiler03

I knew before I even got to this forum that the MSE Nazis would be on this guys back from the very start. Perfectly on cue comes the smoking/foreign holidays/Sky TV abuse with the "thank you for this post" button clicked.

I despise this forum, it is even worse then the Daily Telegraph comments. I recommend anybody who finds any of these comments distasteful to never come here again. I haven't been here for years for the sake of my sanity. I'm actually surprised that Martin still allows these "hate" threads to continue, it is very much to his detriment as far as I'm concerned.

I won't be reading any of your replies but I can be sure that at least one of you will reply so that you can earn those "thank you for this post" clicks. What a sorrowful bunch you are.

Good riddance.

RoughRook

I must first state that benefits fraud is wrong and a crime; not that the initial subject (Ross Goodall) of this thread is in anyway fraudulent and i pray that i never end up wearing his shoes. Good luck to him for the future.

BUT after reading some of the stuff on here, i think the issues of benefits fraud as a ratio against unclaimed benefits must be put into some perspective.

Billions in benefits go unclaimed - 10.5 billion pounds in 2008 according to the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8118478.stm
"Up to £10.5bn in income-related benefits went unclaimed in Britain in 2007-8, government figures reveal."

That's a far larger figure than the fraudulent claims one:

PM Mr David Cameron suggests that benefits fraud amounts to 1.5 billion:
http://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/uk_national_news/8323106.Cameron_reassures_over_benefits/
"The Prime Minister said the state was entitled to call on outside help to try to reduce the £1.5 billion lost by taxpayers to benefit fraud every year."


And according to the Guardian, to get some form of perspective on what the above figures mean:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/vodafone-tax-evasion-revenue-customs
"For Vodafone, HMRC reduced a potential liability not of about £7,000 to a little over £1,000 but of about £7bn to a little over £1bn and left the second-largest company on the stock market with a remarkably light tax bill."

'Divide and rule'......that's the name of their game, and sadly -from much content on here - it looks like they're winning.

Mara69

Dunroamin wrote: »

What a wasted opportunity of showing a sympathetic story about someone claiming and deserving benefits should be spoiled by inaccurate information which just makes the whole story more controversial. What a shame that MSE sjould publish this without checking the facts involved.

Personally, I hate the hypocrisy of MSE. No one is allowed to discuss benefits - there is a sticky to this effect. This board is apparently for benefit maximisation only - NOT discussion. Yet MSE trundle along and post up a highly dubious article to get everyone talking. When it gets out of hand they'll have to come along and get delete happy.

Ridiculous.