Fund for Ross Goodall- Who's in+how do we start?

FunnySaving

OP - you might be better off putting your efforts towards one of the existing campaigns to ensure that benefit reforms are conducted in a fair and balanced way.

biscit

jamespir wrote: »

theres countless others who havent had the pleasure of putting their story in the papers and live on less than mr goodal wouldnt it be nice to help them all rather than one person

Isn't the point to illustrate the life of a non-scrounging person, representative of the majority on benefits, to counter the image of all the second-hand accounts of "undeserving" people.

buel

Now I don't want any negative comments on this thread, let me make that clear right now. If you don't agree then please, please, just do not post.

and yet STILL you just can't resist can you?

Here, i'll say it again: If you don't agree then please, please, just do not post.
How you can read what i put and then still decide to start putting a downer on the idea, I don't know. It's shocking. I asked very politely too, I didn't just 'say' as Padz put, I 'asked', that's the difference.

Ok, Madjock, Nicolafine, jamespir, fluffnutter, arcon5, Padz, FunnySaving, here's two things for you, let's see what you think of this:
1, At my place of work (manual labour), it gets very cold sometimes. There are six of us all doing the same job but in our own bays. Some of us at the one end of our section have fairly decent heaters above us but one 60 year old man near the other end has a poor heater and where he is situated catches the wind from an opening door. Now, we have alerted our employers who say that they will try to sort the heater out for the 60 year old man. They may do it before the summer comes, they may not.
We have pushed hard on behalf of the decent 60 year old bloke and will continue to do so, however, most of the time the temperature is around 13 degrees (The HSE recomendation is '13 degrees if much of the work is physical', which it is.)
So we decided to club together, I asked the lads for just £2 each and i bought a small heater for £16 for the 60 year old man.
The result is he is much happier because he can warm himself. He now gets on better with all of us than he did before because he appreciates what we did. We all feel better about ourselves and happier that the bloke is now warmer.

So, according to the way you all feel, with quotes like 'What are you going to do with this fund? Pay for a few pints down the pub? Do his shopping for him?', 'theres countless others who havent had the pleasure of putting their story in the papers and live on less than mr goodal wouldnt it be nice to help them all rather than one person' and 'Wouldn't you be better off raising money for a charity so the money can be used to help many?', you are maybe suggesting that what we should have done was leave him feel the cold?

2, Watch this, this is all of you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXpUwBJ2SS8

In answer, in particular, to 'Madjock', yes actually, even if it does end up just buying him a pint, that would be absolutely fine by me. Quite simply, I have a few quid spare, he doesn't.

In answer to FunnySaving-

you might be better off putting your efforts towards one of the existing campaigns to ensure that benefit reforms are conducted in a fair and balanced way.

I do actually, I just wanted to give a guy a break too.

So, when you all go to bed tonight, I want you to put your head on the pillow and think to yourselves: So, i read Buel's post, read the story about Ross Goodall, and decided 'No, I wont give that man any of my money'. Because that is EXACTLY what happened.
Personally, I don't care if there is no thing as altruism (as the argument goes) and i don't care if I do want to give him a tenner so that I feel better. The result will be I feel better and someone in greater need than me gains a tenner.

meer53

It's nice that you want to help this man but you can't really expect people on a forum, many who are desperately struggling to pay their essential bills, to post positive responses.

It's also nice that you helped your work colleague but could you not just have swapped bays with him ?

If it makes you feel better to help this man then go ahead, just don't expect everyone else to feel the same. I help out a friend who has been declared bankrupt through no fault of her own, but i'm not expecting anyone else to do the same. Nor would i post any requests on a forum. She'd be horrified if i did.

rustyboy21

It is a really good article and I do feel sorry for him.

However I do think you are jumping the gun a little. He is not asking for a handout from the general public, he is after a job. His argument is that he is willing to work, with the disabilty he has, but doesnt get the chance due to his disability. An employer sees his wrist and immediately they will start thinking,'' is he viable for work here, is he going to take a lot of time off due to it, if so we will have to pay stat sick pay, is he a H&S risk, etc'' It is harsh, but it is true and until someone is willing to give him the chance to prove what he can do, he is now on a never ending merry go round.

I do know what I am talking about here, as my OH hasn't worked in 10 years. He was rushed into hospital in abominal agony, straight to theatre and opened up from chest height to groin, in a 'x' shape. Had spleen removed, most of his bowel and a kidney. They damaged his stomach muscles in the process, but it was life or death, said he could have died in an hour if not done.

He cannot even lift a 5kg bag of spuds safely now and spends most of his life waiting for the next bout of having to go the loo, has to wear pads if we go out , which isn't often.

He is on ICB. He applied for Disbailty living , but was turned down as not ill enough, appealed, but told cos he could walk more than the criteria, he wasn't eligible. My wages are only way we survive.

So he is not on his own. There are a lot of genuine people out there who get tarred with the same brush as the scroungers.

As said above, he isn't after charity, doesn't seem to be the kind who would accept it anyway and I feel that he could take it as an insult if he was offered it.

Instead, if you feel so inclined, see if you can find out an address from the paper or a friend, and send a small token, like a small hamper, tickets to the pictures, something for his kids etc, anything except money. Just something to tell him, you feel for him and his family and youare sending something which, hopefully shows him that he is thought of.

Sorry for the long post

Homeagain

Now I don't want any negative comments on this thread, let me make that clear right now. If you don't agree then please, please, just do not post.

Sorry, I shouldn't have posted-OP you did make it very clear and I apologise. Better keep my thoughts to myself.

jamespir

you can't decide who post's op its a public forum and anyone can post their opinion

Madjock

Just send the guy a tenner and get over yourself will you?

fluffnutter

My reply wasn't in the least 'negative'. It was a comment on the responsibilities we have to one another, and where the government fits into that complex picture. Your desire, buel, is to help a man whom is being let down by the welfare state. Very admirable, well done you. But that's not fixing the problem. That's just giving credence to the current Tory campaign to reduce the welfare state and shift the burden of community support to the individual (the 'Big Society'). Every time a philanthropist (however well-intentioned) steps in and relieves the government of their duty to help those who are disabled or whatever, it undermines and damages the tenet that we are a society which looks after its less fortunate, from government downwards.

fluffnutter

buel wrote: »

1, At my place of work (manual labour), it gets very cold sometimes. There are six of us all doing the same job but in our own bays. Some of us at the one end of our section have fairly decent heaters above us but one 60 year old man near the other end has a poor heater and where he is situated catches the wind from an opening door. Now, we have alerted our employers who say that they will try to sort the heater out for the 60 year old man. They may do it before the summer comes, they may not.
We have pushed hard on behalf of the decent 60 year old bloke and will continue to do so, however, most of the time the temperature is around 13 degrees (The HSE recomendation is '13 degrees if much of the work is physical', which it is.)
So we decided to club together, I asked the lads for just £2 each and i bought a small heater for £16 for the 60 year old man.
The result is he is much happier because he can warm himself. He now gets on better with all of us than he did before because he appreciates what we did. We all feel better about ourselves and happier that the bloke is now warmer.

So the next time a problem occurs at work, your employer will be even less likely to help. They know full well that if they just ignore the problem, everyone else will eventually step in and sort it out themselves. It's a heater this time and only cost a couple of quid each. But what about next time? Are you all going to shell out £50 for some new bogs? £150 for a whipround for a new roof?

You're merely accepting short-term results at the expense of long-term ones. It solves nothing in the long run. I expect your employer's laughing his arse off.