MSE News: Half a million could lose disability benefits

princessdon

nannytone wrote: »

what jobs were thise and where were they?

1 was a web design company asking for testers of websites, forums using jaws and others specifically wanting sensory applicants (I know becuause I personally know someone who got one of the many jobs). Working from home in your own time, £9.40 ph.

1 was a charity asking for phone calls taken in your home (mobile provided) to take calls.

1 was asking for a market researcher via forums and phone.

Probably more, but as I was only looking for a short time for the person concerned I didn't look before or after.

nannytone_2

none of those jobs were advertised in my local job centre. i go down every thursday morning.
and i also think that my disability advisor should also be looking for opportunities for me as well

dori2o

dktreesea wrote: »

Anyone with arthritis is going to struggle, relative to someone without the condition, to lead a normal life. Once it's in your knees/hips/feet it's hard to walk far. How did we get to the stage where we feel entitled to help ourselves to other people's money just because we are afflicted with a condition that limits us in some way and which we have to learn to manage?

In the majority of cases it is more expensive to live (not taking into account so called luxuries) as a disabled person compared to being able bodied.

That is why we have such things as DLA, it helps those who have these increased costs of basic living, through no fault of their own, live a somewhat normal life.

I cannot use public transport with my condition as a way of getting to and from work, partly due to the time it takes to travel to work and back, and partly because of the added pain involved in being cramped, being forced to stand, getting to and from bus/train/tram stations, and even just the waiting around.

Prior to my condition becoming so bad (2006) I travelled by public transport everyday, for commuting to and from work and for SDP purposes.

If I could use the bus/train/tram it would cost me somewhere in the region of £80 a month to get to and from work for a month at most. Cheapest it would be £50 a month.

It currently costs me in the region of £170 a month to travel to work by car. I don't have the choice to not travel by car. My employer has refused 5 requests for me to work from home.

I do, and have, tried almost everything there is available to help control my condition. The NHS in my area refuses to fund chinese acupuncture. A GP in our surgery offers it but even by his own admittance it is only a very basic understanding that he has. I therefore have to pay for this myself. I believe it has helped me to maintain a level of pain relief that allows me to function enough to be able to get to work. These sessions are £35 a session. I have 1 or 2 a month.

I also have reflexology sessions. Again the NHS refuses to pay for these, so I have to pay for them myself. These cost £25 a session and I have 1 a month.

Massages. I have a deep tissue massage on my legs and on my back. These cost £18 a session and I try and get one a month depending on finances.

None of the prescribed medications I have tried have offerred more than approx 5% pain relief. I therefore have to take matters into my own hands and purchase the one drug I know provides a substantial amount of relief, even if it is only for a short 3-4 hour period. This costs me approx £20 a month.

I spend approx £15/£20 a month on vtamins/suppliments/herbal medications, sports tape, tens machine pads.

My Dad can no longer tend to his garden, therefore in order to maintain it and keep it going (considering he has spent £thousands on it over the past 25 years whilst he was working) he has to get someone in to do it. That costs approx £60 a month.

My Dad worked in the building trade for 40 years until 4 years ago when the stresses and strains of 40 years of hard work, plus the effects of a hereditory and degenerative disease meant he had to stop working. He can no longer put right things that may go wrong with the house, therefore he has to pay someone else to do it.

Due to his condition and his IBS (which is caused as a consequence of his other conditions) he has a special diet which costs more than what is considered a normal one.

Those on DLA, despite your beliefs, are not sitting on mountains of money, they have real additional costs, and the DLA is calculated to take into account these additional costs. Some peoples will be more tha others, more than the DLA, some will be less.

To not provide these people with help would see them at a huge disadvantage, even if they can manage their conditions. Disadvantaged financially, physically, mentally, socially.

Once the disabled bashers have their wish and help/assistance for the disabled is abolished, no doubt their next step will be to abolish the adjsutments they are afforded in the workplace.

It's amazing that in this day there are still many people with the view the disabled should be left to rot. Why not go the whole hog and bring back asylums/institutes?

princessdon

nannytone wrote: »

none of those jobs were advertised in my local job centre. i go down every thursday morning.
and i also think that my disability advisor should also be looking for opportunities for me as well

They all came to me via email (for work I am registered with many agencies and charities.

dktreesea

nannytone wrote: »

because a disabled person has no CHOICE.
someone on JSA always has the hope that they will find a job. and if in the short term they don't, the can soend as much time as necessary hunting down the best bargains.
someone who has children has had them through CHOICE, but the children are supported regardless, as it isnt the child's fault.
nor is it the disabled persons fault. clothes wear out and necessary appliances ( fridge/cooker/washingmachines) break down.
disabled people are far more likely to need benefits for longer periods than able bodied people, and so have to be able to save a little for when things go wrong.

maybe you would be happier living somewhere that lets the healthy and wealthy flourish and the old, sick, disabled and young fend for themselves?

Yes, we may have no choice. But it doesn't then follow that we should get significant tax breaks (if working) or significantly higher payments than other non working people (if not working) due to that disability. The gap between what you get if disabled versus not disabled has grown so big that some sections of society are making great efforts to get themselves classified as disabled just so they can get more money. It's about time the government slowed this particular train down a bit.

mazza111

dktreesea wrote: »

You don't have to lie on the form. Just use wording that expresses what you can't do, or would prefer not to do without help, as opposed to how much you can do. I am more commenting on the attitude, that someone else, a healthprofessional, backed up by goodness knows what forms/scans/xrays, has decided I am disabled and therefore entitled to other people's money. I have no problem with being labelled "disabled". Anyone who is disabled has to work around their disability regardless of how much or little income they have.

What I am less keen on is the "someone's got to pay" culture we now have around disability. We've turned into a nation where being disabled pays well.

I said lie on the form because that's what you said you had been advised to do. Told to say you need someone with you, when you say you can walk up stairs albeit slowly. That would be fraud imo. If you're entitled to it, you will get it without lying. And at the end of the day. It would be your name signing the form not anyone else's.

I'm glad of every penny my lass gets from them. It makes her quality of life so much better. In an ideal world, services would be better and she wouldn't need to spend most of her money on taxis, but as they are at the moment. She's got a wee bit of a life. Without it, she'd have very little quality. Only being able to go out when her old mam is able to take her.

mazza111

Dori do you have a local college? I have recently started getting deep tissue massages at the local college, it's trainees who do it, but only had one that was a bit soft. But my fav girl is back on Thursday so I expect to be in pain by Thursday evening and feeling relatively good by Friday And the best bit, it's only £6 a session. Maybe if ur local college does something like that you could have a couple a month?

Just a thought if it would suit u

nannytone_2

JSA is £71.70 and ESA WRAF is £100.15.
yes a large enough difference, but ESA is for the longer term and surviving short term on JSA is really no harder than living on ESA long term.

my DLA doesnt cover the additional costs i have that are directly attributed to my disability.

i also have had hb reduced, due to having an extra room that i dont use and dont want. but there are no 1 bedroomed properties where i live, and my disability means that it is impossible for me to move, as my support network is here and i wouldnt manage in an unfamiliar place.

i have looked into getting a lodger, but with no success. being blind, i couldnt just let any stranger into my home, so need a recomendation

mazza111

dktreesea wrote: »

Yes, we may have no choice. But it doesn't then follow that we should get significant tax breaks (if working) or significantly higher payments than other non working people (if not working) due to that disability. The gap between what you get if disabled versus not disabled has grown so big that some sections of society are making great efforts to get themselves classified as disabled just so they can get more money. It's about time the government slowed this particular train down a bit.

So how would people pay for their extra needs? Keeping in mind that some aren't able to work. Should we just leave them there to rot?

nannytone_2

princessdon wrote: »

They all came to me via email (for work I am registered with many agencies and charities.

its no use you getting them by e mail if they arent making their way onto the job centres books