make do and mend for tougher times

Popperwell

Funny you should say that about a bike PAH as that thought crossed my mind. Even if you use a walking stick it goes against you but if I didn't(and still often have to hold onto things when I use the stick)my walking is unsteady.

I cannot always sit or stand for a long time or if I do I need to lie down and rest. Now as that goes on my DLA form usually I sometimes worry that will be used against me if I go to say a theatre or on a holiday/coach trip as they'll say you managed that but of course such treats are rare and I do my best to rest before hand...I could not do it regularly. And if I was not well, I would cancel.

I could not do shopping every day and most of the time I get help from shop assistants/taxi drivers. As you have said you have to go out but do often then have to take to your bed...my CAB advisior years ago said give the worst case scenario and answer questions more negatively but the new forms and having seen the assesments on the tv documentaries, I wonder how anyone is awarded points and win their case.

fuddle

What happens if someone loses their benefit for illness? Would they then claim job seekers allowance? Is that what they want people to do? I can't see the difference between claiming benefit for poorly people or benefit for people seeking work. If there's not a job, an appropriate job then there's going to be some claiming needed surely, just under a different heading? I don't understand the process or the thinking behind it.

grandma247

fuddle wrote: »

I don't understand the process or the thinking behind it.

I suspect thinking was not done. They will soon change things when the jobless total goes up. The last lot of blues sent people sideways to make it look like the jobless total had gone down.

prepareathome

Oh Pooky it just doesn't seem possible that its human beings that write those instructions - well not thinking ones.

I read they only have 11 recording machines for the whole of the UK so that is not even one per area...........the idea of course is they do not what what was said recorded.

Fuddle thanks for asking I eventually fell asleep about midnight and although woke up a few times didn't actually wake up enough to move till nearly 4pm:eek:

Pain levels high with me missing a dose but at least was able to sleep where as Sunday night pain kept me awake............oh fibro etc can be fun........

Rained here according to hubby all day but suddenly around 5pm it stopped and that yellow ball appeared for an hour the back to dull and overcast, but as my bed is near the window can get away with daylight still just now. Past few days have had to put light on around 5pm.

I posted on winter thread I received my annual gas statement today. I spent £505 for past year on gas which pleases me as it down a lot compared to previous years ( before we had combi boiler and CH and only had the one gas fire and water was heated by electric bills used to top £1000. So using gas for more but it costs less........that gas fire used to eat up money. I get £15 back each Sept for being a dual customer so that gets spent on gas so in reality its £490 I laid out for gas this past year.

I know compared to many mine will be high but although they keep saying go on an ordinary meter I prefer to stick to prepay. It scares the life out of me the thought of getting a big bill to pay. We have never ever gone without heat,light etc., not even in our poorest times and I just like to know if heat has to go up - we keep it on 18c all year round and so only comes on if drops below that - I never have to worry about the bill that will come afterwards.

I find cold can make pain worse and body even stiffer so never stint but 18c seems to work for us. Yes fleeces are worn when needed and hubby will snuggle under fleece blankets but house is still comfortable.

So if anyone is considering a combi boiler I would say go for it - ok I didn't buy mine but if I suddenly lived somewhere without one I darned would save up for one.

Electric statement to follow that will be higher as used for far more.

Popperwell

fuddle wrote: »

What happens if someone loses their benefit for illness? Would they then claim job seekers allowance? Is that what they want people to do? I can't see the difference between claiming benefit for poorly people or benefit for people seeking work. If there's not a job, an appropriate job then there's going to be some claiming needed surely, just under a different heading? I don't understand the process or the thinking behind it.

Fuddle,
I don't think any right minded person likes what's happening even if they don't have the solution to the problem(supposedly that's why we have politicians)I still think there is enough money sloshing about in the system to afford welfare. I hate to say it but this government goes on about the borrowing under the last one but this one has borrowed/is borrowing as much or will by the time it's finished.

And though they borrow, they give money to countries abroad. When a disater hits that's understandable but many experts have questioned some of the foreign aid.

I am to some extent minded to say help those in your own country when things get tough, if you do perhaps if things improve and the economy is better perhaps you can resume your plans and actually help more than you are able to now...

I think it's more political dogma(and I'm not a change of government would make any difference)some of the ideas this government is running with were started by the previous party.

So when one party has a go at the other it's mainly pantomime...Bit political there but they've moved away from castigating the so called unemployed and now have those who are most disadvantaged in their sights(The ill, the sick)

And the media has ignored this for some reason until the documentaries from the other night(still available on the internet for a few more days)

The House of Lords is always criticised and they are tryingto reform it but they were the only people who tried to stop many of the changes including the Bedroom Tax. But some fancy political footwork was done and as the Government has the numbers to carry their plans through, it's going to happen.

I've tried to say this in an unbiased way.

Unfortunately, many of the people having a go at the welfare state(have never had to use it)and see the odd bad story in the press or on TV and they tar the majority of genuine people with the same brush.

prepareathome

Popperwell wrote: »

Unfortunately, many of the people having a go at the welfare state(have never had to use it)and see the odd bad story in the press or on TV and they tar the majority of genuine people with the same brush.

So true Pops, have you read some on the Discussion thread.......a lot of benefit bashing goes on there as people read in the papers, here it on the news that most unemployed don't want jobs and most on that were on Incapacity Benefit were fit and healthy and just pretending.......so they look at those who are unemployed or ill and say they are lying.

There was an article a while ago in the guardian I think about a woman who had been well off and first her husband died but she was earning well so not to bad then she was in a car accident and has not been able to work since and never will again............She didn't have to claim straight away as she had savings and admitted she had always been one to presume most claiming benefits were workshy or pretending to be ill and was all for the cuts. Then she had to start claiming for herself and her children and was refused told she was able to work and her eyes were opened....

Not something I would wish on anyone but while they are people out there who think as she did the cuts will continue.

Popperwell

grandma247 wrote: »

I suspect thinking was not done. They will soon change things when the jobless total goes up. The last lot of blues sent people sideways to make it look like the jobless total had gone down.

I don't mind being moved sideways:pIt's if everything stops. And if they did that would they do it with those they've messed up already or just new claimants?

I don't think really anyone knows what to do. The company that does these tests does not have a good reputation but my last test was done by Government appointed Dr's the first dismissed my claim even though I was in pain, fatiqued, could not walk much and was heading for dialysis, transplant or death and am still on very, very strong drugs. The report was full of lies. The second Dr said that I should not even be having the test.

Popperwell

Yes PAH,
Lots of stories like that(where people have tried to claim and been unsuccessful)

When talking to someone at call centre earlier today we moved off why I was calling and chatted...she was telling me a family friend(lady 54 years old)just had a heart opertaion they took the veins out of her leg.

She's struggling, she's been taken off benefits and been told she is fit, I think she's appealing and submitting evidence from her Dr and Consultant. But anyway as this call centre person said who is likely to take her on if she does apply for work?

Over someone younger and is fit and unlikely to need time off or may be ill again in the future...that may sound as though you are writing someone off who could still contribute in someway but that's the argument this Government likes to use...

GreyQueen

You're talking sense to me, Pops. I encounter a few people socially who have continiously been in well-paid employment, and their family and friends likewise, who have an attitude to the less fortunate which can tactfully be described as uncharitable, to say the least.

Some people have the idea that those who struggle to find, or to keep, work must be bone idle and unskilled. And those who are too poorly to work must be liars and cheats.

Of course, long before there was anything like a social welfare system, there were people who were too sick and too disabled or too young or too old, to support themselves. They were helped by family, charity, mutual associatons, religious groups or no one helped them and they starved on the streets and in the hedges.

Occasionally, I encounter through my work, people who were formerly in the Smug-Secure category and have been sideswiped by ill-health, redundancy, family breakdowns etc etc. What they quickly discover is that social security is about as secure as a cardboard raft, to steal a phrase I recall left-wing journalist Polly Toynbee using back in the 1980s.

They get lot less help than they thought others were getting, and it is harder to climb back. Some people have been bushwacked by redudancies several times in a decade and each time, have struggled back into work but with poorer pay and conditions as it is very much an employers' market out there and there aren't too many of us who have such rarified skills that we can name our price.

This divide-and-rule aspect to the current troubles is disgusting and makes me very angry. We can all be catapulted from comfort and security to uncertainty and despair in the blink of an eye. Short of winning the lottery, bounding in the opposite direction at speed is virtually impossible.

I enjoy pondering the unforeseen consequences of decisions. There are always many, and what is glaringly-obvious to Jo(e) Ordinary seems to elude some very clever people, particularly when they are sucked into the anteroom to hell otherwise known as Westminster Village.

As just a passing example, say that there will be no provision of state support in time of illhealth or unemployment. What will people do when they are working? Will they spend on non-essentials or will they sock away every penny they can lay their hands on to stave off possible destitution? What impact for the wider economy if a million GQs decide that we can get by with one pair of shoes at a time rather than two? Or that we'll drink a cuppa from our flask instead of going into that cafe and providing a small-business owner with a living, not to mention the teen waitress with a job and the supply companies with a customer?

It all goes around and around and down the plughole if you put the Fear on people.

grandma247

What happened to many was that those who claimed unemployment were lied to and told they could go on sickness benefits and they would be no worse off. ( I don't know how they squared it)

A lady I knew had this happen. She had two children and was a single mum.
She lost out to the tune of £15 a week and twenty years ago that was a heck of a lot of money to lose.