MSE News: George Osborne to make £10bn welfare cuts

looking4luck

I think the fact that David Cameron claimed Disability Living Allowance for his son while on 100k a year shows that he is a total hypocrite!

krisskross

looking4luck wrote: »

I think the fact that David Cameron claimed Disability Living Allowance for his son while on 100k a year shows that he is a total hypocrite!

Or that DLA should be means tested. You can't have it both ways.

Perhaps only those in the support group of ESA for instance should be eligible for DLA.

Dunroamin

looking4luck wrote: »

I think the fact that David Cameron claimed Disability Living Allowance for his son while on 100k a year shows that he is a total hypocrite!

And yet if he'd chosen not to claim it, that would be wrong according to some or he'd have been called a liar for saying he chose not to.

looking4luck

krisskross wrote: »

Or that DLA should be means tested. You can't have it both ways.

Perhaps only those in the support group of ESA for instance should be eligible for DLA.

Yes your right it should be means tested.

krisskross

Dunroamin wrote: »

And yet if he'd chosen not to claim it, that would be wrong according to some or he'd have been called a liar for saying he didn't choose to.

Or indeed that his son couldn't possibly have had a disability if he wasn't in receipt of DLA.

rogerblack

There are clear arguments for rolling up all sickness, disability and incapacity for work benefits into one assessment.

Everything from disability living allowance, employment and support allowance, industrial injuries disablement benefit, maternity allowance, attendance allowance, ...

But then it starts to get complicated.

Working age claimants are reasonable in some ways to separate out.

And how much do you treat those with contributions, or inborn conditions differently?
Is it right to compensate someone for lack of earning ability due to an accident at work, and not if that accident was going to the shops after work?
Then there is the fun issue of how do you deal with people who are less employable than a bona-fide disabled person, but have no actual disabilities.

Having separate components to benefit, rather than it all being in one has positives too.

Dunroamin

wattdallas wrote: »

I'm glad that your husband can manage to dress and bathe himself because if he could not it would be physically exhausting even impossible for you to do. Imagine if this happened when you were both much younger and just starting out ,when you haven't paid into private pensions .And one of you had to give up work and care ,sure you wouldn't have claimed dla and carers then ? You see some have had disabilities from birth or early on in life and some later in life. Don't judge until you have been in THEIR shoes.

Well, I do have to help him occasionally and it really isn't a big deal any more than it is for a parent to bathe and dress a small child.

Anyway, I wasn't talking about people who didn't have a choice about claiming but about people who do. Obviously there are many people who need genuine full time care and I'm happy that the financial support is there to help them.

ETA

And if more people who didn't really need benefits didn't claim, there would be more money in the pot to help those who do.

Anny_2

Dunroamin wrote: »

I think you'll find that the generation who fear claiming benefits because of the old means test is my parents' - those of us who were born during and after the last war have no experience of that, although we may have heard of it via them.

Of the disabled people I know, some claim DLA/AA and some (like my husband) do not. Of those who do claim, I know a couple who only do so because they were led to believe that only DLA claimants were able to have a blue badge.

To be honest, we might have claimed for that reason ourselves but we were fortunate to be advised by a disabled (non DLA claiming) colleague that it wasn't true and so were able to get a blue badge easily, about 10 years ago.

If your knowledge of disabled people is gained mainly through Welfare Rights and benefits forums, don't you think that this is going to give you a biased picture of who does and doesn't claim?

There is a whole world of disabled people who don't claim benefits which is why there is a demand for disability registers which don't rely on receiving any form of benefit. Why should you have to be in receipt of a benefit to get a blue badge or appropriate seating in a theatre or cinema? If these things were readily available for disabled people rather than for benefits claimants we would have far fewer people claiming DLA and a better picture of genuine disability.

My knowledge of disabled people and the impact of disability is far wider than that of welfare rights and benefit forums and although I do not have, in my opinion, the skill or qualifications to give benefit advice on forums, I am very much aware of the financial implications to the individual/family of disability.

I know there are many people who consider themselves disabled who do not claim the two non-means tested benefits for disability DLA/AA and, now, I can say from experience, that this is usually because they - do not qualify to claim (only 50% who apply qualify), they have other financial means and the small sum of benefit which they would receive is of no importance to them, they do not wish to be 'labelled' disabled, they lack the skills to fill in/source help to complete the application form or they under estimate their needs on application, or they are 'put off' by the benefits = scrounger beliefs or having read benefit forums to seek support have been 'put off' by judgments made by other forum users and then there are some that simply do not know of these benefits.

My figures are now several years old, but roughly there are 4m in receipt of DLA/AA and yet social surveys show that there are, again roughly, another 6m who say they have either life limiting long term illnesses or disability, who do not claim, and although not all would qualify, some would...so there are many, many not claiming.

I never knew that there was a belief that you had to be in receipt of DLA/AA to be eligible for a blue badge and have never encountered that in any research that, that would be a reason for claiming either benefit. Although, unlike you I do not think people being able to access certain disability related concessions would lead to 'far fewer people claiming' in that, if someone does qualify then their personal care/mobility needs and the related costs would only be met through DLA/AA, because not all disabled people have family to provide that care for free. If they do not have care/mobility needs that have related costs due to disability then they should not be claiming.

looking4luck

Dunroamin wrote: »

And yet if he'd chosen not to claim it, that would be wrong according to some or he'd have been called a liar for saying he didn't choose to.

I know and some would say well he was entitled to claim DLA, his poor son was ill.. so why shouldn't he? well then it's a moral issue, is it right to claim £80+ a week when one earn more than 100K? And furthmore then turn round 3 years later any start stripping the poorest people of the same DLA?

Ellejmorgan

looking4luck wrote: »

I think the fact that David Cameron claimed Disability Living Allowance for his son while on 100k a year shows that he is a total hypocrite!

I can't stand the man, I despise him, I think he needs a reality check, but I do think it's a little unfair that his child is discussed in this way, his child is deceased, and that's something I'd never want another parent to go through...