MSE News: Disability and carer's allowance claimaints to suffer as inflation falls

FBaby

and i would like to point out that by trafing the mobility componant of SLA/PIP in for a car costs the tax payer NO MORE than if the person chose not to get a motability car...

Isn't there the free car disk, maintenance and insurance that comes for free with it too though?

Beebiegee

You seem to think that people on disability benefits are all fakes, try thinking about living your life with secondary progressive MS, I can't walk, I have chronic insomnia chronic weakness, chronic pain in back & legs, I have numbness in my limbs, I am freezing cold all the time, I suffer from spasms, I have spactisity in my feet & more. I worked very hard for a living paid taxes and N.I until I became ill. Perhaps you would like to swap, I know I would gladly swap with you!!! Or how about my friend who has terminal cancer perhaps you'd swap with her. Or maybe the government should bring in euthanasia? I'm sure that would cost less, because the able bodied have more right to a life don't you think? I wonder who that reminds us all of? A certain manic depressive with a little black moustache. People who scam disability irritate me much more than they irritate you, but people who bad mouth the sick and the injured irritate me even more!

FBaby

It amazes and sicken me that people can begrudge or be jealous of those who are disabled using their benefits to 'lease' a car.

The confusion on this forum is that it is assumed that those who bemoaned the use of motability do so for anyone claiming. It is not the case. Anyone with advanced MS who can't walk with a limited lifespan is in genuine need of a motability car. The people I have an issue with are those like a friend of a friend who got a new car because her daughter was disabled (although able to walk ok, get on the bus etc...) but used the car every other week-end to drive 5 hours to go and see her boyfriend whilst her daughter stayed with her father.

All disabled posters here seem to have a very legitimate need for the disabled benefits they claim, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to represent my every day experience of people claiming DLA/motability.

nannytone_2

FBaby wrote: »

Isn't there the free car disk, maintenance and insurance that comes for free with it too though?

all that is factored into the cost to the claimant.
motability get an extremely good deal on lease terms, which is why the scheme os affordable. gitto with insurance.
anyone receiving high rate mobility is entitled to the free road fund licence so that isnt an issue to do with motability cars

fed_up_and_stressed

FBaby wrote: »

The confusion on this forum is that it is assumed that those who bemoaned the use of motability do so for anyone claiming. It is not the case. Anyone with advanced MS who can't walk with a limited lifespan is in genuine need of a motability car. The people I have an issue with are those like a friend of a friend who got a new car because her daughter was disabled (although able to walk ok, get on the bus etc...) but used the car every other week-end to drive 5 hours to go and see her boyfriend whilst her daughter stayed with her father.

All disabled posters here seem to have a very legitimate need for the disabled benefits they claim, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to represent my every day experience of people claiming DLA/motability.

So are you a doctor ? I take it you know all these people's in depth medical history that you seem to judge as being unworthy of DLA / PIP ... These benefits have a very very low fraud rate and and not handed out willy nilly . People have to undertake tests.

People may have fluctuating conditions ..e.g somedays I can walk a little bit somedays not at all it doesn't mean I am a "faker" because I don't fit into say a neighbours ill concieved idea of what disabled is. Can't fake the lesions in my brain.

Hence the uproar when George Takei published the facebook meme about someone standing up in a wheelchair to reach alcohol in a supermarket as a "miracle in the alcohol isle".


Also those shiny Motability cars such as my WAV will never belong to the leasee and may have a very hefty non refundable deposit (mines costs me £3500 on top of 5 years PiP so would have been cheaper to buy outright).

If I was well enough to work fulltime I would earn much more than benefits. My PIP enables me to work and hence still be a net contributor to society due to being on a decent rate of pay.

northerntwo1

Tropez wrote: »

To be honest, I know a full-time carer and the amount of work they have to do is astonishing. It's a full time, 24/7 job. People knock those on benefits but the amount of effort those who are full-time carers put into it for the low amount of money (massively below minimum wage) they receive is staggering and the person I know barely scrapes by from what I can tell.

I know there are those who somehow diddle the system and get far too much. It is a shame that those few (and they are a few, the statistics prove it) sour so many against those who are just as hardworking even though they rely on the government for support.

In my personal opinion I don't understand carers allowance and how it is paid. I've asked a few months ago and no one could explain so if someone can help me understand I'd be grateful.

I've always had slight mobility issues and tiredness. Early this year I had a bad accident that left me with several broken bones, torn ligaments and surgery. When I came out of hospital I couldn't use 1 arm fully, other arm only partially and only 1 leg. As you can imagine it meant I was as much use a chocolate fire guard. I needed help with everything. If I lived alone the cost of care would have been extortionate, so I fully understand what people say when they talk of having such higher additional costs.

But I don't live alone. The actual care I received was 2 hours a day and that is a very generous figure. You could say my husband had to cook for me, but he needs to eat so he had to cook for him and children. Plating up my tea is seconds which is all it really was over his own needs. He still needs to wash his clothes and children's clothes so my 'bit' added wasn't much. Yet he could claim carers for that when he's doing his own anyway.

If I was single, it would be very different. Someone would need to cook just for me, clean just for me and this would be very time consuming and expensive.

So care needs are identical but because you have a partner it's less time consuming. Yet both are paid identical rates. The system would treat my single person the same as a partnered one. It wouldn't take into account that my husband can work as he's not travelling to do the care, not having to cook someone's meal then go home and cook his own. One is hugely expensive and time consuming and one just an hour a day. Both (if DLA was awarded) are treat the same.

Yet my single person who needs to pay for wheels on meals, cleaners, carers is severely financially disadvantaged whilst the partnered one doesn't need to spend nearly as much.

This is what I fail to understand if honest. Why they don't look at things more logically. I also don't understand how people can be awarded based on needing care that they don't have or pay for. Surely for example if someone needs promoting to take medications and they have no one, then they don't take the medication. I am just truly not understanding the link between how they judge care needs versus actual care given for the reasons above.

I appreciate it's probably easier to just give it out but surely there are losers (my single self) and winners (my married self) as DLA would be pocket money or a pittance on care depending on who. Yet needs are the same.

nannytone_2

whether someone lives alone or with someone else is irrelevant for carers allowance.
it has very strict, but set criteria.
1. the person receiving the care has to get DLA care at least the middle rate or either rate of PIP.
the person providing the care has to give a minimum of 35 hours a week of care.
the carer cannot earn more than £100ish a week ( some expenses are allowable)

as for people living alone being worse off ...
these people, if they get income related benefits, get automatic premiums added as long as no one claims carers allowance, so the extra is available to pay for care.
also people can ask for a docial services assessment and get help either through carers being provided or direct payments to employ someone.

so those living alone and in need of care can recieve it from other sources rather than carers allowance

Tropez

northerntwo1 wrote: »

In my personal opinion I don't understand carers allowance and how it is paid. I've asked a few months ago and no one could explain so if someone can help me understand I'd be grateful.

I'm afraid I don't know the ins and outs of it, not being in that position. From what I can tell though, Carer's Allowance is granted for those who spend so many hours a week caring for someone who also has a qualifying benefit, or registered disability. I do know, for example, that someone who cares for an elderly person in receipt of attendance allowance can claim carer's allowance (as that is what my friend is doing).

I don't believe (though I could be wrong) you can claim carer's allowance if you cannot demonstrate that you spend so many hours (I think it's 35...) looking after someone who cannot... I dunno, survive I guess is one word, on their own without assistance and as I say, I'm pretty sure they have to be in receipt of a qualifying benefit as well. My friend mentioned that their elderly relative who they care for was contacted by the relevant office to check on the claim.

northerntwo1

Tropez wrote: »

I'm afraid I don't know the ins and outs of it, not being in that position. From what I can tell though, Carer's Allowance is granted for those who spend so many hours a week caring for someone who also has a qualifying benefit, or registered disability. I do know, for example, that someone who cares for an elderly person in receipt of attendance allowance can claim carer's allowance (as that is what my friend is doing).

I don't believe (though I could be wrong) you can claim carer's allowance if you cannot demonstrate that you spend so many hours (I think it's 35...) looking after someone who cannot... I dunno, survive I guess is one word, on their own without assistance and as I say, I'm pretty sure they have to be in receipt of a qualifying benefit as well. My friend mentioned that their elderly relative who they care for was contacted by the relevant office to check on the claim.

I know that it's just cooking a meal for example. If you are cooking a meal for an elderly relative not in your house, you need to shop, cook, wash up and travel. I have friends who do this so it's easily an hour a day. If the elderly person was living with you, it's no extra time. You are doing your own anyway. It's just bewildering to me that it's treat the same. They both demonstrate the hours but reality is for one those hours are needed for their own needs.

Indie_Kid

FBaby wrote: »

The people I have an issue with are those like a friend of a friend who got a new car because her daughter was disabled (although able to walk ok, get on the bus etc...) but used the car every other week-end to drive 5 hours to go and see her boyfriend whilst her daughter stayed with her father.

I know someone who has a car on Motability who is perfectly capable of walking. He's blind and can only see shadows.

It is, if you bother to look at the criteria, possible to receive higher rate mobility and walk.