Loathe being on benefits but can't work

Spoonie_Turtle

MattMattMattUK said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Jimmy3838 said:

Hi

I've been on disability benefits for years and hate it because I live in fear every day incase they stop, and because of my health problems find it almost impossible to get a job that fits around my health problems.

Jimmy3838 said:

Please note: 'i get plenty of money on benefits but the living in fear they will stop 'outways' the comfortable money, so I'm Not happy'.

Any advice would be appreciated

Im Not greedy, just want enough money to survive and slightly more without being on benefits or working. 

Cheers 

The idea that you can have enough to live on without working or being on benefits is unfortunately for the birds. However finding a job you can do around your disabilities is certainly something you can do, focus on what you can do, from being on here you can obviously use a computer to some degree, so potentially almost any job you could do from home. 

Far from certain.  Many disabled and chronically ill people do manage to work enough to be able to survive, but especially with chronic illness (and I don't know the OP's situation) it is difficult, stressful, and a lot of them freelance which means their income fluctuates unpredictably.  Not everyone can freelance, some people simply cannot develop the right skills/temperament for it.  And not everyone can engage in paid work.  One post on a forum does not mean they somebody could do paid work, and it may certainly does not mean they could work enough to survive without any benefits.

I don't want to be pessimistic, just realistic.  Encouragement is good, and you bring up good points about how to go about finding something that pays, but making absolute statements without knowing anything about the OP's situation is unwise - they could have that word 'certainly' ringing in their head and then if they try to work and it doesn't work out (or even makes them more ill), who knows the impact that could have, being told they 'certainly' should be able to?

OP, whatever your health conditions, you are allowed to try some work without losing your benefits.  Maybe try asking a charity that specialises in supporting people with your health condition(s)/disability if they can help?  If you are able to use social media, connecting with others in a similar situation could be useful, to find out how they manage to work.  But I will say most of the disabled people I know who work, very successfully, also still claim PIP because they are entitled to it, it's not a benefit to do with work.

You definitely need some personal advice, better than we can give through an anonymous forum.  And I'm really sorry the culture of degrading people on benefits this government has perpetuated is affecting you like this, it's not fair and you most certainly should not feel you need to do anything beyond what you can manage just to escape the fear or them being arbitrarily stopped.

And if trying to work will make you more ill, please don't push yourself.  

I suspect you are correct, I am generally a realist, far from an optimist or a pessimist, but I also tend to somewhat overestimate people's ability to mentally brute force their way though situations. I have a friend who lost the use of both legs in a car accident, he was a carpenter, he ended up retraining as a software developer and now makes guitars and surfboards in a workshop in his garden as well as a side job. Personally I am in my late thirties and have had effectively three different careers, some transferable skills but a lot of that has involved me taking on a completely different skill set for most of the job tasks, so I tend to retrain as required and that might mean I overestimate others ability to do the same. 

I agree with all you have said though, you are right that the OP should explore options, do not risk making themself more ill etc. 

That's where the saying 'if you've met one disabled person, you've met one disabled person' comes from.  Disability is such a wide and varied spectrum; people with disabilities that are primarily physical tend to be much more able to live a fairly typical life in many ways than people with chronic illnesses, mental illnesses, neurodivergence, etc.  (But not all people with primarily physical disabilities, of course - each disabled person has their own unique set of circumstances and comparison is almost always detrimental.)

Attitude is … not irrelevant, because it influences how you feel about your life and circumstances, and whether you are able to accept and work with your limitations or keep fighting then and getting worse, but it is completely irrelevant to what and how much a person is able to do.  There are many people who simply cannot engage in regular work, paid or unpaid. 

I actually joined a fully online project in an area of keen interest thinking I might be able to commit to an average of two hours a week (that I could even do in bed, completely flexible, no set times just working through something at my own pace) … nope.  I lasted two weeks, then had to admit to myself that I wasn't going to finish the first stage within the initial anticipated four weeks.  Thankfully they are willing to be flexible but I'm still not finished, a month later, and I don't know if I'll be able to do any of the next stage at all which was the main point of the project.  Pretty gutting, because it's something I'd wanted to do for a few years and was so excited to finally find something I theoretically could do in that area, but my body and brain just weren't up to it on top of getting through my very small and limited daily life.

And there are people for whom the internet is their only connection with the outside world, they can manage a short time online and that's their only activity for the day because they can't do or cope with anything else.  [There are also people more ill than that, but the outside world doesn't see them of course, online or in real life.  We only know about them if a carer documents some of their life.]

More often people simply cannot work because surviving every day is a full-time job; some might be able to work a little (not enough to support themselves though) if they had enough care to free up some physical and/or mental energy they could use towards work rather than activities of daily living, but some still couldn't because the totally exhausting battle to get through each day is internal and nobody can do that for them.  And it's common for illnesses and conditions to fluctuate, so we might see people in daily life or online during their better, more bearable times, but not in their more unwell or more difficult times.

TL;DR: we can't make assumptions about what people would be able to do or not.  (Even if it's someone we know we can't really make assumptions, unless they've shared detailed information with us about their lives and how their disability/ies affect them, enough to make informed predictions about how they'd do with XYZ event or situation.)

Jimmy3838

I Never thought of that lol 🤔😃, there would be a fear of losing a gamble, yep it was just a random thought