DWP Proposing To Scrutinize Bank Accounts?

Theexwife - DLA is paid to people to help them live with their disability. You ARE ALLOWD to work full time/part time/ volunteer. So your people are allowed to do just what they are doing!!

I used to like Gransnet but now someone mentions disability and lo and behold...Unless you are a dribbling, wheelchair bound disabled person you are cheating the system

Differently abled disabled people exist...and I'm out - this group isn't worth belonging too if you are disabled because almost every person here talks about the disabled as if they are all dishonest cheats...Not people struggling to live in an able world - with know it alls who know nothing destroying us!

I see this as a gross invasion of privacy, and also as a means of further humiliating those on benefits. There are many things that could be done to make things fairer - eg tightening up on loopholes that allow couples to claim two lots of tax allowance when only one is paying tax, and generally prosecuting more tax evasion and fraud.

I suppose the devil is in the detail, too. If the checks are 'just' to see if there are other income sources going into accounts it is one thing, but are claimants going to be asked why they bought from Waitrose instead of Aldi, or whether they could cut back on TV subscriptions? If that is the case my annoyance at this will turn immediately to disgust.

My grandparents were born in 1908, and lived through the Depression. I remember my grandfather saying that the means test in those days involved someone coming to the house and looking round at what could be sold. If you had anything at all of value it had to be sold before you could claim assistance (this was before the Welfare State). If you were on the margins of poverty there was no point in trying to 'better yourself' as anything you had could be taken from you when times were hard. He had tears in his eyes when he told me about his piano, which he had to sell to keep the wolf from the door. Others lost winter coats, books, anything that wasn't immediately necessary for basic survival.

Naturally, this caused bad feeling between neighbours, who saw people hiding treasured possessions from the public assistance people, and resented it when they lost their own things. 'Snitching' was rife then, too. Divide and rule has always been used to keep people at the bottom of the pile.

Do we really want to go back to those dehumanising practices? Yes, there will be some who play the system. Some will be proud of it, and others just desperate. But let's not allow the system of giving help to the poor to disintegrate altogether, and for heaven's sake let's not make people have to justify every penny they spend. As King Lear says 'Allow not Nature more than Nature needs, man's life's as cheap as beasts'.'

Allsorts

I do hope those on UC, I had never heard if it until recently, are not worried by this post.

Whether or not they are worried by this post, they will be worried by the government's action.

You are not being "silly" Nanatoone. Dont listen to those who say you are. Why would anyone not see this as another step on a very slippery slop

What is ‘wealth income’ DAR?

DaisyAnneReturns

But are they 5 million desks jobs that those disabled people can do in the place where they live, ginnycomelately?

Not only that, but some people receiving disability benefits do work and use the money they receive to enable them to do so. I had a colleague with MS, who received disability benefits and used the money to pay for an adapted car, a wheelchair, a special chair for his desk and an assistant to help him move round the building.

However, as Katie59 pointed out, it's much harder for people with cognitive impairments or those who just don't have the ability to do desk jobs (if they exist).

Margs

As regards assessment for Disability Benefit I am amazed that an experienced and fully qualified GP's opinion can be disregarded by a JobCentre lackey who has been on a cut-price crash course (probably run by G4S) and maybe hasn't even got a First Aid certificate but is alllowed to dictate who is ill and who isn't!

The whole system amazes me. Why do we still get £10 at Christmas. It could be 'included' in the basic pension.

One of the things that gets me is sheer nastyness. The could actually have presented it as something that would help stop people who have difficulties loosing there benefit.

Obviously, should the Labour Party be privileged to serve, it could be used to pick up wealth income, especially when they decide wealth income is just income and tax it the same as earned income.

Obviously there will be about the same percentage trying to con the "tax-payer" (life's like that) but the amounts recovered will be hugely bigger.

As regards assessment for Disability Benefit I am amazed that an experienced and fully qualified GP's opinion can be disregarded by a JobCentre lackey who has been on a cut-price crash course (probably run by G4S) and maybe hasn't even got a First Aid certificate but is alllowed to dictate who is ill and who isn't!

ginnycomelately

On radio 4 today a Lincolnshire MP said that there are 7 million people claiming disability benefit , Of them all 5 million could work maybe desk jobs , Now that really is food for thought , We all know people who could work but are getting benefits and all that goes with them, many are much better off than Gransnetters

Why do you assume "claiming disability benefit" mean none of them are working? Disability Benefits are not means tested and many work while receiving them. But that's probably not what you want to hear, is it

I do hope those on UC, I had never heard if it until recently, are not worried by this post.

That Lincolnshire MP is far out of reality, there are some disabled that could do desk jobs from home, many already do I’m sure.
With technology changes those jobs are becoming fewer and AI will reduce them further, another obstacle to widespread disability employment is many have intellectual or mental disability. I hope it is made easier for those who are wanting to work, I’m not expecting it to affect many.

Theexwife

I thought the DWP already did that if there was a suspicion of benefit fraud.

I know of two people receiving DLA and working full time, claiming to be disabled does not always mean that you are.

It irritates me when people claim they are unable to work yet spend all day on social media, there are many jobs that involve just doing that for companies.

Theexwife - DLA (Disabled Living Allowance) or PIP (Personal Independence Payment) are both intended to help a person cope with the extra costs of living with a long-term disability or illness, whether they are working or not. It's not against the rules to work while receiving these particular benefits. In one place I worked, the Office Manager was receiving DLA, she worked but was severely disabled - she needed a Personal Assistant to hoist her on and off the toilet, in and out of her wheelchair, feed her and fetch and carry for her - her DLA helped her to pay the PA, taxis etc. The whole point of these two benefits is to enable disabled people to do normal things non-disabled people do - such as work. (You can only receive one out of the two.) Of course, other benefits are different, means-tested and absolutely should not be cheated on! And I agree with your point about the social media.

anyone remember 2016 when the united nations found the tories wanting in the way it treated the disabled in the uk,I remember a brief mention in the news.Read the book 'crippled' about how the disabled have been attacked by the government, why do the powerful blame the weak? why do people go on about benefit fraud, which is paltry compared to corporate fraud? Lots of figures abound from 30 to 50 trillion in offshore accounts, and what about the black economy? I could and still can't understand why ordinary people are duped by the old divide and rule tactics, i surrender.

ginnycomelately

On radio 4 today a Lincolnshire MP said that there are 7 million people claiming disability benefit , Of them all 5 million could work maybe desk jobs , Now that really is food for thought , We all know people who could work but are getting benefits and all that goes with them, many are much better off than Gransnetters

And did this MP differentiate between those getting PIP while they work part/full time and those who are who are not in employment? I bet he didn't.

Much depends on the nature of the disability and the nature of the jobs.

5 million desk jobs!!!. Figure sounds like it's been plucked from thin air. Wonder how they propose the 5 million get to these desk jobs. Can't all be based at home.
Absolute tosh.

But are they 5 million desks jobs that those disabled people can do in the place where they live, ginnycomelately?

On radio 4 today a Lincolnshire MP said that there are 7 million people claiming disability benefit , Of them all 5 million could work maybe desk jobs , Now that really is food for thought , We all know people who could work but are getting benefits and all that goes with them, many are much better off than Gransnetters

welbeck

gosh, thanks HPQ.
i was composing in my mind why someone disabled might well have good use for a bidet.
just as well i left it.

🤣🤣

Germanshepherdsmum

Have you walked in their shoes DAR? I have, pro bono, helped semi-literate people to fill in forms to claim benefits to which they were entitled. The people I encountered at the Law Centre were very obviously genuine, decent people trying their best to earn a living. And then there are the others …
Don’t dare tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about. What have you done to help such people?

Have you ever been one of those people DAR? Your posts suggest that you haven't.

Katie59

Unjustified claims for benefits is just one way of fiddling the system another is undeclared income, not just wages trading online often through EBay into a PayPal account. I don’t actually know if they can access a PayPal but it is a bank by any other name.

There are probably quite a lot of claimants making money online.

Many years ago I sold loads of surplus household stuff on EBay. I wasn't trading but needed the extra cash from stuff I had hanging around and never used. I'm sure I remember being warned by EBay that they had to report business accounts to HMRC. I don't suppose it's too difficult to get round the business account rules, but I once had an item blocked because I'd sold more than a certain amount of similar items. I was only a very small time seller, but it does show that EBay keeps an eye on accounts or other sellers report their peers to EBay (not sure which). These days, people can sell £1000 of items online without paying tax, but I'm not sure whether the same rule applies for claiming benefits.

PS. I receive means-tested housing benefit and have to submit two months of bank statements once a year. I know they're scrutinised because I've been queried about a couple of payments I've received. One was money to buy myself a birthday present and another was from selling some books online (just over £30).

Have you walked in their shoes DAR? I have, pro bono, helped semi-literate people to fill in forms to claim benefits to which they were entitled. The people I encountered at the Law Centre were very obviously genuine, decent people trying their best to earn a living. And then there are the others …
Don’t dare tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about. What have you done to help such people?

You really have no idea do you. Who do you think worries most? Those few who who try and work the system don't care. They think that they are too clever to fail.

But many of those who do nothing wrong don't know whether it's Monday of Christmas if you ask them questions to help them, let alone if they think someone is checking up on them. And the waves of anxiety - which, thankfully, you have obviously never experienced, are palpable if you are near them.

Why does this happen? Because they desperately, desperately don't want to do anything wrong. Many are ashamed and won't even claim the because of the shame they feel.

But who is it at the front of your mind? The tiny percentage, that appear in every strata of society, that try and con the system. The people some literally believe society must be rid of. But all they have ever ended up doing is penalising good people.

Don't you dare tell me I am talking nonsense until you have walked in these people's shoes GSM.

If someone is hard up and sells their own items to pay the bills, I can't see anything remotely wrong with that. It's different if they are buying to sell, but I don't know how that would be proven.

Unjustified claims for benefits is just one way of fiddling the system another is undeclared income, not just wages trading online often through EBay into a PayPal account. I don’t actually know if they can access a PayPal but it is a bank by any other name.

There are probably quite a lot of claimants making money online.