Benefits - £1900 per month

Cabbie21

I agree, from voluntary work helping people claim benefits or challenge decisions not to award them, that there are far more people struggling to get the awards to which they are entitled than making false claims.
On the other hand, I struggle to understand the fairness of a system where some people’s disability incurs huge costs whereas others don’t actually need to spend more money because of their condition, yet they might all receive the same amount of money. For example I have met people who accumulate money because they are too unwell to do anything other than eat and sleep. Not a great life, but what they need is more help to get well rather than more money. A more effective NHS, earlier diagnosis and better treatments will help many, especially those with mental health problems.

Agree. I work as an adviser and regularly have clients who get so much in benefits that they go over the means tested benefit limits and their claims keep needing to be stopped and rerestarted because the money just builds up in their accounts. I currently have one client under investigation for fraud as he has so much money building up that isn't declared. has £750 + PIP being paid every four weeks and rarely leaves his home.

On the 2 occasions I had the misfortune to need to claim unemployment benefit I was made to feel like an absolute scrounger, and then threatened with sanctions for not applying for a job I had already been told was filled
Today my DD who has MH issues and Autism so badly she can't function living alone and had to move home following a breakdown that affected her so badly she never leaves the family home alone, had her claim for PIP refused. This means she has no income at all and I will be financially responsible for her.
So quite clearly I should speak to those claiming more in benefit than I get paid in salary and ask for tips.

Notagranyet have you contacted the Autism charity ,or CA for help getting your daughter PIP as with their help you will get it. They know how to word things . Plus you can contact the Brain Charity it's in Liverpool but they help people all over the country and could put you in touch with people in your area who will help you . If it wasn't for them I wouldn't have been able to go too tribunal and I won. Took me 35 years of trying to get disability benefits and I was born disabled.

Please contact people who will help you ..

It does seem as though there is too much discretion in the system. There is no reason why people’s living standards should depend on how well they can fill in a form so that it matches a particular set of criteria. Everyone should be treated the same. I realise that many conditions are on a spectrum of disability, though, with those at one capable of full time work and those at the other unable to do anything.

These days, however, so many people work from home that it must be a lot easier than it used to be for those with mobility issues to find work. Obviously not everyone, but options must be a lot more numerous than they used to be. It should really be only the profoundly disabled who are never expected to work, and benefits to them and their carers should be much higher (and could be if more people paid in).

I’m not sure that cuts to disability benefits are the way forward, although I do think that MH has become too much of a ‘get out’. I think we (as a society) need to start much earlier when it comes to helping people out of their comfort zones. I could be wrong but it seems that from babyhood some children are trained to opt out as soon as anything is uncomfortable for them, and they grow up feeling entitled to have ‘adjustments’ made so that they never have to do anything that stretches them. It’s a waste of their talents and ends up meaning that the less attractive jobs go to the more ’robust’ types who are less precious about what they ‘can do’.

It’s not fair that some can insist on particular conditions of service by claiming that doing less attractive work would make them anxious. Someone has to do those jobs, even as a stopgap to something people might see as more ‘suitable’ for them.

Would anyone want to change places with the disabled woman with the disabled child? I certainly wouldn't and £1900 monthly even with accommodation paid for would be no compensation. We had our state pension increase notification come through this week, between us we get over £2000 monthly, our home is paid for and we both had satisfying employment with good private pensions so have a good standard of living. I feel fortunate to have been able to work and provide for myself. Shame on people who begrudge disabled people having enough to live on, why not imagine what it's like to be in their shoes!

foxie48

Would anyone want to change places with the disabled woman with the disabled child? I certainly wouldn't and £1900 monthly even with accommodation paid for would be no compensation. We had our state pension increase notification come through this week, between us we get over £2000 monthly, our home is paid for and we both had satisfying employment with good private pensions so have a good standard of living. I feel fortunate to have been able to work and provide for myself. Shame on people who begrudge disabled people having enough to live on, why not imagine what it's like to be in their shoes!

👏👏👏

foxie brilliant post. Before getting my PIP I lived with the money worries since my husband died. Because he was 47 his private pensions except one paid out a lump sum and our endowment mortgage paid what little we owed on the house off. But because it was death benefit it didn't pay out the full amount it had 3 years to reach maturity. And it would have been twice as much as I got . The money from my husband's pensions ran out just as my mom died so I inherited half her estate . Over the years my savings paid all my bills . I sold my house and brought a bungalow as my mobility was getting worse and paid for all the adaptions myself . Because I didn't get any disability benefits I wasn't eligible for a grant from the council plus they wouldn't have paid to have how I needed everything done .
I knew I would have run out of money before getting my state pension last April . My daughter and son in law said I wasn't to worry they would pay my bills . But no way would I have let them do that. PIP made it possible for me to pay all my own bills and only having to take little out of my savings each month. I had little savings left when I had my state pension and get less than £100 pension credit.

My husband's private pension I have had every month for 21 years is £29.56. Same amount it's always has been . Plus I get 48p per week from the 30 years my husband paid his NI the % of his state pension. When I asked why only 48p was told he only paid 30 years I said he died in 2004. She put the phone down on me.

Anyone at any time in their lives can become disabled . Anyone who thinks being disabled means we get handed money is a fool. It was our GP who told us to apply from DLA as it it was in 1988. As I would only deteriorated. And I have . But I fight everyday to retain my independence as anyone with a disability does.

People moan about disabled people getting PIP or attendance allowance. I wonder if those same people moan about the millions this government gives away every year to fund wars in other countries. They may say it's for aid but people know governments of the countries it gives money to it doesn't get to the people who need food ,medical care , shelter etc. If it did organisations like the red cross etc wouldn't be need in the countries giving aid to the people .

People don’t moan about the genuine claimants like you Whiff, they moan about the fraudsters and shirkers.

I don't want to derail a thread about benefits but to answer Whiff's comment about pension inheritance:

Plus I get 48p per week from the 30 years my husband paid his NI the % of his state pension. When I asked why only 48p was told he only paid 30 years I said he died in 2004. She put the phone down on me.

If you were younger than 55 when you were widowed, which I suspect you were (as was I) and were widowed after 2001 when the State Widow’s Pension was abolished (as was I) then you will have been affected by some very bad drafting of new State Pension legislation. Even the Pension Minister who was responsible for it (Steve Webb) says it is illogical and unfair. He tells me it was cut and pasted from legislation from 1992 when there was an ongoing State Widows Pension which was paid until State Pension age. I have been told this can only be changed by making a legal challenge to the legislation. I have approached by new MP about it but nothing had happened yet.

This bad drafting effectively treats widow(ers) as if they had received SERPS in a Widows Pension from the date of widowhood to their own State Pension age even though they haven’t because the pension was abolished in 2001. A bit like claiming a workplace pension early. It's reduced because you are likely to be receiving it for longer.

If the widow(er) was able to claim Widows Parent’s Allowance they wouldn’t have faired so badly as SERPS was included in WPA while it was paid but for widow(er)s who did not claim that (if they didn’t have children or their children were already grown) then they have been penalised very badly by bad drafting.

My inherited SERPS is currently some £25 a week less than it would be if I had been 55 or older when my DH died.

If you were younger that 48 when you were widowed then you won’t have been able to inherit any SERPS at all. I suspect that 48p is a bit of inherited graduated pension from whatever your late husband paid up to 1978 when the graduated scheme was replaced by SERPS.

You can always write to:

The Pension Service 12
Post Handling Site B
Wolverhampton
WV99 1AP

to ask them to explain exactly how your inherited pension is calculated, but get ready for a very long wait and a fight. DWP do not like giving up this information as it means disclosing the unfairness of how hundreds of thousands of young widow(er)s have had their late spouses’ pensions stolen through legislative incompetence.

Be aware that there is now no right to inherit any element of a spouse’s basic pension as there is for older women who come within the old State Pension system. Anyone coming under the new State Pension system can only inherit 50% of SERPS and only that if they were age 55 or older when widowed.

Barleyfields If you look at the opening post it was the amount that was being called into question not the eligibility. I also object to people who abuse the system but generally I feel those in genuine need usually live a fairly hand to mouth existence.

I thought widow's pensions had been abolished, and the bereaved spouse was assessed on their own contributions, rather than those of their partner?

I realise that different people will be affected differently, but in general I think that we should all pay in and take out of the system as individuals - treating couples as units is unfair to single people who also work and pay tax.

What do people think is a fair amount to pay in benefits (assuming that all else is equal and people don't need extra heating and equipment to manage conditions)? As I said upthread, £1900 a month equates to £22000 before tax, which is below Minimum Wage for a 40 hour week (£25,396). Is it fair to pay claimants as much as those working 40 hours, or is it wrong to expect people to live on less than a level that has been decided is minimum? Two people on MW would obviously bring in double that sum, so around £50,750, but then both of them are working, and expenses such as childcare and commuting come into play, as do tax and NI.

Very honest lady indeed. But half the money received could be housing benefit those living in private housing - not owned property- with disability benefits through ESA + PIP depending on lower or higher illness - can receive rent fully paid through benefits- I am shocked welfare benefits can pay up even more if reside in Zone 1-2 😱

Agree. Everyone's circumstances are different. There are people who do take advantage showing fake medical reports overseas to claim disability benefits. I think the government should do through check on bank accounts as too much trust is between welfare advisor and client. If client claiming has nothing to hide, full HMRC check, access to bank accounts check should be conducted as too many loop holes, if client has nothing to hide, checks shouldn't stop them.

foxie48

Barleyfields If you look at the opening post it was the amount that was being called into question not the eligibility. I also object to people who abuse the system but generally I feel those in genuine need usually live a fairly hand to mouth existence.

My post specifically addressed Whiff’s, not the opening post.

Carermum03

Agree. Everyone's circumstances are different. There are people who do take advantage showing fake medical reports overseas to claim disability benefits. I think the government should do through check on bank accounts as too much trust is between welfare advisor and client. If client claiming has nothing to hide, full HMRC check, access to bank accounts check should be conducted as too many loop holes, if client has nothing to hide, checks shouldn't stop them.

I entirely agree, though when the right of HMRC to access bank accounts was raised on here some time ago there was an uproar. I knew someone, now deceased, who had two bank accounts - one for use when claiming benefits and the other containing a considerable sum. This came to light when they died and a substantial sum had to be repaid to the DWP.

Carermum03

Very honest lady indeed. But half the money received could be housing benefit those living in private housing - not owned property- with disability benefits through ESA + PIP depending on lower or higher illness - can receive rent fully paid through benefits- I am shocked welfare benefits can pay up even more if reside in Zone 1-2 😱

If you are claiming housing benefit zone 1-2 are expensive areas to rent.

She was talking about the sum she received after payment of rent.

They should leave PIP alone but I'm all for reducing UC or issuing vouchers instead of money. It's the long term unemployed that need to be encouraged to work not the disabled. It's very hard for disabled people to get jobs as they sometimes have to have lots of time off for medical appointments.

Carermum03

Agree. Everyone's circumstances are different. There are people who do take advantage showing fake medical reports overseas to claim disability benefits. I think the government should do through check on bank accounts as too much trust is between welfare advisor and client. If client claiming has nothing to hide, full HMRC check, access to bank accounts check should be conducted as too many loop holes, if client has nothing to hide, checks shouldn't stop them.

There is a link now between DWP benefits system and HMRC, it’s almost impossible to “fiddle” benefits if you’re PAYE, also when on the sickness part of UC you do have an “earning” allowance each month.

Also at any point DWP work coaches in the job centre, and Fraud and compliance can ask the claimant to bring in their last three months banks statements from all and any bank account and they can ask at any time to see their online accounts.

Whiff

Notagranyet have you contacted the Autism charity ,or CA for help getting your daughter PIP as with their help you will get it. They know how to word things . Plus you can contact the Brain Charity it's in Liverpool but they help people all over the country and could put you in touch with people in your area who will help you . If it wasn't for them I wouldn't have been able to go too tribunal and I won. Took me 35 years of trying to get disability benefits and I was born disabled.

Please contact people who will help you ..

Thanks but ironically I am an advice worker. It's not the knowledge I lack, it's the time it takes. I'm working full time in addition to supporting 2 adult children. Your suggestions are very good ones though and I thank you for them.
We got as far as tribunal last time and they awarded it just before the court date.
I just think it's shameful

What upsets me is that the focus is so often on the people who rip off the system to the detriment of those who need support and frankly live a really difficult life through absolutely no fault of their own. Life on benefits is a pretty poor life especially if you are caring for anyone with disabilities and it can be years and years of barely scraping along.

I often wonder how fraudsters manage to beat the system when it is so hard for many genuine claimants to succeed.

UC shouldn't be reduced. It's a matter of making sure it gets to the right people.

Single person, under 25: £311.68 per month
Single person, 25 or over: £393.45 per month
Couples (both under 25): £489.23 per month (for both)
Couples (either person 25 or over): £617.60 per month (for both)

Yes of course there are gateway benefits (rent, prescriptions, dentist, some other help if you meet criteria) but it's still very basic indeed.

Food, clothes, energy and water bills, a % of council tax, all pr part bus fares, on £311.68 a month.