Another Tired Kicking For The Sick And Disabled By Rishi

I’ve worked with loads who used the system, rife working for the council one went to Cyprus paragliding whilst on long term sick, she eventually left and got disability benefit due to a bad back.They spoil it for genuinely ill people who have to fight to. keep their benefit, tgey must be worried sick at the moment.

If you can power through MH issues by working, thats admirable I suppose. But many people simply can't. Absolutely can not.

The U.K. is one of the least generous for welfare of any other rich nation.

At one time our welfare system was considered exemplary, but unsurprisingly it took a sharp downturn during Thatcher’s period, it rose a bit under Blair and more so under Brown.

It doesn’t need outlining what has happened since.

Unemployment benefit fell by 44% under the Tories - only Greece is similar.

Now Sunak is proposing further penury.

There are always cheats who will take benefits they aren't entitled to. They cause so many problems for the genuinely ill.

I watched a 999 type programme, where someone had a history of self harm.

My God!
To see what this person had done to himself was terrible.

He cried later on, when interviewed, and asked "Do people think I want to be like this?"

Interesting stats from the govt @Dec 2022

“ The main headline figures for the DWP benefits in this report
In the year to August 2022:

the number of people receiving the State Pension rose by 130,000 to 12.6 million
Employment and Support Allowance fell by 6.2% to 1.7 million claimants
Income Support fell by 21% to 170,000 claimants
Jobseeker’s Allowance fell by 35.1% to 89,000 claimants
In the year to November 2022:

Housing Benefit fell by 7.9% to 2.5 million claimants
The periods covered by this release were affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Universal Credit has been replacing some older-style Working Age benefits. The latest Universal Credit Official statistics show:

there were 5.8 million Universal Credit claimants at December 2022
People can claim more than one DWP benefit at a time. Experimental Benefit Combination statistics show:

22.4 million people claimed some combination of DWP benefits in August 2022 (of the 17 benefits included in these statistics). Of these:

12.7 million were of State Pension Age (including those in receipt of their State Pension)
9.1 million were of Working Age
600,000 were under 16 (and in receipt of Disability Living Allowance as a child)”

I know of a young woman who was signed off as fit for work. She was found wandering in her nightdress in the rain having pulled out half her hair and had cut herself in several places. Obviously fit for work!

AGAA4

There are always cheats who will take benefits they aren't entitled to. They cause so many problems for the genuinely ill.

There are cheats everywhere. But hey! Let’s target the most vulnerable!

Tax cheats swindle the state of a massive amount more money.

Easy to pick on the vulnerable isn't it?

flappergirl

Freya5

vegansrock

He’s only saying all this as an attempt to get votes from the UKIP / Reform voters who love all the right wing rhetoric. He won’t be in any position to enact it if they lose the GE ( hopefully).

Oh dear, so they're not decent people in your estimation then. You have no idea how they will vote. I for one won't be, neither will I be voting Labour. In fact I've decided not to vote at all. They're all shysters, corruption on both sides of the House .

I'm always saddened when I hear of a woman not exercising her right to vote and I don't think I need to provide a history lesson to illustrate my despair.

As for them all being shysters. Have you not been reading the news? The current batch of Tory MPs have behaved appallingly. There is not a week goes by without a sexual assault, misappropriation of funds and/or some other sordid scandal. They have demonstrated an all time low in politics. Last time I checked, the same cannot be said for other parties.

However, not voting is a dereliction of duty to one's country and an easy "cop out" in my opinion.

With Labour it's corruption, Mcshane anyone, Paterson, Webber, infact seven Labour MPs have been jailed in the last ten years. Don't let's forget underpants Bryant, who in spite of scandal has been allowed to continue, at least they got rid of racist Abbott, oh and what about Thornberry , the one who despised anyone who drove a white van.
I don't really care what you think about my voting or not.
I certainly won't help open the door to 5 years of a Labour government with Starmergeddon, who changes his mind depending on which way the wind blows.

What I love about Gransnet is for a posting such as this, there are always those have those who ‘know’ the lazy, the benefit scroungers, etc and then there are those who respond to the posting with a recognition of the breadth of human challenges.
I suppose that’s why we have Daily Mail v Guardian readers and Tory supporters v the rest!
Always useful to see how others see the world.

Go! Freya5 tell it like it is😄😄😄

In all my 15 years of advising people ( I have not kept records of how many people) about benefits, I met only two who I believed were not genuine, and two others who took my advice that they would be unlikely to qualify ( for PIP ). The vast majority were people who needed help to claim or to challenge bad decisions.
I soon learned not to be judgmental about claimants.
I know there are some false claims and some who with the right support would not need to claim. I also know many whose health has worsened thanks to the punitive system, and the delays in NHS support.

Unfortunately, Freya, not voting increases the likelihood of whichever parties you dislike being elected. Depending on your constituency, failure to vote can be a vote for Labour.

In fact I've decided not to vote at all

So, freya5 I take it you won’t be commenting on politics or ‘the state of the country’ for the term of the next parliament then. IMO those who choose not to vote have chosen not to comment either. In our democratic system your vote is your voice; no vote = no voice.

In Wales it's almost certain that Labour will get in but I will plod up the hill and vote as women's votes were hard won.

Agreed LizzieDrip (that must be a first!😊).

I always think of my great grandmother who died before she would have had the chance to vote.

Germanshepherdsmum

Agreed LizzieDrip (that must be a first!😊).

I always think of my great grandmother who died before she would have had the chance to vote.

Yes indeed
We should use our vote

Ha ha, yes GSM It’s actually a nice feeling that, whilst we disagree on so much (politically), we can also agree on some issues! Women really should run this world💪🏻

AGAA4

In Wales it's almost certain that Labour will get in but I will plod up the hill and vote as women's votes were hard won.

Not where I am. It’s a two horse Tory/LibDem race, even after the boundary changes which mean we now have Pontarddulais in the constituency.

Agreed, Lizzie! Whilst disagreeing politically, we can still have so much in common. 😊

Casdon

AGAA4

In Wales it's almost certain that Labour will get in but I will plod up the hill and vote as women's votes were hard won.

Not where I am. It’s a two horse Tory/LibDem race, even after the boundary changes which mean we now have Pontarddulais in the constituency.

There were 40 constituencies in Wales but now reduced to 32.

At the moment there are 22 Labour, 14 Tory and 4 Plaid MPs.
That could change, but not all of Wales is Labour.

Germanshepherdsmum

Agreed, Lizzie! Whilst disagreeing politically, we can still have so much in common. 😊

So true GSM - one of my favourite Labour MPs is Jess Philips. She works across parties effectively
One of the gransnet positives is the ability to disagree strongly in some issues yet agree on others
If that happened in the HoC more often we’d have a better country

Totally agree GSM and Iam64! To be able to disagree agreeably is a valuable life skill👍

The thought of new people being employed to sign fit notes is appalling. Where are these people going to come from and what sort of training are they going to have? There are so many problems already with the assessments for PIP, DLA and ESA. My husband's ESA was turned down by an anonymous pen pusher after a doctor had been shocked by how un well he was. I was able to get the decision overturned, but it was all unnecessary stress. My cousin had to crawl up some steps to prove that she couldn't walk up them. We don't need even more of this.