Serious question because it a line pursued by the last lot -
How do you simply claim benefits and live life on benefits whilst driving a Motabilty Car as a choice and with ease because I don't see it.
Nobody claims "benefits" they claim "welfare", a system designed so that when times were hard people fared well.
PIP can be claimed by people who work, it is not an out of work welfare provision per se.
I always prefer evidence, but here is an anecdote, one of my best friends has MS, she worked with kids from poor backgrounds who didnt get the support they needed. When PIP replaced DLA qualification criteria changed. Where my friend lived meant she had to walk 50 yards to her car, but you can only walk 30 yards to qualify for top rate mobility, which means you are eligible to use your welfare to get a mobility car. As a result she lost her eligibility to a motability car, as she has MS she cannot use public transport safely and as a result she lost her job. The kids she had spent time building realtionships with lost a trusted older person and everyone loses.
The car she had was a VW Polo which had wide doors she could get into as her disability made not very bendy and now because of the rules she sits at home rather than working in a job she actually loved and its hard on the kids who put trust in her to trust somebody new.
I'd like to think that this week Labour will set out their provisions and they are acceptable but I am not sure.
I am sure they wont, Kendall is a ghoull
In the past its helped Govt's to push people onto unemployment benefits but when that goes up it isn't then it seems to have been DLA - then it wasn't.
Started with Thatcher when she tried to mask the mass unemployment her policies caused by pushing people onto DLA rather than UB
Where I struggle is after 14 years of slashing mental health support and recruiting people as doctors who are not really doctors yet why is people being diagnosed with mental health issues a surprise?
No surprise, mental health provision is appalling in this country and it is getting worse.
Why is it a surprise that after facing a worldwide pandemic from a virus that was novel - ie unknown - a number of people continue to be affected by it?
It should not be a surprise, long covid is real
And there are other issues I can raise however lets see what the proposals are but applying the bias of 10 years ago courtesy of advisers you will never get it right.
As i see it, there is a real disconnect between what actually happens and what people perceives to happen.
600,000 people who claim PIP are in work and PIP is actually a help to many who do work, but it is also a lifeline to those who are unable to work. I saw a thread on twitfuck today where a lady said her PIP she used to pay for a cleaner, I do that too as i claim PIP. She got dogs abuse for her choices, but I pay a cleaner to come once a week to do cleaning stuff i am unable to do. I cannot bend down so she cleans the shower floor, i cannot raise my arms so she can clean stuff i cannot reach and why should i as a person who has suffered with a disability from my teens live in a shit pit.
The nature of my illness means i have to wash more clothing and bed sheets than the norm, that is an extra cost on my already limited life.
It was never my choice to be ill, i wanted to be a teacher, i wanted a career, i wanted to be valued in society but sadly i never got the choice, it wasnt my fault, i never asked to live on welfare, but given my illness who would employ me. I like to think i am a fairly bright well read lad, but if you can find me an employer who says ok, you come in when you feel up to it and you can go home if you feel unwell then send me there number.
“A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members" mahatma Ghandi
