Millions paid benefits without ever having to find a job

Claims have surged since face-to-face health checks were scrapped during Covid

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Now is this supposed surge really an increase in health related disabilities or were there always there and the face to face health checks were too restrictive. I believe, in the main the latter, for we know on appeal many benefits turndowns were reversed, but many turned down were reluctant to appeal because they were already to traumatised by the face to face assessments and then the turndown. In fact, many were so traumatised that they took their own lives rather than appeal.

So, this is not a real surge, but a great reversal of so much injustice.
More social care could possibly be some of an outcome that may means some who are now so ill, could have not been if sufficient social care had been available before the inevitable declines in health occurred.

But then we would need a listening and caring government, which we have not had for years, if ever, and possibly not likely to have in the future, no matter what colour of Government we will have.

The past has been so depressing, but the future does not appear to have much light, so could well be equally depressing, or perhaps, even worse, if that is really possible, which it so is.

Source: Millions paid benefits without ever having to find a job

Mum’s fury after blue badge row in Morrisons supermarket leaves her ‘shaken’ – Mirror Online

Multiple sclerosis sufferer Hannah Campbell was confronted in the car park of a supermarket in Derbyshire by someone who inferred she should not have a blue disabled badge

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Yes, there will be a minority abusing the Blue Badge system for there are always a few people who will abuse anything. Unfortunately UK governments and the media have taken this abuse and made it so much more than it is.

Take the welfare benefit system, which is geared to hinder people in need of welfare benefits than help them and, if those entitled to the benefits then get them they are totally insufficient to fully help them financially as the benefits are why too low and should always be linked to the rate of inflation.

Then the media there are only 2 occasions when the media gets involved, one is when it is proved the DWP are making mistakes and delaying or refusing a benefit to which a person is legally entitled to and this the DWP do more often than not. So then the media is bringing out an injustice, but these happen so rarely when injustices are occurring all the time.

The other occasions are when the media concentrates on possible scroungers, the media really go to town on this and the programmes make great big headlines, so much bigger than those when people are illegally refused or delayed benefits. For bad make great good press while good doesn’t.

So both the government and media are so pushing bad examples more than good, so the UK population is being influenced to believe the benefit fraud is far greater than it really is. Lets look at when there was MPs claiming expenses illegally well the percentage of the MPs doing so was far greater than the percentage of people claiming benefits illegally.

Just by looking at someone, no one can judge if they are disabled and to what degree, even if physical disabilities can be seen, by looking it can’t be seen the degree of pain and suffering that is being caused.

With fraud let the authorities deal with it.

Source: Mum’s fury after blue badge row in Morrisons supermarket leaves her ‘shaken’ – Mirror Online

People over State Pension age with eyesight issues could be due up to £407 each month | Daily Record | Vox Political

Public service announcement: Across Great Britain, there are around two million people living with a sight loss condition or degenerative eye conditions. Some 57,180 working age adults under 65 are…

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Great information, please read and note.

Source: People over State Pension age with eyesight issues could be due up to £407 each month | Daily Record | Vox Political

New Sanction Trap For UC Claimants With £250 Incentive For DWP Staff

The more that Tory governments do with regards to welfare benefits make it clear that welfare is not part of the process and punishment is becoming more and more its objective.

Rather than pay DWP staff incentives to do more, why not increase benefits for claimants, especially those who do get into work for a period of time, while they adjust to manage with work and assess any difficulties they could well experience.

Benefits should be there to help and not punish, the government needs to be educated, perhaps for the first time.

Same Difference

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

Universal credit (UC) claimants are to be faced with a new sanction trap disguised as help to move into work. The scheme has been condemned by the DWP staff union who say the government is “hellbent on making it more difficult for people to claim benefits”, even though jobcentre workers stand to gain from a £250 ‘incentive’ if their office tops a league table.

UC sanctions are already at a record high. Over 98% of all sanctions are for failure to attend an interview, with over half a million claimants being sanctioned for this reason last year.

Yet, under the new Additional Jobcentre Support scheme claimants are being forced to attend  a jobcentre 10 times over a two week period.  In these obligatory sessions they will have “work search conversations” and “support sessions”. Missing a single session is likely to lead…

View original post 376 more words

More people face paying for care as means-test threshold is frozen for 13th year – Community Care

More people face paying for their care after means-testing thresholds were frozen for a 13th consecutive year, the government announced this week. The upper capital limit, above which people must pay the full cost of their care (in most cases)*, will stay at £23,250, for 2023-24, said the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) […]

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Is it good that we have to welcome the small mercies being offered by his Government, well it is better than nothing, which this government puts as its first action, but will still leave many people well below the ‘bread-line‘ to live on.

So, I do disagree with King’s Fund senior fellow, social care, Simon Bottery where he states ‘the government “deserves some credit” for its inflationary rise in the MIG’, for it is not credit they deserve for the little they are giving is an insult to all persons in needs of care, their families and all who work in Social Care.

This Government and really all previous governments, are and have refused to see what is happening within Social care and in doing so have all allowed the social care crisis to escalate to what it is now  and has really been for years. It is now being recognised by some that this social care crisis is seriously affecting the NHS, which it has been doing for many years, but ignored by many.

It is debatable whether this ignoring has been by ignorance or by design by this government and all previous governments, from what I see I really do believe the latter for it is so clear that none of these governments really cares about social care and to some extent, even the NHS. Is this because they have, personally, sufficient funds not to rely on social care and the NHS and if or when required they would source it privately, well that could be so, but is it that they only really care for themselves and not others below the level of their amassed fortunes, for many are so wealthy that, even the high costs of living are not of any concern to them.

This is well seen in how they are governing the UK and keeping many on just a level to live on, but in doing so many in the UK are well below a living level of subsistence.

Is there really a ‘Welfare State‘ anymore? Well there is a State. but it is well below Welfare.

Perhaps the real government policy is too keep people on a below subsistence level in the hope they will not survive, hence reducing the costs of welfare even further as there will be so many less people around to need welfare.

We see this in the level of benefits not, in many instances, keeping up with inflation, continued pay freezes in the Public sector and how all essential emergency workers are being treated, not just now, but so for many years previously.

We so, desperately need a Government for the People, but I can’t see this occurring anytime soon, if ever. The Human Rights of the people in the UK are continually being eroded, by our governments.

 

Source: More people face paying for care as means-test threshold is frozen for 13th year – Community Care

Tell the UK government they’re failing us

This Government needs to loook after all of the UK and not just the 1-5% of the UK. In the, so called, ‘Mini Budget’ of Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng MP, this top echelon of the UK was well catered for and even though the removal of the 45% Tax Rate has been over-turned, the budget is still much more for them than the rest of the UK. They will not be any worse off by the high inflation that has been caused, but the rest of the UK will be.

An area of the UK which will be most worse off are those on welfare benefits, many of whom have no opportunities to help themselves to be better off and benefits are the only means that can help to achieve this to a small extent.

To not increase benefits in line with inflation, will cause them even greater hardships than they already have, so it is essential that the all the benefits are are increased, at least, in line with inflation, so please support this petition for you will never know when you yourselves may have to rely on benefits.

Your signature is most certainly required, so please do sign.

 

 

Source: Tell the UK government they’re failing us

DWP Refusing To Follow Recommendations During Cost Of Living Crisis – The poor side of life

Under the cover of Queen Elizabeths death the DWP (Department of work and Pensions) have been busy inflicting cruelty upon claimants. They never miss a chance to show their hatred of social securit…

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The DWP should be there to assist claimants, but, in fact, there whole agenda is to do the opposite, more than likely under the orders of this Government. This requires action in every way on every occasion to force the DWP to comply, as they will only do so after a formal legal decision from the Courts and even then they will fight all the way and when eventually ordered to do so, will do it as slowly as possible.

It appears to be run by robots who have been programmed to work in the most unempathetic and demoralising way possible.

This is showing they have no respect for human rights, safeguarding, just to punish claimants for being there.

 

Source: DWP Refusing To Follow Recommendations During Cost Of Living Crisis – The poor side of life

Scotland’s New Disability Benefits System Comes Into Force

One can only hope that this Scottish system will be better than the one for the whole of the UK, but, only time will tell.

The currently system is so clumbersome and the assessments appear to be ‘not fit for purpose’.

Where there is a willingness on Governments there are always opportunities for improvements, but with the UK Government this willingness appears to be not available. They appear to be more inclined to abuse disabled people rather than help them.

Same Difference

The Scottish government has begun taking over adult disability benefits from the UK government.

Until now, personal independence payments (PIP) or disability living allowance (DLA) have been provided by the UK government.

They are being replaced in Scotland by the new adult disability payment.

The process of automatically transferring recipients over is now under way, and the Scottish system is open to new applicants.

Scottish ministers have said that the process of applying for the new benefit will be “more compassionate”.

The changes have been welcomed by disability groups, although opposition politicians described them as “a missed opportunity”.

About 300,000 people in Scotland receive PIPs, while about 39,000 people are in receipt of DLA.

PIPs help people aged 16 to 64 cope with the extra costs they face due to ill health or disability, and are gradually replacing the DLA.

People already receiving either of those benefits will be automatically…

View original post 574 more words

Cost of living crisis: the UK needs to raise taxes not cut them – here’s why

Why tax cuts are unlikely to help Britain address its current crises.

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Tax cuts or increases, that is the question and not one to really answer, for when looked it is a generalisation and not one directed at certain communities.

In the UK there is much more of the population which is regarded as poor and on low incomes than there are the, so called, rich.

So a tax cut means more in the ability to spend for the poor, i.e. those poor who pay taxes as opposed to the poor whose income is below the taxation starting point.

While tax increases make the poor so much worse off, than the rich, especially if the tax brackets are not increasing in line with inflation, which they have not been, in fact for a few years they have been frozen, which effectively bring more people into taxation.

Ideally, taxes for the rich should increase, while for the poor they should reduced. Also, inline with all this welfare benefits should aways be increased yearly and, at least, inline with inflation.

It is so wrong that the poor get poorer, while the rich get richer, it should be that all get richer, with the poor increasing quicker than the rich, there in doing so the gap between the poor and rich be reducing, whereas, it currently is increasing.

Salaries for so many in the UK are far too low, especially in care and this needs to change so much so that even low salaries are more than sufficient to live on, thereby reducing the need to claim some benefits to reduce the gap to enable reasonable living.

 

Source: Cost of living crisis: the UK needs to raise taxes not cut them – here’s why

More than 2m adults in UK cannot afford to eat every day, survey finds | Food poverty | The Guardian

One in seven adults estimated to be food-insecure, up 57% from January, owing to rising cost of living

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The cost of living crisis in the UK has been bad for sometime, but with increasing costs, food, energy to name, but 2 more and more are having major problems feeding themselves and their families and very little is being done by this Government to help those in real need.

No increase in benefits, salaries if at all rising they are not inline with inflation, so more and more people are falling into poverty, even people who are employed.

Then we have the MP, Lee Anderson, criticising people who attend food banks, by saying they don’t know how to cook meals from scratch, but at food banks people are refusing food that needs to be cooked as they can’t afford the energy costs.

This Government could do more, but is currently refusing to do so. people health will continue to deteriorate, causing more pressures on the NHS and eventually many deaths will occur.

Could it be that this government is wishing for deaths as that will reduce the welfare costs.

 

Source: More than 2m adults in UK cannot afford to eat every day, survey finds | Food poverty | The Guardian