Just been informed, by what I regard as a reliable source that the Tories intend to get rid of Contributions based ESA and also tax DLA/PIP. I recently had to retire on the grounds of ill health after working for 40 years, 28 of them after my MS diagnosis. I got a small pension and need my ESA and DLA to give me a decent standard of living, not a great standard, but do-able. If these changes are right I will lose over £300 a month and will become part of the eat or heat brigade.
Now, I did what the Tories keep bumping their gums about in that I worked, paid taxes, bought my home and lived what I thought was a responsible life. Now, when I need help they pull the rug and I can only think it is because I am no longer productive. God do I wish I could get all those who voted for these vicious scrotes in a room with a baseball bat. Ok, maybe a bit extreme but you get my drift.
Everyone is only one diagnosis away from needing the very support they have just voted to get rid of. The SNP in Scotland have asked for the DLA/PIp change to be halted as this is to be devolved following the Smith agreement. The request was refused by Duncan Smith. What are the odds that those of us with a DLA a award in a Scotland will be reassessed before those welfare elements which are to be devolved are passed over. Or am I just being cynical?
I dont blame any particular Government to be honest. We are a Country unable to cope with an aging population with only a limited amount of resources. Elderly/sick people are living far longer due to advances in medical care - a huge drain on society with pensions having to be paid longer, medical and care bills. Nothing can be done about this. Unfortunately the pot has to be shared out as equally as possible.
I know it is unfair when you have worked all your life and others who have not can get the same benefit. Governments cant put these people out in the streets because they have not paid their taxes and give you more because you have.
I always think that it is the people behind the Government who make the decisions (ie the key civil servants) and the party in charge is just the face on the front. Remember the program Yes minister - the PM was just told what to do and say !
Yip, agree with most of that but when the deficit is being paid back by 40 billion in total of welfare cuts and 5 billion in tax evasion I know who I am going to blame.
Actually, reading it again I don’t agree with a lot of what you say. I don’t regard the elderly and sick as a drain on society, they are part of society.
We will be in a similar boat to the tune of around £300 per month. Again my wife has a small occupational pension. In fact we could be down around £500 per month if they remove my carer’s allowance as well.
Between us we have worked, paid tax and NI for over 56 years in fairly good jobs. We did the sensible thing by paying of our mortgage when my wife was retired due to ill health. We have saved when we could have spent in anticipation of the future which unfortunately we now live.
My wife still pays tax on her pension. We still pay full Council Tax. We also pay over £530 per month in Council Homecare costs for my wife.
My wife is 53 and I am 46. It’s looking like we will simply have to run down our savings to supplement our income. Some will say that’s the way it should be which is fair enough. If I could turn the clock back now I’d probably blow the lot because you get no thanks for working hard to make your own future more comfortable.
Unfortunately we appear to live in a culture now where the majority of the non benefit receiving public view those on benefits as part of “Benefit Street”. The media seems to go out of it’s way to promote this no doubt much to David Cameron’s delight. I see very little of the other side i.e. decent working folk trying to work round life changing events as best they can. As mentioned earlier your only an illness away from being in this situation.
It’s difficult enough at the moment as my wife’s MS is now quite advanced (bed/chair bound, carer’s 4 times per day etc etc) let alone the government saying well thanks for working and saving to make your situation more bearable but we’re now going to make it that bit more difficult for you.
I tell everyone now don’t bother saving blow it and live life while you can…and try to avoid getting ill.
Maybe a drain on society is the wrong words to use. But the fact is there is considerably more money being spent on the over 80s than there was 50 years ago basically because there are far more of them. And when we reach that age there will be even more. There are also less young people working as the birth rate has declined. We dont have an ideal age related demographic country.
We are all part of society yes that is no argument but society is much tougher on resources that it has ever been before. I just think these governments are doing the best they can in an extremely difficult situation and it is all very well for us to sit on the fence and complain about them all.
There are people out there who fiddle the state - and these are the people I blame fro taking money away from those who genuinly need it.
Well, I am offended Moyna that you come on here and tell all us MS patients that we are a drain on society, not to mention those who are waiting for diagnosis scared silly about their health and what could happen and the financial implications of that. You talk of the pot being shared fairly, I agree but there is nothing in the governments plans that are fair. Conservatives have never been about fair and empathy will never be on their agenda.
i want and need to come on to a safe forum for the disease I am suffering from without having to feel guilty for becoming sick and having to walk away from a profession that I love with my heart and soul.
i have no welfare support as the fair government have taken it from me because their minions think there is a cure. The stress of which has caused a lot of problems. My Nurse is furious.
I will loose in the region of 80 to 100 pound a week if these proposals go through.
People will say you must get plenty.
That is only because I have worked all my life, never been unemployed, paid all my dues and more, had to pay into a pension and now I am threatened with having it taken off me when I need it most.
Hope everyone who voted this uncaring, heartless money grabbers in are proud of therselfs.
Our actual income is not great, my wife’s pension is relatively modest so her Contributory ESA is almost halved. On top of that she receives DLA and as I no longer work Carer’s Allowance. We are fortunate to have a moderate amount of savings (although hardly a lottery win) which combined with her pension would no doubt rule us out of any proposed means testing of benefits such as ESA or Carer’s Allowance.
We have the savings because as David Cameron would say we “did the right thing” i.e. always worked and put money aside once we realised some 12 years ago MS could take us down this path.
I stopped work as a Police Officer 3 years ago and have since through no choice of my own become a full time carer. That was made easier for us because we did sensibly repay what remained of our mortgage. We moved to a small 2 bedroom ground floor flat to reduce cost again thinking of the future. The savings which we worked hard to accumulate gave us a cushion when combined with DLA and Carers.
Despite the fact I care for a loved one I have always viewed what I do here as my work. As such I felt I was due Carers Allowance in that I damm well earn it every day. It’s always amazed me that Carer’s Allowance is less than Unemployment Benefit!! I find it hard to believe the government will remove it from me when I think how much I probably save the state by being here!
I always notice that whenever the government is challenged around Welfare Cuts they more often than not roll out the stock answer which seems to be it’s for their own benefit to get them back into work…they appear completely determined not to recognise the fact that many people in my wife’s position will simply never work again.
Bearing in mind that my wife has now had her pension and that my own will be significantly reduced in value due to my current role the savings don’t appear so big especially since I am still relatively young at 46. Also bear in mind that for 2 people without a job between them I currently pay out over £500 in care costs alone every 4 weeks.
Anyway please accept my apologies for the rant. On the bright side if my wife’s ESA does go at least that’s one 40 odd page application I won’t have to submit again…now that can’t be bad.
I have a small pension as part of it is frozen. The irony is that I was working for DWP but, as I joined after my MS diagnosis, I was not afforded the same pension rights as the other workers as I had a pre existing condition. The governments own pension scheme discriminates against disabled people who work for a government department and it is totally legal. I checked with various legal bodies. So, they tell you to work whilst disabled but will not give you the same conditions. I therefore have to wait until I am 60 before I can try to get it. I am sure they will be hoping I have popped my clogs before then. The whole rotten system is corrupt and set up for the few, certainly not for the vulnerable. That’s what I think anyone who voted for these heartless scrotes are either badly misguided or have skewed values.
Well, I must say I am also shocked and seriously worried…if they do tax my DLA…not been summoned to apply for PIP as yet…that we will struggle…even more.
We live on an overdraft currently and I cant see that changing anytime soon.
I finished work on ill health 15 years ago and was on ESA. That changed to the state pension in March. I felt relieved that I no longer have to fill in and dread the result of an ESA claim. But what reward did I get, for paying in for all those years towards my pension? The few extra pounds has cost me the help with costs for specs and dental treatment. Nice, thanks!
I am also concerned that my care package and respite funding may reduce or diminish altogether.
The 1.75 hours of care I get each day makes such a difference to my husband`s and my marriage strains…as does my respite funding, which affords us the much needed breaks.
1 worked for 47 years (same compay) before this thing forced me to stop aged 63 should I or d I not need to claim benifits
To survive I think not but because I worked in agriculture was one off three employees they didn’t need to provide a pension or health insurance I have my own private pension with had critical illness cover but when I notified them that I was being tested for ms they sent a manager out who said I should never Been given such cover as I had such a dangerous occupation.i went to the ombudsman and got some compensation.
We therefore it’s government or big business they are as slippery as eels do it he my, s get the checks we get before they collect thier benifits (housing moving etc)
The political wing of the hedge fund managers always like to persecute the sick and disabled, it’s just their nature. Unfortunately, it means another five years in Narnia for the rest of us.
Since May 8th I have been trying to prepare myself for this. How can I shave hundreds off my outgoings? I know that my teachers pension gives me an income but I retired at 40 so it’s a fraction of what it would have been. I fully expected to be able to get working age benefits - after all I live in a civilised country with a welfare state - don’t I?
Before the election I promised that these boards would be full of heartache if we got a Tory government and I am not feeling great to be joining this debate even before the second budget in July when our fates will be announced.
Monya doesn’t blame the government but I’m sorry - I do. Using the sick and disabled to balance the books is immoral. I’m not an economist by any means but a system that looks to the poorest to bear the largest fiscal burden cannot be fair.
We must be careful not to judge other benefit claimants as unworthy and at the same time put disability as the “deserving poor”. That is to fall into the Tory blame game, kicking it downwards. The guy on JSA who was made redundant is no less in need or deserving than a sick person. Personally I would like to see a TV program called “Tax Dodger Street” just to set the record straight.
Would be a very different street to Benefit Street though, wouldn’t it! Full of multi-million pound houses. Actually, you’d need to call it something like Tax Dodger Avenue, because dahling, seriously, the rich couldn’t possibly live on a street!
Hi I know you all think I am wrong not to blame the government. I just dont believe they are targeting the sick elderly and disabled.
I have a son who is 22 and had Downs Syndrome and Autism. I feel the support that I have had for him has been second to none. From the moment he was born I had help from physios, speech therapists and OTs. His nappies were delivered to my door free of charge and still are (he is doubly incontinent). He went to a fabulous school, picked up and dropped of from my door. Now he is at adult day centre for the disabled and is picked up and dropped off too 5 days a week. He is so happy there. I also am given respite several nights a month and they are great at giving us dates that I request. Further more I get 4 hours per week help in the home for him. He also gets DLA and income support and we have a mobility car for him. All this is provided by social services and paid for by the government yet friends my mine dont know how I manage with him given my own neurological problems (mainly spasticity, foot drop and bowel issues and fatigue) and think I should ask for more help. Yet I feel so grateful to all the people who come and help me. I try not to dwell on the fact that if he had been born with no disability and I was still well that I would still be in my job as a computer analyst earning a nice salary and paying into a nice pension. We had to downsize our house when I had to stop working and things are difficult. I work for home now and sell health products for a network marketing company. I find I can work it around my son and my disability. I now earn enough that i dont need income support or even carers allowance for my son.
In contrast my mother had a disabled brother and his mother did not get even one of the above to help with him 70 years ago. People just had to get on with things and families rallied around to help one another in those days. My mother just cant believe the help I receive both monetary and personal support. So basically things are not perfect today but they are a hell of a lot better than they were years ago and for that I believe we as a country are moving forward in the right direction.
I do get angry when I watch “Scam Britain” or whatever it is called were people
generate scams to avoid tax, diddle insurance claims, claim DLA and housing benefit falsely. I watched one recently were landlords took housing benefit and put people in really substandard accommodation. It also annoys me when drunk hooligans clog up A&E etc. If thses scumbags could be stamped out then the problem would improve.
So there you have it - I am not pro one political party over another as I just think the decision makers are the people who sit behind the party in power.
