I took this up with my local MP. He has replied to my letter and is taking this up with the manager of Jobcentre Plus in this area. It does n’t really matter about my personal situation now, it’s the principle of the thing. I’ll be taking this as far as I can and would suggest other people who’ve had similar difficulty take it up with their MP if they feel physically and emotionally able to. Things need to change.
Geraldine
HEAR HEAR !!! YES I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU ,something does need to be done, why should us genuinely sick people not get the benefits WE NEED and the malingerers get everything on a plate, we really ALL need to join together and get a petition up and lobby this government into waking up and seeing the real problems caused by the benefits systems failures what do you say girls?lynn xx
Believe me I know how hard it tis trying to claim benefit (I gave up - never get ill when you’ve been self-employed - no SSP for me), and how unfair it is.
But I think everyone talking about malingerers, scroungers and non-genuine claimants should read Lambkin’s post again. She has suffered unnecessarily because of the actions of people who presumably believed the stories of an army of malingerers claiming benefit. A person with cancer will probably appear fit and well to an uninformed onlooker.
I’m sure there are a few people who know how to manipulate the system; there always are - Jane quite rightly spoke of rich tax avoiders/evaders. But since we know how difficult they make it to claim, it ill behoves any of us to point fingers and speculate as to who may or may not be a genuine claimant. Since as informed and articulate people we have such difficulty, why would we think there are thousands who get away with fraudulent claims?
We should be arguing for fairer and simpler procedures for everyone, not scapegoating a largely mythical hoard of ‘malingerers’.
Well, for what it’s worth I think if you turn up with a medical certificate which states you have BC and is signed by your GP the Jobcentre should know you are not malingering and the staff should also be well enough trained to know they should not be giving you abuse like the guy I had who told me "breast cancer is no excuse for trying to get benefits (but being a drug addict seems to be a good enough excuse - don’t get me started on that one as a family of this type at the bottom of my street are getting everything on a plate, so taxpayers are financing their habit - they are also petty criminals to boot!) I know someone who is a Jobcentre manager and it is all about government figures and targets - it’s basically easier for them to interview genuinely vulnerable people than the ones who they know are malingering and therefore likely to kick up a big fuss in the office (for instance, when I was jobhunting a young guy in front of me in the Jobcentre was kicking up a huge fuss and threatening the staff because his benefits had been suspended after not turning up at a job interview - he claimed they had no right to do this as his GF had a baby and was also reliant on benefits). I just get really angry at all the people who have never paid NI in their lives as they have never bothered to get jobs - people like me who end up having a short NI gap through no fault of their own then end up being penalised. I had paid NI for 25 years up until the short break when I had to look after my late father, had never taken a break for anything like maternity leave and had claimed dole once back in 1991 for 3 months after redundancy.
I’m writing to my MP, my MSP and the Shadow Secretary about the unfairness of the system.
getting mad I also get really mad that we pay into the system and when it comes to it and you need genuine help you get bugger all.
Before i went in for surgery I went to see if i was entitled to anything at the loca CAB office, as i wouldnt be paid anything and i was told straight to my face that I should off saved for a rainy day like this, i told her i could foresee the future and never thought in a million years that in my 30’s would i get BC, I still want to punch her face in.
Tracey
Welfare Reform Bill I’ve been checking out where the current attitude comes from. in a nutshell, it is from the Welfare Reform Bill which is due to become law later this year. The gist of it appears to be that, even if you are ill/incapacitated in some way, you are likely to still be considered capable of undertaking some kind of work. In this case you will go onto a new benefit which will only be paid if you are moving into work or JSA. If you are incapable of work, you’ll go onto Income Support. In my case, I would n’t have got this as the maintenance I receive from my ex for our son, would just take me outside the threshold for IS. The Jobcentre is supposed to provide support to claimants to get them into work. You have to score 15 or more in the Personality Capacity assessment to retain benefit. If you don’t you are deemed capable of working, apparently regardless of the advice of the medical staff involved in your treatment and care. There is an appeal process but that’s not much consolation in the short term and something that none of us need when you’re dealing with cancer. It’s being put forward as a way to get people into work but it seems very obvious it’s a means of removing benefit. An employer would not be able to harrass a sick employee in this way and doubt the validity of medical opinion or advice. Jim Murphy is the minister for the DWP and is responsible for this piece of legislation. There has been an articlae in “Community Care” recently about this as there are serious concerns that a lot of people with significant health problems will be forced into work despite not being fully fit to do so.
Geraldine
seen in Daily Express today hat they are going to pilot a lie detector test in some areas for benifit claimants-sounds like a great idea to me!If its sucsessful will be rolling it out countrywide. sharonx
When I read that thing about lie detectors I was convinced it was April 1st again.
Let’s face it, the government have enough trouble just trying to run Jobcentre Plus and the DWP properly, how on earth is this going to work? What a load of absolute tosh! They would be far better off spending the money on proper staff training (at my Jobcentre the person dealing with you generally has to consult a colleague then a manager for even the most basic info it would seem). I have had so much wrong or conflicting info on benefits in the last 6 months it has been untrue. A course in how not to be rude to sick people would help a lot of them as well!
OH is s/employed and we were advised to try to apply for Tax Credits -once again we were misinformed (IR this time) so were turned down and told if OH’s working hours change to try reapplying. We plan to, but this is out last go.after this we give up on everything to do with the benefits system. We are just lucky that we have some money put by, but we are living very frugally that’s for sure.