2y ago

‘Made to feel like a scrounger’: chef waiting for hip operation fears losing £84-a-week benefit

www.theguardian.com

6 comments

This policy is awful for so many reasons, but I'm not sure why they've used this woman as an example, she's spent 30k after only being out of work 4 months? Something odd is going on there.
- Oh. It says she spent a lot of it renovating her house for after her operation.
  
  I had my bannisters amended to facilitate going up and down stairs, bought chair raisers, a raised loo seat and frame, a shower mat and attachment, a device for picking things up from the floor and another for putting on socks and underwear, and a washing sponge on a long stick.
  I just can't see how that's 30k of work. She also says she stocked up on laundry pods so maybe she has thousands?
  I'm not mad at her specifically, she's free to do whatever, I just feel like with the tories making all these awful policy decicions victimising vulnerable people that they could have found a better case to discuss how this is badly affecting disabled people. There's terminal cancer victims having their benefits cut off for not applying to jobs, why not speak to them?
  
  She might also have a high rent, she will not have got any benefits till her savings fall below 16k and only got full benefits after it falls below 6k.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
She has been waiting 47 weeks for a hip operation and fears she may lose her small benefit income because of planned changes to the welfare system.
People with mobility and mental health problems will be asked to work from home or lose benefits as part of what a UK government minister described this week as doing “their duty”.
The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, doubled down on the controversial policy in his autumn statement on Wednesday, claiming that the government’s so-called back-to-work plan would help nearly 700,000 people with health conditions find work.
“I had £30,000 in savings at that point, so I stockpiled laundry pods, dishwasher tablets, tinned food, and spent quite a bit of money on expensive alterations of my house I thought I might need during recovery at home.
“I had my bannisters amended to facilitate going up and down stairs, bought chair raisers, a raised loo seat and frame, a shower mat and attachment, a device for picking things up from the floor and another for putting on socks and underwear, and a washing sponge on a long stick.
Hunt told MPs in his autumn statement speech that the government would focus on those with sickness and disability and the long-term unemployed by overhauling the work capability assessment.
The original article contains 703 words, the summary contains 211 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

6 comments