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Welfare
Hi everyone. Hope you all had a merry Christmas and happy new year. But something has been troubling me lately.
Living with a serious neuromuscular condition is hard enough, but trying to survive on social security is even harder. For those of us unlucky enough not to be able to participate in full-time employment (or have a spouse/family to help financially) we are through necessity (not choice) forced to rely on handouts. Incapacity Benefit is £5512: Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) alarmingly is £4420 (I appreciate there are different rates, I heard something about a disability premium or enhancement is that true?) However, how is one meant to pay rent e.g. £400-500 for a 1 bed apartment. Plus bills, council tax and all other everyday expenses on such meagre means? Disability Allowance is a godsend, but even coupled with IB/ESA we still fall short. They even have the audacity to tax those on benefits.
At risk of sounding like a scrounger or malinger which I despise is there any other financial support available?
It would be very interested to hear your experiences with social security. Do you feel your receive the correct rate/support. Are the work capability assessments genuinely unfair and placing people with MD ad “fit for work”, I appreciate part-time work is probably an option for some of us 15hrs a week perhaps.
We really should persuade the MD campaign to start lobbying the government perhaps with more vigour for better financial support for those with severe neuromuscular conditions. I cannot believe The Trailblazers have not tackled this very important issue. Perhaps accessibility to a cinema is more important than people with MD living in abject poverty and being unfairly assessed. However, those who are fortunate enough after paying utility bills, rent and meeting other financial obligations have enough money to attend the cinema are the lucky one. I do not wish to sound churlish, I do realise accessibility is an important issue and does need to be addressed, but I feel a little perspective is in order.
I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts good or bad
Re: WelfareHi Mark
I rely solely on benefits to live to, although I’m on a couple of different ones to you.
Have you applied for housing benefit? This is paid to help with rent, it does mean more form filling and answering questions on income but its worth a try.
Re: WelfareMy personal financial situation is such that I receive Incapacity Benefit, DLA and a small occupational pension – I have too much income and too much savings to qualify for benefits such as Council Tax Benefit, Housing Benefit and Income Support. Daft as it may sound, I received more benefit and indeed benefits when I was working part-time and receiving working tax credits
Maybe the various ‘consultants and advisors’ have the impression that severely disabled people are either within a family unit which physically and financially support them or have been resigned to benefit living before reaching working age and therefore have no savings or pension options. They have no provision for those of us who have tried to work but have been forced to retire because their progressive condition has worsened, nor those who have managed to scrape and save and put by for those extortionately priced equipment we will need at a later date.
From what I have read there is a ‘support element’ added to the ESA if you are placed is the ‘support group’ and classified unable to take part in work related activity. The premiums you mentioned are elements of Income Support.
I'm always the animal, my body's the cage
I blog about nothingness www.amgroves.com
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