Oh dear God.
I see food stamps has been brought up ; Is my mothers best friend, who receives JSA, not allowed to use your currency? Is she not equal enough? Can she not decide how her money should be spent? Does she not even have the right to choose where her food is purchased from? Let's look at my neighbour, who's currently awaiting an Tribunal Appeal for ESA and suffers from Schizoaffective Personality Disorder and agoraphobia, should he be forced to stop spending his fantastic £60 a week on his art supplies? The only thing keeping him from returning to mental hospitals? Should he be forced into buying in-store because food stamps won't cover his online shopping - his only way of shopping. PS - Will food stamps be taxed? If not, that's a lot of money being lost.
I get sick to death of people from comfortable lives, nice houses and expensive tastes in gear telling me what "Them council house people do" or even worse, telling me what "Those benefits them people get" is. I sit here in a council house with 2 people who have spent a combined 60 years working for the DWP, my neighbours are the people you talk about with authority and my friends are the people you assume are buying plasma TVs every 5 minutes, only buying booze and leaving children to die in pools of heroin.
The idea that kids can't grow from the worst situations of poverty, can't acheive 'better' things and will instantly fall into the trappings of their parents. I lived in the Gorbals during the early 90's, a terrible time for a terrible area. I've seen so many kids I grew up with from that area, kids with stories of physical abuse, sexual abuse, drug addicted parents and suicide going on to own their own homes, have respectable jobs and, most importantly, are happy. But of course, you guys on here clearly know with the "She'll just end up like the mum" comments. And these kids lack the inspiration and the hope? Look at yourselves when discussing this.
Now let's talk about the DWP in general ; these people claiming JSA are living the wild life with your money? Of course, that's why 8 of my mum's clients have killed themselves since January. That's why my mum is handing out Samaritans cards to people and even better, will be getting training in counselling? That's why the old man who frequently talks to the Pope, 30 years of mental health issues and many stays in hospitals has been kicked off ESA onto JSA, because he wants to join this money splashing party going on. That's why only last Friday my mum and her workmates had to give a 50 year old woman a whip round to give her shelter for the weekend. Christmas time in Glasgow thousands were left without their JSA, DLA and ESA, so many went without heating, food and Christmas presents over that peroid, because they've got so much money that it's ok! These people clearly have thousands of pounds stacked away in their expensive council houses. Now my step dad, he deals with appeals ; Do you know how much of your tax payers money goes towards ATOS, Triage and 4GS? Do you also know much a Tribunal Appeal costs? Well, don't worry because 60% of decisions made by these money-making third party companies is incorrect, each one costing you over £5k. But of course, the disabled people receiving the benefits are still the evil ones ripping you off. ESA has a fraud rate of 0.5% (DWP own figures), so we're aggressively attacking these people with untrained staff, who have to work to figures on bringing people off benefits, these people are like modern a day Jesus, performing miracles at every corner. People who have years of surgeons, doctors, hospital stays, medical evidence and physical proof that they're ill are brought out of their sickness because they can, and I quote, "Lift an arm above their head" and even more proof they can work, they can "Look after a small pet". Thank God for ATOS, attacking that massive 0.5% for your protections and bringing this country out of recession. The thing you should be scared of is management at the DWP, the constant ambiguous rules being released every week by the management, the sacking of frontline staff, new temps not knowing how to deal with people, the physical assaults in Job Centres at a time when security guards are being sacked, the money being spent on retired Dr's sitting through Tribunal appeals, ATOS, the Work Program, the WRAG group. These are the true money wasters.
If anybody would like I can happily let them come along and sit with my mum for a day in the frontline and see what the realities are, or you can see my step-fathers work with these third party groups who constantly mess up, yet are rewarded with large contracts or you could bring your camera along with me and walk through the area I live. I'm not being sarcastic, if that's what it takes to help some people see the truth, I want that. When we have a stituation were the mentally ill, the physical ill and the kids on JSA are fighting against an unrelenting Daily Mail looking for the loudest, most obnoxious families to broadcast and claim these families as the 'face of benefits' - the vast majority who are sick and JSA claiments cannot be heard and more frightingly will never be heard. And i'm out.
