#Welfare benefits

[eaglesnick]

101 Things You Should Know About the UK Tory Government

Thing 13

Melvyn Stride is Rishi Sunak’s new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Like many in Sunak’s government he has been accused of breaking the Ministerial Code, in his particular case by a cross-party inquiry who maintained he had misled Parliament regarding IR35 reforms. He was never disciplined.

DWP is responsible for the administration of the State Pension and working age benefits system, providing support to:

·                       people of working age

·                       employers

·                       pensioners

·                       families and children

·                       disabled people

 Strides parliamentary voting record holds little cheer for any of these five groups, especially poor pensioners. 

 The Guardian (17.03.22) reported that, “One in five pensioners - more than 2 million people- are living in relative poverty, in the UK, an increase of more than 200,000 in the past year alone.”

Stride has generally voted AGAINST welfare benefits in line with prices. He has almost always voted FOR a reduction in welfare spending. He has consistently voted AGAINST spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people. He has voted consistently FOR reducing housing benefit for those in social housing deemed to have a spare bedroom. Even worse news for pensioners is this statement by Stride when Chair of the Treasury Committee:

"Over the last decade, the pensions triple lock has successfully protected the incomes of older people, who often have limited opportunities to increase their earnings. However, the ‘triple lock’ is unsustainable in its current form. A potential almost double-digit percentage rise is unrealistic and unfair, with knock-on effects for the public finances.”

(Voting record of Stride gratefully taken from Voting record - Mel Stride MP, Central Devon - TheyWorkForYou)

[alwaysbewoke]

[feckcops]

Joe Biden Is Shrinking the Welfare State

“By the estimates of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 15 million people are going to lose their health insurance over the next few months, including 5.3 million kids. Worse, based on historical trends, 6.8 million of those people will lose their Medicaid coverage in spite of still being eligible for it simply because of bureaucratic trifles ...

“The effects of the declaration’s end will go well beyond this, affecting working people’s ability to get free tests, vaccines, and affordable treatment for the virus. It also means the end of extra food stamps, another generous program set to continue as long as the emergency exists and a vital lifeline for working people struggling to keep up with grocery bills in the face of inflation ...

“From a practical and moral standpoint, this is obviously a travesty. But it’s also a needless own goal for the president, putting an already deeply unpopular Biden in the position of running for reelection in a year’s time with millions of people losing their health insurance — and his potential Republican opponent being able to boast he’d been the one to extend it to them in the first place. More than that, it makes a mockery of his frequent public statements insisting that his administration will ‘continue to fight for racial justice,’ since, as the HHS, acknowledges, 15 percent of those who are about to lose their coverage as a result of his decision are black and one-third are Latino ...

“If the idea is that Americans are now tired of thinking and caring about the pandemic, making supporting any COVID-related policies politically toxic, then this is the wrong way to go about unwinding those. Americans didn’t hate that the pandemic response included protecting them from being kicked out of their homes by greedy landlords, getting financial support for the government while they were unemployed, or having health insurance and a variety of other health care needs guaranteed.”

[darkwood-sleddog]

you cannot fight against Animal Rights Activist bullshit for only certain circumstances and spew ARA rhetoric when a situation pulls at your heartstrings.

Agricultural animals can be kept and produce eggs, dairy, fiber, etc. ethically given they are provided proper housing, water, food, vet care and enrichment.

Given proper housing, water, food, vet care, and enrichment dogs can live fulfilling lives outside of the interior of the home. Extreme weather is NOT dangerous for specific breeds of dogs (this goes both ways for hot and cold temperatures).

Given proper housing, water, food, vet care, and enrichment wild animals can live full lives out of the wild and in the care of conservation focused zoos.

Anyways.

[chronicallycouchbound]

I refuse to call government assistance programs “welfare” or “benefits”.

I’ve been on government assistance programs my whole life. I have never lived above the poverty line.

It’s a system that doesn’t care about my wellbeing, they care about doing the bare minimum to keep people alive enough to function and work, and if you’re disabled and cannot work, they give significantly less of a fuck.

And benefits?? What benefits?

Food stamps that run out within two weeks because I am budgeting with 8$ a day with literally dozens of dietary restrictions? Or do you mean the housing voucher that I have to never even have a gift card, penny to my name, Sams club membership, phone bill, literally anything that could be “income” in order to qualify? That same housing voucher system that if I mess up even once with I not only lose all government aid for at least 5 years, it’s also mandatory PRISON time for 1 year?? “Oh but they would never do that, right?” Nope! I have several friends who are now felons for minor lease violations and unhoused as a result! Oh maybe you mean the state health insurance that doesn’t cover most treatments, specialists, and testing I need and if I tried to make a gofundme to cover, I would lose aforementioned housing? Oh and we can’t forget all the money I get for being disabled, which is exactly 0$. I’m still fighting for SSI and have been for 6 years! That’s over 6 years with absolutely zero income. ZERO. And guess what, whenever I *do* get on SSI, I will lose my housing voucher. And I won’t be able to afford my current apartment because even in subsidized low income housing it’s too expensive for the maximum SSI “benefit” amount. And on SSI you can’t have savings over 2000$. Oh and they do make housing for people who are low income where you pay 30% of your income but I can’t even be on the waitlist since I don’t have any income. And on top of all this, I can never get married because I’ll lose all of the programs.

I could keep going. That’s not even half of the programs I’m a part of.

• None of them give me cash in hand. Even for vouchers I have to provide receipts for everything.

• Food stamps just straight up won’t even cover ineligible items. Which includes hot foods.

• I genuinely don’t believe that there’s a way to “game the system” and why would you? You would gain literally nothing.

• It’s designed to keep people poor. Once you make over a certain amount, you lose all or almost all benefits. There’s no way to slowly transition out of the programs, if you’re someone who’s able to. It’s all in or all out.

• All of these barriers are made significantly worse while unhoused/homeless. I’ve been homeless for over half of my life and there’s so many fucked up rules. If I missed one night staying in the shelter, I lost my housing voucher because I no longer was “verified as homeless” even if I was sleeping outside still.

[rednblacksalamander]

Good thing he didn't say "fence sitter" or he'd get shot for trespassing on the lawn.

[earlgraytay]

the worst part of the Fuckery that has been happening is that I am triggered by, among other things, being punished for doing something I was told to do

and that is the definition of how ~means tested benefit programs~ work, especially if the numbers they're testing haven't been updated in decades

... if they want you to get off benefits and make a living

if the entire point is that, if you can work, you should be able to work

WHY THE FUCK AM I GETTING PUNISHED. FOR TRYING TO WORK. AND LIVE A MEANINGFUL LIFE. INSTEAD OF FUCKING ROTTING ON NOT-ENOUGH-MONEY PER MONTH.

[bisexualseraphim]

I just with mine own eyes saw someone say that calling gym culture ableist is the REAL ableism because they know a guy with Down’s Syndrome and one arm that goes to the gym sometimes.

Gym culture in and of itself may not be ableist, but you know what is? Telling disabled people that they can and should go to the gym just because you know an amputee or someone in a wheelchair who lifts. Physically disabled people who can exercise that heavily and often without severe exhaustion or pain is a fucking anomaly.

“Disabled people can exercise just as easily as able-bodied people and also work as hard and often and have hardly any struggles actually” is really not the allyship you think it is in a world where the government will look at a fucking paraplegic with epilepsy and a heart condition and declare them ‘fit for work’ and act all shocked when the person eventually collapses from exhaustion and dies suddenly and prematurely.

The word is ‘disabled’ for a reason you absolute brainless wankwads and it’s not a dirty word

[alwaysbewoke]

[daniemililly]

CN suicide, political and systemic ableism

In Irish politics, we almost never had disabled people be anything more than props for use for photo ops, or to demonise as welfare cheats

In Irish politics, we talked about the hard work of our carers once in a rare while, but never the hard work of disabled people being cared for or looking after ourselves

In Irish politics, disabled people are objects of pity, and not people trying to get through our days as denizens and citizens of our country which often tells us that we do not belong here

In Irish politics, we protect the facade of a colonial era building before we'll put in a ramp or lift to let a disabled person who needs it go inside

In late 2023 a Green Paper was published on reforming payments to disabled people in ways that meant we would be under more regular surveillance, be pressured into employment services or potentially risk sanction, and be under pressure to work enough to stop receiving payments. It would also tier us depending on how disabled we could prove we are

This document was made without Disabled Persons' Organisations involved, in direct contravention of our recently won rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of People With Disabilities

It led many, including myself, to absolute despair, and I had the worst suicidal ideation I'd had in nearly six years

The only thing that kept me alive was a promise to keep fighting it alongside my fellow disabled people just for a little bit longer, but it got pretty close at times

We didn't really expect to win, but one day after seven months of fighting, we somehow did

The government backed down Disabled people will be part of any future attempts at reform

We even got the Dáil to declare that there should be non means tested, universal disability payments, even if the government is nowhere near that sort of position yet

But as much headspace as that took up, and as big as that victory was, the day to day thriving of disabled people in Ireland remains blocked by a system designed to keep taxes on corporations low and the costs of disability high

In watching the last Disability Matters Committee, there was case after case of how disabled people are being failed by the state, with the politicians on the committee hearing the stories and wondering how many more times they were going to have to hear the same things before there is action by the government

The committee has had report after report to the Dáil stating the dire problems with disabled rights in Ireland and nonetheless, the government decided to put out that Green Paper which ignored all of their recommendations and did more harm to disabled people. Nonetheless, the government have cut services and underfunded our needs

People unable to have their vehicles adapted because they didn't lose the correct limb

People left without insurance for their prosthetics

People unable to access personal assistance hours

People not able to live their lives

So I painted something to express how our politics treats our lives

It took me awhile but here it is

[A Dáil chamber with disabled supports, like mobility equipment, sensory equipment, comfort items, masks, and laptops, overturned and empty on the floor. Blood is spattered on the carpet and equipment]

[jangillman]

A mouse was placed at the top of a jar filled with grains. It was so happy to find so much food around him that no longer he felt the need to run around searching for food. Now he could happily live his life. After a few days of enjoying the grains, he reached the bottom of the jar.

Suddenly, he realize that he was trapped and he couldn't get out. He now has to fully depend on someone to put grains in the jar for him to survive.

He now has no choice but to eat what he's given.

A few lessons to learn from this:

1. Short term pleasures can lead to long-term traps.

2. If things come easy and you get comfortable, you are getting trapped into dependency.

3. When you are not using your skills, you will lose more than your skills. You lose your CHOICES and FREEDOM.

4. Freedom does not come easy but can be lost quickly.

5. NOTHING comes easily in life and if it comes easily, maybe it is not worth it.

Don't curse your struggles. They are your blessings in disguise.

[feckcops]

Quick, tangible change will see off the hard right – these are the things Labour must do now

“Fourteen years of austerity, economic incompetence and corruption under the Conservatives created the disillusionment and alienation from politics that Farage has been able to feed off. With a change of government, his focus now will be on damaging Labour.

“People will be relatively patient, but will want to see some early initial progress on a number of fronts – and significant results by at least the midterm of this government ... To guard against a rise of the hard right here, the left has to secure a wave of progressive policy delivery, and to start soon ...

“With 14 million people, including 4.3 million children, now living in poverty, an early win in the implementation of the anti-poverty strategy Labour committed to in its manifesto would be secured by the scrapping of the brutal two-child benefit cap, lifting 300,000 children out of poverty ...

“The wages of many workers have been effectively frozen since 2008 and there has been a widespread extension of insecure and often precarious work across the economy. Labour’s commitment to introduce its new deal for workers in its first 100 days could transform the lives of people at work, and address the scourge of low pay and insecure employment, but to be effective it has to be comprehensive with no further watering down ...

“People know how much pressure our public services have been put under by Conservative austerity, but will want to see change. They will support reform that puts control into the hands of the frontline professionals, but will react to reform that privatises and enables companies to profiteer, fuelling Farage’s claim of the corporate capture of the Labour party.

“Realistically, large-scale investment is needed ... We are at a defining moment not just for the new Labour government but for the politics of our country. Beware the danger but recognise the potential.”

[chronicallycouchbound]

“Benefits” my ass.

These are mandatory forms for General Assistance, which pays for my rent, household needs ($45) and some food (100$).

I am disabled and have been fighting for SSI since 2017. Once I am eventually approved, I have to use my backpay to pay back a portion of this (about 1/3 of my backpay, my lawyer gets another 1/3, I get whats left).

In order to have housing (after YEARS of homelessness) I have to waive my rights to confidentiality for my own medical records.

Note that “phone bills” are misspent money. I am entirely reliant on someone else’s kindness to be on their phone plan. This had to be approved by my GA caseworker. I NEED a phone, not just for my dozens of appointments to manage my life threatening chronic health conditions and serious mental illnesses, but also to call the pharmacy, to call my landlord, DHHS, heating assistance programs, case management and therapy, AND, of course, for my monthly general assistance appointment. Yes. They REQUIRE me to have a phone AND I cannot pay for it. I have zero income since I’m unable to work anyways.

What happens if I “misuse” these theoretical funds? Federal prison time, a mandatory minimum of 1 year, PLUS disqualification of all government services for up to 5 years.

So yeah, “Benefits” my ass.

[anotherpapercut]

if you're curious about the state of welfare in the us rn I was denied for financial assistance bc my income is too low. so I have to pay full price if I want insurance bc.... I can't afford help???

[norakwami]

Oh, you don't want to pay the employees of your company a livable wage?

Bet you'd change your tune real damn fast if you got a tax break for every dollar you paid them above the bare minimum.