Hello
I am just wondering if people on here have seen an increase in hate against those who claim disability benefits and PIP? I see it popping up all the time on tiktok and facebook in particular.
For those on benefits how do you cope with this, for me i feel extremely guilty that i am in the situation i am in.
How do you cope with this negativity?
I didn't ever learn to cope with it whilst I was in the UK, not really. I graduated in 1981. Monetarism and Thatcher's 3 million, including graduate unemployment.
It always seems to be in the government's interest to find someone to blame, someone to scapegoat, when times get lean. But I seem to remember that the austerity drive of the 2020's had never truly been necessary.
And now the current party are doing the same old, same old. All about decent working families, they say. But the coffers are empty and someone's piggy bank will have to be raided.
I remember the director of one of the languages I worked for opining that many sick people could not be really sick if they were well enough to enjoy expensive holidays abroad. He thought it was pensions that needed to be protected, as it was honest, decent working people who had paid contributions all their lives who were more deserving.
Only now they, are going after pensioners.
After a disastrous return back after my first Real Job at a chool in the country where I am based now, I never returned. My mother or some odd reason thought I intended to come back just to sign on again. I didn't see my family again for over two years. I hope they were pleased at that result.
Being treated, seen as a scrounger, is like having acid thrown at your face. In the early 80's though there were thinkers who questioned the validity of the work ethic if work in general were to become more scarce. I attended art courses, but discovered there all other kinds of gatekeeping.
I'd tried working a Sunday shop at 16 and got humiliated and fired pretty quickly for 'not being quick enough.' I did fear getting bullied in the workplace for not fitting in, but discovered that can happen in unpaid jobs too, if your work is tied to accommodation. I couldn't deal with restart interviews and claimant adviser interrogations. I got the chance to do the Tesol course in good time, and while it was not a match in heaven, it did give me a living for nearly three decades, and hurrah, I did pay my taxes, all very worthy.
That's the Dialectic of the System.
Get people unhealthy, then they can no longer work and offer 'Help' through Financial Welfare. The Roman Empire did the same, prior to the ransacking by the Visigoths.
I have PIP, but it's Chicken Feed; compared to what it takes to live the life I want. Inflation, caused by Fiat Currency, is the real problem.
Antisocial Media.
Please don’t let them make you feel guilty. They don’t know you and it’s highly likely they know nothing about the complexity of different kinds of disability. Some people are ignorant, and some are cruel, and none of these people should be given any space in your head and heart.
Yes, one of my pet peeves is people assuming that all UC claimants are unemployed 'layabouts'. I have lost count how many times I've pointed out to people that many UC claimants are in fact working.
Not all unemployed are 'layabouts' anyway. Many people are unemployed due to no fault of their own and would love to have a job.
The media is to blame for this as it constantly spreads misinformation which in turn causes hate and division in our society. Also, social media sites such as Facebook and TikTok are riddled with keyboard warriors as it's so easy being nasty to others whilst hiding behind a keyboard or a phone.
If companies paid their lower paid employees a better wage they wouldn't need to be on universal credit, so it's actually a benefit for the company - for the employee it's just stopping them being homeless or hungry, which is a necessity, not a benefit.
I'd never heard of corporate welfare before. Just did a search and found a website called Corporate Welfare Watch, which reports on government support given to private companies. It's shocking.
Lying, not telling the truth, not telling the whole truth, misleading, are all skills you can develop with practice.
I remember lying at an interview about why and when I left a previous job, my heart rate changed, I felt blushing, I felt sweat on my forehead. At following interviews I said the same lie and non of these happened. I was lying naturally and with sincerity.
Sometimes it takes me a while to work out what is being said.. and i guess that counts as watching it
Very true, sadly. We are seen as an easy target.
If the algorrythm suggests something do you have to look at it? I get suggestions for things amazon thinks I might like to read, most of them fall into the 'in what universe would I want that' catagory.
Yes but the media stifles any talk about what corporate welfare gets so that can pick on the low person
Yeah they are quick to judge others when they themselves would jump at the chance at a safety net
I mainly use social media to read/watch things i rarely post unless if for my volunteering.. Just seems everywhere its rammed down your throat.. I try and avoid it but i dont decide what the algorithm suggests. I am going to try and reduce what i look at though
As a claimant when I read such comments or hear them I point out that forty percent of UC claimants are in work. We spend an estimated 80 billion a year on corporate welfare which dwarfs working age benefits. You are far more likely to be prosecuted for benefit fraud than for tax fraud. it is all a political ideology.
I try not to read it. Sometimes it can be unavoidable though.
I went to the library a couple of months ago to look at all the local papers to see if there were any jobs. Of course there was not a single job in any of them. But one of them had plenty of comments from people whinging about benefit claimants. I decided I'm not going to bother buying that paper any more.
