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ToughDiamond
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14 Mar 2009, 8:06 am

What kind of benefits do you get?

Does the system treat you fairly, or are they forever moving to cut your support? Are you honest with them?

Are they heplful in finding you the right sort of work?

Do you get lots of spare time? How do you use it?

Mostly I'm interested in the English system, but all experiences are welcome.

I was only unemployed for a few months, around 1990. I found it scary (I didn't know of AS), though their interrogations were never very aggressive. I researched the "Restart interview" like it was a masters degree, and when I went there, they accepted that I was trying hard to find work and could cope wthout attending their job clubs. I think the fear was knowing I had big reservations about getting plunged into a new workplace, I rationalised it at the time as class consciousness, which I knew wouldn't go down well, so I felt I was dishonestly pretending to really want a job, though looking back, there was a desire for a job, just that I didn't want stuffing in with a bunch of weirdos. So I always felt like a hustler.

While I was unemployed I carried on doing part-time voluntary work for the co-op I'd been previously waged by, so I didn't get much spare time. It's strange, I hate this "work ethic" thing that says everybody should work hard, but somehow I've worked all my life, and barely noticed.



Macbeth
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14 Mar 2009, 8:32 am

Job-Seekers Allowance is only 47.20 or so a week - about £104 every fortnight. Not enough to live on, even taking into account housing benefit and council tax exemption.

Income Support is based on things, such as Disability Living Allowance (you tend to get a little more for being disabled), and who you're living with or supporting. If there is a person working in the house you're living in, you probably wont get much.

Unfortunately, sometimes it's a lot more financially viable than getting a job and working for your money.. I'm considering such things right now.


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agmoie
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14 Mar 2009, 8:39 am

You would be better off claiming in the Republic of Ireland you would get around 190 pounds a week,free healthcare and rent paid.I have a house available to rent there if you are interested!



ToughDiamond
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14 Mar 2009, 1:11 pm

That's a staggering difference...£192 per week is a lot nearer to a decent standard of living. £47.20 would stretch even me, and I can be pathologically frugal if my back's to the wall.



Dussel
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14 Mar 2009, 2:03 pm

agmoie wrote:
You would be better off claiming in the Republic of Ireland you would get around 190 pounds a week,free healthcare and rent paid.I have a house available to rent there if you are interested!


The health care is in the UK free too via the NHS; cost of housing are also paid in the most cases.



KingdomOfRats
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14 Mar 2009, 3:01 pm

DLA [what macbeth said in full] depends on whether have got significant support needs or not,so just having a diagnosis of something doesn't mean will get DLA.
there are two components to DLA- the care component and the mobility component,there is a low tier/mid tier/high tier to [care component] and low/high to [mobility component],the mobility component doesn't just mean physical ability to walk it covers a lot of things to do with getting out and about-though if get an inexperienced benefits staff having at look at the form they may not understand unless are a wheel chair user.

most on the spectrum will get low in mobility or none at all-but those who are classed as having severe needs when out and about should be able to fit under one or two of the non physical high rate mobility criteria,which is [severe mental impairment] and [severe behavioral difficulties].
They also add extra components [enhanced and severe disability] if get a high enough level.

If ended up getting high rate mobility,are able to get a new car from http://www.motability.co.uk [a huge choice and a lot of adaptions available,but most adaptions are aimed at limb problems]-it's paid for out of the mobility component-and it's insurance can be named to self-or multi users [for those with support staff or several drivers].

don't have experience with job stuff but there are a few organisations that do help people on the spectrum/= jobs-NAS,united response,autism initiatives etc.
am don't know how good nas and ai are for that but one of the ladies am live with gets supported voluntary work with ur-she worked for fair trade going into shops with ur staff to make sure the shops were not overcharging on fairtrade stuff [fair trade sent her loads of free things of theirs for it-box fulls of tea,cofee..] as well as in a animal sanctuary.


The only problem am have ever had with benefits was getting high rate mobility,the specialists, doctors and NAS staff and bosses who knew am all said am more than qualified for high rate mobility of DLA under two of the criteria [not just one]-but the reply they kept sending back was because am did not use a wheel chair,am was able to access the community perfectly well-proving they knew nothing of what am like outdoors,and would quickly sent back the pile of evidence over one word spelt slightly wrong by staff,to ask if it was definitely correct/meant,so that meant having to pay for special courier to bring it back every time.
the benefits people ignored their own rules-focusing only on the physical criterias,and completely denieing the existance of the non physical criteria,and it took five retries and a tribunal to get onto HRM,it's luck and dependant on who does the forms whether people will get high rate mobility as an autist,am used to live with another autie with far less community/outdoors needs and a severe downs syndrome man who both got high rate mobility from the first try,yet that DLA staff was trying to say only wheel chair users get high rate.
sorry for big post.


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ToughDiamond
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14 Mar 2009, 5:40 pm

Quote:
sorry for big post.

There's no need to be sorry. You gave us some good details about the way the social security bureaucrats can get things wrong. I'm glad you posted it, thank you.



ToughDiamond
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14 Mar 2009, 5:40 pm

(ignore - another undeletable double post :x )



Last edited by ToughDiamond on 15 Mar 2009, 3:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ZEGH8578
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14 Mar 2009, 5:56 pm

im in norway, and have been paid ordinary "lowlife-scum payment", cus there's

1. unemployment pay for those who had a job, and are trying to find a new one
2. lowlife-scum pay (i dunno what its really called :D ) is for unemployed people who never had a job, or worked less than 6 months in their life,
3. disability pay, is twice that of the lowlife-scum pay.

they pay my flat, and i dont have to pay taxes.
they pay a flat up to 3000 krones, thats about... 435 dollars a month.

thats what i got, one room, and a shared bathroom and stuff. private flat that i had to find myself, but keep in mind, i have not been diagnosed, and ive been treated as - - a lowlife scum :D per norwegian definitions anyway

they pay about 4000 krones a month, about 580 dollars, for food etc. its not a lot, and i am always broke at the end of the month.

lately, i have been sent around at an increasing rate, to shrinks and stuff, cus together we have been figuring out that im not quite like other people, after 6 years getting norwhere, we have to try other methods.
(ever since i was little me and those who care about me have been trying to figure out how my "depression" works, and in the past 10 years ive been more and more sceptical about being "depressed" altho everyone else insisted that i was... )
next week hopefully i'll get my aspie test, and i have allready been promised a disability pay, cus theyre allready pretty sure im not functioning quite correctly


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15 Mar 2009, 2:19 pm

In BC I feel like I'm being treated as a criminal all the time. And the way it works, they reward you if you work, but punish you if you get money by any other means (including interest, if you tell them about it). It's like they think we're servant class or something (though I think it's improved for self-employed - I don't think you could deduct expenses before). It is very patronizing and stressful. Ontario wasn't as bad when I was there but it may have changed since then (1998).

I used to read a lot. Now I write, and go for long walks, and hope that someday I will sell something and make some money. I've started auditioning again for student films, too, which means having to be more careful about diet, and scrounging up money for more head shots. :P