Mental Health Rant

[marksbananas]

Hi all not sure if this is the place for this but wanted to have a rant. I am feed up with being judged by people and things being harder than they need to be due to an under funded service and blaggers.
I myself have suffered from a variety of problems for many years and i am on a cocktail of drugs to try to help doesn't seem to work though, but i am feed up with smacking my head against a wall trying to get help and finding that the mental health team are booked up. I know of someone who is my wifes friends husband and he is just blagging, he has grown up with his father suffering from bipolar and he know why? Because he cant be bothered to go and sign on, so he pretends to have mental health problems to get signed off, but the trouble is he goes around shouting about his supposed condition and everyone paints us with the same brush. He is the reason for these medical assessments and i am feed up with genuine people having difficulties in getting the help and finincal support that we all deserve due to people who are blagging and abusingh a system that is there to help those who need it.
People like him are making it very hard for genuine people to get anything that they need, but what can i do, i cant report him for fraud as i have no grounds, although this is someone who recons he cant leave his house, well unless he is getting his money outr of the bank or messing around in town with his mates. I am feed up with people seeing how he is and assuming that we are all the same as him, on a blag because cant be bothered to sign on. It makes me mad that he is creating an image of how people with problems are, there is enough predudice around about mental health and i have met a few myself. Now genuine people are being penalized because of lay abouts!! as if we dont have enough to deal with!! We now have to fit all the way to get what we are entitled too and lets face it we are not always strong enough and end up getting over looked, Well sorry if i have gone on but i am feed up with blaggers!! making things harder for genuine people.

 

[*Sapphire*]

Hi Marks

Don't worry about ranting, if it makes you feel better go ahead!

Yes I can totally understand where you are coming from, it angers me when I see people working and claiming benefits, or pretending to be ill when they are not. I have two friends with severe disabilities and suffering with severe pain and they have their cases reviewed regulary by the benefits in case they should miraculously get cured and be able to work. It pains me to hear that they have to undergo interviews and reviews, often undertaken by people who are very critical and sceptical about their very obvious disabilities (one is paralysed from the waist down, and the other is in a wheelchair with limited movement). Neither of them have been on holiday for years because of the extra cost it incurs being disabled, as well as the fact that they just do not have money to spare on such luxuries, once the essential bills are paid.

However at the opposite end of the scale I see people who are perfectly healthy yet claiming benefits, for years with no reviews. Their children often wear the latest designer clothing and they do not struggle to pay for holidays.

Like you it gets my goat, however rest assured with the introduction of ESA, and the Government investing in back to work agencies I don't think it will be so easy for them to do in future. What always surprises (and annoys) me though is these people always seem to find a way around it, they are very clever at getting benefits.

 

[marksbananas]

Thanks glad i am not the only one, when ever you hbave to attend these interviews the interviewer has already made up there mind that we are all blaggers! I wish i had been born with both legs missing instead of a chemical inbalance in my brain, atleast then people would know how to treat me. They say mental health illness's are caused by chemical inbalances in the brain, why is it when people know that i have a mental condition they treat you like you are retarded or something, they dont when people are diabetic, and that is a chemical inbalance. ARGGH it makes me so mad that people feel that the system can be abused because this in turn makes it harder for the genuine people. I at the moment am on income support and DLA and i am dreading the change to esa or whatever its called i dont know much about it but i know it is going to be nothing but trouble.

 

[Wonky]

All and every system has, will always have, people who abuse it.

Do release your anger here, but be careful, if you say something that justifies a witch-hunt, don't be surprised if the witchfinder-general knocks on your door. Much better to argue for a fairer system - i.e. what is the point of reviewing people who are seriously and permanently disabled?

I don't think it is abuse of the system that is the major cause of the injustice of the system - the real cause is cutting the benefits bill and assuaging Daily Mail readers.

 

[marksbananas]

witch hunt? dont understand what you mean i was just saying not starting a witch hunt, will see if i can remove what i have put as obviously i have not made my point very well that people think i am on a witch hunt

That is the pont that i wa trying to make that the system is wrong. How can i delete my post, think imust be in the wrong forum or something

 

[Wonky]

witch hunt? dont understand what you mean i was just saying not starting a witch hunt, will see if i can remove what i have put as obviously i have not made my point very well that people think i am on a witch hunt

That is the pont that i wa trying to make that the system is wrong. How can i delete my post, think imust be in the wrong forum or something

Calm down, it doesn't matter. I am not accusing you of starting a witch-hunt, my point was a general one, I should have made that clear.

My point is just that it doesn't matter a lot what someone day the road is doing, what matters is what the big guns are doing and why they are doing it - politicians, etc. "Blaggers" exist, of course, but the subject of "blagging" is used for political ends that may very well affect and you and I adversely.

 

[*Sapphire*]

Marks rest assured your post was fine. Your meaning was clear, please don't get upset.

 

[daffy]

Mark I agree with you totally and no one is disputing what you say. What i cant get my head round with this ESA how will it help or benefit anyone , all it will do is shift the figures about and put people onto JSA. But the way the goverment works is that it states that you have to have a certain amount to live on. Mine is made up of IB IS plus DLA which isnt counted so even if they put you on ESA your money will still be made up to what the government says u need to live on. So it wont save the government any money just shift the figures to get more people of sick but not necessarily into work.

With regard to your wifes friend report him. Its freephone and they dont want any info about you and all they need is a few details about the person you mentioned. I know cos i did it about someone playing the sick card but could manage holidays and lots of other expensive treats that really p*ss*d me off. He was going out gardening and she was cleaning houses

 

[Wonky]

I am not sure, even if I was convinced that someone was claiming something they weren't entitled to, that I could report them.

I am not having a go at anyone here, I am sure everyone here has chosen to act (or not to act) according to the best intentions, but I just wonder how often the DWP freephone is used for purposes of revenge - "yeah, I know, I'll f*ck him up by ringing up and saying he is doing x, y and z ...". I find it very disturbing.

 

[Apotheosis]

I find it very disturbing.

I do too. I agree with your points.