What kind of country do we live in when the people who actually need help are turned away? When people are struggling and have no choice but to ask the government for a helping hand they shove you the middle finger.
Now, I’m not saying that people who do get benefits don’t deserve them, but if they plan on doing nothing but living on it for the rest of their lives then what hope does our country have? I only applied for benefits because I was forced to and I don’t want to have to rely on them for the rest of my life. Like I have said in previous blog posts, I want to work for my money, earn it and be independent. I don’t want to live on hand-outs.
I was taken off Jobseekers two weeks ago at 29 weeks into my pregnancy. I am now 31 weeks pregnant and had to apply for income support as I personally have no form of money coming in to feed myself, baby and husband. I was reassured that I would get said income because of our situation. I can’t work, I have applied to jobs and I have had no luck as yet so what am I supposed to do? Yesterday I received the letter with the decision that I was not entitled to income support.
Why? Because my husband is a full-time student and gets a student loan. This is ridiculous. His student loan is barely enough for one person to survive on (designed for one person to live off of) and he only gets it in instalments three times a year! That has to pay for rent, bills and food! It’s nothing for two people, nearly three now to live on. But apparently by law it is. Isn’t a student loan meant for education anyway? How is it seen as income! It infuriates me that they consider this income. I don’t expect income to pay me loads, I would have been happy with an extra £10 a week as my husband and I are used to living off one meal a day. We make the most of everything. How are income support allowed to get away with this?
I did ring them up and was polite and asked for a full explanation but they just treated me like something on the bottom of their shoe. Extremely rude and basically telling me that they don’t want to know. They are quite happy to let a pregnant women starve.
I don’t feel like I am owed anything by the government but when they put systems like this in place they make it impossible for people who need help to get the help they need.
Bunny’s Pause 