Living in the UK when you say you are disabled, people assume you are being looked after. Even other disabled people assume you get the disability benefits to help you.
I am here to tell you that is not always true!
I get around £300 a month and even though it’s I’m disabled and unable to work, I don’t get ESA!
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is the main disability benefit in the UK which they will not give me as I decided to work as long as I could part-time as I could no longer work full-time, which meant I didn’t pay any National Insurance credits (NI Credits), so I don’t get ESA!
Yes, you read that right. Me trying to work for as long as much as I could, which worked against me in the UK.
I used to work 16 hours a week as I couldn’t physically work full time anymore, then my chronic illnesses got worse and my deteriorated so I couldn’t work at all, but as I had paid no NI Credits working 16 hours a week as it was under the threshold of what you receive in order to pay them, I don’t qualify for ESA!
I don’t live alone and wouldn’t be able to if I wanted to with just £300 a month income as that wouldn’t pay for rent anywhere in the country. Plus they help me with things at home that I physically cannot do like helping me cook my food and other things I struggle with, but their savings/investments get taken into account too so I don’t qualify for the other type of ESA/Universal Credit leaving me unable to claim anything but PIP, which leaves me struggling every month.
Let me tell you that living on £300 a month total income is incredibly hard! I still have to pay for prescriptions, dental treatment and don’t get any reductions on anything, all because I don’t get the benefits I should such as ESA. but can’t due to the ridiculous rules that they make.
I contacted the government many times and they told me they couldn’t do anything as they are the rules. I contacted my MP with why I don’t qualify and the fact I should as I am disabled and he forwarded it to parliament who came back with a reply that just stated what I said to him back at me! Literally no help at all. If I had wanted my words returned back to me I would have written to myself.
I don’t see why NI contributions should have anything to do with getting a disability payment. I am disabled. I can’t work. I was born a British citizen. I worked full time until I couldn’t, then worked part-time until I couldn’t anymore so I don’t get ESA because I worked part-time which was not enough to pay the NI contributions. Absolutely ridiculous!
I worked for as long as I could which actually worked against me in the end. If you are disabled and unable to work anymore, you should be able to get a disability benefit. It is as simple as that but in this country, you don’t.
When you tell people you don’t get ESA they are shocked and assume you haven’t tried or don’t know what you can get when actually you have worked hard and spent many hours trying to get they money you should get, but you aren’t allowed to due to NI Credits!! Ridiculous!
I have to explain myself once every week or two as to why I don’t get them as people don’t understand that just being disabled is NOT enough to get them. This ridiculous rule of having paid NI credits is a massive part of it
Living off an amount so small that you can’t buy anything you need!
Can’t buy the things you would love to kill the boredom of never leaving the house due to being housebound. Can’t pay towards things fixing or replacing that are breaking around me, nor pay for anything on the money I get such as health items, accessibility aids etc.
So no, not all disabled people get looked after by the government. There are people like me who they don’t care about and are forgotten.
