We, Daniel Blake: readers on the UK benefits system

I saw the film today. Cried most of the way through. I am haunted by first time on benefits and using food banks, three years on. I look at benefits calculators and never think it won't happen to me again. I work long hours in a tough job with hideous commute yet am petrified of the consequences of being jobless. The film only touched on losing your home, too. I volunteered at a food bank and am amazed people think it's free food- when I volunteered you needed a referral to get some cereal, dried and canned goods. People are disgusting if they sneer or make derogatory comments about those who are forced to resort to them. The benefits system is harsh, bleak and life- destroying although you wouldn't think it the way deluded commentators sling around phrases like 'scroungers'.

I too went through this. In 2012 my family and I became homeless as my husband lost his job -and I had a shedload of non-paying clients as a photographer. I kept one camera, and one lens, and documented the whole sordid episode; not for salaciousness, but to act as a salutary reminder that what we experienced should never happen to anyone.

We ended up in a 12ft square room in Slough's red-light district - all five of us. Water ran down the walls, we had a cupboard in which a loo, mini basin and a mouldy shower were all we had for personal hygiene. A communal kitchen stank of shitty nappies and urine; and the occasional waft of cannabis from the landing opposite where another row of rooms housed other hostel residents.

I've kept the whole set of photos. One day I might have the balls to exhibit them - to show others in their middle-class "I'm alright, bollocks to you" lifestyles who aren't affected by the issue just how real it is. Four years on, the whole episode still haunts me.

Sanctioned for writing down the wrong number in a code for a job I applied for on the job centre system. They said the numbers didn't match the job name that came up when they put it in.
All the job adverts have 8 digit codes I explained I must have accidentally written the wrong number.
They said that was enough for 'reasonable doubt'
Fortunately I found work shortly after
I think job centers should have some sort of accountability and scrutiny panel from the local community to advocate for claimants and a better service.
I also think claimants rights should be strengthened by a contract that specifies what needs to be in place before they can successfully look for work: housing, food, transport, IT, support etc and the first step addressing these issues with no sanctions until it is proved to be in place.
They should then be supported according to their needs and if the job center fails to do so they should also be liable with a proper appeals procedure in place with the claimant treated as having the right to expect good service.
I doubt that will ever be a popular proposal though for the authorities.

In a world of "Nudge" the who process is designed to make it as hard as possible for people to claim benefits whilst at the same time diverting some of the money the claimants would have received to Maximus, the consultantcy firm that designed the system and the IT providers.

It has a feel of Nelson putting his telescope to his eyepatch and saying "I see no ships" quality to it, which is why so many with mental health issues fail to receive help because anybody with a hidden condition is immediately at a disadvantage.

As is no longer providing travel warrants to the appointments. If a claimant hasn't the money to make it to the interview, then they have to assemble to evidence that they don't have enough money to travel - all confirmed by a recognised third party and present this to the authorities in question - which is a process that costs money in and of itself.

Any process that involves the expression "Weaning people off welfare" necessarily means cutting off a lifeline and in this sense it simply becomes Eugenics by fiscal control.

It is no coincidence that is an increase in the number of poor, sick and vulnerable people dying or taking their lives because of austerity.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

I have personally experienced a delay in payment of benefits that lasted two months,
this occurred because I moved home from a property that was declared as unfit for human habitation to a property that was fit for human habitation.
The change of address caused the DWP to insist that my claim with them was on hold until my new address was verified by them.
During that time I had no money what so ever.
Since then the benefit has been reinstated but I am six months in to a wait for an assessment for a Personal independence payment, and even my MP (a tory) can not tell me why its taking so long just to get an appointment for an assessment.
That you carefully budgeted is one thing but you could not budget with out having some security of income even if its only the small amount that the benefits system allows paid on time.

my profoundly-disabled relative has been through sheer hell via the Government & DWP

After his first Work Capability Assessment he was found "fit" for work by an ATOS nurse [that was under investigation for her fitness to practise nursing at the time of the WCA].
Months he was without money and on one occasion when I phoned the DWP [because he was too distressed to speak to them] about denying him money I was told on the phone [by an obviously hand-picked heartless apparatchik] who spat :

"He has been found fit for work, tell him to get to the jobcentre and sign on!"

When I said he couldn't because he was on morphine for pain and had many hospital appointments the apparatchik spat:

That's not my problem, he's been found fit for work and should get to the jobcentre to get a job!

He is on a 'Catch 22' merry-go-round with his benefits: i.e. he's found "fit" for work and the decision gets overturned at appeal, the benefits restored and then he's called for another work assessment and this has been going on [for him] since 2012 and openly admits he wouldn't be here now hadn't his family taken up his fight. I just feel sorry for those that don't have the family or ability to keep fighting the DWP for what's rightfully theirs!

I work with vulnerable adults and have seen so many things that are wrong. Letters sent out requesting attendance at a meeting the next day - to adults who have told the DWP they can't read. The result? Sanction time, you evil non reader! I saw one person with chronic incontinence being told they had to poo their pants in an interview, literally, as if they left their benefits would be stopped for 2 weeks and the toilet is 'just for staff'. Need to phone the DWP for help as you have no money and your benefits are delayed? That will be several 40 minute phonecalls, at full rate please. We might help you then - but if we request evidence, at least 50% of the time we will lose it, and then you will have to give us another 40 minute call to find out what happens....before sending it again and waiting. And there's alot more....one guy, for instance, very confused, with a serious mental health problem, walked 6 miles to my office as he could not afford the bus fare! He had lived for a week off one tin of beans. At first I told him I couldn't help. He collapsed crying. I contacted a colleague in another organisation who was, fortunately, able to secure the vouchers you need to get food at a food bank. You can get those from the job centre by the way. But no matter how worried they are the advisers are instructed not to tell you unless you ask. It is a national scandal in a country as rich as ours that we starve people! So I say: Never stop telling your story till the whole fucking establishment is red with shame! And I also say: thank you.

I am a carer for my disabled daughter. I also have health problems of my own. I was on ESA, my daughter received DLA and we had tax credits. We got by together, she got what she needed, and so did I. Then earlier this year I missed an ESA appointment due to being ill. They took it off me completely. I have elevated it to tribunal and am still waiting for a date for my case to be heard. My daughter left college in July, meaning she is entitled to benefits in her own right now in the form of ESA. I no longer get tax credits or child benefit, or the meagre amount from her absent father in child support. I was so ill that I decided to ask social services to deal with my daughter's finances. She was entitled to her benefits from the beginning of September, yet we are still waiting for the DWP to make a decision. Then we have to wait for social services to assess her because she has to contribute to her care costs. She has had no money in almost 2 months.

I am currently scraping by on income support. I do claim carer's allowance, but because she spends some time in residential care and some with me, I have to claim for the time she's with me. I have JUST got the carer's allowance money for the dates from May-August. I have to drive 120 miles a week to get my daughter from her residential placement to home and back, then she has a schedule of activities over the weekend which can't be changed as it would upset and confuse her too much. So for the last 7 weeks I have had to pay for fuel, her activities, food for us both and the usual bills out of the basic amount of income support that is meant to be just enough for one person to survive on.

I was referred to the food bank 3 weeks ago when I broke down and admitted how hard it was getting. I had to miss one of my daughter's weekend visits because I simply couldn't afford it. Because of this, I miss out on a week's worth of carer's allowance, and she misses out on her DLA, which is also only payable for the time she spends at home with me.

I was so grateful to the food bank, I was embarrassed but humbled, and I have worked hard on making the most of the donated food so not a scrap is wasted. I would like to thank them for all their hard work, they are doing such amazing work. But when the Welfare State was set up, it was supposed to be there to prevent this. It was designed to help those in most need, to stop them from starving, to give them a basic standard of life so that they didn't live in a tent on the streets. It was meant to help avoid poverty, malnutrition and unnecessary suffering. But this government has decided to open up that hole at the bottom of the ladder so that those people on the bottom rung can now be knocked off into the poverty that the Welfare State was designed to avoid.

This is not about immigrants, it's not about junkies, it's not about lazy layabouts pretending to be sick and disabled, it's about ordinary people who worked in the steel works, or BHS, or any other business which has failed or been sold off by the government and their super rich cronies. People who have gone from highly trained and skilled jobs into having nothing. And it's about the government deliberately sabotaging the Welfare State, making it go slower and slower, cutting people off from the support they desperately need or making them wait for weeks with nothing so they end up in debt and struggling to feed their children. It's what they said they would do, offload as much as possible onto charities, no matter what suffering they inflict.

If it wasn't for me having to make sure my daughter got what she needs, I wouldn't be here now. I've contemplated suicide, I've thought about stealing, I've even thought about prostitution because of this situation. In the end I sold clothes and other belongings to get a few quid to keep me going and make sure I don't end up in court as a criminal. I'm just an ordinary person, I'm not scum, I'm not a thief or a junkie, but when you are desperate you end up resorting to desperate means.

I am representing a client who was on ESA for a while and has her final court appeal in a few weeks time.Whilst awaiting this appeal date she,like Daniel Blake in Ken Loach's movie,was not entitled to ESA.She was told she had to apply for Jobseeker's Allowance(JSA).
As she could not adhere to the claimant commitment.It was impossible for her to
jobsearch for 35 hrs a week,she was too ill to attend courses and she cannot use a computer due to severe disability in one hand.She had to withdraw her claim and went without money for nearly 4 months.
Luckily she had support from friends and family whilst her ESA was reinstated in the run-up to the appeal, but many people like the character Daniel Blake do not.
The appeal comes soon but it is unlikely my client will score the necessary 15 points to stay on ESA,so she will have no choice but to sign on JSA and will probably be sanctioned on week one. Damian Green from the DWP says he is taking a softer tone but at the moment we see very little of that. A million jobseeker's were sanctioned last year including a lot of clients who have been transfered from ESA to JSA.

I've filled out the ESA50 form for my wife...and it is like something out of the Salem witch trials. Short of ducking you in the mill pond and declaring you innocent if you drown and guilty if you float, it has to be a document the Spanish Inquisition would have been proud of. You can sense from the first page that your default status is guilty...and you are worse than a witch, you are a 'scrounger'.

You wade your way through questions designed by some fiend with a Ph.D in trick questions. Every atom of the document being there to catch you out. And you sense that if you put so much as a full stop in the wrong place, some devilish voice from hell will exclaim ' Muahaha....we got you ! ' in a deep Machiavellian voice. Anyone who has filled in the document knows that is not hyperbole.

So it's not even a test of how ill you are, but of just how cunning you can be...or if you have a spouse or friend who is cunning and can fill it in for you. You really need someone who can give all the trick questions the answers they deserve. Then maybe you might even avoid being called by the Inquisition for an 'assessment' of whether you have the Devil's mark or a third nipple or any other sign that you are a heretical 'scrounger'.

The Jobcentre stressed me out so much four years ago, not only did I wear my carpets thin pacing and worrying I actually had a big old heart attack. 15 months later they stressed me out so much again, my GP had to put me on the sick to prevent them from giving me another one. This is how we now treat the unemployed. It is no place for sick people (and I was healthy at the time).

The problem is when you don't liook after people they deteriorate quite quickly..particularly sick people and forcing sick people, people with mental illness or people who have had heart attack or anxiety to claim jobseekers and sign a claimant commitment (that is eight pages long in my case and is so vague it is basically ised to terrorise and sanction me for absolutely and keep me on tenterhooks ) isn't looking after them. It is punishing them. I showed my claimant commitment (all eight pages of it) to my Mrs the other day and she was speechless. She said it is incredible that people think we actually live in a free country.