“Millions of cancer carers missing out on benefits“

I shall overlook, on this occasion, the oxymoron of the Telegraph headline – they go on to say that 5% of the 1.1 million cancer sufferers in the UK ARE claiming benefits, which leaves just a shade over one million – not “millions’ who are not claiming.

No, what has really got my goat, on a subject which is close to my heart, was the conclusion which has been drawn from MacMillan’s survey.

The figures could explain why 46 per cent of carers, who help cancer sufferers by administering medication, assisting around the house and offering emotional support, suffer from mental health problems including stress, anxiety and depression, the charity said.

I’m all for MacMillan helping those in financial need to access the complicated benefits system, which after all, only provides the magnificent sum of £55.55 a week (providing you are not already in receipt of a pension or other income….) but to suggest that all the stress, anxiety and depression of caring for someone you love who happens to be suffering from cancer will magically disappear if you just sign up to be a paid State employee ‘doing a job’ is madness.

Apparently, if I was in the UK, I would automatically qualify for weekly DLA of £129.45 and £55.55 for Mr G – irrespective of my financial circumstances – i.e. whether I actually needed that money or not! – and Macmillan think I should be claiming it.

Why?

The key problem, Macmillan said, could be that only four in ten people who look after cancer sufferers identify themselves as “carers”, meaning they may be unaware of the support they are entitled to, or reluctant to claim it.

Or put another way – 6 out of 10 people are quietly getting on with looking after someone they care for without bothering to find out about their ‘entitlement’ to turn their act of love into a job as a State drone. That is not to denigrate those who need the financial support, they deserve all the help they can get – and they are likely to get far more help if Macmillan don’t drain the national handbag by putting forward the theory that failing to ask for financial help that they don’t need is somehow the key to avoiding the perfectly natural anxiety and depression that comes from watching someone you care about go through Hell.

Cancer is a terrifying illness; partly because of its historic reputation as the harbinger of a slow and painful death. It is not death most of us fear, I certainly don’t – but dying. Cancer itself is a relatively natural occurrence, the bodies response to certain stimuli. It has always been around, probably always will be. We may be able to cure some cancers, we are unlikely to eradicate its occurrence altogether.

Quite why the State has chosen to award Cancer special financial status in this way – almost a case of ‘whoopee, you’ve hit the jackpot, pass Go and collect your bonus’ is hard to ascertain. Why Macmillan would want to remove probably the only consolation available to anyone with cancer – the knowledge that their last months will be made tolerable by the presence of someone who will put up with all the vomit, crap, and tears simply because they love you and are acting from the heart with a person who is merely carrying out their duty and collecting their ‘entitlement’ is a total mystery.

Macmillan should stick to what they do best – counselling those who need it, supporting those who need it, and leave the social engineering of stubbing out family values and replacing them with State entitlements to the Fabians.

James January 29, 2012 at 06:50

Ban me. That’s quite alright. I am legion. As are you.

How many people believe in all your commenters, neatly slotting into a time
frame which suggests that they are hanging onto your every word? Anna writes,
and the respondents are right in there. Yes, Gildas, I am talking about you,
as well as others.

Ban me, because I don’t care. Also I will make a point of exposing you on
other less censored blogs.

No one has supporters who are on board within minutes. This is orchestrated
nonsense. BTW, you did not answer my question.

Bluff and outrage is so passe. I tried to put the accent in there but it’s
too hard. Of course, I don’t live in France.

Anna
Raccoon January 29, 2012 at 07:50

Ah, James, up out of bed at the crack of dawn again? Did you wet the bed
again?

That was your last chance, you opted not to take it.

Quite right, you are now banned, for the criminal offense of boring us
all to tears with your endless monotone whinging.

Since you don’t like this blog, I shall save you the trouble of reading
it in future.

Goodbye.

JuliaM January
29, 2012 at 10:09

“..neatly slotting into a time frame which suggests that they are
hanging onto your every word? Anna writes, and the respondents are right in
there…No one has supporters who are on board within minutes. “

Never heard of Twitter and RSS feeders, James…?

Poor boy, modern technology passed you by, didn’t it?

James January 28, 2012 at 07:14

Why is it written for all to see. Why don’t you sue? How much did you
get?

Anna
Raccoon January 28, 2012 at 07:48

It is written by some monumentally insignificant people on some
monumentally insignificant tin foil hat sites in an attempt to bully me into
concealing the truth about some of their fat fraudulent idols. I don’t
intend to dignify such people with further attention. Since one of them
lives off his girlfriend and anyone else he can con money out of, and
another suffers from an acknowledged mental illness, it would be a cruelty
to some very dumb animals to take them, or anyone else who bothers to read
their sites, seriously.
End of subject.
Now, I note that you only
appear on this site in order to mount personal attacks on me, and you also
are a reader of some very disreputable sites, I have to say James, that you
have one more chance to discuss any of the political or ethical subjects
under discussion here, before I assume that you too are merely a mentally
challenged troll and make you only the second person ever to be blocked from
this site.
You have been warned, your questions have been answered, so
either grow up or crawl back under your stone.

James January 28, 2012 at 06:32

Is it true that you received 250,000 pounds from the UK government because
you suffered ‘stress’? (You asked for 500,000).

I’m not surprised that you don’t need the money.

If it is true, maybe you should shut up.

Anna
Raccoon January 28, 2012 at 06:42

No, it’s not true. Next question.

carol42 January 27, 2012 at 23:48

I didn’t take any money either, I don’t need it though more than a few
people said I should get on DLA anyway. My, I admit limited, experience of
McMillan nurses was that one was great and one useless, the first gave good
advice and the second had me convinced I had no hope, very depressing she was.
I was also very annoyed when they politicized the scare stories using a Labour
activist and complained to their head office that this was wrong. Personally
as I long as I am able I want nothing from the State or any of their
interference in my life.

Tom
Paine January 27, 2012 at 22:02

The late Mrs Paine took exception to the Macmillan nurses bleating on about
‘benefits’ (aka other peoples’ money taken by force) for her and me as her
‘carer’. She told them we didn’t want the money. They got shirty and said it
didn’t matter – we were “entitled”. At the sound of that evil word, she told
them to get out of her home and never come back. I was never more proud.

OTOH if even your likely-by-definition-to-be-smarter readers think it’s
fine to take the money you don’t need and give it to charity (forgetting that
there’s massive wastage of all money passing through government hands and that
the charity is probably a government front) then she was probably wasting her
breath.

binao January 27, 2012 at 23:39

I don’t recall this kind of experience at all. My wife had never felt the
need for Macmillan support in earlier years, but was persuaded by a new
oncologist, whose sidekick was Macmillan trained. I just think of the
confidence inspiring competence and having someone to call for advice when
yet another problem cropped up. Someone that always responded.
So I’ll
just think about the care that was given, and who by.

Mudplugger January 27, 2012 at 20:53

Experience of the Macmillan organisation shows it to be a two-headed beast.
On the ground, they have some wonderful people who provide excellent support
to families at very difficult times.
However, behind it is a cynical,
money-grabbing, politicking structure – it even extends to getting the
ground-crew to ‘lean on’ sufferers at their most vulnerable time to donate
cash. This second, and very ugly, facet undoes most of the good work their
troops do and stops many from supporting them financially.
If they dropped
that cynicism, they could be amazed how the genuinely voluntary donations
start to flow.

Mick January 28, 2012 at 02:38

Totally agree.

Macmillan, like other charities, seem to feel that they are somehow
accredited to spend government money.

They are not dissimilar from NHS staff in that the NHS feel they are
qualified to advise on everything from smoking (smoking may be bad for you,
but they propose the solution – and it is not so much of the ‘stop smoking’
route, rather the we know how to stop you smoking -they are sure that
increasing the price will decrease demand – are they now economists?); to
the speed at which we drive our cars (are they also mechanical engineers? –
I’d rather have an accident at 50mph in a Volvo than at 30mph in an old BL
Mini); and of course doctors can only be judged by other doctors as the
common folk wouldn’t understand that the possible 800 plus murders by
Shipman couldn’t possibly by understood by laymen; and finally – all nurses
are angels – crap. When my brother lost his left leg in a motorcycle
accident the nurses were terrible, one of them even dumped her files on his
stump, he screamed, and she said ‘Ha Ha, shut up – you don’t know pain until
you’ve had a baby’, what an angel.

Macmillan like many other fine organisations should concentrate on their
core values and leave the politically crap at home.

Joe Public January 27, 2012 at 16:37

Is it being cynical to think that “Surveys” such as this are fed to the
media to not necessarily highlight the result, but to gain publicity for the
‘commissioner’?

Ancient + Tattered
Airman January 27, 2012 at 20:47

Joe, how can you even think such a thing? Other than experience of the
‘suits’?

Matt
Wardman January 27, 2012 at 16:19

>the knowledge that their last months will be made tolerable by the
presence of someone who will put up with all the vomit, crap, and tears simply
because they love you and are acting from the heart with a person who is
merely carrying out their duty and collecting their ‘entitlement’ is a total
mystery.

I don’t think that DLA and whatever takes the carer away.

We were helped by Macmillan to be aware of the available DLA, and pretty
much spent that amount on extra heating, and other bits and pieces to help
‘oil the wheels’ of caring, costs of running around, family visiting etc.

It’s more likely the cash would allow the carer to switch to part time work
etc to be available.

Ray Warren January 27, 2012 at 15:14

Totally agree with the sentiment but, like another respondent, I’m a bit
uneasy about having a go at MacMillan.

I never use the term ‘carer’ for the reasons you set out above, but I’ve
been one for nine years now, looking after 3/4 parents and so have some
experience of MacMillan nurses out there doing the job. The ones I’ve had
contact with were wonderful.

This report is no doubt being pushed by some overpaid fat cat in their
comfortable head office who is in receipt of a bonus of some kind. Or a
potential ‘performance related’ pay rise.

Ray.

Brian January 27,
2012 at 14:24

If it’s any help to you and Mr G, there’s an awful lot of people who read
your blog who care about you.
btw, the reason why DLA and Carer’s Allowance
is a universal benefit to people with cancer is to avoid the stigma and
unfairness (eg £1 above the threshold etc) of means testing. Just imagine the
headline “Cancer Patient Means-Tested For Benefits”.
Thre’s nothing to stop
well-off (now that’s an oxymoron) recipients donating the benefits to cancer
charities.

Ed P January 27, 2012 at 12:24

When I was caring for my dying wife, the last thing on my mind was asking
for a state handout. But I found Macmillan very supportive and, even if
they’re out of step on this issue, they provide great help which is not
forthcoming from the rest of the NHS.

binao January 27, 2012 at 18:36

Same experience for me. They engage and also seem to be uniquely able to
make necessary things happen, and quickly.
I do confess to having kicked
the head office last summer re playing party politics. I don’t recall the
topic so I guess it wasn’t that important.

Gloria Smudd
January 27, 2012 at 21:21

I have to agree with both Ed and binao. The Macmillan organisation is
wonderful in the support it offers, particularly to terminally-ill
patients, and it seems to me that Macmillan support must be triggered as
an intrinsic part of NHS cancer care and that I applaud. In my experience,
the Macmillan organisation seems to have been alerted as soon as the
terminal diagnosis had been made and a couple of gentle, calm, honest and
caring Macmillan Nurses came round and described the loving and
intelligent framework of care to they could offer to the terminal patient,
which surely has to be a good thing. They also immediately put in place
the financial assistance Mme R descibes and, even though we said we didn’t
need it and didn’t want it, I can only think now, as I did then, that the
mechanism of the Macmillan organisation finds it easier to pay every
patient that to which they are entitled than to put the ‘they don’t need
this cash’ spanner in the works.

For those families struck by the terminal cancer diagnosis, Macmillan’s
financial help – and it is a modest but steady amount – can help buy or
rent the wheelchair so that the patient can be taken out each day and see
the haw-frost or the ice on the water or the crisp sunshine reflection of
the lake’s opposite shore in an absolutely ripple-free mile-wide lake
while their dog gambols, unaware that this is one of the last days out
together. It isn’t a bad thing and it may even be good that this help is
given without having to ask.

The political spin on this is quite another thing. See above.

Gloria
Smudd January 27, 2012 at 21:31

And below! Mudplugger’s comment!