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Sorry, I this came up in a discussion with someone else who replied and I realised that I'd missed out some important context behind my own purely anecdotal experiences. I was, for way too many years, addicted to smack and crack, so I tended to move in those circles. This meant that I saw a section of society much more towards the dodgy end of the spectrum. My experience with having seen crackheads blagging benefits is not something the vast majority of people would see. And it's probably correspondingly rare.
I'm sorry you dislike my 'if they'd just. . .' comment. Yes, it's definitely reductive, but I stand by it. Addiction is a different conversation, so rather than go off on a tangent I reduced it to 'If they'd just. . .'. But that's kinda what it comes down to. I'm not unwilling to discuss my own history, my overdoses, hospitalisations, horrible situations I ended up in, all that stuff that goes with a smack habit. And the crack on top just shifts your problems up a gear. I've been clean for a few years now, but just last week at the doctor's a simple blood test took about 45 mins because I don't really have any veins left. Humiliating, really, but entirely my fault. I did this shit to myself, my responsibility, my fault. So I kinda know whereof comes the shit I'm saying. 'If they'd just stop. . .' is what it boils down to for every addict. I just stopped, and relapsed many times. But you've got to just stop. It's really the only way. At least in my case, things had to get very ugly for me to finally get clean. I still have issues with alcohol and nicotine, but I've quit everything else.
Like you, I've worked since the 80s. Actually, lots of junkies just work extra shifts to pay for their habits, we just only notice the obvious ones begging in the street.
Sorry to hear you've been going through the mill with the system. Yeah, we assume that if we've worked and paid taxes all our lives, the state will look after us when something goes wrong. And increasingly that is not the case. A civilised society should look after its poor, its sick, its homeless.
There are organisations that can help you navigate the Kafkaesque corridors of pip, I hope you are able to reach out and get some help.
As I said, I did know a couple of people who successfully navigate this stuff when I really didn't think they deserved the support - but they weren't stressed so it wasn't such a big deal for them. I guess that's the difference. And again, my life experience and anecdotes are the exception not the norm.