I'm really pleased - Martin Lewis was told about this and sent out an email to all his website followers

I'm deaf and I've never heard of this deal before

You took a discussion on a disabled rail card to talk about benefit fraud? I told you that corporate tax evasion/ avoidance is worse. You changed the topic?

Anyway this is what is broken not a few people claiming benefits fraudulently! Your text here

If humans haven't the ability to think before they speak, is that classed as a disability?? Perhaps they already have a disabled person's railcard?? (Only kidding, I totally agree with you!)

Page from my local council: cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/res…spx

What's this?

Indeed. I often wonder how someone without illness/disability would fare if they had to spend a week with my health issues! I'm bar no means saying I have the worst problems imaginable (I'm fully aware there are people worse off than me), but my conditions, when put together a whole, make my day-to-day life uncomfortable at best and a down-right struggle at worst. But because my conditions aren't visible people (including the "assessment" people) assume I'm fit and well. It's frustrating. But that's the world we live in. *Shrugs*

Incredible inhumane comments on here. Funny isn't it, this is a deals site that everyone looks to benefit from.......unless you are vulnerable and need help and then you are just dismissed as a scrounger. Now, that's the definition of bitter!

Thanks. I had spotted this before and used it/alerted someone to get this help. The fact it is flexible with times is also great.

No benefits for having car licence taken away because of a visual impairment I'm sorry to say.

Dear God. Are you actually saying you wish you had a bad disability??
A railcard is something you buy and then you 'pay' for your tickets. It's not a 'freebie'.

You can have my disability including the terminal cancer along with my entitlement to a poxy railcard, any time you like. In fact I'd throw in my house too....
Your post must be one of the dumbest I have ever seen not to mention highly insensitive.

Clubcard boost been discontinued now I believe?

Because of the beggar-thy-neighbour outrage over benefits that has been carefully cultivated by politicians and media moguls who leech more than anyone for cynical purposrs, I really wouldn't post deals like this.

I have one and it makes a massive difference to my life for reasons I won't bore people with. If it was taken away it would be devastating - it wouldn't save anyone else any great amount of money as most trains I use aren't full. As I simply wouldn't be able to travel the train would just be slightly less full, with the only saving to the taxpayer being wear and tear from my backside and the slightly greater fuel consumption from the lighter weight.

Be aware there are always people looking to campaign to make those of us who are dirt poor even poorer and think before you post these deals.

If they have not got the money to pay for their studies, accommodation etc they should not be let in. If they are denied a work permit they will say they are coming to study instead.

great find. heat added. xx

"and colonising other parts of the world"? after WW2 the UK had to give all the Empire Independence problem is now they all want to come here

The Government sends £12bn of taxpayers money oversees in Foreign Aid. If people want to give money to these charities it should be their choice not the governments bbc.co.uk/new…631

I have diabetes, one of the worst disabilities for freebies, apart from NHS treatment you hardly qualify for anything, wishing I had one of the better ones :disappointed:

Thank you so much for posting this, I had no idea. Just ordered my 3 year railcard and saved a bob or two. Heat from me.

I think Rfs1 is just pointing out that if you're applying because you're on a qualifying social security benefit the DWP will already have assessed you for that benefit. We're on the same side here!

sparkleyblue: I said during 'TESCO Clubcard Boost!'.

Just what do you think the Government has a say in on rail cards?
Not a benefit FFS

If someone claiming wasnt entitled in the governments opinion they would not get a succesfull claim thats y there are eligibilty criteria on these things some ppl just like to preach where its not needed

You ignorant idiot.Just having a pop at the disabled. Wow you had to move over cos some disabled kids wanted a bit of fun to dance music. Not that they can truly dance but you have to make comments about it and then try to defend yourself making yourself look even more ignorant.

I can't undestand this comment. If you read the criteria you have to prove you're disabled.

The poster made the comment
"the criteria aren't as wide as all perhaps implied"

Which isn't good English and is open to the interpretation that it's a free for all when it isn't.

If you read the criteria you have to be in receipt of middle rate DLA or some other severe disability benefit. So actually it is strict criteria and not just for anyone claiming they've got a bad back etc

Yup. Personally it won't benefit (ha!) me as rail fares are too expensive where I live. Shame really as it'd be nice to get out for a day a bit further than 15 miles to the city!

You said it better than me and I'm the hearing impaired one! X) It's funny you know, when you've lived with something for most of your life you get used to it. It's only when someone like yourself spells it out that you realise that, yeah, it's not the easiest of problems to deal with. But, you know, you just get on with it don't you? Could be worse.

Thanks for posting that, I hope it helps others. :smiley_cat:

Whatever way you want to look at it it all reflects on the disabled and teach them young enough and they will see it as a right. People like you can always find a caveat to make themselves feal right but I'm going to have the last word ZYZOMYS. Yes go look it up.

You'd think they were just giving them away from a couple of HUKDers responses! The Rail companies are very cleverly targeting people of various age groups & staus who might normally not use the trains. Not only do they get them to pay for a 'discount card' - which is extra revenue in the kitty, they the get them to buy tickets for seats that would've remained empty AND they buy an extra ticket for a carer/helper/friend/relative!

$$$$ $$$$ $$$$!!! What a master-stroke!

I'm a little bemused that people on both sides of the debate are talking about "claiming" a railcard. It's something you can buy if you meet the criteria, just like the 16-25 Railcard, the Senior Railcard, or Costco membership.

Got one last year and it paid for itself after 1 journey. Why everybody ranting about benefits? Not free for a start. I'm eligible to BUY 1 as I can no longer drive due to a visual impairment and resulting licence withdrawal HOT.

None of those examples have got anything to do with the disabled people themselves though have they. That's either bad planning on behalf of the show, or a poor turn by their carers.

And who put you in charge of deciding who should and shouldn't receive the discount. You've already basically suggested deaf people don't deserve this benefit. So who does deserve this benefit? Who gets to choose which disability is worse than another. Is someone in a wheel chair more deserving just because their disability is more obvious, yet they are able to communicate where a deaf person might not be able to.

As you deaf? Do you know deaf people? Have you got any idea what so ever about what deaf people go through on a daily basis. How hard it is to communicate for many or to get jobs they are perfectly qualified for. With well educated deaf people get turned down for jobs because they can't answer a phone, or communicate like most people. With them needing assistance at air ports, on planes, trains, in train stations, where you or I take for granted an announcement you can hear that they cannot without someone assisting them. Have you been with them when they can't order their own meal because they can't understand the person serving, or the person serving can't understand them.

Absolutely people should have a moral compass, if you're significantly well off why would you need to claim something like this. But that's not the case for most disabled people, hence them receiving disability allowance to pay for their extra needs. That's exactly what this is, something that helps with the extra costs that can be associated with travel as a disabled person. Whether that's having to have someone come with you, or a taxi where someone else might be able to walk.

I appreciate what you're trying to say, but you've made a bloody pigs ear of it. It's not your place to lecture anyone on here about whether they should or shouldn't take this benefit when you don't know them.

Yes, I guess the only advantage of the Disabled card would be being able to travel before 9:30.

It will usually work out better value though to get a Family & Friends railcard compared to a Child Disabled Person's railcard - you only get 1/3 off the carer fare (one adult) with a Child Disabled Person's railcard as there's no discount on the child ticket. With Family & Friends you get 1/3 off for up to 4 adults plus 60% off child fares for up to 4 children. In both cases you'd need to be travelling with a child, you can't use the Disabled railcard discount if you're not travelling with the disabled child. The Family & Friends railcard is more expensive but it gets discounted frequently in promotions (there's usually a Daily Mail code every year).

I did my time as a volunteer, yes but long since retired on a pension which is not as good as some people seem to imagine.

Are you in the armed forces soldierboy001?

Stupid remarks like that just show the lack of intelligence that people are up against, and if it wasn't for some of the posts here I would never have related it as I realise that not all in fact only a few are like the ones in those incidents.

People like you who don't like it when shown the other side of the coin are the ones that should be ashamed and because I show that there are 2 sides to a discussion does not mean that I am victimising or dismissing people with disabilities and it doesn't mean I should be ashamed because if the disabled show me courtesy I willingly show them respect. The I'm disabled get out of the way attitude I treat in the same way as the abled bodied I'm owed everything brigade that don't want to do anything for that crust of bread, and I don't include those unfortunate enough to have fallen by the wayside through no fault of their own.

I'm not racist but...........

​Wow. That's pretty horrific. Were you able claim any compensation for these truly traumatic incidents that have clearly stayed with you for a while?

Just shows how society has promoted the victimisation of the disabled, people like you are coming out of the woodwork with your illegal disability bashing. Would it be better to confine them to a life inside an institution? You should be asamed of this post.

I'd like to show the other side of the coin concerning wheel chair disable. They sometimes think they can do as they like and have what they want because they are disabled and in a wheel chair and I give 3 instances of many that turn the very people they might need in the future to help them.
Once on holiday we were waiting for a kids show to start on a low-level stage in the entertainments room. the children were all sat down in about 3 rows at the front and parents sat behind waiting for the show to begin and about 10 minutes before the show started in came a bus load of disabled children in wheel chairs that were pushed in front of the able bodied children with force and as Tommy Cooper would have said " just like that ". these disabled were then put to bed, the next morning breakfasted and then got back on their coach towards their next target I presume, all this with the aid of their carers.
At several venues I've been to wheel chair disabled are pushed onto the dance floor by their carers who push them and spin them around to jive type music continually apologising to people they have just pushed or driven into by the wheel chair. How there were no broken bones I don't know.
I know a shop owner that was made to have wheelchair access to his shop at quite an expense and in 5 years no wheelchair bound people have come to his shop.
I am not against disabled but perhaps now you can understand why people can get upset and angry with those who I hope are the minority.

​Very well said indeed. A rare nugget of truth, humanity and commonsense in what's become a very unpleasant thread displaying all the worst characteristics of some deeply unpleasant HUKD members.

We are surrounded by people that have succumbed to the propaganda bred by the inventors of false austerity and their propaganda machine. The fact is we disabled people are victimised by a society that has been TOLD to do just that. As a disabled person, previously deemed as disabled for the rest of my life, I now have to suffer the jibes from these misguided people, and have my disabilities assessed in a 20-30 minute interview by a non expert!! The original diagnoses and decisions were made 20 years ago, medication keeps me alive!! The line between surviving and not is thin, one day without meds and I become one of the thousands dead from the decisions made by these non-qualified persons. No, I don't use the disabled railcard, rail travel is too expensive by a country mile. To trave from my home to London to see a specialist is done by hiring a car, pre-paying for parking, with an overnight stay sometimes thrown in, and that is still cheaper than paying me and my carer to travel by rail. Tackle the REAL issues suffered by the disabled in our split society. We are ignored and abused, both by the system and the ignorant people that believe the rubbish they read in the Daily Fail, Torygraph, S*n and Murdochs media Sky and BBC. I voted hot for this post, it will help people that have to travel by rail. The next non Tory government will have to spend years re-integrating our disadvantaged citizens back into society.

We live in a society that increasingly persecutes the vulnerable by making them feel less than a person. You may not need it but don't make others who do feel somehow guilty or wrong for taking advantage of a system designed to create a bit more equality.

You should stay in more :wink:

Let's give peeej1978 the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was talking about the total level of rail industry subsidy which is indeed above £4bn, but it's a big leap to link any of that to railcard use.

"we live in a country where if you want to go bomb somebody, there’s remarkably little discussion about how much it might cost, even though the costs almost inevitably end up being orders of magnitude larger than anybody projected at the outcome. But when you have a discussion about whether or not we can assist people who are suffering, then suddenly we come very, you know, cost-conscious.”
Andrew Bacevich, Professor of History and International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies

If you are disabled and have a partner, son or daughter who has an annual travel gold card then you can ask the railcard company for a half price annual disabled rail card at just £10. They will want to see a scan of the annual gold card and then they issue a half price code to use at online checkout. As far as I'm aware this is only for the annual and not the 3 year card (due to the link to the annual gold card). Hope this helps; might even be a new deal!!!

Perhaps that's why they are pumping 4billion into it.

Thanks for that, we need to renew next month and I have club card vouchers. My son is 21 with autism and learning disabilities. He's finished college and working voluntarily in schools coaching sport. The rail card allows him to travel to work at a reduced rate, and also to visit friends from college. I'm cross at all the negative comments about 'benefit scroungers' A reduced rate travel card allows my son to travel independently, visit friends, and work voluntarily.

Has anyone been able to substantiate peeej1978's claim of a £4bn government subsidy?

I find it hard to believe that a government who declared war on disabled people just over six years ago - in order to save a couple of billion - would be pumping £4bn into a scheme that's not even being advertised.

Finland's been thinking about the basic income social experiment since 2015 or earlier.
They only recently decided that they will give it a go. info here: basicincome.org/new…nt/ . "FINLAND: Basic Income experiment authorized by Parliament"

They were originally thinking about 800 euros as they wanted to make it higher than the 550 euros a month average stated in paragraphs seven and eight here: basicincome.org/new…ow/. "FINLAND: Basic income experiment – what we know"

The experiments due to explore how to make the system more effective in terms of providing incentives for work, and helping people avoid the poverty trap.
Will be really interesting to see how it works out.

I'm not really sure what you're getting at. Might be because your writing seems fractured; not being "funny", just find it hard to understand people who write like you.

And I looked it up: rock rat? Cutie little fella! What's your point?

Actually most people in receipt of Benefits ARE actually working. If you ever get too ill to work I hope your words come back to haunt you.

You, sir, are a king among men. This was the single most academic effort I've ever seen in a comments wall flame war, and you have ended the discussion in one fell swoop. I read it earlier, before #15, but that's a gem, and the end of the discussion.

I like it for two reasons. It shuts this argument down, AND I have a Network Railcard, and apparently that almost costs the train companies money! I know my use of it has to be contributing to that deficit!

Although now, maybe I'm morally in the wrong, because disabled people are signing up for a generative railcard that subsidises my extreme (ab)use of the perfectly legitimate and unquestionable Network Railcard.

#SorryNotSorry

Faddy54. What a guy. What an effort.

oh for goodness sake. this is a great deal and I didn't know if it. This person who posted did so with best of intentions. there was no other intention I'm sure.
Going on about benefits system is not for this time or place so wind your neck in please.

It seems that most contributors to this thread assume that Disabled Person's Railcards cost the train companies money. You might be interested then to read this discussion, and in particular comment #15.

So the British Government subsidises a 33.3% discount system for disabled travellers to the tune of £4 billion, whilst RENFE the Spanish rail network get 1.8 Billion Euro ( £1.55 Billion ) to subsidise their AVE trains that give all passengers the right to travel say from Alicante to Madrid from between 20 to 75 Euro one way depending on time of day and you get a seat allocated. NO STANDING on Spanish trains. Distance by the way is 263 miles for the benefit of those that don't do KMS. Plus when I get to Madrid railway station I get to trave for free on the rail connection Madrid Airport. It's the little touches that make all the difference. Like not getting ripped off.

"Five to 15-year olds that are eligible can apply for a Disabled Persons Railcard. While the Railcard doesn't offer discounts on child fares, it will allow one person travelling with the cardholder to get 1/3 off most rail fares." - taken from disabledpersons-railcard.co.uk/hel…qs/

Income related ESA isn't taxable, contribution based ESA is, but even if you're on contribution based, if it's your only income you won't actually pay any tax as you'll be below the personal allowance - hence no tax for a charity to reclaim.

I don't think he's actually said that he's a medical doctor. I rather hope that he isn't.

Honestly, he/she might be an improvement over the feckless twonks who work for the new company; they're no better than Atos! Case in point: I had an appointment for the 5th January, which I couldn't attend as I've had flu all over the Xmas period (and for me, flu is not fun!), so I e-mailed to let them know. They then sent me two letters for another appointment; first was for the 18th, second told me to ignore the first and that the appointment had been rescheduled for the 31st. Both dated 5th January. *Sigh* If they can't sort out their appointment system, what hope have I got of getting a positive outcome of the "assessment"? Useless.

Incidentally, I've seen people say that benefits are taxed. I don't know about others, but my Support Group ESA is not taxed. I found this out as I was filling out the Gift Aid part of a charity donation because I thought I was paying tax, but I was told not to do so again as benefits aren't taxed. But, like everyone else, I get hammered for VAT on everything, so I guess I'm still a tax-payer in that sense.

PeeeJ1978 congratulations on gaining access to my ignore list :smile:

Idiot? No need for childish name calling. :disappointed: