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This all seems like it’s going to make it so difficult. I was first directed to mutual aid by someone I met on a suicide pact forum. I was on there asking for someone to help me commit suicide because I was so desperate due to my financial situation. Benefits stopped, overdraft maxxed out, rent debt racking up, no money, just a huge pile of debt. With no money for food I’d been trying to use the food bank, but it was awful. To try and prevent people using it if they don’t need it, they have strict rules in place. The main one is that you have to be referred there from someone like your GP or citizens advice, someone who can vouch for you that you really are in need. This means needing a GP or citizens advice appointment, even if it’s just a phone appointment to explain and prove your circumstances, it could be a really long wait for the appointment or phone call. Then needing to wait for the actual food bank appointment. The amount of food the food bank gives was never enough to last while trying to get referrals and appointments to go back again. I was hungry regularly. So much so that I was trying to get help to end my life and tried selling my prescription meds online as I had no other source of income. Someone on the suicide forum told me about mutual aid, that’s how I came to be here. And while I do sometimes have to make multiple posts to get a response, it’s still so much easier and quicker than the food bank. My worry is if you add these extra rules it is going to become as difficult to get help here as it was from the food bank. And for me, as well as many others, this is the last chance saloon. We have nowhere else to turn. Making it harder here could be the final straw for many people.

What is the thinking behind no more than $100 per post? What if someone is in an emergency that needs more than that, or the refugees who advertise their gofundmes? I think this rule would screw many desperate people over. How does this work with people who use other currencies?

Also I don’t agree with having to request an amount in the title - I ask for food vouchers and will take whatever someone can give. I often have to make multiple posts before getting a response so i don’t want to be limited by how much I can ask for or I’ll end up with not enough to tide me over from last time while i wait for a response.

What are meta posts?

Why are all these changes wanted?

As far as keeping track, I’ve found (since i ask for food vouchers that can be donated anonymously) some people prefer to remain anonymous, so they probably wouldn’t report anyway. Also very dangerous - for instance, I got trolled on lemmy by someone who kept saying (for weeks) they would send aid but didn’t. He got banned. But people like him want to make life worse for people who need help. They would anonymously report to the mods that they had sent us money, when they actually hadn’t.

Weekly limit on amount of posts - this would prevent people from getting the help they need. It took me about 4 posts to get the help I need this time. I had nowhere else to turn.

All in all I think these changes will remove the only lifeline left for some desperate people.

The only change I want to see is the ability to reply in-thread removed. I, and several other people here, have had people comment in our threads saying they’re going to help, and then they don’t help. Other people see their reply, think we’ve already been helped and then don’t offer any help. It costs us help we would have had from other people.

This is the sort of thing I’ve often fantasised about. But how would it work with finances? The community would still have to buy houses and land and disabled/marginalised people generally don’t have much money.

“save up some money, buy a house/apartment, rent in on airbnb, quit working”.

So really it’s just that people want to quit jobs they hate and can’t see any other way out.

bump amber whataboutism volcel police

Not quickly enough for me in the UK, I would have taken it by now.

It would be kinder to legalise assisted suicide than let us starve to death.

Thank you!

bump amber whataboutism volcel police

Thank you!

bump amber whataboutism volcel police

bump amber volcel police whataboutism

Same here. It sucks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Nope. I am currently going through cancer treatment, recovering from a stroke and am partially sighted. At my last assessment I got zero points, I’m going through an appeal right now. The assessor told so many lies on my form. For instance she wrote that I can see perfectly as long as I’m wearing glasses, when I told her that nothing will bring my lost vision back. She said loads of other crap too. I made a complain and guess what the DWP said? They can’t do anything because they don’t know who the assessor was. How can you not know who the assessor was? Surely there must be a record. They look after their own. They can cause countless deaths and get away with it. If people hadn’t helped me out on mutual aid here, I’d be dead too while I wait for the appeal hearing. They just don’t care. I had one of them tell me I don’t need to claim anything for my partial sightedness, I can just walk around constantly rotating my head and that will give me a full range of vision. Yes one of them actually said that.