Let's judge the disabled!

Honestly, I don't really know why I'm writing this post. I feel like I need to warn people I suppose, that's all.

A few months ago I contacted DIAL about my DLA application. I had just been turned down when I applied myself, and had absolutely no income.

There is a huge stigmatism around benefits in the UK at the moment. As such a lot of genuinely sick and disabled people are being declined benefits that they genuinely need. The media has done a very good job of turning every day normal people against the sick and disabled. People who would normally help someone they actually see in distress are begrudging those people the tiny amount of money that they need for simple things like food. People are starving, food banks are at breaking point. Anyway ...

I am disabled. I've spent years trying to deny it to myself, but in the last few years I've been forced to admit it. Even my family, who's had their head in the sand over the fact that I'm ill, has started recognising that I have these problems. I'm disabled!

I have M.E. and Fibromylagia. I am hypermobile and have recurring back problems. I have PSTD and suffer with severe anxiety attacks. I am in constant pain, which is only partly relieved by very strong pain killers. The severity fluctuates; on my best days I can potter about the house a bit, maybe even go for a walk. On my worst days I have to knock myself out for the day to avoid the agony. I suffer with fatigue and exhaustion the like of which you can only imagine if you've actually experienced it yourself. Walking is painful. Remaining in any position for more than 15 minutes is painful. The fatigue means I struggle to meet any expectations placed on me (doctor's appointments, shopping trips, taking medication at designated times, etc). It means that I frequently have problems performing simple tasks or formulating sentences. I'm often mistaken for being drunk. (I don't drink).

Being disabled is hard. Even if you're not disabled, having a long term illness is hard. You have doctor's and specialists whom you try to keep happy. It's human nature to wear a mask, leading people to believe that things are better than they are. That doesn't apply any less to sick or disabled people. If anything it applies more.

So, you spend most of your time trying to put a positive twist on all these difficulties ... and then you have to fill in forms describing how bad things are. It is very hard to make such a huge mental u-turn. You have to scrutinise every little thing you do. For me it includes measuring how far I walk between each tick - because every tick can cause me to fall when I don't have my stick. Before filling in the form I didn't realise how frequently I was actually ticking! You end up learning that you're far more disabled than you thought you were. Really, most of us are actually in denial until we go through this process properly. As such it's very demoralising, and often causes distress and depression.

You can imagine how easy it is for those who wish to commit benefit fraud, can't you. They don't have any of these difficulties to face, just a little research into a condition, tick a few boxes, tell a few lies.

So, as I was saying, DIAL helped me with my recent DLA application. Honestly, with everything else going on in my life at the moment I'd totally forgotten about it (people dying, and my mother having strokes). I was resting in bed, my body is currently inflamed with a Fibro flare, which I have to rest off. At approximately 1pm I received a text from my boyfriend telling me that he'd had a call from someone regarding my DLA application. She told him that she'd been trying to call me, but I wasn't returning her calls. Funny thing: I've not had any missed calls! He took her details and texted them to me.

I phoned her back. Obviously she has an advantage over me, in that she knew where she was phoning from and why she was phoning, both pieces of information she refused to give me. Understandably she needed to ask me security information. Having dealt with the DWP over the last few years, both for myself and for others I'm way too familiar with how this works. She did not stick to protocol. For example, she only asked me my date of birth. Part of that protocol is to ask you which other benefits you're on - anyone trying to fake another person's ID is likely to have checked out their date of birth, address, all the obvious things; asking what benefits someone is on is not obvious, so it's an easy way to catch people out. She didn't ask this. Instead she said to me "You're receiving Carer's Allowance, aren't you!".

When she asked if I was receiving Carer's Allowance, obviously I answered that I am, because I am. She then asked me how. I did not understand this question. She went on to elaborate that my form states that I have zero mobility, and asked how I manage to care for someone if this is the case. She did not give me time to answer. Instead insisting "Do you have zero mobility or not?" Again, she did not give me time to answer, instead moving on to asking me about wheelchairs. She told me that I use a wheelchair when I go out, but that my partner cannot push it, so told me that I must push it myself, despite reading off the form to me quoting a part where it says that I can not self propel.

She kept going like this, not allowing me to get a word in edgeways, putting a twist on everything in a snide smug tone. I ended up raising my voice over her to try and communicate my actual answers to her questions. Obviously, I do not want her twisted version of things going on my record. I do not want to be turned down for DLA again, unless it's legitimately. Plus, I do not want her lies on my record as they will be referred to for future assessments. It's because of a medical assessor lying on an ESA assessment a few years ago that I have these problems to start with.

She told me that my form stated that I have expensive night time needs. I didn't and still do not know what this means. I tried to ask her, but she kept going. By this point I was crying and shaking, so I asked her to talk to my support worker instead of myself. She told me that she doesn't have to do that. I told her that I was officially asking her to. She repeated that she doesn't have to do that. Then, while I literally sobbed the request again to her, she hung up on me.

A pretty bad panic attack followed. I really do not cope well with confrontational situations. I sent a fairly vivid description of what had happened, to my boyfriend, via text, asking her to phone her back again. I also dragged myself out of bed and sent my support worker an email about it, crawling back up the stairs to bed afterwards.

My gripe is this: she knew that I was at home alone, she knew that I was bed bound at the time I was speaking to her, and she should have known that I suffer with extreme anxiety. It was her choice to push me, and deliberately wind me up the way she did.

When my partner spoke to her afterwards, firstly she told him that she wouldn't talk about it with him. She told him that he had refused to answer her questions when she had phoned him previously. This was untrue; she didn't even ask him to answer questions, she'd only said she was having difficulty contacting me. He told her that he had caused a massive panic attack, explaining that he now had to leave work to sort it out. She claimed that she did not know I suffer with anxiety. Every piece of my supporting evidence describes severe anxiety and PTSD. My form mentioned anxiety throughout. She basically told him that she didn't look at either my supporting evidence or my form before trying to contact me.

I suspect she speaks to every applicant in exactly the same way she spoke to us. I also suspect she never reads their information until she's speaking with them, thus causing a lot of anxiety issues for people similar to myself. That woman should lose her job. A position dealing with people who are sick or disabled needs someone with at least a little empathy, particularly if that job requires judging them and being responsible for their future .

So, anyone applying for DLA, please consider yourself warned about the phone call you might receive during the application process. You don't have to put your phone number on the form. Eliminating it will avoid this horrific part of the process.

My benefit claims

I've been working on my own benefit claims over the last month or so; ESA and DLA. I have to say that I am sincerely disappointed with the DWP. Until now I had pretty much given them the benefit of the doubt; I thought that the employees were not to blame for how the system works, but as much victims of it as the claimants. Just part of the machine.

I can now categorically tell you that, sometimes, they do not even look at our application forms before making a decision. I realised after posting my DLA form that I had not signed it. I therefore fully expected it to be turned down, with a letter asking me to resubmit it, having sign it. However, what I actually received was a fail based on the medical assessment I had for ESA 18 months ago.

I will point out at this juncture, that the medical 18 months ago was over-turned immediately. It was wrong, the assessor had made unreasonable assumptions based on no evidence, which I clearly illustrated to the DWP as soon as I received her report. I received ESA from a reconsideration, and placed a complaint against the assessor to Atos. (Atos of course defended her).

While it is outrageous that they are using outdated evidence, that is not my point. Had they actually looked at my form they would have realised straight away that they could turn it down based on the lack of signature. They didn't look at it! That is disgusting. Do they have the slightest idea of how much effort, how much energy, how much blood sweat and tears, go into those forms? I severely neglected Christmas preparations because they expected the form back just before Christmas; my waking hours were utilised on the form (plural actually, as I had my ESA50 too). They obviously do not care. I wonder how many people are declined at this stage, not realising that their form has not even been looked at, and not aware that they can appeal. I wasn't aware that you could appeal the first time I was declined after all. No one actually teaches you how the system works.

I can't help thinking that it would save them money if they didn't faff around like this, playing silly buggers. If they actually processed peoples claims properly when they were first sent in, based upon their form and accompanying evidence, surely there would be less need for appeals.

Unfortunately, my experience with ESA is no better. In fact I think I would go as far as to say it's worse. It's a lot more complicated though, so if you cannot follow what I try to explain now, don't worry too much about it.

Whilst getting divorced in 2010 I applied for ESA over the phone. The DWP friendly telephonist I spoke with checked that I had enough National Insurance Credits to claim Contributions Based ESA. My ex had tried to scare me, telling me that I hadn't paid enough of them, which is why we checked, and why it is so memorable that I did have enough of them. (My ex was trying to scare me regarding money in a lot of ways). So, I applied for CB-ESA, got through the application process, and started receiving ESA basic rate.

At the beginning of November I moved into my own flat (call this location A), so changed my address over the phone with the DWP. A couple of weeks later in November I received my divorce settlement. I phoned the DWP to find out if this had any baring on my claim, as I had heard that it could do. I was told that I would no longer receive ESA payments, but that my National Insurance would still be credited. It's a shame that I did not know the system so thoroughly then, as what he told me was wrong and I would have recognised it.

In December I went to stay elsewhere (call this location B) while problems with my flat were sorted out, so I phoned the DWP and gave them the new address again. At that time I was not informed of any problems with my claim.

I moved again in March due to problems with location B, and location A never got sorted out (so call this location C). I contacted the DWP again to give them the address for location C. I was told that they could not change the address on a closed claim. I asked when the claim had been closed, and was told it had been closed in the November, when I had told them about the divorce settlement. I was astounded, as I had not been told in November that he was closing my claim, nor had I received any paperwork to that affect.

When I had returned to location A to check I'd got everything, I found two letters from the DWP; one summoning me for a medical assessment, and another telling me that because I had not attended the medical assessment my benefit would be revoked. They were dated February, and expected me to be at the medical a few days before I found the letters.

So they had screwed up:

• they should not have discontinued a Contributions Based ESA claim based upon a divorce settlement. Contributions Based ESA is not means tested.
• if my claim was closed in November 2011, and you cannot change the address on a closed claim, then I should not have been able to change my address in December.
• when my claim was closed, I should have received paperwork to inform me.
• if my claim was closed in the November, I should not have been summoned for a medical assessment in February.

So, recently, my GP gave me a fit note to cover me for two months. He wanted me to have some income. I wasn't sure what you do with fit notes, so I phoned the DWP to ask. I spoke to one of their helpful telephonists (as opposed to the unhelpful ones), who tried her best to initiate an ESA claim for me, but just could not do it. My record was screwed. Every time she tried to start a claim the computer gave her an error. She probably should not have told me that really. Anyway, she put a request in for me to be sent an ESA1 in the post so that I could fill it in manually and return it myself.

I received the claim pack for Housing Benefit.

I received the claim pack for Carers Allowance.

I received the claim pack for some Disability thing I've never heard of.

Eventually an ESA1 arrived.

On the ESA1 you have to decide whether you wish to claim for Contributions Based ESA, or Income Related ESA. Being aware that my record was a complete mess I thought I'd better check what state my National Insurance was in, so, again I phoned the DWP. I was given a different number to contact the NI Office. I spoke to a lovely man who told me that I have three years of Class 1 credits, should have no problem placing a claim, and that he was disgusted that I was having to do the DWPs legwork for them. 

So, confident that they'd screwed my record up enough for me to claim Contributions Based ESA, I ticked that box. Surprise surprise; I received notification back that I do not have enough NI to claim Contributions Based. I already know I can't claim Income Related because my other half's earnings are above the threshold, despite the fact that his outgoings don't allow him to support me.

I'm stuck in a rut. I have made my MP aware of the situation. She is trying to get my National Insurance sorted out, but I suspect that when it is sorted out it will still not be the right kind of credits to claim ESA. She has also given me a supporting letter for my DLA reconsideration, as she was already aware of my health before any of this happened. 

Over the last few weeks, working on these claims, I have found out a couple of things that people with M.E. may find interesting:

M.E. claimants, along with claimants who suffer from mental health conditions, are given time limit concessions. That means that they are expected to get their forms back a little late. The DWP telephonists aren't actually aware of this, so if you're phoning the DWP to inform them of lateness, you'll need to explain it to them. It's also a good idea to remind decision makers in a note with your claim. I wouldn't advise returning your form late if you can avoid it, and certainly not weeks late.

M.E. is assessed as CFS by Atos. The Atos guidelines for assessing CFS do not tell the assessor what kind of condition it is, but give them the choice as to whether they assess it as a physical condition, a psychological condition, or a mixture of both. Personally, I don't like this. M.E. is recognised by the WHO and NICE as being a neurological condition, with neurological indicators. The DWP is supposed to use doctor's to assess neurological conditions, but M.E. is exempt from this. I was assessed by a nurse. I know others who have been assessed by physiotherapists, health workers, etc. The reason for this is, apparently, that people with M.E. do not show neurological indicators. Well; I know I do. I also know that they are described in some detail on my form. As such I SHOULD be assessed by a doctor, but can guarantee I will not be. 

Honestly, it probably doesn't make any difference. I just feel indignant that M.E. is degraded in this way.

A little rant about JSA

In regards to benefits I have mostly written about Employment & Support Allowance (ESA), possibly a little on Disability Living Allowance (DLA), and of course the frustrations of our government and ignorant journalists. As yet, I have not had reason to touch upon Job Seekers Allowance (JSA). It is because I reported, on Facebook, a letter for my doctor regarding ESA, that JSA came to my attention. A friend of mine voiced her frustrations over her experience of the system. Her first reaction made me think that she had fallen for all the media hype, that sick and disabled people do not deserve the benefits they struggle to receive. I was wrong. This is her story:

So, I'll take you back to September 2010. I had just finished my PhD (the end of 7 years at university) and had been looking for jobs all through the summer as the end of my funding approached. I was still with my ex at that point. I had set money aside in the event that I had difficulty finding work, and made these saving stretch far further than I had anticipated. In the September of 2012, I found a part time job in a lab and took it. This ran up until Christmas of that year when my temp contract wasn't renewed due to funding. While I was working in the lab, I took on a second part time Christmas temp shop job to top up my income, and to take me beyond the end of the lab job. When my lab job finished, I rang up the Job Centre to begin claiming Job Seekers allowance as my shop job was under 16 hours a week at that point. I gave details of all my outgoings, including my mortgage etc and I was told that as I hadn't worked continuously for the set amount of time (2 years I think it was at the time), I hadn't made enough NI contributions and so would have to apply for income based job seekers allowance.

In the November of 2012, my ex and I separated but continued to live in the same property until we sorted out where we were each going to live.When my lab job finished (mid December), I rang up the Job Centre to begin claiming Job Seekers allowance as my shop job was under 16 hours a week at that point. The following week I got 17 hours work, and was told by the Job Centre at my assessment that because I had gone over by 1 hour, my claim would have to be terminated, and I would have to reapply again when the time was appropriate and when my hours fell again.

This didn't happen until January when my temp shop contract was also terminated. At this point I rang the Job Center back up again, and had to start my application again from scratch. I had to explain that I was still living with my ex, but that we were financially independent of each other. They held back my benefit until they had sent a representative out to check our living arrangement. This was awful, and made me feel like I was cheating the system in some way when I knew I wasn't. We "passed" this assessment and I was awarded my Income Based Job Seekers Allowance at a mere 8 pounds a week due to the income from my shop job (which was low as it was). I also received council tax benefit (for my half of the council tax, not my ex's half) which was a massive relief and did take a small amount of financial pressure off my shoulders.

At my first visit to the Job Centre to sit down with someone and discuss what jobs I could apply for, I sat down at the desk and showed the man my CV and my qualifications. He looked at my CV and said he had never had to deal with anyone with a PhD before and didn't know how to help me. I had to tell HIM where scientists applied for jobs. He then MADE me apply for a job in Bridgenorth (a long way from Solihull) before my next signing on, the pay from this job was low to say the least, and would have cost me a fortune in fuel, and commuting time too. I simply would have not have been able to live off the wage after paying for fuel. But I put in my application, with the same amount of effort as any other job, and waited. I heard nothing from the company I had applied to.

I got my final pay slip from the shop job at the end of January which I had to take and show to the Job Centre. When they saw this, my massive 8 pounds a week was reduced to zero. The day I received the letter stating this, I was thankfully offered a full time job for 14 months, and had pleasure in telling the Job Centre this, and that the job was not obtained through any help from them.

Now something that I was often asked was why couldn't I claim the full amount of Job Seekers Allowance when a lot of other university leavers could? Simple: many university leavers return to live at home with their parents, or live in rented accommodation where they have no other income, and their housemates do not provide for them financially.

The difference for me? I had a mortgage and I feel I was being penalised for getting my foot on the property ladder and working hard at university to get myself somewhere.

And as for the experience of the Job Center itself? Demoralising. As I sat waiting to be seen, I overheard young mothers boasting of their life on benefits, and how they deliberately put in bad job applications where they bothered to put them in at all, so that they didn't get offered interviews and could continue to claim benefits while they "applied" for jobs. Where they openly admitted to the staff that they didn't bother applying for posts, they were simply told "oh right".

My experience with the Job Centre and the benefits system made me fear for the future. What if this happens again through no fault of my own? Will I get support again? Hopefully now that I have NI contributions, yes I "should" get help short term.

Not so different from some of the problems people on sickness benefits have, is it!?! I had a similar experience myself, in 2001. I finished university in August 2000. I went straight into a job where I was severely bullied by someone who thought she was my boss, but was not. It was a complicated situation; she was sleeping with the MD, so my actual boss could not do anything about how she behaved to me ... or all the other staff before me that she had scared away. I eventually gave up the job after nine months (there had been a book on how long I would last under he apparently - I outlasted all the bets). I tried to claim JSA, but was told that because I had a history of quitting jobs I could not claim. There was no work around at all, so I temped for a few weeks. I handed my CV out to everyone I could think of; went around the shopping centre giving it to all the stores. I eventually got a job in a computers games store. I have never loved work as much as I did there. However, my health was deteriorating with the onset of M.E.. My boss basically told me I'd be better off leaving, so I did. At the time I had never heard of sickness benefits. I went to the Job Centre. I had taken out a £4000 loan a few months previously with the aim of starting up a small business. The Job Centre told me that I had to live on this loan until it ran out, and then I could apply for benefits, BUT that I would not be entitled to JSA if I was ill. The person I spoke to didn't tell me that I'd be entitled to sickness benefits, or that they even existed. So I went straight to my letting agent; paid off the remainder of my rent for the year, all of it. I did my best with the little money I had left after that, but my house-mates ended up supporting me most of the time. Something they should never have had to do.

The system disgusts me. It does not support the people who genuinely try to get ahead in life. Those who try to build a future for themselves, like my friend above. It doesn't support people like her or myself who are simply trying to fill in gaps between jobs. No one explains to us about National Insurance Credits until after it's too late. No one tells you that you can only claim Job Seekers Allowance if you have been sacked; if you quit a job of your own volition you aren't entitled to anything.

My friend is right. There are too many people who think that it is their right to live as they please, with no responsibility to the country or society. They think that they should be entitled to have money, just for being alive. Why should they do anything to actually earn it? I am well aware that this is the view that many people hold of people on sickness and disability benefits, thanks to the media, but people with half a brain should be able to realise that people on sickness benefits are thus because they CANNOT work. The people my friend describes CAN. They choose not to.

This country is a seesaw. On one end you have the tax payers. On the other end you have people on benefits. We are very genuinely at risk of the benefits end hitting the ground. That is what those who choose to not work fail to understand.

Some benefits articles

I am totally exhausted. I've had a number of tabs open on my browser for days, possibly weeks, intending to write about them here. I give up. I'm just gonna give you a few snippets and point you in the right direction. Sorry. This blogger needs some rest!

"The poorest 20% of the 2.7 million households receiving disability benefits will lose 16% of their cash income plus benefits-in-kind, four times as much as the richest 20% of households, according to a report published by the Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People."

Disabled people are ‘collateral damage’ in government’s austerity war new report reveals

Peter was advised to top the amount of Jobseeker’s Allowance up with Income Support. Being ill myself I was unable to advise Peter and to my horror realised that he had a payment of £55 pounds per week for both of us to live on and pay our bills with in our rental property.

Dying man 'has only 12p a day to eat'

Ministers are also examining the idea of ending the annual inflation-linked rise in benefits, though this would require legislation and is a longer-term prospect.

Benefits could be frozen as Osborne tries to save £10bn from the welfare budget

The Department for Work and Pensions, who hired the French IT firm to help them slash the benefits bill, have admitted finding out in a survey that 55 per cent of people who lost benefits in the crackdown had failed to find work.

Benefits bosses admit over half of people ruled fit to work ended up destitute

500,000 to lose DLA

Those of us who have been watching the tide turn are well aware of what switching from DLA to PIP will do. Benefit reform has been brought about partly because the government has painted a picture of those on benefits as being scroungers, malingerers, people who generally don't want to make an honest living ... the lowest of the low.

Public perception is that the benefits system is being reformed because of benefit fraud. Yet, the actual statistic for Disability Living Allowance fraud most recently released was 0.5%. Old Joe Blogs is going to look at the governments statement that 500,000 will lose DLA, and believe that 500,000 people have been claiming fraudulently. As such, I'd like to do a little maths with you.

DLA fraud = 0.5%

In Joe Blogs mind, 0.5% = 500,000

In order for that to be the case, the total number of people claiming DLA would be 100,000,000.

So, dear Mr Blogs, before you jump to any conclusions, please think about the reality of more people than make up the population of the UK being able to claim DLA. The government is not just targeting benefit fraud, it is targeting people who are genuinely sick and disabled, and taking away the little amount of money they rely on.

DLA is supposed to enable people to live a life contributing to society, whether that be by working, or simply by being able to shop in their local stores instead of online. By removing so many people from DLA (or PIP) the system will crumble. People who have relied on Mobility cars will no longer be able to get to work. People who were able to go into their local high street throughout the day will no longer be able to do so ... more shops will close!

It's a small minded way of recovering a tiny amount of money, that could be so easily regained if the big mouths, further up the ladder, actually paid their taxes.

The truth about Welfare Reform

I really haven't got the brain to actually write much about this article. Sonia, as usual, has written beautifully. Perfectly. She's pretty much summarised everything I've been trying to get at in my posts regarding welfare reform. Please read it. Please share the link for this article with your friends, family, colleagues, etc, and anyone who is touched by it, please sign / ask them to sign the document linked in my previous post. It's a desperate situation, and I'm desperate for everyone to know ... and those who need to, to change their attitudes. So, here's Sonia's article ...

Suicide training in Job Centres? Cancer patients scrubbing floors? Welcome to Cameron’s Brave New World


So, the Welfare Reform Bill - the part that refers to sick and disabled people - limped bruised and bloodied over the finishing line in Parliament last week. The various acts of treachery and betrayal it contained making its final journey into law once it has been granted the Queen's royal assent.

It was inevitable, really, and disability campaigners who, for the past two years, have fought feverishly, and quite literally at times from their sickbeds, to oppose it, resigned themselves to the fact that nothing short of a Biblical-type miracle would reverse their fate.

However, it is only now that the full implications of what these reforms - or brutal acts of savagery as I prefer to call them - will actually mean to millions of seriously vulnerable people in our country. And it is an ugly realisation.

This is how I see it. In the life of most every politician there is one, or several, events that mark out their ‘D’Oh moment. This is not based on severity but on a feeling it should not have happened at all.
David and Samantha Cameron themselves claimed Disability Living Allowance for their child

Brave New World? David and Samantha Cameron themselves claimed Disability Living Allowance for their child

For examples: Nixon - Watergate. Kennedy - Marilyn. Major - Edwina Currie. Tony Blair - Iraq. You get my point?

Well here’s my ‘D’oh moment prediction for David Cameron. He will be remembered as the Prime Minister - without a mandate, remember - who attacked the sick and disabled of our country with a vehemence beyond human comprehension. And when you think that he had a disabled son who tragically passed two years ago, well, then, it beggars belief even more so.

So, to bring the story up to speed.

Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair’s Governments set the blueprint of the welfare reforms that David Cameron has just forced through Parliament. And when I say forced I mean the type that requires extraordinary levels of subterfuge and manipulation to shoehorn into place.

He ignored panels and focus groups, charities and campaigners and he overturned the Lords' by invoking an archaic law of “financial privilege”, which allows the Commons the last say on money matters.

Such was his unstoppable zeal to push through reforms - contrary to all advice, personal and professional - that you had to wonder if it was a psychological issue driving him on.
Talk to any disabled or sick person right now and there is a word that crops up more than any other, a running thread central to what they are feeling. It is this: fear

Talk to any disabled or sick person right now and there is a word that crops up more than any other, a running thread central to what they are feeling. It is this: fear

Perhaps denied grief at the death of his disabled son. Bereavement affects us on an individual basis and there is no guarantee that it will manifest in logical ways.

So these cuts will now become law and, as a nation weeps, the details are sorrowful when applied to reality.

Here's an example. Any disabled or sick person who has been given more than six months to live - and is unable to financially support themselves - will be sent out to work. If they refuse, or back out of a scheme, then they will be subject to benefit sanctions.

This, it must be noted, is extraordinarily punishing towards disabled people when we consider how DWP boss, Chris Grayling, treats others involved in 'Workfare' type arrangements.

Consider, if you will, how he was forced to back-track last week following pressure from campaigners and businesses. After a summit designed to get more businesses on board the Workfare bus, he announced that he would remove the threat of benefit sanctions for unemployed young people on job seeker allowance who drop out of the scheme.

Wow. In what world can young, fit people be given protection that we deny our most vulnerable? That's more suited to an Aldous Huxley script than real life.

Next up in the reforms will be an increase in multiple testing of patients, including those with Alzheimer's and Multiple Sclerosis, to see if they are fit for work. They will be tested repeatedly. It will cost a great deal of money to administer and it will wear already sick people to a pulp.

And as for children who dare to be born disabled, well that assistance previously available to them has been wiped out in Cameron's Armageddon on the poor.

Sue Marsh, one of the co-authors of 'Responsible Reform - The Spartacus Report' - which launched a worthy counter-attack to the Coalition's WRB measures said: "We begged for £11 Million to protect profoundly disabled children into adulthood, but nuh-huh."

And yet we, as a nation, manage to find millions of pounds to pay Cameron's army of advisers and assessors including the allegedly fraudulent activities of back-to-work company A4E which was set up by the Coalition's 'families czar' Emma Harrison.

Could we consider this? If this is really a cost-cutting exercise to fill the billion pound deficit, when is the Coalition going to start from within? The DWP spend over 25 thousand pounds per month on travel, hotels and stationery - surely there is something that could be curbed there rather than taking 20% from disability which, according to their own figures, only has 0.5% of fraud.

I'm writing this and I'm struggling to believe it at the same time, which is quite a conflict.

With all this insistence of paid employment for the terminally ill (despite the fact that we have almost 3million unemployed) it is no wonder that job centres, up and down the land, have been issued with details on how to handle suicides in their establishments. Something, apparently, they are anticipating rather more of since the WRB was voted in.

I think the expression ‘you couldn’t make this up’ is appropriate here.

Perhaps the aim is to finish off the sick and disabled sooner rather than later. Well that way, at least, you get to save on the medical bills of our increasingly privatised National Health Service.

After all, what use are such people to our society?

There is a notion, false obviously, that disabled and sick people make no contribution and only ‘drain’ the system. What short-sightedness. Such a statement assumes that only paid work has social value.
Legacy: Will Cameron be remembered as the PM who attacked the sick and disabled of our country with a vehemence?

Legacy: Will Cameron be remembered as the PM who attacked the sick and disabled of our country with a vehemence?

What about other contributions including volunteer work - from charity shops to hospitals and schools? These roles are frequently staffed by disabled people, too.

Ironically, a number of disabled people will now be removed from such vital community roles and placed in a Workfare scheme - free labour to private businesses - so that they may mop floors, wash dishes or clean toilets. Ain't life grand?

Disabled people, like the majority of people, want to work but they also have to take account of how their illness or disability will affect their working life. Unlike the able-bodied and healthy, they do not know which turn their well-being will take when they wake in the morning. Whether they will be able to physically climb out of bed much less make it to the factory floor.

People on disability benefit are not living it up. If only. According to the group Family Action, some families survive on less than two pounds per day. Quite a contrast when you compare it to the Peers in the Lords who receive 300 a day just to show up and then get to enjoy smoked salmon in the tax-payer subsidised cafeteria (cost to the taxpayer is a mere 1.44million a year. bargain). Oh how the other half live.

So where will disabled and sick have to turn to now in their greatest hour of need? Well they can forget the Social Fund because that was viciously axed in these reforms, too.

For millions of people, a Social Fund loan - yes it was repayable, it wasn't a gift - was the difference between sleeping on a bed or a floor. The MP's who voted to banish this have no understanding of such destitution and poverty. Not while they are able to subsidise the purchase of their country mansions with their parliamentary expenses.
Defending himself: Ricky, seen here in a photo he posted onto his Twitter page, said he never meant to use the word 'mong' to mean Down Syndrome

There are those who openly mock the disabled: Ricky Gervais's 'mong' comment says more about him than anything else

People are already impoverished and it is certain to get worse. I read one online disability forum where a woman with breast cancer and liver disease didn't know where she was going to get the ten pound needed for travel to hospital for an appointment.

Unlike David and Samantha Cameron, who claimed Disability Living Allowance for their child - and absolutely did not need to - many disabled now must adjust to seriously reduced circumstances since Cameron attacked DLA in the reforms and will replace with the patently detrimental Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

The transfer from DLA to PIP will remove help from 25% of those in receipt of the benefit now, despite the fact that this is a benefit that helps some disabled people to stay in work.

And therein lies much of the problem with these reforms. They lack joined-up thinking. They don't appear to have been thought through to a satisfactory end.

Take for example the perception within the Coalition, the DWP and the care services that everyone has a spouse and family to fall back on but that is not the reality for many people.

As a consequence of these cuts, more disabled people will find themselves in bedsits, or hostels or on the streets. There is a significant proportion of people with mental health issues and learning difficulties who find themselves in this situation already and it is certain to increase.

Well then perhaps it's time to resurrect another part of our history - seeing as David Cameron is clearly following a Dickensian blueprint for our poor - the workhouse. Yes, that testament to our proud, class-conscious society.

Talk to any disabled or sick person right now and there is a word that crops up more than any other, a running thread central to what they are feeling. It is this: fear.

Fear of losing their homes when they no longer have DLA to top up their Housing Benefit shortfall where, thanks to the previous Conservative Government, private rents are uncapped and extortionate. Fear of losing their carer because there will be no allowance for them. Fear of being bed-ridden for the lack of anyone to lend support. Fear of losing ramps and assistance to get in and out of the house. Cold fear that this feeling of being unwanted and excluded from society is how it is going to be for the rest of their days.
With all this insistence of paid employment for the terminally ill it is no wonder that job centers, up and down the land, have been issued with details on how to handle suicides in their establishmentsv

With all this insistence of paid employment for the terminally ill it is no wonder that job centers, up and down the land, have been issued with details on how to handle suicides in their establishmentsv

In internet circles, where many disabled campaigners congregate, names are bandied around of those who have committed suicide through fear of going cold and hungry and feeling that they are increasingly a burden to society.

At the last count there were some 103 names linked to such suicides and I have actually heard people say that they would consider suicide as a way out of this constant state of anxiety and despair.

What alarms me is how this dispassion towards people with disabilities appears to be spreading from the Coalition down.

There are commentators who openly deride disabled people (Rod Liddle's ill-informed and hate-inciting rhetoric - a type of drunk-sick on paper - in a tabloid was one, but he's not alone). There are also comedians who mock disability. Ricky Gervais' 'mong' impersonation surely says more about him than it does about anyone else (although to be fair, Ricky has since claimed this to be naivety and that he was unaware that the term was still used to describe disability).

There is also, according to recent figures, a 40 per cent increase in disabled attacks in the past year alone. Hardly wonder when the general public are constantly being goaded with the idea that we are 'mugs for supporting scroungers'. Talk like that tends to breed resentment.

And then there's this. An occurrence that should serve to alarm us all.

The British Medical Journal published a paper from Oxford University don Francesca Minerva, a philosopher and medical ethicist, who argued that doctors should have the right to kill newborn babies including those born with disabilities because, according to Minerva, a young baby is not a real person and so killing it in the first days after birth is little different to aborting it in the womb.

But here's what gives me hope. Ever since last week's rubber stamping of the Welfare Reform Bill, disability campaigners have begun a serious fightback and are preparing, like an army, to overcome this wickedness that has been wrought on them. Information is being compiled and exchanged, despite ill-health and disability I have never witnessed such a bank of people determined to overcome the odds piled on them.

Let us not forget, and despite the mainstream media's best efforts to convince us otherwise, this is not about the neighbor with the apparent bad back who plays golf at weekends (who can also be genuinely disabled but even disabilities allow for better days when activity can increase), but about some of the most horrendous acts against truly vulnerable people.

This may not affect you. Perhaps your parents, or yourself even, have a sufficient financial cushion not to worry about that. What an enviable position to be in.

But what about those less fortunate?

I believe - and I’ve 47 years of a colourful life to base this judgement on - that the UK is comprised of essentially decent people. Citizens who care enough to see beyond their own selfish existence.

The people I know don’t want to be - and neither are they - the type of people who turn their backs when the going gets tough. They actually seek a more compassionate life on earth where we are prepared to support and contribute to each others lives.

In is unconscionable that these disability reforms have been allowed to happen. To be fair, we all knew it was a Conservative agenda, but a Liberal one as well? Goodness how Nick Clegg can ever recover from this I do not know. My imagination is not that good.

So the Welfare Reform Bill, after decades in the making, has finally come to pass. Oh, how proud are we as a nation? We did it. Gave those sick and crippled unfortunates a good old kicking. Let’s give ourselves a collective pat on the back for allowing this to proceed. Makes you proud to be British, doesn't it?

Ministry Of Justice Video on Tribunals

[Taken word for word from one of the benefits groups]:

"Appeals video, from Benefits and Work:

HELP MAKE CHRIS GRAYLING MAD
Here’s an opportunity for you to help make a minister wish he hadn’t interfered.

Back in March we wrote about the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) employment and support allowance appeals video (external link) on Youtube. The video was pulled after less than a week, on the orders of senior officials.

Independent benefits expert Neil Bateman (external link), discovered that the video was taken down after employment minister Chris Grayling emailed the ministry complaining about, amongst other things, the fact that it told claimants:
that they are twice as likely to win their appeal if they appear in person rather than having a paper hearing;
that the DWP doesn’t normally send a representative to the hearing;
to send additional evidence to the tribunal, when Grayling wants it sent to the DWP.
Yesterday, three months later, the video reappeared and, to their credit, after their initial panic MoJ officials seem to have left it unaltered. The video is actually reasonably informative and reassuring for people who have no previous experience of appeal tribunals.

Normally, however, MoJ videos get very little attention – one has had just two views and few of the 120 videos on the MoJ channel gets more than a few hundred views.

If Grayling hadn’t intervened this video would probably also have remained largely unseen. Now, however, we’re asking Benefits and Work newsletter readers to make it the most popular video the MoJ has ever produced. The current record holder has had 4,269 views and the ESA video currently stands at 1,063.

So, please, make Grayling mad by taking a look at the video and passing the link on to anyone you think might benefit:"

Hatred of those on benefits; discuss!

When I heard about what had happened to the Philpotts, my reaction was not dissimilar to that of Carole Malone, though for completely different reasons. I was shocked obviously, and sad that anyone would lose one child to fire, let alone six. Like Carole though, I was almost not surprised. Over the last few years the government and media have been stirring up so much hatred against those on benefits, that when someone with 17 children, living purely on benefits comes to the publics attention, it isn't all that surprising that one person, out of the thousands or millions that have a grudge against such people, 'takes action into their own hands'. Of course, we don't actually know that is what happened, because as yet they don't know who caused the fire. This is the opening to the article I've linked below though. An article in which it discusses this hatred.

Owen Jones "Hatred of those on benefits is dangerously out of control"

The media have mislead people so much over benefits that everything is now completely misunderstood, even the simplest things. I've read comments on articles recently where people simply cannot comprehend the difference between Disability and Sickness. People seem to think that if someone is a little bit sick they suddenly receive a free car for the rest of their lives. My own father, when I told him of the predicament I was in a few months ago, responded by telling me that I would be fine as I could claim £26,000 a year in benefits and have a council house. Worse than this though, some journalists are deliberately misleading the public (Rob Liddle, to name one).

I want to throw my toys out of my pram and declare that it isn't fair. I never chose to be ill. I certainly did not choose to lose everything I had in life. I don't want to be unemployed or struggling. Sometimes, these people deliberately stirring up hate against me is more than I can take. I don't see why I should be ashamed of who I am. Why should I dread meeting new people because of the inevitable question 'so what do you do?'.

I often wonder how anyone can believe the ridiculous claims made in the media. I cannot personally imagine hearing a 'fact' and not questioning it or thinking about it. It seems that people just accept these things at face value though. If they actually stopped to think about it surely they'd realise it's all rubbish. How can they possibly think that ALL families on benefits have countless children, a free car, a free house, plasma televisions, Blackberries, Nike's, etc? Surely the evidence before them contradicts what they are being told? When they drive through drab council estates who do they think lives there? A class even 'lower' than the 'lowest'?

I'm lost in working out what it is that they're trying to achieve. I understand that they are demonizing those on benefits ... all benefits, not just disability and sickness benefits ... with the aim of getting people on side, so that decreasing benefits actually goes down well with the general public. I understand that they wish to decrease benefits to make what is truthfully a minute saving in the grand scheme of things. But what do they think is going to happen? The truth of the matter is that people living on benefits are already struggling to make ends meet. An amazing amount of people are simply living on Housing Benefit and Job Seekers Allowance. Housing Benefit pays only 80% of their rent, so a huge amount of their JSA goes on paying off the rest. They receive £67 a week; this has to pay the rest of their rent, their bills and living expenses. It's not easy. If this amount if cut further they will be pushing people over the edge. As it is many people are relying on the generosity of others; on handouts, spare rooms, free meals. Not everyone has generosity available. People will starve, or freeze. They are essentially pushing people to suicide, or at least that is the way I see it. I'm sure they realise that, and I'm sure that the thought of claimants decreasing, no matter what the cause, makes them quite happy. It decreases that 'class' after all.

Last year, when I was too sick to get out of bed, too brain fogged to work out how the benefit system worked, one of my friends said to me 'Do you think they'll just let you rot?'. He truly believed that the system has the best interest of every individual at heart. But how does the system magically know when I cannot do anything for myself? How can they know there is one person out there who is totally alone, without internet access, unable to get out of their house; someone who simply has all usual avenues cut off? They will let you rot. They will, and they do.

So that's me. I've said my piece. I am glad and a little encouraged to see The Independent covering the hatred of those on benefits in this manner, and I hope that others start to finally see the light too.

Can anyone say 'dictatorship'?

A friend of mine spent a couple of years working for VSO in Eritrea. When she came back she described to me a system that I simply could not believe. When Eritreans are young it is decided for them what career path they will take, and they are then lead through the system to that path. They do not have the choice that we do. I was horrified. Ok, so as a teenager I had no idea what career path to take (as a child, I knew I wanted to run an insect hospital), but I would not have been happy for someone I had never met in a government building somewhere, to write down next to my name 'road sweeper', or 'football player'. I can't imagine living in such a society.

Yet, it seems, some of us may be headed in such a direction. Both The Mirror and The Daily Mail have published shocking articles about our countries benefits system in the last couple of days. What is most shocking about them is that both newspapers are actually disgusted at what our government is doing to the sick and disabled. Both have previously played heavy hands in the propaganda against us, aiding the stigmas of 'lazy people' and 'scroungers', so to my mind, if these papers have picked up on how horrific the situation is, it must be seriously dire. (Though the cynic in me wonders if they've just realised they can scandalize a new market of reader).

Taken from Sonia Poulton's article in The Daily Mail:

"Let me be clear. There is nothing wrong with getting hands-on experience that will enable progression in your chosen path, and we've all done plenty of that, but there is everything wrong with being forced to work in a place that has nothing to do with your aims and ambitions and everything to do with creating a labour force that verges on slavery to the system."

"Disabled people will now face the prospect of unlimited unpaid work or they will be subject to cuts in their benefits. For millions that is nothing more than a line on a page but for many terrified and suicidal others, it is anything but."

Obviously, I understand a fair amount about of how the new system works. I am in the WRAG group myself. I had not realised though that I could be forced to take a work placement. When talking with the Job Centre, they conveniently left that piece of information out. Take a look at the job advertisement from Tesco above. The salary is "JSA plus expenses". Many of those commenting on the article are horrified. It is assumed that this is less than minimum wage, slave labour. It may well be, but since the hours are 'to be confirmed' we cannot be certain. I will be looking at similar job advertisements to work this out though. I have always believed Tesco to be a good, even generous, employer, so I am dearly hoping these assumptions are incorrect. That aside, I am still horrified that I, a graduate, who was so looking forward to developing her own career before I became ill, could be told to take a job pushing trolleys, which would very quickly disable me further. What no one seems to have noticed when looking at that job advertisement is that JSA plus expenses is a lot less than ESA plus expenses. Not good!

"We, as the country, are, quite literally, paying the consumer giant to make even more money. And we are doing that by having our taxpayer funded job seekers work free for the company."

It isn't right that large corporations such as Tesco benefit from free workers. If this is how the system works, it is most unfair. I would have presumed that the government would actually be making Tesco pay the worker the equivalent of JSA though. Ever the optimist aren't I.

Taken from The Mirror:

"Neil Coyle, of pressure group Disability Rights UK, said: “The idea that disabled people should work but receive no financial recognition for contributing is perhaps a level of abuse in and of itself.”

"He added: “When Conservative backbench MP Philip Davies suggested disabled people should work for less than the national minimum wage he was castigated. But it now appears to be Government policy.” "

What is perhaps most alarming is how the country, has made such an about turn. As Neil Coyle points out it was not that long ago that that the notion of the disabled working for less than minimum wage was laughed out of the news, and yet it is now a reality. How has the government manufactured this situation? Colour me a conspiracy theorist, but there has been an awful lot of disability hate articles appearing in the media over the last few months. I can't help wondering if these facts are related.

Quoting Sonia's article again:

"If nothing else the Coalition are proving themselves, over and over again, to be worthy defenders of the rich. If you're in the top percentage of income earners in this country then you, too, should be OK."

And this is what most annoys me. Tax breaks. Not just generous salaries, but salary increases. Bonus's. All for the rich, not for those of us at the bottom of the ladder. How can they not care that they are literally taking from the pockets of the poor?

There are three million unemployed in this country. How would you feel as one of those unemployed if you knew that jobs were being made unavailable for you because someone who was sick or disabled was being forced to take the position you could have had, that the company 'employing' them is not paying their wages, and that the person taking the job will probably be made a lot more ill by doing so?

I have one final thing to say on this. I believe there will be an epidemic of sick and disabled people who have no income soon. It won't take many years. Those on contributory ESA (ie, those who have actually paid their taxes to be able to afford to be ill) will cease to receive ESA after one years illness. The government has put a time limit on how long you can be ill for. So, what happens when after a year you are still ill? I have been ill for over ten years now. Many others have been ill nearly as long, or longer than me. Under this system how will they survive? Who does the government think will support them? Care for them? If I was not with C, there would be no one to care for me! Without benefits these people will lose their homes, their possessions; they will end up on the streets.

I would not be surprised if we see people leaving the country. When people realise how dire the situation is, I believe some will take the last of the money they receive or have saved and seek refuge in other countries. I am not suggesting that other countries will support us in the way that we support so many asylum seekers in this country, but that living in a country that is cold, damp, and mouldy is not conducive to good health; those who realise this may well seek a warmer, drier, healthier climate, and simply live on the streets there. I will not be surprised to see English refugees abandoning this country.

I will leave you with some of the comments from Sonia's article in The Daily Mail:

"Sonia writes about the workfare scheme. The ad from Tesco offering permanent night shift positions for benefit (£67.50 a week) plus expenses is reproduced above. This is slavery and madness, and will affect everyone who works for a living by driving wages down even further. Personally, I will not darken Tesco's doors again.
- Jane, Brighton, Sussex"

"Wherefore now, Britannia? Are there no prisons, are there no workhouses?
- Dystopian, UK"

"Well said, Sonia. I honestly think these measures are getting through because people don't really believe it's happening. Soon we will have sick people dying on the streets (having been 'sanctioned' for being too unwell to work for nothing) and unable to pay for healthcare. Councils will keep moving them out of sight. It really IS happening ... And you're right, it's happened before. [... cut]
- Cherry, Herefordshire"

"If people knew the true horror of this they would be marching on the streets on how badly the government spend our money. Take it from me an income for a couple/ person /family of £140 a week and less than £6000 savings very little complicated state help is within your reach.........out of work, sick or disabled it just does nt matter...your ok. £26000 cap is a load of rubbish on benefits if your lucky you have £10 a day to cover every thing. Homelessness yes will be on the rise and they don t want them or people on benefits in the areas like Westminster, NASA cos they are rich.
- Janet, York "

There's a lot more if you want to go and look at them. There are a lot of angry people out there!


[Edit]
Since I wrote this post, Tesco have publicly stated that the advert you can see above was a mistake. I am relieved!

National Union of Journalists Speaks Out

The National Union of Journalists today released a statement asking journalists to stop calling disabled people scroungers. You can click the title of my blog post to see the whole article, but there are also some snippets below.

I personally find it interesting that it states the rate of Incapacity Benefit fraud to be 0.3%, and the rate of Disability Living Allowance fraud is 0.5%. 0.3% being the lowest benefit fraud statistic. Given the demonisation I've personally felt from people I have met and people I know, it is evident that the press coverage of benefit fraud has indeed lead the public to believe otherwise.

"Over the last few months we have seen a continuous drip-feed of stories which have promoted a range of inaccurate and generalised accusations against disabled people with long term health conditions. As a result disabled people have faced greater hostility from the public, with many claiming that they have experienced hostility, discrimination and even physical attacks from strangers.

"The Work and Pensions Select Committee on Incapacity Benefit have themselves criticised the Government for the language it uses when it releases and comments on official statistics on the incapacity benefit reassessment programme resulting in some media using terms such as "scrounger" and "work shy". 

"Rather than offering constructive support to disabled people, certain stories and features have portrayed disabled people as unsustainable, unproductive and even not disabled at all, but profiting from fraudulent benefit claims"

I've not personally experienced violence, but hostility I have. In fact, one of the reasons I left a dating site earlier this year was the number of people who had a go at me when they discovered that I am incapacitated. The most hurtful incident was Easter Sunday (long time ago now). Having spent Easter very sadly alone I went to the Chinese take away to get something to eat. A new person working there asked me if I had just finished work. I said that I had not. He then asked me what I do. I explained that I do not work at present. I didn't even say I was ill or claiming benefits, but received a mouthful from him asking whether I just intend to live off benefits for the rest of my life. He then had to answer the phone, otherwise I'd have given him a mouthful back and asked for a refund. 

I agree with the NUJ. The media is deliberately stirring up hatred against the disabled and incapacitated. I cannot begin to imagine why. There is a lot of benefit fraud happening. People claim Job Seekers Allowance with no intention of actually working again. Everyone I know who claiming sickness or disability benefits, would much rather be healthy and working. 

One of my friends summed it up beautiful recently. He has Cystic Fibrosis. He is on high rate mobility, and therefore has help with costs towards a car. Someone expressed to him that they were envious. His response was that he would gladly exchange them the car for their healthy lungs.