Sometimes, life in my head is not easy. Yesterday I watched the Panorama documentary ‘’Disabled or faking it’’, the sad but true tale of how our present government are doing their very best to prevent legitimate claims for disability related benefits being awarded to genuinely sick and disabled people. Naturally I was enraged (and very sad), some of those cases were heartbreaking. Today, while shopping in my favourite discount store, I came across a local disabled lady using a mobility scooter who was complaining loudly to any one and every one in earshot, about the programme, the system, the government, the lack of empathy etc, etc, etc………..naturally I whole heartedly supported her.
My rage at the injustice of our system rose. And then, while complaining loudly, she said ‘’well if they do stop this I’ll just have to live on my £250 per week and I know I can’t manage on that’’. I thought that was a bit odd, I had assumed she could lose every thing because of the system, turns out she was going to lose part of her benefit and be left with £250 per week; and that’s more than I get to live on every week. Then my poor muddled mind felt very guilty, did a bit of a flip and thought maybe her needs were much greater than mine, maybe she has to pay carers or something. So by this time I’m feeling angry with the government, sorry for the disabled lady and guilty for questioning the amount she receives. I thought I recognised myself falling into the ‘divide and rule’ trap the government set for us……………the ‘pit the poor against the poor’ strategy, it always works. So now I’m feeling stupid for falling for it as well as guilty for questioning her and again; she had my whole hearted support.
And then……………she committed the ultimate crime. She started saying how the government ‘let all these foreigners in’ and how these foreigners cost so much and how if they all went home and the government stopped any more coming in we (presumably she meant the indigenous British population) would all be so much better off.
Well that was it. She lost my sympathy vote and I left. Off I went, losing all sympathy for this stupid bigoted lady and did what I had to do and then went home.
But…………..my restless mind doesn’t like letting go. So this evening I find myself revisiting this scene, I’m plagued with thoughts of;……..ummm yes well she IS bigoted and stupid, but being bigoted and stupid isn’t exclusive to the able bodied and her moral judgments don’t actually have any baring on her right to benefits. So now I’m feeling guilty again, because I allowed myself to be distracted by the irrelevant. I’m also mad as hell with the government for putting so many people through this bloody awful, cruel, stressful and completely ‘not fit for purpose’ assessment for disability benefits. I feel sad for all the people who have suffered under this system and have every sympathy for those who stand to lose some or all of their benefits. I’m also angry with ignorant bigots (able bodied or disabled) who only add more pain and distress to an already bad situation.
Like I said…………..its not easy living in my head
oh bless your heart, Loretta.......i have been there and done that with these sort of thoughts, too...i guess for some people, being enabled to be 'Ghetto Fabulous' is simply not enough!
ReplyDeletei've known of some folks in this lifetime who have fed their dogs and cats hamburger meat, because the welfare and food stamps programs won't allow them to buy actual dog and cat food - and still, those same folks have the temerity to look down at others who will at least make the effort to wash car windows and such to make a bit of honest money....
seems there is just no justice nor any easy answers for any of it.
Seems that many of the governments these days have flipped from being kind of easy going about qualifying folks to being too stringent. We all need a happy medium. Let those who need it get and those who do not, get less. I don't know, it isn't an easy fix. We are all facing such big national economy crisis that anything and everything is up in the air. I am sorry for the lady- perhaps her loudness gets many thinking, even if they are offended. And you meant well, eh friend? I am sure you did, you did listen and you have wrestled a great deal. Perhaps you were meant to ponder things such as this today.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say...............because if you don't live here maybe you don't know; this government have completely reorganized the system for sick and disabled people to claim benefits. It really seems as if their aim is not to be fair and just, but to cut costs and deny benefits regardless of need. The whole system is a shambles.The government and the private company working for them claim they are NOT working to targets, but every one else knows they are...............the object of the reorganization is simply to save money however they can.
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:-)) TY.............( hug)
ReplyDeleteI found the behaviours of the lady in question very odd, why would she say that she gets £250 per week on top of her ESA or whatever, even if its true?.... that just seems weird to me. Perhaps the government have started planting people in shops loudly complaining that because of benefit cuts they'll have to downsize their Bentley and settle for a Mercedes instead. I have accompanied someone on one of these Atos assessments which are like something from Brave New World, populated by unhelpful, unsmiling personality disordered staff in a bleak 60s building I had the feeling I was in a film about Britain after the Nazis take over. Despite their deliberate unpleasantness the Benefits Agency overturned the Atos decision and continued to award a benefit that had tried to stop. Atos staff are paid bonuses to deprive disabled people of an income .... in my experience they are all scum. Hope that has helped to unfuddle your head, whatever this woman was going on about Atos and the government have made her the subject of their attacks....eugenics is alive and well. Like I say they are no better than Nazis, bent doctors and corrupt nurses looked after by humourless zombies...that's what Atos is all about.... any damage to their already rock bottom reputation is to be strongly encouraged I think!
ReplyDeleteI watched it too. I wasn't surprised but I did become enraged. My great-grandmother worked with Nye Bevan to establish the NHS and it, and the social benefits system, are being made a mockery of; they are supposed to be there to treat and support people who need it, not to be slyly dismantled by bigots and heartless thieves.
ReplyDeletethink it's a complicated issue. And there do need to be reviews but they should be done in ways that don't make genuine claimers feel discriminated against but enables people who are abusing the system to be identified. I think it must be hard to assess people as well as for example pain can be so subjective. If you have a member of staff who complains of back pain and says that certain things aggravate the pain it's difficult to argue against that. You can't know how the pain feels to them. On the other hand it's galling if you suspect that in fact they are in very little pain and just using the back problem to get out of doing things they don't want to do. (Or claiming they can't work so need to be supported.)
ReplyDeleteI also think our national health system is great but is struggling against all the demands made on it. I do think that being a national service it should be consistant - treatment available to you shouldn't matter where you live. We need a benefits system that takes care of those who need it but people shouldn't be better off on benefits than those trying hard to hold down jobs and support themselves.
ATOS ( a french company) have been banned from operating in the US because of their practises.
ReplyDeleteOver here (I'm told) they have a contract which can't be broken but must run its natural course. ATOS are awarded £2,000 for each person they take off disability benefit. If the decision is over turned by an independent tribunal thay don't need to refund the money. And yes, the ATOS examiners are given targets to meet. If they meet them they receive a bonus.
This lady IS a bit odd, I’ve no idea why she quoted the figure £250 but she did and yes it is weird, but she is not a ‘plant’, she, and her little mobility scooter, are a familiar sight around the town and I guess its possible that as well as her obvious mobility problems, she could also have learning difficulty or mental health issues, because she is certainly quite strange at times. And if she does, that could explain why she became so agitated about the panorama programme, and then got carried away with her very public vocal outburst. And, what ever caused her outburst, it shows how easy it is for people, including me, to become judgmental and unsympathetic to her distress. Like I said, I truly believe the government deliberately pit the poor against the poor; it’s a ‘divide and rule’ campaign they should be proud of. And; I know more than enough about the dreaded Atos assessment process to know it’s totally’ not for purpose’ and its primary objective is to meet government targets and deny legitimate benefit payments to the most vulnerable members of our society.
ReplyDeleteMy own brother-in-law went for over a year with no income because he was assessed as fit for work by the Atos assessment process and not entitled to any disability related benefit, but his GP flatly refused to sign him fit for work which left him not entitled to job seekers allowance. He turned 60 last year, he has heart disease, severe asthma and breathing difficulty, dangerously high blood pressure and chronic pain. After about a year of fighting the system he was awarded benefit. BUT; within a year of that, his wife, my sister, was called for a reassessment with Atos. They had scraped by on her disability allowances for a year and as soon as he was awarded his they reassessed her and passed her as fit for work. She has arthritis, high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, and severe other medical conditions that I don’t fully understand. She had a failed knee replacement 5 years ago and has had chronic pain and very limited mobility since that time. In one assessment she was told she doesn’t have a mobility problem, she just needs a wheelchair!!. Her benefit was reinstated last week. I offered to go with her to her next assessment but fortunately that wasn’t needed. They have been going through the system now for more than two years.
And so Aaron, yes, I agree, the whole thing is a bloody disgrace.
I'm not surprised Emma, any one who watched that programme would be enraged, what they are doing is awful beyond words. Bevan and all those who worked with him would be horrified.
ReplyDeleteThat's a bit of a myth, just another tool in the divide and rule campaign. Government figures confirm that those attempting to deliberately defraud the system are a tiny fraction of all claimants, the amount claimed fraudulently is so small that it is far far outweighed by the cost of government anti fraud activities. Its a case of sledge hammer to crack a wall nut.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you watched the programme Bernie but the bit I hated the most was that government minister looking straight into the camera and saying over and over that there are no targets. Lots of people will believe him, seems like lies lies and more lies is all that politics consists of these days.
ReplyDeleteI think every one would have more respect for them if they were honest, no chance of that though.
Nah, I don't have a telly. A friend described the programme to me though. And, of course, i've seen the articles in varous newspapers.
ReplyDeleteYou might find this interesting.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/02/atos-disability-benefit-tests
"Richard Hawkes, chief executive of the disability charity Scope, said the tests were deeply flawed. "Just this week the government and Atos, the contractor that carries out its fitness for work test, have come under a great deal of criticism about how this assessment is being delivered to disabled people. Yet in less than a year from now, disabled people could have to go through two deeply flawed assessments in the same month to get the essential financial support they need to live their lives.
"Disabled people are incredibly anxious and afraid that the switch from DLA to PIP is just an excuse to cut the support they need. The decision about which private company will run the assessment is of little significance to the thousands of disabled people who are just deeply worried about losing their financial lifeline," Hawkes said.
Campaigners say achieving the level of saving required would mean cutting about 500,000 people from the benefit roll, which would lead to arbitrary judgments being made.
A spokesman for the charity Disability Rights UK, which has helped the government with technical aspects of the test, said: "We are looking to ensure all companies assessing disabled people sign up to principles to ensure the assessment process works as well as possible."