tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post7266257842113072652..comments2023-07-04T16:57:28.929+01:00Comments on Where's the Benefit?: Fear, Loathing and Disability in the TorygraphLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16714918894319998184noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-31141010989720022672012-08-03T10:58:44.208+01:002012-08-03T10:58:44.208+01:00Well yes...I feel less afraid to work in my garden...Well yes...I feel less afraid to work in my garden now that I am a pensioner....since no-one is likely to report me to the DWP.... I too suffer from severe backache, sometimes to the extent that I CANNOT STAND UP STRAIGHT, let alone walk unaided. And why do people like Odone and her ilk always choose BACKACHE as likely to be 'fraudulent'? No, people can't SEE the pain, they can see us limping around on walking sticks, or bent double as we shuffle to the bus stop....I can assure everyone that most of the taxi drivers in Stroud can testify that my backache is genuine!! And when it is not hurting,yes I work in my garden - there are ways of modifying gardening for disabled people - AND it's therapeutic in a lot of other ways - AND I grow food!!Leonorahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09432898647945296611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-63508247423430801312012-08-02T20:35:43.486+01:002012-08-02T20:35:43.486+01:00If you want to show the reality, show disabled peo...If you want to show the reality, show disabled people being attacked on the street, both verbally and physically, by utter strangers, for no better reason than being disabled. Show profoundly disabled people left to lie in their own waste overnight, because the courts rule that is an acceptable level of care.DavidGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11734028655032503805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-12508268112436048012012-08-02T20:25:11.572+01:002012-08-02T20:25:11.572+01:00The idea of being “genuinely disabled” or “deservi...The idea of being “genuinely disabled” or “deservingly disabled” is perhaps the most corrosively damaging thing the government has inflicted on disabled people. Is someone who breaks their neck skydiving really “more deserving” than someone who becomes addicted to alcohol or drugs because of a genetic predisposition, their family background or a history of abuse? Why are the consequences of an elected risk considered acceptable, but the consequences of something inflicted on someone through no fault of their own considered unacceptable? It’s the “hierarchy of disability” under another name and like that is designed to set one disabled person against another.<br /> <br />“Have you never met anyone who walked with huge difficulty when they go to the doctor yet discos-dancesd when they have a few drinks in them, or was putting in a patio for their son?”<br /><br />Yes, me. Yet I’m lying here in pain and when I stand up the trick is going to be getting whatever I need to do done before I end up wobbling on one leg (the opposite leg to the one it was this morning), and that’s despite having done no more than potter about the house all day. The problem is that most of society is overwhelmingly ignorant of the reality of disability, which is that it is often massively counter-intuitive and massively inconsistent. <br /><br />You may see me dancing, but you don’t see the pain, you probably won’t notice I sit out every other dance, you won’t see that my weight stays almost exclusively on one leg, and the nature of modern dance will hide the instability that has me constantly at risk of face-planting. (And yes, alcohol is a massively effective painkiller and muscle relaxant).<br /><br />You may see me working in the garden, but you won’t see the pain, you won’t see the instability and you won’t see the braces beneath my clothes. You certainly won’t see that it may be the only day in a month, or a year, that I am fit enough to do something, and you certainly won’t see the days I spend recovering afterwards – my record for recovering from overdoing something is a full year, and I’m not convinced I ever got everything back. <br /><br />Disability benefit fraud does exist, but it is a tiny problem, and the Tories are trying to cure a hangnail by amputating at the hip.DavidGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11734028655032503805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-76938607751030953962012-08-02T19:26:57.895+01:002012-08-02T19:26:57.895+01:00You have to score 15 points to go into WRAG, at th...You have to score 15 points to go into WRAG, at the time I took the assessment not being able to sit for more than 20 minutes scored 15 points. So yes, one piece of evidence can qualify you for WRAG, provided you can force the ATOS quack to allow you to give it.DavidGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11734028655032503805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-6035677556780859222012-08-01T20:28:07.039+01:002012-08-01T20:28:07.039+01:00MEfly...so you're saying the UK is just better...MEfly...so you're saying the UK is just better at hiding it...why am I not surprised.<br /><br />There is going to be blood spilled over this someday. I don't want it to happen, mind you, but the way things are going cannot stand.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05257019441860891929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-6346543297995278162012-08-01T19:23:14.190+01:002012-08-01T19:23:14.190+01:00http://wheresthebenefit.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/let...<a href="http://wheresthebenefit.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/let-me-take-you-by-hand-and-lead-you.html" rel="nofollow">http://wheresthebenefit.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/let-me-take-you-by-hand-and-lead-you.html</a>Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16714918894319998184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-4824876135332733122012-08-01T19:21:09.154+01:002012-08-01T19:21:09.154+01:00homeless people are a huge reality in the UK,
and...homeless people are a huge reality in the UK,<br /><br />and many with children also have to walk miles to food banks.FuBarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18207274426321087529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-33520140957402838002012-08-01T18:03:18.128+01:002012-08-01T18:03:18.128+01:00Yes there is fraud. The rate is 0.3% for Incapacit...Yes there is fraud. The rate is 0.3% for Incapacity Benefit and 0.5% for DLA.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16714918894319998184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-54565466120246243692012-08-01T17:54:34.953+01:002012-08-01T17:54:34.953+01:00Hi David,
Nice article. Got me thinking...
We’r...Hi David,<br /><br /><br />Nice article. Got me thinking...<br /><br />We’re making a feature film called The Redistributors in London this summer – targeting the issues of inequality and the growing disparity between rich and poor.<br /><br />It’s a thriller made for a mainstream audience, trying to keep these issues in the public mind. The appeal should be wide-reaching when we release to cinemas in 2013.<br /><br />Would appreciate any support or thoughts on the project!<br /><br />www.indiegogo.com/theredistributors<br /><br />Kind regards,<br /><br />KieranTheRedistributorshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17238660735470327703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-3920180859385988682012-07-31T21:13:34.714+01:002012-07-31T21:13:34.714+01:00malicious unfounded reports of fraud a form of hat...malicious unfounded reports of fraud a form of hate crime. I am afraid to be seen in the garden even though my GP said I could do things unless I felt ill. I can actually do little but pulling a few weeds helps me mentally. Some neighbours immediiately rush up to cross question me when I walk to the car. One woman used to ask whomppl were when they gave me a lift! So I now have serious depression. Who gave these ppl the idea they could do this? Why the papers of course and their DWP masters.mrswupplehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10012555558218665781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-1499206000386025052012-07-31T19:09:26.076+01:002012-07-31T19:09:26.076+01:00And you live in a country where benefits are a mos...And you live in a country where benefits are a mostly accepted part of the culture, as is a NHS.<br /><br />Be glad you don't live in the US where they'd leave you out on the street to starve or freeze if they could get away with it.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05257019441860891929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-25680782528034354022012-07-31T17:41:33.923+01:002012-07-31T17:41:33.923+01:00* trying to prevent me giving the one piece of evi...* trying to prevent me giving the one piece of evidence that qualified me for ESA outright. * I thought that nothing would qualify anybody out right. Because the woman on tv said if you can press 1 button - you canwork<br /><br />Its so unfair when life itself is a battle and now it is one fraught with continual fear of everyone, as well as battling to have a life :-(Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-89290483402749307792012-07-31T10:13:35.360+01:002012-07-31T10:13:35.360+01:00I support your position, and am a Spartacist.
But...I support your position, and am a Spartacist. <br />But I have one question for you.<br />I know *your* 'debilitating but unprovable backache' is genuine.<br />Neither is it is so tritely easy for an alcoholic to 'tackle' their addiction.<br />But do we therefore simply pay benefits to everyone who claims they have a 'debilitating but unprovable backache' and continue to pay and care for that alcoholic so that they can give themselves uninconvenienced to drink?<br />I know for a fact that large numbers of people simply tell lies to get a blue badge, and that many misuse it when they get one.<br />So my question is this: do you believe that there are *no* malingerers who make up/exaggerate their disability to get the benefit? Have you never met anyone who walked with huge difficulty when they go to the doctor yet discos-dancesd when they have a few drinks in them, or was putting in a patio for their son?<br />People - ordinary, uncomprending working people - are seeing this every day, in their own street, in their own circle, and they believe the Mail andf the Telegraph, not because they have been fooled by rightist propaganda, but because everyone knows someone who seems (on the face of it) to be cheating the system.<br />Thus do we not need a campaign which does not just rail at ATOS and assessment and the 'scrounger' narrative - is that really the issue? <br />Are not the issues that:<br />1. the ATOS assessment is not fit for purpose<br />2. our society does not have adequate mechanisms to support people with a disability so that they can contribute to the community.<br />I am not looking for abuse here, but I am raising the question.Mr John D Clarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15309958671065162261noreply@blogger.com