Dismantling the Welfare State - Brick by Brick

Some long-term sick and disabled people face being forced to work unpaid for an unlimited amount of time or have their benefits cut under plans being drawn up by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Mental health professionals and charities have said they fear those deemed fit to undertake limited amounts of work under a controversial assessment process could suffer further harm to their health if the plans go ahead.

The new policy, outlined by DWP officials in meetings with disabilities groups, is due to be announced after legal changes contained in clause 54 of the welfare reform bill have made their way through parliament.

The policy could mean that those on employment and support allowance who have been placed in the work-related activity group (Wrag) could be compelled to undertake work experience for charities, public bodies and high-street retailers. The Wrag group includes those who have been diagnosed with terminal cancer but have more than six months to live; accident and stroke victims; and some of those with mental health issues.

In official notes from a meeting on 1 December last year, DWP advisers revealed they were not intending to put a time limit on the work experience placements.

When asked at the meeting if there was a maximum duration to the placements, the reply was: "There are no plans to introduce a maximum time limit."

Full article HERE

For the past 4 entries I've focused quite heavily on myself and my problems finding a job, with only a small focus on my wife, her disability, and her problems getting back into work.

Everything I've said previously can be applied to the both of us in equal measure, but Lindsey faces far more problems than I could ever experience when it comes to finding employment in these times.

Lindsey suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, something that is often deemed to be among the "invisible illness" category. It's a mental health issue, and it is something that will never go away with treatment, never be cured, and never be made easier through medication.

Asperger's Syndrome is a form of Autism, it is often classified as "high functioning" autism, as those that have it often have the bonus of high intelligence and increased learning capacity, but suffer from the downside of having poor social skills, and are often prone to panic & anxiety problems. Lindsey also suffers from an increased sensitivity to pretty much everything (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, etc), and is currently unable to venture outside of our flat without being accompanied by myself or a friend.

As I'm sure you can understand, this makes holding down specific jobs a nightmare, and when it comes to the jobs she can do (and has done), it requires the employer to be fully aware of her condition, and the ways in which it can be combated (such as regular breaks to calm herself down, being put into less stressful situations, and not having to deal with large crowds of people for hours on end).

Since being diagnosed with Asperger's only a few years back, Lindsey has been seeking regular help from Psychiatrists and other trained medical consultants to help her manage her anxiety and depression (something that is often triggered by her other problems, due to feeling out of place in this overly social world). She has started an Open University course in Psychology, and is working towards being OK to get back to work.

The problem?

The above Guardian article helpfully sums up the major issue faced by those with disabilities at the moment, especially those with an "invisible" disability, as the current government and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are planning on once again pulling the rug out from under the feet of the people that need the most help from the state.

Recovering from any illness, or learning to live with one, is a lengthy process that can take many years and forcing somebody back to work (especially unpaid and unlimited work) before they are physically or mentally capable of doing so can push back this recovery process by years.

The Guardian have been covering these issues for months now, perhaps one of the few newspapers around that I still respect for their willingness to stand up against current media trends to lable all people on benefits as scroungers and thieves:

I recently read an impact assessment compiled by the Department for Work and Pensions on the proposed "reform" of disability living allowance – in other words, getting rid of it. DLA is a benefit designed to help people with the additional costs of living with a severe disability. Applicants must fill in a 50-page form, spelling out the most intimate details of their care and mobility needs. Doctors' details must be provided together with a statement from someone who knows you well, an occupational therapist or social worker, for example. There are different levels of benefit according to the degree of assistance required, and a large proportion of claims are rejected altogether.

DLA is far from perfect. In particular, it struggles to respond to fluctuating conditions and the assessment form is strongly geared towards physical rather than mental health problems. But because DLA is payable regardless of employment status, it is a highly enabling benefit. A great many people are able to work precisely because their DLA pays for the additional help they need in order to do so.

For a government committed to getting people working, abolishing DLA presents a PR challenge with which the impact assessment grapples heroically. Replacing DLA with a personal independence payment, and slicing 20% off the bill, will "provide an opportunity to … communicate that support is available both in and out of work" it states. A "more objective assessment" (designed to reduce the bill by 20%) will create "a more active and enabling benefit" and – get this – the fact that "those on low incomes have higher rates of ill health" does not mean that "a change in income has an effect on health". What the dickens?

Full article HERE

To save money, and fudge the statistics, our current coalition government is planning on dismantle the welfare state brick by brick, starting specifically with those that need it the most and ignoring the greater issues at hand.

As I have explained before, neither myself nor my wife want to live on benefits for the rest of our lives. Once one of us has a full-time job, we'll be off them, and we'll be happy. But taking away the support that this system offers, and keeping support for the people that don't need it, is just plain ridiculous.

The focus of our current government, and the constant vitriol coming from many media outlets at the moment, against those with disabilities is sickening to the very core, and has created a backlash within society where people seem to take it upon themselves to judge those with a disability as fakers, cheaters, scroungers, and thieves. Those with an "invisible" illness often get it worse, being told they look perfectly fine and should stop faking, that they're too young to have severe disability and should quit complaining.

At 24, Holly Ferrie has to cope with disruption to her life on a scale few of her age could recognise. A complex and as yet not fully diagnosed arthritis-related condition causes her almost constant pain in her legs and feet. On occasions, her legs are seized by agonising spasms.

Yet Ferrie fears she doesn't seem disabled enough. People who don't know her, she says, find it hard to comprehend the severity of a condition that afflicts someone so young and is not immediately obvious. "They either get very confused or think I'm faking, or say, 'I hope the injury gets better soon', things like that," she said. "I've lost some friends over it. Pain is invisible and hard for people to understand."

Such attitudes, Ferrie contends, have become more common and more vehement since the government began arguing for wholesale reductions in disability-related benefits on the basis that many were falsely claimed or received by people who were exaggerating their symptoms or whose health had improved.

...

Ferrie says she is most likely to be insulted or abused on the street after a media article on supposed welfare abuse by the disabled. On a recent occasion, a group of students refused to share a taxi with her, she recounts. "After the next articles came out I tweeted, 'I wonder how long it's going to be this time before someone says or does something to me?'"

It took five days. On another occasion, she was rushing for a bus about to depart from a bus garage when her way was blocked by a staff member standing in the vehicle's doorway. "I said to her, 'Excuse me, can I get on the bus please?'. She looked down at my stick, looked up at my face and said, 'No. You should have walked faster.'"

Ferrie explained why she could not move more quickly, and met a response dripping with more scepticism: "Oh, really?"

"In the end I had to push past her," Ferrie said. "I burst into tears on the bus. I couldn't believe someone would say that to me."

Full article HERE

Holly Ferrie is not the only person to suffer such criticism on a daily basis. Lindsey is constantly tormented by people on the street, people online, and even occasionally from people that only barely know her. We both have friends that have similar problems, having people shout at them for using a disabled parking space when they are barely able to move without a walking cane, or a partially sighted friend of mine who was questioned as to whether or not she really was blind.

By all means, go ahead and question those that legitimately appear to be cheating the system, myself and my friends have reported several acquaintances that spent most of them
ir time playing ill and getting ridiculous amounts of money for it, but judging people with a legitimate illness? People that work hard and try their hardest to overcome their difficulties and live fullfilling lives?

As I said, this is sickening to the very core, and the government are doing nothing to help the issue by targeting disability benefits.