(not satire – it’s UK today)
This report shows how disabled people in the UK are being hit the hardest by government cuts:
Cuts hitting disabled people hardest
A lot of able-bodied, fully healthy people switch off or turn away at the word ‘disabled’ – because they think the issue is of no concern to them.
And that’s exactly how the government has been able to get away with its vicious attacks on the weakest and most vulnerable members of society for so long. In fact, it’s the worse case of ‘Us‘ versus ‘Them‘ I’ve seen in a long time.
The fact is that disability affects all of us because every single one of us is going to be disabled eventually.
Of course, some people are born with a disability. But many more people have accidents or become sick sometime.
And we all become old.
People dying of cancer, for example, are not exempt from the government’s cuts:
The government has finally done something so outrageous even I can’t be bothered to satirise it
The real question is – will you be able to afford to live as full a life as possible without any outside help when you become sick or have an accident or just get old?
Because the real ‘Us‘ versus ‘Them‘ isn’t able-bodied versus disabled.
It’s ‘rich enough to survive‘ versus ‘the rest of us‘.
Which one are you?
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Please feel free to comment – you don’t need to register and I’m extremely minimal with the moderating – so please go ahead.
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Pride's Purge 
im one of the ones fighting this lot but then how they lie to population saying they targeting those who need it but take it away instead if one does become sick or disabled in these times goodluck youl need it to survive has now you will now that they lied to you and all ,but they the goverments allowed the banks to do whot they done by bankrupting the rich who had monies in them the 99percent who haven’t got that wealth well why would we pay for their greed as this is whot they doing to the 99percent robbing pff you to keep the rich rich and that’s the lie they hide while kicking us into touch so please pick your bar of soap up and and get your free clean towel and follow this way jeff3
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We’ve a Facebook Group dedicated to helping people through DWP/Atos ”assessment” (in reality a computer programme that rules most people fit to work, regardless of their illness or disability) & appeals, & the number of people stressed, in despair, deprived of benefits, vilified in the media, & run through the horrendous revolving door process is overwhelming. I’m very grateful to have excellent co-admins to deal with it all. Some of us could do some paid work, if there were supported employment, like Remploy, but that’s being destroyed for ideological reasons, leaving people in a complete Catch-22 situation.
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None of us in our family had anything wrong with us. Then my mother, shortly after she had retired, was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. My sister died of a simular disease, a year later i was diagnosed with the same disease and an uncle was also diagnosed.
I’ve read some pretty nasty comments from able bodied, mostly younger taxpayers resenting having to pay for sick and disabled people. I think they are totally clueless. Too late, they will find out that the welfare state won’t be there for them when they most need it.
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The whole system needs to change.
Are you sick of corrupt UK politics?
One Vote – One Voice
Join None of the Above
Make your voice heard
https://www.facebook.com/groups/164424433706365/?refid=18
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I completely agree with you and the other comments. My husband has been affected by the ATOS system. I do feel that the only way is for us all to stand together, and certainly use our votes. Yesterday I manned a bedroom tax petition stand and an elderly woman said to me, “I’m not affected by this, but I’m signing this for the people who are.” We need more solidarity, even if there seem to be no immediate results in sight.
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Very true! No one wants to think about, or face up to the fact disability could happen to them.
Most people have no idea that once disabled they are viewed by Gov’t as scroungers. That they are thought of as a drain on Society, giving nothing back.
That once in the situation of being Disabled, they will be subjected to Zero investigation of the cause of any new illness they develop. This costs money, you no longer contribute so you will receive only minimal health care, cheap drugs at most.
They have no idea they will have to fight for two years for a simple thing like a wheelchair. They have no idea that their own Dr’s will collude with their own lawyers to minimize any claim for damages they may have after an accident.
That this will be done because the Dr’s & Hospitals are insured by the same Ins Co you will be claiming £’s from.
The hospital Dr’s are all about preserving their career and will willingly do deals with the Ins Co., to cover up any injuries you may have that may have resulted from their negligence.
Even their own Lawyer will not care about any of this, as they want to keep ‘In’ with the opposition lawyers who gives them the ‘nod’ to add fatter fees to their cost list as payment to ‘cover up.
They have no idea that Gov’t policy is to keep Ins Claims amounts to an absolute minimum.
No idea that means you will be sold out in your hour of need.
Dumped.
Proof that no one cares or thinks any of this will happen to them is the fact that only 68 people have bothered to sign a Petition against this fraud perpetrated on the disabled.
Why does all this happen, in 21st Century Britain? It’s because everyone believes the Gov’t and Ins Co led propaganda. That everyone’s a scrounger, liar, committing fraud. If they speak up? They’re just angry.
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I was on ESA for a year and Incapacity Benefit for nine years before that. I have had ME for over 19 years (that’s half my life). This year I was taken off the ESA because even though they said they ‘didn’t see my illness getting better in the future and because of this unable to work for at least two years’ they also said ‘not exempt from work related activities’ which means that even though I am too ill to work they feel I am able to do work related activities – what exactly is the difference? As a result I now have no income and I’m too ill to find a job. I can’t apply for job seekers allowance as I am unable to get to interviews, never mind actually work 9-5 (or whatever hours are expected of me) so I am not able to ‘actively look for work’ and yet even though I am still ill, now have no income – I am still expected to pay for all my prescriptions! I’m only 38 yrs old. I didn’t expect to have a chronic illness hit me at the age of 19 which at that time I was told would last for 5 yrs not still be getting even worse 19 years later. At 19 you expect to have your life ahead of you, going to university, getting a great job – building a future. Not chronically ill, having to work part time and even then not being able to manage until eventually you’re made redundant because your employer realises there is no position available at all that fits in with your recovery pattern. You find me a job where I can work from home, work for 30 mins have a two hour nap, then work for another 30 mins and have another two hour nap. No? That’s what it’s like for me right now. So for all those 19 yr olds out there who are working to build a future for themselves and complaining about those of us who are too disabled to be able to work ‘normal’ jobs, think yourself lucky – because like me at that age, you never know that you will be the one that illness or disability strikes next. Think of others and not just yourself and maybe that will work in your favour one day when you really need the help.
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I can’t fight the constant harassment and my illness. I’m tired of struggling and having to defend myself against the criticism and charges of being a scrounger. Frankly I just wish the government would offer me euthanasia so I don’t have to go through this any more. I’ve had enough.
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I had to use a walking stick for sixteen months of agony until an operation on my back allowed me to walk (and work) again.
It gave me an insight into the little things that can make life bearable and sometimes unbearable. People were generally kind to me, in giving up seats near the front of buses, opening doors that I struggled to get through and generally being supportive. But the constant pain wears you down and did bring moments of despair.
This rotten Coaliton rhetoric against the disable makes my blood boil. I have, hopefully, recovered from my condition but I will never forget what it feels like to battle against the pain just to get to the end of my road.
The way that Coalition ministers talk about disability benefits (and blatently lie about them too without any comeback from the media) is a disgrace. They have forfeitted the right to be taken seriously on this matter since their arguments are based on falsehoods and smears.
Oh and the Liberal Democrats are as bad as the Tories on these matters. I was reminded of the ending of Animal Farm when the animals looked in on ‘their masters’ and “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
Orange Tories do indeed now look exactly the same as their Blue version.
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Wise words indeed;within a blink of an eye we went from a dual incomed reasonably well off couple to fear of losing house and barely seventy pounds a week ,until support eventually received.WE thank the stars it happened some years ago,for if it happened now,the false economy of losing house and reliance on HB would be the result;outwith their misanthropy is the actuality that the vast majority are decent and a little help given at the right time SAVES vast more.It is sometimes argued that those of us railing against cuts are only doing it out of preserving our income at the expense of “taxpayers”-not so ,we are acutely aware that the “reforms” do not save money,particularly those related to people that have a disabilty/illness merely move the costs elsewhere.The most cost effective arrangement is at home and independent rather than increased reliance on institutions/social services etc-that is why we rail-and it can happen to anyone at all.
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Could you please put up your facebook groups addresses as I’m intreasted. Thanks
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After 36 years full emploment paying into a pension, survived a stroke, now I find its taken into account the weekly ammout I need to live on. I’m having to pay tax on it too, it means have to pay some rent,poll tax and prescriptions, this I don’t mind as i don’t seek any more than paying my wayto get bye but it seems I’m going to be even more penalised by the bedroom tax too, I vounteered to swap house straight away, as I’m in favour of downsizing but as I can only bid on a place that’s adapted to my needs I’ve got a long wait I fear
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You two faced lying coalition bastards! Ester Mcvey is Cameron’s bitch!
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I believe the young working class know exactly what the welfare state has meant to their parents and themselves if educated by their parents on the class struggle, I believe it is the middle and upper classes that are most reluctant to pay into a welfare system and the working class who are paid such lowly wages that they are exempt from income tax would find it the most difficult to pay national insurance which is being undermined by this government.
Spending on the national health service goes to drug companies that expect the nhs to have an open cheque book for their extortionate costs, pfi for the hospital buildings and increased salaries for top surgeons and managers, very little seems to be spent on patients themselves in the form of real care and protection, they are even charged to watch a tv on the ward – bloody disgraceful.
The same accusation can be levied on welfare spending on the sick and unemployed, more is spent on contracts for work programme providers and atos than is spent on benefits to the most vulnerable in society. Even pensioners are being fleeced of anything they may have worked a lifetime for such as meagre savings and ex council homes to pay for care in their old age, while the richest are profiting from all of this misery and theft of the most vulnerable, shame on them.
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I would agree with some of the points in the above posts.
From my experience one of my relatives is disabled after a stroke and he seems reasonably well provided for. But let’s assume that many disabled people are being treated badly. Perhaps there are two issues here, one which is addressed by the article and the other not so,
What about the people who are claiming benefits through fraud or are fit enough they can actually work?. I read somewhere that a third of people claiming incapacity benefit were ruled fit to work. Even if you agree that many of the decisions cutting off/reducing benefits is not correct or were unfair, surely there is an issue here which should be a wider concern. That the benefits system is being abused.
This particular issue does not seem to be an argument between able bodied versus disabled people or rich enough to survive versus the rest. This appears to me more about taxpayers who are fed up with supporting fraud and waste versus those people, supported by some politicians, pretending to fit into a certain category to claim benefits they are not or are no longer entitled to.
Perhaps an anology which has crossed my mind concerns that of what happened with the Society of Black Lawyers recently, an organisation which is supposed to protect the interest of black or ethnic lawyers. They are currently representing someone who was was practising as a lawyer who was struck off by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for various breaches of the rules.
However it was found that he faked his qualifications and had no right to be a practising lawyer or to call himself a lawyer. So the Society of Black Solicitors have got themselves in to a ludicrous situation in which they act on behalf of someone who is not a lawyer but has been pretending to be one.
The point of the above analogy being that many of the people abusing the system are not disabled but are still being supported by politicians and other groups. If I was disabled it would make angry that people were taking advantage of my situation and nothing was being done to root out these parasites.
I think the ‘us and them’ attitude often comes about because you have two propaganda machines working for each side of the debate Unfortunately the real truth does not get a look in. On one side, everyone on benefits is a scrounger. On the other, people refuse to believe that a compensation culture exists and ignore the abuse which goes on.
I have come acorss very few articles which are balanced and not influenced by political point scoring and self interest. This country cannot live within its means as it is. There is no way we can carry on supporting vast numbers of capable people who simply refuse to contribute anything whatsover to society and line their pockets at its expense. I think some time soon events are going to force us to put the tribal politics aside and start debating and addressing this as grown ups.
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I am disabled but am lucky enough not to live in social housing. I will be affected by the Atos/DWP assessments and my stress levels have rise considerably. I can only imagine how awful it must be for people in social housig with a spare bedroom. This so an ill thought out plan that just cannot work as the properties are just not available. Please people lets take some action against this.
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loverat
I understand your concern but the truth is there are no jobs for the able bodied never mind the sick that are being re-classified as capable of work, the government has not created jobs, they only fiddled the unemployment figures by sanctioning benefit claimants on jumped up charges, thousands have been left in dire poverty yet the welfare bill is increasing due to government quango’s getting contracts under false pretences, they are failing miserably.
This is not a one side or the other talking because two sides no longer exist, they are all tory these days since the introduction of new labour, they are all in it together and the poorest in society, yes those worse off than the taxpayer are not represented anywhere only denigraded by the right wing press and refused legal aid to fight their cases against the state.
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guy fawkes
Fair enough – I do not disagree with you entirely and I appreciate many of the points made so far. I think there are some complex issues here.
On the jobs front, I hear what you are saying. My personal view is there is a shortage of unskilled jobs. But there are many jobs in London (e.g financial services) which simply cannot be filled. In my opinion there is not a massive shortage of jobs numerically but they are not matched to skills or where an applicants lives. So it is a problem (training and other issues), but nevertheless perhaps not as straight as you have suggested.
The other thing you mention is legal aid. I have actually come across many cases where people who have been entitled to some form of legal aid or fee exemption, have abused it for their own personal means. One lesser known example is the trend of issuing multiple libel claims against bloggers. I know of one case where there were about 15 High Court hearings (probably at a huge cost) before the case was finally thrown out and after numerous people had been fleeced in the process. Fee exemption for libel litigants to extort money from others is certainly an area I object to paying towards. There are many other examples I could mention. In my view, legal aid should only be available to people who really need it to claim what is rightfully theirs. And even then, there are other means because taking any legal steps should be a last resort.
If people want to sue the MOJ, the state or go to the European Court for other reasons or their human rights, or to prove a point, they should pay for it themselves or campaign to get the support. A vast amount of the legal aid budget ends up in the pockets of greedy solicitors, vexatious litigants and other wasters. We need to get away from this mentality that access to justice is a right. It is only a right if you have a reasonable case, is proportionate and can be afforded.
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loverat
Your mentality on what you consider to be a claims culture both in terms of benefit or legal aid is typical right wing thinking, because there would be very few people who would fall into your criteria of a legitimate or reasonable claim.
I suppose the honourable lords who were awarded huge payouts for being wrongly named as sex offenders by the public, in the absence of being specifically named but hinted at by the press, had legitimate and reasonable claims? No they just had the money and influence to initiate court proceedings.
Human rights as far as your concerned is not a legitimate reason to have legal representation in your eyes, unless they pay for it themselves, well your wish has been granted because personal injury claims now have to be paid for out of any awards made by the courts’ which could wipe out awards for legitimate claims, therefore only the parasitic legal professions win financially.
As for skilled jobs, why are they so concentrated in the London area? There are plenty of skilled people from other areas who don’t want to be financially mobile nomads in order to get on in life, they belong to communities, nor do they want to be on the property merry go round moving from area to area, buying and selling properties to make a killing, some people do not live by the ethos of knowing the cost of everything but the value of nothing.
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guy fawkes
I have not recently considered whether my views fall into right or left wing thinking. I suppose if you wish to categorise all views as left or right wing then the one about legal aid is probably more associated with the right. Or perhaps it is simply a view more commonly held by working people who often have greater responsibilites than others. Are working people and taxpayers right wing? Or, as a group as a whole, do they just have a greater insight into real life?
My view about legal aid has been shaped by personal experience and a great deal of research. To answer your point about honourable lords etc, I consider them to be a complete and total waste of space too. In my opinion Lord McAlpine’s libel claim and particularly its conduct is the biggest disgrace and abuse of power and process I have ever come across. His lawyer is typical of the many ambulance chasers which disgrace that profession.
So we have one right wing view there and one slightly more left wing view. I wonder what that makes me?
Anyway, I think there are a lot of people who are finding life tough out there. Many people work hard for a living to bring up a family, work very long hours or cope with huge debts at the same time. Given the choice, many of these people might not want to work or pay tax or would like to sue the government but we can’t. That’s life I am afraid -.one big compromise for most. That’s why I think some working taxpayers would disagree with some of your views. You talk of people not wanting to relocate for work, not wanting to be conformist or wishing to have the right to sue anyone they like – yet you seem to think these people should be funded to do this.
I truly think there is something seriously wrong with our thinking in this country and the inability to think about issues without considering whether they are right wing or left wing views. It is thinking in fads and behaviour I have observed quite alot lately. Many people nowadays are more confident about expressing themselves on blogs like these but few seem capable of thinking deeply or researching an area before speaking.
Funnily enough it was the herd like and ignorant public reaction to the McAlpine episode expressed on many blogs and newspaper comments sections that reinforced that viewpoint.
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The working tax payer and now non-taxpayer (since the working poor were taken out of paying tax) have no more greater responsibilities than the unemployed, go onto ‘the void’ website and read something survived’s comments on a day in the life of a job seeker, I’m afraid you flatter the working class who pay tax, who hide away in offices pretending to be doing something useful, who are benefitting from an unequal pay distribution system and they call it a meritocracy.
Nobody forces anyone to get into debt, nor to work long hours, perhaps they should join a union to fight their corner if they are incapable of doing it as individuals?
As for people not wanting to reclocate for work, work should be decentralized from London to accommodate workers in other areas, London is not the be all and end all but you dodged that one. Where you got non-conformist from I don’t know, there is plenty of solidarity and community amongst the unemployed which is trying to be undermined by the propogandists convincing the working poor that we, the unemployed are their enemy not the political and business class that are robbing the public purse and evading taxes.
As for those who are in work who might not want to work and pay taxes they can always join the list of unemployed, but I forgot they are in so much debt keeping up with the jones’s they have to compromise their principles and rights.
infact some who have property portfolio’s and overseas investments already have left their employment and become the idle rich, perhaps you missed a trick or two there or is your job in the public sector which is paid via tax payers money.
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ps
as for the mc Alpine case, I never convict or comment on speculation I prefer to await legal outcomes, not that even they are always just or honest.
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This is like reading my own story. Although I’m only 28 and at the moment life looks very bleak. My partner has to keep me putting more stress on me as I feel very guilty. We are living in cold conditions because we can not afford to heat the flat. Not how I was hoping for when I left college.
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Reblogged this on Ned Hamson Second Line View of the News.
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i know the feeling mark but that is why they have chose to hurt the disabled, we are all too ill and tired to fight all i can say is if anyone has the fight and energy please help people like me and mark, there is many of us out there losing the will to live
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Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & POLITICAL JOURNAL.
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What good is voting? when we last went to the booths for a general election the party with the most winning MP’s still failed to be elected… Don’t get me wrong Gordon Brown was no hero to the people but he and labour won fair and square.. This coalition is an illegal political assembly we were hoodwinked into accepting as the new government.. Every action taken by them is a crime against us all no matter if we are disabled, sick, unemployed or have a job, we are ALL being robbed blind and starved out by them..
So what is the answer to pulling power away from the coalition? Should we all vote Labour in record numbers and totally wipe away all trace of the tory/lib-dem coalition? then what? We have little or no opposition to Labour Policies and as we have seen the coalition has taken up a lot of crap started by Gordon Brown’s ‘Labour’ and just increased the severity of those issues.. Does anyone truly believe that Labour will reverse the actions of the coalition for the good of ‘us’ the people??
Bottom line is the current political structure has failed utterly and irrevocably.We shall never see true democracy as it is the proverbial ‘unicorn’ It just does not exist.
It was 361 years ago since we last fought a civil war for democracy in this country maybe it’s time to fight for those freedoms again. Maybe it’s time we fight for the safety of our children from peado stars and politicians (and i suspect senior Police officers too as they fail to bring charges against these perverts who hide behind money, fame and office) and our children’s right to a future that offers them good education, good health care and good job prospects and to be safe in the knowledge that if they are too young, old, disabled or just struggling with the everyday costs of living – that so many of us suffer from today – that they will have a system of government that will look after them, and protect them in their times of need. After all how much do we spend on military campaigns upon foreign soil to protect the innocents? (errm i mean oil) and how much money do we give away to middle eastern countries for maintaining law and order in those countries? how much money goes into supporting migrant workers how claim tax credits and send the money home and doing little to support our economy? jobs that could go to the currently unemployed.. and how much is spent on increasing the country’s population with stricter rules on abortion and – dare i say it – continued and ever increasing immigration??
Why tax spare rooms in the homes of those barely able to pay rent or mortgages when most of our MP’s have 2 or more homes?? how about a second home tax instead?? how about the MP’s pay for all their own food like everyone else instead of getting everything free through the national handbag while they spout off at families living below the poverty line and refusing them hardship payments so they don’t starve or freeze to death?
Simply put those with power and wealth want to keep it and with the military and the police in their pockets they can keep their own wealth whilst gouging those who need every penny they can get just to stay alive and healthy’
If – like me – you want to give your children and grandchildren the future they deserve then there is only one way to get that and that is by strength of arms because voting under this bullshit excuse for democratic politics is never going to change a damned thing.
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Similar story here too 😦 and I’m long term unemployed raising 2 children alone on top of my illness Yet even with a medical cert I am threatened with sanctions if I don’t find work in a city that is overpopulated and drowning in migrant workers,,
I have been on this work program for 15 months and now the job center staff just refuse to show any respect for us and refuse point blank to even provide a fair service, while the only offers of help given by this work program so far is:
1. Employment in a company that only gives timeshare jobs so no guarantee from one day to the next that they will have work for me and with out a minimum pay pack I cant pay rent so I loss my children to the social care system and
2. a seasonal job going around the country picking up litter during and after festivals and the like.. I guess my young daughters will do just fine without adult supervision while i do such work 3 -5 month of the year (6 weeks of which they dont even have school)
the system has failed us all… 😦
lets all hope and pray that Camaron breaks his back and has to share the grief he has caused so many.
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“I read somewhere that a third of people claiming incapacity benefit were ruled fit to work”.
0.7%, or £1.2bn, of total benefit expenditure is overpaid due to fraud;
0.9%, or £1.4bn, of total benefit expenditure is overpaid due to claimant error;
0.5%, or £0.8bn, of total benefit expenditure is overpaid due to official error.
0.6%, or £0.9bn, of total benefit expenditure is underpaid due to claimant error;
0.3%, or £0.4bn, of total benefit expenditure is underpaid due to official error.
The estimate of Pension Credit benefit expenditure overpaid for 2011/12 has
increased to 5.7%
Disability living allowance fraud is 0.5%. For incapacity benefit it is 0.3%
What was the rate of MPs who either accidently or deliberates misclaimed expenses?
The BIGGEST reason for the rise in welfare spending is people living longer.
Over 56 % of the spend (£67bn) goes on pensions/pension credit/winter fuel payments/attendance allowance – all available ONLY to pensioners. In addition, high proportion of Housing benefit, Council Tax benefit & DLA also goes to pensioners. Including, over a quarter of the £20 bn Housing Benefit bill.
Out of work ‘disability benefits’ (Incapacity benefit & ESA) make up just 6% .of the total welfare spend, job seekers allowance makes up 3%.
The DLA issue, is a very important one, which is much misunderstood by the media & politicians. This is a benefit paid to disabled people, (both in or out of work), to defray the extra costs of living with a disability.
The rise in DLA claimants over the last 10 years, is almost entirely due to children, and pensioners (who whilst they cannot make an initial claim once they reach pension age, DO retain entitlement if they claimed before they reached pension age).
This is UTTERLY ignored.
Since 2002, the number of pension age DLA claimants has risen from 719,460 to 1,069,750, (a 49% increase) and the number of under 16s has risen form 253,140 to 348,840 (a 38% increase). The number of claimants aged between 30 -39 has risen by just 1%, and the number of 35-39 year olds has actually FALLEN.
All figures from the DWP tabulation tool, which can be found here http://83.244.183.180/100pc/dla/tabtool_dla.html
So whatever you have read is incorrect.
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