I think it is pretty shocking that the UK coalition government is actually getting away with the idea that all us on disability benefits is some sort of fraudster.
Let me spell out a little of my own condition and situation, then I will go in to a little about the welfare reforms that are FUCKING LIVES UP.
All my life I have suffered from a hip condition called Femoroacetabular Impingement. Though in recent years it has become worse. In 2010 I saw a new orthopaedic consultant who spelt it out to me. Do Not Move. I have overgrowth of bone around my hips that rubs against the femur and causes all matter of damage, I also have cysts all over the hip sockets which add to the pain I already have. My consultant spelt it out to me in a letter as well. Please do not walk anywhere if you can because of the damage you are causing. I spoke with my doctor and consultant and both advised me to apply for disability living allowance. DLA is not an income based benefit, I get it for the length of my condition until it has gone. I am able to work if I wish to and it will not effect the amount of DLA I get. However, because of my condition I have been unable to work because of the pain it causes. I would be sacked pretty damn quick because I know I would not be turning up for so many days. Sometimes, my legs are so screwed up mum has to help me out of bed in the morning and help me get in the shower. I have to stand in the shower fully dressed until she has left the bathroom.
On December 23rd 2011 I was seen by another consultant in London who informed me of a secondary condition. My hip sockets are both back to front, I assumed it was one and the same, it appears not. They can’t fix the Femoroacetabular Impingement until my hip sockets have been turned around, and they will only do that one hip at a time and not right now anyway. We’re talking 4 surgeries at a minimum here. But I thought that as long as I am able to get the right painkillers and have pain relief (no matter how bad the side effects of those painkillers are) I would be able to get help be it a carer to take the burden off mum, or adaptations for the home, a wheelchair etc. These are the things DLA is paid to me to cover. On top of this because I cannot work due to my hip condition, I am receiving an income based benefit called Income Support (which also has a disability premium attached) my actual weekly income is under £100.
People assume that a person on benefit has an easy life, scrounging money from the state and spending on all manner of crap. As if £100 is enough to do that when you have a home to heat, food to buy, bills to pay. I am not 16, I don’t go out boozing on street corners with my benefit. I use it to live.
The Government has decided to reform the welfare organisation. Many agree that it needs reforming because there are people out there who do receive benefit who should not. Though in light of the new reforms it has left many asking, is it really reform or a way of culling the most vulnerable from statistics?
The government proposed many years ago a reform of Income Support and Incapacity Benefit. This is going full steam ahead at the moment, though it is costing them more in the long run to do this reform than had they left it alone. They want to remove these benefits from the system and are reviewing every single person receiving them and then replacing them with Employment And Support Allowance. The governments reason for reforming these two benefits was that they believed there was millions of people out there claiming benefit when they should be or could be working. Point taken, that is a fact, though millions I doubt and what jobs are we supposed to do? There are none!
The government want to transfer the sick to Employment and Support Allowance and the fit for work to Job Seekers Allowance.
The government hired a French Private Health Company called ATOS to review all those on benefit. The process is as follows.
You get a form through the door asking you about your benefit entitlement, your health issues and other small insignificant details. You post that back and you will receive a letter in the post from ATOS asking you to come for a medical assessment with a NURSE you have never met before. At that medical, no matter how disabled or sick you are, you are asked to complete various humiliating mobility activities, asked to touch toes and so forth. The nurse then asks questions from them form in front of her. The form has a “Yes” box and a “No” box, the nurse has NO ROOM to add any important info. You get marked down if you do not complete any of the humiliating mobility activities even if you are wheelchair bound because the form has no room to add that information. You complete the medical and they send you on your way. A few days later you then receive a letter in the post informing you of ATOS’s decision. Currently the rate is that 100% of those they review they deem fit for work without fail. So the assumption is the letter will always be “Fit for work”. You have your money stopped and you then go to your local Job Centre Plus to sign on and find a job. At the Job Centre Plus the woman who you will see will ask you about health issues which may stop you from being ready for work in 24 hours, most people are saying they do, she then informs most people that they are too ill to be on job seekers allowance and to appeal the decision from ATOS. Your benefit entitlement is then halved while you go through the appeals process.
In 2011 out of the 97 thousand people who were seen by ATOS, 63 thousand had their original decision overturned on appeal (figures this month on justice.gov show that its at a constant steady rate of 1000 a week are winning appeals) and they were re-awarded a sickness benefit because ATOS has no room for scope on their questions. It is either YES or NO, they rarely if at all listen to any supporting medical evidence from consultants or doctors assuming they even ask them for it. In the last few days a lady made it public that her husband was asked to fill out the form and send it to ATOS who deemed him fit for work despite having not seen him due to him being in a coma.
Last year 8 particular people who were registered disabled, were reviewed by ATOS because they were also receiving Income Support with a disability premium . They were deemed ‘fit for work’ and they then appealed this decision. While they waited for their appeal to go through, they DIED of their illnesses that ATOS seemed to think were merely minor and they could work without the illness affecting them.
The government will tell you that the main reason for the reform is so they can help those who need it, which is why they started up Employment And Support allowance. I do not know much about this benefit but I will assume it has two areas, an area for the temporarily sick and those who are long term sick. Those who are temporarily sick will be continually reassessed by ATOS every so many months to make sure they catch the right moment they can go back to work, and the long term sick will be reassessed by ATOS every year.
I am able to say I have met with ATOS before but many years ago. It is possibly the most stressful thing to undergo. The possibility of being shoved in to a job completely unsuitable for you and your condition hangs right over your head. You will be disabled or mentally impaired and they will be forcing you to work 40 hours a week with no consideration for your condition. You will be so unwell from the stress and toll of working those hours when your body cannot take it you will miss days and shifts because you are recovering from the illness, you are then sacked.
The government will tell you that they are reforming the welfare system so they can weed out the cheats. This is a downright lie. If they wanted to weed out the cheats why not just review everyone. That way ATOS gets their £100m annual payment from the government for reviewing us and then we can either be placed back on income support with our disability premiums or the work shy who were scrounging are sent back to work via Job Seekers Allowance. Instead what the government is doing is treating EVERYONE like criminals and scum. One MP last week called Disabled people “Retards” on his twitter account, this was all over BBC online, Yahoo news and the Guardian!
The general public has it in their heads that 80 of people on benefit are work shy, the government has actually published the figures of how many of those on benefit is actually fraudsters and the figure is far lower than anyone could have predicted. 0.5% of those on benefit are claiming it via ill gotten means. They are ruining our lives for 0.5% of the population? It is costing the government £60m+ in admin to deal with the appeals that we are making because of the ATOS decisions. Had they just reviewed us and put us back where we were the government would have saved £60m! So far this reform is becoming a big black hole where all the money they want to save is being sucked.
This week the government won a key reform bill in the House Of Lords, this was the Disability Living Allowance reform bill. There was a consultation period, during that period all disabled people and non disabled people involved, voted to have it dismissed because it was not acceptable and breached human rights. David Cameron rejected all those against it and decided to fiddle the numbers to pass it through the house of commons to the house of lords anyway.
The government has changed its name, It will now be called Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Currently DLA is viewed as a passport benefit, which means once you are claiming that it allows you access to other benefits such as a parking badge or a bus pass or hospital transport, wheelchairs, adaptations for your home to help you live safely and many more. Again the government will have you believe that they are reforming DLA so they can weed out the cheats and like I stated earlier it is only 0.5% of people across the entire welfare system that has claimed their benefit through deception or lies.
They have changed how you claim it in future. Under PIP rules you have to be visibly assessed by ATOS in order to claim PIP, under DLA they don’t have to see you unless there are aspects of your claim they want to clarify. Under DLA if you get a terminal illness you can wait 3 months before you can claim, under PIP they are changing it to 6 months before you can claim (assuming you are even alive then). Under DLA you could claim if you have mobility issues whereby you need someone to wash and bathe you, cook for you, put your clothes on etc, under PIP they dont give a flying fuck if you can’t do that – you score 0 points! Under DLA I currently qualify, under PIP, I am not disabled enough. This is the same with people who have cancer, cerebal palsy, MS, Crohns disease, Bowel conditions the list goes on.
I have read the scoring system, the thresholds, the application form of the new PIP benefit, I have filled it out and marked myself based on the government thresholds and I now no longer qualify as a disabled person even though my condition is progressive and I am already looking at wheelchairs. What about my consultant, surely he should have some say in whether I am disabled or not? Who the fuck does David Cameron think he is? He is a fucking tory hypocrite! He had a son who sadly died a few years ago. His son was severely disabled and David Cameron claimed DLA on behalf of his son. He, Chris Greyling, Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud are MONSTERS!
This isn’t about weeding out the 0.5% of cheats, its about shaving 20% of the annual budget by taking money away from the most vulnerable members of our society. Members of society who are disabled be it physically or mentally. They are attacking the most vulnerable because these members of society are less likely to argue it, appeal it, question it and will suffer in silence and become more and more stressed/sick/disabled and ebb away slowly. Maybe the government should cancel that high speed rail link? Maybe they could stop giving billion pound tax breaks to enormous companies?
ATOS are paid £100m each year, they have their own set of targets, they have an agenda and a motivation to strike a person like me straight off my income support benefit and force me back to work, and then in April 2013 I will no longer qualify for disability benefit because I won’t be disabled anymore. I will be in pain with severely fucked hips but I wont be disabled anymore. I will have no money, no rights as a disabled person anymore, no blue badge for the car, no money for a carer when I become more disabled, no money to buy adaptations as I need them.
I have never felt so miserable about my future prospects as I have the last few weeks. Under the new proposals I wont be able to afford to breathe air. I already subsist, but I wont be able to afford to exist. I do not enjoy being on benefit as some people would try and make you believe. People want to try having my legs.
Sorry for this long blog post but I need to get this off my chest. I WANT to work, but who will have someone who is for 50% of the day pretty damn out of it on OxyCodone? Who will have someone who will need a few days off every week to recover the strength in their legs?
DLA = Disability Living Allowance
IS = Income Support
IB = Incapacity Benefit
JSA = Job Seekers Allowance
ESA = Employment And Support Allowance
ATOS = French Health Care completing medical assessments
