I’m fully aware that I don’t post on social media as much as perhaps I should. After all, as a disability consultant, it’s important to keep the topic alive and fresh in people’s Minds.
Disabilities aren’t going away. In fact, due to the Increasingly stressful lives we lead, some disabilities such as mental health problems are on the rise. However, as I’m not in the Habit of repeating myself or writing for the sake of writing, I post when I have something important to say, and today I do. This morning, I discovered two articles in The Guardian. They don’t make for pleasant Reading, but they highlight the constant battle that people with disabilities face on a daily basis.
One article described a woman who was refused Employment and Support Allowance on the grounds that she had travelled by train with her mother to the venue where her assessment was taking place. Because of this, she was deemed capable of working. If there is a logic in that conclusion then perhaps someone can point it out to me. From my own experience, I know that travelling to your benefit assessment can be a stressful an even deeply upsetting undertaking.
When I receive letters in the post telling me that I must attend an assessment or risk losing my benefit, my anxiety levels naturally shoot up. After all, it’s not like I can just leap into my car and drive there. Alternative arrangements must be made. A taxi must be booked and paid for. And yet this effort counts against me because I’ve travelled independently to my assessment, and so the conclusion is that I’m capable of getting to work. So if you are penalized for travelling on your own to a benefit assessment and you’re penalized for travelling with someone, what are you supposed to do?
Some people out there would say, ‘go and get a job.’ but if no one will hire you, how can you work? The fact that the government believes you should be working becomes a mute point if nobody will take you on. I myself have been turned down for plenty of jobs in the past with no reason given. We can’t force people to hire us, and yet, if the government cut our benefits as both the Tories and now labor are threatening to do, what will we live on? It’s interesting that every time there’s a budget, cuts to disability related benefits are always suggested, but nothing is put in place to increase our chances of getting work.
I’ve even heard people with disabilities referred to as ‘skyvers’ by Our Loving and sympathetic Society. We just stay at home and sponge off the government while honest people go out to work and their taxes pay for our lifestyles. I have a cousin who has had complex disabilities all his life and yet he has held down the same job for most of his adult life. Yes, he claims benefits, but he goes into work and earns an honest living just like anyone else. In what world does that make him a skiver?
It seems the powers that be are regretting offering support and benefits to people with disabilities. Rumours are that eligibility for benefits will be tightened. Perhaps some disabilities will be dismissed all together. But just because someone refuses to acknowledge a disability, doesn’t mean it no longer exists or has gone away. And so the vicious circle continues. I see no end in sight to this, and all we can do is wait for the other shoe to drop, while hoping that if we are forced to look for work, we will be able to find a company able and willing to take us on before the income we need to live on is cut or stripped completely.