Having brought up the subject of people on incapacity benefit, the next move is very predictable as joe public starts ranting and raving about "benefit scroungers". I've seen this happen every time that a politician brings up the issue of welfare reforms and have been appalled at people's attitudes. I'm sure there are people who say that if I can write this, then I am capable of doing a job. What you don't know, is that I am doing this in an environment where I feel safe and can work at my own pace (something that would not be acceptable in a normal working environment).
I suppose attitudes come from experience. If you'd asked me 10 years ago to describe a person on benefits, I would probably have described a working class single parent who sat in front of the telly all day drinking cheap beer and splashing the cash on holidays abroad who was perfectly capable of getting a job but just couldn't be bothered. This view isn't helped by the media who often feature people who've got numerous children by different fathers who seem to be raking in hundreds of pounds a week to spend on beer, cigarettes, tellys and other goodies.
The reality, at least for me, is very different. When I worked, I was earning at least two thousand pounds a month (I worked almost every day for up to 12 hours at a time). Then I became ill with a crippling mental illness. For 3 1/2 years, I fought to keep my job but was declared medically unfit and given the boot. During my final months of employment, I'd been granted Disability Living Allowance (DLA)to help pay for things that would help me manage my condition and been moved onto Incapacity Benefit as the sick pay from my employers had run out.
Once I knew I'd lost my job I became terrified that I would lose my home as I didn't know how I would be able to afford the mortgage payments (it's a small flat that I bought for just under £50,000 so it's not a mansion) never mind any other bills. Luckily, someone steered me through the minefield of benefit forms and I knew I had to swallow my pride and take the money, after all, I'd paid a fair amount of income tax and National Insurance over the years. It was either that or live on the streets as far as I was concerned.
If anyone thinks that people on benefits is well off, let me tell you that we're not. The amount of DLA you get depends on your level of disability and not your income. This is not an easy benefit to get as you have to fill in two very lengthy forms which ask very intimate questions about your health and the problems you have coping with day to day living. It took me three hours to fill these forms out and I needed a support worker to do this. Other benefits, such as Council Tax, Incapacity and Income Support are dependent on how much money you already have (if I have more than £6000 in the bank, my benefit is reduced so there is very little money reserved for emergencies), your level of disability and what the government says you need to live on.
I'm not sure how someone came up with the figure that I need to live on and it usually stays fixed for a while year. This is fine if the cost of living stays the same but can have quite a dramatic effect if things such as the price of gas and electricity go up. Talking of gas and electricity, if you're a pensioner, you get a Winter heating allowance regardless of your income so Lord Snooty, who has money to burn, effectively gets, erm, money to burn whereas younger people, like myself, have to balance eating proper meals with keeping warm. The only exception to this, is when it gets really cold and we get a cold weather payment although to trigger this, the temperature has to be below a certain level for a certain number of consecutive days so you're scuppered if the temperature rises one degree above freezing for one day.
Perhaps it would be a good idea if politicians had to experience the benefits system themselves for at least six months (including the whole application procedure). Let them see what it's like to have to sit in the cold because you can't afford to put the heating on or have to do without the nice food, holidays etc. because you don't have the money. Perhaps we might hear less about "benefit scroungers" after this. Yes, there are people who milk the system, who lie, cheat and don't speak up when their conditions improve and I don't think it's unreasonable to check up on people from time to time. There are already systems in place that check your bank statements to make sure you're not earning (I regularly have to submit bank statements to prove that I'm not working and I'm not hoarding loads of cash). By all means, weed out the people that claim to be unable to work for very spurious reasons but please stop attacking those of us that are genuine.
I would love to work if I was able to but I am deemed unfit to work by a very competent medical team. Add to that, the lack of jobs and the attitude of employers towards the disabled (and the often extreme attitude towards people with mental health problems) and there seems little hope. Disabled people are often seen as an easy target as politicians assume we aren't capable of mass demonstration due to being disabled. What they seem to forget is that we have the ability to vote so beware of targeting us. If you want to find more money then stop bailing out failing banks or stop throwing money into wars in countries that we should have nothing to do with. Above all, stop allowing MPs to claim ridiculous expenses - let them try to manage like the rest of us have to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment