To Think the Tories Are Actually At War With Disabled People?

[JoffreyBaratheon]

I've been mired in the grim process of my son's DLA being changed to the new benefit, PIP. During this time, I have heard the stories of other disabled people and their loved ones. This may make me biased. Or human.

On every forum I have been on for help, can see that thousand of other disabled people, their carers, appointees and loved ones are being pretty well tortured by the vicious cuts and the new, brutal system being forced into place.

Benefits advisers and people at charities in the front line trying to support people like us also seem to report they feel like the disabled are under attack.

Now I will never understand why the most disadvantaged people in society are being forced to pay for the mistakes of bankers and rich people. Losing DLA will be a blow to our family - most of all my son but all of us - we won't recover from. To multi millionaires like Campbell, no doubt it's back pocket change so they are incapable of understanding what they are doing to ordinary people.

The past few months going through this hell, I've often felt like we might as well cut to the chase, sew the lack triangle on our clothes, and wait for the work camp to open. And I don't say that lightly, as someone whose grandad was present during the liberation of Belsen. (Wasn't it another tory - Gove - who said historians got it wrong and the British were donkeys led by lions, or words to that effect - so we know the contempt in which we are held by these chinless wonders already).

AIBU to think that people like Cameron and IDS are targeting disabled people and their carers, specifically?

[Allofaflumble]

No you are not BU. I think you are spot on. Things are very grim for disabled people.

I think contempt doesn't even describe their actions, more like malicious evil.

[mrwalkensir]

They're Tories. They pick on the weakest and most vulnerable... Find it hard to find words as to how low they can sink.

[LurkingHusband]

Now I will never understand why the most disadvantaged people in society are being forced to pay for the mistakes of bankers and rich people.

You've answered your own question there, really.

AIBU to think that people like Cameron and IDS are targeting disabled people and their carers, specifically?

YABVVVU, and a tad insulting too. It's not just the disabled they hate. It's the poor, and anyone who dares to try and live a modern, non-Tory non-naice life. We're all scum.

[MyLifeisaboxofwormgears]

remember though - as soon as we disabled scroungers reach retirement age we will be magically transformed into "people who have worked hard all their lives"!
Then the Tories will love us!
Except that the Tories are teaching entire section of the population not to vote Tory when they retire.

[RockUnit]

I will never understand why the most disadvantaged people in society are being forced to pay for the mistakes of bankers and rich people.

Politics

[JoffreyBaratheon]

Lurking, I'm one of the poor as well.

I'm specifically talking here about their attack on the disabled, though.

[mycatsloveeachother]

I'm unsure what the perceived attack is.

[CaughtUpNearTimbuktu]

the points system looks fairly self explanatory to me

[JoffreyBaratheon]

caughtup sadly it doesn't seem so self explanatory to the people administering the assessments. Maybe you should give them the benefit of your considerable insight.

I heard of a young woman with Downs Syndrome, walking into the face to face interview, and her carer being casually asked by the ATOS/Capita interviewer whether it was a 'lifelong' condition or not...

[MyVisionsComeFromSoup]

it doesn't take into account variable conditions - DD can one day be walking 10 miles, and the next not be able to get out of bed. She's fine with day to day stuff until she isn't, so needs someone to be around her all the time just in case. None of that fits neatly into the tick boxes. She has one more year of DLA, then onto PIP .

[CaughtUpNearTimbuktu]

Well that assessor clearly is a knob then.

If what I posted is the criteria and it's not being adhered to then the issue is with the company administering the assessments not with the benefit itself.

[CaughtUpNearTimbuktu]

Variable conditions work on the rule of the majority. So if for 4 or more days out of 7 you struggle with something then you get the points for it. Or that's how I'm reading the guidance.

[YakTriangle]

It's obviously their own fault for not being born into a rich family, or being born with disabilities, or having an accident that resulted in their disabilities. If people had had the foresight to make sure they never needed any help from society, they wouldn't be in this situation.

[MrsJayy]

I've been through the process with atos its humiliating I have a non changeable life long condition its static nothing will get better I said to the woman (after she asked about bowel and bladder problems ) that of if I could work I would its like they are trying to whittle down the weak in society after I was changed to pip the adviser on the phone. Said he was pleased to tell me that he had decided I was getting my benefit renewed and transferred so that was nice of him eh yanbu

[CaughtUpNearTimbuktu]

Use someone with severe depression as an example.

At an uneducated guess I'd say they need support and supervision to get up, washed and dressed. To prepare a meal and to leave the house and needs support and supervision to manage their medication.

Going by that list there's your 12 points right away on that alone.

[CaughtUpNearTimbuktu]

But you can claim pip and work. It's got no bearing on your ability to work

[Godstopper]

It is not merely a perceived attack, it is justified fear: justified by vulnerable people committing suicide partly because they have lost benefits; people being forced to work for below minimum wage in order to keep their benefits (if they are doing the same job as an employee, the company needs to pay the same wage); a failure by the government to recognize that most disabled people cannot compete on a level playing field as non-disabled applicants.

I am profoundly deaf, and I'm now told that since I can read, I may have difficulties transferring to PIP. Of course I can bloody read; but since when does that give me the magical ability to understand spoken conversation? It doesn't allow me to do the same type of work as non-deaf people, and my options are more limited. Furthermore, it's unusual for a disability to occur in isolation and not have further physical effects: for example, dizziness is common with me, anxiety (about doing something that diverges from routine owing to communication issues), higher than normal levels of fatigue (you try reading things for hours and not get tired), and yes, a degree of depression. It is similar with many other disabilities.

Yet I am told that I could find a job (I'm applying! I keep getting rejected, and I'm trying to remain hopeful), and that deafness is no barrier. It bloody well is: when I have exactly the same qualifications as someone else, and a company is faced with paying for adaptations vs. someone who can e.g. use the phone, then yes, I believe there has been discrimination.

I have little support, and have become my own advocate. Not everyone can do that, and I can't say that I have gotten very far.

I remain confident that eventually I will find a decent job. However, cutting support until then just makes things even more difficult, increases mental health worries, and clearly does nothing to help me back into work.

[RitaVinTease]

YANBU, I need a carer for 16 hours a week and dont qualify for PIP as I dont have enough points.
I dont always need the actual physical help yet, but I do need someone on hand in case I fall, or spill a saucepan, or whatever.

[JoffreyBaratheon]

Mrs you did well with the PIP.

Even calling people on the autistic spectrum in for face to face interviews, shows a profound lack of knowledge about the nature of their condition. Am not sure what the are trying to achieve by it, other than putting people off from applying in the first place. Not that we wanted to apply as he already had a DLA award for life. I see this as the government breaking a promise to all of those people who already had an adequate level of benefit granted, who had it for life or indefinitely.

Under the new system we're told the most he can hope for is ten years and even then they can send a letter at any time, out of the blue, demanding he comes in for a face to face interview in case his condition has changed. Maybe the fragrant (probably not) Sam Cam has the cure for autism in her handbag? But I doubt it.

[MrsJayy]

I'm well aware you can get PIP and work on just unable to hold down a job

[JoffreyBaratheon]

God my husband is hearing impaired and never claimed DLA. Now he is thinking of claiming PIP simply to spite the bastards.

The worst thing about the tory system, for me, is the inbuilt assumption of guilt before proven innocent. Surely that's arse about tit? They are trying to actively knock people off disability benefits, starting from the assumption they are all scrounging liars. Yet thousands of pounds go in unclaimed benefits because people aren't told what they're entitled to. It is cynical cost-cutting and only at the expense of society's most vulnerable.

I think we should shout this from the rooftops to humiliate IDS, Cameron, Osbourne and their other porcine pals. And shout it every day between now and the next election. So people wake up and realise what is being done in their name.

[OneTiredMama]

It's awful, we're in the same boat. My OH receives a benefit for his disability, he's had to reapply and we are now living in fear that they will not be renewed. Some nights I'm driven to tears panicking about what we'll do and how we'll provide well for our DS as we can't all live on my income. I'm one of the lucky ones though in that my family are supportive and would be able to let us stay for a while if it wasn't renewed. I worry about those who will lose their benefits and their home as a result.

I wish something could happen to make everyone aware of how desperate these cuts make people. The government just wants everyone to be seen as scroungers when really a lot of people on benefits are the most vulnerable in our society. I agree with Arfarfanarf and am scared stiff by what's around the corner for us all.

[MrsJayy]

The for life thing means nothing now if a person has been through the process of getting sickness benefit and DLA for life then why are people being assessed its ridiculous its saying well the last assessment might be wrong so let's drag you in again

[ArgelianArgelian]

YAVVVVVVVVVVVVVNU!