to mention "HARDEST HIT" disability demo in London today. (Wed)

[ScousyFogarty]

HARDEST HIT demo or lobby at Parliament today (wed 11th) supported by
all the relevant charities I am told.

I was suprised it was not mentioned on the early news.

I think it is reasonable to assume disabled people will be HARDEST HIT by welfare reforms. They are right to fight back

Disability is not "very sexy" in news terms so it may not get the publicity
it deserves.

I gather they intend lobbying MPs and parliament. If I lived down South; I would have gone as an observer.

Good luck to them anyway. Anybody making the trip to parliament?

I would like to know what radio stations or TV are publicising it....

The negative attitude towards disabled people is absolutely terrifying.

It is easily the cheapest option for the government to make sure every disabled child (in fact any child who struggles with school for whatever reason) is getting as much as possible out of school. Because without an education it's even more difficult to get a job.

It's bloody obvious!!

Idiots.

Yes quite right, HRHShoesytwoesy - how a man who had a disabled child himself can go through with this horrible treatment of disabled people beggars belief Might be something to do with the fact that he didn't need to count on the DLA to survive..

On 'You and Yours' this week, they had the most repulsive bloke on I have ever heard saying that people 'should have protected themselves against disability by buying insurance policies'. They should take personal responsibility for their own problems basically and not rely on the state. I'd like to know how you can do that if you are disabled from birth The typical Tory 'we don't give a shit' mentality

Brilliant 'should have protected themselves against disability by buying insurance policies'

Did insurance firms accept applications from foetuses in the 1980s? Because if so I'm clearly a negligent bastard for not predicting I'd be brain damaged at birth. And how remiss of me not to realise I would inherit several other conditions we didn't realise ran in our family at the time.

I say we should take a stand against irresponsible foetuses everywhere. They need to learn dontcha know.

It is an utterly shocking mentality isn't it MintyMoo - perhaps we should all take out insurance policies before we give birth! Apparently there were people phoning up the programme in floods of tears

Problem is, these are the ideas they perpetuate to the general public - roll on the Big Society eh!

La Weasel - I agree, education is a fundamental human right for everybody. Regardless of whether skin colour, disability, academic ability, sexuality, wealth etc.

No-one would say 'oh, well I personally don't see the 'point' in educating children who aren't white' in public, there would be an outcry. So why is it ok to say that there's no 'point' educating disabled children.

It's a good job Einstein's parents didn't take that view.

Everything DarthNiqabi said. Very well put.

I know someone who got the middle rate of care DLA. She got no mobility DLA as she was told there was 'no evidence you have a mobility problem'

She is a wheelchair user.

Ridiculous. It's like saying to someone who is blind that they're no longer disabled because they have a guide dog.

It beggars belief actually. When I was off sick I could barely walk and became concerned I may need a wheelchair. My office was not accessible for wheelchair users, I lost my job anyway but if I'd been a wheelchair user I betcha I'd have lost it even faster.

I saw on a HR networking site a post from someone asking if it was ok to not hire anyone in a wheelchair as their building was old and would cost a lot to adapt. Apparently they thought it was ok as they'd hire someone with any other disability, as long as it didn't require use of a chair.

I'm off to weep for society now :(

Except tfor the Gruniad.....I think the coverage in the broadsheet papers is not very good. Thats a shame. It is a genuine big story. One violent disabled peron would have put it on front pages. HOW SAD our press is

Thank you to the people who watched the video I recommended. Awareness of how hideous it can be is so important.

It's really scary at the moment for anyone with M.E or Fibromyagia - well, anyone with invisible disabilities I'd imagine. I have M.E (though thankfully not as badly as the women in the video I posted) and I am slightly terrified a doctor will just say 'well, you're fine, you can work' when I categorically cannot (I sleep every afternoon for 2-3 hours, I get tired concentrating on reading anything or talking to anyone for a short period of time. No one would employ me and I'd be calling in sick most days). Or else they'll say 'you're not fine now but take a bit of exercise for 2 months and then you'll be fine and from then on you have to work.' Again, that's not going to work! I have to just trust that there are supportive doctors out there and the agencies that do things like assess DLA go on believing that M.E is genuinely disabling.

Although I imagine with the cuts there will be huge pressure to discount any invisible disability just because it's an easy way to make savings isn't it?

"On 'You and Yours' this week, they had the most repulsive bloke on I have ever heard saying that people 'should have protected themselves against disability by buying insurance policies'. They should take personal responsibility for their own problems basically and not rely on the state. I'd like to know how you can do that if you are disabled from birth The typical Tory 'we don't give a shit' mentality"

Oh your parents are supposed to take out the policy. You know, as soon as they meet someone who might be Mr or Ms Right. Then you carry on with it as soon as you're earning. But do remember it can easily easily cost tens of thousands of pounds a year, getting into hundreds of thousands over a lifetime, to pay for specialised equipment, care, adapted housing and vehicles. You know, if you've had an accident that leaves you unable to barely move and you have to have someone to help you every day and every night, for example, well, that doesn't come cheap. So your insurance policy payments every month might pay a bit towards that every month, but unless you can pay out thousands of pounds every month (because of course you never know when the accident could strike), well, you're still relying on someone.
I am being sarcastic of course. But little things like that never seem to occur to those who glibly come out with banal statements like "use an insurance policy". They forget that one reason we pay into the state, one reason we pay our taxes and funds organisations like the NHS is that very very very few of us can say, hand on heart, that we will never have to rely at least partly on the help of others, if we get a disability.

Ohboob - indeed. I have fibro and that is why my employers didn't believe me. They actually said I was imagining it and was only suffering from hypochondria.

Most funding on research in to ME/CFS and Fibro STILL goes to some twunt who argues it's psychosomatic. That way it's easier to dismiss us and no research is going in to finding a cure...

I am trying to find a job... guess what? no-one wants me! 17 first stage interviews, feedback excellent from each one, each time a weak excuse given to why I didn't get the job, from 'we think she might get bored' to 'she's never done X before' (X being something simple a 12 year old could be taught to do)

Where is this all going to end up? I could just cry. It's a slippery slope now.
Minty and ohboob your posts have made me sad. I have a pretty invisible disability too (well I could try whipping out my lungs and displaying the damage) and have always come across ignorant twunts who say it's being faked etc. Why are people like this? I am seriously worried about the future for disabled and chronically ill people in this country :(

Darth - I didn't see that no, it doesn't surprise me though. Carers are ridiculously undervalued in our society :(

Madhairday - it's scary isn't it. It's international ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia day today, loads of people on twitter promoting awareness. It hasn't trended yet. I've posted on facebook like crazy but not much activity on there either :(

If I'd known I was going to lose my job I'd have been much harsher on the people I worked with when they made nasty comments. I stuck up for myself but wish I'd come out with a stream of expletives and stormed out! So many snide comments, 'oh it's all right for some' when going home early. 'I'm sure you could manage to work longer if you really wanted to make the effort' 'apparently you're ill so you can't come to dinner with us' etc. When I had to leave a work do early I'd be treated to comments the next day on how it was such a shame I missed all the good bits which happened after I left... yeah, thanks, I needed reminding that my illness makes me miss out. Maybe I'll just snap out of it and become well again, just like my Mum, and her Mum did with the same illness... oh wait, we're all still ill!

I will never understand the 'faking it mentality' - my father has osteoarthritis, his colleagues accused him of malingering. He had 3 strokes and ended up in Hospital... malingering they said!!! .

Not once have I ever thought my father was faking it, at 7 I knew his illness was real and that no normal person would fake illness... 7 ffs.

And yet I worked with smug bell ends who couldn't grasp the simple concept that not all illness is visible. When my Nan had cancer she still looked well! You couldn't tell by looking at her at all.

I know Minty :( Thing is, we're not going to break through most of that type of ignorance, because it is of the type that tends to stay with someone, as they don't have the wherewithal to see any other sides apart from their bigoted arrogance. for your Dad.

I've seen some stuff today on FB about fibro but not a lot. People just don't want to know. :(

Maria Miller = Dolores Umbridge... I LIKE it :)

I know, I think a survey showed over half of disabled people became disabled whilst in work... so hardly scrounging!!! The rest tended to have been born disabled, or became disabled whilst at school/Uni.

I'd much have my old life back than no entitlement to any benefits, not even JSA because DP earns too much and I've been too ill/young to have paid enough NI for non income based. Same with ESA. Nice isn't it?

Employers say I'm too ill/disabled to work for them but the government disagrees.

I want a job so so much, keep getting rejected though. They all say I did great at interview but never want to see me again. I can only assume some of it is because I lost my last job due to ill health and can't really lie and say I chose to leave as the reference will then lose me any job offer.

Is Maria Miller actually Dolores Umbridge?

Quote of the week...

It's a fucking disgrace that she is supposed to represent disabled people and is okaying all this.

I think Labour gets it - Liam Byrne (shadow sec for work and pensions) seems to be saying a lot of good stuff AND actually trying to amend all these stupid proposals in parliment. There is somebody fighting, and I hope he gets more support to block the next lot of green papers.

Yeah Liam Byrne's speech was fairly decent... fucking Maria Miller coming out with garbage about how there's more alcoholics and drug users on DLA than people who are deaf or blind.

My understanding was that with alcoholism you can claim for the effects, but not the illness? So you couldn't claim just because you're an alcoholic but if you have an illness stemming from the alcoholism you can claim for the subsequent effects and care needs of that?

It would be like saying to someone 'oh you lost your legs in a car crash, you chose to go in a car, therefore you can't have DLA'

The thing that angers me is when you get comments about overweight people in wheelchairs/mobility scooters... how stupid do you have to be to not realise that they're most likely overweight because they can't exercise in the same way someone who has no mobility restrictions can!

flyinstar there has been ministers' pay cuts, pension freezes etc.

I watched the march from Parliament. Impressive turn-out. Sadly led by Lady Bercow.

Although I am saddened to read of the awful experiences of many of the posters, I am also reassured that I am not alone. I have had ME for the past 5 years & as a result I was sacked after nearly 30+ years employment by my employer on the grounds of incapability due to long term ill health. It didn't even bother to refer me for an ill health retirement pension as I 'wouldn't meet the criteria'. In spite of my employer telling me it was treating my ME under the DDA, it made no reasonable adjustments which would have allowed me to remain at work.

I applied for ESA & amazingly scored enough points to qualify for the WRAG. However, the whole process has also resulted in my being diagnosed with depression which has worsened the ME so in spite of wanting to work I am less fit now than I was when my employer sacked me.
One of the changes to the ESA which the government is intending to make with effect from March 2012 is that for anyone who is is claiming contribution based ESA & in the WRAG it will only be payable for 12 months & will also be retrospective. so for anyone who is paid CB ESA from April of this year & in the WRAG for 12 months will automatically not be eligible for any further payment of CB ESA even if their health hasn't improved. The government's reasoning is that:

• if their health hasn't improved they can claim income related ESA but can only be eligble if they have no other source of 'household income' & if they do it is below the limit the law says is enough for you &/or your houshold to live on - a miserly amount; or
• by 12 months their health will have improved enough for them to be able to return to work & if it hasn't & they're ineligible for IR ESA they can claim Job Seekers Allowance, but to be found eligible for JSA they have to be adjudged as capable of working.

Already job centre staff have told people who have been found fit to work by Atos & DWP that they patently aren't fit to work & so are refused JSA. The end result is that those claimants whose health has not improved after 12 months & many have conditions which are progressive &/or terminal will not receive any benefit ESA or JSA at all. I am amazed that this hasn't been picked up by the disability & welfare rights groups - is it something which mumsnet will take up & lobby for? Politicians seem to take far more note of campaigns taken up by mumsnet than any other group. The plan of this government is to systematically reduce its responsibility for funding welfare benefits by:

• making it ever more difficult for people to be found eligible by raising the criteria to a point where hardly anyone wil qualify - believe me it is already doing this now!;
• making it compulsory for everyone of working age to take out health insurance in return for a gradual reduction in national insurance payments under the guise of giving people 'personal responsiblity';
• neither the government nor the employer will be responsible for paying statutory sick pay, the employee will have apply to his/her health insurer, who will only pay out for a time limited period & a specfic number of times;
• not providing any ongoing help at all as the health insurer will provide this (but only for a time limited period) & after this there will be nothing other than whatever help can be given by the charities.

All this under the guise of less state intereference & giving back personal responsiblity as part of the Big Society. This has already happening in the USA & is beginning to happen here. Even before the latest reforms this country already had the tightest criteria for eligiblity for benefits along with the lowest payments in Europe & the western world with the exception of the USA. The previous government initiated all this & it has been happily taken forward by the current government. Millions of punds have been given to Atos Healthcare to carry out the so called medical assessments, who in turn are linked with Unum a global insurer & who are advising the government on these reforms to welfare benefits & national insurance. Look them up on the internet & you'll find them mired in controversy & court cases. What is already happening & the plans for the future are nothing short of scandalous. Chronic illnesses &/or disabilities leaving people unable to work either in the short or the long term isn't something any of us thought would happen to us or family or friends. If it does then we believe because we have paid our national insurance & live in a country with access to health & welfare services we will be okay. It's only when it happens to you or a family member or a friend that you find out it ain't so. Everyone is only an accident or an illness away from being in this state & who will be there to fight for you or your children? I really do hope mumsnet will take the opportunity now to campaign about this on behalf of all chronically sick &/or disabled people, the pitiful coverage by the mass media of the demonstration earlier this week shows that we can't do it by ourselves - it isn't too late to make a difference but only if the fight is taken up by mumsnet - PLEASE!!

Hardest hit...well said....The lady spoke for the govtat the march tried to
change the nature of their protest. The interviewer put her down

"From poor dear to scrounger" was a tellling phrase by a marcher