to think that if you're well enough to do this, you're well enough to work?

[Tianc]

Yes, IABU.

For those who don't understand fluctuating health conditions, here's disability campaigner Kaliya Franklin giving an articulate and energetic speech at the Hardest Hit Campaign (second video).

And the third video on that page is Kaliya the day after. So exhausted her speech is slurred and she struggles to form sentences.

So when you read yet another news story - and they're all the rage - about someone on disability benefits being seen walking or swimming or going out with friends, do remember the full picture may be really rather different.

My mother has Lupus and a lot of the time struggles to even get out of bed.

She can spend 4 or 5 days not crossing her doorstep, then feels better and will go out - people only seeing her on that day wouldn't think there was much wrong. In reallity no employer wants someone who can't say til that day if they will be in work or not.

She has a Motability car again nowm, and it's a lifeling for her.

Some one actually reported her to DWP because they saw her brushing down her front step on a good day.

Oh heavens, in no way am I suggesting that all people with health conditions are utterly unable to work. Obviously untrue.

This is about how different good and bad days can be with some conditions, so you can't possibly judge one from the other as an onlooker, ATOS assessor or employer.

If an employer is to make reasonable adjustments, a realistic grasp of good/bad days is an essential piece of the picture. And if someone has lost their job or is unable to find someone willing to employ them because of unpredictable absences - and unreliability is the employers' bugbear - it's perverse to then deny them IB/ESA because of their performance on a good day.

You have to look at the whole picture - because that's what an employer will have to deal with.

I worry what people think about DH. He got a prolapsed disc over a year ago and it is complicated further by other injuries. He is in agony most of the time. He does not get DLA, and we are having to appeal for ESA. He got zero points on the assessment. Constant pain isn't enough, apparently.

He keeps getting told off for doing too much with the DCs. "Too much" consists of pushing DS's trike (he can't push the buggy as he uses a crutch, and DS isn't big enough to walk all the time) and picking him up now and again if he's upset :(

He's a SAHD - I think that makes people assume he must be ok. He isn't. He is not well enough to look after the DCs full time, but there is no choice but for me to work PT.

The ATOS questionnaire is a fucking scandal. It mentioned such delights as "can pick up and move an empty box". FFS.

I worry about dd. Who is going to give her a job "for whichever day you are not in too much pain to get out of bed"? There are days when she certainly could work- but what employer is going to put up with never knowing until the same morning?

That 'Spoon theory' article has nearly had me in tears. I have systemic scleroderma- which is very similar to lupus. Unfortunately. I have the more serious type, which means that all the damage is on the inside so I can look very well with it.

I get very very down at people at work moaning at me for never coming out after work or never socialising. TBH I am so bloody exhausted when I get home, I need abt 11 hrs sleep and rest nearly all weekend. I really don't want to be like this- but it's the only way I can still hold a job.
Every day I have to take 14 tablets, so yes it takes ages to get ready in the mornings.

Fuck it, I just wrote out a post and lost it, grrr!!

But I just wrote to say that I have a condition which changes like this. I gather my energy to see people and when I'm with them make a big effort to laugh and chat and basically look healthy. No one wants to be friends with someone unwell and who talks on and on about their condition. The next day and for days after I crash and have to stay in bed unable to read or watch tv or go on my computer because I'm so exhausted. But no one sees that bit!

ATOS scare the crap out of me. The worry of losing benefits/help is scary enough without having an invisible, changeable disability which can be severe.

I just want to agree that getting a company like Atos to do these medical examinations is like getting Serco in to deliver babies.

Or Tesco instead of your GP

They work to targets, automatically fail most candidates and pass most that appeal (from what I have heard - if this is libel, then set me straight)

None of them has any medical training and many of the medical staff they employ are not currently working in the medical profession for whatever reason. Again this is heresay. But Ive no reason to think otherwise.

Sorry, hearsay.