What lifestyle do you think disabled people who are not working should have?

[HmmOk]

Curious about what other people think. Before anyone says it, yes I am quite aware that plenty of disabled people do work and lots earn very well. However not everyone is able to do that.

I generally think disability benefits should cover a decent quality of life - should make up shortfall in rent as rents are so high, decent quality food, pay for therapies and tools that would help the person's disabilities, and pay for some fun stuff so that everyone can participate in society. People need to have a bit more money than only meets their basic needs, to be able to meet a mate for coffee or have a day out or whatnot.

Thinking about this today as not currently working due to bereavement and poor physical health and know I'm lucky to be in a loving marriage where i am supported, and for now we are ok with money. I'm hoping to find work I can do soon that won't further fuck my health.

In contrast I have a mate who is very ill with very serious life threatening conditions. She is single, abusive family of origin and she is quite vulnerable especially looking at the future. I think there should be better security for her future as the immense stress of money is not helping her health at all. Like why can't PIP be given for life to someone in that situation? It is cruel.

What do you think?

And so it starts.

I must admit I didn't think we'd see this narrative until an election had been called but I guess the tories need to keep the pot stirred.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/21/disabled-people-work-from-home-laura-trott-benefits?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Perhaps Laura Trott should tell us where all these fully remote jobs and engaged employers are.

Someone should also tell her that disabilities are more complex than she evidently thinks they are.

Well, they're not in the civil service, because the govt are telling all their staff to get back to work in their offices at least 60% of their time.

Bit of a lack of joined up thinking there.

They're in 2020-21.

Unfortunately, we're in 2023.

It's funny how apparently trickle down economics are supposed to help everyone but giving more money to the poorest in society so they can spend at local shops, coffee shops, and other places is a no no.

The less money you have the more of it you spend, yet we prioritise tax cuts to wealthy so they can hoard their money off shore.

What an absolute joke. Disabilities do not stop once you are at home.
What WFH jobs are there for people with no IT/admin/sales etc experience?

Exactly. I can't use a keyboard for more than half an hour no matter where someone puts it.

I didn't lose my career because of computers being in the wrong location.

My sister has MS and is a wheelchair user. She has no mobility, lives alone and has carers come in every day. But she works full time in an office because she has paid for taxis that are able to pick her up and drop her off. Her office is fully accessible, has disabled doors and disabled toilets. If these things are put into place and funded there is no reason why people can't work. There just needs to be the infrastructure and paid for suppport, rather than just lump sums of money in benefits.

@garlictwist

I’d like to see an employer telling DD what to do? For a start, she probably wouldn’t understand it, as her comprehension is at about an eighteen months old level; and even if she could, she couldn’t remember their instructions as she is deemed incapable of learning new information - due to profound memory problems (think like dementia). Anyway even if she could understand and remember what they’d said, if it were anything she didn’t feel like doing, her most likely response would be:

”Leave me alone! I Fuck off! I hate you! I want to kill you! I never want to see you again! You evil bitch/bastard!”

If the employer persisted in telling her what to do, she could easily punch or kick them!

The Tories appear to have no comprehension of learning disabilities and challenging behaviour! I suppose they will be saying next, all people with advanced dementia in care homes will have to work for their living? It’s like living in Alice in Wonderland!

That would only work if every single disabled person had exactly the same job as your sister, the exact same skills and experience, and had the exact same disability to the exact same level.

I'd love to work. I'd love to be able to hold a knife and fork without feeling like I'm holding the blade too. But I can't.

Because obviously that's how everyone's disability presents.

Some of us have a lot of medical appointments, the treatments we have make us sick and our disabilities make us sick. That's totally different to just needing things like accessible toilets and parking.

There just needs to be the infrastructure and paid for suppport

Yes, but there isn't. Until there is, this policy is cruel and non-sensical. Even if the whole country was overnight transformed into one that was fully accessible, many disabled people still wouldn't be able to work.

My DH worked for as long as he could. His employers couldn't even be bothered to install automatic openers on the doors into his office so that he didn't keep getting knocked off his walking frame going through them. Multi-million pound organisation. Guess it was unaffordable for the poor loves.

A friend of mine has MS, and is also a wheelchair user. She is having to give up her WFH role as the fatigue, brain fog and now eye issues means she can no longer do her job.
What sort of infrastructure do you propose for someone who can barely string a coherent sentence together in a timely fashion suitable for her customers?

Got it in a nutshell. Unfortunately.

What do you mean, 'self report'? Those are diagnosable conditions.

What are they supposed to live on in the meantime?

I just wamt to say I think disabled people should receive a good standard of living. There's many things pip is awarded for... what is a disability? This is where it gets tricky.

Fresh air (because that can pay bills too).
And what therapy? The vast majority of people seeing their GP for anxiety/depression will be offered bog standard CBT (probably online so not with an actual person either).

So whats the alternative? For anxiety and depression, the only option is therapy. What do they do, stay anxious and depressed forever, and on benefits?

I think a decent quality of life is what's given now for those in genuine need. We are a long way from the group homes of old. I know some seriously some disabled people in their 50s who live very well with what I'd say is a miserable life. Their physical conditions are awful and they can't do anything themselves. They have lived independently for many years in nice homes with nice carers getting enough put by to get to go on the odd holiday. I would never ever swap lives with them.

The cost of in home or residential care is sky high. I work with companies who do this and I don't agree with the amount of money funnelled into private companies for care and ends up as shareholder profit is awful. The budgets must be huge for this kind of care.

If someone has MH condition and is otherwise able bodied I appreciate that the support is negligible and the quality of life is low. Sadly there isn't enough money to go around and the benefits system was too long taken advantage of so the pendulum swung the other way and now there's fuck all for those that need it most. We have all met people willing to take benefits they didn't need, including good friends and family members . There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why some people play the system and win and others are cast into desperate situations.

An unpopular view. I am centre left but do think we can't have handouts for everyone.

What should we have? A good quality of life like everyone else should have.

My mum has gone from running her own successful company to living week to week as she is physically unable to work. It’s been devastating for her.
I wish she could afford an annual holiday. She lives each day in such stress.

We're not a rich country despite thinking we are. I'd love for everyone to have a good standard of living, but with no growth in the economy it won't happen and taxpayers won't be able to afford to prop up those not working for whatever reason.

This is the government panicking. Rates of disability and serious long term conditions are skyrocketing - possibly due to covid / long covid. They can see the projections and they know that disability benefits bills will rise so they are doing this now to somehow offset that.

Rather than accept and support they want to minimise and try to lessen the economic impact of more disabled people .

That is if you feel able to engage with therapy to begin with. Not every is, and not everyone finds therapy useful.
I have had years of therapy, and I am still unable to work. It has helped keep me out of hospital/police cells, but it has not helped me get to a place where I can work. I am not alone in being in that situation.