So, who is going to employ all these disabled people the government wants to wean of welfare

[Jimisnotmyname]

Really wondering. Not saying it is necessarily a bad thing to encourage those who can work, to work but as a carer for 2 disabled family members, I am hugely struggling to find another job as nobody is willing to give me any flexibility (which I need as a carer) and there are always candidates who do not need the same accomodations I do. I would imagine that many of those currently not in work because of disability or a health condition, will often need a similar level of flexibility. I just wonder who on the the government think will offer jobs galore on these circumstances??

@BrandonFlowersEyesWithEyeliner I understand where you are coming from and have been there myself. Back in the day I worked in a Rheumatology department on a research study into pain perception (psychology background). One of the Rheumatologists said at the time that Fibromyalgia was something they said to fob people off.

Over 20 years later I am back in a Rheumatology outpatients but on the other side of the table as have psoriatic arthritis and have to take DMARDs as joints starting to erode.

Current rheumatologist after examining me said he thinks I may also have fibromyalgia. He saw my face and said he knew what I was thinking but there has been new research recently and it is viewed differently these days and that it is to do with brain processing and response to pain. I already had my PsA diagnosis at that point so there was no reason for him to mention Fibromyalgia but he did.

OK, I'll bite.

I have Crohns, Coeliac disease, thyroid issues, endometriosis and diabetes.

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition. If I accidentally consume gluten, my entire body is compromised. Excruciating pain, neurological symptoms, gastric issues, muscular issues.

Crohns disease is one of the worst illnesses and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, ever. The agony I'm in is unreal. My poor neighbours can often hear me groaning, sobbing and yelling in pain. Nothing helps. I shit myself constantly because it causes bowel incontinence. I use the toilet 10+ times a day and cannot keep food and drink in, so have to have meal replacement shakes which don't stay in either. I have to sit in hospital for regular infusions, operations, feeds. Not absorbing any nutrients causes me to have severe anaemia, malnutrition and I faint if I move.

Due to the crohns and diabetes, I have frequent blood sugar crashes, multiple times a day, that render me unconscious and needing emergency treatment. I wear a continuous glucose monitor on my arm but they come on so fast I don't always get a warning in time. After a hypo, I am exhausted, shaky, weak and can't move.

With the endometriosis, I have unsustainable heavy periods. I bleed heavily for up to six months at a time, to the point where again, I faint continuously, need iron infusions and bleed so much I can't stand up. I pass baseball sized clots regularly and the agonising pain is like being in constant labour. Guess what? That's rather exhausting too.

Add to that, I'm a wheelchair user and have multiple other conditions, but yes, those conditions listed by the other poster absolutely do prohibit work. What job do you suggest I could do when I spend most of my time unconscious, drugged up, or in the toilet?

It's great that you recognise when he can't work, but...the problem is not employers like yours. The problem is that the majority of employers won't ever accept the tradeoffs of having an employee whose availability is sporadic and unpredictable. There are many, many disabling conditions like this - autism is one of them, but there's also coeliac disease, Chrohn's, fibromyalgia etc etc.

Somebody with a long history of these conditions will also often have a long history of failed employment and living on disability, so they usually won't have any skills or experience that will get them into a job where intermittent availability is accepted; the only jobs they'll be able to get are those where hours worked, to a schedule, are the basis for pay...and those are exactly the employers who cannot accept the risk inherent in employing somebody who will have no choice but to regularly surprise them with absence at short notice.

Thank you.
I do crafts at home to fill my time, although recently I have been struggling to do them. There are a few groups I go to in the week, but they were all cancelled for this week as the group leader is on leave.

Not sure if this is replying to the comment I saw but seeing u have ur friends back some people need help and won’t ask for it as don’t want a label. Afyer having a mum
wjos battled cancer and colostomy’s loss
of hair but always told me she’s is here as she refused to give up. She had a shit run in life but made me able to live off my own. Seeing people with mental health and
hekoimg them but knowing I had
it I never took anything or tried taking advantage.
some Disabilities could do work or have the support to better themselve

And there we have it. People who have no fucking idea about other people's lives making judgments about who is disabled enough to deserve benefits.

They must be proper thick, tbh. No one could say a person with those serious, debilitating conditions should be at work.

Oh so then my questions was reasonable, and another poster who shrieked “are you fucking serious” was not.
this is not being quadriplegic where obvious a question would be unreasonable.

That's interesting and Informative - thankyou 😊

I'll refresh my reading around the subject.

Well... You've misquoted me there, haven't you? I didn't say, "fucking". And neither did I shriek, seeing as I'm using text on an internet forum. You're just proving how uneducated you are.

Crohns doesn't prohibit employment?? WTAF.

It killed my dad. But you know, if you want me to phone his old job and ask them why they're not still paying him for being dead, because apparently it shouldn't prohibit employment, i'll do it!

what you experience is very sad but it is very extreme - many many people with Crohns can work and travel and live fulfilling lives. My friend has it and she skis and sails and - yes - works. Despite occasions flare ups.

same with diabetes, endometriosis and thyroid issues- just mere fact someone has them doesn’t mean they are disabled and cannot work. So the PP explaining that she of course couldn’t work because of multiple diseases (after ptsd after 2 mere years of working, lol) - doesn’t sound as “get out of jail free” as she thinks

Yes it does not prohibit employment, my friend has it and she lives an absolutely normal life with extreme sports

I'm autistic, bipolar, anxiety/panic attacks and ibs, etc. and i work 2 jobs, one full time the other as and when. Frequently worked 60-70 hours a week, every week. I don't claim PIP. I've had some short periods of absence due to these but my manager knows i give 200% when I'm there and when i take time off i take the minimum time off then go straight back - ie having a bad mental health time, took 2 days off to clear my head and went back. None of this i can't work ever again. I frequently get bad headaches sometimes migraines, stabbing stomach pains from my ibs. Guess what i just take paracetamol/ibuprofen/imodium and get on with it. I've even gone straight out of hospital into 60 hour work weeks with study on top because i forced myself to do so. I know lots of people who work despite epilepsy, i know a trainee dr who is wheelchair bound, people with stoma, Autism, birth deformities etc etc all work demanding full time jobs often with overtime. It can be done and it is done by many many people.

I know people personally who claim they can't work because of mh but never bothered to look for anything, not even 1 single job and rejected the idea of wfh. They claim they can't use a computer despite being under 30 and no learning disability so no impedement to learning how to do so. They stay at home smoking weed all day and watching TV.

I dislike the objections against people having to work minimum wage jobs or insecure jobs - millions of others do and they get on it. What makes anyone think that oh i don't want a minimum wage job so tax payers should pay for me to sit at home instead!! Unacceptable in my view, plenty of people including myself have worked mw, nobody loves a mw job but just because you don't want to do it doesn't mean someone else should pay for you. And you use that mw job as a springboard to get references and earn money while you search for something else or study after work to get a foot in the door. Volunteering one day a week in the sector you want to go in can also be beneficial to getting in the door. That's what i did.

Saying someone can't work because of frequent nose bleeds and therefore needs to be on disability is quite frankly ridiculous.

Very similar to my son.

He's a wheelchair user, bowel incontinent, has neuropathy so often experiences nerve pain etc.

He doesn't absorb food very well either but it is better than what it used to be, he used to need TPN for 12 hours overnight.

Holy Fuck. did you READ the rest of my post.

There are times I just want to wish some of these posters who have no idea what living with disabilities/ill health is like would actually experience them. That's not right though, I'm glad they are well, but gosh, some empathy wouldn't go astray.

Before I got my Hashimoto's diagnosis I had absolutely NO idea how many thousands of people struggle on a daily basis with all sorts of chronic illnesses. It's devastating. Every one of those people's lives is affected, they cannot live the life of a healthy person. That in itself is a tragedy. They - we - struggle on because there's no other choice.

So do I.

Except not all people in a wheelchair, with a stoma etc are the same with the same experiences or even the same disabilities.

My son had a stoma for 9 months, he's a child but wasn't capable of going to school and definitely wouldn't have been capable of working if he was an adult. His stoma was so problematic that he had reversal surgery as soon as his surgeon deemed it safe to do so as he had other issues going on but for the next person, it can give them their life back. It made my son's quality of life worse, not better.

This topic is always going to induce heightened emotions. The fact is that we have a welfare bill that needs to be reformed. There are too many people claiming PIP for things like ADHD and anxiety. What sort of future is there for someone in their early 20s who has decided that they are too ill to ever work because they have ADHD or they don’t like talking to people? Of course this needs to be addressed and supporting them into work is a positive move. The length of time it takes to investigate fraud should be reduced too and people claiming older benefits who refuse to engage with migrating to UC should not be given endless extensions before their benefits are stopped. It’s still too easy for people to make fraudulent claims or refuse to engage with the system without consequences.

@Foostit "There are too many people claiming PIP for things like ADHD and anxiety. What sort of future is there for someone in their early 20s who has decided that they are too ill to ever work because they have ADHD or they don’t like talking to people?"

PIP isn't an out of work benefit.

Obviously not everyone in a wheelchair can work and I've known people in wheelchairs who wouldn't be able to work, but the fact that there are people out there being in wheelchairs or with epilepsy shows for some they can not only work but they can work in highly paid and well regarded professions. There was even a surgeon who was a wheelchair user. I've known others in wheelchairs who absolutely could wfh but never pursued it. Having a certain condition or being in a wheelchair should not automatically mean not working.

And your qualifications are? lol

I work for local government, we are meant to offer flexible working.
However in reality colleagues with recognised disabilities and long term Illness struggle to get adjustments and managers and colleagues are not always sympathetic and don't like to make adjustments or allow flexibility or understand that they may have more time off sick and this is at local government, so God knows what it would be like in the private sector.
My colleague has struggled as basically she's been bullied due to needing to take several periods off sick (signed off by GP) she wants to work but it's challenging as she has frequent bad days so
I think it's a pipe dream that people who have health issues, will find understanding and flexible employers as really all employers really want is someone reliable and gets the job done every day

The thing is maybe people CAN work but who’s going to employ them?
I am averaging one sickness a month mostly because of endometriosis, i go from fine to unable to work with no warning
Not many employers are going to be happy with that