Ah, the disabled benefit cheats at it again

[bialystockandbloom]

So the govt about to try to push through £2bn cuts to DLA. So, the govt spin puppets DM run huge front page feature on the "cheats" again.

All the usual bilge designed to convince the ignorant masses that disabled people are at best a burden to the "taxpayer" (as if disabled people never pay taxes), and at worst money-grabbing cheats who are almost single-handedly solely responsible for the financial mess the country's in. To pave the way for a resounding silence from the media and public when huge cuts are made to disability allowance, services, education and support.

FYI Daily Mail:

1. DLA is not a 'benefit'. It is a direct payment to provide assistance to people with disabilities who struggle as a direct result of those disabilities. It has nothing to do with whether you work or not.

1. One glaringly obvious reason why a % of recipients get it without 'attending an interview' is because they are children.

1. Another is that they provide medical evidence of their disability.

1. Ian Duncan Smith: "At the moment, hundreds of millions of pounds are paid out in disability benefits to people who have simply filled out a form." I simply filled out a form today (for a loyalty card at a local shop). Where the fuck's my money then?? Oh, that would be because the 100+-page DLA form isn't quite the same as simply filling in your name and address.

1. "More than 70 per cent of existing claimants are on DLA for life without facing any regular checks." Hmm, would that be because they have disabilities for life perchance? Blindness, deafness, CP, chromosomal conditions, autism, learning difficulties, ataxia, and all the other hundreds and hundreds of lifelong disabilities.

FFS I have never linked to a news story on MN before but am so spitting mad about this.

Mumsnet is there any chance of getting Ian Duncan Smith and/or DM editor (is it still Paul Dacre?) on for a webchat?

Oh yeah - am being a bit thick. DS still awake and going mad with itching. Switched on light and he is covered in an eczema type rash. Was sobbing so is in an Oilatum bath at the moment. Am hoping this will finally knock him out - send sleepy vibes to him as I am exhausted now.

Poor your ds. Mine is plotting evil deeds, but at least from his room so that's a win overall. To be exact he is working out how he could rig a magician's Guillotine to look as if he killed people accidentally

Anyways.

I sort of know what SWC is saying about disrepute but people have hte intellect generally to decide if they will swallow crap or not; IIRC when the ADHD / car figures were investigated the actual tally of ADHD kids getting HRM was around 100 nationally, and only one dx was recorded so could be comorbid with anything, as it often is. but who needs facts eh?

It's everywhere though; Yahoo news comments are full of it, even guardian these days.

at your son Peachy

I can agree, DLA is not handed out on a platter after filling out one form
It took 9months and an appeal for dd1 who has autism and tight tendons and audio processing issues. It took 6 months and a reconsideration for dd2 who has autism, hypomobilty and sensory processing.
We don't get a mobility car, and all their DLA goes on horse riding therapy, specialist school for autism, swimming, special shoes (because NHS only provide one pair), and their sensory equipment.

I would for once like DM to look at the workings of DLA for a normal SN family instead of focusing on the 0.01% of cheats, look at how it works for families in real need

Would also like to say, my mum who had a stroke at easter who is now at risk of fits, lost 50% of her sight, can't go out alone, gets lost in places she knows, burns herself if she cooks and can't bath herself was turned down for DLA!! So yes even the genuine people struggle to get the help they need

Poor DS, Dilly. Hope he's soothed now. Peachy, yours is just scary!

Lisad that's awful about your mum. Can you face appealing? She sounds less able on the specific things they use as markers (cooking safely, ability to bathe) than i was when I got lower rate care DLA.

But then, that was before disabled people brought down the banking system and bankrupted the country.

Lisa did you ask them to look again first stage before appeal

It is not easy i got turned down then awarded low rate mobility which those that know me tis funny , had to tell them read the paperwork and the letter spealist sent .

I did get hrm in the end but it is really hard tog et without evidence

Lisa that is appalling - have you appealed? If not then definitely do so.

Yes have asked for reconsideration for her and sent more information, this has been going on since June! She has someone from "mind" helping now so hopefully she can get something, it's not like she can work and she's only 54

Tianc don't be ridiculous, it wasn't disabled people, it was havig too many teaching assistants Gah!
Maybe Mind can help you appeal? It wears you out otherwise, so bloody tedious.

They're a dangerous lot, them teaching assistants.

Dangerous and revelling in their own gluttony. Just look what they've done to Greece! And Italy! Oh, wait....

can anyone explain what is more shocking about a patient being awarded benefits on the say-so of their GP, who presumably is medically qualified, than being refused it on the say-so of an administrator who does not have to have medical qualifications?

why is the doctor's say-so more say-so?

No no no

it's them poor people getting educated innit?

Cheek of it!

Cory- nothing, when you put it like that; I think it was a few GPs signing off quite easily under real pressure from over work / short appointment times etc. Compared to ATOS though- a beautifully working system.

I've just read this from Private Eye

blacktrianglecampaign.org/2011/11/10/private-eye-raises-questions-regarding-unum-again/private-eye-unum-wk2/

It basically says that a big insurance company on the one hand advises the govt on how to deny benefit claims, and on the other hand tries to sell us insurance against becoming disabled.

Oh I'm delighted Private Eye are onto that.

Here's the 2007 paper by Rutherford they're referring to, about the Woodstock conference: "New Labour, the market state, and the end of welfare"

By the way, I've recently seen stuff on MN which looks like either a journalist, or someone working for a focus group or PR company, fishing for MN opinion on private health insurance as replacement for the NHS. Or possible attempting to form opinion, who knows?

Anyway, I reported and thread's gone, but I'm certainly keeping an eye out for any more.

Ok, so genuinely disabled people need not worry then? So the criteria for DLA isn't being changed, and the definition of disabled isn't changing in the eyes of the DWP and the Government?

Because I am asking this as a former DLA claimant, who qualified for DLA under the criteria that anyone who suffers from at least one seizure a week automatically qualifies.

I no longer qualify for DLA. Because now the criteria is that you have to have at least two seizures A DAY.

Is my epilepsy any less of a disability? No. Am I registered disabled? Yes. Do the DWP class me as disabled? No, not any more.

If that is your idea of genuinely disabled people not having to worry, I'd like to see what is.

The Government have given ATOSsers the task of reducing payments on DLA by 20%. On a benefit that has a fraud AND DWP error rate combined of 0.5%. Which means that a LOT of genuine claimants, with genuine disabilities (19.5% of genuine claimants) will no longer be classed as 'disabled' for the purposes of DLA. Yet they will still be disabled.

I am even more confuse by this 'article'
here

It says:
Incapacity 6.5%
Disabled 1.0%
Jobseekers 7%

Surely they're not mutually exclusive?

That article is absolutely disgusting. There are people with cancer and Parkinsons who are appealing and theyve basically said that these people are non deserving WTF. If you took the title of the article and mentioned the word black instead of the word disabled they would be in court for racism and rightly so. How come they are able to get away with blatent disabilism. Its about time this was outlawed too. Its this attitude that has caused the rise in disability hate crimes. Fiona Pilkington and her daughter were driven to their deaths and it looks like they died for nothing.
Ive never been so ashamed to be British.