Disability hatred in action. Woman with MS finds note on windscreen calling her a scrounger after hospital appointment.

[Darkesteyes]

www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/10071102.Anonymous_letter_labels_MS_sufferer__scrounger_/

CogitoErgoSometimes the new ATOS assessments are using a sledge hammer to crack a nut. Yes there are people who abuse the system, but not the huge % who are being taken of ESA (what was incapacity).

An average of 35 people a week die while waiting for their case to be reviewed after they have been told they are well enough to return to work.

I have been fighting the system, I can't work due to chronic health problems, I'm only out of bed for about 6 hours a day at most, can only be active for 20 - 30 minutes at a time. Some days i cant get downstairs. Who would employ me?

Yellow

I knOw that area well it is the only place you can park . The so called official car park has about 20 spaces

exitpersuedbyabear

The conditions required are:
Permanent and substantial disability, which means very considerable difficulty in walking. The distance considered is usually less than 100m.

Badges are provided to people who are unable to walk or virtually unable to walk or who are able to walk only with excessive labour and at an extremely slow pace or with excessive pain.
Applicants should generally be physically incapable of visiting shops, public places.

If you fall within these guidelines ...of being permanently virtually unable to walk without excessive pain then you may qualify for a badge
Without higher rate DLA your claim will be examined for eligibility.

Doesn't sound like an easy or ideal qualification to be able to prove to me...that the application is online is possibly to help those who already meet the criteria of being in receipt of higher rate DLA or are registered blind or a disabled war pensioner.
Otherwise it's the beginning of a very strict criteria based process

I find your comments not very helpful in these circumstances given that most people have no idea how difficult it is to get a blue badge or the level of mobility/life impairment required for eligibility.

Good lord that wasn't an attack ( this is an attack)*
Why when you disagree with something someone has said is it an attack? I was polite and educational.

Being granted a blue badge involves not only permanent severe disablement relating to mobility and also a rather an involved application process with strict guidelines.

Given the thread and the on going disabled person bashing in the press and on the board at times I found exit's comments unhelpful.

This was because I felt that her post implied that although she wasn't severely disabled (but had some pain with movement) she had simply applied online and was automatically granted a blue badge.

(I could have asked why she was applying for a disabled badge if she didn't feel she required one? I didn't.)

I felt it right to publish the criteria necessary to be granted a blue badge. So that people are educated about the blue badge scheme.

If exit had fulfilled those very stringent criteria, which are questioned and explained during the application process then imo she would feel very strongly that she required a blue badge.
The blue badge application terms are very clear in detailing that you must be permanently severely disabled in terms of mobility.

If this were the case why would she be minimising the scheme ( IMO) by saying ..I just filled in a form online and next day they said I'd qualified..v uncomfortable with this (paraphrasing)

• said in Crocodile Dundee fashion

Also, tone clear, it really wasn't an attack

I think I mentioned in one of my posts that I had been advised to apply for a badge by a doctor to whom I had been referred by the Occupational Health Service via my Employers.

I answered all the questions honestly.

Thanks Joyful for your support.

Perry I am sorry if you felt that I was minimising the scheme - that was not my intention.

CogitoErgoSometimes Tue 27-Nov-12 11:52:23
"There was a steady trend over the last 10 to 20 years to determine more people to be unable to work than ever before. This despite a free healthcare system employing all the latest technologies which should, in theory, mean that we are healthier as a nation rather than less so."

Should it? Might one not expect this to be offset by the fact that more disabled children and children with chronic conditions survive the early years and that elderly people whose disabilities would have killed them before they got to retirement age might now be able to live for many years after? And does not the prevalence of blue badges reflect the fact that disabled people these days are expected to work and look after themselves as far as possible: not be locked up in an institution or languish on some Victorian sofa waited on by their relatives?

I'm sorry ExitPursuedByABear I missed that you did it on doctor's advice
I apologise wholeheartedly.

Makes sense why you would have felt very uncomfortable applying, especially given the criteria

In the olden days (say when my granddad was diagnosed in the 40's), cancer was pretty well a death sentence, so you wouldn't be hanging around for years requiring disability support whilst receiving treatment. You wouldn't, of course, recover either...

Granddad went into hospital, wasn't even told that he had cancer (they didn't discuss things with patients in those days) and died within months. Cost the taxpayers very little. Unlike my inconsiderate MIL who is still alive, though partly paralysed, 17 years post-diagnosis and consequently requiring a fair bit of care.

www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/10078754.Disabled_carer_told____you___re_fit_to_work___/?ref=twtrec