Your manifesto? Serious now...what would you include?

Do you have any evidence to back up that assertion? Other than the disproportionately-reported 0.3% and the occasional anecdote? Or is this based on a layman's at-a-glance medical assessment of those few disability benefit claimants who are able to get out of the house?


Guess what, I've got experience of that too - I AM one, and I'm friends with many others.

There are two things we have in common.

One is that we have all lost clients, been turned down for jobs, missed promotions and had interviews withdrawn because of our disabilities. Fatigue/stamina disorder? "We'd love to promote you, but you'd need to be able to work full-time." Wheelchair user? "The office you'd be working in is on the third floor and there's no lift." Epileptic? "We insist that all employees at grade C or above hold drivers' licenses in order to go to meetings." Illegal of course, but fighting a court case every time it happens would be a full-time job in itself - not to mention the risk of jeopardising future employment prospects.

The other is that we are only able to work because of the huge amount of unofficial practical support around us - making sure things like showering and eating and getting to the bank/shops/social events are covered, which allows us to have the time, energy, and stamina for work. If my partner or my friends vanished I would be back on benefit within a week.

There are very few things that make me more hacked off than when someone decides to use working disabled people like me as a stick to beat those who haven't been as fortunate in their circumstances as I have.

I'm absolutely in agreement with you when it comes to getting upset with people who cheat the system, and I'm sure you could present a hundred anecdotes about instances where you feel a "long term sicker" (yeah, thanks for calling me that) got something they shouldn't. But the cold, hard, inconvenient fact is that such abuse is incredibly low and, in financial terms, is outweighed by the benefits that go unclaimed.

Blimey, you get out of the wrong side of bed this morning?

Ok it was a general statement, but the benefit system full stop is a bigger concern. Reality is we live in a 24/7 news saturation zone, and editors need to keep the average lemming interested, so a disability scrounger is a sexy story, even if the facts and stats don't add up as you say.

I wouldn't say baseless prejudices though, immigration is a serious concern to a lot of people. I just wish there was political will power to tackle it.

I genuinely think it is all linked and can be tackled as a single issue.

Until we stop the cycle of dependance, and lazy johhny gets of his **** and takes the potatoe picking job instead of a hand out, and this attitiude of a job is beneath me is removed, then we no longer have the reason to employ so many immigrants, who are more than happy to pick cherries and pack fish, and are warmly welcomed by employers.

Reality is, we need the immigrants, albeit legal ones, and as much as we moan and bleat, until we have a radical overhaul, we will continue to live outside of our means. Lazy johhny will breed even lazier johhnies, the cycle of depenance grows, and the country will slide into deeper and deeper debt.

Sorry Steve. It's a hot topic in the community at the moment. What with the election, everyone and their dog are wanting to "get tough" on benefits claims and there's been a lot more tabloid rabble-rousing (damned if I'll call it journalism) than usual.

One badly-researched DM article at a time, it's easy enough to Keep Calm and Carry On... but at the moment, the saturation is so intense and so widespread that many of us are feeling under attack and therefore more inclined to get defensive.

Seeing stuff like this, out in the wild, is worse than seeing news stories because it shows that Joe Public is actually believing the biased reporting.

I broadly agree with you on the "benefit system almighty mess" front but I can't imagine where to start disentangling it.

vm

you seem to think im having a pop at you , im not.
to clarify; there are to many people on the sick who shouldnt be,
i am not talking about the disabled im talking about the able bodied who are taking the p888 and lying to doctors to get benefits.


believe it or not spain is a real champion for support for people with disabilities
they do an awful lot to help.
and the spanish people never abuse the disabled and kids never tease other children with any kind of learning difficulties

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mark