Disgusting Article by Leo McKinstry

And this is why I think the press are in the governments pockets.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/344254

Hi

I am reposting this as this is without a doubt the most telling story of what the Welfare Reform Act has actually done to those of us who are disabled and trying to live with a little dignity and an occasional smile through all the pain and frustration we feel daily.

"S.O.S...

The battle of my life…





This following statement I am writing in the hope that it may fall upon the person out there I need to help me in this dire situation…I am writing it for anyone to use, re-post (if you would? Thanks) and to anyone out there who might listen and help…

We live in a country where we thankfully have the NHS, the benefit system, thank goodness that IS in place to help-but as they have cut off my benefits till some kind of proof of something or other is provided, I am now in a dire situation and unable to feed my children…The system is NOT working for me, but against me…Surely we’re the ones they are put in place for???

After my husband Alex Wood, suffered a severe brain injury on the 4th October 2011, my life, now nearly a year on becomes not easier, but ever more fearful and stressful.

After a few weeks now of insane trials, fighting against the benefits system, fighting for funding for Alex and my head spinning with where to go next, I am now writing this as I have to take this a step higher…

Yes, Alex is making progress, and yes, we do have some kind of future, yes, I am 100% behind him and on the frontline battling for him to continue making this progress, but for Alex to continue making progress, caught up, now in the dependent position of being a ‘single mum’ of four, aged 8, 7, 6 and 4, in order for me as their mother to feed, clothe them, keep a roof over their heads, I am fully dependent on the benefits system, and reliant on the council finding us a council house adapted to Alex’s needs, now blind and severely disabled and cognitively impaired…

The council tell me ‘there are no properties suitable’…Will there ever be?? Alex can visit for extremely short periods only as he is restricted by the lack of access and is, in effect homeless, as he cannot be housed in the temporary house we are in…

The situation is, that I alone am now responsible for providing for our four young children, for fighting to get the right and sustained funds for Alex’s rehabilitation and re-education. I have to be everywhere, and have to be everything for everyone, whilst running a house and making sure the kids have clean clothes amongst a myriad other chores…Whilst living with indescribable grief at the loss of the husband that Alex used to be...

Surely the system is there to help people in difficult situations, that’s why it exists doesn’t it? But my experience is that it is there to hinder and after receiving a letter telling Alex he has a job interview on the 28th September which if he doesn’t attend could effect his benefit (Employment Support Allowance) is just more than ridiculous…They tell me when I ring the job centre they’ll do it over the phone instead…??? Do they not get it? He is utterly and completely incapable of this…!

I fight daily battles, not just on an emotional level facing the fact that my soul mate, my whirlwind romance, my everything, is not the man he was, and all the grief that leaves me to deal with, but surmounting this, then further battles with the benefits system, a car which is on its last legs and not having any idea how I would ever replace it…

The system clearly does not work for people who genuinely need it. And I genuinely do!

I am not sat about all day on my bum wondering what I can do today with peace and quiet…I am out there making calls, thinking of and organising fundraisers for my husband, planning things for the kids we can do for free to give them a good childhood. Counselling them as they need it, their dad is not the dad he once was, and they grieve this terribly, as do I.

So who can help me? Who will share this? Who will help me get this to the right people who can make a difference and take my story on board and care enough to do something about it?

I have written to Boris Johnson, he might help?

The local MP, John Howell, in Thame was not interested, one of his secretaries emailed me weeks after I sent a desperate plea saying they did not deal with cases like mine, to go to the council…This does effect him actually, he is a government MP, under the noses of the government I am (as the child tax credits have been put on hold till I provide a particular piece of evidence) a mother of four under eights with no access to funds to feed my children…

I am going to approach the Labour Thame MP with what he might be able to do in light of this.

If you can share this post, spread the word, that will be doing me a massive service…

I am turning my fear for not being able to provide for my kids into rage and action…in the frontline now as I need help to get Alex the right rehabilitation, not at the mercy of the NHS and the fear that the indefinite funds will one day run out, and he will not have the chance he needs.

I have to fight for him, I have to fight for my kids, any other mother out there in my situation would do the same.

Thank you for listening, thank you for sharing, and I hope this gets my story out there and Alex does get the chance he needs…"

How I feel, taken from Sue marsh's blogg, but so true

I had a life.

But it is that life that seems so begrudged today. On every comment thread, from the mouths of every minister, in every paper, it is that life that we are to be denied.

Stay at home, don't be seen having fun - there may be a Daily Mail lens trained on you. For goodness sake don't have a big TV or a nice car. How dare you go out for dinner or drinks? How dare you spend MY hard earned tax money on cake? A HOLIDAY??? You're kidding, right?

But this is what is so wrong! First ESA, and soon PIP are designed for the incapable. They are designed to MAKE you incapable. Stay in bed, give up fighting, become totally bedbound and you will qualify - fight, and struggle to live the best life you can and you won't. You mustn't just be incapable of walking, you must be incapable of mobilising at all. Don't get out and about with aids if you have limited vision! Don't bend or stretch when you can. Don't get any exercise to keep you going for longer.

It is an utter madness. It is so ridiculous, it's hard to put it into words if you've always been hale and hearty. We are being disabled by the very system supposed to enable us.

These cuts dressed up as reforms are based on envy. A belief that those who cannot fend for themselves,  must suffer. Live the life I was living until last month. But that life makes you sicker, it makes you MORE disabled. The money is not going to those most in need, it is going to those wealthy ministers judge to be most in need and the two are so different they cannot be reconciled.

It's a sorry, sorry mess.

All I can think is that the ghosts of disability past, present and future visit Mr Grayling and Mr Duncan-Smith and scare the pricey pants off them. A night of terror, where the scales fall from their eyes and they see clearly why they have got it so wrong.

What else but personal experience could get through to these idealogues?

Sue Marsh's Blogg

Re posted from latentexistence

The Paralympics tell us nothing about most sick or disabled people

I’m struggling to believe that I have to say this, I really am, but here goes:

The Paralympics tell us nothing about most sick or disabled people.

No, really, they don’t. The athletes taking part in the Paralympics, just like those in the Olympics, represent the elite. They are the people who are lucky enough to have time for training, money for equipment, the physical ability to push themselves that far. Just as you could not expect any person who is not yet disabled to run as fast as Usain Bolt or to dive with as much skill as Tom Daley, you cannot expect a disabled person to run like Oscar Pistorius or swim like Ellie Simmonds.

For sick or disabled people the struggle is not to get to Paralympic standard but to achieve the same standard as most people who are not disabled. That’s what disabled means. For whatever reason the combination of the way that society is arranged and the impairment that a person has means that they are unable to function in the same way as most. Disability makes everything harder. It makes things more exhausting. It makes things more expensive. It makes things take longer. Sickness and disability can require everything that a person has and still not allow them to function. For many when the impairment is too great no amount of adjustment or struggle can overcome that, although technology and the efforts of those around them can provide other means for a happy life.

For a lucky few that sickness or physical impairment is not a barrier to Paralympic greatness. Even then, though they may be able to run or swim or shoot they might still not be able to dress themselves or wash themselves or cook for themselves. We should celebrate their sporting abilities, but we must not think that sporting ability tells us anything else at all about Paralympic athletes or any other sick or disabled person.