Hello all,

Not written anything in a while. I thought I should

considering all the speculation around Disability

benefits.

I say speculation, but mixed a reality. Also top that

with a feeling of a real sense of resentment towards

disabled people.

The current government has a huge deficit left by 14

years of previous Tory governments. A huge deficit

plus an increase in a demand to fuel defence

spending. This money needs to come from

somewhere. But where? Oh yes, benefits. One of

these benefits which I will solely focus on is Personal

Independence Payment because that is the one I

have most experience with.

Firstly Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is not

an out of work benefit. It is a benefit which exits to

cover the extra cost of living for those who are

Disabled.

The current state of things is that the government

want to take away this benefit from those who are not

the most severely Disabled in our society.

This is been fed to the people as a line because

people who do not claim PIP are not being told thewhole truth. The cost of living when you are disabled

increases. Let me give you a few extra costs you face

as a Disabled Person:

– charging your wheelchair

-paying taxis to get to and from work

-delivery cost for food shopping

-Therapy which is not covered under the NHS or wait

times are so long you have to been forced to go

private.

-Specialist equipment such as a long cane (the one I

use is £71.50- you may also own more than one fir a

back up)

– a cane tip (which you need to replace up to 2/3

times a year- depending on frequency of use-

£17.50)

– You may need to pay for a carer or Personal

Assistant because you can’t do certain things

independently

These are just a few things which I can think of which

Disabled people pay extra for. This means money on

top of the regular cost of living which a non Disabled

person pays.

If this money is taken away where is the extra cost

going to come from? This is where I need to point out

– again- PIP is not an out of work benefit. Whether a

Disabled person is in work or not, it doesn’t change

their Disability status. Just because a Disabled

person has a job does not magically mean all theirproblems disappear.

The government seems to be getting a bit confused

on this one. They seem to not be focusing on

Disabled people who work. They just seem to be

focussing on the ‘if you can work- you should work’.

But this does not magically mean that your Disability

disappears with a job.

The other thing which is important to point out, the

government is focussing heavily on benefit fraud. Yes,

lets talk about that shall we!

Less than 0% of benefit fraud crimes from PIP. Say

that louder for the people in the back. Less than 0%

of benfndirt fraud comes from PIP! I’ll leave this link

to Benefits and Work here.

Glad we cleared that up.

I could go on and on and talk about how this is the

perfect storm for Disabled People. The reduction in

benefits plus a new ‘right to dies’ policy. Oh I’m sorry

did you not know the government wants to introduce

a law that allows Disabled people who have a low

quality of life to have the tight to kill themselves? I’ll

let you do some reading on that one.

But I won’t go on anymore in this post, but I will be

back. Just remember, anyone can need access to

benefits at any time and we are lucky to live in asociety which- currently- will look after you if you

become Disabled.

Have a great day!

Philippa B.

I am in no way affiliated with any of the links provided.