Bendy on t'telly..

9/21/2010 09:49:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 12 Comments

Granada Reports, ITV's north west regional news programme is running an investigation into the impact of the proposed spending cuts throughout the region, 'Cuts on the cards' They started in the Wirral and interviewed leader of the council, Councillor Jeff Green and myself. It's really fantastic to see the viewpoint of people who will be affected by the cuts being represented in a fair way, a refreshing change to all the 'benefit scrounger' rhetoric.

The report can be viewed here 
and for those outside the UK or using screen readers* it's available on youtube here 
 

* It's not possible to access the official Granada website video using a screen reader but I'm not sure if youtube is any easier?

I get by with a little help from my friends

9/18/2010 01:44:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 10 Comments

Sometimes words are hard to come by, stubbornly hiding in shadowed corners unwilling to show their faces. Then othertimes they fall from my fingers, in fully formed sentences tumbling over themselves in their eagerness to hit the page running. 

I'm all out of spoons, overdrawn and in debt to a bank with far harsher repayment terms than any to be found on a high street. I've been here before but this time I know the warning signs. My body has had enough and unless I heed it's red bordered demands for payment it will exact it's own. 

My DLA form sits across the room taunting me. It's late, of that I'm sure but with the most recent DWP ruse of sending out just the one letter and form warning people their award is due to finish and needs to be reapplied for, with the careful caveat that 'we will not contact you again' there is no date to be broken. I did not receive the DWP's only letter but fortunately knew to contact them and ask for another. How much money is saved by this trick I've no idea, but its sure to be a whole lot less than the damage it does to the lives of people dependant upon the system without the ability to navigate it. 

My printer broke. I don't know what's wrong with it, but if I'd spent as much time as it did bouncing around the back of Ben's old transit van I'd refuse to ever function again too. Those forms have to be printed off and sent back this weekend though, if not there won't be enough time before my current award ends for the DWP to make a decision. My ribs were all put back into their rightful places by my physiotherapist J yesterday, but lasted only a few hours before deciding that was all too much like hard work and concertinaing straight back out again. It was all a bit too much for me to be honest. 

Fortunately, unlike the last time my body was in this bad a way, I've been diagnosed with EDS long enough to know I'm not somehow magically capable of doing this to myself in the pursuit of attention and to have friends around me who find even the idea of that utterly bizarre. So here I am, on the sofa, my feet up, trying to be good and rest. GangstaGuy, despite being on carer duty for his mum and not my boyfriend has come to my rescue. Again. He's printing out my forms and driving the 40 minutes or so to bring them to me later on. With dinner if I need it and shopping so I don't have to go anywhere. And exhortations to 'at least try to rest please babe'


So I am. But I wouldn't be able to without his support and friendship which has changed my life for the better. I tell him, but writing it down means he'll always know just how much he really means to me.


I get by with a little help from my friends.

Cuts to DLA 'The easiest bit of welfare reform to sell'

9/17/2010 12:22:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 7 Comments

So long and thanks for all the fish!

9/15/2010 06:42:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 4 Comments

The BendyBus is coming! Well...it was coming, now it's being recharged in it's BendyBusBed after a sulk of such mammoth proportions it stopped working altogether. In the rain. Bad BendyBus. Fortunately a nice man called Richard stopped to see if I needed help and pushed me and BendyBus all the way home. In the rain. It's the Big Society in action, I'm tellin' ya. Dave 'the rave' Cameron would be well proud. Even if the BendyBus would need to apply for Incapacity Benefit. Innit.


It was all going so well yesterday. BendyBus had been charged overnight in it's own cosy little bedroom, the sun was shining and the sky briefly blue. Off I went on BendyBus with thoughts of a blue faced Mel Gibson yelling "Freedom" running through my mind. It totally was too. Freedom I mean. At I crashed up and down kerbs on BendyBus I realised it's been years since I've been able to go anywhere alone that didn't have parking within a few meters of the entrance. Living in small town land makes that kind of thing easier than in a city, but it's still seriously limiting. The fish in my GP's practice are nice an' all that, but being able to go and see them on my own does not make up for, well, everything else. They are just fish and probably no more impressed with the BendyBus than BendyCat is. Although, she totally will be once I introduce the concept of BendyCat Basket Busing to her. 

At this point I'm not sure whether BendyBus is just a drama queen when it comes to weather conditions or if it's something more serious, I plan to consult the local mechanics once the weather improves. And get breakdown insurance. Richard was so kind to push me home, but did look rather red in the face once we were back-I can't bear the thought of someone having a heart attack while pushing me and BendyBus-it'd mean I'd feel responsible for filling out their ESA forms! 

George Osborne & Danny Alexander Defend Disability Cuts by Beau Bo D'Or

9/13/2010 07:42:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 0 Comments

"Life thine eyes. You were once registered blind. You Shalt now be a proof reader for an insurance company"

Beau Bo D'Or

Image of a Jesus figure with axe in hand and George Osborne's face. Jesus George is stood in front of a metal security cover with a 'no disabled' sign depicted by a wheelchair image inside a crossed out red circle. To the figure's left is a 'Arising Soon, Lourdes Centre' sign in the same style used by JobCentrePlus. 

Why Osborne's benefit crackdown won't just hit the workshy, FT.com

9/12/2010 03:09:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 2 Comments

Why Osborne’s benefit crackdown won’t just hit the workshy

September 12, 2010 1:36pm

by Alex Barker

There’s been lots of speculation over the Treasury’s plans on sickness benefit. The Times flagged up a proposal to “means test”, while the Observer has a letter pointing to £2.5bn of incapacity benefit savings from an unspecified reform.
No final decisions have been taken. But reading between the lines, it sounds like moves are afoot to scale back “contributory incapacity benefit” (which I’ll explain in a second).

If so, it blows a rather big hole in George Osborne’s claim that a he’ll be finding savings from ending the “lifestyle choice” of those determined to “pull down the blinds” and scrounge on benefits. These reforms largely take money from people who have worked and fallen ill, rather than those who’ve allegedly chosen a life on the “sickie”.
Here’s why. At present there are two broad categories of sickness benefit, which apply to those who’ve been employed for several years before falling ill (contributory), and those who have no significant earnings in recent years (income related).
Abolishing or time restricting contributory incapacity benefit effectively means all those eligible on health grounds would at some point take the means test for “income related” sickness benefit, which excludes those with big savings or a partner who works. When we put together the FT deficit buster, we put the saving at around £2bn from abolishing it altogether.
This makes big savings and gives the same support to the poor. The political downside is that it is seriously unfair to those who pay “national insurance” imagining it gives them a safety net should their health take a turn for the worse.
Cracking down on benefit scroungers always polls well. But I doubt people realise that the “clampdown” may involve withdrawing sickness benefit from a widow with more than £16,000 savings who left work because she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The chancellor would, in other words, be taking money from low and middle income households who’ve paid taxes and suffered a health setback. It is the opposite of the workshy, benefit dependent households Osborne targets in his rhetoric.
Given the state of the public finances, the reforms could well be necessary. But it’s probably worth tailoring the rhetoric to match the cut. The headlines look great at the moment, but attacking the workshy may not be as cost-free as Osborne imagines.
Tags: Benefits, Cuts, Department of Work and Pensions, George Osborne, Iain Duncan Smith, Incapacity benefit, Spending review

Disabled Man Refused Benefits Despite Having 2 False Legs

9/11/2010 08:42:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 5 Comments

 Marc Addington, Liverpool Echo, Sept 11 2010

A DOUBLE amputee from Kirkby was refused a disability benefit after he was assessed on his records from before he lost his legs.
Phillip Carr, 44, lost his left leg last year after a painful infection, before losing his right leg due to complications with his diabetes.
But when he attempted to get the “care component” of his disability living allowance, he was refused.
The former railway man said the strain of walking on false legs played havoc with his blood sugar levels and made him prone to a diabetic attack.
He needed the financial help so he could afford to have a carer with him while out and about, rather than have to rely on friends and family.
But he was “dumbfounded” to be told he didn’t qualify – only then to find he had been assessed using records from when he was still able-bodied.
And matters were made worse when he was told he did not qualify for benefits which would help him get a mobility car because, he said, he was told his “situation may change”.
Mr Carr said: “I was absolutely shocked. I was fit and able until I had the first operation.
“I basically thought someone must be taking the Mickey here, that’s what it felt like. People who don’t need it get it and those that do, don’t.”
He said the mobility knock- back was the final straw, and decided to pursue a legal case.
He added: “’Situation may change’? With the best will in the world, I’m not going to grow a new pair of legs.”
But, following the ECHO’s inquiries, the Department for Work and Pensions have “revised their decision” in his favour.
He will not now have to go through the appeals process and hopes the U-turn will help him live a more independent life.
Mr Carr said: “I’m happy that it’s been sorted and that this faceless bureaucracy have seen a bit of sense. I’ve finally got help, and I’m made up with the ECHO and my solicitor at Linskills for his help. It just shows if you battle it out you can come through in the end.”
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “We have spoken to Mr Carr, to discuss further his individual circumstances and based on the facts now presented by him, have been able to revise decisions in his favour.”

Scope responds to £4bn additional welfare cuts

9/10/2010 11:27:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 1 Comments

Scope responds to £4bn additional welfare cuts

Richard Hawkes, chief executive of disability charity Scope, said:
“The Government continues to announce cuts to the welfare bill before it has even carried out its own impact assessment. How can we be confident that disabled people who are unable to work will continue to receive the ‘protection’ they need, without seeing this evidence?
"Only by fully understanding the consequences of their actions will the Government be able to ensure that these cuts will not further penalise disabled people. Being disabled is not a lifestyle choice and we want the Government to fully understand the consequences of any action it takes.”

800, 000 claimants face losing their incapacity benefit - The Times, Fri 10 Sept 2010

9/10/2010 10:00:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 5 Comments

800,000 claimants face losing their incapacity benefit – The Times, Firday 10 September 2010*

George Osborne: said to be demanding up to £10 billion more from the £170 billion social security budget

Jill Sherman Whitehall Editor

Hundreds of thousands of people are likely to lose sickness benefits under a new assault on the welfare state, The Times has learnt.

The Treasury is considering means-testing incapacity benefit — given to those considered too sick to work — a change under which 800,000 people on modest to high incomes would lose it altogether. The entitlement, which is available to those who have paid national insurance contributions, costs the taxpayer more than £6.5 billion a year and goes to more than 2.5 million people.

Millions of disabled and sick people have been on the benefit — which is between £68 and £96 a week — for years and are able to stay on it until they retire, irrespective of their income or that of their partner.

Disability and poverty groups warned yesterday that means-testing would fly in the face of the principle of paying national insurance to fund benefits. They argued that the disabled and mentally ill were becoming the main victims of the Treasury’s spending cuts.

“It would be grossly unfair if someone who had worked for over 30 years and had paid [national insurance] throughout suddenly found the benefit taken away at the moment they needed it,” said Sue Royston, social policy officer for Citizens Advice.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has agreed to £11 billion savings a year. But George Osborne, the Chancellor, is said to be demanding up to £10 billion more from the £170 billion social security budget. Mr Osborne indicated yesterday that he had already identified £4 billion affecting those on “out-of-work benefits”.

“People who think it’s a lifestyle choice to just sit on out-of-work benefits — that lifestyle choice is going to come to an end. The money won’t be there,” he said.

One Whitehall official told The Times that means-testing incapacity benefit, which could save up to £2 billion a year, was being considered. “We are seeking more on incapacity benefit,” he conceded. “If more cuts are made to the welfare budget we should be able to reduce the bigger cutbacks to other Whitehall departments.”

Other benefits under threat include those going to pensioners, such as winter fuel payments and TV allowances, which could save £2.7 billion if scrapped.

Under the latest plans being considered, those on incapacity benefit — or employment and support allowance, which is replacing it — would receive it for a time-limited period of six months to a year. After this, those on higher incomes — generally those with working partners — would lose the benefit, and those on lower incomes would lose part of it. Those on the lowest incomes would still receive income support.

Mrs Royston argued that people would lose all entitlement to incapacity benefit if their partner had an income of about £8,000 a year or had savings of more than £16,000, if the present rules for other means-tested benefits were applied.

“This is causing enormous concern,” she said. “If someone who has worked for years became seriously ill and his partner earned over £150 a week, he would get nothing, despite his contributions.”

Treasury officials believe that many people remain on sickness benefits until they retire even if they could do some type of work.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics, published this week, show that in more than 840,000 households all members of the household over 16 are too sick to work. In a further 612,000 households, at least one member is too sick to work.

The Government is already clamping down on payments to the disabled and has pledged to introduce more rigorous medical tests for all incapacity benefit claimants by next March, but the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is already having trouble finding enough doctors to carry out the checks.

The severely disabled, who receive disability living allowance to help to pay for carers, are also facing medical tests for the first time.

Sources at the DWP yesterday made it clear that negotiations were still going on but did not rule out reducing or scrapping benefits for those on higher incomes. “We are presently looking at a range of options for welfare reform and any decisions will be made in the context of the spending review,” a spokesman said. “Our reforms will ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are protected.”

Richard Hawkes, the chief executive of Scope, the disability charity, condemned the plans to means-test incapacity benefit, claiming that people would be denied the support they had paid for.

“People will effectively be penalised for working hard, saving and contributing to society,” Mr Hawkes said. “The Government has made much of its commitment to ensuring that the impact of cost savings is spread fairly, but this feels like another example of disabled people bearing the brunt of cuts.”

*No link provided as The Times is now behind a paywall. 

Bog Off - Exhibit 28 Student Style!

9/08/2010 11:17:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 3 Comments

This Bog Off was sent in by @Trufflepotamus, a student at The University Of East Anglia.

My source tells me that the disabled toilets in the accessible student bedrooms are huge wet rooms which are rather good, but this particular toilet seems to have been nothing more than an exercise in ticking boxes. So much so that not only is it not labelled as a disabled toilet, it hasn't even merited a toilet label of it's own. Poor loo, it must be very lonely all on it's own in a corridor facing a glass door without a sign to let anyone know it can be visisted! 

The photos are all taken from standing in the doorway as the door didn't actually open fully and got in the way. 

As I haven't seen this Bog Off in person, it's tricky to comment on the dimensions, but from the photos and impossible to open fully door, it certainly appears as though it would be very difficult to get a wheelchair in there, even a wheelchair as small as my child sized one probably wouldn't fit. The grab rails are a different colour from the walls, which makes them easier to see but there don't appear to be enough rails in the right places to enable transfer, even if a wheelchair could be slotted somewhere between the toilet, the wall, the sanitary disposal bin and the normal bin.


There's also no mirror...so don't bother to bring your lip gloss!

Q.61 Please tell us anything else you think we should know about your claim

9/06/2010 11:47:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 14 Comments

This is the actual answer provided on my current application for Disability Living Allowance for Q.61 Please tell us anything else you think we should know about your claim. This post should be read in conjunction with the part answer to Q.31 Do you need someone with you to guide or supervise you when walking outdoors in unfamiliar places in the blog Helping Hands, and the blog Page 18, Other Information IB50 form.

Disability Now's Pick Of The Blogs

9/01/2010 10:02:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 2 Comments

Big thanks to fellow disability blogger Sarah Ismail for listing me as one of her favourite blogs in her 'Pick Of The Blogs' article for Disability Now. 

You can see the other blogs Sarah picked as her favourites in the full article at Disability Now.