Very Dicey, this Police State

The government is aiming to get more people off sickness benefits. Fair enough. But they really SHOULD be fair.

I know nobody who has received sickness benefits without a heck of a fight. It is usually granted after going to Appeal Tribunal, which shows that the original decision not to award Benefits was wrong in the first place. I know several people who have found the fight for subsistence level benefits took too much toll on their fragile health so they gave up asking for it and depended on family and friends. Other people, too ill to fight for benefits and too sick to work, have committed suicide.

Others are awarded Benefits on an "indefinite basis" only to have them cut unexpectedly, and the first they know about it is when they ask their Carers to draw some shopping money only to find the bank account empty.

I have a friend in her 50s. All her adult life she worked as a Nursing Sister but she had to leave when she developed Multiple Sclerosis. She had Benefits because she cannot walk or focus her eyes to read, she is incontinent, she can't cook or bath herself and has trouble swallowing so she can't eat very much at all.
Last October, her Benefits were cut off. The DWP said in their opinion she could work and did not need a Carer or an electric wheelchair etc etc. When her Incapacity Benefits stopped, it had a knock-on effect so her Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit were stopped too, so her Landlord wasn't getting his rent money.

The last time I saw her, with her Carer, she said (indistinctly because her speech is affected) that she had asked the Carer to start packing up her flat because she was going to be evicted soon.

It is evil and wicked that such a terribly ill person who worked hard for years should be treated like this. She is one of those who says she has not got the strength to go to an Appeal Tribunal. Why on earth would the DWP make a decision like that? Have they found a cure for MS that none of us knows about? As far as I know, MS is either in remission or actively causing a marked deterioration in function. It never gets better. This woman can't dress herself or go to the toilet on her own. Just WHAT exactly is it that they are hoping she is going to do?

Personally, I believe she will commit suicide before facing a winter homeless on the streets. Well, I suppose that is ONE way of reducing the Benefits Bill. How vicious, thoughtless and cruel!! As well as unfair and undeserved!!

I get very fed up with the constant barrage of media articles depicting people on sickness benefits as lazy frauds trying to rob the taxpayer in cahoots with crooked doctors. Furthermore, how can an Employment Adviser with no medical background and not in possession of the full facts possibly make decisions about work, training etc?

Is there no reason or sanity left in society?