More than 20 years ago I was diagnosed with a painful degenerative condition and assessed for DLA and Incapacity benefits. The process at the time was very thorough. I was sent to a residential assessment center for a week, my every move was watched and I was tested for all possible work activities. The resultant advice was that I could do anything I liked - as long as I did it lying down! I was awarded DLA 'for life'. Since then life has not been easy by any stretch of the imagination. The pain, frustrations and indignities of my condition are a constant challenge which can be very hard to bear but the knowledge that I would always have a roof over my head and food on the table made it just about possible to cope. Then came Atos. At first the idea of reassessment didn't worry me unduly, I am, after all, genuinely and irrevocably too sick to work. But then the stories started. Friends who have conditions similar to my own were being tested - and told they could work, on the strength of a 20 minute tick box 'assessment' ! I have watched them go through the arduous process of appeals etc and although they have now had benefits reinstated it has in every case made their conditions worse. I'm still waiting and I am, frankly, terrified! I have coped for this long but everybody has their breaking point and I am now having to take antidepressants on top of everything else as I can't even think about it all without crying. All this talk about 'shirkers' doesn't help either. Anyone who thinks living like this is a 'lifestyle choice' needs urgent psychiatric assessment. I started paying national insurance the day after I left school and continued to do so until I became ill. I and my ilk are ENTITLED to the benefits we receive. We are not 'scroungers' - we paid for them!
I wrote this post this morning,initially as a comment following an article in the guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/17/atos-attack-emotional-commons-debate?fb=native&commentpage=4
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