BBC NWT - my reply
On Wednesday 9th January BBC North West Today & Tonight did a report about the 1 in 5 people in the NW who claim Incapacity Benefit and are stereotyped by the Government as lazy system fiddlers. They came and filmed me speaking about my view. Even though the report was good, I felt I needed to say more about my experiences and frustrations about the Government’s treatment of us.
Many of us, who have disabilities/injuries and claim Incap, are living productive lives and do voluntary work - unpaid work - when our disability/injury allows us, to keep charities running. In simple terms, we suffer this exploitation to help our communities and our country. We could stay at home and do nothing! Millions of people wouldn’t even dream of working for free - when did Gordon Brown do any volunteering this year? When did David Cameron help his local community unpaid and not for publicity or political gain? So, please do think about that.
I, myself, volunteer (when I can) for the British Red Cross, ALLFM and this website - I put back into my community when the pain is less noticable! Why doesn’t this Government reward us instead of punishing us? Why don’t they give us help with education, training, resourses, expenses and any needed equipment? They could reward us for attending educational courses and training. But, they rather punish us and make us 3rd class citizens and make us suffer even more.
All this I do so I can gain confidence, help towards my recovery, manage my disability and hopefully get back into full time work and contribute to society.
Stepping Stones may help those who are already trained, but I find they are of no help when needing training. That’s my finding. All this Government is interested in is keeping their figures down and they don’t care how. Statistics, are we? Human being, I am! This Government just wants to brag about how they got people off Incap into jobs, low paid minimum wage posts, and they, like David Cameron, just doesn’t care how they accomplish it. EDUCATION, RESOURSE, UNIVERSITY POSTS, REAL PROPER TRAINING, EQUIPMENT and FUNDING is the answer.
HOLD ON! Are you 18-24yrs..?? “No?” What a pitty, as the Government is throwing millions at the young; at the same time the older disabled people, who’ve contributed to this country, are put on the shelf to collect dust - well, left to sweep it up in a dead end job. Isn’t there “Age Descrimination” now? Government exempt again from that one?
Even Government training initiatives are not working. Another image for the press as the MP’s all smile. “Look at us, aren’t we great at forcing disabled people down another dead end street” Then the scheme ends, the Government takes our money away and we still don’t get the opportunities - no experience, certificate or college not recognised. Still, I’m not relying on this or any Government… I’ll make it wether or not!
This is my reply blog:
Oops! I said, “restrict” instead of “un-restricted” when mentioning education and 15 hours.. sorry!