Threat to DLA and AA

This subject is hitting the web, blogosphere and twitter quite hard now with some interesting posts. If you are disabled and getting benefits you need to get involved.

Here are some posts worth looking at.

Bendygirl.

Lisybabe.

The Social Care Experts Blog.

Now go and join the Benefits and Work Campaign, this page also has plenty of links with more information.

Equality 2025

I have to thank Wheelchair Steve for twittering about Equality 2025. The group is supposed to be our voice within the government, except that we didn't elect them and they don't seem to be making much of an effort to let the disabled know they are there.

Wheelchair Steve has made a good suggestion though, go to their blog and start leaving comments, I've already asked why the web team made no effort to engage in BADD2009

I've also posted a blog with my first impressions of Equality 2025 and their work so far.

Blogging Agaqinst Disabilism Day 2009 - BADD2009

Please follow the link here to go to the full post at Diary Of A Goldfish.

I will be sifting out the UK blogs and adding links to them here later.

What A Diagnosis Can Mean

I, like many other disabled people, am fortunate in knowing what caused my disability, I might not have known that I would end up disabled when my accident happened, but the cause and effect were easy to trace. Many disabilities are not obvious, even to the medical profession, some disabled people have a much harder time, they are disbelieved, mocked and ignored.

Bendy Girl at Benefit Scrounging Scum is one of those people. I've already been through her story reading her blog from start to finish. Today she has recounted a part of her struggle in her post, Bendy Bloggers, go have a read, understand the struggle that some people have when it comes to getting their illnesses recognised, instead of them being dismissed, then have a think about a benefits system that doesn't help.

My girlfriend has been trying to get help, she has been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, she applied for DLA in July 2008. The month before she had a medical for Income Support, even though she had been going for a barrage of tests the DWP doctor ignored everything other than her wrist injury and said she was fit for work.

The people at DLA took the medical as fact and denied her claim.

What they didn't know, even though she tried to tell them, is that medical report was seriously incorrect, it was dated incorrectly, it gave the wrong location for the medical, and because of the doctors intransigence, it didn't cover any of her symptoms even though he was informed of them. The doctor said they didn't matter.

A Rheumatologist diagnosed the Fibromyalgia, that diagnosis was sent to the DLA people, but because the DWP doctor ignored the symptoms the diagnosis was ignored. Finally she went to appeal, a doctor is coming to assess her on Tuesday. She realises that she must have won her appeal, but she still thinks that she will get nothing, now she is worrying so much about this assessment because her trust in the benefits system has been ruined, ruined by a doctor paid by for by the DWP.

How can we get away from this mindset, a mindset in which we see doctors as the enemy in many cases? I have been there as well with DWP doctors, I've been told that things don't matter during a medical, and then had my level of disability reduced because that small fact wasn't in the doctors final report. I like many others see the DWP doctors as people who are trying to catch us out, rather than make an honest assessment of our abilities.

How do we change that while we are being assessed by doctors who work for the system? How do we ensure that correct dianoses are made, not just for benefit purposes, but for the mental health of people being damaged by constant assertions that there is nothing wrong with them?

We need people like Bendy Girl, being a blogger she can let the world know that you have to keep fighting for that correct diagnosis, she can be there for all the other people who haven't yet been diagnosed with EDS, but are searching for that answer.

Possible Benefits Interruptions

I had my head up my arse yesterday when this link was sent to me, I should have posted it here straight away, thank you to Louise Bolotin for letting me know.

The forum post the link points to warns about the changes to the benefits payment system. For a number of benefits there will be a move to fortnightly payments in arrears, there is also going to be a change to payment days depending on your national insurance number. You are supposed to get a months notice, however some people haven't.

More from Jobcentre Plus.

These changes will affect those on the following benefits: Jobseekers allowance, incapacity benefits, income support, severe disablement allowance, bereavement benefit or widows benefit.

DisAbility And Parenting

Sarah over at Same Difference has a post she would like to reach as many people as possible on the subject of parenting and disability so I'll reproduce it in full here.

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by samedifference1

I recently read the following outrageous comment on This Is My Blog, through Twitter:

sandy said…

hi mary–

have been reading your blog for a bit, & this is sort of a response to your wanting to have a kid with steve.

it makes me sad to read your struggles, but i would beg you to leave that idea (or even adoption or fostering behind.)

how on earth could you take care of a child when you spend most of your time seriously broken? you seem like a lovely person & to put a child in that position would be cruel no matter how much you craved being a mommy.

please be careful, stay on birth control & accept that your fate is to not be able to go down a maternal road.

best to you. sandy

Not surprisingly, this comment has been responded to with great anger by several very sensible people.

Personally, I’m DisAbled and I’m not ready to have children, but that doesn’t mean I never will be. I certainly don’t agree, even for a second, with Sandy. Her attitude is so outdated, it’s unbelievable. I can think of at least two DisAbled parents, both of whom, I’m sure, do a great job. The first of these is Alison Lapper. The second is DisAbled dad and journalist Tim Rushby-Smith, who is currently writing a brilliant series of articles for The Times about life as a disabled parent. I’m very sure that they both have as much love to give their children as anyone else. Surely that’s all that really matters.

I believe that blogging is about discussion, and I think this is a topic worth discussing. I’d love to hear the experiences of any DisAbled parents who read this, in the comments below. I’d also love to hear the experiences of any children who’s parents are DisAbled, if possible. If this gets enough reaction, I’d like to guest post some people’s thoughts, and give those posts a ‘Debate’ page of their own. So, readers, please share your thoughts and experiences.

Blogging Against Disabilism Day - BADD

If you didn't already know, May 1st is Blogging Against Disabilism Day!

If you want to take part pay a visit to the Diary of A Goldfish, leave a comment, pick up your badges or buttons to display on your blog and start thinking what you want to write about.

If you already have a badge you might want to change it for the 2009 model.

Added Feature

I've amended the Blogroll to show a snippet of the latest post.

This will allow us all to track the latest updates and see who is saying what.

If anyone has any ideas that we can use to improve this site as a blog hub for disabled bloggers please let me know.

Mock The Disabled At Liberal Conspiracy

This is a post on my own blog at The Morningstar, I posted after reading one of the political blogs that is supposedly, "Right On". Well it turned me right off.

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I find it really quite unbelievable that the author of a post at Liberal Conspiracy can happily mock the disabled.

Unity wrote,

As adverts for political blogging go, the whole Guido vs Draper thing has been somewhere on a par with promoting a cage fight between Stephen Hawking and Helen Keller as an advert for mixed martial arts, which is why I’ve got no hesitation in respond to Draper’s appeal for a fresh start.

Yeah right on Unity, isn’t it wonderful using two disabled role models in that way, especially in a blog titled, “Hypocrisy Rules Okay“. it gets even funnier when you read the comment policy…

# We have a tight comments policy aimed at fostering constructive debate.

# We believe in free speech but not your right to abuse our space.

# Abusive, sarcastic or silly comments may be deleted.

# Misogynist, racist, homophobic and xenophobic comments will be deleted.

Seems that the disabled are fair game in both posts and comments at Liberal Conspiracy, also seems like Sunny Hundal, doesn’t have a problem with mocking the disabled either, as he is the editor and allowed the post to be made.

I wouldn’t normally get that annoyed by the sort of comment I’m talking about, Obama did it after all and I was in two minds then. The difference is that in this case someone didn’t just blurt it out, Unity took the time to type it out and pick two people who would obviously make his analogy even funnier in his mind and then posted in to the world as an example of how clever he is.

Don’t you just love seeing people proudly parading their prejudices.

Clair Lewis

Clair, aka Dennis, is a disability rights activist from Manchester. She has her own blog on Live Journal in which she posts about her activism, although not just on disability issues, but also on consenting adults and sexual rights.

Her latest post covers yesterdays protest with the Disabled Peoples' Direct Action Network (DAN) in Birmingham.

Badge

I've added a simple logo to the sidebar of the blog for people to use for the time being, at present it is 180x60 pixels, which should fit most sidebars and apparently it can be scaled down if you know your code.

Disability Symbols

We all know this symbol is used to denote the disabled in every day life. It doesn't tell the whole story though, and it certainly doesn't help those people whose disability isn't visually obvious. How many times are they subjected to accusing stares because the public have little or no understanding of the whole spectrum of disbility.

So I'm asking if anyone has an idea for a symbol that could be used alongside the present one, a symbol that immediately gives an impression of a mental or neurological disability. It seems obvious to me that it makes sense to use a blue and white colour scheme to match the present symbol. Louise has given me one idea, a head with a mushroom cloud above it, I've also been thinking about a head with a number of lightning bolts aimed at it.

If you have an idea, please comment, if you have an idea and the skills to produce an icon, then we'd really, really, like to hear from you. There won't be any payment, but hopefully people will use your symbol to link back to this site in future.

Bendy Girl - Care In The NHS

Bendy Girl writes the Benefit Scrounging Scum blog, she has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome/Hypermobility Syndrome, and yet despite that she manages to bring a great deal of humour to her blog, far more than I can.

A good example of her humour can be found in her recent post, "Can We Fix It?"

She often mentions spoons on Twitter, for an explanation as to why, have a look here (.pdf).

A Post on Epilepsy

Louise over at Diary of a Wordsmith has written an excellent post on the effects of epilepsy. No matter what our own disabilities are, and how we deal with them, it is often easy to forget just how debilitating other less visual disabilities can be.

Louise gives a graphic description of how 90 seconds of a simple partial seizure can steal hours, if not days of her life. If you have Epilepsy, or a family member suffers from it, Louise has written a book on it that is available from Amazon.

UK Disabled Bloggers

This is an attempt to start a group for disabled bloggers in the UK, it doesn't matter how disabled you are, or in what way you are disabled, let us know who you are, and where your blog is through the comments and we'll add it to the blogroll.

I'd also like to add links to any websites that you as a disabled person feel might be helpful to others. Again, leave any suggestions in the comments at the end of the latest post.