Reblogged from Diary of a Benefit Scrounger:
Imagine if just days after they were (almost) elected, the government had
announced they were going to scrap state pensions. Instead, they were going to
replace pensions with Personal Retirement Payments. BUT, in the process 20% of
existing pensioners would lose their pensions altogether. That's one in five no
longer eligible. Overnight, just like that.
Imagine pensioners fought the
changes through parliament and the Lords and WON, but the governemnt just went
ahead anyway.
But then, as if that wasn't bad enough, imagine that just
as they announced their final plans, they'd snuck a new change in at the last
minute without asking anyone. Imagine that not only would 1 in 5 pensioners lose
their entire income straight away, but they were also going to raise the
retirement age to 104!! A 60% change with no warning at all!
Imagine
pensioners took legal action and forced them to consult on raising the
retirement age so drastically and unrealistically, but even when EVERYONE
opposed it, the government just said "Meh, Oh well, we're going to do it
anyway"
Well, the country would think the government had finally tipped
over the edge into delusion wouldn't they? The Daily Mail would have geriatric
armies with pitchforks razing parlaiment to the ground!! I imagine there would
be a vote of no confidence in the government by about midday.
Yet, this
is EXACTLY what they've done to sick and disabled people.
Firstly, with
no warning, nothing in either manifesto, they abolished Disability Living
Allowance and replaced it with Personal Independence Payments, announcing a 1 in
5 cut in existing cases.
Sick and Disabled people fought the changes with
everything they had, but the government just ignored them.
Just like
raising the retirement age to 104 would be a 60% increase overnight, so the
government have slashed the distance you can walk before qualifying for
assistance with getting about from 50 mtrs to 20 mtrs. A 60% reduction!!! Few
people will qualify now, just as few would qualify for a pension at 104. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/251631/pip-mobility-consultation-government-response.pdf
Yet
no-one says a word. The media don't listen, the public don't get to hear about
it and far from pitchforks at dawn, the Daily Mail actually lead the charge
against us. I haven't actually see this huge announcement on the
mainstream news at all.
I watched a programme hosted by Stephen Fry the
other night on homophobia. It struck me how casually homophobic some
nations were, how instituionalised the homophobia and therefore how practically
impossible it was for homosexuals to be heard or to report crimes against them.
They were dismissed as "attention seeking" "corrupting" and even "ill". They
couldn't tell their real stories, and no-one would listen to them if they
did.
I watch legions of sick and disabled people try to tell the public
every day what is really going on here in the UK and I watch how casually they
are ignored. How ingrained the belief that "We wouldn't do that here in the UK"
or that we're just a special interest group making a lot of noise.
It
chills me. Just like many pensioners, not all sick and disabled people can
simply go and earn more money. Just like pensioners, they paid tax and national
insurance believing if they became sick or disabled, they would be entitled to
support.
And just like pensions, disability support used to enjoy great
cross party and public support.
Who knows, maybe, just maybe no-one would
listen to the pensioners either. Nothing would surprise me any more.
