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Benefits Who?

Me | 16.08.2010 14:53 | Sheffield

Slowly but surely over the last few years, I've watched tolerance and understanding of mental health issues evaporate in the benefits system - not that there was much there to start with. The latest portfolio of idiots in power appear to view mental health as something that's guaranteed by the ability to earn money, and those whose mental health is poor need only to take the tablets, stop thinking about those damned problems, and just get on with earning already.



If only it were that easy, I'd currently be preparing for the start of a new teaching term whilst nursing my Seychelles tan and planning for a long weekend away in Singapore in October. I've got the qualifications. Schools are crying out for teachers. The pay is far more than any amount of DLA, ESA, IS or other benefits combined. So why don't I just 'pull myself together', 'get a grip' and 'stop scrounging'?

I have mental health issues. Big, f*ck-off issues. And yes, they prevent me from working. But I know, I'm making it all up, because mental health problems are easy to fake, aren't they? And what a great way to scrounge some benefit money whilst I'm at it! I should get up off my arse, stop making excuses and WORK, DAMMIT.

It's at this point that many people would go into detail as to why they can't work, and what caused them to be this way. I lost patience with justifying myself a long time ago. I shouldn't have to carry a potted medical history around with me to prove to all comers that yes, I am actually ill and deserving of benefits. It's nobody's business but my own. Unfortunately, in the current climate of ‘pick on the poor’ my right to privacy is winging its merry way out of the window, to be replaced by ‘work-focused interviews’, medicals by unqualified staff and financial compulsion (not forgetting the baying masses who believe what they read in the Daily Mail).
Treatment for my condition is my choice – or so I thought. So you can understand my ire when, after re-applying for DLA a couple of years ago, I received a letter stating that my benefit had been revised to a lower level...and when I called to ask why, I was told that the reason for this was because I wasn’t under the care of a hospital psychiatrist.

In other words, if you don’t take treatment, we’ll cut your money.

This was a new one on me. Having patiently explained on the multitude of DLA forms my reasons for not using the NHS psychiatric services – because they don’t listen to me, because they only want to give me tablets and not tangible help, because I never see the same member of staff twice, because having to explain your history and feelings week in and week out to a different person every time actually makes mental health issues worse, not better, and because I won’t make myself worse by being forced to talk about my history and feelings with someone I don’t know and who patently isn’t interested anyway – I’m told that my reasons are invalid, and I must receive NHS psychiatric care (subtext: or you’re either trying to stay ill, or you’re not really ill anyway and a psychiatrist would find you out).

I couldn’t quite believe it. But the (admittedly very helpful) lady on the other end of the phone at DLA Central confirmed that it was true – I couldn’t receive the level of DLA I’d been previously getting if I wasn’t seeing some sort of mental health professional. I noted that she’d softened from ‘hospital psychiatrist’ to ‘mental health professional’. I mentioned that I was currently attending the Rape Crisis Centre for counselling (which I had also included on the DLA forms). This, apparently, was enough. She filled in an appeal for me. My DLA was reinstated at the previous level, although no explanation was received as to why non-NHS counselling was ignored as ‘treatment’ in the first instance.

I thought it was a one-off. And then I read the mass of legalese that made up the newfangled ESA benefit small print. Lo and behold, the benefits office are now perfectly within their rights to remove a claimant’s benefits if said claimant refuses to take treatment ‘recommended by a healthcare professional’. Given that the government and benefits agencies seem to regard anyone who can spell ‘disability’ as a healthcare professional nowadays, that doesn’t bode well for the ongoing treatment of people with mental health issues, thinks I.

Why shouldn’t people with mental health issues be forced to take NHS psychiatric (or psychological) treatments? It’ll make them better, and able to go back to work, won’t it?

For a start off, no-one should be forced into medical treatments they don’t want, don’t consent to, or that may make their condition worse. Forcible medical treatment happened under regimes like Hitler’s and Stalin’s. It shouldn’t happen in a supposedly free country like the UK. That the basis for such compulsion is financial rather than ideological (although I’d dispute that the two were that much different) makes no odds. Forcing people in any way to take medical treatments that they don’t want is assault, pure and simple.

Added to that, there’s the way in which the NHS has been increasingly co-opted by the government in the last few years. CBT used to be absolutely impossible to get in the Midlands city where I used to live. A friend of mine who had a serious phobia spent years begging and pleading with various doctors and mental health services for CBT to be made available in the area, as it would’ve been the best thing to help her. It’s available now, of course – so available, in fact, that every wallah with any form of mental health issue (and a fair few physical ones too) is packed off to CBT. Hey, if it works for a phobia of buses, it must work for every other form of anxiety, right?

Perhaps your experience of CBT has been positive. I’m not doubting that it helps some people and some issues. But CBT is in no way the cure-all the government seems to crow that it is. I’m very wary of the way in which it’s being pushed on all people with mental health issues, because many mental health issues are caused by very real physical and societal problems. Changing the way the person with mental health issues thinks about these problems smacks of blaming (and silencing) the victim, rather than dealing with the problem. Of course, it’s cheaper that way – which is why, I suspect, CBT is being recommended for absolutely everything and its dog. Blame it on your head. Think differently. Get a grip. Get a job. It doesn’t take much to join the dots.

Outside of CBT, the waiting lists for psychiatric and psychological treatments are astronomical. You’ll need an assessment, which involves going through past history and current issues with someone whom you’ve never met before and may not ever see again. Unsurprisingly, this has the potential to leave people with mental health issues in serious crisis. Yet there’s no after-care – and if the current coalition government has its way, there’ll be precious little in the way of voluntary or charity-based support available either. If you manage to sit though the months of waiting to get a regular appointment with psychiatry or psychology, there’s no guarantee that you’ll see the same person twice (this seems to be the case especially in psychiatry) – and going through your history yet again with someone you don’t know or trust is at best not helpful, and at worst positively damaging. You might not want to take certain medications, based on potential side-effects. You might not want to talk about particular subjects. You might not want to go through any of this at all, as placing your very survival in the hands of someone you don’t know or trust is an incredibly vulnerable position to be in. Most people who don’t have mental health issues would find that uncomfortable. For someone like an abuse survivor, for example, such a situation may feel like the height of terror. But the benefits system doesn’t care if this negatively affects you. Whether or not it makes you better is besides the point – you have to show that you’re willing to ‘get over it’, shut up, take the tablets, IMPROVE, dammit, and WORK. Pretend that everything’s okay for someone else’s benefit, when it so obviously isn’t. I’ve been here before. And I’ve learnt through hard experience that the only way out is to shout – loudly – that the emperor is indeed in the nip.

All this DWP compulsion does is create more of a barrier to treatment for people with mental health issues, rather than less. I don’t want to talk to someone I don’t know about personal and uncomfortable things. I’m even less likely to want to talk to them if we both know that the only reason I’m there is to check up that I’m not faking, and that I’m trying to get better. I already know I can’t trust the DWP to take me seriously. Setting the NHS up for the same thing is a grave mistake – especially as the DWP’s medical ‘assessments’ take not one jot of notice of your NHS medical records anyway!

The current benefits ‘shake-up’ is designed to save money, pure and simple. People with mental health issues will be a prime target because they’re easy to dismiss. Our disabilities aren’t always visually obvious, and the government quite clearly thinks that this means we’re lying about having them. Conversely, if we do have them, then we’re evidently unable to think clearly and make our own decisions – therefore our views should be ignored. As people who are either lying or incapable, we can then be made to take treatments that will make us capable of being financially productive, and anyone who disagrees or can’t manage this is proven to be the very worst of benefit scrounging ungrateful scum.

Which leaves me wondering what will happen to those of us whose mental health conditions leave us, for whatever reason, outside of their glorious ‘Arbeit macht Frei’ future.

Me

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

The Sun is declaring war on feckless benefits claimants

16.08.2010 14:57

To slash the £5BILLION wasted in Britain's shambolic handouts culture.


That's the intro to an article in The Sun.

They go on:

Hundreds of thousands of scroungers in the UK are robbing hard-working Sun readers of their cash.

They cannot be bothered to find a job or they claim to be sick when they are perfectly capable of work because they prefer to sit at home watching widescreen TVs - paid for by YOU.


Despite the fact that the government has a hotline for reporting benefit fraud, The Sun have felt the need to set up their own. If you're thinking of shopping someone you suspect is a benefit cheat it's worth noting that the government number is an 0800 one so the call is free. The Sun's number is an 020 7 one so if you live in London you'll get charged the local call rate, if you live elsewhere in the UK you'll be charged a national call rate. I figure if you're in the business of reporting people for benefit fraud because you think their TV is too big you're probably keen to know what the call costs.

The Sun point out that their campaign has some high-profile support:

Our campaign aims to crack down on fraud and has the backing of Prime Minister David Cameron, who explains below how he is committed to tackling our out-of-control welfare state.


I'm off to nail my curtains to the wall so I don't get seen typing this and reported to The Sun for being a scrounger who's wasting hardworking Sun readers' money on owning a crappy old computer.

Me


not completely realistic demands

16.08.2010 17:12

The counter argument to this article obviously pertains to avoiding fraud. Anyone can say they have mental health issues that prevent them from work and then try to claim money.

The author argues that she shouldn't have to show/prove her medical history etc to get her benefits, and she shouldn't have to go get treatment.

My argument would be: Why not?
As a taxpayer, I want to be damn sure my contributions are going to genuine people and no money is goiing to fraudsters. People like me are having money taken out of our wage packets, so I have a right to expect that money to be past around fairly - because its my money! I feel a lot ore comfortable about having my money taken off me if I know at least some basic checks are being done.

The author seems to think that anyway should be taken at their word. I'm sorry, but the real world simply doesn't work like that unfortunately.

mike


Conversely, feigning a mental health problem is an excellent scam

16.08.2010 20:33

I'm sure many people like the author of this article are genuine claimants, but it is also an excellent way for people who want to do better things than work in dead-end jobs to scam the system. And there is nothing wrong with this - the system is run by the rich for the rich, and they will only spend the money on bombs, handouts to multinationals, etc. if people don't take it.

Mental health issues are notoriously difficult to disprove, and unlike bad backs you can't be easily caught out running round lifting heavy objects and doing sports.

So I say scam away and milk the system for all you can. And I say this as someone who is actually working and paying taxes to pay for this!

@non


@anon

16.08.2010 21:19

"Mental health issues are notoriously difficult to disprove, and unlike bad backs you can't be easily caught out running round lifting heavy objects and doing sports."
"So I say scam away and milk the system for all you can. And I say this as someone who is actually working and paying taxes to pay for this!"


Mmm.... not sure you have actually thought this one through properly.....
The trouble with this approach is that once people start jumping on the mental health fraud bandwagon, then people like the lady wrote this article suddenly have to jump through lots of new hoops to prove they have a real case (as stated... more difficult than it used to be).

Everyone knows that the government will always bring in measures to reduce fraud on benefits. Therefore, everyone knows that if they defraud the system they are going to make the government's checks that more difficult. Therefore, everyone knows that if they defraud benefits by using a mental health excuse, people like the author will find it that more difficult to make a genuine claim.

More fraud = more hoops = more problems for genuine people.

Therefore, fraudsters don't give a shit about people with genuine disabilities (backs) and genuine mental health issues. Fraudsters are self serving scum who actually don't give a shit about anyone else. It just creates a generation of "i'm alright jack... don't give a shit about you."

Thoughts?

mike


Not about Fraud

16.08.2010 21:58

The governments campaign against Benefit Fraud is not about Fraud. Its about re-inforcing the myths that surround the unemployed and sick.

For the Conservatives this has become a moral crusade, not only matched by its vindictiveness but also by their need to sow discontent & discord between the working class.

Mike has blindly followed and dutifully criticised.

Terratech
- Homepage: http://unemploymentmovement.com


unsure what you mean

16.08.2010 22:20

So you think that:
More fraud = more hoops = no additional problems for genuine claimants

correct?

mike


@mike

17.08.2010 01:05

Mike: "The trouble with this approach is that once people start jumping on the mental health fraud bandwagon, then people like the lady wrote this article suddenly have to jump through lots of new hoops to prove they have a real case"

I can see what you're saying, but I think they will always do this whatever. The problem is estimating what percentage of claimants are genuine. Even if 100% of claimants were genuine, they would always suspect a lot of them aren't, so they are always going to make people jump through hoops.

Anyway, not many people get rich claiming benefits, unless you have dozens of false identities. So if you are greedy and want to be rich, it's much easier to scam your money by working in the City. Benefits just keep you on the breadline. Benefit scams are for the lazy, not the greedy, and I think the more laziness about, the better.

In an ideal society scamming would be a bad thing, but given that the system is currently corrupt and designed for the wealthy, I don't have a problem with it. The rich can swan about doing bugger all and raking in the dough, so why should ordinary people sweat it for a shitty wage?

@non


Please Stop Regurgitating the same old crap

17.08.2010 20:58

Please Mike "Stop Regurgitating the same Old Crap".

If you teach people to be good capitalists they will act like them..... Just like the Banks, they found no problem excepting tax payers money.

Hang On.... got this mixed up haven`t I? people acting like good capitalist while on the Dole but Banks acting like socialists while getting the Dole. By this is a moral dilema, do you think we should really support these scroungers (Banks).



terratech
- Homepage: http://unemploymentmovement.com


Stop Regurgitating your same tripe

17.08.2010 21:59

Please Mike "Stop Regurgitating the same Old Crap".

Its not crap. I've looked at your website - that is crap. A few titbits:

--> "Our whole attitude is that we are already in charge and have international law behind us. A Right to Life does not mean we have to be consumed by an assumption of work."

You are right, you arn't forced to work. But the responsibility to feed yourself lies in yourself. You shouldn't need to be relying on a big nanny state to food and cloth you, like some 16yo who has just left home and needs mummy to still cook him dinner.

No one is telling you that you must work, what they are telling you is you shouldn't be living on handouts AND at the same time saying the state should be torn down. Why? Because the state is the one feeding you. If it wasn't for the state, there would be no-one giving you a handout.

You are an adult now, you should be able to sustain and look after yourself by interacting with society, not by holding you hand out.


--> "O.K. In Plain English... Well the founders of this organisation are communists, this is not an attack on individuals as we all have our beliefs"
Oh - here we go. You're a communist - that explains alot. Firstly, you arnt living in a communist country, so it isn't going to follow communist rules. That would be like moving to indian and complaining about the food and moaning that it isn't Sunday roast beef and bangers & mash. Communist? Wrong country mate.

--> "Unemployed Workers Union"
I don't get it. A union of unemployed people? Demanding their right to increases in handouts?
Make sense boy! What next? The Beggars Union? - demanding increases in contributions from passerby as per their Human Rights?

Lets get this straight. Handouts are NOT A HUMAN RIGHT. They never have been and they never will be. It is a luxury afforded through generosity and goodwill. If you don't have the ability to put food in your mouth then we will help you temporarily. That doesn't mean you have a right to that help. Consider a country like Somalia...... do starving people their Demand Their Human Right to handouts? Or course not.... because they live in the real world.


The banks???? Oh you mean that little thing called irresponsbile borrowing. Where lots of people borrowed money off the banks and promised/agreed to pay it back (without it being forced on them). Then suddenly they broke their word and didn't pay it back leaving a) THe bank to flounder and b) THe taxpayer to foot the bill? So working through an intermediate of the bank.... the taxpayer has paid off the people who borrowed money and didn't pay it back.
Taxpayers money is in the pocket of people who borrowed a shit load of money and spent it on a big car / tv and sofa that they couldn't afford.

mike


fecking sun readers at it again

18.08.2010 02:17

I was working and paying tax a year ago before all this financial crisis crap kicked in. I lost my job because my boss said the company had to do cutbacks. I never whined about where mny taxes were going while I was working.

I don't get these people who winge about how money the goverment is taking off them is used. I never gave a crap. Now I'm on benefit and two months ago was diagnosed with ms. Even though I'm diagnosed with something that hasn't got a cure I still don't get any sick benefit because I haven't had it long enough. I don't have a long enough history of it. I get nothing.

Now I am bothered about where my taxes are spent. I don't want it going in some mps pocket to pay for his fucking duck pond. I especially don't want it going to someone who reads the sun newspaper. I don't want it going on twats like the people talking on here.

I've like the idea that anyone who starts talking shit by gobbing off about how their taxes shouldn't go to scroungers should be forced to be unemployed then should be refused benefits. Just for the fun of it.

See you talk shit then.

For the women who posted this story I'm so sorry you have to listen to this luv I really am.

andy m


Moral Hypocrisy

18.08.2010 15:25

Mike your Moral Hypocrisy shines like a beacon, for those of us less mature.

Now you’re Quotes; well take anything out of context and you can make up a `WHOLE NEW STORY`, I especially like how you took a piece on the unemployment union ( http://unemploymentmovement.com/faq/42-about-the-unemployment-movement/54-are-we-connected-to-the-uwu.html) and quoted it as if this website supports it. The decent thing would have been to link quotes since you were already there, but hey that would spoil your rant.

So basically Human Rights are a waste of space, ill thought out and not for the real world and the people who wrote them up were morally inept… Blimey! Wouldn’t it have been better for the Somali`s if those Laws were being ENFORCED, Locally & Internationally? even better for for us and the lady who wrote the lead article.

On the Banks & Crisis; I think you need to reconsider this, as nobody has been paid back. They’ve moved a lot of money about, but the debt still exists (Government now owns it) and runs deeper than anyone can imagine. This is a FRAUD by speculators and Bankers and is not the responsibility of ordinary individuals (quote,who wouldn’t pay back). As Reference please visit the Keiser Report No.68 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bf5Frx1lZk) and run through to piece by William.K.Black.


“I've looked at your website - that is crap. A few titbits”

So does this mean you’ll be joining us and making the website more interesting? I mean you’ve admitted that I am right quote” You are right”, and then you’ll be able to read about what we are trying to archive through the unemployed standing up for themselves.

terratech
- Homepage: http://unemploymentmovement.com


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