This week I was visited by Robin On The Road - the awareness raising tour from the people behind The Robin Hood Tax. They've posted my blog here and posted a video here.
Cross-posted from The Robin Hood Tax blog
by Kaliya Franklin
Any of our lives can change in an instant; whether it be the sudden shock of finding a lump in your breast or uniformed policemen arriving at 3am to break the news your teenage son is fighting for his life after being hit by a drunk driver. More often it’s the gradual pain of witnessing our elderly parents becoming increasingly frail and dependant, the heartbreaking effects of disease on our spouse and the new awareness of a world which will never be the same again. A world so eloquently described by one parent of a profoundly disabled child.
“The very painful thing about disability – whether your own or your loved one’s – is the feeling that the situation is out of your control. When the system that surrounds you is very top-down, bureaucratic, inhuman, that can only increase your feelings of helplessness … but I do believe there are moments of despair, helplessness and frustration that could be directly alleviated by the work of government.”
As a disabled person I have never before felt such despair and fear for all our futures. Every day I hear of day centres closing, desperately unwell people being denied disability benefits, parents fundraising for specialist wheelchairs the NHS can’t afford to provide their children with, carers at such breaking point they feel their only option is to put their loved one into state residential care, and most chilling of all, people planning exit strategies to end their lives for when the time they most fear comes and their benefit is denied.
We have all paid our taxes and national insurance for ourselves and our loved ones in the expectation the financial support and protection they provide will be there for us in our hour of need. The savage cuts to disability benefits and services mean this will no longer be the case, but unlike that passionate parent we have no other resources we can fall upon as his government take away our safety net and hurl us off the cliff into despair.
Non-partisan UK-based Disability campaign. Advocacy for people with invisible illness and/or physical & mental health conditions. Also Carers, their Families and Friends. Our individual voices are too quiet to be heard, but collectively we can shout loud enough to drown out this tide of abuse against us. Disability Hate Crime, lack of full legal protection, people in care homes costing too much to be let out and not one political party willing to fight for us.
Wrote my reply on the Robin on the road site and cant find it to cut n paste to here :-(
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. I think that sadly, particularly with regard to social care, people have little awareness about the system until they get up close to it, either because of their own change in circumstances or that of a close relative.
ReplyDeleteAs a former front-line worker who carried out assessments for social services (not DLA or anything like that I hasten to add) I was often witness to that moment when people realised that the safety net they assumed would be there was in actual fact pretty thread-bare.
Dark and difficult times lie ahead......
ReplyDeleteCameron is the new Voldemort!
I have never in my life felt as scared or as desperate as I do since this Govt started their attack on the disabled. I used to feel like ‘somebody cared’ when they informed me that DLA existed. I felt like – At least somebody recognises how hard life has become and they appreciate that it is so bloody hard to get through.
ReplyDeleteNow – I feel like all they want me to do is lie down and die and get out of their face.
I am so sick of hearing that smarmy faced cameron saying how we are all making sacrifices when that is NOT true! He isnt mking any sacrifices the only people who are – Are the poor and the working people on low wages who will truly feel it – The rich probably havent even noticed the difference as their Accountants can shield them from Tax – If you are a big company the Govt will let you of billions of tax. The only people who really feel it are those who don’t have much to start with.
I wish I was rich! I wish I could look after myself and not have to live every single day in fear of what this Govt will throw at me next.
Theit ACA says I am fit for work – Does that mean I am suddenly cured fgrom this incurable disease?????? Can ATOS work miracles in this way or are they just hoping I will die because I cannot do the work they wish me to.
These ‘sanctions’ Do something wrong and lose benefits for up to 3 YEARS! What is that? If not to push people in to jail from stealing food – On to the streets from homelessness – Or to kill themselves? How can any human live for years – even months with NO MONEY AT ALL????????
This is bloody ridiculous – I wish Cameron could suddenly be morphed into a broke disabled persons body – Then he might open his stupid smarmy eyes and see what he is doing to this country.
We are NOT all in this together – He is just a bloody liar and wants the poor to pay for all the bankers and everyone else who HAVE millions don’t want to!
I am scared and yes – I have also a ‘get out plan’ That will kill my mother after me and my children will never forgive me – But they have left me with no choice! And no hope
hang in there be like the rest of us and by sticking together we will all rise together or fail
ReplyDeletewe all understand your plight so just hang tight or do as do and find a church to pray in private that helps