ATOS

So, I've sent off my third form in 12 months.
I had to go for a medical after sending off the first one, and got a free pass on the second one, meaning no medical from ATOS

Medicals with ATOS are quite easy for me to pass - you see I have to travel nearly 50 miles on public transport to get to the medical centre, and by the time I get there I am in agony, and I am a sweaty, gibbering wreck, even with the use of a TENS machine and painkillers. It (the pain, and the exam) also brings on my anxiety, so I am 2 sweaty gibbering wrecks for the price of one.

However, the worst part comes later.
Last time I was bedbound for three days after having to travel the nearly 100 miles there and back, and it wasn't for around two weeks that I was back to what passes as normal for me.

Of course I was put in the working group, but as my ESA was contribution based, I only had to attend one session with the "work provider" and that was voluntary.

This time will be different however.
My work based contributions will run out in march, and I will have to attend workshops and be assessed by them on a regular basis, which I believe lasts for a minimum of 2 years.
This isn't a bad idea - if you can walk, sit and are comfortable around strangers, rather than the pain filled half ambulatory, anxiety ridden, bi-polar mess that I am.

But I digress.
Having been through quite a few of these medicals, and having read some real horror stories about them, I think I've been very lucky in that I have always had a nice assessor.
Indeed, at my last medical, the nice lady kept asking me if I was alright to continue, probably due to the fact that I was shaking, sweating and clearly in huge discomfort both physically and mentally. The dear even offered to get me some water, how nice of her after her employer had put me in that position in the first place.

The point these people, and the government are missing though, is that many of us on ESA want to work, but can't.
I dread to think of an employers liability should I have a manic episode at work, because at those times I seem to have very little control over what comes out of my mouth.
I mean, I think I'm being witty - others rarely do, unless they like profanity, sexual innuendo and wide eyed ravings about government conspiracies.
And that's before we address the fact that I can barely walk and am unable to sit for more than 5 minutes without being in extreme discomfort.

In case you're wondering, I am in bed, propped up with pillows writing this on a laptop, as I wrestle with remembering to eat and not being able to get my socks on.
On the plus side, I now have very dextrous feet.
Putting your socks on with your feet is great for this, and I hope to find an employer who will let me do my job lying down, whilst sorting mail with my toes.

Benefits

We get it.

We know we're not supposed to live the life of Riley on Benefits.

But since when did Social Security become a benefit?

Until I got injured, I had worked all my adult life, I'd paid my dues, I had contributed.

Now though, I am a skiver, because I have claimed what is rightfully mine.

However, it gets worse.
In what is possibly the sneakiest move I have ever seen, I received no rise in my Incapacity Benefit last April, because they moved me (and probably thousands like me) onto ESA, which didn't qualify me for the increase, before it came about.
A 1% cap on benefits when civil servants have received only 1% wage rise that sounds like a good idea, until you realise that 1% of ESA is a lot different than the UK average salary of £26k.
It's (for me) less than a pound a week - and this is at a time when inflation might seem low, but where costs for basics have gone through the roof.
Electricity, water, basic foodstuffs have all increased by a lot more than 1% and, it now transpires, that many will also have to pay 25% of Council tax, and in some cases a new bedroom tax.

Where does it end, where will it end.
Whilst food banks can't keep up with demand, while people are losing their homes, while children go hungry and cold, our MP's decide what's really needed is a 32% rise in their basic salary to £86,250.
Think about that for a minute.

People on the breadline get a 1% rise, but MP's think they should get a 32% rise, and that's on top of all the expenses, allowances and outright fiddles.
Yeah right, "We're all in this together" my arse.

The hypocrisy is absolutely stunning in its downright arrogance - these people don't pay council tax, they don't pay tax on their (ahem) "expenses", they claim for everything they can, they have taxpayer subsidised food AND booze on tap in the commons, and they do it all with a huge grin on their faces because they know they are getting away with daylight robbery.

Meanwhile, someone like myself, who has actually contributed to the system instead of inheriting money from a tax dodging ancestor is being screwed for every single last drop.

We need to remember that these people don't give a shit about us.
They care about relatively few things, the most important being to keep their noses in the trough of the public purse, to look after their corporate masters, to prop up their rich banker friends using our money, and to keep their feet on the neck of the collective poor.

It's time we faced the fact that party politics is about one thing only - it's not about looking after, or helping the people of this country, it's about staying in power for as long as possible so they can perform "democratic" rape on the poorest in our society as they gorge on the misery they cause.