Thursday 2 August 2012

Unfair welfare cuts.

Many years ago now I was invited to give a talk to the PHAB club in Bury.  The physically handicapped and able bodied society was thriving with over a hundred members. It was hard to guess which ones were which at times...they all looked much the same unless they were in chairs!
They enjoyed the talk so I was invited back several times and had evenings when I just went for a chat...I got to know some of them quite well and marvelled at their resilience, their gritty determination to be treated as equals and not as some sort of sideshow in a fair.
One or two told me that in the days before the welfare state  some of them might have had recourse to do just that...
I was impressed with them, their carers and the gadgets that existed to make their lives easier...in the days before computers were a universal miracle to see the complicated screens responding to speech or touch was wonderful...
I am now dismayed that some of these people are being targeted. It seems that if you have coped well with your disability, if you are still smiling in the face of mobility problems which in years gone by would have had you confined to your home for ever...these brave people are now being told they are fit for work in some instances...
I have known people who have worked the system.....the cheats are now responsible for the harsh way the genuine are being treated.....
If there is a way to distinguish the genuine and needy from the free loaders then it needs to be employed but I am fearful for those people who will find their benefits cut and who are unable to speak out for themselves......I have no idea whether the PHAB club is still in existence but if it is then maybe this is the time to make things public...to campaign, to shout....anything to draw attention to what is happening or going to happen to those who are  suffering from the new rules. .
In any civilised society the affluent, the able bodied,  the lucky ones should always I believe take care of those less fortunate....
Its not even a requirement of Christianity but of decent human  care for others....I hope there is a rethink of what seems to be happening in our country right now....those who are hit have already enough to contend with heaven only knows.

No comments: