Tag: multiple schlerosis

04 I don’t want people mourning me before I die

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She works 20 hours a week as an employment advisor
take-home pay less than 10,000 a year.
But with 400 a month in welfare payments
she is able to live alone
work
and pay for a specially modified car.
She pays for carers to come in twice a day to prepare meals,
twice-weekly visits to the physiotherapist.
The money from the Department
allows her the freedom to exist
independently.
The inexorable spread of her disease
(progressive multiple sclerosis
she was diagnosed as a teenager)
meant she would end up a ‘cabbage with a heartbeat.’
She decided long ago to take her own life at some stage:
‘I don’t want people mourning me before I die.’
In a consultation paper last December
the Department said it was paying ‘a lot more
than expected’
to disabled people.
It aims to reduce costs by a fifth.
A consultation ends this week.

[The Guardian, 14/02/2011, ‘Life not worth living’ for disabled people facing benefit cuts]

52 available to help

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He received a letter last month;
the Jobcentre – an appointment.
 
It read:
‘You and your personal adviser
will discuss the possibility
of going into paid work,
training for work,
or looking for work
in the future.
They will tell you about the support
available to help
with going back to work,
and make sure you have all the information
to help you make decisions that
are right for you
about work.’
His wife
called the Jobcentre to explain.
Sixteen years ago
he was diagnosed
with progressive
multiple
schlerosis.
He cannot walk,
talk,
or feed himself.
He communicates by blinking.
They told her
if getting to the Jobcentre was difficult
they could organise
a telephone interview
but if he did not attend
his benefits would be stopped.

[The Guardian, 22/06/2015, Man who cannot walk or talk called for jobcentre ‘back to work’ interview]