People with disabilities SHOULD fear losing benefits because they’re too active. Even cancer patients can’t get them
Fear: Former Paralympian Carly Tait said it was devastating to be told her Motability car could be taken away.
If this information is accurate, you can’t blame people with disabilities.
Only days ago, we learned about a woman with stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a very serious form of cancer – who was denied Personal Independence Payment because she was considered not to be sick enough.
The problem is that failure to exercise, even in a rudimentary way, may affect the life expectancy of a person with a long-term illness or disability.
We’re often told exercise is good for us, after all.
So it is possible that, by doing what they think will ensure that they continue to receive benefits, these people are doing the Tory government’s dirty work for it.
It’s a particularly nasty Catch-22.
We should be glad that a future Labour government will take a good, hard look at the benefit system, with a view to restoring its original purpose as support for people in need, rather than their doom.
Disabled people avoid exercise as they fear being stripped of much-relied on benefits for appearing “too independent”, campaigners say.
New research, published by Activity Alliance, says that almost half (47%) worry the government will cut their benefit if they seem too active for a disabled person.
But almost two-thirds (65%) said they rely on benefits to maintain a healthy lifestyle and that, without support, they could not afford travel, specialist equipment and paid-for exercise.
Source: Almost Half Of Disabled People Fear Being Stripped Of Benefits For Being ‘Too Active’
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Problem is that within the arbitary system, anyone who has any disability is terrified of being seen to be doing anything for fear of losing their benefits lifeline.
There are good days and bad days.
If you try to help your condition on a good day by being active, you could be punished by the Government for making an effort subsequently making your bad days even worse.
It’s a divisive system that gives you the choice of vegetating and dying through lack of effort or actually trying and dying through that same effort.