This Week in Disability News

What a week. 

There have been many psychology-related happenings that I’ve wanted to touch on in this blog post. I had my Universal Credit interview at the local Job Centre, as mentioned last week. 

This went a lot better than expected. Job Centre Lady – we’ll call her JCL – was very helpful and knowledgeable. My passport, which she needed for identification purposes, was nearly out of date, but it was fine for the UC interview. JCL explained I could take good photos on my phone and do the application online, rather than pay for photos at a booth. (I still need to do this.) The UC claim has gone through and I’m in receipt of it. 

It’s a huge relief. I have 12 months’ transitional protection, as I’ve been asked to move from Working Tax Credit, but if I’m still above the £16K savings threshold this time next year (I likely will be), I probably won’t be eligible. As for now, the payment should be the same amount. I shouldn’t have to do anything about this for 12 months. UC payments go in monthly, as opposed to weekly Working Tax Credits (mine have now stopped) and weekly PIP payments. All that was required was a quick analysis of what was going in and out of my current account and ISA. 

There was a message that flashed up on the website, while I was applying, that suggested that my claim was subject to me looking for more work. When I tried to find the message again, it had disappeared. I asked JCL about this. 

‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘It’s for people who are out of work. The Job Centre doesn’t have time to look into this for people who are already working.’ 

So, that’s a relief. I have an HMRC account on which there are messages I can leave for workers like HTCL who helped me start the process of claiming UC. She seems to agree that everything has gone fine. I’ll catch up with her with a phone call in a few weeks. All that is required of me is to check this to-do list on HMRC, with a few minor tasks, once a week. I’ve picked Saturday for my routine as that’s when I blog about psychology, into which this process ties. There’s nothing in the list today. 

I’ve written about the need for good professionals to assist you in these situations, especially when you have a disability that affects the way you process information, like I do. I’ve been quite fortunate that things didn’t spiral out of my control. 

Other people haven’t been so lucky. The Commons Work and Pensions Committee are already launching an investigation following countless deaths of disabled benefit claimants linked to its actions and failings over more than a decade. This investigation is into the same DWP that refused George Mitchell’s PIP and left him unable to buy food – because his landlord told them to. The same DWP that lost a court case over inaccessible letters, but kept sending them to the claimant – who is blind - anyway.  The same DWP that, it transpired last week, used delaying tactics that has helped deny justice to the relatives of those who have lost their lives. 

To their credit, The DWP have shown some sliver of redemption nationally: it transpired this week that they had tried to prevent private contractor ATOS from winning the £338m assessment contract,  leading to the interviews that saw thousands of disabled claimants like me humiliated, debased and treated like liars. 

It’s my intention to cover my experience of this in more detail another time. 

This, of course, is the same ATOS that hired a nurse that outright lied, numerous times, during Oldhamer Ian Littler’s assessment. Mr Littler had the good sense to secretly record the assessment, to prove that he in fact had not ‘called people scum,’ and that his dog had had to wake him up 130 times due to his tongue swelling, not the 4 times the nurse decided to record. 

There are many other stories from ATOS just like this one, and they don’t get the coverage that they should in the media. It’s important that the public are aware of how the Government treats disabled claimants, and what the repercussions are of their votes. And more to the point, why people might have a problem with them personally if they admit to voting Tory. 

The problem lies in that not all disabled people have the capability to properly express their experiences with these departments, so a lot of incidents like the above – whether negative or positive – go unreported. Not to mention, news outlets like The BBC have conservative agents influencing their output, and will doubtlessly underreport such things. 

So, if people seem to take your Tory vote personally, it’s because it is personal.