As the time gets nearer . . .

I am really starting to get worried. 


Every time post comes through the door now, both Hubby and I groan when we see a brown envelope.


So far, they have been standard letters, telling us of any changes, or no changes, to our benefits. But we know that, very soon, there will be something from the DLA, probably a questionnaire, and that will be the moment when our fight for survival starts!


I know this sounds very dramatic but, for us, the DLA I was awarded, has been the difference between being able to heat our home, or not - I have big problems with my temperature control, and so need the heating on almost all the time - and my being able to stay in contact with the rest of the world, via the internet, due to being bed-bound for the vast majority of the time.


Due to my various conditions - Arthritis, Fibromyalgia,  Lymphodaema, IBS, Hughe's Syndrome, and now a return of the Migraines I thought had stopped ten years ago - I was awarded HRC and HRM, indefinitely with  DLA and, after the long battle fighting for it in the first place, I thought that at least one benefit would be there to help me. 


But I guess the government decided to change the meaning of the word 'indefinite' - or, at least to get around it, by changing the name of the very benefit I was awarded!


I admit that, no matter what spin is put on it, I truly feel that anyone unfortunate enough to be inflicted with serious illness or disability has been abandoned by this government - and not only this one, but the shadow government, and any other political party at present in existence.


None of us chose to fall ill, or to have accidents, or other problems that cause disabilities. 


The vast majority of us would love nothing better than to be able to support ourselves, with all the sense of pride and achievement that this brings. 


But the reality of our lives, is that most of us are unable to sustain the amount of effort it takes to work for long enough, in order to earn the kind of wages that would support us - this, supposing that we find an employer willing to take us on, with all the problems that this would entail! 


But those of us that do find work, have need of the DLA awarded to them, in order to be able to afford the items, such as mobility cars, or wheelchairs, or even taxis etc., that keep them mobile enough to continue working!


Over the years I have watched the gradual breakdown of the Welfare State, and the attempts by big businesses to coax the governments in power, to turn the whole thing over to them, as a money-making business. 


I had always thought that it would never happen here in Britain but, as I type this, I can see it on the cards. 


But it won't be the rich who suffer when this happens - it will be the elderly, the poor, the weak, the ill, and the disabled, who will bear the brunt of that cost while, as seems to be usual in these days, the big businessmen will sit high on the hog, enjoying all the results of their rape of the Welfare State, while squirrelling away their non-taxable profits in off-shore accounts. 


Eventually, this country will be drained dry of any profit to be made - and then these same businessmen will move on to pastures new, without a backwards glance at the devastation they leave behind!


And in the meantime, the roll-call of people driven by despair and need to suicide will grow larger and larger, and the world will watch as the country that was big enough to start a Welfare State in the first place, shows it's new colours of indifference to need, and hatred of illness and disabilities, towards the vulnerable and needy in society.