Something a lot of people don't seem to realize...

@FoxyQueen Oh, I think they see it... but they think that it's okay because they won't NEED it - until they do.

We have MP's tightening the criteria for Personal Independence Payments over here. The idea being that it will force more disabled people into work. Problem is that these payments aren't awarded on your ability to work or not. They're there to help you to manage your disadvantages that arise as a result of your illness/disability.

You might choose to put some of that money towards your commute to work - say a taxi to the train station because it's hard to get a bus from town to the train station, or maybe a housekeeper/cleaner to clean your house because you won't have the ability to do it yourself after you've finished at work... or perhaps your preferred brand of hardware/software you use for work.

They're taking that away, thinking that more disabled people and their carers will be forced to work - but not seeing that someone is still going to have to do the stuff around the house that the disabled person cannot do themselves after work and now can't afford to hire or buy things to help them with.

@HootyTheNightOwl and that way it will most likely have the opposite effect: disabled people working fewer hours so they have energy left for housework, and taking the vacancy for a housekeeper off the market in the process.

@NerdyPotato I'm more concerned for the disabled people who end up dead as a result of this.

See, I know that there are disabled people who couldn't get a PIP award hiding away as "carers" for someone who could get through the "Work Capability Assessment". They're still not going to pass the eligibility criteria after they've been tightened - so, they're either going to kill themselves after they get their appeal rejected... or, they're going to do what I will end up doing and kill themselves trying to do a job that they are physically incapable of doing.

@HootyTheNightOwl that too. It just hurts everyone, both dependent on PIP and those who are not.

@NerdyPotato Look at me, for example... you know from our extensive chats over years that I likely have ME/CFS and you know more than most what I go through on the average day with it.

I can't get PIP on my own right with the criteria set as it is - so, I've been "hiding" as a carer for STBX who currently gets PIP. I looked at his award from his last assessment... and, if his condition had remained unchanged from his assessment date (it hasn't, he has new diagnoses to add on now), then he would be one of the people who lose their PIP at his next review.

That means that I would have had to put more haste into chasing my own diagnoses of autism and ME/CFS (which I might still do yet - then I can go for more independence myself)... even if I do find the ability to work a few hours a week for my CV.

The reality is that I can't provide the same level of care now that I did ten or twenty years ago. I've been living with undiagnosed autism my whole life and ME/CFS at the stage of fainting since 2018 which is also undiagnosed because it's rare enough that most GP's don't know what they're looking at and they're trying to diagnose me with anything that causes fatigue - to the point where they're missing the part where I faint just walking around the mall.

I need help... and he needs help, too. I can't do this for another 18/20 years, never mind trying to work full time for 18-20 years. It'd be awesome if I could - I'd love to be able to learn new skills but I can't even find alternative careers I could potentially work in without help and support.