About the PM's (Sunak's) speech: Stop demonising us

ElizaRose said:

Hello. I am new to this forum and never really write posts as I am not a computer person. I just really feel for everyone who has written on here about all the anxiety this is causing.

I was recently, very thankfully awarded higher rate PIP for both physical and MH problems, and after finally getting through that soul destroying, horrendous process it feels like it could now just get ripped away again. Since this was announced last week my anxiety has been through the roof and my physical problems have been made a lot worse. The last few days I have just had to stay in bed and have hardly been able to move.

Also, I am terrified for my eldest son who is 24 and has autism and schizophrenia. I have been battling the system and banging my head against a brick wall for him pretty much his whole life. Now I am just too ill to do it anymore. He spent the last four years in and out of various mental health hospitals with psychosis. Twice he was discharged to street-homelessness whilst still very ill with the psychosis. He wouldn't let me help him for fear of "them" knowing where he was and putting him back in hospital again, so he spent a couple of months each time living rough until he got picked up by the police again. I was a wreck and now have ptsd attacks at night because of it, on top of everything else. I did not even know if he would survive. His social worker told me that even though he was still ill, once he became the least ill in hospital, and they needed the bed, they would discharge him. What sort of help/therapy is that? The whole system is broken and completely heartless when it becomes normal to discharge ill people to the street who could be a danger to themselves and others.

After more battles he is now in a rehabilitation hospital. He only has up to a year to be there and has already done four months. I am absolutely dreading what will happen when he is discharged, especially with all this going on. He is not going to be able to just get a job! I know even now he has a work coach phoning him periodically, and although there is no pressure at this time, what will happen when he is discharged? As he is finally a little more on an even keel, I don't want a load of pressure and stress to send him back to square one again as he suffers terribly with anxiety at the best of times.

This barbaric government has no idea about the realities and struggles of living with mental health and any disabilities in the real world, especially when any so called services have been cut to next to nothing. They also have no idea of the devastating impact and knock-on effect on families and loved ones....and now they want to take the little bit of support which helps us towards surviving and trying to have a little normality in life. I am at a point now when I have nothing left to battle with....for my son or me, and I fear if I go down both my sons will too, as we only really have each othe

ElizaRose said:

I just saw an article on MSN from The i saying "Labour to target job centres and PIP assessments to get disabled people into work". It goes on to say "Alison McGovern acknowledged that fixing the welfare system would need "big changes" if Labour got into power." This is all so distressing. I am shaking like a leaf!

Andi66 said:

Labour have brought out a manifesto for disabled people, called breaking down barriers for disabled people. It's online 

ElizaRose said:

Bingo said:

ElizaRose said:

I just saw an article on MSN from The i saying "Labour to target job centres and PIP assessments to get disabled people into work". It goes on to say "Alison McGovern acknowledged that fixing the welfare system would need "big changes" if Labour got into power." This is all so distressing. I am shaking like a leaf!

Is this what you read?  https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/other/labour-to-target-job-centres-and-pip-assessments-to-get-disabled-people-into-work/ar-AA1o0VZw

I don't necessarily think this is Labour taking aim at PIP and disabled people the way the Tories are or would if they got the chance. It sounds more like its aimed at improving the system and giving disabled people more opportunities to work. 

We should be aware that the media bias in this country despite MSN being centrist is in the main going to (for now at least) back the government.

One things for sure as said previously. Who would you trust more as regards looking after the disabled? The Tories or Labour?  Having worked for the Tories in a previous life. Trust me. They do not care about the disabled, poor or the working class. 

That's interesting that you used to work for the Tories so have first hand experience of their attitudes towards the poor, disabled and working classes. Hopefully Labour will be more about improving rather than punishing. It's just hard when you see these articles out of the blue as I constantly feel on high alert, panic mode these days.