I am sick of this government’s gob-smacking meanness

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/03/sick-government-meanness-unclaimed-benefits

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Here are some people I bet you haven’t heard much about – the benefit NON-scroungers. Those millions of people who don’t claim the money to which they are entitled. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) owes them around £10bn in unclaimed benefits. Yes, 10 billion pounds. It dwarfs benefit fraud, which was around £2bn in 2011-12. DWP are the real cheats. They’re winning hands down. And no wonder.

Have you tried to claim any benefits lately? My friend X has. He’s had bladder cancer, and now has no bladder. That’s not much fun: painful, uncomfortable, humiliating, debilitating, and with leaks, floods and expensive large nappies. He is on a state pension and antidepressants. Then he managed to get attendance allowance. A triumph. But not for long. DWP didn’t want to make his life too much of a breeze: they took away his pension credit.

So Mr X and I went along to the local council office, where some very kind, sympathetic women are trying to sort out his mountain of gobbledygook and contradictory DWP documents, the mad maze of what he is and isn’t supposed to claim for, the difficult mess his life has become, and whether they can get him a grant for a new mattress and tumble dryer, which he badly needs but can’t afford.

God forbid that the poor and sick should have the tiniest smidgen of comfort or pleasure. And to make damn sure they don’t, I hear that our government may have secret plans to cut ESA (employment and support allowance/sickness benefit) by around £30, so that it’s about level with jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), to make sure no one is tempted to malinger in luxury on ESA, when they could be better starving and struggling on JSA.

Just a measly £30. That’s a mediocre bottle of wine for our leaders. Or a lifeline for someone like Mr X. I am so sick of this government’s gob-smacking meanness. Surely that’s not what we want this country to be like? Heartless, unfair, cruel and full of greed and misery, smoke and mirrors. Our government may fancy that, but we don’t. Do we?

@michelerhanson