Our Welfare State

I’ve always considered myself very lucky to live in a country that has a welfare system. It’s helped me enormously in these recent times and the small payments I’ve received (and they are very small indeed) have given me some (small) security whilst I’ve been getting myself well again. I also consider myself very lucky that on my path to self healing I discovered, many years back, the power of positive thought that changed my life for the better. Unfortunately, as I have learned this week, having a positive attitude and the welfare state simply do not go together.

I attended a medical assessment for the Department of Work and Pensions a couple of weeks ago. I was feeling quite upbeat at the time, mainly because I’d had a very low period in the preceding weeks which I was emerging from and felt a bit better, and also because I do have a very positive way of thinking and as a result I feel very hopeful for the future. In my world I know that everything happens at the right moment, I know that I am always looked after by the wonderful Universe (or whatever you choose to name your own faith or belief system), and because of this I know that my recent illness had to happen to take me to a better place in my life.

I spent the entire medical interview speaking to the assessor in my normal way. I told her how ill I’d been, that some depression symptoms still exist but that I was much better now although I still have a little way to go. I told her how hopeful I was. I told her all about the RSI condition I have in my arms that has improved enormously since I left a desk job, albeit a temporary one, and that has shown me SO CLEARLY that I need to stay away from office work at all costs. (Certainly I would post on here more often if I didn’t have to limit the amount of computer work I can do!) I told her what I can and can’t do because of my arms, and I told her about the ongoing osteopathy and acupuncture treatment I receive.

My mistake was that I told the truth, and that I told it in a positive forward-looking way. A few days ago I received a letter from the DWP informing me that my benefit payments have been stopped because I did not ‘pass’ the assessment. I hadn’t even realised it was a test. They score you out of 15 and I scored 0. How can I score 0 when I have a physical injury that has lasted almost 4 years! How can I score 0 when I was so very ill earlier on this year and am still recovering! According to them I am perfectly well in all respects. It’s bonkers in the extreme.

I went to the Jobcentre and spoke to some very nice staff about my situation who told me, off the record of course, that in order to get the support I need I should have lied at the assessment and not told them I was getting better. I spoke to an organisation that will help me if I choose to appeal the decision and was told that I should not have shown a positive attitude in the assessment. My own GP told me “unfortunately you have to play the game”. How crazy ??!!!

My choice is to either appeal against the decision which might take 5-6 months to be heard, or to sign on the dole. I know that I will be fully well in much less than 5-6 months time so I don’t understand how the appeal will help me. But the dole isn’t right for now either because I’m not fully well yet. So according to the DWP there is no space for truth - you have to be at death’s door and unable to do anything for yourself or you have to be fully well. There is nowhere for people who have been unwell but are getting better, and we all know that you don’t get better overnight. Little wonder that people in this country get stuck in the benefit system when it is based on having to lie and show no hope. You dare not tell the truth and say that you are recovering for fear of having your meagre payments stopped. It’s a ridiculous set up.

I got myself into an upset state. I didn’t sleep for worrying. I saw that it was making me ill again so I stepped back from it and made an empowered decision.
I’ve spent the last 14 years retraining my brain into positive thought processing. Nowadays it’s an automatic process most of the time and it clearly works. I am not going to change all my hard work and become a negative victim who cannot help myself in order that the bureaucrats who conjured up this unrealistic system will grant me the weekly support payments that I am entitled to and which my tax has paid for all these years. Instead I choose to look ahead, and to live in trust. I’m choosing my way, the positive way, because I know that if I am true to myself I can only win.


Loathe Bureaucracy
Love Truth
Love Life
XXX