What if this happened to you?

I am human.

Not a thing,

commodity

to be shunted

shifted or shunned.

Look in the mirror

at your flesh

my flesh,

daughter, father,

brother, sister,

mother, son -

we are human.  

It is the winter of 2012 and amongst the wettest weather on British record since 1910,where freezing fog and ice make hazardous companions. Cars, heavy-goods lorries, trucks and buses travel the roads. Tires screech over black ice. Screams are silenced by the sound of metal smashing metal. 

Ambulances arrive with fire fighters at the scene despite heavy loss of employment in these public sectors.   

The emergency workers at the hospital do all they can despite drops in NHS funding, but this doesn't stop a need for these services for some of these patients as their future will consist of further operations and treatments. It will be a long time before bones fuse, flesh scars and grafts take. Then the healing of rehabilitation can begin with physiotherapy, counselling and above all a human’s natural instinct to be well.

After leaving the hospital, a carer is needed and medical appointments for treatments ongoing. Yet from the very moment the accident occurred finances have begun to decrease from the immediate loss of wages while additional and extra costs begin their toll. Soon there is not enough to pay the bills, mortgage-rent, council tax, bedroom tax, V.A.T. along with utilities such as water, electric, gas and even food until it all spirals down into debt.

The incomes for all will be reduced in one way or another as some will lose their jobs, some will lose the use of body functions, some will lose their homes but all will find a place on government paper as a number and a statistic once they ask for help, maybe labelled a 'welfare scrounger'. Yet, there is no one to blame for the car accident, a matter of adverse circumstance. 

Getting benefits for the sick, the mentally ill, the elderly is nigh on impossible even if presenting evidence from medical consultants. Why is that? Why is it impossible for companies like ATOS to consider medical evidence as proof of a disability and/or illness? Is it that there are so many 'welfare scroungers' the country will come to a stand still if these benefits are not stopped?

Well the figures point to a different story, there really are not that many people claiming benefits at all and those that are 'lucky' enough to have done so find it increasingly difficult to sustain life above the line of poverty, yet there are many people who seem unaware of this or of the true figures on proposed cuts and caps to benefits as a TUC commissioned survey reports. 

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said:  “ ...  "The truth remains that benefits are far from generous, the vast majority of the jobless are desperate for work and most benefit spending goes either on pensions or on benefits for those in jobs or who aren't able to work."

 

·        On average people think that 41% of the entire welfare budget goes on benefits to unemployed people while the true figure is three per cent. 

·         

·        On average people think that 27% of the welfare budget is claimed fraudulently, while the government's own figure is 0.7%. 

·        On average people think that almost half the people (48%) who claim Jobseeker's Allowance go on to claim it for more than a year, while the true figure is 27.8%.

·         

·        On average people think that an unemployed couple with two school-age children would get £147 in Jobseeker's Allowance - more than 30% higher than the £111.45 they would actually receive - a £35 over-calculation.

·         

·        Only 21% of people think that this family with two school-age children would be better off if one of the unemployed parents got a 30 hour a week minimum wage job, even though they would actually end up £138 a week better off. Even those who thought they would be better off only thought on average they would gain by £59.

 

The car crash victim could be you, your child, your parent, your sibling, your friend. You need help and you need advice to find the right kind of help for your needs. Where can you turn to for advice?  

Since the current government has cut billions in funding to advice including legal services and centres around the country, reports of how cuts have already affected areas, and the thousands of people in dire need of advice, show just how bad the situation is and warn it shall leave many without access to any kind of advice service at all. 

Isn't it about time we all were counted for who we are, human beings. A whole person and not just a sum of parts.  

This blog supports Wow. Please sign the petition and let's make this a real society.

I am human - We are human. 

There is no room for injustice in human society.