Back to work system (not UK)... don't know what to do

[libby]

Modnote: Title edit for content clarity.

hi,

so finally, after years of fighting the system i got 100% disability benefits. but what i didn't know was that all it would get me would be 350 pounds a month, which obviously is far from enough to survive on. so instead of giving disabled people more money, they've recently passed a new law that basically means every social worker i meet forces me to get a job and "be rehabilitated". i can tell them i have degenerative diseases and that i'm too ill to work till i'm blue in the face, but their job is to get me back on my feet again (i suppose i should get out of my wheechair by willpower alone, too?). i completely understand the difficult position they must be in; they're good people, trying to help, and this new law means they have to push an agenda that they don't necessarily agree with. but the result is ridiculous; it's hysterically nuts. if i could work and take care of myself, i wouldn't need the system's help.

i'm just.... i don't know what to do. they're going to find me a job; they said they'd find me a simple minimum wage job as a secretary or something like that, and by doing that, by making some firm hire me (the "disabled"), they'll have done their bit, rehabilitated me, and if i refuse, if i say i can't do it, they'll say i'm not cooperating. i couldn't possibly manage it physically; i can't even get to any work - i have no car, can't drive, can't afford a taxi, can't take a bus... the whole system is so weird, and when i said i didn't know what to do the social worker simply said, "Well, you should check all of your savings, and talk to your family about helping you." Ah but if i had savings and a loving family why would i apply for disability benefits?

sigh... just not sure how to go on from here. have you ever been in a similar situation? do you have any advice? any ideas?

thanks.... the now-formally-100%-disabled human pretzel called libby

[gila]

!

I'm not sure if you are still in italy or back in blighty??
the "we'll force you back to work somehow" sounds like the new "helping the disabled back to work" reforms of the government here... but I 'm not familiar with the "now officially 100%disabled" thing... ???

if in blighty...a kind of drastic possibility... maybe you could look into becoming "medically retired"?

or chances are as things are atm... they might not find a job for you at all... but them trying... what's the point for you or your prospective employer?????

what did they say about you not even being able to get to a work place?????????????????????????

sorry not much helpful advice but def loads of sympathy for this utterly ridiculously stupid farce ...
xxg

[leashy11]

I had heard something like this was on the cards, they need to reduce the unemployment figures so they target vulnerable people instead of the eternally lazy spongers. It will affect those of us with musculoskeletal issues more than other disabled groups because we don't have a charity to fight on our behalf so it's something that looks set to continue. I think it's absolutely disgusting but all you can do is hope they cannot find you a job, remember they have to listen to you and if you haven't got transport to get there you can't do it. If they do find you one that you can get to the best thing to do is go along and try it out and if it's too much for you go to your doctors and say so and then you'll have backing that it's not a feasible option. It makes me so mad that people in constant pain are treated worse than those on beneifts for being overweight, it's infuriating. Sorry I can't offer anymore than that.

[Blaadyblah]

In the UK this has been going on for some time - if you search the boards for Pathways, Shaw Trust you'll see topics discussing the back to work programmes here.

Libby appears to be in Italy though, don't know what's happening out there at the moment.

[libby]

Oh no, it's in the UK too? I guess it's such a good idea that every country just has to try it out...

It's changed from being disabled to being rehabilitated. I talked to social workers who kept drumming it in, over and over, but don't you want to be rehabilitated? don't you want to be rehabilitated? till at some point i'm embarrassed to say i got mad and said to one of them, look, i have a few chronic, degenerative conditions, nothing rehabilitable about them, and telling myself "bad! you don't work! bad!" won't make me feel any better, or make me any healthier. i felt bad afterwards, because she was only doing her job, be that a lousy excuse as it may, i'm sure she gets paid so little to do such an important job, and she didn't make this farce of a rule. but, all the same... i'm now supposed to be "rehabilitated in such a way that one will earn as much money as quickly as possible", to quote the social security manual. could you believe the last social worker, a sweet and sensitive woman personally, but just doing her job, kept trying to convince me to give up my uni. studies in science for a more lucrative field: computers! why? because you earn lots! ah well, or so people believe. i kept trying to say i find it suicidally boring, and that i still do think that scientific research has its own merits, even if disabled people shouldn't hope to be of use or to use their brains if their legs don't work, but she kept saying, "but you would earn so much more! There's no money in research and besides, how could you work in a lab? You're disabled, you wouldn't manage. Why not study computers?" oh my.... farce indeed.

i'm just ranting, and feeling frustrated. i wish i had a solution. for now, i think i'll try to do as they say and see where it leads me. fighting the system is out of the question, it just crushes you if you try. and yep, picking on the weak ones instead of making healthy people get a job... it's maddening. I keep trying to explain what chronic pain syndrome means, but it isn't recognized here yet, not even listed as an illness, and you can't get any benefits if you have it, because it doesn't exist. wouldn't that be nice? to just be told you don't have a certain problem and to just watch it go "Poof!" and disappear? the lines outside social security offices would be endless!

ah well...

[leashy11]

I really, really feel for you Libby but don't let them bully you into giving up your studies, keep pointing out your potential qualifications could take you somewhere you want to be and if that means earning less money than in computers so be it, it would still be earning money so essentially you would still be doing what they want! I know what you mean about fighting the system, it takes too much energy to do and isn't worth the effort most of the time but no matter how much they think they can force you into jobs of their choice they can't if you can't get there or can't do the job etc so you still have some power.

It infuriates me, I know someone who gets £350 a week in benefits for being overweight and she also gets her rent paid too and a car while I get less than a quarter of that, have to keep my own car on the road while it merrily gets older and more things go wrong and have to pay my mortgage out of it too because I stupidly didn't just sit and stuff my face I got landed with hypermobility syndrome instead. Worse, they gave this woman surgery and she's now lost most of the weight so she isn't even unable to do anything now but they are going to keep paying her for 3 years without reviewing it whereas I have to go for a medical every year and convince some disbelieving, under informed doctor I'm in pain. Disgusting. Sorry, I'm ranting now too!

The only advice I can offer is to do what you are thinking of doing anyway which is see where it takes you but don't give up on your studies because some pencil pushers have been told to try and force you into a specific job. Good luck Libby.

[libby]

thanks
oh my, i feel much better knowing i'm not the only person who finds this topic infuriating.
i wish where i wanted to be played any part in the equation. The more social workers i meet, the stronger my impression that for the system, if you're legally disabled it means you have to agree with their plans for you; if they tell you to give up your long-term plan to finish your doctorate in science and do some research and feel like you're benefiting the world in your own small way, well, if they want you to stop that because it's slow, science isn't a priority (hah!), and you should now study in a week-long course that teaches you how to be a secretary, and work full time as one and then be rehabilitated - you do as they say.
ironically, of course, they make you go to work (not considering the fact that you may not be able to, may be too ill, for example, to work), and then you gradually get less and less benefits! why? you guessed it - it's because you're working, hence you're been successfully rehabilitated, no need for their help anymore, thank you. uh.... and how does that actually help sick people? i'm afraid its logic eludes me. it might be my scientific education that's standing in the way, i've become too logical, i've forgotten how to feel intuitively. that must be it...

is the world going crazy, or is it just me?
(it definitely is me, that i won't argue, but the world might be a little nuts too, that's the only debetable point really...)

thanks so much, gentle hugs, sigh...
libby