So now with all the new budget cuts, David Cameron is trimming the fat, and mental health has been toe-tagged with a label of 'Morbid obesity'. This comes as no surprise to most of us in the system who still have our two pence about us (even though we're not getting paid the interest on them) but for millions of other moderately-severely ill patients out there, benefits are the vessel into the world in which the mad rarely tread more than ten paces before we're shot down.
What does all this mean? Well, of course, they're restructuring DLA (disability living allowance) which effectively means they're scrapping it until further notice. Cameron had been talking about resending the benefit system into a freeze state, thereby garnishing over £10,000,000,000 from the DWPs budget. The situation is, however, more complicated than this.
Cameron, in my opinion, effectively was making a statement to prototype his upcoming strategy to slash the everliving hell out of the welfare budget. [I'd seriously like to see a permanent lapse in how they dole out JSA (job seekers' allowance)] and I am of the opinion that the mental health budget will once again take it in the throat.
We've not only got psychiatric hospitals downsizing or shutting altogether when there is more need for them than ever, but what we've really got here are what are considered to be a group of ne'erdowells and "dole dossers" under the mental health who will, I am sure, become expendable for at least 2-3 years. It makes sense to me, as I am sure the mentally ill are the only group under the disability act that won't garner a public outcry.
Now, having said this, I am sure that eventually DLA will be equitably restructured, but at the moment Cameron is playing dice with the devil in that he's seemingly trying to weed out whomever he can most cost-effectively. There is no mistake to be made about it, absolutely everyone is being pulled off DLA after a rouse interview and being declared fit for work. When last I heard 42% of people were getting through on appeal -- mental health accounts for less than that in the runnings for DLA under the DWP.
It's interesting to note that the company handling these interviews for DLA is the same French company that sponsored the para-Olympics. So in the end they're leqaving us with three things:
- Plausible deniability for our Tory/
Lib-Demgovernment; - Legal obliquity (unless you want to take a foreign company to court in the EU for Human Rights Violations);
- and, a win for Cameron in cementing his incredulity as heroism and decisiveness.
These three things taken into account, what hope is there for the reams of people left with their mailing addresses for ESA (employment and support allowance) listed as teh cardboard box between Boots and M&S? Should slash a little from housing benefits in the end, as well!
