Genuine need for benefits

I am on disability benefits after being sacked from my job due to ill-health. I didn’t want this to happen and dislike being at home alone all the time.

However, I am unable to work as I have a degenerative spinal injury which is inoperable .

The consensus of opinion perpetrated by the press, television and society at large seems to be that everyone on whatever benefit is either lazy or a scrounger and there are no people who need to be on benefits. The proof you have to provide and the humiliating personal questions you are subjected to makes the process of claiming very stressful and I don’t think many people would want to do this voluntarily.

Plus ATOS, the company used by the Government to assess people’s needs, is paid according to how many people it keeps off benefits, not helping those in genuine need.

I personally feel that I am unable to go out of my house any more, even on a day I feel a bit better, in case someone reports me for doing something they feel I should not be doing.

I have heard from many genuinely ill people who feel they too are unable to go out as they feel as if they are being watched and are afraid they will lose their much needed benefit money.

I do appreciate that there are some people who will try to defraud the system but please do not think that we are all guilty of this.

Some of us have a genuine need for the benefits that we receive.

KAY HENDERSON

Montpelier Gardens,

Washington