Tag Archives: carers
There's no cure for brain damage so why test me?
There’s no cure for brain damage so why test me?
Francesca Martinez’s War on Welfare petition calls for a new deal for disabled people
Francesca Martinez, actress and stand-up comedian, is sitting in her local pub imagining the conversation she will have with ATOS when she is reassessed for her disability benefits.
ATOS: “Hi Francesca, how is your condition improving?”
Francesca: “Oh, well it hasn’t. I’m brain-damaged.”
ATOS: “Well yes, I can see you are still wobbly.”
Francesca: “Yes I am. Well, that was a waste of taxpayers’ money, wasn’t it?”
Like thousands of people in the UK, Francesca was awarded Disability Living Allowance for life when she was a child.
But now under new changes, she will have to be reassessed. Over the next few months, an estimated 500,000 people will lose their DLA.
During her birth, her brain had been starved of oxygen, and by the time she was two she had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
“So, I’m not going to wake up tomorrow and go ‘oh I’m not wobbly any more!’” Francesca says.
“I’ve no plans to go to Lourdes. I’m not going to wake up and find I can pick up a glass of water.
Your Say – long-term conditions call for views on Welfare in Scotland
Call for views
Your Say: Long-term Conditions
Are you affected by welfare reform? The Welfare Reform Committee would like to hear from people with, or caring for those with, long-term conditions and get their thoughts about how welfare reform is impacting on them.
About a year ago, the Welfare Reform Committee began an initiative, ‘Your Say’, to hear directly from those who have been directly affected by welfare reform. Over the last year the Committee has heard the stories of people from Glasgow, Annan, Kirkcaldy, Dunoon, Stirling, Coatbridge, Hamilton, Dundee, Edinburgh, Biggar… the list goes on.
