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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/24/dear-iain-duncan-smith-thanks-nothing
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| Dear Iain Duncan Smith, thanks for nothing | Dear Iain Duncan Smith, thanks for nothing |
| (about 20 hours later) | |
| Dear Iain, | Dear Iain, |
| I've got BIG News! I've got a job! Amazing isn't it? Fifteen months after being made redundant, I've finally managed to secure one of the many jobs that you regularly claim in the media are out there for the taking. We were beginning to think it would never happen. So many interviews, so much hope, followed by disappointment after disappointment. I don't know where these jobs are that you speak of. Perhaps they're in London, because, be honest – you don't have much knowledge of towns and cities outside the capital, do you? Actually, you're right, there are jobs out there, but I'm not entirely sure you're aware of the stumbling blocks preventing folk from getting them. | I've got BIG News! I've got a job! Amazing isn't it? Fifteen months after being made redundant, I've finally managed to secure one of the many jobs that you regularly claim in the media are out there for the taking. We were beginning to think it would never happen. So many interviews, so much hope, followed by disappointment after disappointment. I don't know where these jobs are that you speak of. Perhaps they're in London, because, be honest – you don't have much knowledge of towns and cities outside the capital, do you? Actually, you're right, there are jobs out there, but I'm not entirely sure you're aware of the stumbling blocks preventing folk from getting them. |
| Getting a job isn't quite as easy as just sending your CV to a prospective employer. Perhaps if you understood that, you might not continue to spout your patronising nonsense in the media, and further continue to get the backs up of those who genuinely want to work, and do not under any circumstances live off benefits as (you call it) a lifestyle choice. You make idle comments about how you could live off £53 a week if you had to, but that's the point, Iain, you will never have to, and furthermore it's likely you'll never want for anything for the rest of your life, whether that be a job, a home, or financial security. You are preaching about things you have absolutely no knowledge of whatsoever. You are using the teeny weeny minority of benefit claimants who do live a satisfactory standard of life to attempt to prove your point, and in doing so you are destroying those who are genuinely struggling. | Getting a job isn't quite as easy as just sending your CV to a prospective employer. Perhaps if you understood that, you might not continue to spout your patronising nonsense in the media, and further continue to get the backs up of those who genuinely want to work, and do not under any circumstances live off benefits as (you call it) a lifestyle choice. You make idle comments about how you could live off £53 a week if you had to, but that's the point, Iain, you will never have to, and furthermore it's likely you'll never want for anything for the rest of your life, whether that be a job, a home, or financial security. You are preaching about things you have absolutely no knowledge of whatsoever. You are using the teeny weeny minority of benefit claimants who do live a satisfactory standard of life to attempt to prove your point, and in doing so you are destroying those who are genuinely struggling. |
| It's been a difficult 15 months, Iain. I'm not sure whom you've spoken to in order to form your opinions of the benefit lifestyle, but this luxurious existence that you talk of on TV never made its way into our home. For most of the time, you expected us to live on £61 a week … that's £30.50 per person per week. Oh to have had the luxury of the £53 per person per week you speak of! And when we questioned this £30.50 each per week, and pointed out that it was ridiculous to imagine people could live on that amount, we were told by your "loyal, and highly experienced" (your words, not mine) advisers that this was a "wholly appropriate amount of money to live on" and that we should "stop complaining". | It's been a difficult 15 months, Iain. I'm not sure whom you've spoken to in order to form your opinions of the benefit lifestyle, but this luxurious existence that you talk of on TV never made its way into our home. For most of the time, you expected us to live on £61 a week … that's £30.50 per person per week. Oh to have had the luxury of the £53 per person per week you speak of! And when we questioned this £30.50 each per week, and pointed out that it was ridiculous to imagine people could live on that amount, we were told by your "loyal, and highly experienced" (your words, not mine) advisers that this was a "wholly appropriate amount of money to live on" and that we should "stop complaining". |
| I didn't stop complaining though, despite being struck down by a very serious and debilitating illness in June. This not only put a strong halt to my job-searching opportunities but also rendered me unable to walk, move and function like a regular human being, yet I continued to campaign and complain in an attempt to highlight the vile way in which the majority of benefit claimants are treated in this country. | I didn't stop complaining though, despite being struck down by a very serious and debilitating illness in June. This not only put a strong halt to my job-searching opportunities but also rendered me unable to walk, move and function like a regular human being, yet I continued to campaign and complain in an attempt to highlight the vile way in which the majority of benefit claimants are treated in this country. |
| When I became ill, I was paralysed down my right-hand side. My partner was unable to work because I needed round-the-clock care. At the worst points, there was nothing I could do alone: I needed my partner's help all the time. There was no longer any privacy, and in some cases, no longer any dignity either. What dignity I did have left was finally smashed to smithereens at the hands of the glorious Atos folk. I'm not going to revisit that revolting experience in this letter, other than to say that I saw people, in far worse conditions and situations to me, being subjected to the most humiliating, embarrassing and downright disgusting procedures in order for them to prove they were not fit for work. | When I became ill, I was paralysed down my right-hand side. My partner was unable to work because I needed round-the-clock care. At the worst points, there was nothing I could do alone: I needed my partner's help all the time. There was no longer any privacy, and in some cases, no longer any dignity either. What dignity I did have left was finally smashed to smithereens at the hands of the glorious Atos folk. I'm not going to revisit that revolting experience in this letter, other than to say that I saw people, in far worse conditions and situations to me, being subjected to the most humiliating, embarrassing and downright disgusting procedures in order for them to prove they were not fit for work. |
| I contacted my local MP about the whole benefits situation. He was interested in the beginning, but when he realised that I was giving a good impression of a dog with a bone, and that I wanted to drill down the details of everything and anything to do with benefits and the disabled, he tailed off somewhat. I contacted councillors in my area. Sadly, their responses were much the same. I even wrote to your boss, the darling David. What a waste of a stamp that was! I've joined websites, focus groups, forums and the like in an attempt to try to strengthen my case, but it seems that where benefits and the disabled are concerned, there is no help. It appears there is a commonly held view that everyone on benefits is a lazy scumbag, and everyone who claims to be disabled is a liar who spends their weekends dancing in clubs and laughing at how they have conned the world by sitting in a wheelchair five days a week. | I contacted my local MP about the whole benefits situation. He was interested in the beginning, but when he realised that I was giving a good impression of a dog with a bone, and that I wanted to drill down the details of everything and anything to do with benefits and the disabled, he tailed off somewhat. I contacted councillors in my area. Sadly, their responses were much the same. I even wrote to your boss, the darling David. What a waste of a stamp that was! I've joined websites, focus groups, forums and the like in an attempt to try to strengthen my case, but it seems that where benefits and the disabled are concerned, there is no help. It appears there is a commonly held view that everyone on benefits is a lazy scumbag, and everyone who claims to be disabled is a liar who spends their weekends dancing in clubs and laughing at how they have conned the world by sitting in a wheelchair five days a week. |
| Anyway Iain, the upshot of the whole situation is that now that I've got my job, it means my partner and I have to start again, at the very bottom of the ladder. The only thing I have left to show for my previous 20-plus years of hard work is my flat, and it's only through my dogged determination and refusal to be walked over by the bank (don't even start me on the treatment I've received from banks) that I have managed to keep a firm hold on it. Everything else: car – sold; clothes shoes and handbags – sold. I have sold so much more besides, and all this so that we could survive. | Anyway Iain, the upshot of the whole situation is that now that I've got my job, it means my partner and I have to start again, at the very bottom of the ladder. The only thing I have left to show for my previous 20-plus years of hard work is my flat, and it's only through my dogged determination and refusal to be walked over by the bank (don't even start me on the treatment I've received from banks) that I have managed to keep a firm hold on it. Everything else: car – sold; clothes shoes and handbags – sold. I have sold so much more besides, and all this so that we could survive. |
| So, like I said, I've got a job. And it's a good one too. And it's one I deserve. It's one that I've worked hard to get. I've overcome a debilitating illness, I've learnt how to walk and function properly again. I've watched my partner suffer too – unable to work because he needed to care for me. But just because I've got a job doesn't mean that life is going to suddenly improve overnight. It is going to take a long time to rebuild our lives. My partner still needs to find a job and until we do, we will survive on my wage. I'm sure we are now on the path to a better life, but it's going to be a long journey back, and it will be a long time until we're straight. We're probably starting another chapter of struggle, but a less painful struggle. We are not all lucky enough to get a job with your salary Iain. Hell, if we did, I doubt any of us would ever struggle again. | So, like I said, I've got a job. And it's a good one too. And it's one I deserve. It's one that I've worked hard to get. I've overcome a debilitating illness, I've learnt how to walk and function properly again. I've watched my partner suffer too – unable to work because he needed to care for me. But just because I've got a job doesn't mean that life is going to suddenly improve overnight. It is going to take a long time to rebuild our lives. My partner still needs to find a job and until we do, we will survive on my wage. I'm sure we are now on the path to a better life, but it's going to be a long journey back, and it will be a long time until we're straight. We're probably starting another chapter of struggle, but a less painful struggle. We are not all lucky enough to get a job with your salary Iain. Hell, if we did, I doubt any of us would ever struggle again. |
| Iain, I am not sad to be leaving the benefit system behind, far from it. I am, however, worried about those who will continue to be persecuted while you're in power, who you will continue to take money from (money they don't have) because you refuse to turn the tables on your golf club buddies, and you refuse to open your eyes and speak to real people about real problems. This has been the worst 15 months of my life. I would love to say I hope that one day you too could experience just a portion of what I've gone through, but you never will. I am looking forward to a more positive future. Sadly, under the current government I don't think many more people will be able to say the same. | Iain, I am not sad to be leaving the benefit system behind, far from it. I am, however, worried about those who will continue to be persecuted while you're in power, who you will continue to take money from (money they don't have) because you refuse to turn the tables on your golf club buddies, and you refuse to open your eyes and speak to real people about real problems. This has been the worst 15 months of my life. I would love to say I hope that one day you too could experience just a portion of what I've gone through, but you never will. I am looking forward to a more positive future. Sadly, under the current government I don't think many more people will be able to say the same. |
| Thanks for nothing, | Thanks for nothing, |
| Janet | Janet |
| • This is an abridged version of a longer blog published elsewhere. This piece was posted after a suggestion from CalamityJane123 |