A Nightmare on Benefits Street

There's a grim irony that the next 'fifth Friday' when all the Kindle episodes of my 'welfare rights lit' sequel Limited Capability' are free to download, coincides with Halloween.  I've never thought of describing it as a horror story before, but it exists due to the cruel, sometimes fatal, consequences of welfare reform and for the real victims of austerity, it is just that.

Too many people still don't understand the issues or care about the consequences.  They might have noticed something in their local paper - a sympathetic story about disabled veteran wrongly found fit for work, an inquest verdict on a suicide - but the shriek of 'shirkers and scroungers' from the mass media tells you these are the exceptions, the unlucky few that fall through the safety net that makes such a comfortable hammock for the workshy.  We know it's not like that; most people don't, and won't find out unless they're unlucky enough to need that support.

ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) is suddenly news again, with the appointment of US company Maximus to the contract to provide 'work capability assessments' being vacated by Atos and today a 'leaked' proposal to cut the level of ESA for claimants put in the 'Work-related Activity Group' to just 50p above Jobseeker's Allowance.  We're already being told that familiar myth that this will halt a zombie army intent on claiming benefits that give them an easy life.  People unaware of how hard it is to qualify for ESA even at the 'WRAG' rate will believe this, unless someone tells them the truth - that you can have lost the use of your dominant arm and hand and still not be sufficiently disabled to have 'limited capacity for work', for example.

If you want an accessible way in to the complex reality of Work Capability Assessments, benefit assessments and appeals, you'll find the serial here, along with the prequel novels.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sarah-Honeysett/e/B00CGNAZXQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1  All 14 episodes are free tomorrow (31st October) from whenever Halloween starts in Amazonland (usually about 8am GMT). 

If you don't know the story, please read it.  If you do know the story, please share it with those who don't, especially those turned off by reports full of figures and regulations.  The DWP have millions of pounds to spend on their propaganda; I have a laptop, a cast of fictional characters and a small but committed group of readers.  I need to believe we can win the next round.