It isn’t very often I tap away on my keyboard in rage, but today is an exception to the rule. Publishing something in the heat of the moment is a stupid idea; I have a few hours to calm down and see if my emotions dissipate. If you see this, I have not changed my outlook overnight and indeed – the UK government hates disabled people.
The ridiculous pressure the current Conservative Government are putting on those in need is sickening. It has been progressively getting worse for the last few years and sees no sign of stopping. Currently, we do not claim, nor are entitled to any benefits other than my daughter’s disability allowance. We are now used such things and are lucky to be in a position that we don’t rely on them.
With that said, we are starting to struggle to get regular, expected things from our local authority and this came to a head yesterday with an entitlement to incontinence products. For those of you that haven’t read many of my previous posts, nor know Lucie, she has a severely restricted understanding of the world. She doesn’t know what a toilet is, never mind about have the ability to use one.
My wife attended what was pitched to us as a ‘review’ of her current situation, and to see if she has the right prescription. Currently as it stands we receive 3 months supply of nappies at a time, this being working to a maximum of 4 nappies a day. If you’ve ever cared with a person that is unable to use the toilet, be it a baby, or any age really, you will know how many times a day you need to change an individual – and four is simply laughable.
We get through this by topping up our allocation with purchasing half this number again, every other delivery. So every six months roughly we are buying the same nappy, in bulk to make sure we don’t have any issues.
On attending the appointment, my wife was quizzed on how much Luice drinks, asked questions along the lines of “do you think that’s too much”, and made to generally feel horrible. They also question why Lucie had not been toilet trained and asked what we were doing to sort this situation out. My wife is now expected to reel off everything that is wrong with Lucie, justify what and how much Luice eats and drinks simply because that’s what’s expected.
As part of Lucie’s condition, she consumes quite a bit of high-calorie drinks along with milk with added fibre and calories. According to the local authority this doesn’t class as a drink, is in fact ‘food’ and doesn’t explain why we need more than three nappies a day.
Yes, you read that right, the UK government now expects my nine-year-old daughter to only be changed twice a day! Frankly, this is a ridiculous amount of incontinence product and is not hygienic in the slightest. We must now pretty much double what the government gives us – out of our pocket. Simply because we are expected to toilet train a little girl with serve development delay who is non-communicative — not an impossible task, but not one that is going to happen overnight. It took me six months to teach her how to stir a spoon in a bowl.
You might argue that these types of purchases are exactly what the disability living allowance is for. But too retort, this is just the latest in a long line of cuts and removals of things we are expected to foot the bill for. The small amount we get goes in Lucie bank account and stays there to pay for long term care when we are too old to do so as I can’t rely on our government to do so any longer.
This current government is a shambles, aimed at looking after those that are in the best places and brushing everyone else under the carpet, and it makes me feel sick.