It's Not "Worklessness" or "Life on Benefits Being Easier Than Working"

There are 551,000 more people unemployed than there are available jobs. 

Clinicians are EXCEPTIONALLY resistant to the idea of providing routine medical appointments outside of working hours.

Bus companies just shrug their shoulders as able-bodied mothers take over the lone wheelchair bay on each bus with their buggies, tourists yeet their wheeled suitcases into it, and bored teenagers sprawl there, because schools refuse to provide their own bus services, and bus companies are allowed to take more passengers than there are available seats.

In the UK, there is an average of 37 reported hate crimes against disabled people every single day. That's an average of a crime against a disabled person every single hour of every single day.

It's not an "epidemic of worklessness" - it's an epidemic of intolerance for anyone who isn't 100% "normal" and "on the ball" 100% of the time. 

It's an epidemic of intolerance for any period of absence, and an epidemic of healthcare professionals refusing to accept that people in need of healthcare are often also employed during the same hours they'll tolerate providing their service.

It's an epidemic of refusal to understand the experience of others, and an epidemic of deliberate disinformation on the part of the government and the media.

 It's an epidemic of under-investment, under-performance, and allowing uneducated peoples' "feelings" to derail necessary change.

 I've personally heard or faced every single statement  shown in the triangles of this image since I became disabled in a way that impacts how I am able to live and work.

I am currently supporting two disabled adults on £1,000 a month, having spent the past 6mths struggling to do so on just £600pm, because the DWP decided a six month wait to receive the disability enhancement, after my wife and I had both been approved for it, was acceptable.

I was also trying to build a brand new business from scratch in that time, for which the DWP offer no additional financial support.

I used up my personal credit, and am too in debt to feel able to cope, but not enough in debt to qualify for any assistance.

In my last job, which I lost because of the impacts of my disability in January 2024, I was bringing home £1,600 a month.

£150 a week less certainly isn't "easier", and it definitely doesn't pay for "holidays and designer clothes."

In the past month, I've applied for several jobs - including one delivering leaflets, and one which was 15hrs a week in a bookshop.  I have executive level experience, and a Level 7 Leadership and Management qualification, as well as Board experience, and a background in financial administration and communication.

I didn't get either of the jobs that don't actually require any particular skills. I didn't even get an interview.

I'm not "refusing to look for work" - work, clients, are things that are refusing to come to me.  And I'm very limited in what I can do about that.

Sure, there's loads of delivery driver jobs - but I'm registered blind, and banned from driving on those grounds.  I can't even apply for 90% of jobs, because a "mandatory requirement" is "must have full UK driving licence and own transport" - even when the job itself doesn't involve driving.

I've worked in the employability sector previously (and lost that job because my role was changed, without notice or consultation, to include a mandatory element I was physically unable to do because of my sight loss...the company was a "Disability Confident" employer, too - which was a joke.)  The attitudes of 95% of my colleagues towards the disabled people we were supporting were...bad. Bad enough that, within six months, I didn't feel safe being with that team.

They're the same attitudes you read in the tabloid press, the same attitudes in the op-ed columns of the Telegraph. The same attitudes spewed over social media, and screamed on TV talk shows.

They're the attitudes the government believes - and they are attitudes which just add different barriers to disabled people engaging with work, and wider society, rather than genuinely removing the ones which are already there, and actively providing meaningful help and support.

In the image that accompanies this article, I've used black triangles to hold derogatory statements about disabled people, which I have personally experienced, and factual barriers I have directly faced.  There's a reason for that.

In Nazi Germany, disabled people and those with cognitive impairments were required to wear the black triangle to identify them, just as Jews were required to wear the Star of David, and LGBTQ+ people were required to wear the pink triangle.

Disabled people were the first victims of the Holocaust. The rhetoric used by the Nazi party towards disabled people - describing them as "useless eaters",  "empty shells", and similar language - is being echoed today by the British government.  It's estimated that a quarter of a million disabled people were killed by Adolf Hitler's government.

Just as the LGBTQ+ concentration camp survivors were "rescued", only to be imprisoned in the UK for their "crimes" of being LGBTQ+, many disabled survivors were "rescued", only to face a life in institutions, and absolute poverty.

The Holocaust was over 80yrs ago - but, when it comes to disabled people, the attitudes which caused it remain, and, in fact, are growing increasingly stronger.

Disabled people are no more of a "burden" than pregnant people going on maternity leave, than working parents needing to arrive at work late and leave early, than that one person in every company who is completely incapable of keeping to time in a meeting.

Every single person is a "burden", in some way, to somebody else. There is someone who absolutely hates the fact that they have to see you every day.  There is someone who, every time their phone rings, silently prays it isn't you.  

Whether it's as trivial as moving "too slowly" on a crowded pavement, or as impactful as a tendency towards obnoxious "pranks" and abusive behaviour, every single person will be a burden to others at some point in their lives.  Even if you are the perfect example of humanity, you were a burden to the person who gave birth to you for at least nine months, and probably significantly longer, and you will be a burden to those who have to dig your grave, or service the cremation ovens for your funeral.

Tolerating burdens with grace, and with full awareness that we are also someone's burden, is what makes us human, and what gives us the ability and insight to solve our other problems in life and work.

Transformative change, crisis management, and leadership all hinge on the ability to tolerate burdens with grace and humour, and on the willingness to help others carry their burdens, whilst struggling with the weight of your own.

At The Productive Pessimist Ltd, we specialise in helping leaders, executive teams, and teams on the ground carry their burdens.  If understanding and including all disabled people, creating compassionate, person-centred policy around disability and welfare, and building an economy that truly can provide meaningful, well-paid employment for all are among your burdens - reach out, and let us know when would be a good time for us to come alongside, and help you carry those burdens.  

To give you some ideas before you reach out to us (and commit money to your organisation's improvement!) why not read our previous article on how welfare should be reformed

Email theproductivepessimist@yahoo.com to book your support today.