Our sick society?

Terri Smith is a Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament, where she represents Edinburgh Northern and Leith. She is also a young woman with health problems. Read her experience of facing a DWP appeal yesterday – and ask yourself what sort of country we’ve become …

I’ve never felt so belittled and demoralised in my life until today. I was in court this morning fighting against the DWP’s decision to declare me fit for work.

I was interviewed by three people who viciously questioned me, making me feel like I was lying about how unwell I am. I had letters and reports from umpteen consultants highlighting the many condition I have been diagnosed with and how they impact on my life.

I burst into tears in the middle of being interrogated as I was being repeatedly asked: ‘how do you know you’re having a seizure if you’re unconscious?’ How was I supposed to answer that?

The judge made her final decision at 12:30pm today and the decision was I was not unwell enough to be entitled to any help from the government and was awarded 0 points.

No points for having an incurable brain tumour, no points for having on average 20 seizures a day. No points for not being able to eat or drink properly and vomiting all day every day. No points for having severe brittle asthma and reduced lung function. No points for having to endure countless medical procedures and treatments day in day out. No points for 30+ tablets I have to take every day and worst of all no recognition of the massive sacrifice my family make by looking after me.

Welcome to austerity Britain where the disabled are robbed and humiliated for the sake of saving the government a few pennies.

I tell you one thing though: I’ll never stop fighting for better health and I’ll never give up on my dreams but I sincerely hope that those made of money, austerity-driven bigwig politicians realise that they’ve thrown me in the gutter just when I thought life couldn’t get much worse.