Thank you.
I posted the letter then caught a bus to supermarket. I barely got on the bus before I found myself in tears. I did some shopping but the tears are coming and going.
What had left me in tears was the man behind the counter in the sub-post office who, when I said it was a benefits appeal and they'd probably turn me down but I wanted to make sure they couldn't say they hadn't got it, looked sympathetic. However, when I said that recently the judge in charge of the tribunal service got all the judges that were in on a particular day to go through what he described as a 'wall' of case files and they found that in 60% of them, the DWP had no case to answer, the person claiming benefits had a cut and dried case for them.
He looked a bit shocked but then said something about how the people that don't deserve the benefits get them, not those that do, and I said that statistically those that are cheating are a tiny number. I pointed out that he couldn't tell by looking at me that I have bipolar disorder, he doesn't see me on the bad days when I'm hiding behind drawn curtains, he doesn't see the physical damage to my pancreas, eyes, bladder etc. caused by my medication. I could see from the response that he took on board what I'm on about.
That's my little effort for the day. I'm going to set myself a target of number of people a week to 'convert' to the truth. Not opinion, truth.
Meanwhile, assuming I'll need to appeal, I'm already looking at the forms for that. Quite frankly, emotionally I'd rather give up, but I want to fight alongside other disabled people. Every extra case one is another statistic to shame the government. They've got no sense of shame, but the higher the numbers, the harder they are to hide.
And I've promised myself that by Sunday I'll have drawn up a list of possible further sources of evidence. Sod the DWP. Sod the government.
I know I'm unusual in seeing the 'nasties' in parliament as an odd mixture of nasty by nature, and irresponsible and weirdly idealist, but it's days like today that I can sit on a bus, tears rolling down my cheeks, and know that there are also politicians and those pulling their strings that are either psychopathic and unable to empathise, or evil. I don't pretend to be sure which politicians are which.