My disabled mother was verbally abused just the other day for asking a non-blue badge holder to leave the disabled parking space outside the front of her house. He started ranting about how she was a "lazy disabled b****" and should "get a job" and that he would come back and torch the car and the house etc. just because she asked him to move his car 2 metres up the road!

My mother was left shaken and fears retribution now because she called the police and reported him (had his car number plate) because he used her disability as an excuse it is considered a hate crime, which is exactly what it is. The thing is that you don't even need to be on disability benefits to qualify for a blue badge, so for all he knew my mother could've been working full-time despite her disability!

The Govt and the media demonise those on benefits and yet the truth is most of our welfare bill goes to people who worked all their lives for their pension, and those in work on low wages e.g. Working Families Tax Credit etc. Yet they paint everyone on benefits as lazy scroungers.

I too am on disability benefits for mental illness, but am ashamed and scared to tell anyone for fear of their reactions. I've internalised society's message about benefit claimants being scum and feel terrible about myself for having to claim benefits, yet I'm slightly more scared of being homeless to not claim. And the system is being changed to make it even harder to qualify for these benefits. I'm currently in the middle of a review of my disability benefits and am so anxious I'm considering suicide every day because society considers me a burden. I'm filling out the ESA booklet as they require, but they've made the spaces 1/3 smaller than they were. They're not interested in hearing about your problems, they just need to make it seem like a system is in place. Then you are hauled in front of an assessor who has no mental health training whatsoever and yet apparently can decide whether I can work or not better than my psychiatrist who has known me for 5 years!

I am petrified about my current review, and hate that I am dependent on a system that has me demonised as a useless member of society and a burden; one that many here would rather do without

*Willow*