Enough

I'm a scrounger who relies on benefits.

Funny that, because I believe in work. I haven't had a full-time job since my daughter was born in 1998, but I have scraped a living instead with various part-time and freelance posts.

So when I say I rely on benefits, I'm not talking for big stuff like housing. Oh no, I'm not up to that level of scrounging. Mine's just small scale.

The few small benefits our family have been able to claim because of my daughter's disability go towards hospital parking, heating, and other luxuries, like food. It means that my part-time work - and my husband's less than astronomical full-time wage - have been enough to live on. And it means that I've been able to be here when my daughter needs me. Which she is going to continue to do, the selfish layabout.

So why am I mentioning this?

Yesterday, MPs rejected a series of proposed House of Lords amendments to the government’s welfare reform bill.

One of the pernicious reversals they voted through was to halve the ‘disabled child element’ of Child Tax Credits.

This is actually a good thing, David Cameron has told us. What it means is that the help can now be focused on those most in need. This, presumably, refers to the whopping £1.23 extra that children with ‘severe’ disabilities will get.

As for the thousands of children whose disabilities aren’t as ‘severe’, their families will see their £52.21 a week 'hand-out' reduced to £25.95.

Oh well, never mind. Relying on benefits, is, apparently, a 'lifestyle choice'. Our daughter shouldn’t have made the choice to be born with Prader-Willi Syndrome.

It wasn’t a bad choice, because it means she can still be a small-scale scrounger, incurring the stoked-up ire of 'hard-working families'.

But she did make one mistake. She chose to be disabled - just not disabled enough.

Video is Voice Of The Beehive - What You Have Is Enough