The advantages of being disabled...or not

Are there any to start with? As a lifestyle choice, it probably isnt to be recommended, but hey if you have to live with it there are some great discounts to be had! Of course remember you have to be suitably severly disabled, not some minor difficulty, otherwise you just dont qualify!

To start with you can get a reduction in your council tax, this comes in at about 1/3rd. Then of course there is the whole parking issue, free with your blue badge and also free road tax, and if I was so inclined a car courtesy of motability. (there are strings attached to this one though). You get the pick of parking spaces assuming every one hasnt been bagged by an over 65 already. (Dont get me started on that one). A lot of visitor attractions offer free entry to the disabled person and their carer, like I have one of those of course. But if it saves £20, my husband can care for me for a day! Lots of free things from the NHS and people come to me, not the other way round! I always get my own way as no one is ever going to argue with me again are they?!! And of course there is the small amount of DLA which appears every month.

However this is little compensation for the day to day costs to be had. Firstly remember that most disabled people are unemployed, not through choice. A disabled graduate is 4x less likely to work than someone with no qualifications at all. Why? If you are living on a variety of state benefits then life is no fun at all. Frankly paying your council tax is a nightmare for most disabled people despite the fairly meagre reduction. You have to pay for a lot of your own equipment and adaptaions. The trouble is you can get grants for what the state thinks you might need but this doesnt have any relevance to what you really want. For instance Ive paid for a new memory foam mattress which is a real necessity, and also the conversion of hand controls to my own car. The motability scheme is great if you are over 65 and need a Nissan Micra, you can get that almost free. If you need a decent family sized car then you have to make a whopping deposit first. So I cant get my own car converted without paying for it myself. Madness. Of course many disabled people dont have a car in the first place because they cant afford it. So the discounts at various places are not much point because they cant get there in the first place. Sad. Its a very sad life indeed for many people. These are the lost of our society and we do absolutly nothing. When you are disabled it is so bloody difficult just leading a half normal life, why dont we value the skills that so many have instead of letting talent go to waste? See how cross Im getting.......?