This Is Not A Joke

a jokeA friend sent me what I thought was one of those online jokes this morning.

Except it wasn’t. It’s real.

I present to you the Department of Work and Pension’s ‘6 Tips for dealing with stress’.

These are the people who will soon determine whether or not I still have MS or if I have been miraculously cured. If cured, I stand to lose what little is left of my disposable income.

So, now that I have a huge form to fill in and am beyond stressed, what do they suggest?

Helpfully, in their introduction, they point out that, ‘too much stress can be unhealthy – around 9.9 million working days are lost each year to stress, depression or anxiety.’ Would that be the same stress, depression and anxiety they themselves are currently putting me through?

Anyway, the first tip is to ‘Address the Causes’, with the unhelpful and rather sinister tip, ‘it’s also important to learn to accept when things are out of your control.‘ Are they actually, seriously having a laugh?

Tips two and three  – Schedule Your Time and Take A Break – basically say the same thing – have lunch outside. It’s that simple. Apparently this can ‘prevent blockages‘ (huh?) and ‘inspire new ideas‘.

Tip four – Stay Healthy (lol) – again, suggests going outside (I think they are slightly obsessed, which is weird as they’re taking thousands of Mobility cars from people, who now cannot go outside).

Tip five – Keep in Touch – build a support network. And laughter is an excellent stress reliever, apparently. So is banging my head against a wall, if only I had the energy.

Tip six – Do Something you Enjoy – basically, do something you enjoy. They suggest reading or gardening.

Well, hopefully after reading these six tips, you all feel a lot less stressed. I know I don’t.

When this government department is snatching lifetime awards for incurable illnesses from people and pushing countless others into poverty, homelessness and worse, it seems callous in the extreme to publish such a flippant post.

Is it me? Am I missing something?

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10 thoughts on “This Is Not A Joke

  1. SOTIRIA DONTI says:

    What a mess! if that’s comforting you, in Greece also ms is not considered incurabe…So, in order to have a (weak) monthly financial support you have to pass a committee every 2-3 years that will certify your disability… Different groups of patients press the government to include ms in the list of serious and incurable illnesses, but it’s still not done… It’s no joke, it’s deadly serious…

    • stumbling in flats says:

      That’s shocking – and it’s also happening here, right now.
      I had a lifetime award for MS. Because I have MS. And now I have to prove I have MS. It’s beyond bizarre.
      MS is incurable!! x

  2. Beth says:

    It’s definitely not you. That’s insanity. Pure and simple. They should be called the Department of Irony. ?

  3. Barbara Leonard says:

    You would , of course, appreciate the NMSS mailing that advised us to plan our landing if we begin to fall so as to land on a cushioned body part and avoid injury.

  4. Annie says:

    I don’t know what to say… it’s beyond belief.. is PIP replacing DLA by areas? Is Wales currently in the firing line or is it all over uk yet? Not heard of anyone in Northern Ireland yet going through the changeover just yet. Sending positive vibes … you will fight it and fingers crossed if there’s any justice you will get it??… v v stressful tho, I really get that xx

  5. Ashley hale says:

    Stress and the DWP. Their telephone number used to form a cross on a standard telephone keypad! Like a silent prayer. Please don’t keep me on hold indefinitely listening to Vivaldi for multiple repeats whilst regularly reminding me that I can find some answers to common questions online! Please god give me the strength to bite my tongue and to be unto others as I would have them be unto me despite being stonewalled and passed from pillar to post whilst making notes about each name and department and time and each word said as I know they will be doing the same, unto me!
    Experience counts for a lot and each experience puts you off each future encounter you have to make whenever a brown envelope lands in the doormat.
    To add to the stress of life, people other than the DWP use brown A5 envelopes these days and I often find myself taking a deep breath, making a nice cup of tea and trying to enter into a calm meditative state prior to opening an envelope sent by mistake from Curry’s/pc world reminding me that the warranty on some electronic device I no longer have is about to expire so would I like to extend the warranty for x£!!!!!!!

    Get up, dust off, prepare for another round. Just like with every task we have to deal with on a day to day basis. Except that where the DWP are concerned you just aren’t sure whether you’ve achieved anything in the end.

    Good luck with the PIP package. I’ve been there and it nearly killed me. Physically and emotionally. Me and my wife! And my two teenagers who helped with the typing as it’s an impossibility to fit all the info into the size of box provided on the forms. One 40 page form plus twenty pages of extra information to send recorded delivery please because I’d like to be able to prove it has actually been received by someone there, thanks, not leaving it to chance again!

    • stumbling in flats says:

      Thank you so much for your brilliant comment. It’s a terrible, terrible situation for all of us going through this.
      I guess it’s just about living day to day and trying not to be too disheartened, but boy, it’s hard. X

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