Take my disability not my benefits

I was sickened by the letter (UK benefits claims should be tested there) claiming that a lot of people are abusing the incapacity benefit system.

We have read this in UK tabloid headlines, aimed at rousing ire against soft targets, but it is a shock to read it on your letters page. How could anyone possibly know if this were true?

Then there is the claim that “these people” are “costing the country a fortune”. In fact, there are not that many people on incapacity benefit.

It is hard to get (try filling in the forms), furthermore the cost is miniscule compared to the losses incurred by mismanagement and corruption in the banking and finance sectors.

The writer claims to have no problem with the genuinely disabled, but that “all others” should be reassessed back in the UK at their own expense.

Who is to decide who are genuine and who are the “others” in advance? Obviously all the disabled would be targeted.

The tone of the letter (“They land in France, throw away their crutches and walking sticks and are renovating their own property”) is that of tabloid hysteria.

It is not surprising that David Cameron seeks to draw attention away from the money-people to the poor and disabled: saving money by targeting the weak is a long tradition.

What is astonishing is that so many of the British public, expats included, have followed his example in switching blame for the financial crisis from the banking sector to the disadvantaged.

A sign on disabled parking spaces here reads: “Vous prenez mon espace: prenez mon handicap”.

I would say something similar to the letter-writer and British tabloids: try suffering in my husband’s place on one of his worst days, then see how morally indignant you feel.

Righteous indignation only feels like a virtue: it is actually a form of ignorance and pride.

Sue Broadbent
By email