Blog: When I heard of Government plans to cut disability benefits, my fear, dread and anger were torn with approval – because, let’s face it, the system has to change, writes Emma Suddaby.

When I was first assessed for Disability Living Allowance, I was examined by a doctor. He checked me over thoroughly and contacted my consultant for a medical prognosis on the likely outcome of my disease.

That was a long time ago and since then, whenever my DLA is reviewed, I’m asked to fill in forms, assessing my own abilities and a decision is made on the answers I give.

Now, my condition is progressive and incurable so the chances of sudden improvement are virtually nil but, still, not impossible.

DLA bosses are taking a costly gamble expecting claimants to inform them of health improvements. If doing so will mean a cut in benefits, how many will be honest enough?

And these days there’s no medical assessment at all! Claimants simply ask for application forms, tick boxes, answer standard questions, then wait to hear how much DLA they will get and for how long.

One of the questions, for instance, is “How far can you walk, without stopping for a break?”

Another is “Do you walk with a limp, and if so is it a) hardly noticeable, b) a marked limp or c) a heavy limp, eg. dragging one leg?”

And on the basis of claimants’ answers to these vague, guestimation-style questions, huge amounts of money are paid out with no physical checks at all.

So that’s why we all know someone, somewhere who knows the right boxes to tick, screws the system and is, so far, getting away with it.

And how will it ever change when those in charge of tightening up the rules are the same folk who were responsible for making them so easy to abuse in the first place? Hardly reassuring.

Like many other disabled people, my DLA payments enable me to run an adapted car and pay someone else to do the stuff I can’t do myself around the house; cleaning, odd-jobs, lawn-mowing.

Things that might seem trivial, until you just can’t do them any more. It helps pay for the costly medical equipment I need like specialist shoe insoles and gadgets to help me manage chores.

When it really comes down to it, my DLA allows me to live a normal life.

The Government has already slashed the mortgage assistance it provides to severely disabled people. Should they do the same with DLA, then I, like many others, will end up in a residential care home, costing the Government much more massive amounts of cash than they were trying to save in the first place.

So never mind changing disability benefits, just enforce the rules that already exist and please, stop hammering a section of society that has no other means of survival.