After providing medical certificates and a letter from the rehab, I have just started getting Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) (£67.50 per week) and will be applying for Housing Benefit next week. I cannot claim Job Seekers Allowance (same amount) because I am in full-time treatment, so not available for work. Most of the others are in the same circumstances.
David Cameron is 'talking tough' and has picked out addicts and people with weight problems on benefits (there are apparently around 80,000 of us including 42,360 alcoholics - my peers were surprised at how low this number was!), saying that the public only wants to "pay taxes for people incapacitated through no fault of their own". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13152349 This is hard for me to hear because I was already feeling guilty about giving up my job and turning to the state. Family and friends had to reassure me that I was doing the right thing, that it's what the welfare state is there for. I am taking three months (maybe slightly more) out of work so I can become a productive, tax-paying member of society in future - not to mention happier and not dead. The way things were going with my drinking it is likely that I - at some point in months or years - could have ended up in jail or seriously mentally ill. I got to the stage where I need support to stop drinking so can't work right now. And I don't have the money to support myself or put myself privately into eg. The Priory (more about how my treatment is funded in a later entry).
I want to tell David Cameron that it was not a lifestyle choice for me to become an alcoholic or go into treatment and be surviving (in London) on £67 a week. Yes, I might have made some bad decisions (maybe just the first time I picked up a drink - something the vast majority of British adults do) but I'm not sure if I am so much more at fault than someone off work due to a back injury they got indulging in the risky activity of skiing. I have worked moderately hard in my life but I suppose that doesn't matter: This is something common in our society and therefore we must deal with it compassionately and with pragmatism, not by passing high-handed judgment. I hate the fact that I am in this situation and desperately want to do as well as I can once I get through the first part of tackling my problem.
As well as any funding cuts, I worry that the prime minister's comments will have the affect of further stigmatising other people with problems like me: Someone else who is considering going into treatment to save their life or sanity. Addiction affects people from all walks of life but cuts in benefits will affect the poorest and most vulnerable most harshly. I intend to get back into work as soon as I'm out of rehab but I have heard anecdotal evidence from others that going eg: straight out of a detox centre into a job and suddenly having the pressure of work and a bit of cash is not the best thing for some addicts and can result in relapse. In order to have the best long-term results, it often needs to be a slow and gentle process of rehabilitation. The professionals working in these fields are the best people to give advice, rather than politicians pandering the the perceived views of middle England.
Others in the centre on ESA have already received letters asking them to come into the Job Centre for an "assessment" and they're scared. I will be interested to see what actual changes will result from the government's cruel rhetoric.
INFINITE JEST: Pages 350-424
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