Sunday 10 February 2013

I've realised I'm fighting the wrong battle.

ATOS assess me on behalf of DWP. I'm there on the basis of mental illness, and the decision by DWP that I'm swinging the lead is made on the basis of ATOS' physiotherapist's report; but never mind, I have to live with that... I can appeal, and do, and will be heard eventually.

As I appeal, I give DWP a statement forming the basis of that appeal. I give it to DWP because DWP tell me that's what I've got to do... an odd idea of fairness, that you have to give all the substance of your defence to your accusers... but that's what the law in this country has required since the present police caution was introduced...

I have to live with that too but, again, never mind.

What I do mind is that I have been misdirected by DWP - and I have been completely taken in.

I have been complaining - or more often remaining silent, since I really don't complain - of mental illness since I was a child. Recently I have declared that I am no longer fit for work and have claimed benefits (for which I'd paid a great deal and to which I was entitled by law and contract). I have a considerable medical history to back up my claim but, as it happens, that should be neither here nor there at this point.

The point is that DWP has found me, effectively, guilty (I must be guilty, because they are denying me my legal and contractual rights and they could only do that if I wasn't telling the truth). They found me guilty without any evidence to support that finding. They haven't shown wrong facts in my assertions - they've just ignored them,

So I'm trying to defend myself, in my appeal, by trolling out all the medical and quotidian evidence that, in fact, DWP already have or have access to. This is what they want me to do [and all their guidance, rules, etc, tell me that the appeal must be fought on the basis of what I can do (or can't do, though they don't want to hear about that)] because then the battle is being fought by their rules.

They have misdirected me into fighting on their battlefield.

The real battlefield is of course the issue of their contentions - that I'm lying - which they should prove. It's not my job to disprove their contentions, certainly not until they come up with some meat  (no-one can tackle a will-o'-the-wisp). Nor is my job to keep proving my contentions. Innocent until proved guilty and all that... My contentions, despite DWP's misdirection, are not the issue until they can establish at least the beginnings of a case that I've been lying or at least mistaken.

-/-

I write this for my own sake - I feel I'm on the edge of an important realisation, but the trouble is that I don't have the mental resources to follw through the implications.

I offer it in case it helps someone else's thinking, and in case you have any comments to offer to help me. If I'm behind the curve, and I've been stating the bloomin' obvious, my apologies.

No comments:

Post a Comment