The mainstream media – led by the ever-toxic BBC – are frothing at the mouth over a disabled woman who ‘stole’ £23,000 in benefits, then was ‘caught’ zip-lining on holiday.
You can barely move for news stories about benefits. And no, I’m not talking about the news that Motability plan to restrict how far disabled people travel. Or that the DWP will be using AI to read responses to the PIP review. Or even that MPs are calling for another carers allowance inquiry
No, the story taking up so many column inches is that of a ‘benefit cheat’. or more accurately, a disabled woman who dared to live her life and go on holiday.
BBC rabid for ‘benefit cheat’
The BBC ‘reported’:
A woman who claimed more than £23,000 in benefits, saying she was too ill to go outside, was caught surfing and ziplining in Mexico.
Catherine Wieland, 33, claimed she suffered anxiety so crippling she was housebound but the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found evidence of her surfing in Cancun and visiting Thorpe Park three times.
Wieland, from Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex, claimed tens of thousands of pounds in Personal Independence Payments (Pip) over more than two years, spending the money on manicures, tanning sessions and trips to a private Harley Street dentist.
Obviously, the BBC is a bin fire, but fuck me, they could at least pretend to be unbiased. This reads as if it came straight from The Sun, not the BBC.
And while the BBC article was disgusting, it set the tone for the rest of the media to be just as disgusting. There are so many stories spewing the same hatred that when you Google DWP and click the news tab, there’s a whole section dedicated to just this story.
At one point the BBC ‘news’ article even details exactly how many times Wieland treated herself:
While claiming her health was so poor she could not cook or wash herself, Wieland made 76 beauty appointments, visited 60 pubs, clubs and restaurants and spent money in foreign currencies.
Media turning public against benefit claimants
Unfortunately, this all makes sense when you consider that a YouGov survey found that just 11% of people think those on benefits should be able to afford beauty treatments. 27% said you should be able to afford to go out if you’re on benefits. In the same survey, 26% said people on benefits shouldn’t be able to afford to eat a balanced diet.
Most people on benefits have experienced being asked, ‘how can you afford that?’ when they buy themselves a treat. The implication is always ‘you shouldn’t be able to afford that’. And that’s a direct effect of stories like this, where the media are screaming about how benefit cheats are ‘stealing’ taxpayers hard earned cash.
It’s also not just the media finding these stories coincidentally. As the Canary’s Hannah Sharland reported, the DWP plants benefit fraud propaganda when they need to turn the public against disabled people
It’s absolutely no coincidence that this is happening whilst the government is trying their hardest to cut disability benefits. The fact that Wieland’s anxiety was highlighted plays nicely into the DWP trying to tighten the criteria for PIP and exclude mental health conditions.
It’s also coincidentally at the same time that they’re still trying to find a way to cut the LCWRA element of Universal Credit and move it to PIP. Meaning many will be forced to work despite being too unwell to.
Disabled people should be allowed to live
This absolutely rabid coverage from the media shows just how willingly our papers are prepared to throw disabled people under the bus if it means they’ll make more money. But more than anything, it shows that society has been so turned against disabled people that it’ll only be happy if we’re all miserable and destitute.
Disabled people deserve to live full lives, without fear that our benefits will be cut for daring to enjoy ourselves. But until the media stops working for the DWP and turning the public against us, they’ll keep us afraid. And that’s exactly where the DWP wants us so we don’t attempt to fight their cruel cuts.
Featured image via the Canary
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