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Thank you for covering the Hardest Hit march (Disabled marchers turn out in thousands for benefits protests, 12 May). Months in the planning, it was hoped it would wake up those who are ignorant of just how extensively spending cuts are eviscerating the existence of some of the weakest members of our society: those who are sick and disabled through no fault of their own. I expected widespread coverage, but it was largely ignored by the rest of the mainstream media.
Perhaps I should not have been surprised; a cursory look at the comments on your website revealed an ingrained prejudice towards disability and illness in all its variety. It is horribly reminiscent of a shameful point in our history when "blacks" and "Irish" were subject to outrageous vilification. What have we ever done to deserve such opprobrium? What kind of society do we live in where it is acceptable to bully and belittle those of us who try so hard to force our bodies to do what the healthy do without thinking?
I had to stop reading after one particularly ill-informed comment. Apparently anyone who is not yet at level 3 of Parkinson's or reached the secondary progressive stage of MS is fit to work. How can such wilful ignorance still exist?
There is so much I would like to say, so much I would like to do to try to get people to understand what it is like to live as a sick and disabled member of society; but I am not well enough to do so and that makes me feel more impotent still.
Emma Wilkins (who has MS)
London
• The Conservative-led government is intent on railroading through their ideologically driven cuts to housing, disability, sickness and welfare reform. They claim that their need to "reform" these benefits is driven by the need to reduce the deficit and national debt.
The poorest and most vulnerable in society are being asked to pay for the mistakes and greed of the financial institutions and the arrogance of politicians. Cuts in housing benefit will mean a third of England will become unaffordable for low-income households within a decade. Despite a fraud rate of just 1%, 500,000 people who rely on sickness benefits will be forced into the already depleted labour market. Their intention to cut already meagre disability benefits and remove key services will result in life becoming much tougher for thousands of families with vulnerable relatives.
Patricia Walker
Tywardreath, Cornwall
• Your exposure of the impact upon disabled people of cut-backs in funding for the support they need (Report, 10 May) will be welcomed by disabled people and those who care about their wellbeing. However, the core idea within your report of disabled people relying on the legal process to help them fight back may well to lead to disappointment.
There is now a long history of disabled people seeking redress through the courts for what they have experienced as reducing or inadequate support. The track record is not good, with the courts, including the European human rights court, declining to interpret the law as obliging public services to meet all their needs at whatever the cost. The reality is that such decisions are the product of politics, and it is within the political process that the fight must take place.
Disabled people will need to think how they can win the political arguments, and where within public services they might find their best allies.
Colin Slasberg
Harlow, Essex
• Sue Marsh (Comment, 11 May) makes powerful points about the government's assault on the disabled. She refers to our endless resilience. Sadly, this is what is used against us when we can no longer work. It is assumed that if we have been able to manage for this for so long, surely we can keep going. Letters of support from GPs or hospital consultants are either ignored or treated with contempt.
The rejection of my request for ill-health retirement was based on the pension fund's occupational health consultant's fictional supposition about my attitude to work. It had no basis in anything I had said, my work or sickness absence record. One can only assume that these people are working to instructions to refuse as many people as possible.
D Sanderson
Durham