• iii
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    4 days ago

    Our respective experiences might differ based on context.

    Where I live, there’s 500k people on disability, on a work age population of around 5 million (1).

    I was offered disability benefits, as I received my diagnosis.

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPM
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      4 days ago

      You were offered sick leave or permanent disability benefits? In most places those are completely different.

      Someone with CPTSD in my country might get long term sick leave if their condition flares up, but that condition isn’t in the list of those considered for long term disability benefits.

      If getting long term disability in belgium is so early that’s probably a good thing. Lot’s of disabled people in other countries literally die on the streets because they don’t have the physical or financial capital it takes to go through the multi year long draining process it takes to get disability benefits.

      • iii
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        4 days ago

        Permanent, as of the neurological component.

        The CPTSD developed by growing up in an environment not, beneficial for lack of better word, to my situation.

          • iii
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            4 days ago

            Yet, there’s a freeloather problem here.

            By legal definition, there’s not. As anyone that receives disability benefits is legally disabled.

            But in practice.

            • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPM
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              4 days ago

              and your sources to back that up are…?

              I’m sure like everywhere a couple people cheat the system. But using that to excuse the marginalisation of disabled people who can’t work is disingenuous at best.

              • iii
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                4 days ago

                That’s indeed an issue. By definition an elephant is an elephant, even if it has great manes and hunts antilopes in the savanna.

                  • iii
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                    4 days ago

                    The situation here is simply reversed.

                    Where, in your examples, it takes lawyers and years to get benefits.

                    Can you prove there isn’t a freeloader problem, in your situation, as each case takes years of legal resolution?

                    We can only refer to anecdotal experience, or gross numbers. 1 out of 10 working age people are on disability in Belgium. What’s the gross ratio where you live?

            • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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              4 days ago

              I just want to chip in that the definition of “disabled” is more complex than just receiving disability benefits. I’m going to use a UK framework to illustrate what I mean, but my overall argument applies equally to other countries.

              There are multiple different kinds of disability benefit in the UK. One of them (PIP) isn’t dependent on household income, and isn’t linked to one’s ability to work. ESA is another disability benefit which does depend on income and is also linked to difficulty working. You can get both PIP and ESA, but it’s fairly common for people to get PIP, but not ESA. Being in receipt of either of these benefits would potentially qualify a person as being “disabled”

              These benefits are also used for gaining access to other resources for disabled people, like a blue parking badge that allows one to park in disabled bays. The easiest way to get one of those is to provide evidence of being in receipt of a benefit such as PIP, but you don’t actually have to be in receipt of any benefit to get a blue badge (and once you do have a blue badge, that is often sufficient ‘proof of disability’)

              And to complicate things further, if we are talking about disability discrimination, then a person doesn’t need to be in receipt of any of these benefits to be covered by the Equality Act. Many people who don’t even think of themselves as disabled are covered by this legislation, which casts a very wide definition of “disabled”.

              The TL;DR: is that even the concept of “legally disabled” is complex and context dependent.

    • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 days ago

      I think you’re also misunderstanding what is being “on disability” in other countries? It seems like your government covers long-term (but not lifelong) illness. Mine doesn’t. So the comparison is kind of disingenuous.