On social assistance in 22 years: Anja has been left behind on the platform

As the ten-year was Anja Larsen out for a fateful accident. She came cycling on Kejlstrupvej in Silkeborg, as a truck was turning right in an intersection. The driver had not noticed the little girl on the bike, when he accidentally came to swing the truck over one of her legs.

I had destroyed my legs. I got damage on the shin and broke his leg. My bækkenled break off, so I lie in the hospital for six weeks in a bed with a raised platform on, so I can have your legs in the air. I had plaster on his leg for nine months, says Anja Larsen and explains that she was lucky to survive the accident.

Though she escaped with life in the keep, has the accident changed her life forever. When Anja Larsen was 16 years old, found doctors namely out that her left leg had stopped growing. Thus, she had extended her left leg, with 4.5 cm. It meant that Anja Larsen as 18-year-old had spent a large part of the past year in a wheelchair. And she was, by his own statements skoletræt, because she was bullied in school because of his disability.

She did not work, but have been on the dole his entire adult life. In the nearly eight years she has been through a background in Stevns Municipality, where she a large part of the time has been allowed to take care of itself. In the first five years, the municipality according to Anja Larsen nothing to find out how much she is able to work.

- nothing happened. Apart from that I got my cash benefits each month, she explains.

With the big file on the table, Anja Larsen a hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Photo: Per Rasmussen

five years ago, came Anja Larsen in arbejdsprøvning on a or special waste collection point, where she had to work full-time. It made her very distraught, when the municipality threatened to deprive her of social assistance, if she has not worked 37 hours a week.

- I could not cope. Then there was a man down there, who said to me that I should not think of it. For that I should not lose my cash assistance, I was able to put me into the office. He said to me that I had to cope with me as well as I can, she says.

After the failed course was the case once again deposited, until Anja Larsen contacted Stevns mayor, Anette Mortensen (V), in order to get the process over again. It led to, that she came in arbejdsprøvning again - this time in a flower shop.

But she was once again hit by an accident when she is ten weeks into the course fell and broke the foot. And a year ago took doctors out to Anja Larsen has a herniated disc in the lumbar region, which have damaged her nerves in the right side.

Here you can see Anja Larsen medical certificate, stating that her physical symptoms cannot be cured.

the Back is a 'powerless' Anja Larsen, who find it difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

- I'm really upset and really frustrated, because I do not feel that the municipality believe that I'm sick. I do not. And it is manifestly just, the medical certificates I have, " she says, and explains that the municipality has recently decided that she needs to be in ressourceforløb in the next five years.

She feels that she has got a 'grotesque' and 'degrading' treatment, because the municipality's administrators will not recognize that she is not able to work full-time. Anja Larsen has had enough of the various work trials, and have only a burning desire to be awarded a disability pension, so that she can live a fairly normal life.

- It is completely crazy having to spend money on me and give me a ressourceforløb of up to five years. It means that I can spend five years of my life to get even more evil, and become even more frustrated with what is going on, she says.

Therefore, Anja Larsen complained to the Ankestyrelsen over the decision, but the agency has given Stevns Municipality is well founded in the case.

Anja Larsen are sometimes forced to use crutches because of his weak legs. Photo: Per Rasmussen

Anja Larsen also makes a hard criticism against the landspolitikere, which over recent years has reduced the possibility for early retirement and rehabilitation. She has hard time to understand that she must be drawn through the several work trials, when she basically has no ability to work back.

the Reforms were implemented with regard to that no one should be left on the platform. But the politicians ' arguments rings hollow if you ask Anja Larsen, who has been on welfare for 22 years.

- I stand alone, and the train is running. The reforms have left a great many persons on the platform. We are not being heard. We are not being listened to. And we will also not be seen. We have been abandoned all together, she says.

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Victory Public sitting of the municipal council for the Unity in the Stevns Municipality. He has assumed the role as assessor for Anja Larsen. Lokalpolitikeren, who last year was listed as folketingskandidat in Faxe-circle, sees it as ’absolutely appalling’, that she has not yet been provided.

- You whip people around in the system for too long. There are plenty of people who should get a disability pension on the flat hand, which is whipped around to torment ten minutes or a half hour of work out of them per week. After all, it is completely irrelevant and pointless, he says, and states that there should be introduced an the lower on the 12 or seven hours of work per week.

But according to the center director for the labour market in Stevns Municipality Trine Dokkedal, there are a number of explanations that Anja Larsen has not been provided. She puts emphasis on the fact that Anja Larsen long absence from the labour market have made it difficult to find the right job and skånehensyn in the first internship.

- In this case, Anja had a lot of instability, which also has meant that it has not been possible to have a continuous cycle. It gives the unfortunately for all parties, a longer course, when you have to start over several times, says in a written response from the Stevns Municipality.

even Though Anja Larsen can't work full time, according to the Stevns Municipality does not mean that she has the right to get disability pension.

the Law stipulates, namely, that there may be other options such as flex jobs.

- Furthermore, is it the case that our assessment and development of a citizen's ability to work must be made from an overall assessment of the whole of the citizen's situation, and not only from the medical information. Despite the fact that there are no further treatment options for an individual, it is often possible to develop and improve the performance, writes Trine Dokkedal.

Of the answer from the Stevns Municipality also states that the law on disability establishes that the working capacity must be permanently reduced to such an extent that the citizen will not be able to try themselves by working.

- As a municipality we have two terms, we must carry out, which are not always easy to reconcile. We will first take a human account of the citizens, we must help, and we must either comply with the law, standing there in the answer from the Stevns Municipality.