Recently, a father from Telford — Shaun Rigby — was ordered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to repay £36,000 in benefits and had his Motability car taken away — after he was filmed playing cricket.

The DWP concluded that because he was mobile enough to play sport, his “daily needs” no longer required the enhanced support he had been receiving under PIP. (Shropshire Star)

His story isn’t unique. It’s part of a growing pattern of the system demanding visible suffering before it judges disability legit.

Why This Case Hits Hard, and Hits Home:

I know this not just as an observer, but as someone who’s currently appealing my own PIP award. When I first put in my review, DWP’s rationale was this: I “can read a bus timetable — I have a degree.” In other words: I can function well enough to navigate public transport on paper — so they argued I don’t qualify for support.

They ignored that the test isn’t whether you can get around — it’s whether you can do so safely, repeatedly, and within a reasonable time.

They ignored that I rely on tools — navigation apps, assistive devices, pacing, energy management — exactly the kind of supports PIP is meant to help with.

To equate “degree + bus-timetable-reading” with “no disability” is to misunderstand what disability support is for.

To follow the logic used against Shaun and used often against people appealing PIP:

• By getting up, walking, even trying to live, you automatically disqualify yourself.

• By participating, working, moving — you are assumed to be fine.

That’s not support. That’s surveillance. That’s gatekeeping.

Sport = Cure. Mobility = “Not Disabled Enough”:

What Shaun’s case reveals is a broader myth: that if a disabled person participates in sport, works a job, goes out, or shows capacity — they are somehow “less disabled,” undeserving, or fraudulent.

But sport can be:

• therapeutic

• socially vital

• part of mental- and physical-health maintenance

• a way to stay connected and human

Mobility is not a binary. It’s not a “yes/no” checklist that the DWP can tick off once and forget.

If we accept that playing cricket “proves” no longer disabled, then what about:

• People with fluctuating conditions (pain, fatigue, chronic illness)

• Deaf or neurodivergent people whose disabilities are invisible

• People who only have access to assistive devices — exactly the ones PIP is meant to help facilitate

The DWP’s new “evidence” standard erases nuance — and it punishes those who dare to live, even briefly, in comfort, joy, or normalcy.

This Isn’t an Isolated Incident — It's a Warning:

With stories like Shaun’s circulating, disabled people across the UK are living with a new fear:

Be careful, your survival cannot look too good.

Because looking well, mobile, or active can be construed as “proof” you don’t deserve support. And the cost of that “proof” is enormous: loss of independence, fear of debt, emotional trauma, loss of stability.

Why Support Exists — And Why We Should Fight For It

Support like PIP, mobility aids, resets, allowances — they’re not indulgences. They’re the mechanisms that enable disabled people to survive, function, and participate in society. Without them, many disabled people become invisible — not because they don’t exist, but because they are forced into hiding.

And when disabled people are forced to hide their lives so they pass a test of suffering… that test isn’t humane.

That test is arbitrary.

And it’s built on distrust.