03/08/2026
So Jeremy Clarkson wants thank you letters from us. Well okay, here's mine.
Dear Jezza,
Thank you for your concern about how I spend my benefits.
I understand you were aiming your comments at young people you believe are sitting at home doing nothing.
But you did not limit your proposed weekly humiliation exercise to them. You said people receiving benefits should be given the email address of a randomly selected worker and forced to explain how they spent the money.
No suitably “fulsome” and “effusive” thank-you email, no benefits.
So here is mine.
I was born with Morquio syndrome, a rare and degenerative condition that affects my bones, joints, breathing, hearing and mobility.
I am three feet tall, have severe hearing loss and use a powered wheelchair.
I did not choose my disability. I did not order it online with next-day delivery, although that might be useful given how long disabled people often wait for essential equipment.
I receive Personal Independence Payment.
PIP is not an unemployment benefit. It helps towards the additional costs of disability, whether someone is working or not.
I work part-time.
My PIP helps me maintain the independence that makes working and participating in society possible.
My disability brings costs that many non-disabled people never have to consider: specialist equipment, accessible transport, wheelchair repairs, hearing technology, heating, care, medication and the price of simply trying to access a society that was rarely designed with people like me in mind.
Every Friday, I give up most of my day to receive treatment for my condition. That treatment helps protect my mobility, independence, breathing and quality of life.
The other six days are not spent running around in little circles to demonstrate my gratitude.
I work.
I campaign.
I help disabled people challenge inaccessible services and unfair decisions.
I co-founded Disabled People Against Cuts Northern Ireland. I chair the Omagh Access Forum, serve as vice-chair of a council Access and Inclusion Group and run My Way Access.
I have worked with public bodies, transport providers, councils and politicians to improve access for disabled people.
I have helped people challenge housing problems, transport barriers and failures in social care. I have spoken publicly about independent living, accessible taxis, welfare reform and the rights of disabled people.
This work is not paid work.
All of it contributes to society.
My PIP does not pay me to sit at home. It helps make it possible for me to leave home.
It helps me work, volunteer, campaign, attend medical appointments and live independently rather than being unnecessarily institutionalised or completely reliant on my family.
That is what disability support can achieve when it is designed to enable people rather than degrade them.
But your proposal is not really about accountability.
The government already knows what benefits people receive. Claimants complete lengthy forms, provide medical evidence, attend assessments and face repeated reviews.
Your proposal is about making people perform gratitude for their survival.
You want disabled people, carers, pensioners, low-paid workers and people who have lost their jobs to approach a stranger each week like Oliver Twist holding out his bowl.
Perhaps I should describe exactly what I did with every pound.
Maybe I should explain which part helped cover accessible transport, which part covered the electricity needed to charge my wheelchair and which part went towards the additional costs of living with a lifelong disability.
Perhaps I should include photographs, receipts and a short video of me wagging my imaginary tail.
Would that be effusive enough?
But as we are exchanging thank-you letters, perhaps you could send me one as well.
Thank you, Dermot, for paying taxes despite having significantly higher living costs than most people.
Thank you for paying your television licence during the years the BBC provided the platform that made me wealthy and famous.
Thank you for paying for public roads, healthcare, emergency services and infrastructure that support my television programmes, businesses and farm.
Thank you for contributing towards a society from which I have benefited enormously.
That is how society works, Jeremy.
We contribute collectively because none of us is completely self-sufficient.
You benefited from publicly funded infrastructure before you ever became wealthy enough to complain about other people receiving support.
Farmers receive support. Businesses receive grants. Broadcasters benefit from public infrastructure. Wealthy people employ accountants to minimise their tax liabilities.
Yet it is the disabled person receiving help with the cost of leaving their home who must bow, scrape and demonstrate sufficient gratitude.
Support for wealthy people is called investment.
Support for disabled people is treated as charity.
I am grateful for the support that helps me live independently.
But gratitude is not submission.
PIP is not a personal gift from Jeremy Clarkson. It is part of a social security system into which millions of us contribute and which exists because disability, illness, unemployment and old age can affect any family.
You recently experienced serious ill health yourself.
I genuinely hope your recovery continues.
Perhaps that experience might eventually teach you that none of us is invincible and that needing support does not make someone lazy, wasteful or less valuable.
So thank you for your concern, Jezza.
I hope my taxes, television licence, subscriptions, employment, voluntary work and contribution to society have been gratefully received.
Please send your own thank-you letter by Friday, along with a full breakdown of everything public services and ordinary taxpayers have contributed towards your success.
Make it fulsome.
Make it effusive.
And do try to look grateful.
Yours in independence, dignity and equality,
Dermot Devlin
