That is the central message emanating from disabled rights charities and their supporters following a new study into attitudes towards the disabled...

New research shows that discrimination against the disabled is increasing due to the behaviour of so called 'benefit scroungers' that are widely reported in the media...

The survey by ComRes for the charity Scope shows that benefit-related discrimination has got worse over the last year...

Some of the comments revealed in the report identify physical assaults as well as verbal abuse... With widely reported cases of disability benefit cheats fuelling much of the abuse towards the genuinely disabled...

With the Paralympics around the corner, which should be a celebration of the courage and fortitude of those with disabilities, the new research by disability charity Scope shows that almost half, 46 per cent, of disabled people are sick and tired of the ‘benefit scrounger’ tag that is thrown at them far too often...

Disabled people feel that attitudes towards them have worsened in the last year and point to the issue of 'benefit scroungers' as a central stereotype that they are often verbally bashed with...

While 73 per cent of disabled people surveyed in the report said they experienced the assumption that they do not work, for instance, a total of 87 per cent say that benefit scroungers are having a negative effect on attitudes...

One by-product of those that cheat the system is that it leads to discrimination towards those in genuine need, it seems...

Disabled people in the report revealed they are increasingly confronted by strangers questioning their right to support...

Scope says that disabled people are demanding more positive portrayals of disability, and so the charity is launching a drive to promote positive representations of ordinary disabled people...

The charity says there is a unique opportunity during Paralympics year of leaving a lasting legacy of improved attitudes towards disability... Scope will be working throughout the games to tell what it says is the real story of disabled people in 2012...

Scope Chief Executive Richard Hawkes says: "Greater understanding of disabled people, the challenges they face and their achievements should be the real Paralympic legacy we are all working towards..."