campaign against welfare cuts and poverty

[Celyn]

Forcing people unable for it into "work" and sure they mean "work of any kind at all" will actually end up causing more illness. Oh yes, and deaths too. But some boxes can be ticked, I suppose.

 

[treelover]

That is how the initial New Labour welfare reforms were sold, it also allowed co-option of the charities and gain public support.

Btw, people would be surprised what is on the medical records from their GP's, they are not always disabled and sick people's allies.

 

[chainsawjob]

Ministers set to force work-related activity on everyone in ESA support group

The Department for Work and Pensions is considering forcing all sick and disabled people on out-of-work disability benefits to take part in “mandatory” activity, its new green paper has revealed.

A consultation on the green paper will run until 17 February 2017, and among the ways to comment are via an online survey and by emailing workandhealth@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

 

[treelover]

I acted as a Rep in a Tribunal appeal for a friend. They used the fact I was there as evidence that her neurological disease which has almost completely isolated her hadn't prevented her from keeping friends.

Shocking, posted elsewhere, needs circulating,

 

[Libertad]

Shocking, posted elsewhere, needs circulating,

Where is this from? Do you have a link?

 

[treelover]

It was a reply to another post on FB, the 'I Daniel Blake' site, the chap replied, I could give you his name on FB by PM, that is all.

 

[BigTom]

Some bears shitting in the woods news, NAO report on benefit sanctions

No evidence welfare sanctions work, says National Audit Office

Not looked for the actual report yet.

 

[teqniq]

Tories' benefit sanctions costing £153m more to run that it saves a year

 

[inva]

Tories' benefit sanctions costing £153m more to run that it saves a year

doesn't seem very meaningful to only count payments withheld through sanctions as savings, whereas I'm assuming there's a much greater saving made through denying/discouraging claims altogether.

 

[chrisalpha3]

Thank goodness for Food banks that supply those without, some would be doomed to starvation otherwise

 

[Smoking kills]

David Freud, DWP boss in the House of Lords, has resigned. Good riddance to the architect of welfare reform under Labour, the coalition and both Tory prime ministers and all round privileged ignorant cunt.

 

[BCBlues]

David Freud, DWP boss in the House of Lords, has resigned. Good riddance to the architect of welfare reform under Labour, the coalition and both Tory prime ministers and all round privileged ignorant cunt.

Nasty, seriously out of touch toss pot isn't he. Like you say Good Riddance.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Nasty, seriously out of touch toss pot isn't he. Like you say Good Riddance.

"Good riddance" would be the fucker being found dead, choked to death with an artificial leg down his throat, and a pair of crutches up his arse.

 

[extra dry]

Keep your cv to date or the gov. will shaft you.

 

[Libertad]

Keep your cv to date or the gov. will shaft you.

Fucking bastards.

 

[treelover]

Sheffield City Region trial to support residents with long-term health conditions or disabilities
Published 1st November 2016 at 9:59am

Following a Government announcement on 31 October 2016, Sheffield City Region will be working with local partners to better understand how best to support people with health conditions and disabilities to return to or stay in work. Local Job Centre Plus and GP surgeries in Sheffield City Region will soon begin a trial which will offer innovative new support services to residents with long-term health conditions or disabilities.

Sheffield City Region has been selected, alongside the West Midlands, to design a pioneering trial from the Government’s Work and Health Innovation Fund. The trials will focus on mental health and musculoskeletal conditions, the two conditions most commonly reported by those out of work.

NHS England, the Department of Health (DH) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will be working with Sheffield City Region and the West Midlands Combined Authority to develop the trials that will test new ways of supporting people as they enter, re-enter and stay in work.

Home - Sheffield City Region

Birmingham and Sheffield City Region to be trial areas for the most invasive welfare reforms for ESA yet, already letters to all on ESA in the regions are going out demanding access to all medical notes, names of consultants, access to GP's, etc, many GP's notes are atrocious and frequently bear no resemblance to the persons condition, especially if they have complex ones, people with MH issues will be targeted as well and i fear suicides in these regions, Councils in both regions are fully behind these schemes with 77 million to be spent over time, they are 'black box, schemes, which means anything can be done, One needs to ask did Cllrs vote on this, were there debates in Chambers in Sheffield, Barnsley, Birmingham, etc? L/P councillors spoke at 'I Daniel Blake' showings, they will know this will not be benign.were they aware of all this?. Will there be compulsory, sanctions? Who is the SCR and BCR accountable to, this is really alarming. This is to be undertook with the NHS raising issues of privacy, patient confidentiality, civil liberties, will the NHS agree to put forward sanctions if non compliance by the client, etc.

It is unlikely given recent Gov't's approach to reform that it will be benign, maybe forced medical treatment and many disabled and sick people are already very worried, it is also going to be fast tracked. There is a lot of money in it as well, so disability charities, training agencies, local media, etc will want a slice of it.it doesn't bode well for disabled and sick people.

 

[BigTom]

Birmingham and Sheffield City Region to be trial areas for the most invasive welfare reforms for ESA yet, already letters to all on ESA in the regions are going out demanding access to all medical notes, names of consultants, access to GP's, etc, many GP's notes are atrocious and frequently bear no resemblance to the persons condition, especially if they have complex ones, people with MH issues will be targeted as well and i fear suicides in these regions, Councils in both regions are fully behind these schemes with 77 million to be spent over time, they are 'black box, schemes, which means anything can be done, One needs to ask did Cllrs vote on this, were there debates in Chambers in Sheffield, Barnsley, Birmingham, etc? L/P councillors spoke at 'I Daniel Blake' showings, they will know this will not be benign.were they aware of all this?. Will there be compulsory, sanctions? Who is the SCR and BCR accountable to, this is really alarming. This is to be undertook with the NHS raising issues of privacy, patient confidentiality, civil liberties, will the NHS agree to put forward sanctions if non compliance by the client, etc.

It is unlikely given recent Gov't's approach to reform that it will be benign, maybe forced medical treatment and many disabled and sick people are already very worried, it is also going to be fast tracked. There is a lot of money in it as well, so disability charities, training agencies, local media, etc will want a slice of it.it doesn't bode well for disabled and sick people.

The west midlands combined authority is more than Birmingham, it also includes the 4 Black Country council areas (Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley), Coventry and Warwickshire, with the other surrounding county councils involved in some way. Only the mayor is directly elected (elections still to come), everyone else is an appointed councillor (so they are elected but not to those roles). I've no idea if it's been discussed by council but I doubt it and I've no idea which councillor would have the office that would be responsible for this tbh.

 

[ice-is-forming]

Current Australia :/

 

[chainsawjob]

PIP investigation: Welfare expert says two-thirds of appeals involve lying assessors

 

[treelover]

Mother of ‘fit for work’ victim calls for ministers to face criminal charges

The mother of a disabled man who starved to death after he was found “fit for work” and lost his out-of-work disability benefits has called for ministers to face criminal charges.

Jill Gant says work and pensions ministers should be tried for misconduct in public office for failing to take action that could have saved the life of her son, Mark Wood.

She spoke out after signing a letter, drawn up by the Green Party and backed by Disabled People Against Cuts, that calls on work and pensions secretary Damian Green to order an independent inquiry into the links between his department’s procedures and the deaths of benefit claimants.

The party has produced a dossier of 50 cases in which the deaths of benefit claimants have been linked to decisions taken by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Mother of ‘fit for work’ victim calls for ministers to face criminal charges

 

[treelover]

Woman housebound with flesh-eating disease for 15 years told 'go back to work'

It just gets worse, a woman with necrosis(flesh eating disease) who can really only go out for 15 mins, is found fit for work.

 

[crossthebreeze]

I can't like that, but thanks for posting. Its so awful.

 

[Schmetterling]

Woman housebound with flesh-eating disease for 15 years told 'go back to work'

It just gets worse, a woman with necrosis(flesh eating disease) who can really only go out for 15 mins, is found fit for work.

Fuckers!!!

 

[BigTom]

not sure if this has been posted already but there's a public accounts committee report on benefit sanctions from a couple of weeks ago that I've just seen, not read it yet though: https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmpubacc/775/775.pdf
summary headline is that sanctions are applied inconsistently and badly and doesn't look like it'll be a happy report.

 

[Ergo Proxy]

Well that's the end of Pip Mobility for those with mental health conditions.

Using legislation to over rule 2 Upper Tribunal decisions is quite frankly a new low for people who you couldn't think could get any lower!

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/194/made

The bit in question is this

Regulation 2(4) reverses the effect of the judgment of the Upper Tribunal in the case of MH v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP) [2016] UKUT 0531 (AAC) by making it clear that, in the activity “planning and following journeys” in Part 3 of the Schedule (mobility activities), the effects of psychological distress are not relevant to descriptors c, d or f (planning or following the route of a journey).

 

[Libertad]

Well that's the end of Pip Mobility for those with mental health conditions.

Using legislation to over rule 2 Upper Tribunal decisions is quite frankly a new low for people who you couldn't think could get any lower!

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/194/made

The bit in question is this

A fairly comprehensive blog piece by Kitty S Jones on this here:

Government subverts judicial process and abandons promise on mental health ‘parity of esteem’ to strip people of PIP entitlement

 

[Treacle Toes]

Housing Benefit For 18-21 Year-Olds Axed Under New Rule Slipped Out By Department For Work And Pensions | The Huffington Post

 

[BigTom]

Housing Benefit For 18-21 Year-Olds Axed Under New Rule Slipped Out By Department For Work And Pensions | The Huffington Post

oh fuck

 

[DotCommunist]

I've already noticed a spike in youth homeless in my own town and northampton over the last 5 years. This is going to have young adults out on the streets. They must know this.

 

[NoXion]

“We want to make sure that 18 to 21-year-olds do not slip straight into a life on benefits, which is why we are helping young people get the training, skills and experience they need to move into a job and build a career,” [spokesman for the DWP] said.

You absolute fucking idiot. How the fuck is someone supposed to get a job if they're living on the streets? It ain't impossible but it's a hell of a lot more difficult than when you've got a home. Where do they charge their mobiles, assuming they even have one in the first place? Where do they store and clean their clothing for interviews? If by some miracle they happen to actually land a position, where are they going to store and clean their work clothes for the first month? How can one ensure that one gets to work on time when one is sleeping on the fucking street?

Same goes for those bullshit "training" courses that the DWP likes to subject people to.

“This government is delivering on its commitment to ensure young people in the benefit system face the same choices as young people who work but may not be able to afford to leave home."

Why don't more people see how transparent this kind of shit is? They're basically saying that they want the threat of homelessness hanging over the head of every young person who doesn't have access to the Bank of Mummy and Daddy. That kind of language sounds beige and harmless if you don't think about it and/or aren't aware of what they're really doing, but given the effects are becomingly increasingly more visible by the year as cuts are made, I'm at a loss to explain why more people don't call out this kind of bullshit.

Vulnerable people will continue to be protected, as will carers, families and those who have been in work for at least six months prior to claiming will be exempt, and those working at least 16 hours at the National Minimum Wage.

This would make the previously quoted statement an outright lie, would it not?!