campaign against welfare cuts and poverty

[Paulie Tandoori]

Good article about the cuts in this week's New Statesman:

See, i don't think that is a good article, and i say that somewhat disappointedlly. What is the point of it, what does it suggest we do differently? Nothing, but wring our hands and reassure ourselves that we're thinking good things, even if we're doing nothing......

 

[Urbanblues]

^ was just about to link to that article

income support's going to be replaced as well
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/content/category/13/25/45/

I’ve just gone over the ‘Limited capability for work assessment’ and ‘notched up’ 123; this is more or less the same as when I did the ‘All Works Test’.

 

[Cressi]

Well think weve seen the results of all this......DWP, CSA, Wretched Tax credits...........GB wouldnt listen...stubborn....arrogant....Im fed up with men forcing their theories on me.....up top they insist they work.....down on the ground they dont. Paperpushers.......endless forms......reforms......trendy logos with 3 col print.......all bullshit.......but most of all Im dreading ringing my dad .....a socialist of the old school......why did it go so very wrong?

 

[_angel_]

Crucially, the reformers bracketed illness with disability. The disability lobby had long argued that "disability" was a discriminatory label imposed by society, and it was bent on removing the barriers to work that excluded those so labelled and kept them in poverty. But the bracketing brought confusions - for those with disabilities may be extremely fit (consider the disabled athlete), whereas the able-bodied can be extremely ill. More confusion arises with conditions such as "stress", "anxiety" and "chronic fatigue" that sound trivial. As for "back pain", how unreasonable is it to take time off sick for something best dealt with by a stiff upper lip and the odd aspirin? It is easy for those in good health to pooh-pooh such things, agreeing with the government that "Work is the best therapy".

I do think that unless people have suffered depression and anxiety there's a tendency amongst some people to simply have no idea at all what they are.

The CFS or ME sufferers get my sympathy. Fancy having to struggle to get thru everyday life and then have fuckwits who don't know what they're talking about brand you a scrounger or malingerer.

 

[mango5]

The CFS or ME sufferers get my sympathy. Fancy having to struggle to get thru everyday life and then have fuckwits who don't know what they're talking about brand you a scrounger or malingerer.

Innit

 

[treelover]

Thats a great article, maybe NL are really like Lazarus raising the dead! Professor
Ravetz's full report on the Welfare Reform Act can be found on SWAN's website
www.swansheffield.org.uk

 

[treelover]

She is a Professor, an academic, not an activist, this is good ammunition for those who are are though...

 

[Cressi]

We are setting up a womans group with the help of Mind. The DAN- Disabled Peoples Direct Action Network looks very interesting. How would we go about setting up one for our area? Our MP Susan Kramer has asked some questions re: DWP and wretched tax credits in the house (TheyWorkForYou email alerts keep us informed) and please dont snigger that it is an affluent borough because it just makes living in perpetual poverty even worse. We should be getting pro-active now........or last week.

Do we just set one up ourselves? I can make a banner.

 

[Cressi]

The more the merrier?

[/QUOTE]

 

[e19896]

Some Members Of The D.W.P make the Gestapo look like it was having a Tea Party

Some Members Of The D.W.P make the Gestapo look like it was having a Tea Party..

 

[trevhagl]

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2007/pdf/ukpga_20070005_en.pdf

As for providing facts of the impact of welfare reform on disabled people; unfortunately, we’ll only know the true devastation of the ‘reform’, once disabled people are taken off IB; once they’re forced onto JSA; or, after they’ve been pushed into jobs, despite the fact they are not able to work.

For a post mortem, one needs a corpse.

And sadly there'll be plenty.

I have rang my MP but no reply as of yet..

 

[trevhagl]

I will of course entertain you with the standard reply of bullshit like the one i got when i complained about PO closures.
True they do not listen, BUT it is good to embarrass them and try to make them feel guilty. People on £100,000 a year begrudging struggling people of £60pw

 

[trevhagl]

In case anybody's interested:

We haven't got a website together yet, that'll come later, once we're functioning properly as a local group.

Respect!!

 

[trevhagl]

I do think that unless people have suffered depression and anxiety there's a tendency amongst some people to simply have no idea at all what they are.

The CFS or ME sufferers get my sympathy. Fancy having to struggle to get thru everyday life and then have fuckwits who don't know what they're talking about brand you a scrounger or malingerer.

This is true and i only found out about it via work, dealing with people with genuine mental problems who their neighbours would say were faking it as there's nothing visually wrong with them. people who've already had their benefits stopped and in appeal even the DWPs own panel were shocked that such cases had to get to appeal stage and were dismissed withing minutes.

Whats it gonna be like when the draconian reforms come in?

 

[trevhagl]

Some Members Of The D.W.P make the Gestapo look like it was having a Tea Party..

Nice article but total bullshit to call New Labour anything LIKE marxists...

 

[e19896]

Nice article but total bullshit to call New Labour anything LIKE marxists...

No check out people like Jack (boot boy) Straw, he proclaimed in his student days to be one along with Blunket and the like, just a refrance to The SWP Kabul in the DWP..

 

[treelover]

I am hoping people ring the BBC complaints line about their coverage of welfare issues which is a disgrace, a new complaints precedure comes in august and i hope to get directly to the BBC Trust.

btw, why aren't the disability charities monitoring the media over these issues.

 

[trevhagl]

I am hoping people ring the BBC complaints line about their coverage of welfare issues which is a disgrace, a new complaints precedure comes in august and i hope to get directly to the BBC Trust.

btw, why aren't the disability charities monitoring the media over these issues.

Good on yer. But as for the 2nd part that has been discussed before, like some unions they are ran by careerists more interstested in placating the enemy and protecting their huge salaries rather than looking after those they should be looking after

 

[trevhagl]

No check out people like Jack (boot boy) Straw, he proclaimed in his student days to be one along with Blunket and the like, just a refrance to The SWP Kabul in the DWP..

MOST of New Labour had a left wing past but like many university students went the opposite way once they got a sniff of money. These are the WORST kind of politician - you can almost respect the Tories cos they've ALWAYS been money grabbing selfish bitter cunts and never pretended to be owt else

 

[DownwardDog]

MOST of New Labour had a left wing past but like many university students went the opposite way once they got a sniff of money. These are the WORST kind of politician - you can almost respect the Tories cos they've ALWAYS been money grabbing selfish bitter cunts and never pretended to be owt else

I think that's the USP of the Conservatives at the moment. "We don't care about you either but at least we won't pretend to."

 

[e19896]

Good on yer. But as for the 2nd part that has been discussed before, like some unions they are ran by careerists more interstested in placating the enemy and protecting their huge salaries rather than looking after those they should be looking after

Well i thought i was on my own with this thought, 4 fucking weeks i had The DWP fraud team follow me about, not due to any action of my own, other than what i call The SWP Kabul, and due to fact i have Mental Health PROBLEMS it is all so easy dismissed by friends and others as part of my problem, and it was only when i went up to one of the parked cars with a friend they began to belave me, it was only when housing benefits said they had been asked to look into my claim, it hit home..

 

[trevhagl]

The worst thing about "fraud" investigations is if you don't like someone you can make life hell by telling the dole a pack of lies about them. My mate was accused of window cleaning yet they stopped his money before they even investigated it! he got it back in the end but he had a week having to borrow food etc

 

[Cressi]

I was accused of fraud.....working when I wasnt. I laugh at it now but at the time it was not funny. The Jobcentre found me a part time job......promised the New Deal.....which ment No Deal......No help with housing benefits or Council Tax (£30 per week).....it was a pack of lies and broken promises.....but I duly cared for a lovely woman.......and had a stalker stalking me....so the Police followed me and the stalker to work........then the Police said there is another man following you????. A bald man with glasses????? It took the Police 3 months to track him down. He worked for the DWP but had no office.....sort of a freelance worker.......well...his name ..was Mr S Roose I reported the incident to the Suzy Llamplugh Trust because I think it is dangerous to have lone men stalking lone women.
It took me 4 years with letters and letters from the DWP but I proved them wrong.
Trouble is I am now too scared to work............all the promises of support were crap.......in the end the whole job cost me loads.....but it was worth it as my client was a very special lady and she taught me loads. So I look at is a lesson learnt.......The DWP are not to be trusted.

 

[panpete]

The only reason I haven't complained is because of other's futile accounts. It must be soul destroying not being answered, or fobbed off, when really concerned, or in need.
It is particularly unhelpful in mentally ill people, as stress is the last thing they need.

I have a fear (possibly biased by my own anxiety) of calls for help being ignored, lied to, or fobbed off. It makes me think of a dystopian world where sufferers are ignored or tormented and left to stew.

 

[Cressi]

Ever since then I call them DWP the Die or Work Posse because I think they would rather you die than live.............they never helped when I was 6 1/2 stone and starving in an affluent area through no fault of my own.......they shoved me out to work........when I wasnt fit ti work......I tried ....and wouldnt let others down but all they did was rob me.......in hindsight it would have been better i I cared for free........which I continue to do. Wrecthed tax credits never worked........the whole thing was a con...................and the government used me a slave labour. It cost me to work........afterwards I never earnt a penny. I lost......money thro trying to earn. If I met Brown I would go for his throat.......the shit he has put us throoo.........none of it works despite his rhetoric.

 

[treelover]

The opposition to the Govt's welfare reforms does now seem to be growing in the UK Labour Movement with both the 2008 TUC and Trades Council conference voting to oppose Government plans on welfare, and many LP M.Ps strongly criticising the new Green Paper. Though much of it does appear to focus on the attacks on the unemployed and lone parents, not so much disability benefits.


On Tuesday 21st October, the PCS Union is hosting a welfare reform seminar to discuss the campaign against the proposals - unanimously backed at this year's TUC. The seminar takes place at 3pm on 21st October in Committee Room 11 of the House of Commons, and is open to all. Speakers include John McDonnell MP and Mark Serwotka.

 

[trevhagl]

The dole are a disgrace - they are not interested in helping people, just persecuting people. The poster further up who said they were lied to about help with benefits is in a common situation. They will LIE to you to get you to take a job, then complain and they will deny ever saying it.

 

[bluestreak]

Yes, this is my experience too. Expecially the HB cunts. they're the worst.

 

[wtfftw]

I was emailed this article today about welfare reform. written by someone with ME. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/oct/22/welfare-to-work-benefits

 

[Awesome Wells]

So the great purge beigns today: a million off the sick is the war cry.

Where do these jobs intend to be found when there are already 3 times as many looking who aren't ill.

Factor in the belief that it's easier to find work if you're in work and already the market is impossibly competitive for the few jobs that exist.