campaign against welfare cuts and poverty

[stuff_it]

@Firky - better watch your back...

Woman recovering from double lung transplant has benefits cut to £21 a week... http://politicsuk.eu/archives/12255

 

[perthperson]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2257758/Im-giving-child-benefit-today-children---arent-saddled-debts-forever-says-Chancellor-George-Osborne.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

I'm not actually certain that this is the Daily Mail or if it's a spoof - the arrogance is unbelievable

 

[ViolentPanda]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2257758/Im-giving-child-benefit-today-children---arent-saddled-debts-forever-says-Chancellor-George-Osborne.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

I'm not actually certain that this is the Daily Mail or if it's a spoof - the arrogance is unbelievable

George Osborne says that to us, I say to George Osborne: "a few quid a week is fuck all to a millionaire cunt like you, George. Your gesture politics suck pig piss".
What a worthless individual he is.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

@Firky - better watch your back...

Woman recovering from double lung transplant has benefits cut to £21 a week... http://politicsuk.eu/archives/12255

See the comment?

Dean Wales · Top Commenter · University of Essex
I'm not surprised by this.A GP visited my home to assess for DLA, the resultant report being used to remove DLA to the same level here, £20.55 per week.The same report refers to my , 'Alzheimers, prognosis unlikely to change', and comments upon my shuffling walk...I do not have Alzheimers, nor do I have a shuffling walk-I have Aspergers.
Reply · 16 ·· December 20, 2012 at 10:18am

 

[krink]

I felt I had to post something positive after reading the depressing stuff above so for anyone in the north east there's this anti-cuts march and demo coming up in newcastle:

http://www.facebook.com/events/317213151729629/?ref=2

soz i don't know anything else about it other than what it says on the page.

There is also a 'save our libraries' thing happening in newcastle that seems to be growing:

http://www.facebook.com/SaveNewcastleLibraries?ref=ts&fref=ts

cheers.

 

[Treacle Toes]

 

[equationgirl]

MPs back benefits increase cut to 1% instead of inflation. The c*nts

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20950691

Bastards.

 

[ash]

A great quote from a journalist on Sky press preview ' the Tories are re-toxifying'. Couldn't have put it better myself ( the polar opposite of detoxifying)

 

[BigTom]

And just to note that on Newsnight last night Stephen Timms said Labour will not reverse it. total fucking scum the lot of them, not that we needed to say it here but a pox on all their houses.

 

[goldenecitrone]

And just to note that on Newsnight last night Stephen Timms said Labour will not reverse it. total fucking scum the lot of them, not that we needed to say it here but a pox on all their houses.

Vote for Labour, vote for more of the same.

 

[weepiper]

I am utterly depressed. I'm screwed whether or not I get work, because I'm not going to be able to work without paying for childcare for some years, and unless someone gives me a job paying £28k plus (ha!) I'm never going to get free of universal credit because of the cost of childcare and because private rents are so high. I already used to fantasise about winning the lottery or inheriting a wodge from a distant unknown relative and going down to the HB office and the Jobcentre and tearing their pissy letters up at the front desk. I watched most of the debate yesterday. Fucking smug laughing fat overprivileged Tory fucks. Only about 6 of them actually bothered their arses to stay and listen for the whole thing. And the few decent Labour backbenchers who were arguing against the bill just make it worse. If I could guarantee voting Labour would get me more of them I'd do it at the drop of a hat, but it's not them that makes the policies is it? It's the scum that rises to the top.

 

[BigTom]

I'm not even going to get caught in the worst of this, just enough to see and know what it's going to be like for those who are, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to find some work to pay me around £13-15k I need to move off UC in the next year (mind you, I've been thinking that for the past couple of years and it hasn't happened yet). It's totally fucked and I'm veering around between depression and rage as I have been for the past few years. I stood around and watched the riots in 2011, and a few cafes were hit with people taking food as well as trying to break into the tills, I expect to see supermarkets getting done over this summer. I hope that people will turn on explicitly political targets too.

 

[ViolentPanda]

And just to note that on Newsnight last night Stephen Timms said Labour will not reverse it. total fucking scum the lot of them, not that we needed to say it here but a pox on all their houses.

Come on, Tom. We all knew that'd be their position, anyway. You only have to read the shit Liam Byrne has been spouting for the last couple of years to know that residualising state welfare to the people (because heaven forfend they do the same with state welfare for business!) would still be on the cards.

I mean, how can honest neoliberal multinationals benefit from welfare if they can't get contracts to manage it, hmm?

 

[Bakunin]

A great quote from a journalist on Sky press preview ' the Tories are re-toxifying'. Couldn't have put it better myself ( the polar opposite of detoxifying)

Not that Rupert would be pissed off at the current government for not doing everything it could to muzzle the whole News International scandal, obviously...

 

[Treacle Toes]

http://www.michaelmeacher.info/webl...-the-house-now-fixed-for-thursday-17-january/

Atos debate!

 

[stuff_it]

Fatboy has now eaten all the humble pies....he even apologises on Twitter.

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2013/...-claimed-no-poverty-in-uk-to-visit-food-bank/

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/10143081.___No_poverty____Tory_councillor_to_visit_food_bank/

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Fatboy has now eaten all the humble pies....he even apologises on Twitter.

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2013/...-claimed-no-poverty-in-uk-to-visit-food-bank/

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/10143081.___No_poverty____Tory_councillor_to_visit_food_bank/

The tweets

8 Jan 13
petition calling on Cllr Steward to withdraw comments on food banks & monitor impact of gov welfare reform agenda #york sameoldtories.org.uk

Chris Steward @chrisdsteward
@mr_andy_c I pretty much do withdraw them and apologise
8 Jan 13​

Andrew Collingwood @mr_andy_c
8 Jan 13
@chrisdsteward so you accept that they are required in the UK?​

Chris Steward @chrisdsteward
@mr_andy_c I accept there are lots of people using them in real, massive need


Why do the words "pretty much" not convince me his apology isn't entirely sincere?

 

[brogdale]

Not campaigning as such, but this is a useful bit of mapping from the Guradian:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2012/nov/14/local-authority-cuts-map

It almost looks as though these cuts were designed to effect the greatest reductions in spending power in the poorest regions, whilst leaving the residents of Surrey almost unscathed on average.

 

[Jackobi]

Extracts from a complete clusterfuck.

"Poorer households face postcode lottery as council tax benefit cuts bite

Low-income households face a "postcode lottery" of council tax bills for the first time since the system was introduced, which will involve some low-income people paying nothing and others facing a potential bill of thousands of pounds a year."

"...in Lancashire, where the 9,000 low-income households in Ribble Valley, Wyre and Chorley – controlled by Tory and Labour administrations – will face annual council tax bills of about £80 a year. However, in neighbouring Pendle, where no party is in overall control, 6,000 low-income voters will have to pay £176"

"Tower Hamlets has decided not to charge its 26,000 low-income households. Across the capital in Brent, a similar number of people face an annual bill of £240 a year."

"[A] conservative council has decided that families living in bigger houses – those in Bands F to H – will have to pay the full council tax of almost £3,000 a year irrespective of income. It advises families to "move to a smaller property" or get a lodger."

"Ealing council, controlled by Labour, has decided on a minimum payment of about £210 a year, but this jumps to £330 for residents unemployed for more than 12 months."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/201...holds-postcode-lottery-council-tax?CMP=twt_gu

 

[existentialist]

Ealing council, controlled by Labour, has decided on a minimum payment of about £210 a year, but this jumps to £330 for residents unemployed for more than 12 months."

I love this!

What kind of twisted logic carries through the idea that, because someone hasn't found a job in a year, they're somehow in a better position to pay more outgoings?

I know where it's coming from - it's this endless mantra of "not fair on the taxpayer", which translates into the idea that we're going to support the unemployed for a fixed time interval, but no longer - as if that kind of support can ever really be optional.

It's not often I find myself wishing for civil unrest, but if the Government want riots, then all they have to do is to keep passing legislation like this, which disempowers and demeans benefits claimants in equal measure, and introduces a nice line in Kafkaesque bureacratic illogic to really wind people up.

And, while perhaps those sick enough to need ESA are perhaps not the greatest threat to civil order, pissing off the "merely" unemployed is going to give our already-stretched police a major challenge. Which, in view of the way they've been treated by this government, might not be one they're always going to be falling over themselves to meet.

But that's OK, we've got the army...oh.

 

[BigTom]

The Coop have said they are not going to renew their occupational health contract with ATOS:

http://www.facebook.com/TheCooperative/posts/10151255338219582

Hello everyone, here is an update as promised on our occupational healthcare provider, many thanks for your patience on this matter.

The Co-operative Group can confirm that a robust procurement process considering, amongst other factors, cost, operational efficiency and geographical capability is currently underway for our occupational health services provider. Having been scored against an agreed set of parameters and against other bidders, Atos Healthcare have not progressed to the later rounds of that process and our intention is to have a new provider in place when the current contract terminates.
Gail.

Obviously not explicit about why but I'm sure that the campaigns and consistent online stuff has had an effect, I hope that privately that's what they are telling ATOS anyway, so that someone in the OH section will be pissed off at losing this contract and will be mouthing off at their boss and whatever section does the WCA (I know they'll be the same person eventually in charge of both and this contract won't matter next to the DWP one but it can help create a tension in the company over their involvement).

 

[ddraig]

great!

 

[tufty79]

The Coop have said they are not going to renew their occupational health contract with ATOS:

http://www.facebook.com/TheCooperative/posts/10151255338219582



Obviously not explicit about why but I'm sure that the campaigns and consistent online stuff has had an effect, I hope that privately that's what they are telling ATOS anyway, so that someone in the OH section will be pissed off at losing this contract and will be mouthing off at their boss and whatever section does the WCA (I know they'll be the same person eventually in charge of both and this contract won't matter next to the DWP one but it can help create a tension in the company over their involvement).

yeah, hopefully atos won't be too happy about it.
i'd love to think it, but i'm not entirely sure that the campaigns were responsible for them being dropped (unless, of course, the co-operative deliberately set tender criteria that they wouldn't have been able to meet... )

 

[stuff_it]

The Coop have said they are not going to renew their occupational health contract with ATOS:

http://www.facebook.com/TheCooperative/posts/10151255338219582



Obviously not explicit about why but I'm sure that the campaigns and consistent online stuff has had an effect, I hope that privately that's what they are telling ATOS anyway, so that someone in the OH section will be pissed off at losing this contract and will be mouthing off at their boss and whatever section does the WCA (I know they'll be the same person eventually in charge of both and this contract won't matter next to the DWP one but it can help create a tension in the company over their involvement).

Thank fuck for that, I was running out of places to buy organic milk.

 

[Bakunin]

And the judicial review starts today, IIRC.

Best of luck to all involved.

 

[ViolentPanda]

yeah, hopefully atos won't be too happy about it.
i'd love to think it, but i'm not entirely sure that the campaigns were responsible for them being dropped (unless, of course, the co-operative deliberately set tender criteria that they wouldn't have been able to meet... )

To be fair, even if the campaigns had totally influenced them, they'd be dumb to publicly admit that, and leave an opening for ATOS to take them to court with (i.e. not judging ATOS strictly on the criteria they used for other tenderers).

 

[weepiper]

350 applications for 12 available jobs in Edinburgh. 30 per job. We're all lazy scroungers though, eh?

https://twitter.com/edinburghpaper/status/291873705645207553/photo/1/large

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

WORK CAPABILITY ASSESSMENT DEBATE LIVE NOW

THINK IT STARTED AROUND 11.00 so probably missed most of it

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Came across this story on this page

http://theprotestorpoet.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/the-fear-of-the-wca-the-fight-for-justice/

1. Trialia Alexandra Hall January 7, 2013 at 3:47 am
   Thank you so much for bringing yourself to write this. It’s something some of us simply can’t manage to do. My fingers, wrists and metacarpals dislocate if I type too much – some of them are already – and yet the DWP still say I should be in the work-related activity group, despite my specialist consultant telling them I’ll never be fit for work again. I didn’t have a WCA for ESA. I was put straight into the WRAG, despite pages upon pages of evidence showing them how and why I am unable to work in my current state and that I am only going to get worse from here.
2. 
   I have severe Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, type 3, secondary fibromyalgia, asthma, and ultradian-cycling bipolar disorder (type not specified) with OCD traits and occasional psychotic episodes. I am on 340mg of morphine daily as well as eight other medications. I have three care visits in a day, totalling 1 hour 15 minutes, with an extra 30 minutes twice a week for a shower – if the care agency get it right, which they rarely do (it’s all social services will grant me, despite my need for more assistance). I use an electric wheelchair most of the time as I’m incapable of managing a manual without further joint damage and pain.
   All my joints dislocate, fully and partially, up to 10 dislocations an hour (in one accident 2 years ago I dislocated 17 at once). I have multiple organ issues and make at least 3 A&E visits a year, and this year spent nearly a month in-patient. My movements are very limited, and I’m not allowed to bend forward past 45 degrees as my pelvic joint tries to dislocate and my lumbar vertebrae shift. Even my advisor at my local JobCentre Plus thinks I should be in the support group, but I can’t handwrite enough to reapply and have nobody who can do it for me (filling the forms in via PDF ends up making the font miniscule and unreadable).
   I will be 27 next month. There is not a moment I am not in pain. And I am an example of someone who cannot meet the DWP and government’s criteria to qualify for ESA support group. It makes me sick to think about it.
   I was assaulted while boarding a bus last January, for looking young and healthy while using a mobility aid (my cane, as I didn’t have a chair at the time). An Eastern European man who looked to be in his 70s – he was twice my size, too – body-slammed me in front of a bus full of people, causing my shoulder, hip, jaw and wrist on that side to dislocate, and nobody did anything about it. Nobody even spoke to him. This is how little people care.
   It’s terrifying. All of it. No wonder so many people just want out and will take any route possible. I refuse to let these bastards take my life as well as everything in it – but it is hard, so hard sometimes not to just give in. Sometimes I do want to die from the way people treat me. I had no choice in being this way. My primary illness is genetic. I am only going to get more ill from here – and people still say I don’t deserve any help.
   What is wrong with this world? And how, how can we fix it? I wish I knew. I wish every day didn’t involve a fight just to survive. That is not the way anyone’s life should be – especially not in a first-world country like ours.
   It’s all so, so wrong.
   Reply

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Oh, didn't know about this

The government’s proposals include withdrawal of benefit if an assessor believes that medication would reduce the risks posed by a claimant's condition, seemingly without regard for whether it would be appropriate in a work context.

Under the changes, benefit will also be withdrawn if an assessor believes an adjustment could be made in a workplace, without explicit assessment of whether that adjustment is actually going to be available.

The 'imaginary wheelchair test', where assessors considers the effect on a claimant’s mobility were they to use a wheelchair and bases their decisions on these assumptions, is also to be extended to other aids and adaptions such as guide dogs, walking sticks and even prosthetic limbs, but without discussing the prospect of such aids with the claimant.

The government also proposes to deal with a claimant's physical and mental health conditions separately, rather than looking at the combined effects that physical and mental health has on a person’s ability to work.

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17812