List of those for whom Welfare Reform and cuts were too much to bear

[existentialist]

I just got this as a response on Facebook to my repost of the above rant on there:

"Urgh. People are killing themselves all over the place. Taking away their free money is yet another excuse in a long list.

People need to get grips. And jobs. In that order x"

Gnnnnnnngh!

 

[BigTom]

someone with no idea of what suicidal thoughts are actually like. another excuse I didn't like your rant cos it's fucking grim but thanks for posting it here. is that 80-100% rate of who you see similar to what it was 4 or 5 years ago, or have things changed in your experience?

 

[existentialist]

someone with no idea of what suicidal thoughts are actually like. another excuse I didn't like your rant cos it's fucking grim but thanks for posting it here. is that 80-100% rate of who you see similar to what it was 4 or 5 years ago, or have things changed in your experience?

That project has only been running for about 4 years. But the increase in people reporting that they're having trouble with ATOS as part of their difficulties has gone up from pretty much nowhere to 80-100% in the last 2 years. It has been dramatic.

And all of the team are reporting the same thing - there's 4 of us.

But the project may not run for much longer - we were told our funding was "ringfenced" 4 months ago, but now they're telling us they may be able to fund us on a year-by-year area, but only if we agree to double our coverage (headcount) on the same funding.

 

[BigTom]

Tweet from @wandsworthCAB / Roehampton CAB https://twitter.com/RoehamptonCAB/status/299122019247730688

Client admitted to hosptial, attempted overdose, could not cope with receiving letter advising her of cut to benefit relating to bedroom tax

 

[ViolentPanda]

Jesus fuck!

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I just got this as a response on Facebook to my repost of the above rant on there:

"Urgh. People are killing themselves all over the place. Taking away their free money is yet another excuse in a long list.

People need to get grips. And jobs. In that order x"

Gnnnnnnngh!

kill them.

then 'unfriend' them.

 

[RaverDrew]

I just got this as a response on Facebook to my repost of the above rant on there:

"Urgh. People are killing themselves all over the place. Taking away their free money is yet another excuse in a long list.

People need to get grips. And jobs. In that order x"

Gnnnnnnngh!

Name names, I'll show them exactly how to get a grip... of their neck.

 

[existentialist]

Name names, I'll show them exactly how to get a grip... of their neck.

Such people are not, in the immortal words of an erstwhile friend, "worth the steam off my piss", let alone the possibility of mid-strangulation nail breakage.

 

[existentialist]

Tweet from @wandsworthCAB / Roehampton CAB https://twitter.com/RoehamptonCAB/status/299122019247730688

Good for them on publicising both the suicide attempt and the probable cause. More like this needs to be done, because you can be sure that the Government will be trying as hard as possible to deny that there is any link between their policies and suicide.

 

[BigTom]

Good for them on publicising both the suicide attempt and the probable cause. More like this needs to be done, because you can be sure that the Government will be trying as hard as possible to deny that there is any link between their policies and suicide.

Yes, I might try to setup a list of cab Twitter feeds, every so often they do a #cablive week which is eye opening, more than a few of the ridiculous sanctions I've heard of come from cab Twitter feeds.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Yes, I might try to setup a list of cab Twitter feeds, every so often they do a #cablive week which is eye opening, more than a few of the ridiculous sanctions I've heard of come from cab Twitter feeds.

and then there's crap like this

Adam Ach ‏@ama2473
@Destructo_Dog @RoehamptonCAB So what? They are living in the house so why the fuck should someone else pay for it?

 

[BigTom]

and then there's crap like this

How some can have so little empathy I have no idea.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

How some can have so little empathy I have no idea.

There's absolutely loads and loads like that

 

[BigTom]

There's absolutely loads and loads like that

Not in direct response to that tweet though, it's not so much the lack of empathy with people who have to move/pay more but with the lack of empathy or concern that someone has attempted suicide because of it. Even people who agree with the bedroom tax I'd expect to be a bit contrite when talking about this story.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Not in direct response to that tweet though, it's not so much the lack of empathy with people who have to move/pay more but with the lack of empathy or concern that someone has attempted suicide because of it. Even people who agree with the bedroom tax I'd expect to be a bit contrite when talking about this story.

Fair enough, although I bet if the story were in the Daily Mail, there'd be a few more like that, but as the DM isn't really touching on the bedroom tax....

 

[Libertad]

East Grinstead Man 63 Dies of Kidney Failure and Starvation after being cut off benefits and declared “Fit For Work”

http://www.afteratos.com/?p=3033

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Some strange figures given there, but I'm not going to quibble, as it's not really relevant

 

[Libertad]

Cornwall councillor refuses to resign after saying all disabled children "should be put down"

​

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Cor...tory-18257973-detail/story.html#axzz2M2rrjjpz

 

[treelover]

Not surprised, in the early days of Guardian CIF, on benefit threads there were plenty of calls for sterilisation of disabled claimants, etc, very few reposts/replies either, much better there now..

 

[Libertad]

Not surprised, in the early days of Guardian CIF, on benefit threads there were plenty of calls for sterilisation of disabled claimants, etc, very few reposts/replies either, much better there now..

This wasn't a comment made on a news story feed.

 

[Libertad]

Ah, sorry treelover I see what you mean.

 

[butchersapron]

Homeless man Daniel Gauntlett dies frozen on doorstep of empty bungalow in Aylesford

A tarpaulin, a pillow, a dirty old jacket, a carrier bag and a few worthless items strewn over the veranda of a boarded-up bungalow.

This is where homeless Daniel Gauntlett tried to find shelter through a bitterly cold winter and where, on a freezing night on Saturday, he finally succumbed to the cold.

Mr Gauntlett, 35, was found the next morning by a passer-by who spotted his body from the pavement.

35.

An inquest was opened and adjourned on yesterday and confirmed the cause of death was hypothermia.

 

[existentialist]

I took a phone call last Wednesday from someone calling a counselling service I work as part of. He was suicidal, desperate, and angry. He had £3 to his name, hadn't eaten for several days, was unable to work because of his mental state, and was on the verge of being thrown out of his home.

I've managed to sort the initial problem out and arrange a counsellor for him to see - so we can at least try and hold the suicidal stuff at bay - but he's locked in a three-way battle between the DWP, the GP and himself, with the DWP (as usual) insisting that they haven't received the forms the GP has sent. The counsellor has put him in touch with the local food bank, and interceded with the GP on his behalf, but there is a limit to what can be done. The one agency that could help is the DWP, and they are maintaining an intransigent position.

This man is on the verge of dipping below the curve - he has no money to even buy food, heat his home, or pay his rent, let alone afford the fuel to get to see his counsellor. He is, in my opinion, at imminent risk of suicide - as close as any I've ever worked with.

If he kills himself, his blood will be on the DWP's hands. I am prepared to fight quite hard to be able to stand up in a coroner's court and say so.

 

[yield]

Homeless man Daniel Gauntlett dies frozen on doorstep of empty bungalow in Aylesford
35.

Mr Gauntlett was the second homeless man to die in Aylesford last weekend.

Jesus wept. Freezing to death outside an empty home.

I took a phone call last Wednesday from someone calling a counselling service I work as part of. He was suicidal, desperate, and angry. He had £3 to his name, hadn't eaten for several days, was unable to work because of his mental state, and was on the verge of being thrown out of his home.

I've managed to sort the initial problem out and arrange a counsellor for him to see - so we can at least try and hold the suicidal stuff at bay - but he's locked in a three-way battle between the DWP, the GP and himself, with the DWP (as usual) insisting that they haven't received the forms the GP has sent. The counsellor has put him in touch with the local food bank, and interceded with the GP on his behalf, but there is a limit to what can be done. The one agency that could help is the DWP, and they are maintaining an intransigent position.

This man is on the verge of dipping below the curve - he has no money to even buy food, heat his home, or pay his rent, let alone afford the fuel to get to see his counsellor. He is, in my opinion, at imminent risk of suicide - as close as any I've ever worked with.

If he kills himself, his blood will be on the DWP's hands. I am prepared to fight quite hard to be able to stand up in a coroner's court and say so.

Where I work I take out of hours calls for the Council. Emergency Housing and Social Services EDT being two of the main ones. It's heartbreaking.

 

[BigTom]

Police had reportedly been called previously after he tried to break into the bungalow. And so Mr Gauntlett, had taken the fatal decision to abide by the law.

not sure that the new squatting laws would actually have affected this (if the house was locked up he couldn't legally have squatted it before) but still spot on (cos it's breaking and entering laws) and another example of how capitalism places private property above human life

 

[toggle]

I took a phone call last Wednesday from someone calling a counselling service I work as part of. He was suicidal, desperate, and angry. He had £3 to his name, hadn't eaten for several days, was unable to work because of his mental state, and was on the verge of being thrown out of his home.

I've managed to sort the initial problem out and arrange a counsellor for him to see - so we can at least try and hold the suicidal stuff at bay - but he's locked in a three-way battle between the DWP, the GP and himself, with the DWP (as usual) insisting that they haven't received the forms the GP has sent. The counsellor has put him in touch with the local food bank, and interceded with the GP on his behalf, but there is a limit to what can be done. The one agency that could help is the DWP, and they are maintaining an intransigent position.

This man is on the verge of dipping below the curve - he has no money to even buy food, heat his home, or pay his rent, let alone afford the fuel to get to see his counsellor. He is, in my opinion, at imminent risk of suicide - as close as any I've ever worked with.

If he kills himself, his blood will be on the DWP's hands. I am prepared to fight quite hard to be able to stand up in a coroner's court and say so.

ffs.

and well done.

 

[treelover]

Agreed, there seems to be a national media blackout on these deaths, especially the causal link to benefit cuts, etc...

 

[existentialist]

Agreed, there seems to be a national media blackout on these deaths, especially the causal link to benefit cuts, etc...

TBF, the way things are, it's hard to demonstrate causal links to benefit cuts - people like me can provide anecdotal stories, but if something does happen, who's really going to listen to people like us saying "if you hadn't pushed him to the brink, perhaps he wouldn't have died"?

 

[ice-is-forming]

its fucking tragic! all those lives and all that work put into advancing the care in the community and the breaking down of stigma

i posted this on another thread, i posted it because i wanted you to remember that what you are fighting against, its not normal. Don't ever let them convince you it is

I took my son for the Australian equivalent of an ATOS medical today. The nurse, rosemary, had to assess him to see if he should stay on incapacity youth allowance or be put on disability benefit. We had a whole hour with her, my son , his girl friend and me, we hadn't taken along any special reports etc.. Just the centrelink (aus dole office) one that the GP had filled in. She didn't ask him to touch his toes or anything, or how the disease impacted on him in any way, we just all sat down and chatted.

She was brilliant, she had been researching his condition and had loads of advice and information regarding medication, diet and exercise. She said that she would battle to get him on disability, she couldn't promise 100% as his condition is going to fluctuate so much in the coming year as they trial him on new drugs and fluctuation in prognosis doesn't usually match the criteria.

She then had a light bulb moment and said that she could most definitely put him on it for the next 12 months because of the adverse effects of the drug treatment. And after that he would be re-assessed by her again and she would have a much more concrete argument to have him placed on it permanently if he still needed it (hopefully not though)

It looks like i'm coming across as smug but thats not my intention, this is a bloody awful time for my son. I just wanted you to know that other places in the world still continue to have humanity and sanity and that what the uk government is doing, is so far removed from what is happening here that its not recognisable. im sorry that its become your norm.

 

[treelover]

that is great new and the assessor seemed very fair, but a lot of the ideas for welfare 'reform' came from Aus and Howards regime, he even pushed for the right to enter disabled people's homes whenever the benefits agency wanted to...

but it is revealing to see the contrast, we are entering a period of barbarism..