List of those for whom Welfare Reform and cuts were too much to bear
- Thread starter Frankie Jack
- Start date
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
Look at this! The real David Clapson finally gets a more fitting memorial than being my urban nom de plume:
www.disabilitynewsservice.com
Ground-breaking production will create a high-tech museum of DWP’s victims
The stories of 10 disabled people whose deaths have been linked publicly to the failings of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are to be told in a ground-breaking digital production that ex…
www.disabilitynewsservice.com
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
Well, it's probably more than the rest of us will get.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
At least 268 DWP sees 'sharp rise' in benefit death reviews on their own figures and probably many many hundreds more
Cheers for that.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
For once some small measure of justice for the cruelty inflicted on a daily basis by Capita: Capita pays compensation to family of woman who died after benefits cut
Sadly I doubt it will change much about how they work. The DWP getting a 'prevention of future deaths' notice from the coroner is also good, but if the DWP wanted to prevent deaths they would have changed long ago, so I expect they will also continue on their murderous way.
Sadly I doubt it will change much about how they work. The DWP getting a 'prevention of future deaths' notice from the coroner is also good, but if the DWP wanted to prevent deaths they would have changed long ago, so I expect they will also continue on their murderous way.
Alternatively, all those jailed by the pigs for acting in self defence to a grouping of satanists on a killing spree.
GarveyLives
Well-Known Member
Shechemite
Be the sun and all will see you
People are killing themselves because of the disability benefits system, says documentary maker
In a shocking new documentary, Richard Butchins reveals the devastating toll it takes on people's mental and physical health
inews.co.uk
wemakeyousoundb
hopefully not gimboid
Dispatches on Channel 4 tonight: truth about disbility benefits
e2a: I see it's the one referred to in the post above.
e2a: I see it's the one referred to in the post above.
starfish2000
Well-Known Member
I reported Iain Duncan Smith to the ICC at the Hague a couple of years ago. I never heard anything back. But that’s where he belongs. He’s a fucking murderer.People are killing themselves because of the disability benefits system, says documentary maker
In a shocking new documentary, Richard Butchins reveals the devastating toll it takes on people's mental and physical health
Part of the problem we have in this country is that almost the entire ruling class is complicit in this cruelty, including those running the Labour party right now as well. Rachel Reaces, the shadow chancellor, once promised to be tougher on welfare than the tories in pursuit of the knuckle dragger vote. And welfare sanctions first began to be implemented in a punitive way under Tory Blur - sorry, I mean Tony Blair. Shamefully, the first foodbanks in this country became necessary under his watch. And during the tail end of the New Labour years - on Brown's watch - the draconian disability testing regime by ATOS was legislated into existence. Yes the evil Tories inherited it ready to go and ran enthusiastically with it, but it was New Labour's baby.
We must never forget that, nor the fact that these people are back in charge of Labour again. For a time, Labour became a mass movement led by a man who cared. But the media and the Blairite scumbags in the party did all in their power to destroy that and have sadly succeeded, having got their man in on a tissue of lies. I actually was a member of the party for a time but resigned in disgust last year. My time in the party brought me and other comrades into direct and frequent contact with Blairite types at a local level. I know how they think and how they behave. They actually believe working class people to all be a bunch of racists and bigots and hold us in contempt, yet think we are idiots for not voting for them anyway.
Neither Labour nor Tories at the moment are on the side of those of us who are victims of the status quo. And that sadly includes those driven to their deaths by a wilfully cruel system.
We must never forget that, nor the fact that these people are back in charge of Labour again. For a time, Labour became a mass movement led by a man who cared. But the media and the Blairite scumbags in the party did all in their power to destroy that and have sadly succeeded, having got their man in on a tissue of lies. I actually was a member of the party for a time but resigned in disgust last year. My time in the party brought me and other comrades into direct and frequent contact with Blairite types at a local level. I know how they think and how they behave. They actually believe working class people to all be a bunch of racists and bigots and hold us in contempt, yet think we are idiots for not voting for them anyway.
Neither Labour nor Tories at the moment are on the side of those of us who are victims of the status quo. And that sadly includes those driven to their deaths by a wilfully cruel system.
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
I agree with the above. I think Labour are hostages of the right wing press, who reflect/amplify the mean spirited tendency of many voters, who want the benefits system to be tough, otherwise "it would pay not to work". There are hardly any socialists with any power. If we had a balanced press, who told the truth about the benefits system, the nurturing side of voters could be amplified and we'd have a fairer state, along Nordic lines. The Nordic model shows that it works.
Dystopiary
putting up a hook to hang my hopes upon
Thank you! It really pisses me off how easily people have forgotten it was New Labour that brought in the cruel tests, outsourced to the likes of Atos and Capita. They dropped Incapacity Benefit, which many people relied on, and instead brought in the Work Capability Assessments, designed to make it really difficult to receive the then new ESA. James Purnell, Work and Pensions minister at the time, used the textbook right-wing li(n)e, “People who scrounge from the system take money away from legitimate claimants. Clearly we want to stop that." Of course it just made life a lot worse for the majority of disability benefits claimants, and incredibly difficult for new and future claimants, as we have seen.
At the same time they made it even harder for people claiming Disability Living Allowance. People who'd long been eligible found they were no longer entitled, in many cases having to subsequently give up their place on the Motability Scheme, meaning they were deprived of transport.
(I believe that hostile environment facilitated the Tories' scrapping of DLA in favour of the worse PIP a few years later.)
So for these reasons alone, screw Labour.
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
I didn't realise that almost the entire political class is in favour of a merciless benefits regime, which results in the shortening of many thousands of lives each year, until I had it explained to me by a benefits advisior at Citizens Advice in South Norwood. That's why the appalling statistics never result in meaningful changes. The judges at the tribunals seem to be the only safety valve. In other areas of life, tribunals are a rarely used last resort. But with benefits, the system produces a huge volume of injustice which the DWP refuses to resolve. Even before the pandemic, there was a 12-18 month wait for a tribunal, which comes after a review process, which is only invoked by the minority of claimants who can grapple with the process. If you're too ill or depressed or frightened or not an expert with complex forms or haven't got a very helpful friend or relative, you fall through the cracks, which is what the ministers want. The judges know exactly what the big picture is, so they try to give people a fair chance by getting through cases as fast as they can. In my case, I got a text as I was getting ready to set off, saying that my file already had everything the judge needed to decide in my favour. In other words, the DWP's own statement made it clear that they had no case. From what I read at benefitsandwork.co.uk, this is very common. In other words, the DWP knows that your claim is valid, but they turn you down just to force you through the appeal procedure, because there's a good chance you won't make it to the end. That policy is a huge crime. But difficult and expensive to prove.
David Clapson unless it's your actual name is there a good reason why you're using the name of a man who died while under benefits sanctions along with that tagline?
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
The name is a memorial to him. Keep him alive a little bit. The tagline is something that somebody here called me here once. I think. So long ago that I'm not sure. It's never occurred to me that someone might take it to mean that I'm insulting the real David Clapson.
Seeing someone posting on this thread of all places with "David Clapson - Infamous Knob" under their avatar seemed a bit off to be honest. Appreciate the explanation and you changing it.
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
Well done you. You even got a couple of likes for repeating yourself.
Shechemite
Be the sun and all will see you
big egos are a big problem in anti-austerity groups so yeah this feels apt
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
You really need to get your head out of your arse.
Dystopiary
putting up a hook to hang my hopes upon
Evidence collated over the past ten years by the Disability News Service, plus other journos, academics and activists shows -
"systemic negligence by DWP, a culture of cover-up and denial, and a refusal to accept that the department has a duty of care to those disabled people claiming support through the social security system. It also shows how DWP continues to pose a serious and continuing risk to the lives of disabled people who pass through the assessment system. And it demonstrates that the department itself is not fit for purpose and needs to be scrapped and rebuilt."
Department for Work and Pensions: Deaths, cover-up, and a toxic 30-year legacy
"Based on this evidence, DNS is calling again for an independent inquiry to investigate DWP’s actions over the last 15 years and for a police inquiry into whether there has been criminal misconduct in public office by senior civil servants and ministers since 2010."
"systemic negligence by DWP, a culture of cover-up and denial, and a refusal to accept that the department has a duty of care to those disabled people claiming support through the social security system. It also shows how DWP continues to pose a serious and continuing risk to the lives of disabled people who pass through the assessment system. And it demonstrates that the department itself is not fit for purpose and needs to be scrapped and rebuilt."
Department for Work and Pensions: Deaths, cover-up, and a toxic 30-year legacy
"Based on this evidence, DNS is calling again for an independent inquiry to investigate DWP’s actions over the last 15 years and for a police inquiry into whether there has been criminal misconduct in public office by senior civil servants and ministers since 2010."
Dystopiary
putting up a hook to hang my hopes upon
The DWP failed to notify a disabled man's GP or social services about the "very extensive" difficulties he was facing. Three months later he was found dead in conditions of severe "self-neglect."
This bit's really important:
So you've got people employed by the government* to make decisions about someone's capacity; these same people can see someone - as part of their job - who's clearly vulnerable and unable to care for themselves, and with no known means of support and they're not legally obliged to a thing about it except decide whether they get the minimum amount of money or not. So they could see someone, in the course of their work, who is in the severest state of neglect and not do a thing about it. They can even stop their money, walk away, reasonably aware that person could be in grave danger, and that's considered legally and morally ok.
‘Severely neglected’ man found dead, three months after DWP assessment
* or by a company outsourced by the government
This bit's really important:
So you've got people employed by the government* to make decisions about someone's capacity; these same people can see someone - as part of their job - who's clearly vulnerable and unable to care for themselves, and with no known means of support and they're not legally obliged to a thing about it except decide whether they get the minimum amount of money or not. So they could see someone, in the course of their work, who is in the severest state of neglect and not do a thing about it. They can even stop their money, walk away, reasonably aware that person could be in grave danger, and that's considered legally and morally ok.
‘Severely neglected’ man found dead, three months after DWP assessment
* or by a company outsourced by the government
Dystopiary
putting up a hook to hang my hopes upon
In further news, the government has branded the Disability News Network "vexatious" for using the Freedom of Information Act to try and get details about secret reviews into deaths and other serious incidents regarding benefit claimants.
Government brands DNS ‘vexatious’ for trying to obtain info on 90 DWP deaths
Vexatious.
Government brands DNS ‘vexatious’ for trying to obtain info on 90 DWP deaths
Vexatious.
teqniq
DisMembered
I would contend that anyone involved in social care decisions and that includes employees of the DWP, particularly assessors is or should be bound by duty of care. Much as it may suit what passes for our government at present to say otherwise for all the very wrong reasons and, in fact to deliberately enact policies which are designed to fail the people they are supposed to help; it is long past time that this should be tested in court where hopefully the right judgement is made.
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
This is why Blair considers the FOIA to be a mistake.
There is a significant problem re attitudes to welfare in both major parties now.
The Labour party has been entirely taken over by aspirational middle class types, who inherently believe that the way out of poverty is to aspire to better things as they do, believing that they only have to remove the obstacles to success for everyone to achieve their potential. And that once this is done, if you are still poor it is your own fault for not being aspirational enough, In this they already think very much the same as Tories. It of course completely ignores the fact that someone has to work on supermarket checkouts, drive busses, sweep the streets, cut the grass, serve in pubs and restaurants, etc. These jobs are mostly not disappearing anytime soon. Anyone who successfully aspires to rise out of them merely creates a vacancy in the same shitty job they have just left. Short of tackling low pay and crap terms and conditions directly, encouraging aspriration merely moves poverty around. There will always be those in crap jobs and it is not their fault that the jobs are crap. And increased competition for the smaller number of better paid opportunities will in time simply allow pay here to fall too.
New Labour and Tory attitudes to welfare are class based. They are the attitudes of the affluent middle classes assuming that the poor are poor because of their own lack of effort, ie that it is their own fault that they are poor. Which in turn makes them assume that a great many welfare claimants are somehow undeserving and that it is right to be tough on them. A degree of snobbish class disdain is a factor here. That Tories have always thought like this is common knowledge. That Labour now does so too is shocking. And they regard the poor as stupid if they don't vote for them anyway. The poor's ever more evident disconnect from Labour is somehow not something Labour takes responsibility for. They seem incapable of understanding why, when their whole attitude is itself a big part of the reason. The Labour party, certainly at the parliamentary level, has become largely disconnected from the working classes it was formed to support. And the working classes are noticing, and responding to this by not unreasonably withholding their support from the party in ever growing numbers.
When I was in the party myself, I noticed these attitudes in spades amongst centrist types. Most of the working class elements amongst the membership were on the left, the very ones no longer welcome. There is a widespread assumption that the working class is mostly racist and thick. And it was commonly said that Labour was now a middle class party with an eagerness to abandon the working classes they derided. In short the typical Labour centrist holds the working classes in contempt, yet believes they are stupid for not voting for them anyway.
Such thinking feeds all too easily into Labour's negative attitudes towards welfare.
The Labour party has been entirely taken over by aspirational middle class types, who inherently believe that the way out of poverty is to aspire to better things as they do, believing that they only have to remove the obstacles to success for everyone to achieve their potential. And that once this is done, if you are still poor it is your own fault for not being aspirational enough, In this they already think very much the same as Tories. It of course completely ignores the fact that someone has to work on supermarket checkouts, drive busses, sweep the streets, cut the grass, serve in pubs and restaurants, etc. These jobs are mostly not disappearing anytime soon. Anyone who successfully aspires to rise out of them merely creates a vacancy in the same shitty job they have just left. Short of tackling low pay and crap terms and conditions directly, encouraging aspriration merely moves poverty around. There will always be those in crap jobs and it is not their fault that the jobs are crap. And increased competition for the smaller number of better paid opportunities will in time simply allow pay here to fall too.
New Labour and Tory attitudes to welfare are class based. They are the attitudes of the affluent middle classes assuming that the poor are poor because of their own lack of effort, ie that it is their own fault that they are poor. Which in turn makes them assume that a great many welfare claimants are somehow undeserving and that it is right to be tough on them. A degree of snobbish class disdain is a factor here. That Tories have always thought like this is common knowledge. That Labour now does so too is shocking. And they regard the poor as stupid if they don't vote for them anyway. The poor's ever more evident disconnect from Labour is somehow not something Labour takes responsibility for. They seem incapable of understanding why, when their whole attitude is itself a big part of the reason. The Labour party, certainly at the parliamentary level, has become largely disconnected from the working classes it was formed to support. And the working classes are noticing, and responding to this by not unreasonably withholding their support from the party in ever growing numbers.
When I was in the party myself, I noticed these attitudes in spades amongst centrist types. Most of the working class elements amongst the membership were on the left, the very ones no longer welcome. There is a widespread assumption that the working class is mostly racist and thick. And it was commonly said that Labour was now a middle class party with an eagerness to abandon the working classes they derided. In short the typical Labour centrist holds the working classes in contempt, yet believes they are stupid for not voting for them anyway.
Such thinking feeds all too easily into Labour's negative attitudes towards welfare.
Labour aren't in Government, the Tories are. The ENTIRE welfare system is of their making, right back to Job Seekers Allowance of the Thatcher years - introduced at £65pw. Universal Credit - of Iain D. Smiths creation, introduced in 2014 at £100pw and reduced to £70pw because they thought IDS was being too soft on people.
New Labour can be accused of being negligent in that they trusted the Civil Service too much - that all these things would be dealt with, managed properly. They stand accused of ignorance IMO as a management outfit of taking too much trust in the civil service for granted. New Labour worked off newspaper headlines as one of their principal means of garnering what was going on in the outside world. Welfare wasn't in the headlines EVER during the New Labour years.
Basically it was the same Tory welfare system operating at ground level.
New Labour didn't fix what they didn't know to be broken.
Long story short, the welfare system is still the same as it was in the 80's except with the ADDITION of Universal Credit, which is just as miserly as Thatcher.
New Labour can be accused of being negligent in that they trusted the Civil Service too much - that all these things would be dealt with, managed properly. They stand accused of ignorance IMO as a management outfit of taking too much trust in the civil service for granted. New Labour worked off newspaper headlines as one of their principal means of garnering what was going on in the outside world. Welfare wasn't in the headlines EVER during the New Labour years.
Basically it was the same Tory welfare system operating at ground level.
New Labour didn't fix what they didn't know to be broken.
Long story short, the welfare system is still the same as it was in the 80's except with the ADDITION of Universal Credit, which is just as miserly as Thatcher.
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