The Hostile Environment for Disabled and Sick.

[friendofdorothy]

I have always felt that would be MPs should have to demonstrate a period of real world work, say ten years.

I'd say 10 years hard labour ...

 

[Libertad]

treelover is right on this. The labour movement needs to urgently get to grips with the reality of disability and welfare.

Social security.

 

[treelover]

New changes imposed by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) require claimants who have approached politicians for help with a benefit appeal to sign a waiver form explaining why they have done so, rather than going directly to the Job Centre.
The changes also require claimants to state exactly what they have discussed with their elected representative before information can be disclosed regarding an appeal.

New rules at DWP - to stop benefit claimants getting help from elected representatives - Vox Political

The Tories are trying hard to turn benefit claimants into […]

voxpoliticalonline.com

Well, the DWP clearly intend to initiate even tighter harsher measures, for many they are a shadow state.

Not that many get support from MP's in england, Scotland, maybe, ime.

Though it will help the new Tory M.P's now in the 'red wall' who won't have to respond to their new constituent's requests for help with social security.

 

[Shechemite]

New rules at DWP - to stop benefit claimants getting help from elected representatives - Vox Political

The Tories are trying hard to turn benefit claimants into […]

voxpoliticalonline.com

Well, the DWP clearly intend to initiate even tighter harsher measures, for many they are a shadow state.

Not that many get support from MP's in england, Scotland, maybe, ime.

Goof the new Tory M.P's now in the 'red wall' who won't have to respond to their new constituency's social security requests for help.

There’s no link to anything regarding this apparent rule change.

 

[treelover]

[QUOTE

The Universal Credit system is fundamentally flawed and needs to be halted. With so many loopholes and barriers put in place to stop claimants receiving the support they are entitled to, it’s no wonder people come to their MSP for support.
Neither the DWP, nor Boris Johnson’s Tory government, has the right to stop people approaching their elected representatives for help and support – that’s what we’re here to do.
This is just the latest extension of the hostile environment introduced by this right-wing Tory government designed to lock people out from receiving the financial support they are entitled to.

[/QUOTE]

No, but clearly this M.P is aware of it, but you are right, posters btl are querying it as well.

 

[Shechemite]

It’s mike fucking Sivier. Wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole

 

[treelover]

Is that 'another angry voice'

 

[Proper Tidy]

Is that 'another angry voice'

No. Worse.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Social security.

Quite. Never fond of the creeping 'Americanisms'.

 

[GarveyLives]

"Parents of a disabled Kidderminster student are disgusted after a teacher who branded their son 'roadkill' kept his position ..."

Disabled Kidderminster boy called roadkill by King Charles I School teacher

(Source: as stated in image)

Former Sergeant Major Brian Jefferson left Rhys Jones, 14, 'distressed and upset' after he nicknamed him 'Roadkill' when he was left disabled in a car crash.​

 

[treelover]

Any more on this, major petition asking for him to be disciplined, rallies, questions in the house?

 

[treelover]

Almost Half Of DLA To PIP Claimants Benefit Stopped Or Reduced


Last month’s statistics from the DWP and the Tribunals Service are full of percentages that matter enormously if you are a claimant.


It desperately matters, for example, whether you are one of the almost 50% of DLA to PIP claimants who have so far had their benefits stopped or reduced.


Or one of the 70% of new PIP claimants who did not get any award at all.


Or, if you did get a PIP award, you were one of the 71% whose award lasts two years or less


More happily, you could be one of the nearly 60% of new ESA claimants who are put in the support group.


And, even more happily, you may be one of the over 75% of PIP and ESA claimants who are now winning their appeals.


Ending the flood of statistics, we also have news of small changes to the appeals process which are part of a much larger plan to get almost everything online.


And finally, we reveal that the fight for justice for Jodey Whiting isn’t over yet.





ALMOST HALF OF DLA TO PIP CLAIMANTS HAVE BENEFIT STOPPED OR REDUCED
Up to October 2019, a lucky 39% of claimants have had their benefit increased when they moved from DLA to PIP.


But set against that is the fact that 25% have lost their entire award on being moved.


And a further 22% have had their benefit reduced but not stopped altogether.


In total, up to October 2019, those percentages mean that 657,000 individual claimants have had to cope with the misery and distress of a sudden, and often dramatic, drop in income.


Claimants most likely to have their awarded stopped are those with mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, where 40% have had their award stopped and 13% have had it decreased.


But claimants with any condition can find themselves losing out.


16% of claimants with arthritis, for example, lost their award altogether and 35% have had it reduced.


The DWP would like you to believe that the massive changes in who gets an award, and at what rate, is based on a more accurate assessment system.


The reality is that it is founded on a randomly altered set of criteria whose only aim is to reduce the benefits bill, regardless of the effect on individual claimants’ lives.





FEWER THAN ONE IN THREE PIP CLAIMS SUCCEED
Meanwhile, the success rate for new pip claims continues to plummet.


Only 30% of new claimants got an award in October 2019, down from an average of 42% since PIP was introduced.


In the last three months for which figures are available, the award rates for all new claims, excluding terminal illness, has fallen dramatically:


August 2019 37%


September 2019 32%


October 2019 30%


There has been no explanation from the DWP as to why this is happening.

From benefits and work newsletter, the hostile environment intensifies.

 

[Shechemite]

Any more on this, major petition asking for him to be disciplined, rallies, questions in the house?

perhaps if ‘disability activists’ stopped sucking up to Putin (and managed to refrain from banging on about the Jews for 5 minutes) we might have a shot.

 

[Shechemite]

Does this count as part of the ‘hostile environment’ or are MHA detainees the wrong sort of disabled Why are we locking up patients for profit? - UnHerd

The disabled people’s movement - as silent about psychiatric oppression in this country as it is about Russia and Iran.

Why are we locking up patients for profit?

Cygnet's fatal failings highlight the shocking flaws in our approach to mental health problems

unherd.com

 

[Chilli.s]

Does this count as part of the ‘hostile environment’ or are MHA detainees the wrong sort of disabled Why are we locking up patients for profit? - UnHerd

Thats privatisation of health services isn't it. Reading about those poor patients is heartbreaking. Conditions of the facilities condemned by CQC and Tony Romero, CEO, Cygnet Healthcare gets a pay rise of 400 000 quid.

(Liked for the publicity and attention not the content.)

 

[Shechemite]

Thats privatisation of health services isn't it. Reading about those poor patients is heartbreaking. Conditions of the facilities condemned by CQC and Tony Romero, CEO, Cygnet Healthcare gets a pay rise of 400 000 quid.

(Liked for the publicity and attention not the content.)

Well quite. These are ‘services’ which were flogged off to massive (American) corporations years ago. And which have been torturing (and killing) ‘the sick and disabled’ with impunity.

Don’t recall you doing much about any of that treelover

 

[Shechemite]

And Mike fucking Sivier. Do you ever wonder why ‘disabled people’ aren’t taken seriously?

 

[Shechemite]

This thread is why labour lost

 

[treelover]

not completely, but i do think it contributed

Well quite. These are ‘services’ which were flogged off to massive (American) corporations years ago. And which have been torturing (and killing) ‘the sick and disabled’ with impunity.

Don’t recall you doing much about any of that treelover

er, you obviously know nothing about me, I helped set up the national coalition against the welfare reform bill under NL, began a local anti welfare reform group(which worked nationally,. rallies, submissions to white papers) when the former collapsed, got very disulluisioned with the lack of support from the unions, ( though saw how much they gave to say , UAF)churches, the wider left, and after many years tried to challenge social care issues instead, ultimately, with similar lack of support.

used my own money at times as well, , so please refrain

 

[treelover]

Btw, at our CLP post mortem meeting, i am going to ask, do people there know where the two main testing centres for DLA and PIP are in the city? That they are run as a profit making business, and if they have ever protested outside, ATOS, etc, it will be revealing who knows, etc.

 

[treelover]

The relentless attacks and constant suggestions that many or most people are just swing the lead must be part of it. It's horrifying and a depressing reminder than victories you think are won like the idea of universality and social solidarity that seemed to be given its head in the post-war welfare state are actually tenuous and need to be defended and fought for vigorously and long term. I suspect you won't find a lead from the party organisations as their leadership now comes from that PPE bubble who don't see it as much or actually buy into the Thatcherite style view at some level, and as you've noted, the grassroots we'd want to be at the front of any campaign is being ground down and terrorised.

But they haven't, when I ask that question above, we will I think, see the difference between the left in the 80's, etc, and the modern left.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Btw, at our CLP post mortem meeting, i am going to ask, do people there know where the two main testing centres for DLA and PIP are in the city? That they are run as a profit making business, and if they have ever protested outside, ATOS, etc, it will be revealing who knows, etc.

So many politically engaged people on the left don't even stop to consider whether or not meeting rooms/venues they're hiring for meetings and events are accessible or not. Disability and disabled people just aren't on their radar. There would be an outcry if they booked a venue that didn't allow gay people, or women, or black, Asian or other ethnic minority people, but book a room/venue that wheelchair users can't get into and pretty much no one blinks an eye.

 

[treelover]

i agree, access is important, but many disabilty charities have gone down that road and have been co-opted, the brutal welfare regime should also be a priority.

 

[treelover]

Amy Winehouse's mother urges PM to change benefits system

Winehouse, who has multiple sclerosis, says PIP system is too complex

www.theguardian.com

Ashley Arundale, 29, a veterinary nurse in Leeds who suffers from a relapsing form of MS, said the PIP process is “designed to trip us up at every turn”. “I’m not an angry person, but it makes me really angry – the total lack of knowledge was alarming. I thought about appealing, but was afraid of making a fuss and losing the award altogether, which I know has happened to others. Right now I don’t feel supported by the system at all.”

 

[treelover]

The death of Errol Graham: Man starved to death after DWP wrongly stopped his benefits

A disabled man starved to death after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) wrongly stopped his out-of-work benefits, leaving him without any income. Errol Graham weighed just four-and-a-half …

www.disabilitynewsservice.com

If not now, when?

 

[treelover]

DWP stop man’s PIP support after assessor claims amputated foot has ‘healed’

DWP stop man’s PIP support after assessor claims amputated foot has ‘healed’

Tommy Weir says the reference in his Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment report to his left foot was either ‘gross incompetence or simply a lie’ because he doesn’t have…

politicsandinsights.org

 

[Duncan2]

Friend showed me the PIP Application Form the other day...... it is a bit daunting.Seems like you aren't likely to get much ,if any,PIP if you can hold a conversation,boil an egg,wipe your own bottom and walk thirty metres.Its almost as though to qualify for the (really quite modest) Personal Independence Payment you must demonstrate that "personal independence "is ,for you, an impossible dream?

 

[StoneRoad]

Gentleman I know has been battling for at least 14 months to get his PIP, finally it looks like he will shortly find out exactly how much he will be getting, after fighting for his entitlement almost constantly.

The system is macayvillian in the extreme, every twist and turn is designed to be as difficult, time-consuming and off-putting as possible.
Things like the "mandatory re-consideration" ... just how many get their award at this point ...

 

[Proper Tidy]

I know this case has been reported before but good to see it getting pushed a bit more instead of dropping into the ether

Disabled man starved to death after DWP stopped his benefits

Disabled man starved to death after DWP stopped his benefits

MPs call for inquiry into case of Errol Graham, 57, who weighed 28.5kg when he was found dead

www.theguardian.com

 

[existentialist]

Ideas about ill and disabled people have changed enormously - but not thanks to Thatcher. She wanted to save money by starting 'care in the community' or no care in the community as it turned out.

Or, as Mrs E #1 and mental health service user put it, "scare in the community".