Isn't it an awful thing when you know all about something terrible, but at the same time you know you're at least a year or two ahead of general opinion?
Regular readers will know my endless horror at the system of "assessment" in place to now determine whether or not someone is "Fit for Work".
Run by ATOS, a private company charged with making impersonal decisions, the system uses a computerised, tick box questionnaire of just 15 questions that take no account of variable conditions, no account of consultant or GP based evidence and no account of pain or most symptoms.
Today, the Chief Executives of the most prominent mental health charities in the country have published an open letter in the Guardian, begging the government to halt the deeply flawed scheme because it is costing lives. They are not advising or asking, they are begging.
They rightly point out that "invisible" illnesses are woefully let down in the current system and this includes not just those with mental health problems, but also those with long term variable illnesses such as MS, heart disease, cancer or bowel disease.
In a recent survey, Mind found that an enormous 95% of respondents don't think that they will be believed at assessment. Evidence abounds of mentally ill people being found "fit for work" simply because they manage to turn up at the assessment centre dressed and washed.
But the most shocking, disgusting shameful part of the accompanying article comes at the end. In a quote from the government, we are assured that
"In consultation with charities including Mind, Professor Harrington is now looking at the way mental health is assessed in the work capability assessment and we look forward to receiving his recommendations later this year."
How dare they carry on with this until these problems are resolved? How dare they continue to roll out a programme that is costing lives and will claim many more? Why is my blog constantly repeating these points to a society willing to turn away?
Some days I write and I think "Am I the one who's wrong? Am I the one over-reacting?" and there's a kind of comfort to that. When the Chief Executives of the nation's charities are reduced to begging in even stronger terms than I have dared to use, I feel a little desperate.
It's not just me and http://thebrokenofbritain.blogspot.com/ and the blogosphere and the Guardian shouting about this issue, it's Scope and Rethink and Mind and even the Professor who designed the system itself.
It must be stopped now, today. These problems must be solved before 1.8 million more people are put through this kind of harassment and driven to these levels of despair.
There is clear evidence that Work Capability Assessments for the sick and disabled are costing lives. Please help us to stop it.
** Write to your MP about this by clicking on this link http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ . It will only take two or three minutes, but the Welfare Reform Bill is on the verge of passing through parliament and into the Lords. We simply must stop this and the time-limiting of ESA before it does. The introduction of PIPs as a replacement for DLA must also be halted until further evidence is gathered. If you don't know what to say, feel free to use anything from my blog - Welfare reform that must not go Ahead is a good summary of the situation.
Beg them. Really plead with them to listen, before it's too late.
I think that quite frankly the government doesn’t give a damn if people die (some already have in Scotland, while waiting for their appeals to be heard) or people are made miserable and sick with worry at what is coming.
ReplyDeleteI’d go so far as to say they are unlikely to give a damn about some poor people who are unlikely to vote for them not being there at the next election to vote for labour in your country and SNP in mine.
If the system is saving them money and making the figures look better for those who have never had to take any kind of welfare payment in their lives, and consequently look down on social security as if it were a bad smell, then I imagine that this government will have some more of it!
I think the thing is to tell them matter-of-factly that this problem will only increase and that those of us/you left will make a massive stink about it and make sure everyone knows that the Government are responsible. It's not an emotional plea, at least from most of those of us who have considered it, it's a cold warning. We'll have to make some kind of memorial page, publicise it, make sure friends and relatives can leave information about their loved ones in a public place, make sure everyone, from councillors up the United Nations Enable, knows what is happening, that's all. As tris says, people have already died, and the fact that the Government hasn't stopped to think as a result shows the futility of appealing their non-existant better natures.
ReplyDelete*Sigh*
Moe positively, I think the whole Atos blood-on-their-hands protest movement is a great step forward.
Well said Sue.
ReplyDeleteEverytime my letters come I'm filled with utter dread. When there is no DWP letter it's like a stay of execution. I can't sleep and my medication also makes me constantly tired. I feel like a zombie most days.
I try and put a brave face on it which takes a lot of strength for my mother because when I go under, worrying about me affects her very badly but I'm constantly on edge this is inhumane this is evil.
I vacillate between feeling like crying and utter fury. I feel like death is the only escape from all this pressure, I can't even enjoy anything anymore but I have to keep going because I have to be there for my elderly mother.
All of this pressure and stress and demonisation by the media has made my condition worse. All they years of my doing the most hardest, most monotonous most backbreaking and most humiliating work counts for nothing with these sick maniacs in Government and the so-called opposition. In fact they will probably use it against me to deny me any help whatsoever.
I'm now a societal non-person completely expendable because I committed the crime of having a breakdown and being plagued by mental illnesses.
I was watching a programme about the Nazis yesterday and I saw how they demonised the sick and disabled through the media and thought that sounds familiar. I wonder whether the politicians are deliberately copying the Nazis tactics, or whether they just naturally think like nazis.
ReplyDeleteanother powerful blog Sue and you are not wrong far from it.
ReplyDeleteHere is my slant on the whole situation,
ReplyDeleteThe whole process is geared up to fail people so when the figures are published later this year they will show that x amount of people were found fit for work, that is what the article will state nothing about the amount of appeals being filed JOB DONE by the DWP & Govt. Then it will be carefully manipulated by the DWP & the media so everyone who isn't disabled are shocked at how many people are not genuinely sick. Its fantastic its a win win situtation both by the DWP & Govt. So how do we combat this situation well first off we have to get our own facts and figures published as well in a daily newspaper but lets be realistic how many people read the guardian cause thats the only paper as i see it who would publish the correct information. The target has to be our old friends but certainly not allies Mail, Sun etc etc.
Same here we all look at the mail with apprehension, its a matter or when not if. It is good that finaly other people are saying what we have been thinking for ages. The goverment seems to have back tracked on lots of things but think something big will have to happen before the do this time.
ReplyDeleteI was watching prime minister questions few weeks ago and some MPS were passionatly asking questions over ECA, and what did the PM say?
"Didnt it just show how many people had been on benefit so long and could work" Wonder how much evidence and appeals can shove in their faces.
Wonder what would happen if we simply refused to attend any ATOS assesments at all until it is at least fair in eyes of proffesionals, obviously it would only work if everyone did it and would cause hardship but would be a major stand. Thousands of people having nothing to live rather than go through unfair assesment, prob need a millionaire to fed us in the mean time... oh yea most of them on the cabinet so not much luck there!
I dont think non attendence of your WCA is a good idea, it would put a lot of people at risk, but can understand the logic behind it. It will maybe take a mass protest of some sorts but what i dont know
ReplyDeleteAnother good blog sue. Well everyone here knows my views and if I've said it once I'll say it again the government wont stop until the bitter end or until someone goes into a job centre plus or a ATOS medical and set's fire to themselves in the same way that the Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi did or gets a shotgun out in the case of Derrick Bird and until then the government led by David Cameron will continue to destroy the lives of as many sick and disabled people as possible in whatever way they can and by making sure that the deaths will go unnoticed or if they are noticed he or the government wont get the blame at a latter date when the death toll stacks up
ReplyDeleteI have sent a email to the teams at panorama who are our only hope to watchdog and to Dominic Littlewood to ask them to monitor this blog and to take whatever steps that are necessary to bring the government to account and that all deaths be recorded where an injustice has taken place so that at a latter date justice can be served on the government and all of those involved at the DWP /ATOS / the government along with all the ministers who brought about a range of policy's that led to the early deaths of a vulnerable the sick and disabled group of people
systematic abuse of care home patients, isn't that what the DWP, Atos, Media are doing to disabled people.
ReplyDeleteI did not mean in any way, to belittle the care home issue but was just using it as a mirror image as to what is happening to disabled people.
it indeed certainly is anyone who causes stress to another person in which they feel threatened and then kill themselves is an act of systematic abuse which is punishable in law and David Cameron had better watch out as the police will be looking very carefully that he doesn't overstep his mark
ReplyDeleteI empathise with a lot of your points, but what is your answer to the "true" benefits scroungers? Yes, there are a lot of them.
ReplyDeleteMr Ryan, How would you weed out the scroungers and remember to take into account all disabilities.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to Tony Ryan above, there are obviously some people who are defrauding the system, in the same way that all systems are abused by those who think they can. As has often been said, disability benefit fraud is the lowest benefit fraud of all, at 0.5%, even lower than administrative errors by the department. But none of this is the responsibility of the vast majority of people who are claiming legitimately, and neither is it a reason to persecute these people for the sake of rooting out that small minority. Or are you saying it is? Changing the subject, in answer to Sue's plea to contact our MPs - we spoke to our MP after the march on May 11th. We attempted to state our case, with difficulty, as he was more interested in the sound of his own voice - honestly. He also made reference to 'handicapped' and 'crippled' people. What the hell do you do when you have a representative like that?
ReplyDeleteTony Ryan said...
ReplyDeleteI empathise with a lot of your points, but what is your answer to the "true" benefits scroungers? Yes, there are a lot of them.
Abolish the Royal family.
Re: true scroungers, we all would say if you suspect someone of ilegal claiming then report them simple as. Strange everyone knows someone on the fiddle yet no one can make the effort to report them.
ReplyDeleteYes I am sure there will be a few people but if everyone was as keen as reporting everyone they saw carrying ladders or playing football while claiming they were seriously ill then it would make life alot easier for the rest of us.
Mean while the other 99% of us are going through hell, maybe the government could save themselvers some dosh and offer a bounty payment for all those names that go to court for fraud job done.
The benefit scroungers in the main are just those who can work but don't as they get by on income support / tax credits and housing benefit also they don't have to pay council tax these are the main culprits in which you will find on every estate in the UK
ReplyDeleteThose who are long term sick and disabled who do claim benefits are those most affected by the changes to come as any additional stress that they have to encounter just makes their situation worse then it already is and will push people over the top in which they kill themselves
As the government know this in advance but are still determined to push through the changes then they on the death of a benefit claimant will have to go before the courts especially if it transpired that the person concerned was indeed unfit for work and that the death was brought about by undue stress
Additional stress comes about by having to attend a ATOS medical without the right support being offered beforehand and then coupled with being found fit for work and then having to appeal which can take up to one year and in the meantime having virtually very little money to live on
If you or i made life a misery for a member of the public the police would be round your house very quickly and tell you to stop the same goes if you run a business
The government too still have to follow guidelines irrespective of what a policy is and if the police should come across any member of the public who is being bullied or abused be it in physical sense or mental sense then they will have to take the perpetrator to task be that the government the DWP or ATOS
Failing to do so could very well endanger the lives of many people as the sick or disabled victim could retaliate with a shotgun and kill many innocent bystanders and i for one would find that deeply distressing so it is imperative that the police take action on the government or whoever tries to unsettle our society by abusing our sick and disabled and making them out to be criminals
What to do with the true scrounger?
ReplyDeleteI work with people who are unemployed, for a variety of different reason (and not with JC+)
For people who are claiming Incapacity Benefit unreasonably, you have to have a fair and proper medical, based upon reports from GPs, specialists, and a one on one examination carried out by a proper health professional. There need to be no targets of any kind in this exercise.
Medicals need to take consideration of variable illnesses; and the effects of any particular activity even when a person is well. For example, on a good day a person with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis can undertake x, but this would have an effect of putting them in bed for y number of days afterwards; if this were repeated z times, what would the effect be?
I for one have no difficulty in stopping, without warning, the money of people who are cheating and putting them in the cell with Jim Devine.
"the death of a benefit claimant will have to go before the courts"
ReplyDeleteHow would that happen? Nobody cares about claimants anyway.
Tony - Well, this government seem to think that to catch a few cheats they need to destroy the lives of millions of genuinely sick or disabled people. Millions. 1.8 million on IB and 3 million or so on DLA.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you people not want to hear? Fraud is 0.5%!! The lowest of any gov department!! Why are you so keen to believe the nonsense spewed out by our gov when time and again they are found to be lying?
Just look at this site - FullFact have challenged so many DWP press releases it runs into 4 PAGES!! http://fullfact.org/search/node/incapacity%20benefit
You're being fooled as an excuse to all but cancel sickness benefits for everyone. And you're OK with that. Wow.
[QUOTE]Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete"the death of a benefit claimant will have to go before the courts"
How would that happen? Nobody cares about claimants anyway.[/QUOTE]
If it was found that the DWP were negligent about a claimant and at a latter date was found to be incapable of work who either killed himself or someone else then a lawyer who specialise in these cases would take the government to court
If anyone should start to feel threatened by the DWP the first course of action would be to inform your lawyer if you don't have one then you should inform a court who will advise you further
Hopefully a lawyer reading this will reply as to what steps should be taken by the bereaved family in the event of a death of a so called benefit scrounger
The death of ian Tomlinson killed by a police officer is no different anyone causing the premature death of another through physical or mental abuse is a arrestable offence no matter who you are
I know it shows my ignorance here but I had no idea there were only 15 questions. That's really shocking.
ReplyDeleteLast time I filled out a street questionnaire asking me my shopping habits there were at least 50 questions. How anyone can claim to get a full picture of anything in just 15 questions is beyond me and taking such a lazy approach when it's people very existence that is on the line is truly appalling...
"If it was found that the DWP were negligent about a claimant and at a latter date was found to be incapable of work who either killed himself or someone else then a lawyer who specialise in these cases would take the government to court"
ReplyDeleteWhat lawyer? On whose behalf? There's no legal aid in welfare cases, especially for the dead. The most vulnerable people don't have much in the way of family, and if they could afford a lawyer they wouldn't be on benefits anyway. That's the definition of vulnerable - someone who can't look after themselves or defend themselves.
It takes massive resources to start a court case, resources that the families of poor disabled people don't have. That's what's so fiendish about it!
If you have "support" your chances of winning on appeal go up to 70%. I don't have support, so my chances are 40%. I have an equally poor, much sicker elderly mother in London, a father who doesn't give a shit and a working-poor sister whom I haven't seen in 18 months.
If and when I get cut off, I'll live on savings for a bit and do a few crap jobs, then eventually everything runs out, I'll lose my council flat and become homeless. Even if I did want to burden my folks, there's nothing they could do about it anyway - they have their own problems.
My family are very much dispersed - they wouldn't even know about it if anything happened to me and I wouldn't want them to.
"The death of ian Tomlinson killed by a police officer is no different anyone causing the premature death of another through physical or mental abuse is a arrestable offence no matter who you are "
ReplyDeleteAlso it's not causing death through "abuse". They're being very careful about that. It's causing death by beurocracy - making benefits unclaimable in the long run so you just give up and go out in the job market with no support.
The most visible sign of this will be a large increase in homelessness, American style. The thing about the homeless is that nobody notices them.
PS I saw an interesting article in the Graun that said that "we must not ignore the mentally ill as this is an invisible problem". That's exactly why it will be ignored - to them it's a GOOD THING that we're invisible. 'Cause then you can't see it, so you can't do anything about it.
The last 7 years have been like a dream - I've had some good times despite my problems but I know now that my future is on the streets. I know how to survive in crummy squats, I won't have to worry about bills or rent, I can live out of skips with the hippies. Invisible, see? Meanwhile someone "deserving" can have my flat.
Anonymous
ReplyDeleteYou have to be very careful with mental disabilities that i do know as a friend of mine many years ago was killed by one with a gun so you DE-respect mental people at your peril
There are many types of mental disabilities and if you are not skilled enough to know who is who and you cross swords with them either in the work place or in the DWP or at the ATOS medical then your a dead man pure and simple
I agree, fourbanks - that's what happens in America. Nobody can get help, lots go homeless and few get hold of guns and use them. But nobody there bothers to join the dots.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about the legal situation, though. Is there a law anywhere that says they HAVE to give people benefits?
[QUOTE]I don't know about the legal situation, though. Is there a law anywhere that says they HAVE to give people benefits?[/QUOTE]
ReplyDeleteWell yes there is it all come under our free national health system in where when you work you paid a national insurance stamp and when you became ill you then go on to receive incapacity benefit. Incapacity benefit can only be given to someone who has paid a certain amount of national insurance stamps from when they were working
It is a very hard benefit to get as unlike DLA claimant's who can go about to a degree their business with incapacity benefit just leaving the house unaccompanied will have the DWP knocking on your door so it certainly not the best of benefits to be on unless you liked to be watched and spied upon 24/7
As for mental health and those with mental health by and large they are excellent company the very best. However and depending on the degree of their illness and whose company their in you need to be extremely careful on how you talk to them. If you yourself are a genuine person you have very little to fear but if you are not and you might try to exploit them or play the fool with them they can turn in a instant and attack you especially those with Schizophrenia. As i say with someone like me around their fine but to play safe you need be careful and keep your mouth shut unless you have something positive and friendly to say
I don't think it is part of the NHS, somehow. It's an awful situation where you have no rights. Legally speaking, the government can do what they like.
ReplyDeleteI think you are somewhat misinformed about mental illness as well, but we'll let that one slide for now.
The past few days my depression, which I've battled all my life as hard as I have my physical illness, has returned with a vengeance. I can't believe it has come to this: the most vulnerable people in our society dying and committing suicide because of a government which proclaimed "Sick and disabled people have nothing to fear from us". The lying shitbags.
ReplyDeleteI can't take this anymore. I have no control over my future and apart from us, nobody seems to give a fuck. This has to stop.
Someone, I think it was Sue, said that it may take someone showing up at a JobCentre, dousing themselves in Petrol and setting themselves alight for the public to notice.
If I am found "fit for work", this will be me. I will then have nothing left to lose. And I will also have finally done some good while at the same time leaving this cold, miserable life.
Every movement needs a martyr: I volunteer.
Anonymous - That definitely wasn't me - I'd never encourage, support or suggest something like that.
ReplyDeletePlease try to "wait and see" however difficult it is. Part of the process of changing these proposals is pointing out just how devastating they will be, but they haven't happened yet.
The Lords next, and there is much more cross party support there.
Nothing is ever as bad as it seems. Please don't think I'm patronising if I link http://www.samaritans.org/
and remember that millions are in the same position. The difference now is that we're all fighting together.
It was me making that statement nine posts down
ReplyDeleteWell everyone here knows my views and if I've said it once I'll say it again the government wont stop until the bitter end or until someone goes into a job centre plus or a ATOS medical and set's fire to themselves in the same way that the Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi did or gets a shotgun out in the case of Derrick Bird and until then the government led by David Cameron will continue to destroy the lives of as many sick and disabled people as possible in whatever way they can and by making sure that the deaths will go unnoticed or if they are noticed he or the government wont get the blame at a latter date when the death toll stacks up
Like sue I'd never would encourage this type of thing as like in Tunisia it doesn't change anything you may get rid of the government in their case but you may not in this country but at the end of the day nothing long term changes
If your despised by your government and i have know many mp's in my time they couldn't care about you at all and never did and never will so we need to get that straight
Some people think there must be a good genuine mp ?well as i say i have been around mp's for around 50 years now since the age of 5 in fact and i have never met one not one yes it is tragic but that is my view and am sure at the end of the day i will be proved right by the majority of the people in the uk
I could have easily years ago gone into politics as a conservative mp for lewisham south east London but i went instead into the bank of England where my father had worked and his father had worked since 1918
Yes i do regret not now going into politics i don't know why i thought at the time with the likes of pm Macmillan back in the sixties that everything was ok there was nothing at that time in my mind where a mp had an agenda to go out to destroy a chunk of society had there been then i would have not gone to the bank
It was only when Mrs thatcher come to power in 1979 and i met her did i realize that we as a country were in very deep trouble and i should have resigned then from the bank to head her off at the next general election
I have to live with that fact for the rest of my life i made a bad error in staying at the bank. People say your to hard on yourself and you were ill well that maybe but someone has to take the blame in life it's no good people ducking the issue and blaming others
like all of us here we are in a hole and it's getting deeper but as sue says were in the hole together. Like in any battle or war their will be a few survivors who will live to tell the tale at a latter date but in the meantime we need to all pull together as the saying goes united we stand and divided we fall
Small correction their was one mp that did impress me and that was John Smith who died in May 1994
ReplyDeleteIn fact it was he who suggested to me to stand as a mp but sad to say my health wasn't good at the time so therefore had to decline
I often have a dream reaccurring from time to time. A beast keeps chasing myself it runs faster than I can but never catching myself. Each time I turn to face it I find it asleep on a trailor at the end of a park. When I turn to walk along this straight path again I sense it chasing myself again. But when I turn to face it again it's always asleep on that trailer or pretending to be so.
ReplyDeleteThis became burdonsom and frustrating and because of its repetativeness of fear, the fear of death departed from myself as I was in acceptance of death if the worst should happen. So I turned towards this beast that was asleep upon that trailer to awaken it and ask why it keeps chasing myself. It sits up in silence without reply almost in a hipnotic stance it sits there. Because I got no answer I began my journey again this time the beast wasn't able to chase myself as the resolve was made by facing it head on.
The beast is like this government and all the media, its racing ahead faster that most can tolerate. It gives the feeling that its chasing after ones very life. With natural life itself being at the pace of two steps it runs at 3 steps and has to retract due to its burn out. first chasing complete the attack on Incapacity claimants. It sleeps/plans the next chase DLA and so on and so on and so on there is no end in sight of constantly being chased by this beast. It can never catch one that walks this path. It's only power is to drive a living nightmare of fear to the point that those without the knowlege or direction in which to fight, in which to question, would become overwhelmed by this 24/7 of living fear that the only way out is by suicide. The beast wins.
Is it to anyone's surprise that we hear of someone actually colapsing and dieing straight after one of those assessments that fear has become so great.
Whether it's a physical illness or Mental illness and the diversity within those catagories of illness. We have a unique battle. Stand as one in tolerance of one another and tolerate this beast no more. Question its evidence keep on questioning its evidence turn the chasing it does around by chasing it with questions of evidence, keep chasing after its evidence. Seek out its truth of evidence. Those reforms are wrong you know it I know it dont let that beast sleep until it knows it.
Be the therapists towards that illness called greed, continue with those therapy sessions until they are cured of that greed.
Any way thats me little rant over with.
After 30+ years of hard, stressful work and a busy, active life I became ill and I am now disabled. But my illness, ME, is a hidden one.
ReplyDeleteHad to claim ESA. I was found 'fit to work' at the first ATOS circus, overturned on appeal. In Oct, ATOS circus No2. found me fit to work again. ATOS quack said I had managed to sit upright for 40 mins in their waiting room unaided. I actually spent the entire 50 min wait lying flat across 3 seats!
I appealed again. They stopped my benefit completely until BBC Radio London asked Chris Grayling MP about my lack of benefit. Reduced rate then paid until the appeal. On the morning of the appeal the Appeals Service rang to say I didn't need to attend as the panel had enough info from me to decide in my favour. Great!
But - always a 'but' with these clowns - they have placed me in the ESA 'work related activity group' instead of the 'support group'. This means less money and I have to attend work-focused meetings with DWP contractors, Reed, which I cannot do!
Had the Appeals Service not told me I didn't need to attend my appeal I would have been able to argue/show/convince them to recommend the 'support group'. (I'd rested up and prepared so much for the appeal hearing.) But I was denied the chance.
So now I have to get a letter from my GP so they can refer me back to Atos for another farce of a medical!
Official error is at least as costly as 'fraud' and all incorrectly paid benefits is a tiny fraction of the tax fiddling that goes on (gov's own figures).
And the 'beat the sick and disabled' MPs, whose salaries would cover the cost of the wheelchair I need (that NHS won't provide) several times over, have been fiddling expenses. Jeez, it's not as if they are poor and struggling to provide for their families. They are just gready fckrs who don't give a sht about real, honest people.
Let's not forget, I paid in for this through my NI and taxes for years. Why did I bother? Thank heavens I don't live in the US where guns are easy to come by!
Good health to all, Lionheartedgirl
You are a Lionhearted girl indeed! It's kafka-esque and sickening.
ReplyDeleteStill, I always think it actually doesn't matter how many hoops they make you jump through, they can't break us unless we let them. We just all have to keep fighting until this is changed.
I've jumped through so many NHS hoops over the years, I can manage a few DWP ones now. They don't know the level of resilience they're up against ;)
its all a joke this goverment has to change you just cant put people with disabled and who have mental health problems and alcohol and drugs etc of the sick people would not be able to live know more well they should encrease the mininamil wage to ten pounds an hour and every one will go back to work in the world , but there is no work
DeleteThis rotten, stinking cesspit of a government (and New Labour must take some of the blame as well) is intent on making the poorest and most vulnerable pay for a crisis that the bankers and the rich have created. They will never have to use the services we rely on, so why should they care? They are hell-bent on destroying the gains,such as the NHS and the welfare state, that the working class has built over decades. However, the coalition is weak; we can fight them and win!
ReplyDeleteWe need a new party, that works in the interests of ordinary people, not the rich and the ruling class. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, which stood in wards across the country in the local elections this year, is a significant step towards this.
http://www.tusc.org.uk
Im Bipolar - I sent my form back last week. I havent slept since and can't cope with much more. I feel so ashamed, ive just had enough
ReplyDeleteIv just received my letter to go for a medical with atos. Im on high rate care and was excempt under the ib.
ReplyDeleteIm bi polar with other health problems and would score more than enough points on the esa. My question why do I have to go for a medical.
It seems that they do random picks out of a pile and decide who goes for a firing of questions.
why don't interested persons set blog advising people advice on how to fill these forms in? page by page, or is this site just talk?
ReplyDeleteObviously, Anon, because in every case the people's symptoms are different.
ReplyDeleteThere is no correct way that fits all.
I would have thought that was patently obvious to the most meagre intellect.
Hi just been ready some of the experiance that some have suffered and it's all very true unlike the medical reports that are filled in by the so called medical expert's.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bad enough system as it is with out the medical report's being completly wrong, when i lost by benifit i requested a copy of my report the only thing that was correct on it was my name and address the rest of the report was not mine i still think it was mixed up with someone else or she was thinking about her 3 week holiday the following day to texas. And they have a contact with the DWP it's a joke but not a funny one.
You're lucky, jen. The DWP sent the letter telling me my benefit had been stopped to the wrong person. The first I knew about it was when I received a very scary bank statement.
ReplyDeleteNow for a more recent episode on the dwp advisors personallity when dealing with a mentally ill claimant.
ReplyDeleteI took the claimant to her interview at the jobcentre and commented on the distressed condition she left in at her previous interview only to be given with her reply which was ' i leave here distressed every day'
Is this being sarcastic or just belittling the mentally ill
I have to explain for the 3rd time why I can't work (paranoid schizophrenic) and feel they just enjoy harassing people away from benefits.
ReplyDeleteA relapse is just what our families need. Thanks.
I think I will just cancel my ESA. Probably what they want. However, it is now my mission to politically screw up this policy and anyone associated with it.