- A disabled woman and her husband who have been found dead in their house had spoken publicly of their struggle to obtain the benefits they needed to survive.
- MPs have accused the government of “pandering to the Daily Mail” over the issue of incapacity benefit reform, after it published a misleading press release about the results of its “fitness for work” tests.
- A disabled peer has accused her own government of behaving like a dishonest insurance company over its treatment of hundreds of thousands of people currently claiming out-of-work disability benefits.
- An investigation by young disabled campaigners has raised new fears of a shortage of accessible hotel rooms when thousands of disabled visitors descend on London for the 2012 Paralympics.
- A disabled film-maker’s award-winning video installation about the killing of hundreds of thousands of disabled people in Nazi Germany has had to end its run in Gloucester Cathedral, after a vital piece of equipment was stolen.
- Reform of incapacity benefits is set to “impoverish vast numbers of households” and “cause untold distress in countless more”, a new research report has warned.
- Police, prosecutors and magistrates have won praise for using hate crime legislation to increase the sentence imposed on a hairdresser who shaved an offensive word into the hair of a man with learning difficulties.
For links to the full stories, please visit Disability News Service
Well done Sue, the couple who died, well the chap was ex-forces. They could not cope any more.
ReplyDeleteSo the body bags are already gathering for the innocent as the rich banker-politicians enjoy their money and elitist policies.
Debate abt dla is going on for next few days, they wont back down at all. we stayed awake all night talking about where we going to live how will we manage. how do we tell our children that we cant live here anymore, im totally destroyed
ReplyDeleteWell done sue i have nothing further to add other then at the committee meetings where anne begg mp is chairman in that she locks horns with IDS and ask him (why all the suicides and what are you going to do about it) or is everyone going to be subject like fourbanks to a on going persecution by the DWP and in his case has lasted 30 years on and off
ReplyDeleteANNE BEGG MP is a member of the House of Commons Chairmen’s Panel, the Work and Pensions Select Committee,
ReplyDeleteI've just come across this and am trying to share the link with as many people as possible.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.insidehousing.co.uk/ihstory.aspx?storycode=6519010
I hope you don't mind.
The future feels very frightening. I'm not a very brave person and I find myself awake at night worrying about what is to come. I receive lowere rate care and mobility DLA so I know that will come to an end when PIP arrives to take its place. I receive Income Support on the grounds of disability or illness and have not yet been assessed for the move to ESA, but today I received forms from something called the Benefit Integrity centre telling me my receipt of benfits must be reviewed. Paranoia is part of my condition sometimes, but it doesnt mean that I have no reason to be afraid.
ReplyDeleteTuesday, 15 November 2011
ReplyDelete10 suicide victims who blamed austerity, cuts and redundancies for their decision to take their lives.
http://eoin-clarke.blogspot.com/2011/11/10-suicides-who-blamed-austerity-cuts.html#comments
There you do Anne another weekly round up
Anon 19:37. I know just how you feel and hope you have a better outcome than I had. Last week I received the result of my ATOS assessment and can no longer claim Income Support or ESA. Over the next few days I went through a range of emotions, including extreme guilt because, after all, I had passed three previous assessments! How come I'm suddenly well again and nobody told me!
ReplyDeleteI would appeal but I can't see the point or want to go through all the hassle. After all I'm only chronically depressed and suffer from severe fatigue, that must mean I'm well enough to hold down a full-time job.
Well if your disabled and cannot hold down a full time job, if your not going to appeal how are you going to live.
ReplyDeleteMy sister in law has Hodgkin's with a secondary cancer she is 5ft 11 and her weight is 6 stone on top of that she has Lupus they said she could work and passed her fit for JSA, she has taken it to appeal and the appeal panel stated this was the worse decision they have seen.
I do not know what the hell these people are doing, but it looks like they are using personal judgement, which would be illegal under law, unless they are fully trained medical experts...
Hi Robert
ReplyDeleteI have to go onto JSA or starve as you say. On JSA I will have no choice but to take full-time employment and so be it. Then comes the interesting part: when I start having sick leave because of my condition, lose my job (as has happened in the past) and then go back on benefits. That's going to save the taxpayer lots of their precious, hard-earned cash isn't it?...Whilst tax-avoiding rich parasites go on being ignored, bankers top up their already over-the-top salaries and we pump more money into more futile wars and dodgy arms deals.
And on top of it all, ATOS act illegally in many ways.
ReplyDeleteWhen you walk into an ATOS centre, there is a sign clearly stating that ATOS are not the 'Decision Makers'. This is done presumably to avoid circumstances that could bring about disagreements with clients.
I found minutes of a meeting with regard to ESA where city councils, the citizen's advice bureaux and other organisations attended, held in Edinburgh 2 years ago. Among their many concerns was this:
'The decision making is carried out by ATOS, not the decision maker. The decision maker does not see the DS1500 until after the case has been to ATOS. The process for determining claims has been taken away from the civil service decision maker and placed with the private sector company ATOS. There is evidence that if a claim comes back from ATOS with zero points then it is not even shown to a decision maker. It is hard to monitor the work of companies that have been awarded these contracts.'
So those signs are a bare faced lie and ATOS do indeed make the decisions about who gets what.
Many more ill people are going to commit suicide or die from cold and lack of care due to the truly wicked attacks on the most vulnerable.
Clarebelz
Hi Robert
ReplyDeleteI have to go onto JSA or starve as you say. On JSA I will have no choice but to take full-time employment and so be it. Then comes the interesting part: when I start having sick leave because of my condition, lose my job (as has happened in the past) and then go back on benefits. That's going to save the taxpayer lots of their precious, hard-earned cash isn't it?...Whilst tax-avoiding rich parasites go on being ignored, bankers top up their already over-the-top salaries and we pump more money into more futile wars and dodgy arms deals.
So with due respect if I was a doctor for ATOS I('d be looking at this and saying hold on your going to have to work full time, of you say you might get the sack, I cannot work or work full time or part time.
This worries me that you think your going to be able to get a job, they look at me and my wheelchair and I get rejected you state you will have to work full time.
Clarebelz
ReplyDeleteThis is a serious problem and I agree totally with you, ATOS is without doubt making the decisions and it needs to be seen going through a court of law. Sadly who has the money to do this.
ATOS are a horrendous! They made a decision to put that soemone close to me was fit to work and her in the WRAG even though she cannot walk anywhere, has problems with her toilet needs, cannot use her hands due to severe carpal tunnel and mental illness. With mine and my sisters help we appealed and the decison was overturned even before we got to the tribunal because she should have been receiving ESA support group from the very beginning. As for the ex-squaddie and his wife who committed suicide, unfortunatly this is all to common for soldiers who come out of the forces and struggle to get what they need.
ReplyDeleteI had a phone call this week to do a survey from Motability they asked me about how far I drive who drives me, do I have hand controls.
ReplyDeleteThen I had an email from a friend, who told me the government are looking at PIPs the motability section, if you can drive a car, then your not that serious disabled, what they are intending to state, a person who can drive a vehicle for ten minutes sitting at a wheel then you would be fit to sit behind a desk.
Now if this is true then sadly we may as well give up.
Notice i said if this is true
sure that's true Robert same as if you can make a cup of tea they say if you can do that then you can cook a meal. And if you go out for more then four hours at a time then your fit to be able to go to work part time
ReplyDeleteThat is the conservative /labour/logic that's why the anne begg mp the chairman of the select committee on welfare reform is having such a hard job pinning the deaths on those who have committed suicide at the governments door as she is not herself as a worker feels they could do more the disabled if pushed
The conservative/labour logic is if we push them hard enough there'll cave in and go to work or commit suicide they are at this time the only two options on offer
As i keep saying it will be the survival of the fittest in the long term and in 50 years time there'll be no sick or disabled people left any that are alive by that time will be put in asylums as like we had in the fifties when i was born
Tell you something we live in a sad world, we have been looking after a cat which was blind, the vet wanted to put him down but my wife said no we will take him, somebody shot him to night with an air rifle. Everyone knew he was blind how sad is that.
ReplyDeleteGod I will be honest I think it's time I went as well, he was a real old softy would not harm anyone he was blind for god sake.
But that is somebody who feels we are getting to much or we are all cheats.
there's a lot of sick people around Robert and the government are just as bad but you can be sure that god will punish them in his own way
ReplyDeletethey may well do their worst on us the vulnerable but god will have the last word as he always does
Nope God sadly as most people know is a Banker, if he does exist then he using us as his currency and I suspect he has accountants to ensure he loses nothing.
ReplyDeleteAs you can tell I'm not a believer in heaven and hell, hell is here now, and heaven is when your rich enough not to have to worry about tomorrow
See the letter in today's (19/11) edition of the Guardian newspaper from an ATOS representative:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/18/atos-healthcare-paralympic-games
They state that only 8% win their ESA appeals when the figure is 40% rising to 70% with legal representation.
I am disgusted with the Guardian and thought they were better than other newpapers who allow misinformation and lies to inform the population; I was obviously mistaken.
Clarebelz
We must live in hope Robert as for the guardian i dont trust any of them this is how a leader should act like him or hate him it's the truth
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdob6QRLRJU&feature=youtu.be
Clarebelz, to be fair to the Guardian they gave Lisa Coleman of Atos right to reply to a previous letter. It also allows us to hear the distorted statistics Atos are willing to put out.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that really stinks though is the disgustingly cynical way Liza Coleman throws in Atos' involvement with the Paralymics! As though this is supposed to show their 'caring' attitude instead of just another business opportunity!
Liza Coleman throws in Atos' involvement with the Paralymics! all this means is very simple if your disabled without illness you can go to work
ReplyDeleteIf the Paralymics can do it then so can you it's as simple as that and that is how the government sees it
The youngster's however in society will see the abuse of the sick and disabled in a different way just as the young German children in the war they new that something wasn't right but followed their parents who in themselves were unaware of what was going on
But now the older Germans can and do speak about the Atrocities of the war and how Hitler led them down a dark alley
We need all of us to be on our guard as David Cameron like hither could well hoodwink the press and the public and send the sick and disabled into at best in the long term concentration camps or at worst their deaths via the DWP by their ongoing stress that they continue to hand out with no redress no one to stand and fight their corner no one to lead them and guide them for a piece full future
sad and very tragic but true
the whole country needs to hang it's head in shame
Regarding the figure of 7-8% given for the number of appeals won against ESA decisions; it is derived from taking the total number of ESA claimants who have been assessed, whilst our figure of 40%(70% with representation) comes from just those who lodged an appeal. Which is the better and more accurate? Ours, because we are not making claims about how many out of the total; which is something nobody can know at this time because the figures aren't clear on it.
ReplyDeleteThe total number of ESA claimants who have been assessed includes the huge numbers who are still waiting for an appeal. Half of the entire total of ESA claimants are still in the Assessment Phase. When I wrote a blog post about it I eliminated claims less than 6 months old so that the figure left would almost entirely represent those who were assessed and made appeals and it's still a huge 120,000 claimants.
When so many in the Assessment Phase are still waiting for an appeal, it's wrong to make any claims of how many were successful out of the total. Claims of the success rate can only be based on those specific groups we have accurate data for: those who have had an appeal.
what i dont understand is why arnt all the charities getting together a lot of charitys just are not fighting hard enough there seems not enough effort into a mass bombardment from them all together on the government they seem frightened of the government somehow and are not comming across strong enough
ReplyDelete* Fourbanks
ReplyDeleteDavid Cameron is already sending disabled people to their deaths - there's plenty of anecdotal evidence.
The disabled organisations are pathetic in responding adequately to this situation - despite some apparently involved in new legislative developments - mainly because they need their funding ... you have to ask 'whose side are they on?'
I'm currently stressed out after over a year's invovlement with HMRC and DWP over my entitlement status and their totally inept ways of accounting/ communication and behaviour. I'm pretty near the edge and you know what - they don't care!!
[QUOTE]Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete* Fourbanks
David Cameron is already sending disabled people to their deaths - there's plenty of anecdotal evidence.
The disabled organisations are pathetic in responding adequately to this situation - despite some apparently involved in new legislative developments - mainly because they need their funding ... you have to ask 'whose side are they on?'
I'm currently stressed out after over a year's invovlement with HMRC and DWP over my entitlement status and their totally inept ways of accounting/ communication and behaviour. I'm pretty near the edge and you know what - they don't care!![/QUOTE]
That's very true but like in this latest breast implant scandal it only takes one person like the lady from Liverpool to highlight what is wrong on the bbc news and things can change
The DWP know that they are very wrong and the same goes for ATOS and at some point in the future they and the prime minister will be brought to justice in the courts for the way that they have abused the human rights of the sick and disabled
It can take many years to get justice just like in the middle east but at some point it will happen here after an outrage and some very deep questioning that will follow but you can be assured that it will happen hopefully sooner rather then later
This is why i am a avid supporter of the death penalty as it keeps the likes of David Cameron and lord fraud in check as it makes their decision making balanced and fair and legal at all times
ReplyDeleteTake the death penalty away and you end up like we are today with complete disregard for the taking of other peoples lives be it by a knife or putting mental DWP/ATOS pressure on someone knowing full well that they may contemplate committing suicide with many doing so
as a follow up to my post above (8.1.12)
ReplyDeleteon saturday I received a bill from my local council for housing benefit arrears over £2000. What this is about I have yet to clarify but they suspended my HB after they stopped Income Support in May - they are reclaiming this despite me reapplying for HB in new circumstances. Why I've been leeft in this position I don't know.
I have bipolar disorder and this is all making me extremely stressed and agitated, suicidal in fact. I have done nothing but the authorities seems intent on making my life miserable. I have no idea how I can repay money that in effect was their mistake anyway.
The shit continues ......
I've just come across this and am trying to share the link with as many people as possible.
ReplyDelete