Not Scroungers Any More

What a week! What could I possibly write in a blog post? I have 500 stories to tell you at some point and I doubt you would believe half of them. My favourite quote from the week was from Sonia Poulton in the Mail who claims we had 3 MILLION tweets for the Spartacus Report in the first DAY!!

Today, I finally got the chance to sit down and catch up. I discovered we have a @SpartacusTweets account I didn't even know about. And a Facebook page. And a forum. I found "battalions" of spartaci all over the web planning their own campaigns and creating brilliant, innovative ways to be heard. I read beautiful blogs about our campaign written by people I didn't even know. I saw support from celebrities, politicians, journalists, unions, charities, DPOs and disabled people everywhere I looked. I found coverage and supporters in America, Canada, Finland, France and New Zealand.

But do you know what I didn't find? In a week where we finally got coverage in The Daily Mail, the Telegraph and Newsnight?

I didn't find a scrounger.

That was the great triumph of this week. Finally, after all the months and months of patient reminders, people thought about disability. They questioned the wisdom of sending terminally ill people to the jobcentre. They rejected the idea that illness or disability magically disappear in a year. They were amazed to find cancer patients were expected to look for work on chemo and that disabled children were to become chattels dependent on goodwill, no longer entitled to independent means.

We always knew they would. We always knew that if anyone cared to tell them, the public would be horrified.

When the DWP came out fighting with a raft of scrounger stories, everyone just ignored them and carried on talking about disability.

Lord Freud has had months to present evidence to the Lords. He has teams to brief them and money to pay for research and reports. He had goodwill on his side - the Lords don't seek to destroy bills, far from it. He had the might of the DWP and the ONS and the OBR to write his "evidence"

We had : A few thousand determined sick and disabled people, 4k, the internet and Hansard.

In the Lords, crossbenchers are not political. Unlike the Commons, there is a rump of independent thought. It happens that they are packed with disability experts too. They heard Lord Freud's evidence, and we made sure they heard ours.

Just one crossbencher voted with the government over time-limiting disability and sending cancer patients out to work. Just one.

All of the others - all of them - saw that we needed them.

We had no idea they had heard us and their overwhelming endorsement of our arguments was like a burst of hope. They can never know how grateful we are.

They reminded the country that we are disabled. Or unwell. Or both. They reminded us that any one of us could need help one day.

And once and for all they blew a lie-sized hole in the Government's scrounger rhetoric.

Guardian looking for DLA Case Studies

The Guardian want to hear about how your DLA helps you. Full details are here. Please share this everywhere and lets get them a good selection of stories to choose from.


Cross posted from http://samedifference1.com/2012/01/13/the-guardian-are-looking-for-your-dla-stories/

OUR RESPONSE TO GOVERNMENT TODAY

Yesterday, Lords voted to overturn the one-year time limit to contributory Employment and Support Allowance proposed by the government. They were defeated by a staggering  224 votes to 186. We had lobbied on this issue more than any other. Yesterday, we posted a full briefing on why. You can read it here :

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/2012/01/impact-of-time-limiting-esa.html

When we started campaigning, we had four very, very clear objectives. There are other things that urgently need to be changed in the Lords, and we thank them for their forensic attention to detail that means these other issues are not being ignored.

Today, the DWP and the very highest ministers in government will be everywhere trying to mitigate the damage of yesterday's defeat. You will hear their misrepresentation of us on every TV show, in every paper. You will cringe at every inaccuracy, burn at every line of spin. 


Mostly, I know that you will burn at the injustice of not being heard. You will wonder - as we have always wondered - why the mainstream media persist in ignoring truth and reason and evidence. Journalists will not be queueing to ask how the defeat came about, to ask the campaigners who almost certainly made it happen.


You might burn too, when you hear Labour claim this as their victory. 


None of that matters. The public were never ours to lose. We have come this far without them, by making reasonable, calm, evidence based arguments to the people who really matter, the people with all the power. We have come to this point by engaging with politicians of all colours, by owning social media and using it to make our own news.

Today, you have truth and justice on your side. The Government do not. No Government is defeated on the scale we saw last night, with the very strong majorities we saw, by accident. It was the undeniable injustice of the Government's plans that convinced the Lords. 

Do what we do best and make our case honestly. Re-post articles, write short statements, blog, contact friendly journalists and see if they will drop a little of the DWP spin angles. Contact supporters and let them know we won and what it means. Own the internet. It's all we have.

Perhaps a short note to some of the peers you lobbied thanking them? We have been insistent and a thank you is always nice.

Trust in our case, trust in the evidence we have presented, but most of all trust yourselves. Governments are not defeated often in the way ours was yesterday and you did it. Without the TV news, without much of the printed news, without an opposition, whatever Labour MPs claim today. The Labour Lords worked tirelessly for us however and they deserve a huge thank you.

The following briefing is one we posted months ago, that outlines our key concerns with the welfare reform bill and the measures affecting sick and disabled people today. Feel free to use it, share it in any way you like.

The Government - and media - might like to notice that we have already won the first one, The Spartacus Report directly addresses the 2nd one, and last night's vote casts huge doubt on the third.

We are not an aimless campaign group with no real goals, we are not unreasonable or aggressive.

We are the sick and disabled of the UK. We are Spartacus.


Briefing of our 4 main objectives :

Whilst some of the bill might be helpful, I want to be very clear today about which parts sick and disabled campaigners feel are unacceptable :

1) Removing Disability Living Allowance mobility payments from adults in residential care.
An adult who needs to live in residential care will have extensive needs and are often amongst the most severely disabled. The mobility component of DLA afforded them their only freedom, allowing them to choose to fund a power wheelchair otherwise unavailable on the NHS, or to pay for taxis or transport to get out now and then. Taking this away would leave the most vulnerable disabled people effectively housebound. There is no support for this change anywhere - charities, independent benefit reports and even the government's own advisers have called for this to be removed from the bill

2) Scrapping DLA entirely and replacing it with Personal Independent Payments (PIPs).
DLA is a very effective benefit with fraud rates of less than 1% (DWP own figures) It is already incredibly hard to claim and the qualification criteria are very narrow. The government have announced that DLA claimants will also soon face assessment and that the overall number of claimants will be reduced by at least 20%. The government's own advisory committee concluded that they could find no justification for this reform and have asked for clarification from the government.
If a benefit is already very efficient, yet a government announce a 20% cull before a single assessment has even taken place, we conclude it can only be a cost cutting measure that will ignore genuine need.

3) Time limiting contributory Employment Support Allowance (cESA, previously Incapacity Benefit) to 1 Year
Many people who need to claim ESA have "long term variable" or chronic illnesses such as MS, Parkinson's, Bowel Disease, Leukaemia or severe Mental Illness. These conditions often do not go away after a year and sadly, often get worse over time. A high percentage of those with these conditions are being found "capable of limited work" under ESA, and not qualifying for unconditional support (known as the Support group who are not affected by the time limit)  but after 1 year, if they have a working partner, they will receive no ESA whatsoever. All of their benefit will simply be stopped, a loss of just under £5000 a year.

4) ATOS assessments are "unfit for purpose" and a better way of assessing need must be implemented. ATOS are the private company charged with assessing over 1.5 million sick and disabled people during this parliament.
-The assessments are not necessarily carried out by a doctor.
-40% of rejected claims are going to appeal with up to 70% of those decisions being overturned.
-Assessments are humiliating and degrading causing great anxiety to those genuinely in need.
-Just 7% of claimants are being found unfit to work.
-Testimony from Consultants and GPs is often ignored entirely.
-People are dying before lengthy appeals can be heard.
-Even the professor who designed these assessments calls them a "complete mess"
-The descriptors exclude many serious, long term conditions or disabilities. This means that many serious conditions are simply unlikely to qualify.

There are other problems with the bill - capping housing benefit; re-classifying "mobility" so that those who use their wheelchairs too efficiently can be classed as "fully mobile"; removing an age related payment from ESA; scrapping the Independent Living Fund; cutting community care provision; cutting the Access to Work programme and many more - all of which will hurt sick and disabled people disproportionately, but the four points above MUST be addressed before the Welfare Reform Bill is passed.
They are causing or will cause real hardship.
They will not achieve savings as pressures will only be shifted to the NHS or social care provision.
They will increase homelessness, mental illness and poverty amongst this most vulnerable group of all
They will leave many in genuine need without support
They reduce the independence, standard of life and dignity of those we have a basic duty to protect.

Remember to tweet using #spartacusreport and when sharing links or emailing. Thanks, Sue My Facebook page is currently blocked, but you will find all the same articles at http://benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/ Please use this slink to post to Facebook

Please also sign Pat's Petition http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20968 calling for a pause to the reforms until they are safe.

From-Bed-Activism

Can't type much, but something extraordinary happened just now on twitter.

Someone pointed out how they helped from their beds (we decided beds on sofas count) and suddenly, everyone is saying that even though they were bedridden at times, they still did what they could to help the #spartacusreport

Will you leave a comment below if you did this? Two of our #spartacusreport helpers are in hospital seriously ill, I escaped by a whisker and Kaliya might yet follow them. One of our most brilliant supporters has not answered us for three days. We're very worried.

I think perhaps we ought to start recording what this has cost people.

THE IMPACT OF TIME-LIMITING ESA

Today, peers will vote on whether or not to time limit Employment and Support Allowance. This is a short, bullet pointed briefing. 

Whatever else you do in you careers, the sick and disabled people of Britain beg you not to do this. 

-700,000 people with serious illnesses and impairments will be affected by this policy, many losing any right to an independent income. http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/esa-time-limit-wr2011-ia.pdf

-The means test is set at just £7,500 per year, meaning that a partner must support an unwell or disabled loved one if they earn more than this.

-Families already overwhelmingly living in poverty will lose £4661 per year. This is three times as much as higher rate taxpayers will lose in child benefit.

-This policy only affects working families and savers as it only applies to those who have contributed NI or have savings over £6000.

-It is a disincentive to work  and will only encourage families to break down http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/esa-time-limit-wr2011-ia.pdf

-It overwhelmingly affects the poorest most. The % impact falls from the highest in the 1st decile of earnings to the lowest in the 10th.

-It estimates that 60% will simply switch to income based ESA and not be affected.   Those individuals with low or no other income may apply for income-related ESA. However, it is expected that only 60 per cent of people losing their contributory ESA will be compensated by income-related ESA, even partially.

- The report concludes that 90% of those placed into the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) will be affected.

-ALL groups will lose income on average through this measure.

-It is based on an assumption that 50% of claims will be appealed!!! How are they able to go forward with a system this inaccurate?

-The government claims that 700,000 will be affected by the Time Limit - a figure previously hotly debated, ranging from 400,000 to 1 million. It is expected to cut benefits for those not fully fit for work by 1.2 billion per year.

- The government acknowledges, that this is a disincentive to work and may push couples into divorce or into giving up on work altogether. However, they admit that they have no idea how significant this will be.

-Even though they are still ill, those who do not qualify for income-related ESA will have to move onto the Work Programme.

-Almost half the contributory only ESA customers in the WRAG are aged 50 to 64, so the policy will impact on more people in this age group.  As a result the average loss in household net income for those aged 50 or over is slightly higher than for other age groups - precisely the group that will find it difficult to get back into work due to their age.  It is likely that a higher proportion of older recipients will not be eligible for income-related ESA and will see a loss in income.

 -Sick and disabled people with limited capability for work are conflated with jobseekers as ministers claim ESA must be brought into line with JSA.

-The government admit that 94% of those affected will not have found work by the end of the year. They also insist that it is irrelevant whether or not they have recovered. http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/esa-time-limit-wr2011-ia.pdf

-The government admit that there is only a possible indirect effect of increasing movement back into work for those affected, but state however, this effect is uncertain and has not been quantified.

-The only justification ministers have given for this policy is that "We can't afford it".

-People with serious, lifelong, and degenerative conditions will all be affected by this. People with MS, Cancer, Parkinsons, Bowel Disease, Kidney Failure, Heart Disease, Lung Disease, Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar and many, many more conditions will lose benefits, left in limbo until they are judged unable to do any kind of work at all. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmworpen/1015/1015vw44.htm

-7,000 cancer patients will be affected by the one year time limit.

-However, people with heart disease, kidney failure, Parkinson’s, MS, Bowel disease, Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar, Cerebral Palsy, motor neurone disease and any other condition you could imagine may also lose all of their support after the year is up.

-While assessments are so flawed, a time limit will only compound an already desperate situation. 40% of rejected claims go to appeal and of those, up to 70% win with representation.

-The assessment system is so backlogged, that targets are already being missed, with many fewer people being assessed every week than intended. With the tribunal system also under so much strain due to the vast number of appeals and the work programmes warning that over 90% may miss targets for placing the sick and disabled in work, this is a system in crisis. A one year time limit may well be the final straw.

-Time Limiting will be retrospective. Those who have already been on contributory ESA for over a year, will find that their support stops in April.

-Despite this policy still being debated in the House of Lords. Ministers warned those who may be affected back in September by letter at a cost of £2.7 million.

-Possibly the most astonishing part is the claim that the Social Impacts did not need to be investigated, neither under the categories of Health and Well-being, Human Rights or the Justice System.

-The government admit that they did not consult with any external stakeholders prior to the Chancellor’s announcement in the House of Commons on 20 October 2010. They say it is only now that they have started to engage with both internal and external stakeholders.  (Oct. 2011)

-Most people in receipt of contributory ESA for more than a year are likely to be covered by the Equality 2010 disability definition and so these reforms have considerable significance for disabled people - those who are unable to work due to their health condition or disability.

Chris Grayling has said that assessments used to determine whether or not someone is "fit for work" or not are "Not money driven".  However, when asked if after one year these vulnerable sick or disabled people would have found work or even be fit for work he replied it…"is not about recovery times. It is not about a decision that 12 months is an appropriate time for recovery. These are people who have other means of financial support, so what we have sought to do in difficult times financially, and by taking tough decisions,...is hold the line on this difficult issue and do not accept the right hon. Gentleman’s amendments. We do not believe that financially we can do so.

Full transcript here : http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmpublic/welfare/110503/am/110503s01.htm

IT IS ALL TOO EASY TO GET IMMERSED IN THE STATISTICS WITHOUT REALLY REALISING THE HUMAN COST OF THESE PROPOSALS. 

HERE IS A REAL LIFE EXAMPLE OF THE IMPACT.

I worked for nine years. I have a degree and nearly killed myself trying to forge a career in the face of terrible illness. In the end I had no choice. Working was killing me. Friends and family pleaded, begged even, but it took me a long time to accept that I could no longer work. Giving up on my hopes and dreams was the single hardest thing I ever had to come to terms with.

We had our own house for years - a beautiful beamed fisherman's cottage by the sea - but we had to sell it before it was repossessed, as our income fell from £46,000 a year to 21k a year. The equity we did manage to save is eaten away a little every month as we have to make up the shortfall in our income. But we are trapped. I can't work. More accurately, no-one will employ me.

My husband Dave is my carer and has to support us financially whilst coping with the trauma my illness brings into our lives and the lives of our children. Partners like Dave, who are carers too, often need to take lower paying jobs to look after us, jobs where they can work 9 to 5 and get time off at very short notice. Their careers suffer too.

I've lost count of the times people have urged him to give up work too, begged him to stop stretching himself so thin. Dave has had two breakdowns trying to hold our family together, but for him, working is the most important thing he can do for us. It gives him pride and it stops us all from feeling like total and utter failures.

For my family (and DWP estimates show that another 700,000 families like mine will be affected) the impact of losing that £388.45 a month will be devastating. We already live below the official poverty line and can't pay our bills.

Soon we will have no savings left and taking away £4,661 a year from us will mean we lose everything. As I mentioned, it is three times more than higher rate tax payers will lose in child benefit yet this is a cut that will affect some of the poorest households in Britain.

My family would end up costing the state 5 times more in total than we do now (around 26,000 a year) just because it will force us to give up on the idea of work. We never wanted it to be that way. We wanted to remain a working family. We wanted to pay our way, but the assessments failed us and successive "policies" failed us and now the cuts will fail us. This one policy alone - time limiting ESA for working couples or families  -will fail us so spectacularly that it will bankrupt us. We will become entirely dependent on the state for everything.

That's why our partners often keep working, despite it being 100 times harder than giving up. We don't want to become 100% dependent on the state.

Remember, this cut ONLY affects WORKING couples or families who have had the misfortune of someone becoming too ill to work.  It is a disincentive to work that goes against everything the coalition says they want to achieve.

I urge you all to reconsider time limiting ESA. 


Please send this briefing to Crossbench and Liberal Democrat Peers this morning. Here is an interactive map with contact details http://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=204639635371731701782.0004ada20165bf2c184ef&msa=0&ll=54.610255,-2.680664&spn=9.999969,28.54248

SPARTACUS REPORT - EASY READ VERSION

The wonderful people at United Response have pushed themselves flat out over Xmas to present our report - Responsible Reform - to parliament.

Here is the easy-read version.  : http://www.unitedresponse.org.uk/2012/01/the-spartacus-report-the-easy-read-version/

SPARTACUS DAY 2 - URGENT UPDATE

Please watch this video, thank you.

 Link to full report, Responsible Reform    http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/16008 

Share using #spartacusreport

http://twibbon.com/join/spartacusreport Please wear the Spartacus twibbon