CRAPICO4S BE WARNED

So, on Thursday 27th March, the DWP Press Office announced that Atos were no more. 

DWP Press Office ‏@dwppressoffice  Mar 27

Today we are announcing we are seeking a new provider to replace Atos for the Work Capability Assessment

Let's be very clear : This is cause for celebration. It's reputation in absolute tatters, Atos was left with no choice but to slink off, tail between its legs to lick its wounds. They have administered a failing test badly and hundreds of thousands have suffered their incompetence.

But for nearly 3 years now we've been warning that this was the only possible outcome. Atos would always fall because the work capability assessments themselves are so badly designed. They were contracted to fall. They were always the scapegoat. It's astonishing really that none of their board could see it, and as late as last year were bidding for yet more disability assessment contracts for the new PIP (personal independence payments, the replacement for DLA or disability living allowance). How do governments introduce appalling schemes designed to hurt and harm? Make sure there is a middle man, then when the inevitable collapse comes, you can deny all responsibility. 

But DWP ARE responsible and we must not let anyone forget it for a second. This is a very dangerous time for our campaigns. It is entirely possible that the DWP will simply replace Atos with Capita or G4S or Serco, the test will still be fundamentally flawed and nothing will change. We can't let that happen. It would be unconscionable for the DWP to re-tender the WCA contract without first conducting root and branch reform of the processes that guide it.

Do the DWP show any signs of this? Their next tweet said 

DWP Press Office ‏@dwppressoffice  Mar 27

Aim is to drive up the number of WCA assessments and cut waiting times #esa

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So not to improve accuracy? Not to stop ludicrous decisions leading to suffering and even suicides? Not to right a wrong but to force through even more of the same! 

Later in the day, they released an official statement

DWP Press Office ‏@dwppressoffice  Mar 27

Here's today's written ministerial statement on the Work Capability Assessment http://ow.ly/v2Lnc 

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Did you spot the glaring omission? 

WHAT HAPPENS NOW MR PENNING??????

You've just released an official statement confirming that an existing supplier has walked away from an enormous and sensitive contract. Millions of sick and disabled people are already IN the system, waiting for assessments, appealing decisions or being reassessed.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM MR PENNING?????

Will assessments continue? How? Who will do them? When? People are already waiting up to a year for decisions, what happens to them??

ISN'T IT SHOCKING THAT A GOVERNMENT MINISTER SHOULD ANNOUNCE THE TERMINATION OF A CONTRACT IN THIS WAY WITHOUT REASSURING CLAIMANTS THAT ALL WILL BE WELL MR PENNING?????

This is continents away from a joke now. 

We warned PIP had to be paused. 

We were ignored

In the end, they had no choice but to pause it

We warned the bedroom tax would cost more than it saved leading to soaring housing benefit

We were ignored. 

Now we know we were right

We warned that the Work Programme simply couldn't cope with the complexities of sick and disabled people

We were ignored

Less than 1% have sustained work for more than 6 months

We warned that Atos simply couldn't manage the volume of ESA assessments

We were ignored

Now, reassessments have been paused and decisions are taking up to  year 

We warned that Atos were simply the middle man

We were ignored

Now they've gone, seemingly leaving nothing in their place. 

WHEN WILL THIS GOVERNMENT START TO LISTEN? 

HAD THEY LISTENED FROM THE START, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED

Finally, what if no-one wants the job??? I find it almost impossible to believe that Serco or Capita or G4S would take this on. They've all seen the reputation of Atos utterly decimated by the ESA contract. Possibly irredeemably. Why on EARTH would they fill the gap? They must know that unless the tests changed significantly campaigners will fight them just as determinedly - possibly more so for having absolutely no excuse - I mean, one might argue Atos didn't know how bad things would get, how badly the tests would fail. Crapico4S know. 

COULD IT BE THAT ESA IS DEAD BY DEFAULT???

Beyond Barriers

This is quite exciting.

So many of you are wonderful writers - my inbox is testimony to that every day - and I think it is largely the raw truth and passion of sick and disabled blogging that has provided our greatest breakthroughs.

Today, I want to ask any one of you to write for a special project. And for once, we can celebrate the beautiful and the wonderful and the magical.

Those of you who've followed my blog for any time, will know that I had many struggles with my own social security applications. I was refused DLA totally and went to the brink of appeal (and bankruptcy) over 18 months before they phoned and apologised just two weeks before my tribunal saying they had "made a dreadful mistake" that they "hadn't read my file properly, and crohn's isn't always so bad" - yes really.

It took me over 3 years and 13 assessments to finally get any care support in place at all to ease the tremendous and ever increasing burdens on my family.

But in the end, I was privileged to see what happens when the system is supporting you in the way that it should. The way it was designed to do. I won't go into detail here, I'll write my own post for the project, but if any of you have stories of how the support you do get has changed your life, I ask you to take a while to paint that picture for Beyond Barriers.

Did you get a motability car that changed your life? Perhaps, like me, you finally got some home care that revolutionised what you could achieve. Some might use their disability allowance to get to college or volunteer with others experiencing similar impairments.

It's been a long time since we told our stories. Since we inspired and explained and connected with people who have no idea what it's like to live with Lupus or kidney failure or cystic fibrosis o any of the thousands of serious conditions that mean you need a little help to achieve all that you can.

Beyond Barriers should show how a system that works as it should can be so much more valuable than the sum of its parts.

But if we want people to really read them, to be touched by them, to think about experiences they can only imagine, they must be short. That one thing that meant the most to you. A lifetime of insight in just 2 or 300 words. Some must inevitably be longer, but the most successful will be the most innovative. The beautiful poem or the raw, honest anecdote. They will explain something remarkable or convey a complicated emotion in a brilliant analogy. 

Anyone who wants to take part can send me their Beyond Barriers story of how adequate support or care or just a little unexpected understanding has changed their lives in beautiful ways. In a few weeks, I will set a day where we can all tweet them under the #BeyondBarriers tag and share them on Facebook and elsewhere, but for now, if you could just email them to suey2y@gmail.com, I can start collecting them together. Please don't use the hashtag yet as if we want it to trend, it's better all in a splash on one day. 

Finally, please, don't be shy. So many of us think we have nothing of any value to say, or we can't say it in fancy words. But fancy words are just sticking plasters for reality. Just write your truth and it will be better than good enough. 

Again, please email submissions to suey2y@gmail.com with the title "Beyond Barriers".

Magic Mondays

As you know, Magic Mondays is a way of trying to convince others - people who may not be familiar with the many social security myths - that things are not as they seem. If we could all just persuade one person a week, we would have made a very significant impact by the 2015 election.

Last week, I said I would try to convince some Conservatives on a prominent blog. After 2 hours I had 42 negative ticks!!

BUT. By this morning, I have two open minded right wingers who have promised to read the links I posted and even a suggestion that the blog might be interested in hearing a little more for their manifesto suggestions. We found common ground and put aside our differences, focussing on the things we agreed over.

We CAN do it. It takes patience, perseverance and a little knowledge. We all have that in spades. An acceptance that others aren't evil, they just think differently to us. People are people and they have Mums and Dad's and children, just the same.

Please, do what you can, when you can. Email a friend you haven't heard from for a while and start a conversation. Have a chat with your GP at your next appointment. Tell the baker or the milkman - you just never know when it might make a difference.

Benefit Caps

Before I type another word, I'd like to make it clear that I think the idea of an overall benefit cap is ridiculous.

When times are hard, say during recessions, you actually want to spend MORE on social security. It boosts the economy and is the best way of making sure money is spent locally and directly. When times are better and jobs are plentiful you can reform and cut back.

So the very idea of an overall benefit cap is utterly counter-Keynesian and, well totally pointless really.

I'd also like to make it clear that I'm dripping with contempt that Labour are going to support an overall benefit cap, not because they believe it's a good idea or because it fits in any way with a Labour concept of how to run economies. Let's be very clear : The ONLY reason Labour are going to whip their MPs to support it is because they think it would be electoral suicide NOT to. I detest political decisions that abandon all conscience, sense and principle, heaving a few million people onto the scrapheap of life, just to placate the Daily Mail

However, I do think it's important to allay a few fears over what is actually proposed. There are two benefit cap policies and I believe they are merging into one in the justifiable outrage. This might be frightening people unnecessarily, so I'll try to clear it up here. 

The benefit cap that will be approved on Tuesday is an overall benefit cap.  It WILL include DLA (disability benefit) and ESA (sickness benefit) but WON'T include JSA (jobseekers allowance). Osborne announced that it would be set at £118 billion next year. It is a common myth that sickness benefits increase during recessions. They don't and nor do disability benefits. So as long as the overall cap is realistic, then including them is not as horrific as it might sound. Jobseekers DOES increase during recessions (obviously) so excluding it makes sense. (Excluding pensions has no logic and is simply shameless vote maintenance by the Tories)

The second policy refers to a household benefit cap. The cap will be 26k which the coalition argue is equivalent to the average household income. Of course it isn't, because families brining in 26k are likely to get a whole host of tax credits, child benefit and housing benefit too, but let's not spoil a good bit of spin eh? This is also an utterly ludicrous idea, taking no account of regional variations or individual circumstances. But DLA and Support Group ESA ARE excluded from this. This also makes sense as those totally reliant on the state for all support are likely to exceed a 26k cap in almost all cases.

So to sum up, the policies are ridiculous and Labour supporting them is shameless and weak, but I don't think sick and disabled people will be unduly hurt by them.

There is a caveat of course : Many people living with very significant impairments DON'T qualify for  DLA and DON'T get assessed as needing to be in the ESA Support Group. As the assessments get ever more stringent, this gets more and more common. These people WILL be affected by both policies as exemptions won't apply to them. But it's OK. Both Labour and the Conservatives seem happy to pretend they don't exist.

UPDATE : This rather good post looks into my claim that 26k is not the average income further, making the point, that this is really ll about punishing children for the decisions of their parents. 

http://emsyblog.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/the-tories-making-children-pay/ …

Also, James Bolton (@JamesABolton on twitter) makes the point that with 2% leeway built in either way, and no penalties should governments exceed the cap, the whole policy is just designed to sound tough on "scroungers" whilst in effect, having no teeth at all. If the cap is exceeded and people still have valid claims, they must be paid by law. 

Ask not what the UN can do for you, but what you can do for the UN

When we first heard that the UN would be reporting on the progress the UK has made at implementing the UN convention on the rights of people with disabilities, your response was overwhelming.

In a way I've rarely seen before, people saw UN involvement as a once in a lifetime opportunity. More, they saw it as a lifeboat, not waving but drowning, hoping the wider world will see.

At a time when sick and disabled people feel more attacked and less heard than they have for generations, we all seemed to cling to this opportunity. I think it had become clear that our own UK government would compromise on nothing. They seem the least able to see or hear that we exist at all.

I asked people to email me with their stories to submit as case studies and my inbox exploded with fear and misery. I only asked very specifically for stories from those affected by the 1 year time limit of ESA, as this was the area I was going to focus on. Yet I got so many replies, it took me three weeks to reply to each one individually.

The pain in those messages was palpable, urgent, frightened. Just reading their suffering drained me as story after story flooded in. I practically got Stendhal syndrome from all the gasps of shock. Weeks later I still felt very down and defeated.

A thousand inbox whispers became a mighty roar. Together they painted a picture of the UK in 2014 that is beyond the comprehension of most.

The day I posted the call for evidence, a friend from one of the major charities DMd me, suggesting it might be unfair to big the news up too much as the UN couldn't actually change anything. They have no jurisdiction under UK law and she worried it might be cruel to give false hope where none exists.

Unless you're a campaigner, her lovely advice and care for people might seem logical. Why put so much energy into something that can't actually make our lives immediately better?

But I've learnt the power of hope. From the day I launched this blog, we've all had the most impact when we shout together. However, sick and disabled people have shouted and shouted, endlessly and urgently, yet no matter how we cry out, no-one could hear us. As we sank out of view, few even knew to wonder where we'd gone.

I think that even the most pragmatic of us had all learnt very clearly by then that this government were not willing to compromise or listen in any way at all.

Like any minority, if all you have is the hope that, one day, things might get better and this whole sorry mess will end, just being heard at all is incredibly cathartic.

Over and over, people begged me to tell their stories, begged me to amplify their individual voices into something that could be heard. I think this UN report might be the most important thing we've done so far. The number of people who asked me to keep their stories anonymous told me all I needed to know about the climate of fear sick and disabled people are currently living under.

The UN have been very specific about what they need :

The "shadow" report needs to be succinct. They only want 30-40 pages, which might sound like a lot, but in report terms it's very tight indeed They need people to produce a 30-40 page report that is well referenced and any statement that makes any kind of claim has to be backed up with evidence.

They want one united response that disabled people in the UK can support and get behind. 
Several groups have started their own reports, but it might be that no one report can say everything. Clearly, groups could still submit their own work independently, but it's vital that we also produce one overall submission as an official UK shadow report that we can all rally behind and support

All claims must be supported with evidence. The examiner has only got 10 days later this year to finalise his report. This means that the more groundwork we can do for him and the more evidence we provide in advance, the easier his job will be and the more impact his report can have.

Of course the overwhelming problem is what to leave out, not what to include. With so little space and 50 articles to the convention, it's imperative to make sure that as many issues as possible are included, hence prioritising a few of the most urgent ones. Agreeing what those issues will be is vital.

Often a collective endeavour is more valuable than the sum of its parts. Very occasionally, an opportunity comes along that is so important, so urgent, that we owe it to ourselves to come together and present the strongest presence we can. Sick and disabled people have an unprecedented record over many decades of being able to do just that at the really crucial times. Unlike other campaigners, we never quite allow our coalitions to fall apart when co-operation is vital.

I'm really excited about seeing the finished report that's produced in the end. I know all of you will be too. I know how desperately you want every last word to be used carefully, that not a single one is wasted. We have a duty to do our best for all disabled people in the UK, for everyone's stories to be heard.

Goodbye and Thank You Tony Benn

I know I'm a little late with this, but In the same 12 months as I lost my Dad, I can't let Tony Benn pass without saying goodbye.

Both men were very similar. In the end, they even looked alike. Benn lived to 89, my Dad to 91 and both were born in London within just 3 years of one another. Both joined the RAF and fought in the second world war and both were lifelong socialists who never knowingly compromised themselves. Ever.

But there the similarities end. Benn was born the son of a Lord and politician, my Dad the son of an Irish drunk. Benn to the aristocracy and stately homes, my Dad to the tenements of Battersea and hunger. Whilst Anthony Wedgewood Benn was sent off to the prestigious Westminster school, my Dad grew up in Borstals.

My Dad lied about his age to join the RAF, just to get way from hunger and crime. Benn entered officer class and flew the very planes my father kept in the air.

How very strange to think of their lives lived in parallel, never quite colliding. Or did they? In a bizarre twist, my Dad's talent was somehow allowed to override his class and he played cricket at Lords for Surrey Colts. The borstal boy sat in curiosity as great Lords lectured him on Britishness and fair play. Concepts as alien to the little street boy who lived by his wits as stability and wealth. He often quoted the head of the MCC who warned them severely, "May I never see the day, dear boys, when cricket becomes a sport for professionals". The tough little boy that nobody loved found the whole experience strange and remarkable, like something unreal.

Meanwhile, Benn, just a few miles away, found himself at the very heart of that elite, alien world and came to reject it. How did those two men live lives so different, yet so alike? One so deprived, the other infinitely privileged who chose the same paths and ended up at the same destination?

Having lived my life with one and admired the other since I could think, I think the answer is an unshakeable confidence.

My Dad had to create his. He had absolutely no-one to shape him, so was able to shape himself. Once he decided who he was, he never ever wavered. He'd seen injustice we can only imagine. But much more remarkably, Benn had to have a mind capable of merely conceptualizing the experiences my Dad had actually lived. He could only imagine the deprivations and hardships, but gave his life to easing them nonetheless.

It was the war that sent away a generation of rich men and poor men and sent them back just men. Men that bled, men who shattered into a thousand pieces under fire, men who loved and felt fear and wanted better.

When they came back from that massacre of potential they'd learnt a great truth that progressed mankind further than at any time in history. They had learnt that when they all pulled together, just sisters and children and fathers and sons; when everyone had enough to eat and everyone had work in a common shared purpose, we were happier and healthier than we'd ever been.

We learnt that if we could spend money killing, we could spend money building hospitals and schools and houses.

The war that ripped families apart, gave birth to the UN and a promise never to repeat the brutality of the past. It gave birth to the healthiest, wealthiest, best educated generation of Britains of all time. The "baby-boomers" of today know that they saw the best years. It made us all socialists, Lord and pauper alike. For a while at least. And our greatest triumphs, our proudest moments came from the debris of that failure.

My Dad died in early May,  and at the end of June I found myself speaking on a stage at Glastonbury, invited by the equally unshakable Bill Bragg. I spoke on panels for the first two days and on the third, Tony Benn himself was a guest. I watched him from backstage, transfixed. That familiar pipe in hand, rousing the crowd to hope and believe in ways they'd only heard their parents speak about. He was old, gaunt like my dad had been. He thought through long pauses before he spoke, just as my Dad had done.

After the session, I went to the green room to get a cup of tea. Tony Benn was sitting at a table in the pretty marquee, pipe in hand. As I went to the tea urn, I recognized the girl next to me. By huge coincidence, she had stood as candidate in my neighbouring true-blue stronghold of East Worthing! It was Emily Benn, Tony's granddaughter and carer.

We did the squealy "what a coincidence" thing girls do. I gushed a bit about her awesome granddad and she invited me to come and meet him!!! You know those first moments, where as soon as a chain of events begins, you just know something magical is going to happen? You do that quick "snapshot" in your head. "Remember this, you're Billy Bragg's guest at Glastonbury, which is mind-glowingly awesome enough and now, you're walking towards TONY BENN!!!!" *breathe* *breathe* *don't forget to breathe*.

And suddenly, there he was, sitting right next to me. Anthony Wedgewood Benn! And the pipe. And he was delighted to meet ME! Emily told him all about my campaigning for sick and disabled people and how we'd taken on the DWP.

The man opposite me was very old. He was measured. He looked away at a better place just past your shoulder. Just like my Dad had at the end.

The magic held us fixed and Emily said she had to make a call and she'd leave us alone for ten minutes!!! Somehow, the rest of the marquee stayed empty. No-one interrupted to shake his hand, no-one came in. It was just me and Tony Benn and the pipe in a marquee at Glastonbury with mugs of tea. And HE wanted to know more about MY campaigning!

Still we sat there suspended, uninterrupted. He asked about my disability and I told him I had crohn''s disease. He thought for a moment and recalled someone he knew with the disease. He sympathised.

I told him about Spartacus and the campaign and the Spartacus Report and how we'd all done it together. I knew it would make him happy and that made me happy. He didn't say much for a while. I didn't know whether to babble on nervously or just sit quietly a bit. With Dad so recently gone, I'd become used to these conversations, I was still comfortable in them, accustomed to the pauses.

So I waited. After a moment he looked at me and said in that unmistakeable mumbling drawl "Yes, these assessment changes must be very difficult for conditions like yours, never the same from one day to the next." For a second, that flash of brilliance pulled me up at is it had pulled up others all his life and I saw the brilliance, the razor-trap mind that immediately went to the very heart of the issue, the heart of why I fight.

I told him how much I admired him and that he had always been my Mum's very favorite public figure. I told him how much he reminded me of my Dad. I told him I'd never forget sitting in a tent at Glastonbury with him for a few quiet moments. He was tired, watching that place just past my shoulder again, and though I had a thousand things I'd have loved to say and ask, I just sat. After a while, I asked him if he needed anything, could I get him more tea? He smiled, but seemed almost too tired to answer. Then Emily was back and I said goodbye.

The bubble burst and Dave was there and that legendary man was gone.

So goodbye "Tony" Benn. Always his own man. Always our man.

Magic Monday

My Magic Monday for today is to attempt to confuddle right wingers on a prominent Conservative comment thread. I shan't say which or the trolls will simply swamp any attempt at genuine debate.

But however hopeless you might all think this one is, if just one thinks "hang on a minute, she might have a point" Then my Magic Monday will be complete.

Who will you convince?

**UPDATE : Just 2 hours in and I have a -41 approval rating. Impressive, no? But only one has to tick up......