Reminder – Panorama and Dispatches Monday July 30th

Britain on the Sick  channel 4 Mon 30th July 8pm  watch here

Using undercover filming, reporter Jackie Long investigates the shocking processes used to assess whether sickness and disability benefit claimants should be declared fit for work.

 

Disabled or Faking It?   Mon 8.30pm  watch here

Panorama investigates the government’s plans to end the so-called ‘sick note
culture’ and their attempts to get millions of people off disability benefits
and into work. In Britain’s modern welfare state, millions are being paid to
private companies to assess sick and disabled claimants but is the system
working? Or are new tests wrongly victimising those who deserve support the
most?

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Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families

sign Pats Petition here  and share with others

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Benefits appeals system ‘on brink of collapse’ | Politics

 

Thousands of ill and disabled people have become trapped in a revolving door of medical assessments and appeals at a cost of £80m, with many claimants on their second and third attempts to overturn rulings that remove their benefits.

The government’s drive to cut Britain’s multibillion-pound welfare bill by moving long-term unemployed people off sickness benefit and into work is at risk of descending into chaos, according to a Channel 4 news investigation.

The work capability assessment programme, which assesses benefit claimants to see whether they are fit for work is "teetering on the brink of collapse" as the system becomes clogged up with appeals.

Benefits appeals system ‘on brink of collapse’ | Politics | The Guardian

Universal Credit briefing notes – DWP

 

As the Welfare Reform Bill progresses through Parliament we will publish notes to set out key elements of policy relating to Universal Credit to provide greater clarity.

Universal Credit briefing notes – DWP

Universal Credit briefing notes – DWP

 

As the Welfare Reform Bill progresses through Parliament we will publish notes to set out key elements of policy relating to Universal Credit to provide greater clarity.

Universal Credit briefing notes – DWP

What EVERY MP should know about welfare reform

Sue Marsh of Diary of a Benefit Scrounger  has sent this over asking everyone to help raise awareness.

Since Employment and Support Allowance was introduced back in 2008, campaigners and those affected have warned that it is flawed. Not because people must face assessment to qualify for support but because the wrong people are declared “fit for work”.

People clearly too disabled to work get harassed and pressurised into work programmes they clearly cannot comply with, while the number of “cheats” or “scroungers” caught, remains at exactly the same level it always did.

Throughout the last year, we have warned of a tipping point.  With over 110,000 decisions already found to be wrong and overturned, 11,000 people a week are being put through flawed assessments. It is only a matter of time before this becomes the toxic story of recent years. MP mailbags are already bursting with letters about this.

Read in full here

What EVERY MP should know about welfare reform

Can you help raise awareness by sharing this post with your contacts, on Facebook and twitter too.

Contact your MP with your concerns.

Please leave a comment on Sues’ blog or contact her direct with links to any reports in your own local newspapers. suey2yblog@hotmail.co.uk

For those that dont know, Sue is one of the founder members of  The Broken Of Britain team

 

Disabled people: guilty till proved innocent

The government plans to suspend benefit for people who appeal against a decision to disallow Employment and Support Allowance (the main income replacement benefit for disabled people of working age). The New Statesman’s Samira Shackle reports that the government has noticed that 37% of those found fit for work appeal, and of those who appeal, 39% win a judgement in their favour.

The old Incapacity Benefit is being replaced by ESA, and every existing claimant is having to go through the Work Capability Assessment, the tougher test that was originally brought in by the last government. Literally hundreds of thousands of people are going to win appeals against not being awarded the new benefit. Now, you or I might conclude from this that (1) there’s something wrong with the new test and (2) given that such a high proportion of the people who failed the test are actually entitled to the benefit, it’s probably best to err on the side of generosity in deciding how to treat them while they appeal.

read in full here

Three little words – ‘Tax Payers Money’

Blog piece by Pat Onions

There is a word or three I loathe.

More than the Employment Support Allowance.

More than the Work Capability Assessment and probably more than the Personal Independent Payment.

‘Tax Payers Money.’

I have been listening to Ms Miller talking about the new PIP. She sounded quite nice and chatty. Of course they will continue to pay £40 million to those disabled. Good. She then used those words… from ‘Tax Payers Money.‘

It is a move to stir up the people of this country. She could just say the amount which will be paid. Why add those 3 words at the end?

Effect of course is to make me feel worthless and useless. The effect is to let the ordinary man or woman, who works and pays tax, where their deductions are going.  I too am ordinary but I can’t use the library, drive on the roads or play ping-pong at the leisure centre. That of course is totally different. It always is when it comes to those of us with a disability.

Ordinary men, and women, would have no idea if they weren’t reminded at every verse end. They would sit at home watching another reality show on their 40″ Plasma screen. They’re probably not wondering too much where all the tax they pay each month is being spent. It is the duty of politician, newspaper and television reporters to tell them. And they do. Constantly. All the time and endlessly.

Like many others I did work. I did pay my taxes and did pay my NI. I still pay taxes on everything I eat, drink, sit on or sleep in. I don’t think the air that I breathe comes ‘from Tax Payers Money’  but I wouldn’t put any money on it.

When you are poorly and hurting…say with an abscess and extreme toothache…. you don’t want some smart Alec telling you that your dentist isn’t funded from ‘Tax payers Money’ anymore. You don’t want to hear that you have to dig deep in your pocket for some painkillers. You want support and help. Oh dear…. perhaps involving the NHS as an example is not such a good idea.

I get reminded that I have languished for more than 10 years on benefits. Benefits paid from ‘Tax Payers Money’. I haven’t actually languished at all. I have a rare, irreversible, hereditary condition. Proper experts diagnosed me, not a nurse playing at being an ophthalmic consultant with years of training & experience. The consultant recognised my disability and knew I would not be able to work. Nothing in society or the work place has changed in all those years to enable me to work. So why oh why do Politicians believe it has?

They can beat me with sticks; tell me if I don’t work I lose my benefits. It makes not one jot of difference to my disability. It is unchanged and always will be.

By taking my ‘Tax Payers Money’ from me it will mean I don’t eat, clothe myself and lose the roof over my head. They can assess me; reassess me as many times as they decide. I have no eyes, and no matter how many assessments, those eyes will never grow back and see again. Somehow Politicians seem to think they have a magic power to make them work…after all ‘Work Pays.’

Pat Onions

Welfare Reform Bill – Letter to Peers

We have been asked to share this letter below, organised by Disabled People Against Cuts.  Please take time to read through and then contact Peers with your own concerns.

You can find names and addresses here . DPAC have suggested these names in particular :

Jenny Willott MP and Ian Swales MP in the House of Commons, and Lord German in the House of Lords. Other peers who are involved are Baroness Thomas, Lord Kirkwood, Lord Stoneham and Lord Addington.

Letter already sent to Peers as follows :

Help at hand for those with benefit concerns

 

BENEFIT advisers have rallied organisations and charities together for a day-long event to show help is at hand for disabled people worried about welfare reform.

Barrow District and Disability Association’s disability advice and benefit service is holding a day-long conference designed to help thousands of people in the area who are worried about the government’s changes to what they are entitled to claim.

Incapacity Benefit, Income Support paid because of an illness or disability and Severe Disablement Allowance are all being phased out.

North West Evening Mail | News | Help at hand for those with benefit concerns

For whose benefit?

 

Plans for a universal benefit are sensible but not the way the government is introducing it – in particular by blaming claimants for the failings of the old system

As the Welfare Reform Bill nears royal assent, many charities are mounting last-ditch attempts to amend some of its less well formulated proposals.

They have been doing this for almost a year, but Department for Work and Pensions ministers appear impervious to their efforts. With such a radical policy plan, the government reasons, there are bound to be dissenters. Disability charities will stick up for disabled people. Children’s charities will fight for special treatment for children. That’s their job. Right?

For whose benefit? | Public Finance Opinion