At last, a report that skewers Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare policies

IDS LOONY


Powered by Guardian.co.ukThis article titled “At last, a report that skewers Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare policies” was written by Alex Andreou, for theguardian.com on Monday 9th December 2013 18.02 Europe/London

Today Iain Duncan Smith is being questioned by the Commons work and pensions committee on universal credit, after finally admitting last week that the scheme’s targets had been “reset”. Last week, the petition calling for a cumulative impact assessment of the way welfare reform affects sick and disabled people, known as the WOW petition, passed 100,000 signatures, triggering its consideration for debate by the backbench business committee. To add to Duncan Smith’s woes, the well-respected Centre for Welfare Reform has released details of its report, How Norms Become Targets, which exposes the myth that Atos, the private company responsible for assessing the needs of people unable to work, does not do so on the basis of targets.

Today also sees the publication of the stunning People’s Review of the Work Capability Assessment (pdf). It has been compiled by the anonymous organisation, We Are Spartacus, whose activism in this area has been hugely empowering. The report is a collection of statistics surrounding welfare reform and reactions of MPs, charities and professional groups to the way in which it has been administered. An almanac of condemnation, if you will. Most importantly, the report compiles statements from sick and disabled people actually going through the system.

These are most encouraging developments and point to a sea-change in the way our democracy works in this internet age. There is no doubt that without extensive use of the internet and social media, the compilation of such a detailed report would have been impossible and its publication unnoticed. For too long, this group of most vulnerable people, many of them with serious health and mobility problems, have been too easy a target for cost-cutting governments of all hues to demonise, recalibrate and victimise. This is no longer the case. Vulnerable people have grabbed the issue by the scruff of the neck and are taking the fight to the government. It is inspirational and points the way to a level of democratisation hitherto unseen.

I encourage you to read the report. It is packed with striking statistics and heartrending stories, in the words of people being put through this inhuman and degrading assessment. It contains the stories of those who can no longer speak, having taken their own lives or succumbed to their illness, while being hounded by the very department which is meant to protect them, people like Peter whose leg fused as a result of injury and, having suffered a stroke which meant he couldn’t grip with one hand, received a text telling him to attend the Jobcentre. He sent his partner a text which read “I give up”. He was found hanging at his home.

It contains incredibly powerful quotes which show that dissatisfaction with Atos is spread across MPs of all parties. Dr Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP, said of the assessment procedure: “Not surprisingly, it adds to their [claimants] sense of worthlessness – already stoked by a longstanding political narrative from both sides of the political divide that they are ‘shirkers, not workers’ or a drain on Britain’s ‘hardworking people’. They are neither.”

It contains tragic and often simultaneously humorous stories of ridiculous assessment reports, like the one on a 59-year-old woman who had had a hysterectomy following cervical cancer, which observed: “There is no evidence that the client is currently pregnant.” Or the one which concluded that someone who took an overdose of medication the previous night had “no current thoughts of self harm”.

This programme of welfare reform was always doomed to fail for a very simple reason. The purpose of welfare is to provide a safety net for the most vulnerable; its reform must have their interests at heart, rather than cost-cutting targets. Proper reform costs money. Duncan Smith himself recognised this simple fact before he came into power. In 2009, explaining his proposed reforms, he recognised that they would lead to a rise in the welfare bill in the short-term.

Iain Duncan Smith’s fall from grace, because of a botched IT system which has already caused £140m to be written off, is properly a cause of both frustration and comedy – like Al Capone being arrested for tax evasion. But I must ask, we all must ask: how many of the vulnerable people mentioned in the Spartacus report would still be alive today if that money has been properly spent?

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39 thoughts on “At last, a report that skewers Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare policies

  1. Stepping Razor says:

    Universal Credit – The IT computer system was a failure costing £40 million wasted on the latest new boys toys for IDS. Don`t know where, don`t know when. Stop singing the Vera Lynn song IDS Where you gonna find another £00 million to waste, I`m sure you will find a way IDS.
    SR

  2. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    While people are being asked to wait over six hours in ambulances, none essential operations cut back to a minimum, people thrown on the streets, jobless working for slave employers and disabled robbed of their benefits, we have the prince of clowns throwing £40.1 million down the proverbial, shitter……

    Duncan SMITH is not a comedian, yet his department, the DWP, are employing the biggest fool ever………….

    Which other country would allow, this legend in his own lunch time, the space and power to write off this mind blowing amount on the “GRAND UNIVERSAL CREDIT FUCK UP?”

    How many people do you have to sanction, displace, or drive to death, while Cameron’s crown jester squanders vast amounts on a pie in the sky scheme?

    It’s been proven, time and time again, that a software cannot cope with the multiplexity of social situations that arise from a claim, it is for this reason, that it was always doomed from it’s inception on the back of a fag packet.

    This guy could’nt win a one legged arse kicking contest, yet he is free to waste cash of these proportions………….

    One things for sure, whatever sum the DWP have admitted to, will be a fraction of the real amount that has been blown.

    Telling the truth, and the DWP, don’t exactly go hand in hand, neither does the bottle to admit how many lives have been lost due to ESA and other, dark, draconian, methods of human torture by brown envelope.

    ………..forty fucking million, and the rest, what a fucking joke!

    The travesty of all this is, if you had got £40 they would instigate a major operation to force you to pay it back, sanction you and probably lead you onto the street, homeless………..

    …….and yet the “comedy of errors” continues at our expense….

  3. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    My assessment report gives testimony to the facts being unearthed by Spartacus;

    I was seen to sit in a chair, get up unaided, go to a bench, be examined, decline to do seventy five actions that was asked of me, and be observed to stand in one place for the duration of the interview……………………………..

    ATOS is synonymous with many hundreds of deaths that have taken place on our shores.

    Any intention of providing a just, fair medical examination was blown out of the water at the inception, through the closely guarded wording of it’s contract with it’s partner in crime, the inglorious, DWP.

    A helicopter crashes into a pub roof and nine poor souls are robbed of their lives and no stone is unturned to establish the cause,

    Yet millions are undergoing a battle to stay alive, many have perished already, and nothing is said or done……….

    The dual standards of the governments puppet press are suppressing an ETHNIC CLEANSING as i speak……..

    “MURDER IS MURDER, HOWEVER YOU WISH TO BRAND IT”

  4. jed goodright says:

    The Work & Pension Committee were a disgrace. They looked unorganised, unprepared and indeed in awe of the BaldOne. He constantly referred to Anne Begg MP (chair) as Mr Chairman and she did nothing about it. He constantly talked over everyone, pointed his finger and waved away anyone disagreeing or wanting to question him further. He at one point called them all ‘moaners’ for daring to try to pin him down on his comments. He continually muttered to his colleagues whilst others were talking. He was a bloody disgrace. But the committee NEVER took him in hand. They allowed the charade to be played out despite one or two issues coming to light.

    When is a ‘reset’ NOT a change in policy? Universal Credit is NOT ON TIME OR ON BUDGET and PIP is disappearing fast.
    When is throwing away millions of pounds of public (yours and mine) money acceptable and didn’t raise a murmur?
    When is not asking about the illegality of the WCA (discriminates against those with mental health problems) NOT EVEN mentioned?
    When are the deaths of thousands of disabled people NOT EVEN mentioned?
    When are sanctions for the unemployed acceptable ( to encourage to work) when an 11% pay rise for MPs acceptable ( to encourage to work)?
    What is the point of this committee?
    They failed to pin any points about his misuse of statistics.
    They failed to impress on him that there have been changes and costly delays to UC.

    This whole proceeding, which I watched (painfully) in its entirety was a sham. Anne Begg should resign and this committee should reassemble as what it purports to be – a representation of the people holding Ministers to account. Duncan Shit sat there and played with himself and them. He treated them like they were little school boys and girls and they were wasting his time.

    I am extremely angry about this, as is evident, because I am sick of using all my energy to keep fighting these bastards. You look to occasions like this and hope for some clarity – but there is none. None of them give any hope. They are all as bad as each other. But they don’t pay for their vile work – we do – and on the day of Mandela’s memorial – to which our murderers are going – at our expense – none of them have 1% of Mandela’s sincerity, humility and humanity

    I want this to stop NOW – this brutal regime is killing people – how many more have to die???????????

    1. Joe smith says:

      We would all like it to stop right now, it won’t and we both know it. Why? Cameron’s coalition has the support generally of the middle and upper class and of course the majority of the wealthy ones, whose continued support is guaranteed by the profusion of lucrative contracts. Of course numerically they outnumber the poor the disadvantaged the ill the disabled and the unemployed. We need a group prepared to take these clowns on and if needs be tear down the walls they will build to defend themselves, until we get on to the streets and commence hurting them and yes injuring those politicians who would dare to invent laws to prevent this just change happening. Mandela did against the oppressors in South Africa, and it’s possible there will be suffering. Until these people are stopped with some force they will keep on taking our lives money and society from us!

  5. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    The content of the reports are totally irrelevant and mostly overlooked at tribunals Steve.

    Receipt of a negative report is all they ever set out to do and any transparency of the contract between ATOS and the DWP would prove this fact, this is why they seek to protect it’s content at any cost……………

    Personal tragedy, destitution and homelessness, undernourishment and death, were acceptable and cleverly overlooked by the decision not to have a real impact assessment done.

    Disability denial is not a crime if backed by the government, it seems…………………….

    …….but nobody has immunity from prosecution when the shit hits the fan….

    Being part of a conspiracy to defraud, that results in death, firmly puts their fingers on the trigger……..

    1. Joe smith says:

      I agree 100% I’ve just lost my appeal, I wasn’t allowed to challenge or even comment on the Atos doctors lies in his report. The DWP bitch smiled every time the legal knob scored a point I could have cheerfully ripped her t..Ts off and stuffed them so far up her c,,t she would have choked. How is it that those b…..ds get legal advice and representation and we can’t get the legal aid we’ve paid for during forty plus years of tax and NI, when they found out I was an ex Royal marine it went a bit subdued they possibly realised I could slot the lot of them easily and leave the building minus any problem.

  6. Lainey says:

    I am still reeling from the facts that the DWP assesor of my claim made a mistake and I have missed out on 13 months of benefit. My GP said she had sent a letter from my consultant and it wasn’t enclosed. Instead of them seeking a copy they ignored it and sent me to a tribunal. The letter was full of explanations of my heart and lung problems and was relevant to my claim. I am told that yes it was an error but we will not pay you the money we will use it as a training example. That doesn’t help me at all. They can make errors and get away with it, if I’d withheld evidence I would have been done for fraud. I have felt so low since being put through my tribunal for DLA. I was treated as a fraudster by the Dr on the panel. He made me feel I was there under false pretenses. If the DWP had sought the letter I would not have had to face that awful Dr. No one wants to listen to what I have to say its now swept under the DWP carpet. Listening to these awful stories from everyman people sickens me to the core. How can they think that this is right. IDS must go and take this other lot with him!!!

  7. disabled-dave says:

    The Guardian article makes horrendous reading; the “Norms” (which seems to be Tory-speak for “targets”) allow assessors to put just ONE person per week into the “long-term sick” category. No wonder the dying are being found “fit-to-work”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    The Peoples Review has left me feeling very, very ill:

    The bold bit at the bottom of page 5 says it all:
    “I have no doubt that this will be an annual multi -billion pound market”
    which translates as “never mind the sick and disabled, there’s loads of money to be made.”

    The cases from the bottom of page 9 onwards are horrendous.

    Page 14 onwards has complaints from MPs of ALL parties.

    On page 22 read the first of “Accounts from advisers”…..
    How can that NOT be incontinence?

    The third full item on page 23 – visiting a grave is “engaging socially”?????????????????????????? and the one underneath – an impossible to make journey plan from Atos.

    The last on page 23 – so a suicide attempt is “no current thoughts of self harm”!!!!!!!

    First 2 items on page 24

    last on p28 going on to p29

    first para p33

    2nd last on p33 – say you get up at 1pm = deemed you actually get up at 8am!!!!!!!!!!!!

    1st full case p35

    1st full case p39 90% burns and not too ill to work!!!!!!

    next to last para p40 left to burn on 2nd floor of assessment centre

    first full case p41
    2nd full case p41

    end of p41 on to p42

    p55 the total cost to tax payers of the appeal process for one year was £83.1 million pounds and this is supposed to SAVE money.

    If only it were possible to force all MPs to read this, but would any of this evil crew have a conscience?

    If only it were possible to make all party members read this, the parties may lose all of their support, but how can we make this happen?

    In “Paint your wagon” there was a song that went “do you know where Hell is? Hell is in hello.” Wrong. Hell is Britain in 2013.

  8. malka says:

    IDS a failed leader and bully still keeps his job…………why because no one else would want to clean up his mess. In the real world if a manager squandered millions on pounds on IT crap, they would be shown the door and frog marched to the nearest JC plus and humilated in public. IDS survives for now, well he has his pay rise to look forward to, boy does he deserve it…..

  9. jed goodright says:

    Why can’t we call a meeting with this grotesque abomination? Why can’t we question him rather than some pathetic, overpaid committee?
    I bet DuncanShit doesn’t even know what a disabled person looks like – well after today’s comments that’s easy – we are the small square packages in red and yellow and green!!!!!
    Can’t we fuck him over good????

  10. AL says:

    Targets, or should I say “statistical norms”? I have a similar issue. The DM does not send assessments back. No matter how bad. A bad Assesment just makes their job easier. Once the DM makes the decision, ATOS can’t take your complaint on it. Oh dear!
    Stop trying to make sense of it, there is no sense to this. Read the People’s Review of the Work Capability Assessment and you will see how you are not alone and lots have not coped. Just have to keep the pressure up to stop the madness

  11. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    It goes without saying, that if we now now the DWP and ATOS conspired to steal benefits belonging to disabled, then “Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service”, will be implicated in the conspiracy also……………..

    There is no smoke without fire and both the DWP and HMCTS, will be sleeping in the same bed, although trying to portray an air of complete separation…………………………

    Have you ever thought how it could be humanly possible, for a claimant, robbed of their benefits, to attend a tribunal that has the Queen at it’s head?

    Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals, adjudicating on a case that involves the Welfare Reform Act, that our monarch gave her blessing to, in the form of “Royal Assent”.

    These two departments are linked in several ways, in fact one cannot exist without the other………………….

    Read any documentation on the courts and tribunal service and it will always state that they are fair and independent…..

    This is far from the truth, as the bias is always against the person facing the tribunal or court…….

    You are the subject of a kangaroo court initiated by the state, on behalf of the state, for the state.
    You are guilty and asked to portray your innocence even before you enter the chamber.
    Indeed, the make up of the judges and doctors will have been chosen, not independently, but by intervention.

    The principle of the separation of powers is the cornerstone of an
    independent and impartial justice system. Everyone is entitled to a
    fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal
    established by law as defined by European Court of Human Rights
    Article 6 and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights Article 47.

    The aforesaid, principle of separation of powers are not applied in the uk, they are inextricably linked…………

    Even the DWP decision maker is not independent, as they make decisions on the policies that have been made by their own department, how can this be acceptable, judge and jury rolled into one???

    To illustrate what i am trying to say, the Social Security Act 1998, part 6, dictates the constitution of tribunal appeals. The act provides for the election of the “President”, and dictates the
    procedural and directives of the tribunal in its function.

    Finally, i think i am right in suggesting that the DWP even pays for it…………

    In effect, meaning,

    …………..HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER, CALLS THE TUNE!

  12. Stepping Razor says:

    PIP update 11th Dec 2013 Select Committee Rooms

    Dr Bill Gunnyeon chief medical adviser DWP has said today that none of the healthcare professionals have no medical qualifications & he will be working to help them get some medical qualifications. Mike Penning there as well. All talking gobbledegook !!
    Breaking down the failures at every turn !!

    SR

    1. Stepping Razor says:

      Department for Work and Pensions
      Mike Penning MP, Minister for Disabled People
      Dr Bill Gunnyeon, Chief Medical Adviser
      Jason Feeney, Benefits Director

      Purpose of the session

      The meeting will cover progress with the introduction of Personal Independence Payment for new claimants and the timetable for “natural reassessment” of existing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claimants, which began in some areas of the country in October 2013.

      Wider issues relating to contractors’ capacity to deliver all M.edical Services Contract assessments and reassessments to the proposed timescales, including Work Capability Assessments, will also be discussed.

      1. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

        ………for Gunnyeon (the Angel of Death), to openly admit that ATOS HCP’s, or any other for that matter, have no medical qualifications, is an understatement……………….

        What he is really saying is,”Christ, we’ve been rumbled, what can we do to cover it up, the public are’nt as stupid as we first thought”

        The DWP have always run away from questions regarding the HCP’s qualifications, here is an FOI that i sent them…….

        Dear Mr Reynolds,
        Freedom of Information Act – Request for Information
        Our Reference: FoI 2207

        Thank you for your Freedom of Information request which we received on 13 May 2013.

        You asked:

        Recently i asked which organisations recognised the ATOS HCP Qualifications, in your reply you
        sent this: The Registered Nurse New Entrant Academy is recognised and has received
        accreditation from the University of Derby. Please highlight all the organisations who recognise it,
        apart from Derby University, who issued it in the first place? Please let me know if you need more
        time to collate the list…………..
        If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number above.
        ………………………………………………………….
        Atos HCP is not a recognised qualification. It should be noted that health care professionals who
        work for Atos are qualified and registered with their respective medical bodies.

        Yours sincerely

        Business Management Team
        Health & Disability Assessments (Operations)
        [email address]
        …………………………………………………………

        As you can see from their reply, they accept that the HCP carry no recognised qualifications, say no more…….

        However, to further announce that he will be working to help them get some medical qualifications, is admitting that all prior tests are not worth the paper they are written on…….

        Imagine getting an MOT certificate, only to be told later that the examiner was not really up to the job, unqualified!!
        Then, to put you at ease, don’t worry, we will try to get the appropriate accredition……

        To brand the whole Work Capability Assessment as a complete fiasco is an understatement.
        What you are witnessing is a complete failure of reassessment by charlatan operatives that the Secretary of State saw fit to enable, to steal disability benefits………………..

        The only qualifications that are worthy of any value are those that are recognised by our existing medical organisations.

        It’s no good trying to fast track a qualification that carries no weight, you can’t make a tyre fitter into a piano tuner by creating a pie in the sky certification system, but this is just what the DWP will try to do.

        Rather than admit defeat, headed by the most famous comedian, IDS, they will carry on blowing countless millions in their wake, as they have done in every thing they have tampered with……………

  13. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    Do not try to justify this guys motives, he has no direction whatsoever and is just toying with peoples lives.

    He holds no credibility, even in the department he heads.
    History is littered with this kind of dross in a position of power, in fact it reminded me of an incident that has come to light over the last two days.

    Some soldiers, as an act of defiance against officers they regarded as muppets, decided to disobey a drill order and sat down as an act of defiance…………….

    On a typically british bulldog act, the soldiers were subject to court martial and imprisonment and two dismissed.

    Why was’nt there an investigation to find out if the soldiers had a point of issue in the capability of their seniors?

    Old shithead Smith is in a similar position. His own staff are frightened to break rank and accuse him of being useless, the government lack the guts to admit he is useless, therefore the acts of the madman continue to “KILL” on an unprecedented scale, the likes of what this nation has never seen before!

    Hitler was a complete nutter, but he too believed what he was doing was right…………

    Behind his back there will be an air of rebellion, he won’t see it, but i am damn sure it is happening. His ministers are revolting, and i mean this in both senses!

    Cameron will be starting to cringe as the brainless moron scrambles from one embarrassing situation to another.

    He is in free flight, devoid of any direction, not knowing where to turn, like a dog lost in a lamppost factory……….

    IDS will be the author of his own downfall. With Tory dissatisfaction looming and the knives appearing behind his back, it will only be a matter of time.

    The generals are plotting and willing to put the bomb in a briefcase, at the foot of his table. When you are in a corner, you have nowhere to go……………

    …………..his days are numbered, as are the deaths that his department are wholly responsible for, but constantly deny are happening.

    “THE NOOSE OF TRUTH IS TIGHTENING”

  14. AL says:

    Medical Assessments undertaken in a climate that has an expected outcome is a travesty, and that anyone with a professional health care qualification has gotten involved, is truely dispicable and horrific. How can the Health Professionals working for ATOS be trusted to work in healthcare anywhere else, after what they have done to sick, disabled and vulnerable people? Surely their behaviour violates their registration? It is shocking. I’m surprised the regestering bodies have not gotten involved and struck them off, surely they breach their code of conduct at the very least.

    1. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

      I wanted the word “care” removing anyway…..

      My HCP was called EMMA BRODRICK and the only thing she and her ilk care about, is squeezing as many claimants into an examination in a week, to satisfy their greed for money whilst condemning their cast offs to a life of poverty on top of the horrors they have already inflicted……………

      ….some ending in death

  15. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    TO EMPHASISE WHAT LOW LIFE SCUM, THE DWP ARE, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO KNOW HOW LOW THEY CAN GET IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE YOU WITHDRAW YOUR TRIBUNAL APPEAL OF ESA……

    Today i received a letter from another faceless one, a MICHAEL HOOLE from Bradford Jobcentre plus;

    The letter states that they have been in receipt of further evidence that i submitted to the HM Courts and tribunals service.

    The letter states categorically, that the evidence i sent to the courts cannot be taken into consideration………..

    I find this an act of desperation on behalf of the DWP as the courts service have already accepted this evidence and sent me photocopies back.
    Given that the evidence was sent on the 26th Nov 2013 and the hearing is not until the 13th Jan 2014, i find this highly toxic, to say the least……..

    Furthermore, the letter informing me of my appeal date, clearly states that further evidence must be submitted at least seven days before the hearing for it to be considered.

  16. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    Marvelous thing the Freedom of Information Act………….

    It allows organisations to share information that is requested by anyone having an interest.
    It ensures clarity and openness and fosters good relations.

    Here is an example that was submitted to the DWP;

    From: T.kay

    27 November 2013

    Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

    Please provide figures for the following with regards to the
    bedroom tax.

    How many have paid?
    How many have moved?
    How many have received full DHP?
    How many have received part DHP?
    How many have failed to pay?
    How many have had eviction procedures started due to bedroom tax
    arrears since 1st April 2013?

    Yours faithfully,

    Mr Kay

    ………………………………………………………………………………………………………
    i) How many have paid?
    This information is not available.

    ii) How many have moved?
    This information is not available

    iii) How many have received full DHP?
    This information is not available.

    iv) How many have received part DHP?
    This information is not available.

    v) How many have failed to pay?
    This information is not available.

    vi) How many have had eviction procedures started due to bedroom tax arrears since 1 April 2013?
    This information is not available.

    Yours sincerely

    DWP FOI Central Information Team.

  17. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    Marvelous thing the Freedom of Information Act………….

    It allows organisations to share information that is requested by anyone having an interest.
    It ensures clarity and openness and fosters good relations.

    Here is an example that was submitted to the DWP;
    From: T.kay

    27 November 2013

    Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

    Please provide figures for the following with regards to the
    bedroom tax.

    How many have paid?
    How many have moved?
    How many have received full DHP?
    How many have received part DHP?
    How many have failed to pay?
    How many have had eviction procedures started due to bedroom tax
    arrears since 1st April 2013?

    Yours faithfully,

    Mr Kay

    ………………………………………………………………………………………………………
    i) How many have paid?
    This information is not available.

    ii) How many have moved?
    This information is not available

    iii) How many have received full DHP?
    This information is not available.

    iv) How many have received part DHP?
    This information is not available.

    v) How many have failed to pay?
    This information is not available.

    vi) How many have had eviction procedures started due to bedroom tax arrears since 1 April 2013?
    This information is not available.

    Yours sincerely

    DWP FOI Central Information Team.

  18. Humanity2012 says:

    Wake Up Britain and Stop the Bloody Sheepwalk

    Theft of Benefits from the Poor is a Crime against Humanity
    and People who Act the Ostrich about it are Accessories to
    this Crime against Humanity

    Socialist State Socialist Government and Socialist Society
    Now and Forever

    1. geoff reynolds says:

      Yes you are correct 100%…………

      Our government are guilty of DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION.

      We are supposed to be afforded the benefits that allow us to lead as near a normal life as a normal person.

      Equality Act 2010
      Guidance
      http://www.odi.gov.uk/equalityact
      4
      Part 1: Introduction
      The Equality Act 2010
      1.
      The Equality
      Act 2010 prohibits discrimination against people with
      the protected characteristics that are specified in section 4 of the
      Act.
      Disability is one of the specified protected characteristics. Protection from
      discrimination for disabled people applies to disabled people in a range of
      circumstances, covering the provision of goods, facilities and services, the
      exercise of public functions, premises, work, education, and associations.
      Only those people who are defined as disabled in accordance with section
      6 of the Act, and the associated Schedules and regulations made under
      that section, will be entitled to the protection that the Act provides.

  19. nigel simmons says:

    BROKEN BRITISH POLITICS –INCOMPETENCE BREEDS LIES , DECEIT & UNCERTAINTY
    Shamcam’s Regime Austerity Measures are probably necessary to make up the Deficit of their incompetent handling of anything they touch ,also our borrowing has gone through the roof .Where has it all gone when living standards are reversing to Victorian Days .
    Overseas Aid ,Uncontrolled Immigration whom jobs are specifically advertised for and incompetently run schemes such as Unum’s Universal Credit ,the scheme has been ditched but how much did Unum receive for another flop ,it cost us over £400 million .
    To present a credible face incompetent people will Lie through their back teeth and the Regime is no exception.
    Housing 2,000 were “helped” by Help2Buy in month 1 (David Cameron) Truth -83% of applications were not even processed by month end, in fact just 10 house purchases were completed .
    NHS is not being privatised (Jeremy Hunt) Truth -£11 billion+ of the NHS has been put out to private tender .
    Economy Tories have reduced national debt (Grant Shapps) Truth – National Debt is up £427 billion under David Cameron, and grew more in this parliament that all 3 parliaments under Labour combined .I could cite many more blatant Lies but it does highlight that the Definition of Politics to the Regime is Politics = Lies,Deceit,Coercion,Corruption and Poverty .More Job and Service Cuts 2014
    http://brokenbritishpolitics.simplesite.com

  20. Joseph smith says:

    Guys, everyone commenting on here is boiling with rage, there’s only one answer. Make them scared, anyone prepared to be a martyr? And slot IDS? Or do we each contribute money to a central fund, find a lawyer get a civil legal campaign for culpable manslaughter jointly and severally against government, IDS, Atos, DWP and Cameron. Don’t even know if this is possible, the EU courts may be one answer. For sure we will get no help from the BBC, Mail, etc, but we may embarrass them out of power. The only other thing I can think of is large scale peaceful demos against the Government commencing six months prior to the election, this must be sustained and frequent. Backed by posters and adverts.

    1. AL says:

      Yes I took a peek. Annos, thanks for keeping me informed. No doubt seeing us suffer has been worth every penny to the HARD working tax payer, else they might complain?

      Did ya see that the kids from benefit street are now having to run the gauntlet of outraged tv licence payers turning up to disapprove, the Kids are now too scared to go to school.

      It’s this type of punishment mentality that has informed the thinking behind the benefits changes. They don’t bother to understand the complexites of the situation rather they simply seem to love to look down on others less fortunate and see them suffer.

      I can’t work out billions but isn’t £24billion quite a lot of money per tax paying person?

  21. Humanity2012 says:

    People should Not be Just Fiddling About in a Day Dream going
    along with Welfare Undermining.

    They Need to be Protesting and Demanding that Welfare Provision
    is There and without Bureaucracy or Nazi Style Forced Slave
    Labour

    Tax the Rich Hands Off the Poor

  22. Stepping Razor says:

    PIP is sanctioned by the dwp giving you a Income Support form to fill out. That is the problem with Means Tested, it can be twisted to mean 90% Income Support 10% because you are disabled. But on the yearly breakdown letter it has both – 90% because you are disabled & 10% Income Support.

    First the dwp want you to apply for PIP by filling in a Income Support Form, if the dwp feels you have medical grounds for PIP they will then give you another [public] form to fill out, if you pass the test on the Income Support form. Fake bypassing medicals to get a public form. You sent me the wrong form !!!

    Income Support means you are actively seeking work & ready to work at any time. It is a quick & easy way to do PIP with no medicals because no one at the dwp is medically qualified, so they dodge any thing medical & deny any medical conditions – by-passing costs & Atos.

    To apply for a disabled benefit does not mean filling out a income support form & then judged on if I can get a disabled form. Yet another form of fraud, blackmail & failures. The dwp don`t won`t to know about ones disability – just fill in the income support form. The dwp go about like there`s no other forms at the dwp.

    PIP is part of the Integrity Department of the dwp & their office keeps losing down, where ever that is.

    Start sending out real letters from the dwp with bar coding on each page !!

    SR

  23. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    “SANCTIONS”

    ACCORDING TO THE LAWS SET DOWN IN THE GENEVA CONVENTION, THE USE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE IS BANNED, YET THE DWP BREACH THESE LAWS, EACH AND EVERY DAY…………

    THE DWP UTILISE A UNIT, APTLY CALLED THE “NUDGE UNIT”, THIS UNIT IS MORE APPROPRIATELY CALLED, A PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING UNIT.

    PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING UNITS ARE USED TO GENERATE POLICIES AND ACTIONS THAT CAN BE USED TO BREAK DOWN THE RESOLVE OF CLAIMANTS USING BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE TECHNIQUES.

    INDEED, RECENTLY, THE NUDGE UNIT WAS BROUGHT INTO LINE FOR USING PSYCHOMETRIC QUESTIONNAIRES ON CLAIMANTS THAT HAD NOT BEEN RATIFIED AND WERE CONDEMNED BY EXPERTS IN THE FIELD.

    The ‘test’ that the DWP ‘borrowed’, and is forcing unemployed people to take on pain of losing their benefits, was devised by a US psychologist alleged to have devised psychological-torture interrogation programmes for the US military and the CIA.

    The questions the DWP has ‘borrowed’ come from the ‘Values in Action Inventory of Strengths’ test devised by Christopher Peterson and Martin ‘Marty’ Seligman. In 2001, Marty Seligman allegedly convened a ‘counter-terrorism and psychology’ meeting at his home, attended by, among others, the alleged creator of the CIA torture program, Dr. James Mitchell, and CIA Director of Behavioral Sciences Research, Kirk M. Hubbard.
    But that the DWP and its contractors are using a test devised by a man who appears to be closely-associated with actual psychological torture by military and intelligence organisations makes the whole matter even more damning – and one that should be occupying the attention of Parliament and the media.

    UK CLAIMANTS ARE BEING USED IN AN EXPERIMENT, THEY ARE BEEN BROKEN DOWN, MADE TO FEEL WORTHLESS, UNCOMFORTABLE AND SADLY, SUICIDAL……………

    THE LEVELS OF STRESS THAT THIS ACT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DEBILITATION HOLDS, HAS NO BOUNDARY, AS EACH PERSON HAS A DIFFERING THRESHOLD TO THE AMOUNT OF PAIN IT CAN SUPPORT.

    WARPED THINKING BY THE DWP HAS SEEN THE DEATH LEVELS OF INNOCENT CLAIMANTS ROCKET.

    OUR GOVERNMENT IS COLLECTIVELY SUPPRESSING DEATH REPORTS ON THIS ISSUE, AFRAID OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FIGURES COMING TO LIGHT.
    YET INSTEAD OF STOPPING AND ANALYSING THE EXTENT OF THEIR MISGUIDED EXPERIMENT, THEY PLOUGH ON, AFRAID TO CONFRONT THE DEMON THAT THEY HAVE CREATED………..

    SANCTIONING SOMEONE IS NOT ONLY A THREAT OR DETERRENT, IT IS ALSO A MEANS TO AN END, THE ABILITY TO SURVIVE OR DIE.

    WHAT YOU ARE WITNESSING IS A TWISTED DERANGED POLICY THAT KILLS…………

    THERE ARE REASONS WHY OUR GOVERNMENT SOUGHT TO USE SANCTIONS AS A FORM OF TORTURE, THE MAIN ONE BEING, IT LEAVES NO REAL VISIBLE SIGNS OF EVIDENCE……

    BEFORE THE USE OF SANCTIONS WERE INITIATED, OUR GOVERNMENT FAILED TO DO ANY PROPER CUMULATIVE IMPACT ASSESSMENT ON THEIR USE.

    STRANGELY, I HAVE INTERVIEWED ONLY SIXTEEN PEOPLE FROM MY VARYING DISTRICTS OF MY TOWN WHO HAVE HAD SANCTIONS APPLIED AGAINST THEM, FIVE WERE DISABLED, THE OTHERS UNEMPLOYED…………….

    “EVERY ONE OF THEM HAD SUCCUMBED TO SUICIDAL THOUGHTS”

    I AM NOT A DOCTOR, NOR AN EXPERT, BUT I AM WITNESSING A CULL OF HUMAN BEINGS NEVER SEEN ON OUR SHORES BEFORE.

    …………A MURDER OF INDUSTRIAL PROPORTIONS.

  24. Joseph Smith says:

    WE KNOW. Question is what do we do about it. Is there anything which can be done? The media would rather report atrocities overseas than in their own Country, so they cannot be relied on or, in reality trusted. Reporting the government to the UN or other like body is likely to be dismissed or disregarded. As I see it we’ve only one chance and that’s to vote them out in 2015. Leaves a lot to luck and chance.

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