‘Also from (this) day – the UN’s international day of persons with disabilities – if those in WRAG who have illnesses ranging from cancer to paralysis to mental health issues do not comply with such instructions, they can be stripped of up to 70% of their benefits and forced to live on £28.15 a week.’
SEE ALSO: Iain Duncan Smith’s Licence To Kill Posted on February 18, 2013 :
‘With jobs in desperately short supply, especially for those with a health condition or disability, the choice facing unwell claimants sentenced to unpaid work will be whether to be worked to death or starved to death.’
The Guardian, Letters, 3rd December 2012
Applicants for employment and support allowance go through a gruelling assessment, widely criticised as arbitrary and harsh (Report, 1 December). Those placed in the ESA work-related activity group are pronounced not fit for work, though fit to prepare for it. Now it appears that they may nonetheless be expected to work, with penalties of up to £71 per week should they fail to comply. Perhaps employers will reflect on the implications of using the labour of people liable literally to fall down on the job.
Dr Patricia de Wolfe
London
PLEASE USE REGULATIONS 29 & 35 TO FIGHT BACK!!!
‘The two regulations state that a claimant should not be found fit for work (regulation 29), or placed in the work-related activity group (regulation 35), if such a decision would pose “a substantial risk” to their “mental or physical health”.’
Two regulations ‘could hold the key to winning ESA (AND WRAG!) appeals’
Parallels exist between nazi-era fit-for-work assessments and Atos
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21 Responses
Love the picture! HATE what is happening to us
The last sentence by Dr Patricia de Wolfe says it all!
The disabled will be injured at workplaces and there will be consequences for the whole scheme.
The employer has to think twice before taking somebody on but, I expect that the ‘providers’ will completely ignore disability as it’s just more money for them.
As for the extra support, well I asked the JCP about it and she didn’t know anything about it but told me it was up to the ‘provider’ to sort something out.
This won’t happen as it means loss of money for these ‘providers’ and of course they are in the business to make a profit.
charity begins at home i wonder it starts with the charitys who get monies for your bodies and more if they get you to work longer um its looking like the nazi partys back with a bang and not many politicians are up in arms over this one and looks like more of us got to die before anything is done but dont hold ones breath as greed does funny things to those in power as hitler oh sorry cameroooon as it looks like beinga very cold sad winter for those who are claiming sick and disabled payments as they cut more off so that they can pig it out more while we starve and go cold yes its a lovely goverment we got whose going to stand up for us not many as we are the social scroungers we pay to keep them in their posts while we pay with our lives dialy and not a fig do they care for us look to ids he,s just happy he,s got 2and half milluon back to wotk so he says off sickness benefits but how many have died ids and how many have not claimed any more because of you not because they wernt sick just to tired of your dribble ids but not a snot will one give off you you to can look god in the eye and be denied the door for a good few yrs because of it ids but not you i didnt do it jeff3
The last time I met my dear friend he told me his money had been stopped. During our conversation he told me the job centre had “asked” if he wanted to do any work experience. At 47 he has had lots of work experience and declined their “offer”. Could this be why his money had been stopped?
I tried several times to call him and thought I was giving him some hope by explaining I knew an excellent advice service that would be able to help. My friend did not return my calls. He has cut his phone off.
I am very worried about him. I have no way of contacting him. He has been in psychiatric hospitals over the 30 years I have known him and suffers badly from depression. He is very kind and gentle and I hope he will not succumb to the pressure he is under.
Out of all the suffering I have to go through because of this government, the worst thing would be if he did not make it through.
HOW DO THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS AVOIDABLE SUFFERING LIVE WITH THEMSELVES?
HOW DO THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS AVOIDABLE SUFFERING LIVE WITH THEMSELVES?
because they don’t give a damn
because their wealth blinds them to the distress of others
because they are all nazis
because they don’t give a damn
It is Evil Pure and Simple how many Times do I have to Say that we Need those
Tory Scum Out of Office before People Listen and Act ?
Will this Country come Out of its Boneheaded Trance and Bloody Well Wake Up
Shame upon those who still Support the Tories and Liberal Democrats
Whoever Votes for Them is Thicker than a Plank of Wood
Don’t forget that there are disabled people who want these cuts and draconian measures. There are Blue Badge holders who confess to asking other drivers who have legitimatelty parked in disabled parking bays what they are doing – based presumably on the type of car, or their own delusion. These people want Blue Badges removed from others they deem unworthy.
Others see the need for cuts to benefits and services to stop the fraud they think exists. So long as it’s not them of course.
The notion of some disabled people believing they are more worthy than other disabled people is just as abusive as what the authorities are doing. They believe the propaganda because it suits them. This type of disabled person better stay out of my way!!
Those who Do Not Care about those with Disabilities are Ignoramuses Devoid of
Humanity
This absurd injustice was brought about by the media. Sign the petition.
http://hackinginquiry.org/petition/
So disabled people put in the group “too disabled to work now, but may at some time in the future become capable of work” are to be forced into doing UNLIMITED and UNPAID work NOW, even though they are OFFICIALLY “TOO DISABLED TO WORK NOW.”
This is clearly not something that any sane person could come up with, so does anyone know how to get these clearly insane MPs “sectioned” under the Mental Health Acts and sent to a secure establishment?
The lunatics have taken over the asylum.
There is more commonsense on this thread than within miles of Downing Street.
The new Nazi party’s policies have failed miserably as they were predicted to.
Look at Greece for an example of how austerity measures have virtually destroyed their country.
Tomorrow the government will announce they are to spend 5 billion on investment.
While at the same time slashing benefits for the sick and disabled and denying people their right to claim benefits that they have paid for through NHI contributions.
I have tried to tell people I talk to about what is going on they simply either refuse to believe it or just don’t care. They think they are immune to illness or disease and that won’t happen to them.
Media propoganda is extremely difficult to shift
[…] Sick and disabled braced for enforced work-for-benefits programme […]
Mark Hoban says “They will get their benefits and we will do all we can to help. But in the small number of cases where people refuse to stick to their part of the bargain, it’s only
right there are consequences.”
I would really like to know, Mr Hoban, what sick and disabled people you have in mind when you talk about this small number of cases…if they’re sick they’re sick, ffs. This is a bully’s charter.
HOW DO THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS AVOIDABLE SUFFERING LIVE WITH THEMSELVES?
Sadism. There are people who get a buzz out of inflicting pain and like to watch suffering. It makes them feel powerful and godlike. Remember the gang of thugs in “A Clockwork Orange” laying in to the vulnerable? Psychopathic personalities have no capacity for empathy or remorse, and this is what we are up against.
“So disabled people put in the group “too disabled to work now, but may at some time in the future become capable of work” are to be forced into doing UNLIMITED and UNPAID work NOW, even though they are OFFICIALLY “TOO DISABLED TO WORK NOW.””
This smells of ENTRAPMENT. Just like the way they are known to watch you coming into Atos buildings and monitor you in the waiting area – to try to catch you out acting too healthy.
The thing is, if any disabled person manages to drag themselves through a few hours of this workfare, without actually dropping dead from a heart attack, no matter how much pain and worsening illness it causes them, WON’T THE JC+ AND ATOS STEP IN TRIUMPHANTLY AND STOP THEIR ESA, DECLARING THAT THEY HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES FIT FOR WORK BY COMPLYING?
I have this feeling that it will be EXACTLY like that recent Crippen cartoon of ducking the witch/wheelchair user. While we will have to somehow manage to turn up for workfare appointments to avoid sanction (accompanied and wired for sound), I suspect any disabled person who attempts to comply with doing any form of work-related task at these places, (WHATEVER the task, we can ALWAYS object with “good cause” due to pain etc) will be placing themselves in danger.
One possible agenda lies in the fact that the unlimited workfare and sanctions regime for sick and disabled people is far worse than for able-bodied JSA claimants. This seems no coincidence.
Perhaps the Tories plan that the endless hopeless treadmill of forced labour (until you either retire at 68 or drop dead) will physically and mentally grind down most sick and disabled so that they “voluntarily” sign off ESA, (losing a third of their incomes), and retreat to JSA instead…for the sake of their health..because the workfare demands and sanctions, though iniquitous, are still not quite as murderous.
How much more can this government get away with? Forcing ill and disabled into unpaid, slave labor, work?
slave labour
noun [U]
Definition
• work done by slaves
• informal disapproving very hard work for which people are paid very little
slave
noun /sleɪv/ [C]
Definition
a person who is legally owned by someone else and has to work for them
Slave does fit what the government is making us into, they expect us ill and disabled to work for something that is rightfully ours anyway! I worked before I got ill, i paid my taxes so why shouldn’t i get the benefits I am entitled to without the threat of being made to work for them?
Add this to the hate crime that the government is propergating….they are a disgrace to our country and to the human race!
“We are not, however, seeking to define “vulnerability” for the purposes of administering Universal Credit. Any attempt to do so would risk some people with complex needs falling outside of the prescribed definitions and then not receiving help that they may genuinely need.”
This statement is hidden away in paragraph 49 of the Department for Work and Pensions’ “Government response to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee’s third report of Session 2012-13”.http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/uc-wpsc-response.pdf .
Paragraph 49 is actually part of the discussion of Direct payments to Landlords, in reponse to the following paragraph of the Committee’s Recommendations:
“45. The Department for Work and Pensions should publish a clear definition of “vulnerable” groups within Universal Credit, for who it will not be appropriate to include housing costs in their benefit payment. There must be a robust process for identifying claimants who are struggling with housing costs, so they can be assisted before they fall into arrears. “
Although the statement is linked to the section on payment of rents, it is specifically relating to the proposed changes as they form the base of implementation of Universal Credit. The Universal Credit system is going to encompass nearly all benefit payments in England. All claimants will receive a single payment under the heading of Universal Credit, replacing all the benefits they may currently receive – that is meant to include ESA WRAG (yes, yet another round of assessments).
So lets look at that sentence again:
‘We are not, however, seeking to define “vulnerability” for the purposes of administering Universal Credit. Any attempt to do so would risk some people with complex needs falling outside of the prescribed definitions and then not receiving help that they may genuinely need.’
Isn’t that specifically what they have already done with ESA, and specifically the outcome? Where does this leave claimants in the next round of transitions from ESA to UC? If this is the DWP’s concern for UC, why is it so emphatically the very way they administer the ESA assessments? If you define sickness and disability as vulnerability, (I know this isn’t always a popular idea, but for many of us it is, at the very least financially, true) then that concern has been demonstrably justified in the ‘(un)lucky dip’ of the ESA system. And if that is their acknowledged position, why aren’t they standing by it?
I imagine the statement could be used in an appeal or a Judicial Review to back up a sick or disabled person’s case.
[…] GUARDIAN: ‘Sick and disabled braced for enforced work-for-benefits programme’ ~ BTC SAYS: PLEASE… Posted on December 3, 2012 […]
[…] their active participation in the Work Programme, through which not only unemployed people but also the sick and disabled are compelled to work for nothing, under threat of benefits […]