3 September 2013 | By Sofia Lind Comments 66
Exclusive LMCs could face legal action over advice to GPs to refuse requests for support from benefit claimants, as campaign groups consult lawyers over communications they claim are ‘staggeringly ignorant’.
Pulse has learnt that two disability activist groups have sought legal advice about taking action against LMCs and they also say there may be grounds for action against individual GPs if they are ‘involved in acts of discrimination’.
But local GP leaders said that the LMCs’ advice was consistent with that provided by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and that the fault lies with the system set up by the Government and not GPs.
The move deepens the row over the support GPs provide for patients who are appealing their benefits being withdrawn.
GPs are facing rising pressure from patients requesting information to protect their benefits, with a 21% rise in requests to verify work capability since January.
As a response, two LMCs have issued template letters for GPs to refuse requests for additional support from benefit claimants, with one considering a ‘just say no’ campaign to support practices who refuse to take on the unfunded work.
But Pulse has learnt that two pressure groups – Black Triangle and Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) – are now planning legal action against the LMCs involved.
Dr Stephen Carty, a GP in Edinburgh and the the Black Triangle Campaign’s medical adviser, said they had taken legal advice over the LMC advice and that they felt they had a case.
He added: ‘LMCs are one-trick ponies whose only function is to prevent GPs doing unpaid, or pro bono, work. I think this is a staggeringly ignorant position to take.
‘Any GP working at the coalface will have stacks of examples of patients who have completely fallen to bits over the Work Capability Assessment. There are lots of admirable things LMCs do but this is a disgrace and I have urged doctors to withdraw their LMC subscriptions and stop paying them.’
Dr Carty added that they were also considering action against individual GPs, pending the outcome of the DWP’s appeal against a tribunal ruling from May this year that said the Government’s Work Capability Assessment process discriminates against people with mental health problems.
He added: ‘If the High Court found that the current process was discriminating, then there may be grounds for taking legal action against individual GPs if they were involved in acts of discrimination. If there were legal clarity on this, it would already be happening.’
But LMC leaders said that they had not heard of any legal action yet, and that these requests are outside the normal care provided by GPs.
Wessex LMC chief executive Dr Nigel Watson said: ‘What we have said to patients is that if the appeals people want further clinical information, which only we can give, then we’re more than happy to do that if the appeals people write to us. But what a lot of these people want is not a medical report, just a letter to say that we support the patient.
He added: ‘Some of the disability groups then say that GPs just do things they get paid for and have got quite difficult about it but we’ve just then tried to explain that we provide care for patients, this is what we do, and I think it is not helped sometimes by the fact that there is an inconsistent approach – some practices will do it and others won’t.’
Dr Peter Higgins, chief executive of the LMCs in Lancashire and Cumbria, defended the template letter they drafted to refuse supporting benefit appeals, and stressed the decision on whether to use it or not was still pending.
He told Pulse they had not heard anything yet about legal action, and added: ‘All that we quoted was off the DWP website so I can’t really see where they are going with that.’
The move comes as a group of GPs have supported the Black Triangle Campaign’s work against the DWP and the Work Capability Assessment process by signing an open letter to the BMA.
The letter called on the BMA to endorse an alternative template letter, prepared by Dr Carty, which could reduce the workload of providing supporting information in patients’ benefits appeals. It further said it is GPs’ duty under GMC guidance to take action if they feel that ‘patient safety may be seriously compromised by inadequate policies or systems’.
But a BMA spokesperson said they had already undertaken ‘substantial work’ to point out problems with the WCA.
He said: ‘BMA representatives have met government ministers to put our objections to them directly. We have recently written to the employment minister asking for changes to be made as soon as possible to the way the system is undertaken. We have also met with disability groups including the Disability Benefits Consortium, an umbrella group representing disability charities.’
Related stories
Editorial: Stop exploiting GPs’ goodwill
In full: Doctors’ letter to the BMA and template benefit support letter
Peverley’s attack on benefit claimants was wrong-headed – and having worked for Atos, I should know
88 Responses
so-called ”Modern Medicine” is Well F*kt Up -Mainly Due to the Immoral uncaring pharmaceutical Companies -who have the Monopoly on the pills that are pushed -and The Fake Cancer and alhziemher Charities That torture Animals and dont want to cure cancer! -Until They Get it Themselves, which would be Good and Hilarious Karma – v-man.
I am not being funny, but is it me or is it Cameron who is out of touch?
Fourteen hundred people died in a chemical act on foreign shores and no-one is really sure who did it, yet the P.M. wants to dive headlong into a war to right the wrongs of the infidels………….
What does’nt equate, is the DWP, empowered by the coalition government and a weak stance from Labour, have ended many more lives on our own shores.
The culprits are known to us and the “Cull of those showing least resistance”, is in full flow……….
Pardon me for trying to be politically correct, but this, surely, is the most hypocritical fiasco i have ever encountered!!
The DWP carry out murders backed by the cover of legislation and nothing is done, yet Cameron is willing to sacrifice our young soldiers to be butchered in an attack on Syria where the perpetrators are unknown.
To rub salt into the wound, the recipients of life threatening injuries and amputations would end up in front of an ATOS examination, only to be robbed of any disability benefits.
Its a wonder, that the wankers who hide behind the title of “Taxpayers Alliance”, (A JOKE IN ITSELF), have not suggested that our unemployed could be utilised within the theatre of war, under the terms of workfare……………..
I would not piss on our government!!!!
They are so out of touch with the regular, Joe Bloggs, person on the street, they might as well represent Easter Island.
At least they would be at home with the other big headed bastards, carved from rock!!
At the G20 summit, Cameron was forced to defend comments made about us being a tiny island……………
Its about time he realised, we are, just that, insignificant by our size.
Britain is like a midget, pissed up, punch drunk boxer.
Any little skirmish and we jump up shouting “PUT EM UP”
Putin said some true things today;
He said the Russians looked upon our country as an empire when we stood up against the evil of the nazis, along with Russia.
He went on to say Russian attitudes changed when Blair took us into war with Iraq with lies generated by the Yanks, that he sold to our people. We had become Americas poodle………
After this, Russian attitudes changed towards us, no longer were we looked upon as an empire…..
How come all opinion polls show the general public, over seventy percent, do not want to engage in another protracted war, yet our politicians who are supposed to reflect our opinions, do?.
Out of touch, they certainly are……………….
…………and so is Cameron by claiming the British are proud of their heritage and find it a pleasure to reside here……….
“Think again you tossbag”, try asking the victims of your heinous crimes against humanity, what they really think?
You, your cronies and the DWP, would be dangling, lifeless, on a rope thrown over a tree, piss dripping down your legs…………………..
Terrific post.
Geoff you said it all cams wont listen he thinks hes still on the world stage with the yanks but killing I wonder whot our politicians would do on the front line kacky pants come to mind but they kill more of us off before someone with heart puts a end to it or use our bodies to warm their empty mansions
“HOW LONG CAN THE CHAINS ON THE CREAKING GATES OF THE DWP’s CEMETERY OF SHAME, HOLD OUT?”
It seems as though most of the British public are asking the same question.
Every freedom of information site connected to the DWP, are awash with the same question, how many have died as a result of the ill conceived welfare reforms?…………………
The real answer would stagger anybody. This is the reason the DWP are reluctant to publish the “KNOWN” figures.
Controlling the media is easy when you hold the power, suppressing the truth is another matter. Whatever they try to withhold has a way of leaking out.
Friends at their department update me regularly on the discontent within their ranks and the bullying afforded to them.
Strangely, the once cast iron cauldron of the goverments nasty arm is starting to resemble a colander full of holes……..
Wherever they place their fingers to stop the truth leaking out, it finds another channel.
Daily they are bombarded with freedom of information requests. They give out replies but the public are no fools, finding time after time, they have been lied to. Answers they gave on one request, contradict that given on another……..
You have to have a good memory to be a good liar!!!
Foolishly, they employ more than a handful of employees to answer requests. Each employee is out of touch with what their colleagues have posted, therefore gaping errors are being seized upon, to their regret………………
I hope you have all requested the information that the DWP hold on you.
It costs nothing but it costs them time and money to collate it all. Why not put in a request today?
My information was seven inches deep and contained all my medical history. The same history that they request from you at an ESA, but is already in their domain.
Don’t hesitate, put in a request today!!! It costs you absolutely nothing, zero, zilch………
The chains are starting to stretch on the gates of the DWP’s cemetery of shame, the question of the day will be, “Who will take the wrap?”
Will it be the man at the top, Duncan Smith, the evil witch, Mcvey, or will it be put firmly on the shoulders of Gunnyeon, the medical chief of the DWP, “THE ANGEL OF DEATH”, who sold his soul and the lives of thousands to the greed of the private health insurers………………………….
Lobbying has it’s perks, but the needs of the hangmans halter have to be met………..
Who will fall first? Only time well tell.
THE BLAME GAME IS YET TO START, BUT WHEN IT DOES, WHO WILL BE CARRYING THE PROVERBIAL CAN?
……………the mind boggles.
Geoff, moral dilemma here. When DWP sends someone elses details in with your FOI request, do you write to the person and them and let them know? Do you think it might traumatise them? So maybe one shouldn’t? Should they have the right to complain though? Perhaps they should be compensated for trauma? Or loss of privacy? Do you tell the DWP of their error? Perhaps make the complaint on behalf of the person whose privacy has been compromised? What is the right thing to do? I reckon it’s a bit Yucky and I’m wondering how much other info is going astray? And to whom? For anyone who thought they had privacy it is now clear to me that there is none. I’m looking at some of the lies they have on file about me and cringing. It’s been an eye opener and a big shock. I’ve been reading what’s on file and I don’t recognise myself.
When I worked in Social Services we couldn’t write stuff about clients and file it away without getting the person to read it and sign that it was true. How has the DWP been subject to such different rules? I would be mortified if some of my info was sent out to some random person. I’m pretty mortified reading it myself.
This Country is Really Messed
All this Bureaucratic Codswallop Loud Music Scum Louts
and Sheople in their Tiny Little Worlds
Hardly Britain’s Finest Hour
I am Angry about Things especially when People do Not Give
a Toss
Upon failing my ESA medical, of which i was classed as disabled for “life”, formerley………..
Not to mention an accident at work in which i was awarded “Industrial Injury Benefit”……
……..I RECEIVED NO POINTS!!!!
Having my Incapacity Benefit stolen, i appealed immediately.
Upon my appeal i was informed that in order to get an benefit i would have to furnish, “STATEMENTS OF FITNESS FOR WORK CERTIFICATES” from my GP.
In a freedom of information request by PAUL MALPAS to the DWP, he received the following quote;
In the decision dated 2 July 2013 (ref VTR2728/13), it was confirmed that General
Practitioners are not trained to make an assessment on a person’s capability for work
according to legislation.
I challenged the DWP over this issue, stating that according to legislation my GP is not trained to make an assessment on a persons capability for work according to legislation.
After sending them the full FREEDOM OF INFORMATION response that they made to Mr. Malpas, they sent me this reply today;
” This response is not an official reply from the Department of Works and Pensions and no record of a request to the department has been made ”
THEY ARE DENYING THAT THIS REQUEST WAS EVER MADE, THEREFORE I WOULD LIKE TO SUBMIT IT FOR PUBLIC SCRUTINY……….
To Mr Paul Malpas
C/O [FOI #162095 email]
DWP Central Freedom of Information Team
e-mail: [DWP request email]
8August 2013
Dear Mr Malpas
Freedom of Information Act – Request for clarification (Internal Review)
Our Reference: IR 587
Thank you for your email dated 16 July 2013 requesting clarification of the former decisions
about the introduction of the “fit note” into DWP business. All Freedom of Information (FoI)
decisions carry appeal rights. It may help if I explain that the reason your request has
triggered an internal review is because you raised an additional question of clarification via the
Internet website http://www.whatdotheyknow.com (WDTK). The site was launched to file FoI
requests to UK Government Departments and Public Authorities. When you responded to the
DWP’s FoI decisions using the WDTK website and asked for further clarification, we assessed
your question and classified it as a request for an internal review of the former decisions
made.
In your email you asked:
I am a little confused, this is the second time (see also VTR2728/13 and IR552) I have
asked the DWP for some clarification on an answer received and have somehow
triggered an Internal Review.
I did not request an internal review merely some clarity on the information supplied and in
this instance I did ask for some further information (this being triggered by the information
already sent). There was really no need for an IR in either instance – indeed a request
for clarification would be best met by the person who made the original response.
I did note that in the response to IR552 it was also given a reminder that FoI is not about
clarifying information supplied – I would beg to differ on this point – unless the information
is completely unambigous e.g. a table of raw data showing actual facts and figures, then
clarification may well be needed as in the case of the response to VTR2728/13 which
contained statements authored for the response and clear not the raw data actually held
by the department e.g. the statement….
“GPs are not trained to make an assessment on a person’s capability for work according
to legislation. However they are able to provide “simple fitness for work advice to aid their
patient’s recovery and help them return to work.”
… is clearly not raw data held by the DWP (if it is then could you tell in what document(s)
it is found) I asked for clarification because one government website says that GPs can
make assessments on the functional effects of illness/disability in terms of a persons
ability to work and DWP were saying in their response that GPs are able to provide
simple fitness for work advice – at the risk of sounding facetious stating that a GP can
provide a lollipop to a child after their injections does not mean they can’t do other things.
Basically if you provide unclear answers, some of which are far more subjective than
objective then you can expect to be asked for clarification and should not be reminding
people in a condescending manner of what the FoI is or is not for.
Please be assured that your request for clarification has been given full consideration and that
all aspects have been taken fully into account.
This review has been conducted by an independent official of the Department, of the relevant
grade and authority to carry out such requests.
The former decisions (ref VTR 2728/13, VTR 2344, IR552 & IR528) have been examined
afresh to ensure all factors were taken fully into account.
In the decision dated 2 July 2013 (ref VTR2728/13), it was confirmed that General
Practitioners are not trained to make an assessment on a person’s capability for work
according to legislation.
On 2 July 2013, you challenged the wording “according to legislation”, and asked about GPs
not being trained to make an assessment on a person’s capability for work according to
legislation. In response to this, Registered Medical Practitioners/General Practitioners (GPs)
are registered with the General Medical Council and issue fit notes from their practice to
individuals to provide evidence of their advice provided about individual’s fitness for work.
GPs working in their own practices are not trained in accordance with legislation, whereas
Healthcare Professionals (HCP) recruited by Atos Healthcare are trained to conduct Work
Capability Assessments (WCA) in accordance with Employment and Support Allowance
legislation. Some of the HCPs employed by Atos Healthcare for the WCA process are, or have
been, General Practitioners. They do not issue fit notes. Those GPs must have at least three
years post-graduate experience in general practice, occupational or rehabilitation medicine to
conduct WCAs.
Legislation: The definition of Healthcare Professional (HCP) in the Welfare Reform Act 2007 is:
(a) a registered medical practitioner,
(b) a registered nurse,
(c) an occupational therapist or physiotherapist registered with a regulatory body established
by an Order in Council under section 60 of the Health Act 1999 (c. 8), or
(d) a member of such other profession regulated by a body mentioned in section 25(3) of the
National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professionals Act 2002 (c.17) as may be
prescribed.
In the decision dated 2 July 2013 (ref VTR2728/13) it was confirmed that GPs are able to
provide “simple fitness for work advice to aid their patient’s recovery and help them return to
work”. You challenged this decision. In the response dated 9 July 2013 (ref IR552/13), the
clarification was correct, but for completeness, GPs in their own practices also provide
medication and diagnostic medical advice. This is a totally different role to that of an HCP
employed by Atos Healthcare who is also trained in Disability Assessment Medicine.
Expertise in this field qualifies the HCP to give an impartial, independent assessment on the
way in which a claimant’s illness or disability affects them in carrying out of a range of
everyday work-related activities. Training includes the assessment of the effects of specific
conditions, for example mental health, or where a condition may fluctuate. Emphasis is always
placed on the differing circumstances of each individual claimant. The role of the HCP is
different to that of a GP or hospital specialist, the role of the GP is to diagnose and treat a
patient’s illness, whereas the role of the HCP is to assess the effects of a claimant’s illness on
their ability to perform everyday work-related activities.
In reviewing your request dated 16 July 2013, I uphold the former FoI decisions in part and
have added information where appropriate. I am therefore satisfied now that all the information
that DWP are able to supply to you has been supplied.
To Mr Paul Malpas
C/O [FOI #162095 email]
DWP Central Freedom of Information Team
e-mail: [DWP request email]
8August 2013
Dear Mr Malpas
Freedom of Information Act – Request for clarification (Internal Review)
Our Reference: IR 587
Thank you for your email dated 16 July 2013 requesting clarification of the former decisions
about the introduction of the “fit note” into DWP business. All Freedom of Information (FoI)
decisions carry appeal rights. It may help if I explain that the reason your request has
triggered an internal review is because you raised an additional question of clarification via the
Internet website http://www.whatdotheyknow.com (WDTK). The site was launched to file FoI
requests to UK Government Departments and Public Authorities. When you responded to the
DWP’s FoI decisions using the WDTK website and asked for further clarification, we assessed
your question and classified it as a request for an internal review of the former decisions
made.
In your email you asked:
I am a little confused, this is the second time (see also VTR2728/13 and IR552) I have
asked the DWP for some clarification on an answer received and have somehow
triggered an Internal Review.
I did not request an internal review merely some clarity on the information supplied and in
this instance I did ask for some further information (this being triggered by the information
already sent). There was really no need for an IR in either instance – indeed a request
for clarification would be best met by the person who made the original response.
I did note that in the response to IR552 it was also given a reminder that FoI is not about
clarifying information supplied – I would beg to differ on this point – unless the information
is completely unambigous e.g. a table of raw data showing actual facts and figures, then
clarification may well be needed as in the case of the response to VTR2728/13 which
contained statements authored for the response and clear not the raw data actually held
by the department e.g. the statement….
“GPs are not trained to make an assessment on a person’s capability for work according
to legislation. However they are able to provide “simple fitness for work advice to aid their
patient’s recovery and help them return to work.”
… is clearly not raw data held by the DWP (if it is then could you tell in what document(s)
it is found) I asked for clarification because one government website says that GPs can
make assessments on the functional effects of illness/disability in terms of a persons
ability to work and DWP were saying in their response that GPs are able to provide
simple fitness for work advice – at the risk of sounding facetious stating that a GP can
provide a lollipop to a child after their injections does not mean they can’t do other things.
Basically if you provide unclear answers, some of which are far more subjective than
objective then you can expect to be asked for clarification and should not be reminding
people in a condescending manner of what the FoI is or is not for.
Please be assured that your request for clarification has been given full consideration and that
all aspects have been taken fully into account.
This review has been conducted by an independent official of the Department, of the relevant
grade and authority to carry out such requests.
The former decisions (ref VTR 2728/13, VTR 2344, IR552 & IR528) have been examined
afresh to ensure all factors were taken fully into account.
In the decision dated 2 July 2013 (ref VTR2728/13), it was confirmed that General
Practitioners are not trained to make an assessment on a person’s capability for work
according to legislation.
On 2 July 2013, you challenged the wording “according to legislation”, and asked about GPs
not being trained to make an assessment on a person’s capability for work according to
legislation. In response to this, Registered Medical Practitioners/General Practitioners (GPs)
are registered with the General Medical Council and issue fit notes from their practice to
individuals to provide evidence of their advice provided about individual’s fitness for work.
GPs working in their own practices are not trained in accordance with legislation, whereas
Healthcare Professionals (HCP) recruited by Atos Healthcare are trained to conduct Work
Capability Assessments (WCA) in accordance with Employment and Support Allowance
legislation. Some of the HCPs employed by Atos Healthcare for the WCA process are, or have
been, General Practitioners. They do not issue fit notes. Those GPs must have at least three
years post-graduate experience in general practice, occupational or rehabilitation medicine to
conduct WCAs.
Legislation: The definition of Healthcare Professional (HCP) in the Welfare Reform Act 2007 is:
(a) a registered medical practitioner,
(b) a registered nurse,
(c) an occupational therapist or physiotherapist registered with a regulatory body established
by an Order in Council under section 60 of the Health Act 1999 (c. 8), or
(d) a member of such other profession regulated by a body mentioned in section 25(3) of the
National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professionals Act 2002 (c.17) as may be
prescribed.
In the decision dated 2 July 2013 (ref VTR2728/13) it was confirmed that GPs are able to
provide “simple fitness for work advice to aid their patient’s recovery and help them return to
work”. You challenged this decision. In the response dated 9 July 2013 (ref IR552/13), the
clarification was correct, but for completeness, GPs in their own practices also provide
medication and diagnostic medical advice. This is a totally different role to that of an HCP
employed by Atos Healthcare who is also trained in Disability Assessment Medicine.
Expertise in this field qualifies the HCP to give an impartial, independent assessment on the
way in which a claimant’s illness or disability affects them in carrying out of a range of
everyday work-related activities. Training includes the assessment of the effects of specific
conditions, for example mental health, or where a condition may fluctuate. Emphasis is always
placed on the differing circumstances of each individual claimant. The role of the HCP is
different to that of a GP or hospital specialist, the role of the GP is to diagnose and treat a
patient’s illness, whereas the role of the HCP is to assess the effects of a claimant’s illness on
their ability to perform everyday work-related activities.
In reviewing your request dated 16 July 2013, I uphold the former FoI decisions in part and
have added information where appropriate. I am therefore satisfied now that all the information
that DWP are able to supply to you has been supplied.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/162095/response/417463/attach/html/3/IR587%20P%20Malpas%20Final.pdf.html
Just seen this on Johnny void.
Compelling evidence that the governments “ETHNIC CLEANSING POLICY” is strategically placed to kill even more human beings, cause distress, broken homes, pestilence and kids on the streets.
London Homelessness Soars In First Three Months of Benefit Cap
Posted on September 9, 2013 by johnny void
homeless1The number of families accepted as homeless by London local authorities has rocketed by 26% compared to the same period a year earlier.
4,230 households – almost all with children – were owed a main homelessness duty between April and June of this year. These are families who councils have accepted they have a legal duty to help and only represent the tip of the iceberg. Thousands more single people, families judged intentionally homeless, or those refused help for not meeting strict criteria, are also facing life without a home in the capital.
This huge rise came after the Government introduced a Benefit Cap for families at £500 a week in some parts of London from April this year. Whilst this is unlikely to affect many households in Scotland, Northern England or Wales, it has made much of the capital, and surrounding areas, unaffordable to families on benefits due to soaring rents.
This is reflected in the figures. In London the main reason given for the loss of a settled home was the ending of an Assured Short Term tenancy, representing 1,450 households who became homeless in the period. This is a staggering rise of 78% on a year earlier showing that the very worst predictions about the Benefit Cap – which could see over 200,000 children made homeless – are already starting to appear.
And this really is just the beginning. The Benefit Cap had only been rolled out in four London boroughs during the period which these figures represent. Some families have been protected by Discretionary Housing Payments – money set aside by Councils intended for the most vulnerable and which is only a temporary measure. Even those families who did not receive this support may have clung onto their homes for a couples of months and not yet had to apply to the council for emergency help.
The Benefit Cap is currently being rolled out across the rest of London and the UK. This comes along with the Bedroom Tax – a measure which will not see a spike in homelessness immediately as Housing Benefits are gradually chipped away at and some of the poorest households in the country fall deeper and deeper into arrears. Almost all of those evictions are still to come and 600,000 people are set to be affected.
On top of this the Benefit Uprating Bill means that Housing Benefits are to be cut from next year whatever happens to rents. Rules already introduced which mean those under 35 are now only entitled to a room in a shared house are also having an impact as there aren’t enough rooms in shared houses to go round. This measure has – according to a report published by the DWP themselves – led to some landlords stopping renting to anyone under the age of 35 in case they lose their jobs and can no longer pay the rent.
Homelessness across the UK rose by 5% in the last year, a still alarming figures. But as tens of thousands of people are socially cleansed from the South East pressure on housing elsewhere will start to mount and rents are likely to rise everywhere. The upcoming Treasury created house price bubble is also likely to impact on rents whilst spending on building social housing (remember that?) is being cut to the bone.
It is impossible to predict how bad homelessness is going to get. But savage cuts to housing benefits, cuts to social housing, soaring rents and one of the least regulated private rental sectors in the world could lead to a truly terrifying future for millions of low income households in insecure and expensive private rented accommodation. Very soon losing your job in many parts of the UK is likely to mean losing your home. And there are no cheaper homes to go to. A dramatic failure of free market housing policies led to the crisis which saw rents sky-rocket and Housing Benefits take up much of the slack. Now those benefits are being stripped away, and rents are still soaring. The biggest housing crisis to hit the UK in generations could be just around the corner and not a single MP, from any of the main three parties, seems to give a flying fuck.
“IT’S SAD WHEN HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS ARE UTILISING THE EXPERTISE OF SAMARITANS TO HELP CALL CENTRE STAFF IN DEALING WITH CALLERS WHO ARE EXPRESSING INCREASED SUICIDAL TENDENCIES”
YOU CAN ALWAYS SPOT A MISTAKE MADE BY A BUILDER OR A JOINER………………………………………..
THE COALITION GOVERNMENT BURY THEIRS……………
Rather than expecting a GP to write volumes about a patients fitness to work, why can’t a simple document be made that expresses that the claimant is unable to do any work due to an ongoing disability?
This would alleviate any pressure on the doctor, reduce the workload and free up valuable time for other patients.
I will attempt to answer my own suggestion;
The DWP are reluctant to pay back the very benefits that they have stolen.
By making sure the GP is under pressure and struggling to make individual,tailored medical reports available, it takes the heat off the DWP and focuses attention on the inadequacy of the doctor, whilst further stalling the appeals process.
In other words, logic will never be followed, as this route would repatriate the money with the claimant who had it “STOLEN BY ATOS” in the first place………….
The DWP thrives on hurting as many people as is practicably possible and is clearly reflected in its heinous treatment of the weakest in our society.
Welfare reforms are better known as “Murder by Decree”, the gates of the DWP’s cemetery of shame are bursting…………
L
Can’t understand why GP’s are trusted to write fit notes and yet the note is not enough to tell DWP a person is not fit to work. It’s a disgrace and a waste of NHS resources. What has happened to GP training that leaves them so lacking? Years ago the old sick note was seen as fit for purpose. this new ‘fit note’ is a complete failure. If a fully trained experienced doctor who presumably knows the patient and has access to a patients notes is not now trusted to be competent enough to decide if a person is fit to work, surely he needs extra training. How can a nurse or OT or Physio who will see a person once for 15- 20 minutes be better? If my GP doesn’t have the competance, why should he write any fit notes at all. It’s really quite worrying to imagine what he might actually be considered competant to do. How about a seperate dept who simply decide who is fit to work. Perhaps one in each town. You would then see your GP for stuff he can treat first and just the fit note writer for the stuff he can’t ie flu, gastro, ongoing medical conditions that have not responded to treatment or where there is no treatment. Perhaps this dept would be a check on poor GP’s, who prefer to fob patients off, instead of actively seeking to cure them. lots of people have conditions that are yet to have a proper cure, these dept’s could flag up where further research is needed to find such treatments and cures to the benefit of both the patient and the tax payer. Obviously theses depts would need to be staffed by experienced doctors and specialists who will follow current research and of course some people may well need to be treated too because people never seem to know where to go these days to get treatment or their condition may have worsened. These dept’s could charge the DWP for their services so it wouldn’t cost any more and of course it would save the NHS a fortune. The government are clearly making a point allowing the DWP to disregard the Fit Note in this way and I’m surprised GP’s have not stood up for themselves and their profession and demanded to either have their professional opinion taken seriously or simply opt out of providing Fit notes at all.
I KEEP TELLING PEOPLE, ” YOU ARE ENTITLED TO ALL THE INFORMATION THAT THE DWP HOLD ON YOU”
RING THEM UP OR ASK BY LETTER, THEY MUST FURNISH YOU WITH THE INFORMATION.
COST TO YOU, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, ZILCH, ZERO………………
I RECEIVED THREE HUGE ENVELOPES CONTAINING ALL MY MEDICAL RECORDS, A PILE OF PAPER SEVEN INCHES HIGH!!!!!!
THEY ALREADY HAVE ALL YOUR RECORDS………..
FOR MY APPEAL I JUST SENT IT TO THE APPEAL BODY……………
IN EFFECT THEY ARE JUST TAKING THE PISS, ASKING FOR INFORMATION ALREADY IN THEIR DOMAIN………..
” I WOULD URGE ANYONE TO REQUEST THEIR INFO IMMEDIATELY”
Ask them to send you the following documents
The ESA85
The ESA85 Decision Makers Scoresheet
The ESA65
ESA85(s)
The ESA113
All the medical information the HCP used to make their opinion
All the medical information the Decision Makers Office used to make their decision
LT54 with the name date and SIGNATURE of the DM you have all my details I politely request this document signed and dated
ESA65B.
Without the fitnote and gl24 you wont be able to be put on assessment rate while you wait for appeal.. ESA assessment rate £71
DWP has shifted their reponsibility on to GPs and it’s not fair. No wonder they are trying to fight back. It’s just a shame that we end up as piggy in the middle. In a fair world, GPs would claim back for all the extra appointments, presciptions etc. Why should all patients have to put up with longer waiting just because the govt thinks you can simply starve sick and disabled people into work?
Even with an appt. you still wait at least half an hour to see the doctor, sometimes an hour. If the DWP don’t believe the claimant without evidence, which it appears they don’t, then they do need to pay for the evidence to be produced. Everyday we hear how the NHS is in crisis yet I had to bother my GP for duplicate fit notes because DWP lost them. I can’t afford to feed myself properly but there is a presciption that covers tummy ache. It’s not working very well but a second one might cover it. Presumably it’s been costed by the govt that it’s cheaper to hand out multiple presciptions than give humans beings enough money to live. Dealing with a long term health condition is tough. Physically mentally emotionally it’s draining. it’s never been easy managing on benefits. But you could get by. Now it’s impossible and I see no way out. Covering the basics is impossible and so is having any kind of a social life. being excluded and isolated makes coping so much harder so I go to my GP and tell him he has to tell me how to cope. He’s busy so he gives me another couple of prescriptions. He’s no comprehension of what I’m asking, and he’s no time to let me explain. The world has gone mad and I’m the one who needs medicating for it. Really that has to be MAD!
Not very often we get good news but i welcomed this. It should make a few jaws drop in parliament, but how do you put right the anguish and suffering of those who have already succumbed to this policy and lost their home as a consequence?
By Nick Sommerlad
Bedroom Tax DOES breach human rights and should be scrapped, says the United Nations in landmark decision
10 Sep 2013 23:59
UNITED NATIONS special envoy Raquel Rolnik will call on the Con-Dems to scrap the tax, which she believes breaches the basic right to housing.
United Nations envoy, Raquel Rolnik with the Daily Record dossier United Nations envoy, Raquel Rolnik with the Daily Record dossier
Garry F McHarg/FOCAL (Scotland)
DAVID CAMERON’S hated bedroom tax breaches human rights and should be scrapped, a top UN official will demand today.
Special rapporteur Raquel Rolnik will call on the Con-Dems to scrap their decision to cut benefits to tenants with a spare room. She will say the policy breaches the basic right to housing as there are not enough smaller properties for tenants to move into.
Rolnik is ready to reveal her findings today after an unprecedented two-week tour of the UK meeting campaigners, bedroom tax victims and officials.
Ironically, it was the Tory-led Government who gave the Brazilian housing and architecture academic permission to carry out the study – and she is set to deliver a harsh critique of Britain’s housing crisis.
The Government claim cutting housing benefit for tenants who have a spare room will save £500million a year. Households with an extra bedroom will have to find an extra £14 a week or move into alternative accommodation.
But critics say the policy will create huge suffering for 660,000 victims and dispute whether it will save money.
Rolnik has visited London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast and Manchester over the past fortnight.
……………………………………………………………………………
One thing i am really glad about is the impression that this gives our counterparts, of Britains concerted hate campaign against its poorest.
The jigsaw pieces are falling nicely into place, letting the world see the true nature of our politics and the division of wealth and chastisement………………………
How can the government even show it’s face after this damning indictment of the way it has treated its poorest tenants?
How do you begin to compensate a family for the loss of a loved one, taken by this evil policy?
Who will inevitably, have to fall on their sword as the momentum of the moment gathers pace?
All these questions must be asked………..and more!
Heads should roll for this fiasco……………..
Even if the policy of the bedroom tax is dropped completely, where would one begin in putting right the wrongs that have already driven tenants from their homes?…………….
They might be controlling the media but people power and common sense prevail.
No wonder they seek to gag the victims of their policies, surely this will be another blow to the transparency of lobbying bill that they are trying to push through unnoticed, this is also a breach of human rights, the right to reply………………………………
hot off the press:
Hoban meeting yesterday
“45 minutes passed in the blink of an eye and sadly, though we did ask the questions, there was no time to pin down answers on where things stand on mental health assessments/champions and the decision to divide physical and cognitive conditions when it comes to scoring points during an assessment.”
really useful outcome for those with mental health problems – NO FUCKING CHANGE THERE THEN!!!!!!!!!
much glowing about how well the meeting went BUT………
……………felt slightly dishonest today. As my neighbour left his house, i looked in his bin. Could’nt believe my eyes, a full loaf of bread unopened. I took it but was careful to see if anyone was watching me. I hobbled back to my front door glancing from side to side to ensure i had not been seen.
Upon opening the bag i noticed that around threequarters had gone blue with mould, but the rest was ok.
The fridge is empty barring an old tube of tomato puree. I spread the puree on the bread and hungrily bit into it………
It made me wonder, did the ATOS HCP, Emma BRODRICK,
really understand the reality of what she was doing when she picked up her wages of sin?
Was she aware of the sleepless nights, the worry, the anguish and the burden of not only me, but my family?
Did she ever think for even a single moment, of the horror of her ways?
If roles were reversed, i do not think i could do the same to her, the torment should never be placed on a human being……….
If only EMMA BRODRICK could have experienced what i have, i am sure she would never do it again………………..
“To condemn someone to hell is the the job of an assassin, not a registered nurse”……….
Please forgive her as she is oblivious to the error of her ways. The money completely clouded her judgements…….
People look up to people with money like they are something. Money equals good. People without money are therefore bad, and need punishing probably. If you have a job and they tell you to do something bad, you are not bad because they told you to do it and gave you money. You can show people your money and prove you are good and worthy. Why else would anyone give you money? You can even go to church and put extra in the collection and prove how good you are. Shame the poor people who just put in a few sneaky coppers.
It’s a lesson isn’t it? But what if we have it wrong? what if bad people pay foolish people to do their dirty work? What if by getting others involved you can make the dirty work look clean? All these nice medical people wouldn’t be bad would they? Even Judas wasn’t a bad man. Not really. He was perhaps a bit greedy and foolish. He hoped having money would make him happy but it made him feel bad. It was dirty money. I bet lots of ATOS and DWP workers wonder if they are hurting people, and wonder what they can do about it, what with mortgages, kids, partners to take care of. Do they worry about their dirty money and take the edge of it by spending more on alcohol ect? People are easily scared into going against their conscience and then they have to justify themselves. Hitler was able to justify ethnic cleansing and the holocaust, and his followers were happy to help. I reckon it’s easy peasy to justify picking on so called sick and disabled people who are probably putting it on a bit for sympathy and an easy life.
It’s really hard to say no when you are at work. It’s hard and tough to make a stand. Most people can’t afford to have principles. Those that do are usually given a hard time by everyone. Probably because they make others feel bad. I think most people deep down know what’s right and what’s wrong but they don’t have the confidence to stand up for it.
I had the misfortune to encounter this evil ‘nurse’ on my WCA and also received 0 points. She is an outright liar and bitch of the highest order. I too have experienced the reality of having all money stopped, with direct debits due to come out of the bank, and the absolute panic and trauma and hardship she has caused. It will be a miracle if I manage to keep a roof over my head after what she has done, and I have had suicidal thoughts for the first time in my life as a direct result of her actions. I hope her pay packet was worth it for her.
Jay, just got a letter from brown envelope from Hull Benefit Centre of SHEFFIELD, incidentally i live in Scarborough………
The letter, from the manager, Tony Sayer, informs me that my contribution based ESA will end on 1 November 2013.
” WHAT CHANCE HAS UNIVERSAL CREDIT, OF WORKING PROPERLY, GIVEN THAT THEY STOPPED MY ESA LAST NOVEMBER?”
None whatsoever, surely it will crash and burn. It will again be delayed and the increased workload will break the system.
How will they cope updating the information for all the John Smith’s in the UK?
WHILST THE DEATHS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SUCCUMBED TO THE FALLOUT CAUSED BY THE TRULY EVIL CRIMES OF WELFARE REFORMS SPIRAL HOPELESSLY OUT OF CONTROL, THIS IS THE ANSWER FROM OUR GOVERNMENT;
“PLASTIC BAGS ARE TO COST 5 PENCE”
WHAT FUCKING WORLD DO THESE IMBECILES BELONG ON?, IT CERTAINLY IS’NT THE ONE WHERE I LIVE!!
PENSIONERS ARE DYING OF HYPOTHERMIA, PEOPLE ARE HAVING THEIR HOMES TAKEN, DISABLED ARE BEING STARVED TO DEATH AND MORE CHILDREN ARE BEING BORN INTO POVERTY THAT AT ANY TIME SINCE THE LAST WAR.
The only thing that is booming is food banks, yet these gormless bastards who got more for attending a parliament call back for Thatchers death, than i get to live on for a full year, have the impudence to place “a shilling tariff on plastic bags”, at the top of the agenda…………………………
They chose to ridicule a report by a UNITED NATIONS inspector on the real plight of our nation, while they pass legislation on a bag………………………….
The leaking of the bag tariff, has taken the thunder from the Lib Dems conference…….it has been revealed!!
WAKE UP YOU DELUDED TOSSBAGS!
“THERE MUST BE MORE BRAIN CELLS IN A DISCARDED SHOWER CAP THAN THE WHOLE OF OUR REPRESENTATIVES IN WESTMINSTER”
WORDS FAIL ME. WE MIGHT AS WELL HAVE A GOLDFISH ON A LEAD………………………
“A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST TO THE DWP ON, WHAT DO THEY KNOW, WEBSITE”
From: C Robinson
8 September 2013
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
I am writing this FOI because I have seen many differing views
regarding clause 99 and the catch 22 situation that it puts sick
and disabled claimants in,
So my questions are thus:
Q1 When a person is refused ESA and appeals against the decision,
what benefits can he claim if s/he has no income?
Q2 If an ESA refusal claimant is too “fit” for ESA, but too sick or
disabled for JSA what is there recourse?
(i) How will they pay their bills?
(ii) How will they be able to get medication? (as they will not be
on any benefits to qualify for free prescriptions)
(iii) What about their homes? Will you still cover the rent? Or
will you be setting up modern-day workhouses?
(iv) Where are their human rights? I refer to article 6 and 25
respectively. Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights
act is a provision of the European Convention which protects the
right to a fair trial. In criminal law cases and cases to determine
civil rights it protects the right to a public hearing before an
independent and impartial tribunal within reasonable time, the
presumption of innocence, and other minimum rights for those
charged in a criminal case (adequate time and facilities to prepare
their defence, access to legal representation, right to examine
witnesses against them or have them examined, right to the free
assistance of an interpreter). Article 25. (1) Everyone has the
right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing,
housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the
right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness,
disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in
circumstances beyond his control.
Q3 How can someone have a fair hearing (see article 6 above) at a
tribunal when you have driven them into a catch 22 situation? i.e.
A claimant refused ESA, through sheer destitution has to sign on
and as soon as they do it cancels out their appeal, even though
they are too ill to work and have no chance of getting a job. How
legal is this since the UK signed the Human Rights act? Pursuant of
this how many appeals will be made to the ECHR?
Q4 When a person is turned away from the JCP because s/he doesn’t
fit the criteria to sign on (their illnesses means hospital
appointments, etc) what are their rights if any?
Q5 What impact will Clause 99 have on the Infrastructure? i.e:
(i) The NHS?
(ii) Foodbanks?
(iii) Social Services?
(iv) The Police (people HAVE turned to crime when they have no
income whatsoever)
(v) Local Councils (How can people pay the council tax with no
money)?
Q6 How long will it be before the application of Clause 99 causes
chaos and meltdown?
Q7 How many deaths will this cause?
Yours faithfully,
C Robinson
Link to this
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/clause_99_and_the_catch_22_situa
I keep watching snippets from the Lib Dem conference, what a wonderful bunch they really are………………….
They pursue only the best for everybody, having never done anything wrong in the past…….
Sadly, the are all the same, each and every party just an extension of the previous idiots at the reins.
Propaganda is probably our nations best attribute, hot air in abundance that James Watt decided to cash in on……..
“Never have so many, done fuck all for so few”
Why don’t they achieve what they promised whilst in power?
How come it’s always in the manifesto or policy projections?
We must be delusional if we ever stoop so low as to believe them, we are our own worst enemy……….
Same old shit, different ribbon colour…………………..
This will be the fourth year that no heating has been on in my home……………………
Mind you, disabled, benefits taken and in Britain, what do you expect?
What about this then? Is it the tip of the iceberg as our elderly perish this winter?
“SURVIVAL COMES TO MIND”
A 40-year-old man was jailed for arson after he started a fire using broken fencing inside his flat to cook and keep warm.
Paul Daynes, of Brackenholme Royd, Buttershaw, Bradford, was due to be sentenced at the city’s crown court yesterday but refused to leave his cell at Leeds Prison and the case had to go ahead in his absence.
Last month Daynes went on trial accused of recklessly endangering the lives of three neighbours in the two-storey block when he started the fire in the rented flat back in April.
At the end of his trial the jury cleared him of that offence, but convicted Daynes on the less serious charge of simple arson.
Judge John Potter yesterday sentenced Daynes to 30 months in jail for the arson matter.
The jury heard during the trial how Daynes had removed the gas fire at his home and started a blaze in the hearth.
He admitted pulling out the gas heater and using broken fence posts and paper to light a fire in the hearth.
After he threw on an empty gas canister that had contained lighter fuel he went to the shops.
Daynes told the court he had lived alone at the flat for five years with his dog and after his benefit payments had been stopped for ten weeks he had no gas or electricity.
He said it was a cold day and he put about ten pieces of broken fencing in the hearth to build a fire for warmth.
……………………………………………………………………………….
” At least he will be warm and nourished”
Only just heard about the Black Triangle today. A caring housing officer told me to look it up. I have debilitating problems with anxiety, depression, OCD and bulimia and have done for many years. For many years I have received Incapacity Benefit (and its predecessors), but following a Medical Assessment by ATOS Healthcare on behalf of the DWP, I’ve been told that not only am I not entitled to ESA, I’m also no longer entitled to Incapacity Benefit – and I received my last payment of it on 5th September 2013. I live in a small house which I rent from my local Housing Association, and pay a percentage of my rent and Council Tax whilst the bulk of it has been covered by Housing and Council Tax Benefit. Not any more! When you lose Incapacity, you lose EVERYTHING ELSE as well. Incredibly I was awarded ZERO points at my assessment, even though I had lengthily completed the initial questionnaire and explained in great detail the daily problems I have with mental health. (Also the fact that following a serious car accident a few years ago I have permanent nerve damage to my shoulder and neck plus arthritis and arthralgia.) Evidently, the fact that I can pick up and move an empty cardboard box without difficulty, hold a pen and sign my name, and do not soil myself and have to change my clothes, I AM FIT FOR WORK. It’s as if the interviewer was interviewing a completely different person – all my mental health problems were either completely overlooked or made out to be insignificant. Suffice it to say I was so horrified by the decision that since then my antidepressants have had to be increased, I’m getting chest pains and my hair has started falling out. Of course, I’ve submitted an appeal – fully backed by my lovely GP who wrote me a letter to enclose with the appeal paperwork – but I’m told the appeal could take weeks, months or even longer ‘if it has to go to a tribunal’ and in the meantime I am to exist on £71.70 a week. My bedroom-tax means I have to pay £14 a week rent (even after Housing Benefit, if I was still receiving it) out of that £71.70. Plus, I normally put £60+ into the bank each week to cover all my utilities and insurances. I’m neither a smoker nor a drinker – never have been. But even if I don’t eat, and only drink tap water, I still won’t have enough to manage on! £108 a week Incapacity Benefit a week wasn’t much, but it was ENOUGH and I managed. What on earth am I supposed to do now, while the DWP take their time deciding whether my appeal is worth pursuing or not? If the answer, ultimately, is NOT, I’ll have no option but to give up my home and throw myself on the mercy of my daughter and son-in-law (who, despite working full-time, live hand-to-mouth much of the time as well, like so many young families in this day and age). It’s cold today but I’ve no intention of putting the heating on – and today I have avoided eating until I was so hungry I felt sick, whereupon I had a large bowl of cereal. Is this how life is going to be for the foreseeable future??? If it wasn’t for my grandchildren, who I adore, I wouldn’t see much point in going on. Enough said. Thinking of all of you who are in similar predicaments and hoping we ALL end up successful. Annie x
“EVIL HAS NO BOUNDARIES, IT APPEARS”…………………..
By Dailyrecord.co.uk
Grieving mum who lost nine-year-old son in house fire is hit with Bedroom Tax bill for her tragic boy’s old room
19 Sep 2013 00:01
DEVASTATED Sheree McGill faces having to move out of family home because callous Con-Dem rules mean her house is now under-occupied.
Tragic nine-year-old Evan died in 2010 Tragic nine-year-old Evan died in 2010
A GRIEVING mother has been hit by the bedroom tax – after her son died in a house fire.
Sheree McGill, 36, has been told she will have to pay the hated charge because nine-year-old Evan’s tragic death has left her house “under-occupied”.
Evan was killed when a blaze swept through his family’s home two days after Christmas in 2011.
Single mum Sheree and her four surviving children only returned to the house in Kilmarnock in February, after East Ayrshire Council paid to have it renovated.
In a bitter irony, she wrestled long and hard with whether to return to the place where she lost her beloved young son
But now she faces having to move her family again after officials at the Department for Work and Pensions have cut her housing benefit – because Evan is no longer alive to use his room.
Yesterday, tearful Sheree said: “I can’t believe this is happening.
“It’s not our fault that Evan died.
“It’s unbelievable that they wouldn’t take our circumstances into account.”
Sheree lives in the four-bedroom house with her children Talia, 16, Zac, seven, Yasmin, six, and five-year-old Nya.
But the devastated mum has been told new under-occupancy rules don’t allow her current living arrangements and her housing benefits will be cut by 25 per cent, leaving her with a shortfall of £16.60 a week.
She now faces having to find the missing money to pay her landlords at East Ayrshire Council or moving out.
Talia and Zac have their own rooms while Yasmin and Nya share one.
But under bedroom tax rules, Zac – who lives in the room he used to share with his big brother Evan – is too young to have his own room.
Sheree said: “If Evan was still here, Zac would love to share with him again. But sadly he isn’t.
“The council were so good putting us back in here and now, no matter what I do, I’m told I have to pay because I have a seven-year-old in a room alone.
UN official Raquel Rolnik is looking for your personal stories about the Work Capability Assessment (WCA)…
Ms Rolnik has already produced a statement on the bedroom tax, recommending that it be suspended immediately. She now wants to examine all of the recent welfare changes and welcomed personal stories about the WCA and how it is affecting people. This is because concerns have been raised about the number of WCA related deaths due to deteriorating health or suicide.
Once these accounts are collated the evidence will be presented to the United Nations General Council in March.
You can email Raquel Rolnik about your experiences with Atos, the WCA or any other welfare reform issue at srhousing@ohchr.org
You can also write to:
His Excellency Mr Ban Ki Moon
United Nations Secretary-General
UN Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
USA
E-mail: sgcentral@un.org
My GP and other health staff are being totally supportive of me and writing reports for me for my change from IB to ESA
In another story, Liam Byrne has NOT said he will sack ATOS – rather he called on Cameron to sack ATOS – especially intriguing as Labour have invited UNUM to meet delegates at the Brighton Conference and Anne McGuire MP (disabled person) is having a ‘private’ invite only party with UNUM people today too
It is Sad and Distressing when GPS Fail to Care More about
their Pockets and Kowtowing to the Con Dem Regime than
the Plight of Patients
Doctors have a Duty to Care and Help Otherwise they Need
to be Sacked
Stuff the ” Free Market ” and Rebuild the National Health
Service
The National Health Service Needs Adequate Funding For Hospitals Equipment GPs Nurses and Surgeons .
This is More Important than the False Idol of the ” Free Market ”
Wherefore, My Dearly Beloved , Flee Ye From Idolatry as it Says in 1st Corinthians Chapter 10 Verse 14 of the Holy Bible .
Politicians Need to Get it through their Thick and Ignorant Skulls that theNational Health Service is More an Asset to the Country than their Wrecking of it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ-6jnsbc5c
Iain Dale charged with assault now.
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2013-09-24/police-seek-to-question-mcbride-publisher-iain-dale/
& so he should be.
Q. What Is A Disability Analyst?
A. A Disability Analyst is a made up corporate name for ATOS. They have no qualifications in medicine or medical issues. It is a ATOS Healthcare copywrited name Disability Analyst is a pen pusher for ATOS. FACT.
What you need to know about Atos assessments.
Courageous Scottish nurse Joyce Drummond, who made a heartfelt apology to Atos assessment victims, has submitted evidence to the Scottish Parliament Select Committee on Welfare Reform.
Joyce forwarded some of her notes to me, containing this information about Atos assessments. I have edited where needed, organised the notes and added some information to the text. I’ve included the contents from Joyce’s notes in full.
“I knew nothing about Atos when I joined, and left as soon as I realised that there was no way to fight from the inside. I carried out Incapacity Benefit assessments, these were the forerunner to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) assessments. I stated at my interview for the job that I believed in social inclusion and social justice.
I went for 4 weeks training in England. The training did not prepare me for what I was expected to do in real life.
The forms that are completed prior to assessment, I have recently found out, are opened by Royal Mail Staff. They are then sent for “scrutiny” where nurses decide whether or not a face to face assessment is required. I was not involved in this and do not know what criteria are used.
It is made clear throughout training and working that we are not nurses- we are disability analysts. Also, we do not carry out ‘medical assessments’ – we carry out ‘functional assessments’. We did not even need a diagnosis to carry out assessments. I had reservations around consent, as we were expected to assess patients – sorry, we didn’t have patients, we had ‘claimants’ – who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or other substances.
We were also consistently told that we did not make benefit decisions. The final decision was made by a DWP decision maker with no medical qualification. If our assessment was overturned at appeal we never knew about it. There was no accountability for assessments overruled.”
Full Article –
kittyjoneswordpress
http://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/what-you-need-to-know-about-atos-assessments/
“Personal Independence Payment
PIP allowance is based on how a person’s condition affects their daily activities; it is not based on the condition itself.”
That is a contradiction in terms = Not Fit For Purpose = Scrapped.
If the GPs are giving out medication, then that is a fact of a condition. FACT.
GP’s give out medication all the time simply to help diagnose conditions. If it works you probably had the condition if it doesn’t they can try something else. Various practitioners spent 10 years trying different medications for what turned out to be Granuloma Annularae and the treatment required? There is none. Hurrah! What a waste of money. Prescriptions are proof of very little!
Prescriptions at cost or not , it does not matter. The GP has writen you out a prescription. Proof.
Proof he believes there is possibly something to fix yes, fair enough. But not proof of diagnosis.
“IN LOVING MEMORY OF”
THE COUNTLESS THOUSANDS WHO HAVE
LOST THEIR LIVES
DUE TO
BENEFIT SANCTIONS
BY THE
DEPARTMENT OF WORKS AND PENSIONS
“May they rest in peace, knowing their only crime was
having a disability”
I’m afraid every time we say someone has died, killed themselves, feels suicidal or is becomeing sicker due to government cuts, the government rubs it’s hands in glee. We will not shame them into treating us better. The govt has raised the pension age to stop having to pay the pension for so long. They are making all their lowest workers worse off because the difference now between the life expectancy of the richest and poorest is 19 years, more poverty could increase those figures. If a woman waits 8 years extra for her pension and then lives 19 less years than might be expected, how many years will she draw her pension for? How much can be saved? They have removed 27 years. If someone on benefit kill’s themselves now or is hounded to death, the govt saves money. SIMPLE. We need to find a better way of getting through, rather than proving that the present system is working! If you die, the govt does not care for your suffering it cares for the figures, one less dependent person to feed. The only way to get through is to hit them in their pocket. PLEASE DO NOT TOP YOURSELF, do something expensive. Think of your fellow sufferers. This present abusive system must not be seen to work.
“MURDER IS MURDER, WHATEVER WAY YOU LOOK AT IT”.
ANYONE, PERSON OR ORGANISATION, THAT WILFULLY TAKES THE LIFE, OF A HUMAN BEING IS A “MURDERER”.
SADLY THE DWP ARE TAKING LIVES BY THE THOUSANDS AND YET NOTHING IS SEEN TO BE DONE ABOUT IT?
CAN LEGISLATION BE USED IN THE SAME WAY, A KNIFE, BULLET OR EXPLOSION REMOVES A PERSONS EXISTENCE, FALL INTO A DIFFERENT CATEGORY? I DON’T THINK SO FOR ONE MOMENT…………………………
THE DWP ARE VIRTUAL ASSASSINS, EMPLOYED BY THE TWISTED, LOATHESOME GOVERNMENT TO ERADICATE POVERTY AND DISABILITY BY KILLING ON A HUGE UNPRECEDENTED SCALE.
A CULL OF THE WEAKEST AT THE BEHEST OF THE STRONGEST. NOT THE STRONGEST BY NATURE, THE STRONGEST BY WEALTH ALONE……….
A SICK AND VILE CREATION OF MURDER BY DECREE. A TROUBLED NAZI DOCTRINE THAT STAINED THE PAGES OF HISTORY WHILE EXPOSING THE LIMITS OF WHAT MAN COULD INFLICT ON MAN.
PEOPLE ARE FALLING VICTIM TO A CRIME MORE CALLOUS THAN ANYTHING YET INVENTED IN OUR PREVIOUS CENTURIES. THEY BEAR NO COMPASSION AS THE DARK WINGS OF THE ANGEL OF DEATH, STRANGLES THE LAST GASP OF AIR FROM THE LUNGS OF THE INNOCENT VICTIMS…………
“MURDER IS MURDER, WHATEVER WAY YOU LOOK AT IT”……………………………………………………………………….
STATE ENCOURAGED DEATHS ARE SPIRALLING OUT OF CONTROL AS THE CROOKED MEDIA BARONS, IN THE POCKETS OF THE TRIGGER MEN, SIMPLY HIDE THE EVIDENCE.
WILL YOU BE NEXT???????????????????????????
“The long-term unemployed are to be told they must do an unpaid full-time job or be stripped of their benefits.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2434182/Now-work-benefits-Ministers-unveil-tough-crackdown-payments-jobless.html
First of all t will cost millions to impliment. It will not get the welfare state bill down, in fact it will increase it. The fact is why aredisabled people going to work for nothing, they might as well work helping their condition at home if they ain`t been evicted yet. Threats where there is already nothing to lose is a failure even before it starts. The result of the “Pound Land” case was the worker working for nothing won her case & the DWP are now appealing. Until that appeal is heard & lost for the DWP , the DWP & IDS can`t act upon their new breach of huan rights.
They are treading unknown waters, the hole they are digging for themselves will soon cave in on them……………….
Lansley is now backtracking on the ridiculous Lobbying bill, having been instructed that his intentions seriously breach human rights laws on the persons right to free speech.
Desperation springs to mind. Each and every policy they try to deliver, has cost them (us), dearly.
They are a flop and they know it. Any arsehole can manipulate figures to make them appear satisfactory, sadly, scrutiny is showing them to be the barefaced liars they are……………
I study freedom of information requests and the answers the DWP give back.
A vast tide of hatred is forcing this department to conceal the truth regarding statistics arising from workfare placements and ongoing crimes against the disabled. Frequently they mess up, big style, and contradict information they have given out.
Hiding the truth will be this governments downfall. Passing the parcel will result in many junior posts being vacated.
Whistleblowing will expose all the rotten apples in the handcart of death.
You can put your hands over your ears and pretend you are not listening, the only person you are fooling is yourself…………….
“IF YOU READ THIS ANSWER FROM DWP REGARDING UPDATES OF HOW WELL UNIVERSAL CREDIT IS DOING, YOU WILL REALISE HOW DESPERATE THEY ARE TO CONCEAL THE TRUTH”
Dear Mr Zola,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request received on 8 August 2013. We take our
responsibilities regarding Freedom of Information seriously and strive to respond within the
time limits set out in the Freedom of Information Act. I apologise that on this occasion we
failed to reply to your original request within the 20 working day time limit.
I have now considered your request and am able to provide the following response.
You asked for:-
Further to request VTR267
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/universal_jobmatch_implementatio#incoming-
371587
please email me all of your subsequent UJ ‘implementation updates’. As well as subsequent
correspondence with Ministers on UJ.
As your request would include the locating, retrieval and analysis of documents relating to all
correspondence with Ministers on UJ, the cost of complying with your request would exceed
the appropriate limit of £600. The appropriate limit has been specified in Freedom of
Information regulations and for central Government it is set at £600. This represents the
estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days determining whether the Department
holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. Under section 12
of the FOIA 2000 the DWP is not obliged to comply with your request and will not be
processing your request further.
If you were to make a new request for a narrower category of information, we may be able to
comply with that request within the appropriate limit, although I cannot guarantee that this will
be the case. For example, you could refine your request to cover a shorter period of time
and/or specific areas. In addition it is possible that exemptions may apply in relation to
information covered by a refined request meaning that DWP is not required to disclose the
information requested.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number
above.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
In fact none of the Welfare Reforms work, not even the workers that work in the welfare reform process from the bottom to the top. IDS has failed as a human being, it show how lazy he is. If you can`t do the job do it yourself IDS. I am proof of failure as a disability cash cow. I will not sign anything with ATOS. The DWP ccan`t sub contract my benefit without me signing something. I have the DWP`s CMO & the DWP`s DPA where I want thm, so hush up or the failure will bound to show up when you take me to court for defrauding the DWP of £300,000 over 30 years of disability. If one is found fit for work then they have been defrauding the DWP of benefits. So the failure of the Welfare Reforms are not fit for purpose. ATOS & the DWP have been using illegal means to run their operation. There only a few of us that are on unpresidented ground by not filling out the ESA form & still getting full benefits. It is a unpresidented position & we are going to use it to the fullest. One reason being there is a loop hole which is left open to benefit fraud for those who know how to work the system = abled bodied. Which yet again means it is not fit for purpose & riddled with loop holes resulting in It`s Not Worth The Paper It`s Written On & they know that. Cover up your failures IDS because your defrauding the public as well IDS. Even IDS knows he`s failed like running for leader in the 1990s.
DON`T SIGN YOUR LIFE AWAY BY FILLING OUT THE ESA BOGUS DEFAULT MAYBE CLAIM FORM.
A system that uses a “Disability Anaylst” is a default system. A disability Anaylst is a made up job title for privte healthcare companies trading on the stock exchange. They have no medical knowledge or power just like the DWP`s CMO [Chief Medical Officer] So once again the process is not fit for purpose = scrapped. Prophecy of failure has no foundations that is why it fails.
The ESA form has been doctored even before you recive it. DEFAULTED FORM. I am proof of that. Once the welfare reform system can stop making mistakes [or is that really a Mistakes Policy!!] It has no meaning in reality or legally binding.
as from today TORY CONFERENCE.
we must all work for welfare why the fuck did we pay NI
for all these years to be made to work for nothing if we become ill or out of work,what a shower of shit.
jeff lph
It is not only the lazy, greedy, jobsworth refusals to sign standard WCA exemption letters and hand over medical records, that is putting lives at risk. Many GPs now take the attitude that every prescription, blood test or hospital referral is money out of their own pockets.
It’s no coincidence that this #profitsbeforepatients attitude has been getting worse (especially in the case of ‘vulnerable’ patients who are less able to fight back) since the Tories handed over control of practice budgets to GPs.
The arrogant, money-grabbing, selfish and totally out-of-touch comments from so-called doctors at the end of the original article on the ‘Pulse’ website are a disgrace both to the medical profession and to Britain.
TAKEN FROM JOHNNY VOID WEBSITE;
A tragic statistic hidden in the quarterly report on the performance of the Work Programme proves beyond doubt that both this and the last government’s welfare reforms have been an abject failure.
Buried in the Supplemental Tables at the end of the report are the Work Programme performance figures for ESA Ex-Incapacity Benefit claimants. These are claimants who were previously on Incapacity Benefit and have been re-assessed by Atos as able to do some kind of work and placed in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) of Employment Support Allowance (ESA).
These are the people that the right wing press have all too often smeared as frauds, who were faking or over-exaggerating their conditions. People with cancer in some cases, or serious mental health conditions, Multiple Sclerosis or HIV. They are the people who in some desperate incidents have been driven to suicide by the stressful and demeaning Atos assessments. The same group who the Daily Mirror revealed were dying at a rate of 32 people a week after being placed in the Work Related Activity Group.
31,600 people from the ESA Ex-Incapacity Benefit group have started on the Work Programme so far. Just 310 of them have achieved a sustained job outcome, which in many cases means just three months work. Of those who had been on the Work Programme for one year in July 2013, just 0.9% had found a job lasting three months or longer.
This group of claimants is important because they have been impacted by almost every area of welfare reform, from the Labour introduced Work Capability Assessment, to the Work Programme and even workfare. Those in the WRAG part of ESA can now be sent on full time workfare on the Work Programme or face benefits being stopped.
In many ways this group of claimants are what Welfare Reform has been all about. Attempting to harass the not quite sick and disabled enough into work was intended to show how anyone, with a bit of a push from welfare-to-work companies, can get a job if they just try hard enough.
Work Programme providers who are able to find people in this group a job are paid thousands of pounds. Companies like A4e and G4S have been given free rein to mandate these claimants to do whatever they deem necessary, including workfare, in a bid to try and force them back to work. Claimants have little choice over how they look for work anymore and must do what their Work Programme provider tells them or face benefits being stopped.
And yet despite all this so-called help from ‘experts’ in the welfare to work sector, just over 300 people have found jobs.
The figures for those assessed as ‘fit for work’ make equally grim reading. Despite almost 18,000 people starting the Work Programme who have had Incapacity Benefits stopped after a decision by Atos and the DWP, little over a thousand (1,200) of them have found a job.
The shocking fact is that if all of those new to ESA, all of those thrown off ESA due to being ‘fit for work’ and those still on Incapacity Benefits are added together a mere 7,760 people have found a job through the Work Programme, despite 206,870 sick and disabled claimants starting on the scheme.
Astonishingly this is less than the 5.5% of Incapacity Benefit claimants it was estimated found work every year under their own steam – before all this began.
Only 4.5% of those on sickness or disability benefits who have been participating in the Work Programme for at least one year have started work. The DWP’s minimum performance figure for this group was 16.5%. And many of those who did get a job will be out of work again by now. According to the DWP themselves around a third of people who found work on the Work Programme were unemployed again by the time of the latest release of statistics.
Hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent trying to bully and humiliate sick and disabled people back into work. And yet after all the so-called expertise of the welfare-to-work sector and the ‘toughest ever’ benefit conditionality regime almost none of them have found a job. All of that all too real suffering has been for nothing at all. It hasn’t even saved any money.
Iain Duncan Smith boasts that Universal Credit will magically create 300,000 jobs by applying Work Programme style ‘conditionality’ to lone parents, part time workers and the precariously self-employed. Last week’s Work Programme statistics reveal that claim to be a sham. This conditionality has not helped sick and disabled claimants find work and it will not help anyone else.
Often Iain Duncan Smith has appeared to believe his own bullshit in his messianic zeal to blame the victims of cut-throat capitalism for their plight. But the market has well and truly spoken and these figures prove it. Bosses are not lining up to hire hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people – in fact the opposite is true with prejudice towards disabled people rampant amongst employers. All these welfare reforms have really achieved is the quiet demolition of the lives of sick and disabled people who were already poor to begin with.
The latest Work Programme statistics are at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/work-programme-statistical-summary-september-2013
TAKEN FROM THE DAILY RECORD;
Fury as Tory welfare police order kidney dialysis patient Paul Mickleburgh back to work
31 May 2012 06:54
HE’s one of the world’s longest surviving kidney dialysis patients and has had 33 years of renal treatment, four failed transplants and 14 heart attacks.
HE’s one of the world’s longest surviving kidney dialysis patients and has had 33 years of renal treatment, four failed transplants and 14 heart attacks.
But now, in a shameful indictment of Tory welfare cuts, Paul Mickleburgh, 53, has been deemed fit to work.
The dad of three, who was diagnosed with renal failure when he was 19, was forced to give up his job as a technician 20 years ago after his body rejected a fourth donor kidney.
He is now so ill doctors have taken him off the transplant list as he would not survive a fifth operation and will spend the rest of his life on dialysis.
The machine, which cleans his blood, is now the only thing keeping him alive.
But after more than three decades hooked up to it for five hours, three days a week, other organs, including his heart, are also failing.
The Government insists that under their new employment and support allowance scheme, which replaces incapacity benefit, “those found to be too sick or disabled to work won’t be expected to”.
But Paul, from Aberdeen, who has also battled cancer, pneumonia, 14 heart attacks in the last five years and suffers from spontaneous internal bleeding and brittle bones, has been placed in a “work-related activity group”.
This requires him to attend “work-focused interviews” and actively look for employment or his incapacity benefits will be cut.
Incredibly, the Department for Work and Pensions reached their decision without Paul even being interviewed or given a medical.
Paul said: “How ill do I need to be? Apart from being dead, I don’t know how I can get much worse. It makes me so angry.
“I was asked to tell them all my illnesses and when I had finished it was a page and a half.
“I enclosed all my medical history, medication, dialysis times and what it does to me after being on it for 33 years.
“But to my shock I have been passed fit for work and must attend work focus interviews and do everything possible to find work or lose my benefits.
“I’d liken this to what the Nazis did, working the disabled and the sick until they dropped dead and were no longer a burden.”
Paul, who has a mechanical valve fitted in his heart, a twisted bowel and suffers agonising joint pain as a result of prolonged renal treatment, has now written to his MP, Malcolm Bruce.
He needs painkillers just to get him through each dialysis session and it takes him a day to recover.
Paul wrote to the Department for Work and Pensions urging them to reconsider his position but his plea was rejected.
He was told: “You must take part in work-focused interviews with a personal adviser to continue to receive employment and support allowance in full.
“The adviser will help you take reasonable steps to move towards work.”
Paul said he believed it was “all to save money and they don’t care who they upset”.
He said: “It’s unrealistic and unreasonable to expect me to attend these meetings when there is no realistic prospect of an improvement in my health.
“I’m worried sick about these changes and I believe I took my last heart attack due to this cruel policy which makes the disabled feel they are a burden.
“My wife and children have all worked since leaving school. We’re not a family on the take.”
Paul’s wife, Joyce, who runs her own dog grooming business, said: “I understand that they’ve got to sort out the benefits, but there are better ways to go about it.
“There is just no way he can go to these meetings, let alone go to work. When he comes off the machine he goes home to bed and I don’t see him until the next day, he’s so exhausted.
“What’s he to do, kart the machine around behind him? It’s crazy.”
Aberdeen South Labour MP, Dame Anne Begg, said: “A lot of the changes being made by this Government seem to be particularly harsh on disabled people. And the people who are getting hit the hardest are those who have worked hard all their lives.”
A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions said they did not comment on individual cases.
The Tory dirty tricks department are at it again, supported by the right wing media machine.
Miliband’s fathers name has been blackened by an article appearing in the “toilet tissue”, Daily Mail.
The story seeks to make out that Ralph Miliband, Ed and Davids father, was a man who hated Britain…………..
Cameron, when asked about the story on a radio interview, said he knew nothing of it……
Strange, how the angelic smile hides the festering contempt for a person who is a better communicator than oneself.
Camoron is frightened to death with the thought of going head to head with Miliband on televised debate.
Rather than being embarrassed by the eloquence of his foe, dirty David preference was to throw shit and hope it sticks……….
Sadly, the electorate are not blinded by the attempts of the, in pocket gutter press to smear the name of a dead person, someone who cannot fight back.
The electorate see the government for what they are, Etonian Nazis, jackboot clicking thugs who are murdering people at an alarming rate whilst pretending to look away……….
Supported by their twisted generals in the guise of the DWP, the most prolific killing machine on this planet……
Those immortal words, “Lest we forget”, are written on epitaphs to those who have fallen, trying to fight a terrible regime……….
History has a way of repeating itself. It always stems from someone in power who thinks that they know better than the people they purport to represent.
Legends in their own lunchtimes, nutcases to you or me…..
What we have now is, the classic syndrome. A government who puts their hands over their ears and closes their eyes, pretending to be oblivious of any argument whilst favouring their own.
Pissed with power they seek to overthrow all logical argument in awe of their own doctrines.
We are right and you are wrong. Is this what democracy is all about?, i doubt it…………..
Falling in love with your own reflection is one thing, but taking innocent lives at an alarming rate, is another.
Mocking the weak and vulnerable is the new fox hunting theme of the bully boys, tally ho as the chains on the gates of the DWP cemetery of shame, buckle under the misdeeds of the idiots in power.
No wonder they wish to pull out of the Human Rights Act, they are already breaking every statute in it as i speak………
Europe is watching, as is the rest of the world……..
How come a foreign power has not come to our aid to dethrone the corrupt government that murders at will?
A government that starves it’s people, takes women and children from their homes and throws them on the street, a government who feather the nests of the rich while assassinating the poor?
Mad dictators always have a page in history, and seldom live to tell the tale…………..
Ugh, is everyone still moaning about the nasty government picking on poor people? I’d have thought you would all be proud to be one the chosen few who will save our country and get it back on track. Indeed I’m surprised claimants aren’t jumping for joy at the thought of being allowed to work for thirty hours a week and earning £2.36 an hour for it. What a privilage! I’m surprised all worker aren’t clammering to have a wage cut to show solidarity and do their bit.
So now it seems the DWP, a government department will be the one organisation who can lawfully and openly undercut the minumum wage, giving it’s workers no right of redress other than to have no money at all. What an example to set British employers. Clearly the message is that people on benefits are scum and deserve no more that to be treated as such. Litter picking of course is a truely useful skill and transferable into all sorts of openings. I reckon, if I can get fit in time, it’s gonna kick start my career and employers will be falling over themselves to offer me a job. Lets face it if they can beat £2.36 an hour, a scumbag like me is gonna be dead grateful. Happy days are just around the corner! Seriously though, 30hrs, (what ever the hourly rate), for someone who is sick or disabled but viewed by ATOS as fit for work, Yikes! that’s a lot. Not only are we likely to be under fed due to lack of money, but now they wish to work us til we drop! For our own good. Oh dear, the ideology is reminiscent of past regimes that we look back on now with horror and shame, tinged with the relief the it was not we British that were the perpetraters. No longer can we British claim our hands are clean, we have sold out to global economics. It seems that the casualties of capitalism must be cleared away to make way for bigger profits. It’s a shame that if this is really necessary as the govt says it is that they cannot find a humane way to get rid of us. I wonder if when it’s done the world really will be a better place?
We all know Lord Rothermere – the original owner of the Daily Mail – was a big fan of Hitler. Not just Hitler’s fan – his friend in fact.
But that’s all usually explained away these days as a mistake on Rothermere’s part because at the time he didn’t realise how anti-semitic Hitler was.
Which is strange really considering how anti-semitism was something both Hitler and Rothermere had very much in common.
Because the Daily Mail was not only a supporter of Hitler – in the 1930s it was also openly and rabidly anti-Jewish.
A little-known fact is that the Daily Mail serialised the anti-semitic forgery ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ – a good ten years or so after it had been revealed to be a forgery.
I have it on good authority that foul-mouthed Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre is very proud of his father. On becoming editor of the Mail he even revived his father’s column Ephraim Hardcastle as a tribute to him.
Which makes the bizarre attack on Ed Milband’s father by the Mail even stranger.
In 1944 when the 22-year old Ralph Miliband was bravely risking his life storming German positions protecting the Normandy beaches, Paul Dacre’s 19-year-old father Peter Dacre was working in London as a show business reporter for newspapers such as the Daily Express.
Quite how a fit 19-year-old managed to avoid call-up to the front line at that time God only knows.
http://tompride.co.uk/while-ralph-miliband-was-fighting-in-normandy-paul-dacre-s-father-was-avoiding-the-front-line
Some things never change
What a bunch of hypocrites the Daily Vile are with their slanderous lies.
They would be much happier if Miliband’s father was a jack booting Hitler supporter
“Associated Newspapers, which owns the Daily Mail and four other newspapers including the Evening Standard is owned by a press baron Lord Rothermere, whose great-grandfather, Harold Sidney Harmsworth, (the first Lord Rothermere) was a great admirer of Hitler (read his letter to Hitler below) and, gasp!, Rothermere had several meetings with Hitler and argued that the Nazi leader desired peace.”
—————————————————————–
“The Daily Mail led anti-Jewish campaigns in the 1940’s claiming that the German Jews had brought Hitler’s persecution on themselves.”
—————————————————————–
“The paper also supported the British fascist Oswald Mosley.
Rothermere wrote an article ‘Hurrah For The Blackshirts’ in January 1934 in which he praised Mosley for his ‘sound, commonsense, conservative doctrine”.
Adolf Hitler letter to Lord Rothermere (7th December, 1933)
“I should like to express the appreciation of countless Germans, who regard me as their spokesman, for the wise and beneficial public support which you have given to a policy that we all hope will contribute to the enduring pacification of Europe. Just as we are fanatically determined to defend ourselves against attack, so do we reject the idea of taking the initiative in bringing about a war. I am convinced that no one who fought in the front trenches during the world war, no matter in what European country, desires another conflict.”
Lord Rothermere, telegram to Adolf Hitler 1st October, 1938)
“My dear Fuhrer everyone in England is profoundly moved by the bloodless solution to the Czechoslovakian problem. People not so much concerned with territorial readjustment as with dread of another war with its accompanying bloodbath. Frederick the Great was a great popular figure. I salute your Excellency’s star, which rises higher and higher.”
the above from
http://www.anitaroddick.com/readmore.php?sid=556
————————————————————————————————-
“The Daily Mail led anti-Jewish campaigns in the 1940’s claiming that the German Jews had brought Hitler’s persecution on themselves.”
————————————————————————————————–
You could easily update the above statement by saying:
The Daily Mail led anti disability and unemployment campaigns in 2010-13 claiming that the sick disabled and unemployed brought the coalition government’s persecution on themselves.
ths just confirms that what we have , here in the UK in 2013, is FASCISM and NAZISM and strangely the opposition party (neo-liberal labour) seem quite happy with it – until labour expunges the right wing – Byrne, Balls, and the rest of them – nthing’s gonna change
Virtually nothing in Hitler’s ideas traces back to Darwin, indeed he had probably never read Darwin and never mentions him in any writings. As Hector Avalos notes a far bigger influence was his religious heritage and the Old Testament, in which notions of racial purity abound. One passage in Mein Kampf:
…it is one of those concerning which it is said with such terrible justice that the sins of the fathers are avenged down to the tenth generation … Blood sin and desecration of the race are the original sin in this world …
is a direct echo of Deuteronomy 23:2-3:
http://coelsblog.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/nazi-racial-ideology-was-religious-creationist-and-opposed-to-darwinism/comment-page-2/
We do not maintain, like the jealous God of Deuteronomy, that the iniquity of the fathers should be visited on the sons. But when a son with prime ministerial ambitions swallows his father’s teachings, as the younger Miliband appears to have done, the case is different.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2439714/Ed-Miliband-evil-legacy-wont-apologise.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
That sins of the fathers comment could have come directly from hitlers mouth, busted dail heil.
The shooting of Mark Duggan prompted rioting on a scale never seen before, in Tottenham……………………
Imagine the carnage created when this little fiasco gets out of hand. Every town has one or two jobcentres, and every town has thousands of really pissed off people.
These idiots are lighting the touchpaper on some of the most horrific scenes ever witnessed on our shores.
Armed police units will be grossly outnumbered by the amount of weapons available on our streets at this very moment. Sniper fire will ring out as the police will be perceived to be the enemy while acting to secure the wishes of the government.
The death toll will be astronomical as the “cause”, spreads like wildfire across the country…………
If the hospitals can’t cope now, just wait till the fireworks start!
“Where are all the fireman”, they will shout as the public offices burn to the ground.
“What, no ambulances”, as the jigsaw they created starts to make a realistic picture of the austerity cuts……….
You reap what you sow, the party is yet to begin……………
Heck Geoff, you are angry. I am too. I’m angry because I was once a nice, easy going, balanced individual and now I’m resentful, hurt, confused and angry, at trying to cope with the ATOS process and appeal and existing on reduced money, in addition to having to deal with the serious business of having a painful, debilitating condition with no cure. ATOS and the DWP have no concept of what havoc they are wreaking in peoples already difficult lives. When I can’t cope, I hide. When I cry, I cry alone. The outside world sees my brave face. If I can’t paint it on, I don’t go out. The world, if it cares to look and judge, sees a Scumbag, a Scrounger. They would say what’s wrong with her? She looks fine. To be called a liar, when even medicated, I’m still in pain, is tough. I guess somewhere there must be those who are faking, but I don’t meet them. I know people like me who are hurting, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually too because the spirit is love not hate. My heart at times is black with hate for those who have foisted this oppressive regime on us. And for those in the media too, who perpetuate this urban myth of lazy Scum-bag Scroungers taking advantage of HARD working people. If wishes were weapons, they would all be horridly injured by now, holding to life by a thread.
If doctors can’t fix people and Job Centres can’t help them into training or work, do we as a civilised society, want jobless people hounded and forced, either into work at any price, or into mental collapse? In my nutty moments, I’m all for a spot of being nasty and making our oppressors suffer. If they would walk in my shoes they might understand. I think it likely that they really do know not what they are doing. The concept of our desperate lives is beyond their privileged ken! However, in my less nutty moments, which I’m worried are getting less, I think there has to be another way. Incitement to us to get up and bash a DWP official etc, though it sounds rather jolly in theory, in practice is likely to either not happen at all, due to the perps having a bad day and spending the day in bed, medicated to the eyeballs, or if it does, it will be bloody and upsetting and the victims will say, ugh, I always said the claimants are nasty rotten scum-bags. Lock em up!
There must be another way. Didn’t I paid my NI in part, to protect me against being too sick to earn a living? Now they are taking the rights that we all paid for away. That’s tough, changing the rules now that I am too sick to make alternative provision for myself. Is that not some kind of breach of contract? Had I known that the state would not care for me, I could perhaps have sued the little company I worked for, for failing in their duty of care for me. It would probably have finished the company and my ex colleagues would have lost their jobs but it might have helped me. Companies need to watch out, if people get sick or injured at work, they now have no choice but to see if they can make a claim. There has to be a way to make the govt see that the casualties of capitalism are not trash to be thrown away and looking after us, is the right thing to do for everyone. Of course they need to offer retraining, advice, help in to work ect, and work, if possible, is preferable to a life on benefits, but hounding, forcing and wasting the HARD working tax payers money on pointless, assessments and appeals is abusive and not conducive to good mental or physical health. Is there anyone out there who has the authority to back us in this? Is there anyone left who can still see people not labels? Is there anyone who wonders what human beings do in a capitalist world when their income is withdrawn? How do they live? How is it possible that withdrawing income (ie through sanctions and now from 28th Oct, when people make their application for lodging an appeal), is this not an infringement of basic human rights? The HARD working tax payer needs to be careful that he is not throwing his own rights away too, as he allows ‘Scum-bags’ and Skivers to be treated like this. What will he do if he too is fallible? For Britain is planned to be to be solely for HARD Working People. Remember that those who fail can easily be replaced by cheap imports. We need to remember that when the last of our rights are stripped away there will be no going back.
(As this thread has spread to encroach upon all aspects of the government cuts, perhaps because of a lack of new topics being posted. This seems as good a place as any for this post)
THE real reason ANNE MCGUIRE Shadow minister for disabled people MET PRIVATE WEALTHCARE PROVIDERS
Leading figures in the insurance and outsourcing industries have told a controversial seminar that they are not trusted by disabled people or the general public. (Surprise, Surprise!)
They were taking part in a seminar sponsored by the Association of British Insurers, organised by the centre-right think tank Reform, and attended by Anne McGuire, the shadow minister for disabled people. (Note there is no mention of UNUM!)
The seminar, at Labour’s annual conference, also heard from charities and think tanks, but McGuire’s presence at the invitation-only event angered some disabled activists, who believe that political parties are too close to the financial services industry.
The key theme of the seminar was how the financial services industry can play a bigger part in topping up the “safety net” provided by the welfare state.
Participants explained how government spending cuts and an ageing population would make it harder for the social security system to provide support to people in need.
(An ageing population is inevitable but spending cuts are not, strange how it is always the least well off that bear the brunt of cuts, there is no money but always enough for weapons of war, always enough in handouts for business, always enough for the demands of the city)
They said the industry would have to work with government and employers to ensure people have access to the necessary financial protection.
One suggested that there would be a “potential saving” for the government if it persuaded more people to “protect themselves and therefore to draw down less from the state in the long term”.
Another said that income protection insurance – the private insurance equivalent of employment and support allowance – was a “very important area in trying to give people more financial resilience as they deal with the financial challenges of life”.
McGuire said that just holding the seminar was seen as controversial by many disabled activists, because of the “distrust of politicians and probably of many of you round the table today”, including those in the insurance industry and those who delivered government programmes.
She said Labour was moving towards the idea of a national disability insurance system, based on the one introduced in Australia. (Admitting the truth partially, at last. I would say Labour made their minds up a long time ago as have the Tories and Fib-Dems)
She said: “I think there is a major challenge for the financial services. You guys are seen as selling a product and not being part of a social partnership.”
And she told her fellow delegates that they needed to do more to become part of a social partnership with individuals and the government.
She said: “Up until that time you will be seen as selling a product and selling a product for profit.”
(excuse me, but how else could it be honestly described)
She said she hoped they could “deal with those issues of trust to bring us to a situation where we can have partnerships”, which “would be good for you businesses”, because the “disabled pound… is good for business”.
(the disabled pound, what a disgusting term but it shows you it’s all about the money, money)
Another speaker told fellow participants that their industry was not trusted.
He said: “We are not trusted by disabled people and we are not trusted by the greater public and that is really unfortunate because… we are delivering a service for the government, but we also need to ensure we do that with dignity and professionalism.
“What we have found in recent years is disabled people, older people, people on benefits, get less and less dignity [when receiving] professional services.” (And they wonder why they are not trusted!)
The above (apart from my comments in brackets) was sourced from http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/09/labour-conference-alarm-as-industry-plots-to-top-up-welfare-safety-net/
(It makes more revealing reading when you understand the links between private health companies and those in parliament, see below for the smell of corruption rife in British politics today
The following statistics reveal the KNOWN extent of parliamentarians links with private healthcare providers:
The S75 Regulations form part of the governments Health and Social Care Act, the purpose of which is to open up as many NHS services to private providers as possible.
The new ‘Competition Regulations’ force the NHS to put all but a minority of services out for competitive tender. The majority of services currently run by the NHS will shortly and swiftly be turned over to profit making private healthcare providers. This is privatisation by the back door.
To make matters worse, the MPs and Lords drafting and voting upon this piece of legislation, have a personal financial interest in the outcome. Social Investigations produced an excellent piece of investigative journalism revealing:
•206 parliamentarians have recent or present financial private healthcare connections
•142 Lords have recent or present financial connections to companies involved in healthcare
•124 Peers benefit from the financial services sector
•1 in 4 Conservative Peers have recent or present financial connections to companies involved in healthcare
•1 in 6 Labour Peers have recent or present financial connections to companies involved in healthcare
•1 in 6 Crossbench Peers have recent or present financial connections to companies involved in healthcare
•1 in 10 Liberal Democrat Peers have recent or present financial connections to companies involved in healthcare
•64 MPs have recent or present financial links to companies involved in private healthcare
•79% of these are Conservative
This is our parliament in action, where there is no such thing as a conflict of interest. What kind of democracy allows people with a financial interest in the outcome to approve its legislation? Our democracy.
The above is from the
http://www.scriptonitedaily.com/2013/04/24/the-man-who-pushed-a-toy-pig-to-downing-street-to-save-our-nhs/
When you look at these stats, these are only figures for those with known links the real numbers are likely to be much higher.
Remember that a Labour MP supposedly looking after the interests of the disabled said the “Disabled pound is good for business” !
When Cameron said “We’re all in it together” perhaps he was really referring to the three main political parties in Britain today.
One things for sure, when the shit hits the fan, all you will see is a cloud of dust and the back of their heads as the “yellow bastards” disappear over the hillside……………………..
The DWP’s favourite weapon of choice is the ubiquitous brown envelope. It is the act of a craven coward, designed solely to inflict the maximum pain and ultimate death on those who are weakest, poorest and ill educated in our society.
They hide in their ivory towers, anonymous to the claimant, serving out shit to the millions……………………
They are not human beings, just the lowest of the lowest, something that should be scraped from the bottom of your shoe.
It’s so easy to say, “I was only doing my job”.
They are completely oblivious to the evil that they distribute on a daily basis, knowing full well that the victims will never have the chance to identify them………..
In effect, they are government assassins………..
I personally hope that the brunt of this nations anger is directed straight at these faceless bastards, for it is they who are kicking the fallen…
It was publicised on this site, and many others, that the DWP were going to celebrate the barrage of sanctions that have robbed people of their humanity, their homes and their lives…….
Such an organisation should never exist in modern Britain, it needs raising to the ground and left on the same par as it’s forgotten victims.
“THE CHAINS ON THE GATES OF THE DWP CEMETERY OF SHAME ARE BUCKLING FROM THE DEATHS THEY HAVE CAUSED”
Hi there!
Could i just ask please!
Stepping Razor S
Ill start again!
Could i just ask please?
Stepping razor sound plate what you wrote on 27/9/13 at 11.16pm
When you mention about not signing anything from dwp?
Do you fill the forms in as normal and send them back but without your signature?
Then when they return the form i take it you again return it unsigned?
Clarity please as id like to try this my self as i have had about 5 atos medicals over the years and passed them all.
The last time i was sent the forms from atos to fill in which i did, i recieved no reply from atos but was put straight into the work group as have others.
Its seems strange how without a medical you can be deemed fit for work.
I have since had a phone interview with jcp who said they had no details of me what so ever as the computers were never updated over the years and they would need to see me in 3 months time for a face to face and i was not to worry as it says im not expected to find work for at least 2 years due to the amount of time ive been previously sick and out of work.Mad i know?
Thanks!
Has everyone heard the story that the DWP are keeping very quiet about? – One of their fraud investigators has just been found guilty of a massive tax fraud and is now awaiting a prison sentence. Plus no fewer than nine A4E employees are being charged with forgery and fraud in connection with bogus claims to have found people jobs. Source; Benefits and work guides you can trust.
In other words the very people paid to hound Scum-bag claimants, appear to be on the fiddle themselves, takes one to know one, is that the idea?
This is what the average honest claimant is up against. They are genuine, they want to tell the truth and the people they are dealing with are likely bent and think everyone else is too. Our Govt has designed a system much like the plan Herod had, for getting rid of Baby Jesus. Kill all the babies under two and Jesus will be one of them. Now we have to punish all the claimants (At massive cost to the Hard working tax payer) and that way you will catch the few cheats we are so worried about. Um, Herods plan didn’t actually work did it? I reckon a cheat is a cheat, and cheating one system is much like cheating another, you learn how it works and then you bleed it dry.
This is why we need our own GPs to support us. Without their support, we are just another cheat. It’s annoying for GPs but this is the system we have now. If they don’t like it they need to ask for change, NOT abandon their vulnerable patients to the likes of greedy ATOS and the DWP. They need to wake up before their own budgets are run dry by the increased needs of sick, disabled and increasingly mentally challenged patients. Is it too much to ask that the sick and disabled have income enough to live while they hopefully recover or for their lives if that is not possible?
The DWP & it`s Sub Contractors are running fraud & ID scams. I have been banging on about it for months. Still not filled out the ESE form 7 month ago & are still getting my full benefits. I will not fill out or sign the ESA fraud ID form because they is fraud at the DWP & their sub contractors. When you take the emotion out of it the failures are easy to exploit. So the Emotional Blackmail Policy the government use within their Contradiction Policy is fraud.
Yesterday i received a letter from one of the DWP’s ambassadors of death, JOHN ROTHWELL of Blackpool.
He informed me, in no uncertain terms, that my Disability Living Allowance has terminated…………..
Surely this is the act of celebration after all?
I was robbed of my “lifetime award of disability” over a year ago and are still awaiting my appeal, thanks to an exterminator working for ATOS, EMMA BRODRICK.
The reason they terminated my DLA was because i refused to fill in a 35 page questionnaire they sent to me that asks about my disability. it was a DLA80.
It states that i have to fill it in so they know that i am receiving the right amount of benefit…………..
As you all know, this is just a load of bollocks that seeks to reduce my benefits further.
To put it in a nutshell, Esther Mcvey told parliament that existing holders of DLA benefit would not face PIP tests until 2015. The new tests are engineered to strip the mobility from as many as possible by using descriptors that hardly anybody will achieve.
Not content with leaving existing DLA claimants till 2015, they decided on a plan to relieve you of your benefits even faster by claiming your circumstances have changed after receiving the answers you wrote on your questionnaire. Indeed, this is entrapment or trying to gain pecuniary advantage by deception………….
A well known underhand trick to push you to another ATOS examination and further reduce your pittance.
Stangely, when i examined the law regarding the matter of informing the DWP of a change of circumstance, i found this;
“The effect is that claimants are required to report any change of circumstance which the secretary of state (ie the DWP), has told them to.
However, there is no specific provision about where or how the change must be reported”.
………………………………………………………………………………
Therefore by not filling in the questionnaire, and informing them that my circumstances have not changed, i have fulfilled my obligation.
IN JULY LAST YEAR I HAD A DISABLEMENT FOR LIFE, NOW I HAVE NOTHING……………………
|Your circumstanes have not changed – So they have to put you back on the benefit they just stopped till the DWP sort the Correct Info. Otherwise the DWP are defrauding, which is called fraud.
“WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER”
Taken from Atos Victims Group site;
Samantha Cameron’s £200 Quid on Conference Belt is Just Her Way of Sticking Two Fingers to the Poverty Stricken…
Samantha Cameron showed her true self at the Tory Conference the other day by her choice of clothing, she paraded around the conference in a (Cheap) dress by her normal standards £42 from Asos & wait for it, a £196 belt, that amount would be the amount of benefits many people have to live off for a month?
Samantha Cameron just like her Eton educated Husband has no idea of what the true side of Austerity is doing to citizens in the UK, by that I don’t mean the likes of his old chums like Boris or Osborne, I mean the disabled, the sick, the single mothers having no money to feed their kids or the disabled people being forced out of their homes because they have a boxroom that they put their medical equipment in, the Parasitic Cameron’s have no idea whatsoever, mind you good old Dave does know how to make his own bread from special flour produced in his own constituency?
I WAS ALWAYS WONDERING HOW CERTAIN PEOPLE ON THIS SITE HAD IGNORED ALL ATTEMPTS TO GO TO ESA TESTS AND NOT HAD THERE BENEFITS STOPPED;
APPARENTLY BY ACCEPTING DOCUMENTATION FROM DWP ABOUT ESA TESTS AND REPLYING, YOU ARE FALLING INTO A TRAP THAT ENABLES THEM TO SAY “YOU HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED”
THIS NOTIFICATION ACCEPTANCE IS ALL THEY REQUIRE TO STOP YOUR EXISTING BENEFITS.
IN OTHER WORDS, IF YOU DO NOT REPLY TO THE ESA QUESTIONNAIRE, THEY HAVE NO POWER TO FORCE YOU TO ATTEND AN ESA.
THE PROCESS IS HIDDEN WITHIN THE SMALL PRINT
AMENDMENTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT AND SUPPORT ALLOWANCE ( TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS, HOUSING BENEFIT AND COUNCIL TAX BENEFIT) (EXISTING AWARDS) (NO2) REGULATIONS 2010.
PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY;
11. All the letter actually says which bears on the requirements that must be met in order to qualify for conversion is that “To decide if you are entitled to Employment and Support Allowance we need to assess and understand how your illness and disability affects the amount and type of work you could do”. In particular, it is of note that this says nothing at all about the degree to which a persons illness or disability must limit the amount or type of work they could do. As such it does not bear at all on what the requirements for conversion actually are.
12. It is plain that the purpose of Reg 4(2)(c) is to ensure that a claimant knows about the nature of the test they are to be assessed with so that they can prepare for the examination. A further purpose is clearly to put in legislation a requirement that a claimant has been given a clear and accurate explanation of the process into which they are entering (the anxiety caused to long term ill claimants by the process having been widely anticipated.
13. As the notice does not do this, it is submitted that the claimant is not a “notified person”. Therefore, the SSWP had no power to make a conversion decision in this case and the tribunal is invited to find that the purported decision is of no effect.
……………………………………………………………………………..
YOUR BENEFITS HAVE BEEN SIMPLY REMOVED BECAUSE YOU WERE TRICKED BY THIS;
“To decide if you are entitled to Employment and Support Allowance we need to assess and understand how your illness and disability affects the amount and type of work you could do.
APPARENTLY THE EXPERTS WHO WROTE UP THE LAW COULD NOT DO IT BY THEMSELVES, THEY NEEDED YOUR APPROVAL THAT WAS HIDDEN IN SMALLPRINT.
1. So basically once you have been transferred from incapacity benefit to ESA you have no alternative but to submit to recurring WCA by Atos, would that be correct?
For example if those that have won their tribunal and had their ESA re-instated then refused to fill in another ESA form for supposedly “checking that the claimant is receiving the correct amount of benefit” would they still have their benefit stopped?
2. How does that square with your circumstances, ie. refusing to complete the DLA transfer to PIP form. Is the law different for people undergoing DLA transfers to PIP?
Or is the DWP breaking the law here?
3. The post below about Human Rights – this must mean by law that all people on Incapacity Benefit and those on DLA should not be transferred to a new one without their rights being protected (similar to workers TUPE)
That being so only new claimants should have been required to apply for ESA and PIP.
Those on existing Incapacity Benefit & DLA should not have been tricked off them, would I be correct in this assumption?
Not really sure how they trick you, but razor who writes above, has always said, ignore the paperwork because its not worth the paper its written on…………………
He told me not to reply to a DLA80 35 page questionnaire they sent me.
This must have riled them as they wrote to me about six times to tell me i had to fill it in, yet still i refuse.
Strangely they gave me five different deadlines on which to send it, each one an extension of the last. On each one they wrote that my DLA “may be stopped”. On each one it stated that the decision did not have appeal rights.
Knowing this to be false, i challenged them with an FOI response that they sent to me a while back. Apparently there are no decisions that cannot be appealed, even though they often lie to claimants to put them off.
As we are party to the human rights act, the right of appeal on any issue is steadfast.
Yesterday they informed me that they had stopped my DLA due to not returning the questionnaire and sent me an appeal form, the same form that they told me on several occasions i could not pursue.
They are an organisation built on veiled threats and bullying. Most of what they say is utter bullshit.
Of course i have appealed, after all they have removed my capacity to exist……
They love telling claimants that their old benefits have been superceded by the new benefits, this is wishful thinking on their behalf, but is clearly in breach of human rights, as article above suggests.
Once you have signed up at the 1st stage `The ESA Form` that`s it, they have you with threats & have to work harder to get the benefit working. I HAVE NOT entered the 1st stage of Sign Up To Sign Off. As soon as I say the ESA form I knew it was open to fraud & misrepresentation of the facts to make the process work.
Can the DWP prove my circumstances have not changed since not filling out a form !! If not then benefits have not changed [meaning straight back on]. The DWP`s Data Protection Officer is adding info that does not exsist. Data that is made up or added with no facts or proof is falsifying Data eg. forms.
The little trick the DWP use `To see If You Are Getting The Right Benefit`
A form saying if you are getting the right benefit is not even a claim. It is a claim for a claim form it seems.
Quote:
“but razor who writes above, has always said, ignore the paperwork because its not worth the paper its written on…………………”
I didn`t exactly say that.
I Ignored the ESA form – That`s all I`ve had.
Also if the DWP know [or the DWP forget] you are appealing the main decision, the DWP can`t cut benefits. [But They Do]. KEEP BANGING ON AT THE DWP TO GET YOUR BENEFITS BACK ON> There are many valid reasons – just a few above.
SR
Ok thanks guys. I and many others are just looking for a way out of the hell of continual re-assessment.
Tell you what i do know Jay, you dont have to fill in a questionnaire about any change of circumstance, you can send them a note saying your circumstances have not changed. This will suffice according to a reply i got from them on an FOI.
TAKEN FROM ATOS VICTIMS GROUP
TONY33 on October 4, 2013 at 8:24 pm said:
“The change of the criteria assessments for sick and disabled that already perceive the benefits is abusive according to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights of Strasbourg because violates the article 1 of Protocol No. 1of the European Convention on Human Rights .
Publication: 2004-IX
Title: Kjartan Ásmundsson v. Iceland
Application No: 60669/00
Respondent: Iceland
” It was significant that the applicant lost his pension on 1 July 1997, not in relation to a change in his personal circumstances but following changes in the law altering the criteria for disability assessment. Although he was still considered 25% incapacitated to perform work in general, he was deprived of the entirety of his disability pension entitlements.
Against that background, the Court found that the applicant was made to bear an excessive and disproportionate burden which could not be justified by the legitimate community interests relied on by the authorities. It would have been otherwise had the applicant been obliged to endure a reasonable and commensurate reduction rather than the total deprivation of his entitlements. Accordingly the Court held, unanimously, that there had there had been a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1. ”
http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/Hof.nsf/1d4d0dd240bfee7ec12568490035df05/097056a0e2ec7e6dc1256f2b00385b35?OpenDocument ”
” Britain has ratified the European Convention on Human Rights.According to the article 1 of Protocol No. 1of the European Convention on Human Rights and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights of Strasbourg any change of the criteria assessments for sick and disabled that already perceive the benefits is abusive. ( Kjartan Ásmundsson v. Iceland ) .
In the same way is abusive also the change of any requirement, condition or the introduction of new restrictions, etc. for sick and disabled that already perceive any kind of benefits.
Consequently this category,above mentioned, of sick and disabled people can not be transferred from the system of the Incapacity Benefits to the ESA system and from the system of DLA to the system of the personal independence payment (PIP). The changes of the legislation may affect only the future recipients of benefits, with the due respect of the Human Rights, and must not have any retroactive effect.
THE BENEFITS PERCEIVED BY SICK AND DISABLED PEOPLE ARE ALREADY SMALL FEES !
WHAT IS THE PUBLIC INTEREST THAT JUSTIFIES THESE CUTS OF THE BENEFITS TO THE MOST VULNERABILE PEOPLE OF THE SOCIETY ?
THE BAILOUTS OF THE BANKRUPT BANKS CAN NOT BE CONSIDERED A INTEREST OF THE COLLECTIVITY.
THE INTEREST OF THE COLLECTIVITY CAN NOT COINCIDE WITH THE INTEREST OF FEW BANKERS !!!
PUBLIC INTEREST IS THE INTEREST OF THE PEOPLE MOST VULNERABLE OF THE SOCIETY TO HAVE THE DUE ASSISTANCE AND CARE .
Trying to understand but does this indicate that for claimants who were already receiving a benefit, the retrospective application of new rules is seen as anlawful? It sounds right, as if claimants have followed the rules, paid their stamp or otherwise adhered to the rules of the day to qualify for benefit, then changes to the rules should surely only be applied to new claimants who have time to make different arrangements to cover sickness and disability. (Suing current employers, getting insurance etc) Are there lawyers out there who want to test this case? I don’t like the idea of divide and rule and honestly the new rules are in my opinion abusive to all, but ugh, don’t cringe at this, but right now every little helps. We have to step up awareness of what the cuts mean, everyone must sign and get their friends and family to sign the (WOW petition.com), we must how ever inarticulate we are, write to (You can email Raquel Rolnik about your experiences with Atos, the WCA or any other welfare reform issue at srhousing@ohchr.org) and tell her our stories,
or
If you would rather remain anonymous, disability rights campaigner Sue Marsh (from Benefits and work, guides you can trust) is offering to incorporate your story into the report she is compiling for the UN. We need to stop feeling ashamed and tell what this is like. We need to stop feeling powerless, the power of telling the truth is still strong, it you speak your truth from the heart people will start to listen and recognise it. I know this process has been destroying me, and I see it destroying others. Decent, kind, honest, vulnerable people who can no longer fend for themselves. We are not scroungers just because our bodies or minds fail us, if capitalism lets us down it is not scrounging to expect society to help us until we can get back into work. The government and media make out like it is and are shaming us into quietly accepting this abuse. I can’t honestly sign an agreement saying I’m fit to work and will do X Y and Z to get back into work and lots of people who fail their ATOS assessment are in this position. If they want money to live, they will have to lie. This is not FAIR! We should not be forced to lie and cheat to survive. I for one do not want to feel I deserve the labels; liar, cheat, scumbag sciver. I am my own judge and when I look at myself I like to think I still have integrity and self respect, no goverment should ask me to trade this to survive.
Government tells employers they can overrule GP fit notes
Wednesday 01 May 2013 00:01
The Government has indicated that employers may, in principle, be able to overrule a GP’s advice in a fit note as to whether or not a person is potentially fit to return to work.
The little-noticed change was incorporated into new guidance on the fit note published by the Government in March and could allow an employer to give precedence to the views of an occupational health practitioner over those of a GP.
In the guidance for employers and line managers, under the headline “Is the fit note binding on me?”, the Government has made it clear that the answer is “no”.
The guidance states: “The assessment about whether your employee is not fit for work or may be fit for work (and any other advice in the fit note) is classed as advice, and it is for employers to determine whether or not to accept it.
“To decide if you are entitled to Employment and Support Allowance”
ESA is a claim form not a claim for a claim form to get a ESA claim form to see if can claim ESA claim form. Gobbledegook!!
[…] organisation Disabled People Against Cuts have assembled a first-class legal team to take forward legal action against Local Medical Committees and individual GPs who have launched a disgraceful ‘Just Say No’ to providing Further Medical Evidence […]
[…] organisation Disabled People Against Cuts have assembled a first-class legal team to take forward legal action against Local Medical Committees and individual GPs who have launched a disgraceful ‘Just Say No’ to providing Further Medical Evidence […]