I would think that everyone wants those who cannot work because they are incapacitated to receive financial support. I would think that everyone wants those who can work but who claim incapacity benefit falsely not to receive that support.
However, the previous Labour government tried to get people off such allowances and my experience as a local MP from surgery is that the ‘re-assessment’ of people claiming has been variable at best.
We need to be sure that there is no perverse incentive to determine that someone can work when they cannot. We also need to be sure that those carrying out the assessment are good at it.
Lynne Featherstone 
“I would think that everyone wants those who cannot work because they are incapacitated to receive financial support.” – Yes, apart from George Osborne and the rest of the Conservative Party!
The thing is Lynne it’s now up to you to ensure the genuinely vulnerable are protected.If you fail you will never be forgiven. The Tories don’t care about the sick or poor.
It was already policy under Labour Brian – and it was being badly done. I am blogging my views on the proposals and trying to sound a warning – that’s the point of the blog!
I am very worried Lynne about the blog – you are sounding like a conservative and not a LIB DEM MP. In fact the last comment on this blog talked about Tories and you did not challenge it. This was and still is my main concern regarding the coalition government the LIB DEM party will not have an identity unless they stick to what they were voted in for.
“trying to sound a warning” – What? That your new bedfellows, the Conservative Party, are complete ba***rds who despise the poor, elderly and disabled.
I think most Lib Dem supporters and members already knew this. Shame the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party didn’t seem to be aware of this fact.
It might help if those assessing incapacity (or ability to work) were medically trained – they are not). Hence the huge number of appeals when Incapacity Benefit is withdrawn, often with little notice, after years. If the DWP/JCP does not trust our G.P.s it makes me wonder why they are practicising medicine in the first place. Shifting people from IB to JSA doesn’t get people into work. it just reduces the amount of income. if that is what the government wants then please be open and honest about it.
To be quite frank all this scares me to death. I have HIV and Aspergers syndrome and I’m in my late 40’s I have a very hard time coping with the world at the best of times and I can see all this making my life much more difficult.
It must be an ‘interesting’ experience to actually BE the Government. Firstly I want to congratulate you on your Coalition Ministerial position. It has to be a LOT different from the ‘outside’ view. I hope you all ‘stay the course’ over the next 5 difficult years. Things won’t get better by avoiding them at this point.
I don’t envy you this very hard work on sorting out the ‘disability’ mess. It is clearly a nightmare AND a political minefield. But it has to be done, so as you say the only object left is to ‘try’ to be as fair and ‘decent’ about the process as possible. Again —– Best Wishes and Good Luck.
ps– Just couldn’t resist quoting a previous comment, namely — “trying to sound a warning” – What? That your new bedfellows, the Conservative Party, are complete ba***rds who despise the poor, elderly and disabled.”
Remember the good old days, when YOU could also maybe content yourself with ‘thinking’ such as this and then be applauded for it as well ? Be honest now —- doesn’t knee-jerk, insular but comforting, ‘assumism’ just seem so ‘juvenile’ NOW.
It should. I live in hope that more members of the public show the same ‘wisdom’ as the LibDems have largely shown since the election. Although, EVERY member of the Coalition has to be VERY content to see the latest Coalition approval rating. A 9 point increase to 54%(in these times, that’s HIGH), AFTER the budget. Most Governments would give up a Minister or two if they could get approval reviews such as that. 🙂
“To be quite frank all this scares me to death. I have HIV and Aspergers syndrome and I’m in my late 40’s I have a very hard time coping with the world at the best of times and I can see all this making my life much more difficult.”
I can’t speak for the Government but under no circumstances can I see THIS Coalition being a ‘threat’ to someone REALLY in distress. If you suffer what you say you suffer, just TELL THE TRUTH. The system is there for people who REALLY need it. What you probably have more to fear from is the continued ‘abuse’ (if any)of the system by ‘others’. If the system is widely seen as a ‘parking lot’ for those not really disabled, eventually all spending in this area will come under threat. If not now then in another 10 years when the finances are even worse.
I’m particularly concerned about cuts to benefits and re-assessments of those who are mentally ill. The severity of distress that can be caused can lead to suicide and hospital admissions.
I recall when my brother lost his benefit many years ago by answering the questions optimistically and we had months of campaigning and letter writing until finally our MP and Baroness Trumpington got it changed back.
Few mentally ill patients have supportive families that can help to this degree.
@Dougf
“I live in hope that more members of the public show the same ‘wisdom’ as the Lib Dems have largely shown since the election.” – By that I assume you mean support the Conservative Party and its agenda.
The Conservative Party are now at war with the disabled community of Britain. You may be happy with this, but this is NOT the Liberal Democrat way. You should read the Liberal Democrat preamble to the constitution; it makes no mention of attacking the most vulnerable in our society.
The Liberal Democrats are now supporting taking this country back to an age where disabled people were left to beg for money on the streets.
I do hope Lynne is enjoying the perks of Government as in five years time it will be all gone, unless she walks the floor, of course.
What Nick Clegg has done it to perform a coup within the Liberal Democrat Party; taking it from centre-left to centre-right. By doing this he has signed the party’s death certificate and signalled the end of the “new fair politics” and three-party-politics in Britain.
The likes of the late great Roy Jenkins must be turning in their graves, seeing what has been done to their party and its beliefs.
I am on IB (deaf and mental health). I became unable to work due to workplace bullying. I was unable to leave my bed for years. It had a a knock on effect, in more ways than one (lost my home, became homeless, debt, etc),
My health is currently getting worse, due to current media talk. I am being sick on a daily basis. As a BSL user, I cannot access xyz easy. Last interview at JCP, there was no interpreter, and you are not in a position to advocate when you are too busy shaking, crying, having a panic attack in a public area and going through hell. And your communication is limited to pen and paper.
Yet apparently it is my fault the economy is such a mess and the need to meet targets, puts pressure on those like me. Just getting to the centre is the equivalent of scaling a mountain, something 99% of the population won’t understand.
Do I want to be like this? Most certainly not, and your policies are already turning disabled people into a stigma and I almost feel I have to say sorry for being disabled. There would be outcry at the notion anyone else would need to apologise for who they are (gay, black, etc).
Like it or not, that is the message you are giving society.
And working towards rehabilitation at my own pace, I go forward. Stick an authoritarian govt figure in the picture and I take 100 steps back each time. To give you an idea, I usually cannot get out of bed for the following week. Not out of choice, I don’t like being in bed and in no way is it fun (frightening is more accurate).
Protecting the most vulnerable, there is no indication what it means you need to be terminally ill or some other extreme? Also people become forced to meet targets.
How I am going to find a job, I am not even sure. At this rate I am more scared of becoming homeless again. And trust me, as a BSL user I fall through the net a lot.
Thanks for condemning me, and those like me.
Greetings. Half a million vacancies… c.eight million people of working age not working… d’oh ! If you cut / abolish IB what does that leave ?
Can we expect you ‘nasty’ liberals to set up soup kitchens ? !
Oh, one has it on good authority… the Tories love you !… all that ‘cover’ you now give them ! Cheers.
There are some really great comments on this page.
Does anyone know if Lynne actually reads them though (I know she has a user account but I assume that’s just an assistant replying on her behalf)? It would be good is she did and took them on board.
The great irony here is that the myth of the unemployed being parked on incapacity benefit was actually created on the hard left in the 1980s, I was there & saw it forming. Since then its been taken up by Newlabour & the Tory press.
My experience of the system is that every 18 months or so I am called in for assesment, I am thrown off every time & every time I appeal & win. Lots of work for highly-paid beuracrats & lawyers.
The way to save money is to accept that when Doctors say people are ill they actually are & leave them to manage as best they can.
I read the comments – and they inform my thinking. Thank you. The ones that are just vituperative – are less helpful. FYI will not be at this account until midnight. Also – have never had an assistant do anything on the blog – it’s all mine. (For better or worse).
Dear Lynne,
I personally feel your comment on IB assessment is fair.
Related with the further welfare bill, Osborn said “Housing benefit is one of the largest; in its own right it would be treated as one of the largest government departments.”, which implies possible 25% cut of housing benefit.
However, when I look at last week’s budget detail breakdown, the planning cut in housing benefit seems to be already stretched.
What is your view on this specific benefit?
Please don’t back down on this Lynne. I know Danny Alexander also flagged this problem pre-election although has since said little.
Waving a magic wand and declaring people ‘fit for work’ on the basis of a simplistic assessment just don’t make it so. As the Adam Smith Institute’s report on the US system shows, 20% of people just vanish from the system. They consider that a positive and proof of people claiming when they shouldn’t. The ESA experience so far would indicate that a large amount of such people are actually the very vulnerable who don’t have the ability to challenge the system (cf the 1 in 3 autistic people who currently no longer claim benefits but who also aren’t in employment).
We’re on a very, very dangerous path. I hope there are sufficient people like yourself within the Coalition to make sure that we aren’t going to be pushing the vulnerable over cliffs in the name of austerity.
Lynne
If people are vituperative it is because they cannot quite believe where you have gone and how you (as a member of their government) are assisting the people you found there. Get over yourself!
I admit that I have not been very nice to you but it is really small beer compared to the many thousands of people who feel frightened for themselves, families and communities. I have never experienced such genuine feelings of concern and anxiety as those arising from the policies that are being pursued.
I am sure that the truth is that you are very reticent about things. In the spirit of trying to inform your thinking and being helpful:
1) You do not have to stand four square with what is happening.
2) You do not need to be an apologist for it. The VAT switch is just ridiculous and you well know it.
3)You do not need to be disingenuous about it all being “essential” and caused by the previous government. The Tories cannot put into place the things they are proposing to do without your support. You must have gone into this coalition thinking the lib dems would have some power. Either it is not being exercised or the people in the parliamentary lib dem party actually believe what is happening is right. I am not sure which explanation would be worse.
4) You can stand up for truly progressive principles within your party and if you do not succeed you can resign from that party and spark an election. If you were to win it you could even be a radicial voice for new politics.
Macmillan Cancer Support believes strongly that many cancer patients can be helped back to work – and we’re supporting and funding pilots to find out how to do this most effectively.
But our research on the medical assessment for employment and support allowance (http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Documents/GetInvolved/Campaigns/Benefits/FailedByTheSystemReport.pdf) shows that
– contrary to the rules, terminally ill patients are being required to undergo the work capability assessment or attend work-focused interviews;
– Cancer patients are being asked to attend a work capability assessment or work-focused interviews while receiving chemotherapy;
– The work capability assessment, which is used to determine if someone is eligible for ESA and should be taking part in work-related activity, is not sensitive to the problems faced by people with cancer.
Hopefully, we’ll see proposals about DLA which learn the lessons of the ESA system which you rightly criticise.
“We need to be sure that there is no perverse incentive to determine that someone can work when they cannot. We also need to be sure that those carrying out the assessment are good at it.”
ATOS Medical Services are already on a “perverse incentive”, they have targets to meet of disqualifying claimants already on benefits otherwise they don’t receive their fat cat bonuses.
From my personal experience, 20+ years of chronic disability – Those carrying out the assessment are similarly rewarded and some are NHS consultant doctors moolighting. The complete system is corrupt, including the non independant Tribunals, stopping people receiving the benefits they are entitled to, in my case receiving for 20+ years, to satisfy the greed of over paid senior civil servants and their friends in “The City” and elsewhere.
@Beau Nash
Brilliant comment.
Just out of interest has anyone noticed how many “Disability Analyst” ATOS are looking for? Check the recruitment page on their website; they are clearing gearing up for a massive workload!
No-one can argue against a position that “people who have nothing wrong with them shouldn’t be getting incapacity benefit”. That’s just kind of logically obvious. However, it’s the direction of travel that tells. Add up everything being done or proposed by the coalition and what you have is a right-wing agenda aimed at dramatically reducing (destroying in the end, perhaps) the welfare state and attacking the weak and vulnerable rather than the rich and powerful.
Now, for example, we have a proposal that unemployed people should be moved to areas of employment. That’s just a step away from fascism – workers being forcibly moved by the state at the behest of big companies. And predictable calls from the Tory right that the NHS should not be ring fenced – at the same time as a report that real cuts are already taking place in the NHS.
Lynne argues that the presence of Lib Dems in the coalition helps to make it a little more progressive compared to what it would be under a pure Tory government. In fact, the opposite is true. Having Lib Dems round the table as part of the coalition gives the Tories the credibility to do things they would otherwise not have a hope of getting away with – especially if the Lib Dems were in opposition and sticking to their principles.
Watch out for an increasingly right-wing agenda coupled with correspondingy anguished cries from the Lib Dems saying “it’s not as bad as it would have been if we weren’t in the coalition”.
Until it all gets completely unsupportable and the Lib Dems pull out having lost all credibility and wander off into the political wilderness.
I receive ESA because I am suffering from depression. When I went for my original ESA assessment in May 2009, the ATOS assessor was an SRN who admitted at that medical that she had no psychiatric training. I was subsequently turned down for benefit and appealed.
I waited SEVEN MONTHS for an appeal tribunal. The chairman granted my benefit and said effectively that the form was not fit for purpose as it was clear I was not fit for work, but the way the questions were phrased on the form and at the medical, prevented me from giving answers that would gain sufficient points to be granted benefit on the basis of the medical.
Despite the best efforts of Mind, the mental health charity, no effective changes have been made to the form. Only 5 months after the tribunal I was sent yet another form and will have to go for another medical.
Mind have joined forces with an organisation called Benefits and Work and an extensive document has been drawn up which helps people like me to answer the ESA form questions in such a way that ATOS cannot simply tick boxes to say that claimants don’t qualify. Anyone who doesn’t know about Mind or that the document exists has little or no chance of qualifying for ESA.
Some will undoubtedly land up in hospital or even committing suicide because they have no hope of getting a job and are far from well enough to work. They will also end up deeply in debt long before the tribunal service manage to grant their benefit and get it backdated. While waiting for the tribunal you get a minimal amount to live on. I don’t think it is even as much as JSA. I also nearly lost my home because the DWP lost documents concerning my mortgage interest application resulting in a delay in starting payments.
It is scandalous that a colossal amount of public money is being wasted on ATOS, a private company employing under-qualified staff who are contradicting the opinions of GP’s and NHS mental health specialists – people who the Government are already paying to look after us. In my case they also contradicted the opinion of the consultant endocrinologist who I saw about my hypothyroidism.
Please Lynne, go to George Osborne and show him the responses to your post. ATOS can’t cope with their current workload. MY local DWP office told me that the rate of appeals was already far higher than the Labour Government admitted and published.
And please, get George Osborne and the rest of the Coalition Cabinet (which includes my own unsympathetic MP David Willetts) to drop their ridiculous Victorian idea that mental illness can somehow be ‘cured’ by work. Where are the jobs anyway and where are the employers willing to take on people with a history of mental illness.
Hi Lynn…
I think I believe, as you do, that provided appropriate safeguards are put in place, it is necessary to encourage people who could work to get back into work.
In my road, living in a pleasant, grassy suburb of a sea-side town, there’s a guy who has been on incapacity benefit since I left college, 20 years ago. Apparently he had a bad back. But he climbs ladders, paints his house, fixes his roof, repairs his car. It’s very, very difficult to imagine that there is no work that he’s been fit for. If he lived in a country in which he had to work, I believe that he would not only have been working almost all this time and making a positive contribution to society, but that he’d also have been earning more for himself.
Incapacity Benefit, for many people, can be a yolk as well as a crutch.
Hi. Nice to see at least one MP having a few seeds of doubt over all this. The Rhetoric coming from Government reflects badly on those who they are “attacking”. We are already seeing an increase in negative attitudes/abuse aimed at Disabled People. This sort of drip, drip, drip anti propaganda reflects on those who genuinely need support just as much as those who abuse the system. I also can’t help thinking that by targeting the disabled it diverts attention away from the paltry attempts by Government to properly target those who caused the downturn in the first place.
I have friends with disabilities – they have both worked for a long time, but they have to fight tooth and nail to keep their jobs – Why? Because large corporations and private companies do not like employing disabled people! It’s a fact! I have one friend who worked for a company that was awarded the ‘two ticks’ scheme for it’s attitude to disabled people – yet in my friend’s tribunal following the discrimination she received they openly admitted that they “had no experience of dealing with the needs of a disabled person” Yet they’ve received an award from the Government!! Companies see disabled people as liabilities – even with adjustments they are seen as slower than other people. This then makes them “not cost effective” which can lead to accusations that they might be holding their department back – and a.k.a holding the company back form being profitable. Yes – this has happened too. You can lead a disabled person into work – but you can’t make the company employ them! The sooner the Government realises that it’s the EMPLOYERS that they need to educate and not the would be employees. Then we might actually get somewhere. In these times where profit wins out over people – and of course; some MP’s are under the thumb of the Big Corporation. Then we are going to have a long wait.
Collective cabinet responsibility means you are signed up to this attack on the poor in the name of progress. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Hi Lynne, interesting blog. I’m a MS patient in full time employment. I think the current system has 2 major flaws:
1. It’s set up with the assumption that an individual’s level of incapacity doesn’t change from day to day – certainly not true for people with MS or with many conditions I think of as “acute intermittent” rather than chronic (e.g. porphyria).
2. It’s too much of an all or nothing scenario. Either you get incapacity benefit + housing benefit + council tax benefit – or you get nothing. I think a lot of people might be capable of working part-time but not full time (I should probably be part time as full time work is very draining for me). It’d be great to have support to help people who want to work but can’t manage full time hours. Not likely, since the first target was DLA (the only help many disabled people in work receive).
I think ESA was meant to sort this out, but it was poorly implemented. People think ‘disabled’ and they immediately think ‘in a wheelchair’ – the reality is a lot less simplistic.
Lynne,
Thank you for writing about this, especially as you’re a Lib-Dem, like me. I am horrified and sickened at the attacks on the unwell by the press, that they’re somehow all sponging off the state. I think the last time this level of reporting was seen was in Nazi Germany where the disabled were seen as a drain on the economy and promptly gotten rid of. From my dealings with the DWP it would appear that the system is automatically biased against disabled people, especially those with mental health problems. They’re the least likely ones to be able to defend themselves, so to save some bob all they do is stop the benefit and they’re not likely to appeal, are they, or if they are, not do it in the “proper” way that a healthy person would be able to. And if they are able to make a strong and successful appeal on their own, then there’s nothing wrong with them! Tails they lose, heads they lose. As it happens, there’s very little fraud in the benefits system as a whole, and very, very little in IB/ESA. So if they do carry out more checks, all they’ll discover is that people are genuinely ill and instead of reducing the amount paid out in IB/ESA, they’ll instead be paying much more to ATOS.
A brief history is that some years ago I had a mental breakdown and made many suicide attempts and got hospitalised many times as a result, including a long spell of ECT. As a result I lost my job without any consultation, and efforts to keep me in it prior to that were stonewalled. They weren’t willing to make ANY adjustments to my working conditions to help me stay in work. The Disability Rights Commission later told me that the DDA was effectively ignored as employers knew that the DRC weren’t in a position to enforce it. I still have the email squirrelled away somewhere.
I last had my ATOS assessment 2½ years ago and failed it. I felt like I was taking up the GP’s time off the golf course, and he just ripped through it, and I didn’t know what was going on. I then got dumped on JSA while the appeal was going through (which also failed, as did the tribunal, despite my having a major panic attack in the middle of it), but the Disability Employment Adviser I requested the help of was as useful as a chocolate teapot, and about as sympathetic as Stalin and as understanding as a goldfish. The DEA even sided with an employer for turning me down for interview for a job that was well below my skill level!! That proved to be last straw, and the stress of being on JSA caused me to land in hospital with a suspected heart attack, and as a result of which I was back on IB.
There are schemes to help people like me back into work, and companies like A4E work very hard, but even they can’t magic jobs out of thin air. One of the things a group of us were told by one of their helpful staff was that the key to successful employment for people with health problems was “the right job for the right person at the right time,” and that shoe-horning them into any old job could be disastrous and lead to a severe regression in their health. That is what I fear most of all, and I’m careful in how I control my life in order to keep an even keel.
In Wales the healthy unemployed:vacancy ratio was 100:1 a few months ago, and I don’t think it will have changed much. So if you add IB/ESA claimants onto the 2.5million unemployed (which will go up when public sector spending cuts start), what’s going to happen? At least 5-8million unemployed chasing 500k (that’s a high figure!) vacancies.
There was an inquest a few years ago into the death of a young man with depression from NE Wales. Perhaps one of your researchers could do some digging. Basically, he failed his IB medical and consequently got shoved by the JCP through a revolving door of jobs that he couldn’t cope with. It all got too much so he killed himself. His mother was interviewed and said quite plainly that she blamed the DWP for her son’s death because of how they treated him. Evidently nobody bothered to learn any lessons from it. After all, if depressives on IB kill themselves then they save the taxpayer some money.
I resent anybody making me feel guilty because of the fact that I wouldn’t cope in a regular work environment, or that I’m also a carer for an elderly and infirm parent. The DWP wanted me to put my parents into a home just so they could put me in a job. They didn’t appreciate me telling them that any decisions on that would NOT revolve around whatever I was claiming or not claiming.
We desperately need a huge number of jobs created in a wide variety of areas, we close our borders (q.v. Frank Field on this), employers need to be flexible, employers need to follow the DDA (or go beyond it and be pro-active), and the EHRC needs to have real teeth to severely punish employers who ignore the DDA. Lynne, perhaps you could kick these comments upstairs. Please contact me if you have questions.
just how low are you prepared to stoop…after being a libral dem for 15 years and more..i have had to wach you jump into bed with a right wing conservative
party..how disgracefull,..now you are supporting the cutting of benfefits to our most poorest people,…you should go out,find the nearest olive tree,and do the honourable thing.
I was made redundant in March 2009 after 8 years of employment. After years of resisting my doctors (particularly my specialist) I was told you can no longer work full time nor away from home. I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a condition of the connective tissue which has badly affected the stability of my spine. I’d suffered several injuries due to undue physical stress at work and had undergone on my speciliast’s advice an Occupational Health Assessment. The assessing doctor stated that I would soon not be able to do most duties.
I was constantly on 2 x Cocodamol 30mg every four hours and in great pain when I returned home. I was debilitated and in tears when I returned home and immediately had to go to bed.
I also suffer from diagnosed clinical depression and was under psychiatric care for years and now undertake Art Therapy. I was on and am on medication for this condition.
After my redundancy I was put in the position whereby I had to fight my employers, my mortgage insurers and the system. I was put through the process of a farcical medical assessment via the insurance company through Jobcentre. This went to Appeal which was denied. I fought this and with the help of a friend who is professionally associated with appeals and tribunals in another Council took my case to Crown Court Tribunal. The appeal decision was overturned without question. The judge and assessing doctor stated that based on my medical documents there were absolutely no grounds to deny my Appeal.
I keep meticulous records and have four letters from both my head GP and regular GP, along with my specialist and his alternative consultant stating that I am not fit to work full time or away from home.
EDS was previously a rather unknown condition but now is known to be degenerative and debilitating. My condition continues to degenerate. I was a very active person and was employed for over 27 years. I fought to stay employed and to be independent. Now I find that I am incapacitated and day to day activities are limited and cause me a great amount of pain. I have followed all procedures to the hilt, meeting with Pathways to Work monthly and meeting with an independent self employment advisor who is helping me and a business partner to start a business which we are in the process of launching.
And yet I am being put through the exact same process this year. My tribunal hearing was on 29 January and unconditionally I won with an added support module. Not four months later I was sent the exact same form to prove my disability. I have all necessary paperwork and further letters from doctors.
And again I see the government is fighting disabled people.
Of course there are those who chose not to work or make fraudulent reports, however those of us who have the concrete evidence, in the hands of JobCentre and DWP, and are forced to go through the same process which will cost the goverment and taxpayers thousands of pounds.
I never thought I would be disabled, nor did I ever think I would have to depend on benefits. I’ve saved but now those savings at 48 years old have to last me what? Two years? And liquidating my pension will eventually be necessary to save the home I love which has a very low mortage. My pension outgoings will be decreased substantially if I have to liquidate it. But I will do what I must to save my home.
I am, as I stated, trying to start a small business and to get on my feet but how much can I do when I am facing the fact that my limitations are growing. However I persevere, I am drained by the system and the policies which direct us away from trying to be productive and into a state of flux and depression.
I find this system detestable. I have fought with Jobcentre (politely) with wrong or misleading information. The Pathways to Work scheme is obstacled and unfortunately, despite the efforts of some of the advisors, beyond inadequate.
So what are we supposed to do?
as a disabled person who will never be able to return to work , iam really scared about having my benefits cut , the torys dont care about disabled people thats why we wernt mentioned once in the election, let alone having benefits cut i have to suffer the indignighty of having another medical assement even though i have been awarded DLA for life.
I am absolutely appalled and sickened how this government are treating sick and disabled people in this county. Comments about welfare scroungers are appearing in parts of the press on a regular basis, all part of the governments plan to turn the public against disabled sick people. I honestly feel like I am living in Nazi Germany at the moment, I have cried several times reading such hateful articles and hurtful comments from mps (including David Cameron and George Osbourne). These two despicable people haven’t an ounce of compassion in them and neither have the lib dems for backing them. Disabled people deserve compassion and respect, something they certainly are not getting at the moment, just harrassment and constant abuse. For goodness sake have some decency and stop this harrassment. ATOS medicals are a complete and utter farce, no person would mind having a proper medical, but these are SO OBVOUSLY NOT. Lynne, please tell your party to wake up and sack ATOS mmediately.
Hello,
I think Lynne is being politically naive or engaging in a type of presentation politics. The war on welfare which the Tories have launched has always and will contnue to be anathema to most Lib Dems and Labour supporters.
The amount of savings made in subjecting people to this debilitating and inhumane process of proving themselves unfit, is minute, compared to the savings that could be made tackling any number of larger structural economic factors:
We have one of the most benign tax regimes in the world when it comes to corporation and personal taxation.
We allow the financiers of the City of London to dictate the economic direction of the country. The strength of the pound and the FTSE, is not an economic determing factor for most people. Well paid jobs, good homes, good healthcare and education are: these are determined by goverment, not private finance.
We faced a stark choice at the election, do we want a society in which our government continues to buy things with its “debt”? things like local goverment jobs, pensions, welfare provision, nurses, doctors, teachers…? or do we want to reduce this “debt” and limit state provision. Big Society requires Big Government Lynne. This is what the Lib Dems should be seeking to emphasise. Just don’t join in with the Tories and then pretend otherwise.
As someone who had to give up a well paid job (and my social life and a lot more) to look after someone suffering from multiple severe conditions I find it appalling how this government and some of the public opinion seem so keen to label a scrounger anyone who is not economically active. I don’t think that this latest plan would help the sick, the disabled and their carers in any way and I don’t think it will be a fair assessment if they decide beforehand how much they want to save. The government is clearly trying to divide and rule, if we manage to get some disabled people off to work, we will save some public sector jobs or the freedom passes for the elderly. So you want us to protect sick people, be prepared to lose your job then. This is nasty stuff. It is just a way to move people to JSA and make them even poorer. And if they are still unemployed after one year, which is very likely, their housing benefits will be cut too.
Osborne’s proposals are nothing short of barbaric; you and your colleagues in Parliament must block them at all costs. I joined the Liberal Democrats because I believed they would genuinely take heed of the concerns of those that New Labour abandoned in their pursuit of power and placating the interests of the City and the multinational corporations; I did not join the party to see the Thatcherite jackboot stamping on the poorest and most vulnerable, much less to see the members in the coalition acting like collaborators.
You’re better than Osborne and IDS and their sort will ever be, Lynne. Show it. Stand up to them and resist this appalling injustice.
Employers, not workers, decide whether workers can work or not! That’s one simple fact that certain people need to get through their thick heads! I think the government needs to start telling employers who to employ. This should be based on a points system. The longer anyone has been unemployed or unfit for work, the more points they’d have. The people with the most points would be given top priority for any job vacancies.
Another thing is where is our Proportional Representation, which has *always* been Lib Dem policy that would be imposed as a condition of any support or coalition in a hung parliament? No referendum, it would be imposed as the price of Lib Dem support. I think we’ve been conned. Lib Dem policy is also against benefit sanctions, but these sanctions don’t make any sense at all, because you can’t bully people into getting jobs which either don’t exist or that employers refuse to give them, so they must be abolished immediately. Abolish JSA and bring back Unemployment Benefit/Supplementary Benefit! Tax the bankers more heavily to pay for whatever you need. Our economic system is run for the benefit of the bankers. Search online for the film “Money as Debt”, which explains this.
I’m feeling very annoyed about news I read today about George Osbourne’s planned attack on Incapacity Benefits. It makes me feel suicidal.
I’m on Income Support, not Incapacity Benefit, but it’s all linked, because to get the Income Support, I had to make a claim for Incapacity Benefit, which failed, so then you get put onto Income Support.
I became ill due to vicious harassment by Jobcentre staff under JSA regulations. I’m officially depressed, but I can’t give too many details about this, in case any pro benefit sanctions people identify me, then hunt me down to move in for the kill, by stopping my benefit, trying to brainwash me, and force me into suicide. I think this harassment has also made millions of other people ill, which is why there are so many claimants of these sickness or unfit for work benefits.
I think I’m capable of doing various jobs, but it’s pretty obvious to me that all employers are dead against me and will stop at nothing to deny me work. After this, they think they’ll be getting my services free of charge under an existing or future slave labour scheme, so why would they want to give me a job? Some of the ways they do this are summed up in job ads by phrases such as “you will have a proven track record” or “you will be a team player”, meaning “if you haven’t been allowed to work much in the past, then we certainly won’t let you work now”, as well as “well presented” and “smart appearance”, meaning “you must conform to a strict sexist dress code”. As a transgendered person I can’t do this. I’ve tried and failed. It makes me feel sick. I’ve even read about a particularly nasty policy on a certain supermarket’s website saying that if they give you a job, then you’ll be re interviewed later on to check that you can still give the same answers to their questions. If you fail, then you’ll be sacked. Supermarkets have also been destroying jobs, by installing automated checkouts where customers scan all their own shopping without being paid for this work, then pay a machine. I think everyone should boycott these machines.
I must also point out that at the moment, about 80% of the population, including illegal immigrants, have got 100% of the work. I think this work should be re distributed by cutting the number of hours that people are allowed to work and banning overtime. Various illegal immigrants can easily be tracked down and prevented from working, creating job vacancies which can be given to people who are allowed to work here. Ways of doing this include phoning round for a domestic cleaner, who seem to be mainly Russian, then when they turn up at the place to be cleaned they can be arrested, detained, and deported. There are lots of Brazilians advertising in Queensway Indoor Market, Westminster, W2. So people should phone them, meet up, then ask them how come they’ve got rooms to rent, what are they doing in this country, etc.
As for my skills, I’m a fully qualified secretary, so when can I come and work for you, Lynne? Just imagine what this would do for your credibility!
Lynne,
You make an interesting point.
During the 1980s, my mother was on incapacity benefit. She had previously worked full-time and on developing ME, she had to spend around 10 years claiming this benefit.
As someone who WANTED to work again, she received no help whatsoever from any medical or government agencies under the Tories. Rather, she was tested every few months in a ridiculous scheme where some of the doctors involved said they simply “didn’t believe” in the illness she had.
As a result, she was made more ill than ever due to constant stress believing that she would have her benefits removed if she got “the wrong doctor”. This was such a miserable way to live. As soon as my mother could stop claiming benefit, she did – she did not want or choose to be ill and take state money.
We cannot punish people for being ill. The point of a benefits system is that people do not feel like scroungers because society provides for them if they are not able to work down to sickness.
I find the rhetoric being used by the coalition government at the moment extremely incendiary as it plays on fears that somehow working people (like me!) are busy killing ourselves for system cheats. Actually, I’m actively proud to contribute to our welfare system. I would far rather support the benefits system than – for example – pay an extra levy on my council tax to er, not have the Olympics take place in my own borough.
Lynne, this is a very emotive issue and I think the reason that some people are being what you call “vituperative” is because it’s has been very hard for your constituents who voted you in as a Liberal Democrat to hear your party drop so many of its key election pledges in return for governmental power.
But I’m pleased to see you raising points like this on your blog and hope you will feed back to your party centrally that your constituents are also concerned by the recent statements on incapacity benefit. It’s important for MPs to know that not everyone believes that “reassessment” will somehow solve this issue.
Thank you.
I don’t think it’s widely known that Labour had a plan a few years ago to effectively bribe GPs to sign people off IB. From what I can remember, I think the GMC told the Government to go forth and multiply:
http://www.zenopa.com/news/15139095/GPs_cash_incentives_plan
“Doctors may be offered financial bonuses for signing fewer people off as eligible for incapacity benefit, according to work and pensions secretary John Hutton.”
It’s not a question of people being good at doing the assessment. The assessment is meaningless. You can’t fail this test. Every one a winner.
Every one is fit for some limited work. Look at Stephen Hawkins. People are not disabled now – they are differently abled. The goal posts are now set so far apart that everyone is fit for some work.
But the reality is they didn’t get any better and there are no jobs that acommodate the differently abled. This is a competitive labour market and they will usually not be the most productive workers. There won’t be any jobs for them until they are given masses of support and so are their employers and someone picks up the bill. Is the government going to subsidise the jobs for them.
It isn’t actually a concept now – too ill to work. So they will be classed as fit to work on a ‘phony’ test and will be condemned to threats and sanctions for failing to find work while their benefits as announced today are cut.
Why doesn’t the Coalition government come clean about this and say –
sorry the money ran out – we can no longer financially support the sick and disabled who can’t find work – instead of pretending this is some great liberation in to work for people like those with schizophrenia who ae not always employees of choice.
Ask David Cameron to ask the friend of his who owns the medical assessment company, who will make a fortune out of this-whether their aim is proper support for people to ill to work. Also take a look at how many of the people you are concerned about are on housing benefit- and ask how the LHA cut will affect them.
I already know teh answers to these questions, and so do you. I don’t have a ministerial position to place ahead of the needs of my own party, and the british people. Good luck with your decision. Is it a decision? I doubt it. You will be nodding in support of this budget- you know it, I know it. You don’t get to vote with a clean conscience and pretend that you weren’t aware.
Dear Lynne.
There’s never any mention of unclaimed benefits.
I’m a 59 yr old woman. For 10yrs I’ve been a lone Parent/Carer to my disabled adult son. I’ve been disabled with severe & widespread Arthritis for 3yrs now but I do not claim DLA. I receive no help or support from Social Services for my son or myself.Like many others I’ve tried, been denied & given up trying. My health has deteriorated as a result of this lack of support, lack of respite, lack of money. I haven’t had a break in 15yrs let alone a holiday.
Why are genuinely disabled people, many of whom have already been failed by these ESA medicals, which are not fit for purpose, being told they’re going to be assessed yet again?
You cannot adequately & medically assess sick & disabled people with a piece of software (LIMA or any other) & a tick-box process. Didn’t Cameron say he was against the tick-box culture?
Please take note & take action to stop this inhumanity to the most vulnerable in our society. The stories of injustice, fear & distress here & all over the web are increasing daily. Have no doubt that death & suicides will follow as a direct result. Do you all want the blood of innocents on your hands? If not then act & inspire others to do so because evil really does flourish when good men (& women) do nothing.
This “Tsunami” of condemnation, abuse & humiliation against the sick & disabled by Labour & now the Coalition riding roughshod with these evil & unnecessary policies. No wonder so many people are equating so-called “Welfare Reform” with the Nazi Regime & Eugenics!
It’s time for politicians to stop being in denial over the impact of their actions on the weakest & poorest in our society. Otherwise we may as well build the “showers” now, with “Arbeit Macht Frei” above the doorway, for the “feckless & workshy” & invite David Freud to the opening ceremony as his ‘reward’ for coining that phrase.
I’m sorry, but it’s hard not to be angry & sarcastic. This cruel & shameful behaviour by our Politicians has me worried & embittered. After being caught with their fingers in the the expenses till, they have the gall to use the term “scroungers” in order to whip up a media frenzy against benefit claimants. The majority of whom are genuine.
What’s happening now has moved way beyond the erosion of our Civil Rights, State Protection & National Health Service. The State has lost its Compassion & Empathy for its fellow men, women & children & the most vulnerable & needy are the first to be thrown on the scrapheap.
Don’t let it happen on your watch Lynne.
I’ve already commented on this blog, but just to say Bonica you wrote that so well and I completely agree with everything you wrote. Lynne please take note, millions of vulnerable people are really scared, worried and upset all over the country.
We the disabled are easy targets I have had tried three times to commit suicide because of the pressure put onto me by The DWP it is totally wrong and if I have any more pressure from The DWp I will kill myself hitler had the right idea get rid of people with mental health problems by killing them oh well no DWP in hell
By the way what do the MPS give out of their fortunes give to help the national dept nothing they are too busy fiddling thier expenses and having fancy lunches while they pick on the vunerable it is so sad sad sad I hope I meet Ian Duncan Smith in HELL and that clown G Osbourne
Collective responsibility? –> http://tinyurl.com/23nmczs
Which is happening first, Lynne’s resignation or her sacking? Or defeat by Labour at the next election?
After reading other comments on this site I can confirm not only to myself but to others that the assessments given are fraudulent. This was even stated at my Tribunal by the judge and doctor.
I thank you for your support and for allowing people with disabilities a forum in which to air their views and put forward their individual cases.
I hope that I am able to eventually subsist without the system. Though I love my country, I am disgusted with the blinkered and frankly ignorant policies the government puts forward.
When disabled people should be concentrating on their health and hopefully trying to find something they can do to survive and enrich their lives, they are faced with the stress of proving they are disabled. This is particularly ludicrous when DWP already has the medical records and testimonials proving a person is disabled. They ignore these (or, as I’ve found, lose them) and despite claiming they will contact your medical practioners, they do not (again confirmed during the Tribunal).
I hope you are able to be heard when voicing your opinion on this matter.
I emailed my MP and my local counciller and received no replies.
Again I thank you sincerely.
Becca
As someone on DLA and Incapacity Benefit, the language being used by the coalition is terrifying me. I was a member of the LibDems, but have not renewed my membership. I realise the Labour government was already moving people onto ESA, and further cuts would have happened under them. But, it really feels as though the new government is focusing on the sick and disabled more than any other group. If I fail my reassessment and get put onto JSA I will be homeless. My mental health is already very poor, but this is very hard to prove at medical.
I’m not alone, many genuinely disabled people are becoming incredibly worried by media reports on this issue.
Lynne, I have just read through your original blog and all the responses. It’s deeply disturbing. Look at some of the language – so many people who say they are frightened, worried, scared, apprehensive, desperate and so on. And other people talking openly about suicide. I implore you to stand up for the disabled and vulnerable and protect them, even if there is a cost to your political future. We are all members of the same society. How can we be expected to accept that sick and suffering people all around us are receiving no help? My feeling is that you would be kidding yourself to think that you can take the sharp edges of policies such as this. They have to be opposed.