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 don’t WANT Lynne Featherstone to resign.
I want her to stand up for genuine claimants everywhere and tell Osborne and Duncan-Smith that it is ATOS that is costing them money because of the bad decisions their grossly underqualified and incompetent staff are making.
Bad decisions result in appeals, and appeals tribunals cost money.
Scrap ATOS now and trust the NHS professionals who are closest to the claimant to make the decisions about fitness to work. Otherwise the Government are effectively calling them liars along with the claimant!
It is the HUMAN cost of ATOS bad decisions that really matters. The people who are wrongly assessed and suffer severely as a result need Lynne Featherstone to champion their cause because few others are doing it and she is well placed to influence and make a difference.
You talk about helping the nation, would it not be wise to set up a social housing program like the 50s, rent in this country are out of control, business want to pay as minimum as they can. Yet, lib/com anticipate people to live on min wage and pay London rates?
If you truly want to help build more social homes, and give them to unemployed that want to work, maybe create some kind of contract.
If your party keeps introducing policies like these, that attack the poor don’t ever expect to be voted in, the cons will be voted out in the next election.
There is already a air of discontent about the poor CGT rise, why couldn’t you have increased to its original percentage.
Mental Health sufferers feel enough prejudice in society, even from health professionals. Why make life even hard for us, with this deliberate attack.
These proposals to save monies, by cutting NHS & Welfare budgets, will backfire.
Increased hospital admissions, & homelessness will cost the country a fortune.
Let alone all the unnecessary harm & pain this will cause to mental health sufferers, and their families.
As a mental health service user, a term I hate, who is under CPA, the fact that my doctors can be over-ruled by a non-specialist so-called health professional, without my medical records, employed by a private company, makes me extremely fearful.
I hope someone in goverment sees sense.
Thank you so much for raising your concerns Lynne. It’s reassuring to know there are those in the coalition government who are willing to do so.
I have been unable to work for many years due to severe depression and an anxiety disorder. The stigma surrounding mental illness is bad enough to deal with, and the stigmatisation of being on benefits compounds it. It’s very easy to scapegoat those on benefits, and to vilify all of us because of a minority who abuse the system. The indolent scrounger caricature seems to be ubiquitous in the media, and, I fear, in the mind of the average member of the public. How can this skewed perception be addressed, however, without advocacy in the public discourse about benefits?
There’s nothing wrong with rigorous assessment of incapacity, so long as it is conducted fairly, and without an agenda affecting the methodology. A good system will assess only the facts of each unique case. All integrity in the process is lost, however, when those conducting assessments are affected by policy from on high imposing targets. Add to the mix private companies who get paid for every claimant they push into work, and genuine concerns emerge. It is absolutely crucial that the needs of each claimant are central to the entire process. Getting an individual into work only for them to experience a relapse of their condition, whatever it may be, could be a case of one step forward and two steps back.
Those that are unable to work must be recognised as such, and not be penalised. Those that need support and empowerment to reach the level at which they can work again must certainly be helped. What’s crucial, is that the entire approach is client-centred, or claimant-centred if you will, otherwise there is a very real danger that many will be railroaded into work when they’re not ready, be unable to cope, only to be denied a return to benefits and end up in dire straights. The answer to the problem of an unsustainable benefits budget is not to remove the safety net recklessly and plunge a great deal of vulnerable people into poverty and destitution.
If you think people can work and do not qualify for the Incapacity Benefit don’t just take their income away but when they get a job and start earning over the incapacity amount paid reduce the benefit by 50p for every pound they earn over, when they are earning enough no benefit will be being paid.
That way they can get a part time job and still have enough to live on maybe!
To just cut people off saying you can work without a job to go to is not going to help any disabled person get a job, they may not even have transport or the funds to visit the job centre or go to interviews, if you say they can work stop the benefits when they are working.
Simples
Oh and Lynne. Just for the record. I am a WORKING single parent. I am called a scrounger on a daily basis now, not just by the press, and my government, but by people who feel permitted by you to do so.
My tenancy ends in 4 weeks, and I am about to have to choose between moving miles away from my friends and family for a house- or taking a one bedroom flat and living on nothing to survive to stay here.
This is YOUR government. You want people to go oh, Lynne Featherstone is really lovely- then show some backbone and stand up for what you know is right. Because this isn’t.
It is economic suicide for a start- and its immoral. Absolutely immoral.
Well done Lynn for courageously carrying on with an open blog as a minister and for standing up for your principles.
I believe that any genuine effort to get disabled people back into dignified work appropriate and flexible to their needs will cost substantially more than it would save – but that it would nerver-the-less be well worth doing.
That is not how I see the current plans which however laudable the aim of getting rid of false claimants will, I fear, unfairly penalise, stigmatise and terrorise the genuine.
There must firstly be some consideration of severity and of types of illness for exclusion. Claimant appeals must be swift and a safety lock be applied to allow a veto by the treating GP or clinician.
Personally I would like to see a reverse to an opt-in system whereby claimants can try work-experience without loss of benefits until established in a job – thus whilst not getting paid more, they will not be paid less, and with a fast-track return to benefits if something goes wrong until they can try again.
I can’t but help be troubled that there is a danger that the weakest in society will be made to pay for the greed of the bankers, and so it seems, the latter are back just where they were before and nothing has really changed.
I’m intrigued at how it costs the Government less to farm out the Benefit administration to the likes of ATOS rather than have it “In House”. Not to mention paying the company bonuses for every one ‘put back into work’. Presumably ATOS makes a profit too? Surely that can’t be cost effective?
The tests that are to be implemented for existing incapacity benefit claimants has to be fair and consistent throughout,additionally greater emphasis as to be placed upon recoqnising that there are plenty of conditions that cause great pain and disablement that are not being covered at the moment ,consequent on this is the fact that people are being wrongly told they are fit for work when they clearly arent and also in some cases going against their own consultants advice.Should someone be told that they are to work when they are ill and they have an accident through this i strongly suspect that the matter could end up in the courts..example someone taking regular morphine being told to work then has accident through the need to take pain relief..what then??show boating for the benefit of the electorate is one thing but those in power have to remember they are taking peoples lives into their hands in some cases.
You are to be congratulated for this blog..this is what being a representative of the people is all about and is a credit to you and long may it last…it is through these blogs that you will be able to keep in touch with the people in everyday life whilst carrying out your westminster duties.
I would bring one matter to light and that is the fact that there are 2million plus getting mobility dla has opposed to 14000 yes fourteen thousand!! getting war pension mobility..maybe it should be the case that the criteria for dla mobility be has strict has the war pension criteria.
This campaign against the poorest on benefits is beginning to look like a witch hunt.People on incapacity thrown onto ESA.People on ESA thrown onto JSA.Those on JSA and out of work for twelve months lose 10% of their housing benefit.
With all the sick you will be adding to the jobless can you tell me exactly were all the jobs are going to come from.
All this will end in tears.I think it will be like the eighties and there will be rioting like Brixton and Toxteth.
Thatcher took the community spirit out of our country and it became dog eat dog.It never really recovered from that.You people are trying to turn the poor against each other with the propaganda in the press.
Its bound to go pear shaped.When you take everything off the poor including their dignity then the poor have nothing to lose.
“The answer to the problem of an unsustainable benefits budget is not to remove the safety net recklessly and plunge a great deal of vulnerable people into poverty and destitution.”
that will be, has been, tory policy for decades.
unlike those squirmingly suipine lying lib-dems, osborne was refreshingly honest:
swinging welfare cuts will be made to cut the deficit.
simple motive, brutal plan:
the weak, vulnerable in society will be hit because they are weak, easy to hit, easy to justify hiting as scroungers, deceivers, spongers…
cameron paid at best lip-service to religion, clegg declared himself atheist, so there’ll be precious little christian compassion to temper their neo-evolutionary logic:
survival of the fittest, so weed out weaklings..
if the almighty economy is to return to sacred, sustained growth, those most fit to do so must be stimulated to do so
maybe some of those incapitated, disabled, skillless claimants will, when forced to fight or die, will prove themselves to contain resources previously untapped? for the rest, its bad times to come..
If you’re so concerned, why are you not speaking out like some of your more courageous colleagues?
We’ve returned to the cruel Tory government of past, however, the worst thing about it is that the Liberal Democrats will be supporting these truly illiberal policies.
Please say something, don’t just quietly blog.
This the last sentence from Lynne’s ‘Budget Day’ blog: “For me – the protection of the most vulnerable was the most important part of this austerity budget. And at least the broadest shoulders are going to bear most of the financial burden.”
So – the sick have broad shoulders in LibDem land these days?
Thanks for your support, Lynne. If the government was serious about helping disabled people into work, they would want a lot more of us to get into the ‘work-related activity’ part, which would provide tailored help and support.
Where is Danny Alexander?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7768597/Danny-Alexander-hits-out-at-welfare-reforms.html
Has he abandoned his conscience and principles?
The last election was the first time that I voted for the Lib-Dems. Unless they start to protect disabled people from this vicious thuggery, it will also be my last.
All this said, praise to the government for today’s written ministerial statement exempting patients waiting for chemotherapy from the work capability assessment. Similarly, people with severe mental health conditions. Can’t find it online yet, but I’ve ben emailed a copy.
Lynn Rudd wrote:
“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.”
Thank you Lynn. Your support is much appreciated. A post has already appeared here by someone who’s attempted suicide 3 times because of their fears over welfare reform/cuts. People are being tipped over the edge by this callous disregard for human life.
I voted Lib-Dem & am disgusted at this collusion with the Tories to harm those who most need our protection & support.
If anyone doubts we are regressing towards Fascism & that behind the smokescreen of Welfare cuts lies a return to Eugenics, I urge everyone to be aware the inevitable horrors that come with that & research the history of it.
The following is from: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/07/344113.html
In the 1860’s, Francis Galton (a cousin of Charles Darwin) took this Malthusian theory (see above) a step further: in his own words he defined ‘Eugenics’ ( a word he coined) as “the science of improvement of the human race germ plasm through better breeding” – adding that the poor were biologically inferior – and he further advocated state intervention to solve the problem. In 1904, he founded a research chair in eugenics at University College of London University.
In 1905, Dr. Alfred Ploetz and Dr. Ernst Rudin founded the Society of Race-Hygiene in Germany. (about which, more later).
In 1907, the Eugenic Education Society (which later became the Eugenic Society) was founded in England.
In 1910, the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) was founded in America. In their own words, the ERO felt that “ultimate economic betterment should be sought by breeding better people, not fewer of the existing sort.”
In 1912, the First International Eugenics Congress was held at London University. It demonstrated the growing strength of the movement especially in England, Germany and the United States. The opening speech at this congress was given by Arthur James Balfour, who had been British Prime Minister from 1902 – 5; and, as Foreign Secretary under Lloyd George from 1916 – ’19, made a deal with the Zionists whereby Britain would support the setting up of a ‘home’ for the Jews, in return for the Zionists using their considerable political clout to persuade America to enter the war against Germany. (Britain was by then in dire economic straits). This secular Zionist group of Ashkenazi Jews were surely not entitled to a ‘homeland’ in Palestine, as their country of origin had been the Khazar Empire (which had adopted Judaism) of southern Russia.
In 1916, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States. It was renamed the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942. She wrote: ” the unbalance between the birth rate of the ‘unfit’ and the ‘fit’ is admittedly the greatest present menace to civilisation … The most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”
In 1922, the American Eugenics Society was founded. One of its co-founders, Henry Laughlin (who had been Superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office from l910 to 1921) later became President of the Pioneer Fund, a white supremacist organisation. Another co-founder, Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, in 1923, during a national debate on restricting immigration, spoke enthusiastically about the results of intelligence testing carried out by the Army: “I believe those tests were worth what the war (World War I) cost, even in human life…We have learned once and for all that the Negro is not like us.” He also became president of the Pioneer Fund from 1947 to 1956.
The definition of ‘Fascism’ in a dictionary is “a philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with the ideology of belligerent nationality’. This, in turn, reveals that capitalism lies at the core of fascism. But, as noted above, this is a fact which must be hidden by these global capitalists.
It is therefore imperative that this subject of eugenics/population control is subjected to far greater public scrutiny than it has received from ‘our media’ – which, after all, is in hock to its corporate owners: it says what it is paid to say! ”
The DWP contract with ATOS is one such merger. There are numerous others. They get richer & more powerful, the sick & disabled get poorer & die.
Just because they haven’t actually built concentration camps & ‘showers’ for us ‘lesser mortals’ doesn’t make it any less of a crime.
I would like to add that this blog is very useful and I thank you for doing it.
If Labour had listened to the voters a bid more over the last few years we would not have this makeshift government, I voted LibDem for the first time this year and I did it to keep the Conservatives out but I will never be voting LibDem again in the rest my life. I have a feeling this could be the end of three party politics unless someone else comes along new.
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2010/06/women-budget-single-children This piece is by Laurie Penny about how this budget affects women. As a home office minister we thought you should read it.
Re ‘Work related activity’
After my first ESA assessment which I ‘failed’ and appealed, I was placed in the ‘work related group’. In Portsmouth, this was run by an organisation called The Shaw Trust. Now I am sure they are OK at finding jobs for people whose maximum skill is making widgets, working at Tesco, or the most basic and moronic clerical tasks, but useless for anyone with my kind of IT skills. This became obvious when I went through a skills assessment with their advisor. The assessment software simply did not have the options that allowed me to describe the skills I had and what I could offer an employer.
Although I have taught myself a lot at home in the years since I last worked, the skills in demand in the IT marketplace have moved on and I described precisely what re-training I wanted. Blank face from the advisor who just about knew what a website was let alone the specific skills needed to build one.
In the end I found a part time course at my local FE and got funding with the help of the college, not Shaw Trust.
However the main problem was that I was doing all this when I wasn’t well enough to start looking for a job. My sessions with Shaw Trust ended early this year, with no re-entry possibility. My course ended in May and I know I could have done better if I had felt more able to concentrate and learn.
I understand from Shaw Trust that they were on a limited contract with the Government which has now expired – so if I go back, I have to start all over again with a different system and different people – more stress and aggravation.
From the experience of a similarly skilled friend on Job Seekers Allowance, our JobCentre staff are no better equipped for finding jobs for higher-skilled people than when I was claiming JSA about 3 years ago. I was asked why I wouldn’t apply for a certain vacancy – it required weapons software experience and would have required me to work on submarines! They simply had no idea.
The ESA process should NOT assume that you are well enough to work if you have to go to an appeal – absolutely the reverse. Any benefit I might have got out of Shaw Trust was totally wasted because I was tearful and angry at most of the sessions which I had to attend or risk losing even the minimum ESA benefit.
ESA/ATOS/ Work Capability is a cobbled-together shambles. Perhaps they could give me a job re-writing the LIMA system that is at the back of many of the problems with the medical assessment.
Let me give you a piece of advice from my friends at MIND – when completing the ESA form, DO NOT tick any of the boxes. Write alongside ‘not applicable’ or similar and then write a proper answer relating to the question in the detail box. That effectively forces them to discuss it properly at the assessment and does not start out each section with inappropriate boxes ticked as the check boxes in the LIMA system do not exactly follow the ones on the form.
If your problem relates to mental health, I can tell you that MIND tried really hard with the Labour Government to get them to change the form. The DWP’s response was to REMOVE some of the questions related to mental health issues and not to change the other applicable ones in a way that made describing depression or anxiety any easier. It is crystal clear that they don’t want ANYONE with those problems to qualify.
WHERE ARE YOU LYNNE FEATHERSTONE AND WHAT IS THIS DISGRACEFUL GOVERNMENT GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS OUTRAGE, DO NOT JUST BLOG, ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.
Hi,
Bit of background – I was carer for my two disabled parents (mum had MS and Dad CoPD) from 1993 to 2001. They both passed away within 6 months in 2001 and I promptly had a nervous breakdown followed by long term depression. I also have cervical spondylitus. All of which left me on the long-term sick until 2004. Thanks to a lot of help from the NHS things slowly improved (though I’m still extremely anxious and prone to random bouts of crying) and I’ve held down a fulltime job since Autumn 2004. So I tend to sympathise with people on Incapacity. People always think the worst of you.
I’m also a long-term Lib-Dem voter here and I’m not going to stop just because a coalition in which my party is the smaller partner is doing some things I don’t like. I understand what compromise is.
The big problem with this is that it sees things in Black and White. People are either too sick to work or lying scroungers.
In my opinion there are a chunk of people on sickness benefit who could work, but who honestly believe they can’t. Just throwing those people in at the deep end and labelling them as scroungers does nothing except create bitterness and a feeling of being hard done by. You need more carrot and less stick to get this group back to work.
You also need to consider that people are all different. I have a great deal of pain with my neck, and couldn’t work without strong painkillers (marvellous things). I’m fortunate that I can work when I take them, but some people (generally smaller framed people) I know with similar problems find that the painkillers (note I’m not talking about anything as extreme as morphine either) send them to cloud cuckoo land for the duration. So they can’t work either way. So even people with the same condition and treatment regime may have different levels of work capability.
Becky
There’s nothing wrong with rigorous testing for people who haven’t already had it. Doctors though simply aren’t the people to do this, it needs specialists. I’ve got permanent vision problems despite two successful eye operations, one at the ENT in Greys Inn Road and the other in the Royal Eye Unit Kingston. Subsequent testing at Kingston which included examining the back of my eyes with lenses, bringing lenses forward so they touched my eyes (to check the contours, I imagine), testing the divergence between my eyes with lenses of varying magnification, plus an exercise where I look lengthwise down a mirror and point with a wand at various indicated points along a horizintal/vertical axis – and of course the old faithful, the eye chart, all determined I have permanent vision problems. When I had my supposedly rigorous medical testing for my incapacity benefit under Labour, it consisted of reading a few lines on an eye chart and nothing at all else. It was carried out by an ordinary GP. There was no rigorous testing at all, and anyway my previous medical history makes it superfluous anyway. The doctor suggested in writing that I’d be fine with the right visual aids, which is wrong as you can’t have glasses for intermittent conditions and mine are, and what came back from the testing results was ‘no vision problems’. It was absolute nonsense.
I’ve no problem with people who are faking it being found out but they won’t be found out without proper testing and proper testing will involve specialists and the use of specialist equipment such as CT and MRI scanners and there are already long waiting lists for specialists, scans too. I’m ex-Atkinson-Morley with my back, nearly 20 years ago it was determined by a CT scan that I had a degenerative condition that couldn’t be alleviated by surgery and would only get worse, as indeed it has. I can’t walk far or stand for long, and I have to be careful what angles I lift anything of any substance at too. I also need special seating, nothing out of the ordinary but I can’t spend any amount of time in a standard chair, for instance, if I’m to sit for a while then I need an armchair. At my incapacity testing my results from Atkinson-Morley were completely ignored. I was told to sit down, stand up, bend forward, touch my toes – well, just do what you can then – and on that cursory basis it was determined there was nothing at all wrong with my back. Utter nonsense. I lost all my benefits but regained them at a tribunal several fretful weeks later. One feels the point of all this is that when the government, any government, can’t get the answers they want from qualified experienced medical specialists using advanced diagnostic equipment they have unqualified people ask the same question. They, lacking the necessary equipment and training, can’t find anything wrong. The fact that the latter are doctors lends this unsavoury practicve a veneer of authenticity and respectability it doesn’t deserve. I’m all in favour of proper testing but this isn’t what happens at all.
Lynne I am just wondering how your thinking on this is going?? It’s had me in tears.
You may as well introduce Euthanasia and make it Legal.It will stop people from killing themselves in agonising ways through half cocked attempts and save a fortune on benefits.You could throw in a free funeral to make the offer more tempting.
I do not know if there are any official government figures on this but how many people that are ill have committed suicide through being kicked of ESA with the ATOS and LIMA test that throws sick people onto JSA.
Some States in the USA banned ATOS and LIMA because it was unfair.Does anyone in the Tory Party have a financial interest in ATOS and LIMA.Or indeed any government party.
lynne what are you thinking now, you have not commented on your blog for a while, now that the tory/libdem policy has put the fear of god into me as if i have not got enough to worry about ie my disability health etc (i suffered a stroke at 34 iam now 42 and permanant wheelchair user) worst thing for a stroke victim STRESS.
SHAME ON THE LIBDEM/TORY COALITION
@ Mal W
What a ‘progressive’ final solution?
Yep, when the 2.5 million jobs simply don’t materialise in order to counter the 1.5 million lost as a result of this ‘progessive’ budget, they’ll need to lose the disabled population.
I guess I’m ok – I’m terminally ill so hopefully won’t be frogmarched into some sort of ‘progressive’ cattle truck to be taken to be ‘progressively’ and efficiently euthanised.
Have just read about Lynne’s comments and wanted to say “thank you” for taking a balanced view.
Briefly (well I’ll try), I have been on Incapacity Benefit (and it predecessor) for 24 years – and I have spent all of that time scared of what is now about to happen. I have passed three medicals, and have been left alone for a while now. But the stress that those horrible medicals and assessments cause me is overwhelming. It is all so humiliating. I do actually look quite fit, which is a big disadvantage.
I suffer from a type of arthritis, Ankylosing Spodolitis, and, more recently, stress, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, and now I can add heart problems to my list. Eleven pills a day, all with their little side effects, and all which I have to pay for.
But every time I pick up a newspaper I am branded a scrounger. Every time a neighbour or relative talks to me, I can feel what they are thinking. I have a loving wife, but no friends of course. They all deserted me when I couldn’t provide a free taxi service any more.
My GP recently told me (when my mobility pass was stopped) that I should relax and “play the game” – but I am not like that. I worry.
Because I can only claim IB (I have modest savings and my wife works part time) I presume that when I am “thrown off”, I won’t be entitled to anything at all, just maybe put on some full time course where I will rot with no income.
Despite my medical problems, the main reason I couldn’t hold down a job is that I am just so tired, absolutely no energy. Fatigue seems to be the name. And no medical or assessment takes that into account at all.
Sorry, I really did want to be brief !
What people reading this blog need to be aware of is that Lynne is not speaking up for the disabled community! Nor, when push comes to shove, is she that bothered about us or what happens to us.
All she has done is to express the minimum of concern; she has hardly stood up for us or our cause. She is still towing the party line all the way. She doesn’t want to upset the apple cart, like all the Lib Dem MPs she is loving the perks of Government too much.
As another commenter said; she hasn’t even bothered to express an opinion on people’s views, some of which are people contemplating suicide – for me that shows she lacks even basic compassion.
Could I just add that there are some very harsh but very realistic comments on this blog. Please remember everyone that Lynne is actually standing up for us.
You know what – I am quite pleased to read that other people do feel the same as me – suicidal, depressed etc. The problem for people on IB is that they don’t talk about it – they can’t, they are ashamed. I have only just found out that my neighbour of 10 years is in exactly the same situation as me – but I still couldn’t talk to him about it. I think he would get very defensive if I brought it up.
I am sure we are only able to discuss our feelings here because Lynne has shown some understanding – pity that it is all aimed at the wrong person perhaps?
Some very harsh comements on here, but can you blame people? The disabled community has been attacked; the Government has declared war on the disabled. In fact, the Government has now redefined ‘disabled’, so now no one in disabled anymore. Instead everyone is ‘differently abled’ – a great way to get out of paying disabled people DLA!
No, Lynne hasn’t suddenly become a disability campaigner. However, what she has done is to express her concern over George Osborne’s plans, this is a damn-sight-more than any Conservative MP has done.
Don’t write Lynne of just yet, but don’t expect her to be disability’s Nelson Mandela. The disabled community needs (on mass) to come together to form an action/campaign group, similar to what other minority groups have – with such an organ the Government wouldn’t be free to lie and spread misinformation about the disabled community.
Sarah wrote:
“The disabled community needs (on mass) to come together to form an action/campaign group, similar to what other minority groups have – with such an organ the Government wouldn’t be free to lie and spread misinformation about the disabled community.”
Carerwatch are doing just that. Check them out. Better still, join them.
http://www.carerwatch.com/
I do not think Lynne a bad person,also she did vote against the Budget.But as far as the Lib Dems go unless they see reality then they are doomed to the wilderness of politics.
I would have far preferred no coalition than one that makes the Lib Dems join the Tories in the most right winged budget since the Thatcherite Eighties.Some of you will be to young to remember the austerity of them years.There is no policy in this budget that will create jobs.Even the most rosy tinted glasses of the economists know this.
We are not a third world country.We live in a country were 90% of the wealth is owned by 10% of the population.As Glenda Jackson said we have only just finished paying of the debt of WW2 in which my father fought for the full 6 years.
So don’t believe this tripe that we will end up like Greece if we do nothing about it.
If we are poor pull out of Afghanistan.Save our brave soldiers and the money.Because if our lads come back disabled expect no help from this lot.Pull out of Europe were we pay billions to support countries like Spain’s deficit.I remember the Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont,should be Lament really blowing a fortune trying to keep the pound equal to the ERM.He would have had better luck putting billions on Norms Having a Ball in the 3.30 at Ascot.We would have had more chance of keeping our money.
The Tory party want mass unemployment to keep the wage bill down so all their cronies can get away with paying us a pittance while living the life of luxury.I bet the minimum wage is on the list of being chopped along with the Human Rights act.They will get rid of that and give us at the bottom end as few rights as possible.
I am glad I am getting older,in my fifties.Because the damage this lot are going to cause will last for generations to come.I believed,perhaps foolishly that the Lib Dems were a Party of fairness.But now they are ConDems they have turned on a lot of voters.
Life expectancy for a male in my area is 68.Glad I will soon be out of it.Goodbye cruel world and all that jazz.
Lynne, reading these comments makes me very sad, as they graphically illustrate the enormity of the task that your new government faces – dealing with the incompetence (and sometimes worse) of so many people in decision making positions in the public sector.
This evening I was at a focus group held at the request of a Government Ombudsman, and the overwhelming view that we put forward was that we have been dealing with excellent people but they have been ordered not to do us justice – that’s another problem area to be put right. There are many such areas. So I, too, admire you continuing to operate this blog and its open comments system. I know that there is a determination to improve Whitehall, and by trickle down improve local government – but we need to see a much more open declaration to do that, with a frank admission that so many very senior people in public service are not the right people for the jobs in today’s society (although the same sort of people may have been the right people for those jobs in the civil service and society of 40 years ago), and that many below them lack the training required to be able to do their jobs properly. You and your colleagues have to both reassure those public sector people that their organisations will get better, and then invest (yes: invest) in regenerating the public sector by investing in its people. Some departments, and some sections of other departments, have done it: reorganised and retrained for service delivery at the quality level needed – now the rest of them have to do it – and priority must be given to those working in the areas illustrated in the comments above.
What kind of society are we fostering when people who have possibly only one year to live are being assessed as “fit to work”? It’s a national scandal and a humanitarian disgrace when profit outweighs respect, and all dignity is removed by the “click” of a mouse. Have we surrendered our basic respect for our fellow humans for fear of having our voices heard. We may be castigated by our peers for our views but can we ignore our conscience?
Thank you all for your comments. I apologise to all who want me to come back and comment on each comment – not possible.
[quote]Thank you all for your comments. I apologise to all who want me to come back and comment on each comment – not possible[/quote]
We understand that and just need you to listen.
The problem is the system.
Andy Cap says:
2 July 2010 at 10:27 pm
[quote]Thank you all for your comments. I apologise to all who want me to come back and comment on each comment – not possible[/quote]
[quote]We understand that and just need you to listen.
The problem is the system.[/quote]
No offence Andy Cap but we need more than listening to. We need to know we are being heard & that right action will follow.
And to Lynne Featherstone;
I don’t think people are seeking a comment on each comment here. There’s genuine concern & deep angst over the issues discussed on your blog & people are seeking answers on what actions your party intends to take to rectify the injustice being meted out daily to innocent people.
Don’t test us by incompetents playing with computer software programs designed to degrade us & ‘falsely deem us ‘scroungers & frauds’ in order to save money. We are human-beings for God’s sake.
We are being treated like rubbish that can be ‘recycled’ from sick & disabled citizens into fit & able ones. An instant cure.
We already have GP’s, Specialists, Consultants, Psychiatrists, Neuropsychiatrists & so on, who know us & have our medical history. Why pay ATOS £500 million to fail so dismally?
Why is Danny Alexander who, pre-election, berated the ATOS Doctors & the whole ESA debacle on BBC Scotlands “Who’s Cheating Who?” now saying ESA medicals appear to be working well & promoting a similar test for DLA?
Why threaten vulnerable people with conditionality & sanctions that will exacerbate their condition & lead to untold consequences?
Where are the jobs & the employers who’ll employ disabled people & treat them fairly?
Have you any idea how many disabled people apply for jobs & get turned down because 73% employers simply don’t want to employ them?
All these disability laws in place yet still we get screwed every which way. Heaven help us because I fear what’s coming is going to be worse than what’s already been.
I didn’t vote Lib Dem for this shambles! Where’s our Proportional Representation for a start? This was always stated as the price of Lib Dem support. ABOLISH THATCHERISM NOW!
Now seems to be a good time to mention http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/ . This is the forum to suggest to the government what laws you want abolished.
I suggest abolishing the Jobseekers’ Act 1995, as well as similar legislation interfering with benefits dating back to 1986.
EMPLOYERS NOT WORKERS DECIDE WHETHER WORKERS MAY WORK OR NOT!!!!
This means that the scapegoating Jobseekers’ Allowance (JSA) must be abolished and replaced with a humane system. A suitably humane system is Unemployment Benefit and Supplementary Benefit, but at reasonably high rates of pay, instead of a pittance punishing the unemployed. People should be paid roughly the same amount of money whether they’re unemployed or unfit for work. Reinstate the Social Security Act 1976!
When people have been left on IB for 20+ years you can’t just send them back to work. They have set ways in their lives. Send me back to work and the Government will have to pay for a carer for my elderly mother, who is frightened of her own shadow after being robbed by bogus officials.
I look down my road and I see people much fitter than me running businesses with their mobility cars – buying and selling, markets, car boot sales, taxis to the seaside etc etc. I get sod all except IB, I was chucked off IS because I paid into an endowment for 25 years, and when I asked for advice I has accused of fraud and told not to claim IS again or they would “have me”. This country is run by bullies. No hope !
Being in the psychiatric system for almost 20 + years now and first being given a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder( ie. they were not sure what was wrong with me), I managed to work with medication and therapy although I moved from job to job constantly as I became “bored” very easily.
I was then attacked in the late 90’s by three men. I have never worked since then and I am not proud of that fact but my mental health has been such that I have never been in a position to work.
My psychiatrist through looking through my records following my latest bout of “up’s and down’s” has finally came to the conclusion that I am in fact Bi-polar. It is NOT fun having a mental illness and it is very distressing and upsetting – even simple tasks such as filling out forms can be difficult. When I have the depression episodes I hide from the world. Being a single mum my kids experience the up’s and down’s of my illness also which is not fair on them but I do reach out for all the help that I can get in way of my CPN, GP, Befriender etc.
I can rapid cycle meaning that my mood can change hourly, daily, weekly. I have periods that I am “ok” and I have been able to gain my Employment Law module through the Open University. I have ALWAYS thought “how can I get back to work……………” and studying seemed best option. I had to give up my modules in Business Law and Company Law due to my depression returning and making me feel like I was in HELL again.
Of course I want to feel “normal” to act “normal” and I am all for people who are claiming IB or DLA illegally to be stopped from doing so as it does affect genuine claimants. What terrifies me is people who have an “unseen” illness which is, of course, mental health. You cannot see a plaster on me because there is no plaster to see. However, you can see the scars on my arms, legs etc from self harming.
I am disgusted with George Osborne and I hope to god that the Whips do not force ministers to vote or that ministers have the back bone to stand up to the Whips. The Lib Dems have let this country down badly by going into coalition with the Tories who ARE and ALWAYS HAVE BEEN standing there waiting to attack the most vunerable in society – that is the case no matter how they dress it up!
I’m sure we all understand that Lynne Featherstone can’t answer every individual comment, but I am a little disappointed by her rather lukewarm response.
I want to believe that she is going to print out all those responses and dump them on Iain Duncan-Smith’s desk.
It is clear from the responses that it is people with mental health issues are particularly upset and anxious. We feel that we are the ones most targeted as being scroungers, because OUR illnesses cannot be seen and many of us actually TRY to appear normal and well to avoid being discriminated against. Also other people ONLY see us on the days we SEEM OK because the rest of the time, we are at home, in tears, feeling that no-one cares and we can’t cope with even the simplest things in life, or at worst, self harming and ending up dead or in hospital.
Lynne, please come back and tell us EXACTLY what action you are going to take as a result of the response to your post and when we might hear on the radio that you have stood up to your Cabinet colleagues and spoken out on our behalf and against the whole faulty and expensive ESA/ATOS system.
Jenny, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I am so stressed now after reading about IB and the whole ESA/ATOS system. I hang my head in shame to admit that I had no idea this was going on in the first instance never mind the planned “roll out” from October this year onwards. I feel actual pain for the people who are going through this and the people of Burnley and Aberdeen who appear to be next in line for “target practice”.
I personally feel that this is directed at people who, through no fault of their own, have the unfortunate disease of a mental health problem. You are so right in saying that in fact nobody see’s “us” at our worst when we are hiding in our houses, sobbing our eyes out, head in hands trying to (in my case) block out “voices” from my son’s Nintendo DS. Yes, I have the physical scars of self harm which can be seen and which I hate so much.
How can ANYONE but the people who actually know me and treat me i.e. my Consultant Psychiatrist who has known me for 7 years, my psychologist (now retired) who knew me for 10 years, my CPN, my GP and my other health care providers make decisions regarding my state of mind or ability to work or not?!?!?!?!?!?!
As I have said, I am all for people who are claiming IB or DLA illegally being caught out and prevented from doing so as that MUST be draining on the welfare system and it is also GROSSLY UNFAIR on genuine claimants who suffer because of them.
@ Bonica – Danny Alexander would chop and change whatever he said pre election to suit the agenda of the Con-Dems coalition. He has a ministerial position, a fantastic salary and has absolutely no idea of what it is like to suffer a disability be that physical, mental or both.
I firmly believe that the Lib Dems will see the error of their choices when the Scottish elections arrive next year. I am by no way a die hard “Braveheart”. I am Scottish but I am British also but never, ever, ever again will I vote Liberal Democrats – they sold us all up the river when they went into coalition with the Tories who do not give a damn about “real” people and that is fact!
It will only take one disgruntled ex employee of ATOS to “Whistleblow” and this organisation will be exposed for what it is, fraudulent and corrupt. The government and DWP can’t hide the truth forever and pretend that this is about welfare reform, when it is abundantly clear that it is the persecution of the vulnerable. I thought we fought a world war to prevent this kind of thing. Lynne, I’d love to hear the Chancellors definition of the “Most vulnerable”. You know, those that he is going to protect, and in words that we can understand and not politico-speak. I won’t (even if I could) hold my breath, even though that would be one more off the statistics. It’s quite obvious that the “scrounger” problem is far more prevalent and deep rooted than imagined, with only about 9% of claimants being found to be genuine! Yes, 91% are “scroungers”! And to think, it was estimated that it was only 1 in 5.
Can I also add that during my period of “wellness” when I managed to attain my Employment Law module, I am well aware of the fact that the majority of rights to employees regarding dismissal do not come into place until you have worked for your employer for 12 months.
What employer would employ me when I should and must quite state categorically that due to the fact I am bi-polar I cannot guarantee that I will not be off work sick. I cannot guarantee that I would be able to work Monday to Friday 9 till 5 or part-time hours. I cannot give that guarantee to any employer.
I cannot guarantee to my kids that I will be able to do an activity with them due to my illness being so unpredictable. Does that not count for anything?
@ Oldtimer
My dad (who is 75) and worked all his life was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma this year and is currently going through chemotherapy. My mum and dad (mum is 73) have always been just above the threshold for any help whatsoever having done the “right thing” and saved for their retirement etcetera. They are by no means well off but they get by.
My brother who is 38 and lost his leg to cancer in 2000 is in receipt of IB and DLA not solely down to the loss of his leg but also the panic attacks, the depression that ensued following upon him finding his father in law hung from the attic prior to him having his leg removed. My brother tried in vain to save him but he was too late and it has mentally scarred him ever since.
I am in receipt of IB and DLA for the reasons you can see above yet I did manage to work until the late 90’s prior to the attack which basically trebled my mental health problems.
My brother and I both told my parents to apply for Attendance Allowance for dad as he was entitled to it. It is not means tested and they said “no, we are not entitled to anything, we have worked, so we will continue to get by”. My brother and I actually sent for the forms and we made mum sit down and fill them in. My dad cannot drive to his chemotherapy. My brother takes him as much as possible. They were so embarrassed about claiming for something they ACTUALLY DESERVED and dad did get it awarded at the lower rate. Is my dad now to be put under stringent tests which will just make him think his first thoughts were right that “he did not deserve it”?
I am so depressed with this coalition government. This is not what I ever envisaged for the UK.
@Suzy
This is typical of the kind of thing that the Government and DWP want to pretend isn’t happening. Can you think of a similar example that resulted in armed conflict? The trouble is that there is too much rhetoric and insufficient desire to instigate an enquiry into these peddlers of human misery.
This article speaks for itself!!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/24/disability-living-allowance-george-osborne
Those who thought David Cameron understood disability because of his late son were very wrong. Anne Wollenberg wrote an excellent article in defence of disability living allowance (DLA) yesterday. It was greeted by comments confusing incapacity benefit (now employment support allowance) with DLA, and a general “nail the benefits cheats” attitude. Most disheartening in the reaction to her article was a lack of appreciation that DLA is there to help disabled people get on with their lives, and often to help them in their work life.
DLA helps claimants by enabling us to meet the extra costs of our disabilities, enabling people to do what would otherwise be too costly. These extra costs can range from wheelchairs, other care equipment, care services, transport, and dietary needs, to computers and other assistive technology, to more individual needs and unexpected expenses incurred as the result of disability. Many DLA claimants use the benefit to enable them to work and many more want to do so but are hampered by employer attitudes and social negativity.
Disability in itself does not qualify one for benefits. To qualify for DLA, you must have a disability that mean that you face additional costs for care or mobility, or both, over and above the costs a healthy person would pay. National statistics for November 2009 show that 3,119,010 people claim some amount of DLA. The allowance is paid at various rates, depending on the needs of the individual. DLA is split into mobility and care components, and each of these components is graded for lower, medium, and higher-level needs. If you apply with some mobility problems, you might get £18.95 a week and likewise if you have low-level care needs. To get the full £120 a week, you’d need to require 24-hour assistance and to have serious mobility problems, most likely involving wheelchairs.
Even if a few “scroungers” claim this benefit, there is no way you can pretend to qualify for anything other than the lowest rate unless you find a devious way to simulate complex symptoms and fooling genetic tests. Data from the DWP itself show that fraudulent claims are estimated at a minuscule 0.5% of the caseload – far lower than any out-of-work benefit. All for the sake of 15,500 fraudsters –who are likely to have been put on the lowest possible rates in any case – the entire caseload will be punished.
Many people are asking why the “genuinely” disabled are troubled by the idea of medical assessments for DLA, as we will surely qualify for it. First, medical assessments bring their own stress to claimants, and this stress may aggravate underlying conditions. For a simple consideration, is it wise to threaten those with chronic heart diseases when stress may lead to heart failure?
More importantly, consider the fact that there are only 750,000 wheelchair users in the UK. Yet the wheelchair is the most visible sign of disability. A great number, if not most, DLA claimants will have “hidden” disabilities. And they are in real danger of losing their DLA, despite being genuinelydisabled and often more severely affected than a wheelchair-user. The symptoms of a variable condition could easily be overlooked in a medical assessment, and the assessment of a hidden disability depends on who is assessing. Sense should tell the government that going after a handful of fraudsters is not worth the risk of throwing many claimants with real needs onto the scrapheap.
Further, the chancellor has announced how much he expects to save by virtue of these assessments, and reducing the caseload by 20% – a sum that does not correspond to the DWP’s estimate of fraudulent claims. This suggests that the criteria for claiming DLA are, clandestinely, going to be tightened, leaving many disabled people without the support that they need. In this case, those who find their DLA taken away will be those without obvious physical impairments.
But the issue that really sticks in my throat is that I will have to “prove” my disability to satisfy George Osborne, having already gone through the complicated process of claiming DLA taking in evidence from various specialist consultants. This goes beyond a personal nuisance that interferes with my work life. The disabled are already marginalised by society – on the one hand forced to verify their disability, but also having to show their ability to work. The medical assessment just adds one further hurdle, in order to satisfy those few who target the “shirkers” and “scroungers” at all costs.
Most disabled people will feel angry when these few protest their empathy and charitable tendencies, and their willingness to pay “genuinely” disabled people a lot more. The DLA’s introduction in 1992 was a move away from the marginalisation of disabled people to a world where disabled people were just ordinary people with some additional needs. As a citizen of this country, and a taxpayer, I have the right to DLA because I am disabled – it has nothing to do with charity. I, for one, am not interested in charity, or being vulnerable and in need of benevolent guardians. I am interested in protecting my rights, and the rights of my fellow DLA claimants. I want to get on with my life, and DLA helps me, Anne Wollenberg, and thousands of others, do just that.
@Suzy
That’s an excellent post. All but those who don’t want see realise that there is a hidden agenda at work here. You can fool some of the people………… You know the rest.
@ Oldtimer
This whole issue has really depressed me so much and as I said above, I had no idea about any of this until it flashed up as “news” on my AOL page today.
I had no idea people are actually already being put through the pain of ESA/ATOS. I feel for Jenny after reading her experience of the whole “procedure”. I completely understand where Bonica is coming from stating:-
“Don’t test us by incompetents playing with computer software programs designed to degrade us & ‘falsely deem us ‘scroungers & frauds’ in order to save money. We are human-beings for God’s sake.
We are being treated like rubbish that can be ‘recycled’ from sick & disabled citizens into fit & able ones. An instant cure.”
I just genuinely feel very, very depressed and very, very disappointed with the Liberal Democrats!