The Green Paper Discussion (the document link is here too!)
Comments
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You are right, they do view those of us not working or earning as a waste of space and also a drain on society but I say Stuff them because if they walked even just one day in our shoes then maybe they might drum up an ounce of empathy rather than the constant vilification towards us.
Peace out folks and please try to take a break from this thread because we all need to try and take care of ourselves.
Much love to all of you. X
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That’s a lesson right out of the Handmaid’s Tale isn’t it. With all the forthcoming layoffs to NHS England and hundreds of thousands in the civil service… we’re heading for Giliead. ‘Blessed be the Fruit’ my friends.. Starmer so so looks like a commander it’s scary.
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Hunt was so smug saying Labour had stolen tory policies.
the fact they are happy with that alone is staggering. What's needed are some Ministers to quit but we know that wont happen, Or the very least the Unions to kick off and withdraw funding. After her interviews today now convinced Reeves has no idea how anyone lives
why would she? energy on expenses etc. If Starmer resigned tomorrow I am never voting Labour again, This was always the plan and he wasnt brave enough to mention it in the GE
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Before the past week I thought the assisted dying bill after seeing how bad my father died
over 48 hrs when they said he would die in 8, His inquest is still in limbo owing to the local health board dragging it out, he needed a transfer from the local hospital to air ambulance only a mile up the road and his life would have been saved, 9 hours later an ambulance arrived by then the clot had moved and dad was finished, he fought like a goldfish out of water for 48 hrs, His death was horrific its bad enough losing someone you love but seeing them die like that. So the assisted dying bill I was open to the idea, but the sheer contempt and manner Labour Ministers are showing they knew damn well those pip vouchers alone were making people deeply uneasy and worry, they kept silent. They kept leaking stories
instead of just telling people, WORD FOR WORD she announced this week Blair gave a speech weeks before the GE, today not Civil services layoffs what did Blair say?
Cut Civil service replace with AI.
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Most of the civil servants about to lose their jobs will only be entitled to contribution-based JSA. And that's merging with CB-ESA with only two years monetary support. Many of the fit and the sick alike will never work again and will have to survive or die without any or inadequate state support. That's the situation as I see it.
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You're right in saying that the situation facing the over 60's isn't given enough consideration. At 60 plus so many of us are getting beyond the world of work. It is much more of a challenge both physically and mentally to cope in the workplace and if you are disabled it may be the case that unless you can arrange to have lighter duties or to work part time, it is much more likely, at this age to damage your health more severely than when you were younger.
The majority of employers, don't want to make these adjustments and want to replace you with someone younger. Sadly, many more people are disabled and completely unable to work at 60 onwards too, like myself.
We are now a substantial proportion of the rising numbers of working age disability claiments. No government will acknowledge this as it was their choice to put us in this position. It's probably one of the many reasons they're being so hard on us, so they can blame us for another failed policy.
I was some years into my working life, as a women before I discovered that I would no longer retire at 60 but at 67. I have already been disabled for 21 years with ME/CFS, anxiety, depression and non epileptic seizures. I worked in manufacturing before this, I was in one job for 15 years. The employers I had, all of them, treated everyone badly, including me. I know it was a large part of why I became disabled in the way I did.
I have nearly seven years yet to State Pension age, surviving, with the long standing and worsening situation, with successive governments being completely unable to work. I do my best but it's a terrible strain, wondering if my partner (also disabled but pension age) and I will be able to manage until then.
I don't want to wish my life away but the best thing about pension age will actually be, being (mostly) left alone by the government. It's even more important than the situation with the money.
My heart goes out to everyone on this forum who is going through their own personal problems bought about by past and proposed government policy, whatever they are. We deserve so much better than this. 😢
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Liz Kendall is undiluted evil.
Guess what! When she got appointed as shadow secretary for the DWP, she said that she had always dreamed of becoming the secretary of the DWP one day. Do you think her dream was to help out sick and disabled people? Of course, it was the other way round, and we witness it now.
When she talked about her dream and that later Labour got elected, it was clear to me about evil changes were on their way.
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Thank you so much,
Tbh we died that day, We are a tiny family everyone else is gone.
We get by but knowing Dad should still be alive today he really did have a solution for everything and nothing phased him at all. Totally the watchdogs for health are utterly useless.
The Coroner has been terrible I begged them NOT to send me emails anymore as it was always bad news, I was on hour 8 of the Chemotherapy email arrived "Hello its ** from Coroners office just to let you know the Police will be taking written statements from members of staff on duty" it was written so matter of fact.
I got so upset my stats started to go haywire and they stopped the infusion I showed the day care unit staff the email and they were stunned something like that was even sent in an email.
This past week the worry has 100% made me worst, this is what Labour are not understanding at least with the Tories they boasted about welfare cuts.
this is the speech Blair gave. He 100% mentioned welfare reform but timestamped the comments on civil service reduction for AI. This was 8 months ago the GE was 8 months ago
He's running the show
https://youtu.be/xey-jt0sQ6k?t=500
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I’m sorry your Dad died like that, my parents have both passed and you just want it to be peaceful and as easy as possible? I understand your fight for that.
Yes I noticed the AI comments were coming thick and fast… the systems are not even up and running yet? There’s no AI in place to cope with shortfall of civil servants!
It’s like a group of people are sitting in a cabal coming up with imaginary solutions whilst the reality is completely different. That group of people is Pat McFadden/ Morgan Mc Sweeny and possibly Mandelson. The former two were Mandelson’s ‘creatures’ in previous administrations. So it’s like.. ‘let’s get all the disabled off benefits and working’… we’ll steal votes back from Reform by being tough?’ Without ever facing the reality that there are NO JOBS available en masse for sick folk.
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She and Harriet Hartman were the only members from Labour who voted for the Tories' benefit cuts and child benefit cap in 2015, and she always advocated for benefits cap.
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Again thank you so much,
When Dad was alive he actually voted for Starmer and Rayner, but within weeks he said
"this guy is not the right person, he lied to get the job" He then hoped Rayner being known for standing her ground would make sure he kept to his word.
I found the other interview he gave, nothing about the policies yet now all these welfare cuts are something he Truly believes in.
Pat Mc Fadden said he actually stated "Sue Gray is not going anywhere" and we know what happened there. Taking those difficult decisions means sharing with people what they are before they trust you, this is something Starmer just cant grasp.
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There's a definite pattern emerging, isn't there.
Winter fuel payment.
Two-child cap.
Disability benefits.
They seem to hate anyone who is not able to service their/their chums' (or in the case of Kendall her partner's) greed.
Won't be long until they are actually referring to us as 'useless eaters' in public - I suspect they already do so in private.
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@jul1aorways "I don't want to wish my life away but the best thing about pension age will actually be, being (mostly) left alone by the government. It's even more important than the situation with the money."
This is exactly how I feel. Like you I have had another 7 years added to my pension age. I'm now 64 with long-term and additional health issues, although I have just started down the WCA journey. After nearly 50 years working seeing that retirement age approaching is so important to our mental and physical health. Extending the goal (or that should be jail) posts is cruelty on top of everything else we have to endure. At this stage we just want to be left alone.
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@A_Z1961 , Thank you, and I’m sorry to hear about your situation. You raise an important point about the challenges of accessing the benefits system and the rising state pension age, which leave many over 60 with no choice but to remain in employment despite health issues. Some of the issues was even highlighted in a recent Centre for Aging Better blog: “ The UK is headed in the wrong direction for older workers with ill-health”
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@Summerlove she's a shape-shifter. Here she is claiming to be the anti-austerity candidate
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It’s driving me mad how every time one of these horrible frontbenchers is asked about the harm this is going to do, even when the question doesn’t relate whatsoever to work, they only have one response…
”Work will set you free!”
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Whoops, posted too soon.
On another track, I've seen the new PIP test (on the B&W site).
It's been bugging me but I couldn't work out why (brain fog due to off-the-scale anxiety).
I've realised the test/points in and of themselves don't amount to a hill of beans.
The real issue is the rulebook issued to assessors in terms of how to allocate points.
I'd imagine that is being (or has been) rewritten to disqualify even more applicants.
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"The real issue is the rulebook issued to assessors in terms of how to allocate points.
I'd imagine that is being (or has been) rewritten to disqualify even more applicants."
During Cameron's tenure, ATOS was paid £80 bonus for each claimant they found fir for work. This was officially found out later on.
Therefore, what matters more, in addition to point criteria, is the policy of the DWP in terms of influencing the decision making of assessors and how harsh they should be.
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Do you mean she saw your bank statements? Where does it say they can do that?
Did they explain why?
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But we don’t yet know when they will start this or whether it will be for new claimants only or if some may stay in the CB Support Group old style ESA, or if it will be dependent on age etc. When there are changes like this there’s usually some protections for those who have been in receipt of its predecessor (I know there’s no guarantee they’ll do that this time) like the migration from Incapacity Benefit to the old ESA.
Despite the fact there’s a New style ESA I haven’t been asked to migrate onto it. So I think we need to wait and see, but I agree with others that this aspect has hardly warranted much discussion and they might be hoping to get it in under the radar with all the hype about PIP changes.Of course the other thing Kendall didn’t mention is the fact they’ll also save a lot on Carers Allowance if they are planning to decrease the numbers qualifying for PIP care component. If you lose PIP care component you’ll also presumably lose CA.
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