Green Paper Discussion - includes accessible formats and consultation event sign up links!

While my comments are contrevertial, I am not afraid to be heard, and heard I will.

Because I am an activist in many other areas, I now find that where I was able to seperate things like the fight for the NHS and better working conditions, better, training at no cost to the Doctors and Nurses, (and when I say this I mean anyone taking or thinking of taking upp a career in the NHS) (Or care sector.) because even on this one point alone I could write enough to fill this forum.

Who do disabled people depend on to get help for their disability/s? It is the government that decided to join the financial aspect of assessments by the NHS for MEDICAL TREATMENT with the financial aspect of FINANCES as to what we are ENTITLED TO, and what we will actually get AFTER ANOTHER ASSESSMENT BY PEOPLE HIRED BY THE DWP TO GET US BACK TO WORK ORR REDUCE, OR REMOVE BENEFITS, because we have been left with no support from a system they created.

ADD to this people on long term sick, people who have suffered an injury or accident that has altered there normal way of working, this could be at one end the need for an amputation or the loss of sight, to after affects of the Pandemic.

The idea of the "BENEFITS SYSTEM" IS TO support, THOSE THAT NEED SUPPORT. It is not about sending money to foreign aid, or saving one steel plant and not making the effort to save Port Talbot, even if the reports say that the "new" electric Arc furnace may be completed by 2026?

Let me tell you a few home truths that you don't see: The plans for the new Electric Arc furnace have not been approved. They have not even put a spade in the ground yet because the government legislation has not told them how big it can be?

There has only been a rough draft of costing and man power needed to run the "new" Furnace, but in the mean time they have closed the Coke ovens, closed all blast furnace production, and opened another blast furnace in Poland along side the FOUR THEY ALREAD HAVE MAKING FIVE IN TOTAL that could not product the same quality or the same tonnage as NUMBER FOUR ON A TICK OVER, since this was built 1/4 BIGGER WHEN IT WAS DONE IN 2012, and all ancillary machinery including extraction, turbines, fuel efficencies were demolished and replaced with STATE OF THE ARC EQUIPMENT. i KNOW BECAUSE i WAS 1 OF THE 8 ENGINEERS ON SITE. i WORKED WITH HEALTH AND SAFETY and you won't see my name on the accident sheets or records kept during the 3 months I was their, because it was ZERO. No recorded accidents after rewriting the Health and Safety, risk assessments and Method Statements and placing a ring around the plant that every person on site had to be accounted for.

My point, there is nothing you cannot achieve if you sit down and look at the problem and discuss alternatives. Yes in some cases it may need cuts, but this would be because the service being provided DO NOT ADHERE TO THE RISK ASSESSMENTS OR METHOD STATEMENTS.

In our case it is being assessed by a Company/s HIRED by the DWP and PIP to assess financial needs of the PERSON CLAIMING THE BENEFIT. Not only disability or sickness benefits BUT ALL BENEFITS.

We are now being grouped into people (Able bodied) who the system has left unsupported for many years, and their answer to that was to close 800 JOB CENTERS? So who, now, takes the hit for their incompetence? WE DO, because we are easy targets.

The pandemic changed alot of rules, not in our favour, but the government had to be seen to do something. Where are the Nightingale Hospitals now that could have been used by the NHS to geet people out of hospital and into care but not at the same level allowing other people to be treated?

Where was the call for Doctors and Nurses and Care workers to "do their thing" unsupported by the government by being unable to supply the correct PPE WHEN IT WAS NEEDED. Rules were changed to relax the service industry, but now it seems that its time for us to pay the price. Enter Claire Rayner. How do you as an accountant change the legislation for care and treatment for Disabled and long term sick by having an assessment by hired guns?

Why didn't you use this method in the Pandemic?