About the PM's (Sunak's) speech: Stop demonising us
Comments
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As I stated this should not be about Vote hunting. We have Laws that protect the Sick and Disabled along with Pensioners, NHS, Bank Charges, Homelessness, Food Banks, I could go on. Yet look back over 10 years what have we achieved?Meg24 said:
Mine too, it occupies my mind constantly and it's all I've talked about in therapy for months now. My therapist is leaving soon and not being replaced and instead of being able to do as much work on my MH as possible before she goes, we're firefighting my suicidal ideation because I can no longer see a future for myself for the sole reason that if they push through all the changea they propose, I will be homeless and lose everything. It's absolutely disgusting that their power hungry electioneering is using us (and refugees) as emotional punchbags and if it were some other group like pensioners there would be an outcry. I would not be surprised at all if some people have already harmed themselves over this.Andi66 said:It's terrible mental health got much worse with all this going on.
I have other Conditions as well which are bad enough.
I said we..... Because its not about who is in Parliament, its about how we have asked the system of Assessment, benefit payments sickness benefits, etc, and what has actually changed? 2008, 2011, 2014 saw changes toi the benefits system and in 2008 when ATOS "handed back a £650 million contract" because they wanted to protect their employees from VERBAL ABUSE, ON A DAILY BASIS, what changed? We suddenly had Universay Credit, and look how that has turned out....
I feel sorry for not only you but all recent and past claimers of any benefit since the system is being run by people who unless they have had a disability or a loved one that has been affected in some way, DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE SYSTEM.
They are the ones that enforced it. I say enforced since they do what they were told.
MAKE THEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS, AND INSTEAD OF SPENDING MILLIONS IN COURT FEES TO PROTECT THE DECISION MAKERS IN tRIBUNALS, FORCE THEM NOT ONLY TO PAY BACK PAY, but to pay COMPENSATION to everyone affected by the decisions they make. EVERY ONE AFFECTED, including UNPAID CARERS, MINIMAL HOME CARE AND ALLOWING SIBLINGS TO LOOK AFTER MUM AND DAD who have mental issues, and the only way left it to have them sectioned. The house to be sold to pay for treatment that was on the NHS?0 -
Just read sunak has £651 million, and he.wants to cut our money, so we live on nothing.
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I just read in the Big Issue, government figures just released for disability fraud over the last year were PIP - 0%
DLA - 0.
Proves the new crackdown is just cruel and unnecessary
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Sorry, should read DLA 0.1%
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Yes, it is bad, my nerves are shredded, when I see anything come up.
The media making it worse about benefit fraud, and it seems people are lumping us in with them.
Benefits are hard to get, pip especially its not fair that we are being treated this way. We can't help our disabilities etc. It's all right for sunak having £156 million to live on.
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There's never been an issue with disability fraud as a big thing because it's so hard to claim, period.
Meanwhile the report about carer's allowance today shows that the DWP either is not connected up enough internally to spot when things are not right or they are not managing things properly.As an autistic person, even though I'm functioning, my productivity has massively dropped since all of this began. It reminds me of the year I fought PIP, and the trauma I still have relating to that experience.
What is sad is the general lack of interest/support/care from the rest of the population towards disability and disability rights/voices just generally. So long as the policies don't create general public outrage, we'll continue to be targeted. Even if most people don't believe we're scroungers, very few seem to think it's their problem or that they should care.
It gives me hope that some Labour MPs want to engage with disability organisations and employers about access. The access to jobs situation is ridiculous and especially for autistic people, where it's downright exclusionary. No, a little more time in interviews to process questions does not change the pre-interview panic/complete mind-blank in interview/inability to remember anything about your life the moment someone asks you a question. Most non-disabled people do not do job interviews on the back of two weeks fight or fight adrenaline.
When I interviewed for my current job, however, I ended up with the lowest hours, on the worst pay grade. I had to do three interviews (two weeks of complete adrenaline hell) just to get that. The reason was that I did not score enough interview 'points' for the better positions, despite having several years prior experience doing that exact job.I am sure there are many with physical disabilities who can relate with regards to access and opportunities, even if for different obstacles.
PIP is very individual, that's why it has the name it does. The government are suddenly claiming it is one size fits all when in fact they sold it to the public originally as a tailored, individualised benefit to promote independence. If they want us to be productive, they should target the workplace cultures and employment structures. They're the main reason disabled people who can work, are not in work.
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It rankles that so many claimants have taken their own lives, hundred and thousands of disabled and ill unfairly targetted and sanctioned by DWP staff and not a whisper of it in the mainstream press.
Then the carer scandal surfaces and they've got it ont the front page every day. Of course unpaid carers are brilliant, but it does make one feel like the press and the public don't mind if the people they care for get done over by the DWP, just not the carers, because they're the real deserving ones, they save the country billions, we just leach off of everyone so we don't count...
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My lad who only just got PIP works full time for one of the largest telecoms companies in the UK but has all the extra expenses of someone who has a missing sensory perception. You can guess the one I mean and it stops him driving.
Anyway, now he's apparently a waste of space liar he's told
Pretty sure he'll be giving up work no matter what happens soon, and not voting Conservative - so well played Rishi.
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Morning, I don't know how true this is and I didn't know until I went to reply on here now long this topic was. I am sorry, if this has been mentioned on here before but, when I put my P.C this morning I am sure it mentioned about someone is taking this all to the European Court of Human Rights on how they are treating us. I don't spend much time reading things on the news pages as I am trying to not do this now-a-days as I usually end up really upset. If the token thing happens it will not help me or the catalogue thing either as I cannot keep going out everywhere to get things as it is too much for me.
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P.C on this morning I mean.
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Equalities watchdog investigating DWP over treatment of disabled people on benefits. Sky News are covering it, probably others too. You were right 👍
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Hi @kiwicherry8 :) There's no need to apologise, don't worry. As @judie has said, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has launched an investigation over concerns about the treatment of some disabled benefits claimants. There's some further information about the investigation on the EHRC's website. I've pasted some of it below, but there's no pressure to read it if you're not in the right headspace.
Britain’s equality regulator has launched an investigation into the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions over concerns about the treatment of some disabled benefits claimants.
The investigation has been launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) due to suspicions that successive Secretaries of State may have broken equality law in their roles as Minister responsible for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The focus of the investigation will be whether the DWP has failed to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people with learning disabilities or long-term mental health conditions during health assessment determinations.
Alongside the investigation, the EHRC will also be assessing whether the Secretary of State has failed to comply with Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) obligations. These obligations require public sector bodies such as the DWP to consider equality and prevent discrimination in their day-to-day operations. The EHRC will be assessing the department’s compliance with the duty when developing, implementing and monitoring policy guidance related to health assessment determinations.
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I've just read on benefits and work website, that esa and esa and housing benefit are going to be moved to universal credit in September this year. So stressful, bad enough worrying about pip ,now this
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We have an election date.
Also, this report is super interesting, because I remember raising at the time of both my assessment and my tribunal that the environment and format was discriminatory to people with autism. I recall my actual assessment was miles from home - I can't drive or navigate - and I had to take family with me to find the venue (although my assessor reported I had no problems finding the venue, I have a recording that says differently!). I had to travel by train at rush hour despite including this on my list of stress triggers. I complained about this in my reconsideration statement but it was ignored. Being interrogated face to face by someone with no understanding of autism was not pleasant…the tribunal was also deeply traumatising.
So if they are finally looking into this and other related things with regard to reasonable adjustments, it's about time. My case was 2017 so probably too long ago for it to matter (can't even remember who was head of the DWP back then), but it's reassuring to know SOMEONE is investigating this.
I always feel frustrated that it seems like the Equality Act has no power to protect disabled people as it is so seldom observed or implemented for us and all these policies and decisions are made about us without proper consultation or engagement.
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What made me laugh during Sunak speech, that he was caring , not for the disabled he's not. I was watching prime minister questions and one was from Liberal leader about dwp and carers who work having to pay back thousands. The camera was on Mel Stride , he was sitting squirming in his seat. Sunak just brushed it off. They are heartless.
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Just when you thought it could not get any worse, the 12-week discussion period for Disabled and benefit claimants to HAVE THEIR SAY STARTED. But most would already know that since the new Social Care Act came into play in February 2024, but parliament OKd it in September 2023. Going forward, they implemented a plan under the SCA it was to go back to 2015, for ALL CLAIMANTS THAT HAD AN ASSESSMENT FROM THE DWP FOR BENEFITS, but yet again was loaded towards the sick and Disabled, and the Health care they receive and also changing the Cash system again for vouchers to be used to purchase Aids for the house or outside travel.
The Green paper outlines a plan to reduce even further the cost of Disability using the Social Care Act and changing the content to suit what they intend to do.
Many on here have stated that they dread having an assessment because it has become a 2-hour interview to prove to an assessor that you are Disabled.
Here is one part of Wales-on-line.
She added: “From the moment you enter the system, it feels like you’re being treated like a potential liar and fraud.”
Last week, former PIP assessors described the process as “horrific” and “target-driven”, with one claiming it “sets disabled people up to fail”.
Former PIP assessors said the intense pressure to hit daily targets affected the quality of the assessments, while the lack of training in complex conditions made it difficult to write fair reports.
Charities fear the PIP system may get worse if the DWP carries out the planned changes. Proposals include the introduction of a six-tier system of awards, as well as greater use of vouchers and one-off grants, rather than regular cash payments.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride suggested on Tuesday that cuts were needed because the bill for PIP was “creaking under the weight of the profound changes we’ve seen like disability”.
I could add loads more, all stating the same thing. However, to make matters worse and to get accountability where the history of assessments from Capita, Maximus, Concentrix, and ATOS are now being looked at, and the DWP is under review, our PM tonight has called a general election for the 4th of July 2024.
This means that parliament will be dissolved and everyone now looking to canvas votes for the general election. again if the clock is ticking the election will happen before the consultation period is finished. This would mean Questions aimed at the DWP and how they have run the system will also stop, but what it will mean? If Labour gets in accountability will be the first thing on the agenda, where past people in the job will be held accountable under the NEW SOCIAL CARE ACT back to 2015 as it was intended.
Make your voice heard, email your MP, and tell him how you have been affected by the System of assessments to benefits that have been carried out by your assessment provider, on behalf of the DWP, since they HIRED THEM TO WRITE A REPORT ABOUT YOU WHICH YOU DON'T SEE UNTIL THE DECISION HAS BEEN MADE. Also, against the new Act. CALL FOR AN EQUAL FUTURE STARTING WITH US AND THE NHS.
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I think the cessation of all cash payments is a foregone conclusion at this point.
No idea what will replace it, but clearly it'll be inferior in value (both monetary and effectiveness).
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^Can you not say things like that, until we get the facts, please? There is a lot of speculation over this. People will read it and it'll only make anxiety worse.
We don't know what happen until the 22nd July and even then, we might have a new government, so nothing will go ahead at all.
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Worrying me too - not my intent to cause anxiety to others. I am known to be overly pragmatic, but I'll keep my mouth shut.
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^This is a discussion forum. You are free to post what you like, but at the same time, be mindful of what you post as well.
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