Very Proud Of All These Amazing Members Of the Scope Online Community

Hello everyone,

My name is Jessica, and my username is crantockgirl3407. I have to comment about how amazing and brave you all are in trying to get on with your lives and facing your disabilities with great strength and courage. It is very heartbreaking to read the shocking stories of people in this online community losing their welfare benefits and some going through lots of problems with their welfare claims for both PIP and ESA.  The government's own figures admit that thousands of disabled people have died within 6 weeks of being declared fit for work and stripped of their disability benefits by the work capability assessment (WCA) regime.

This is very alarming! A united Nations  investigation into the treatment of disabled people in the UK found that the UK government was committing grave and systematic violations of disabled peoples rights, and the list of endless systematic Tory abuse of disabled people goes on and on. Worryingly there is a sharp rise in rejected claims for PIP with so many claimants receiving zero points for both the daily living and mobility components of this benefit. Figures obtained by Angela Eagle, the former work and pensions minister, showed that 83,000 people assessed for their eligibility had been given zero scores for both components in the six months between April and October last year.

An analysis by Press Association suggested the rate of zero scores would increase to 14 percent this year from 13 percent last year and 8 percent the year before. To me, both PIP and ESA are not fit for purpose! We disabled people are put through endless victimazation, suffering, and hardship, because the system is absolutely unjust and crazy! We continuously have to prove that we are ill and disabled, and even when you take your claim to a tribunal and you win your case, then you only have a few months of victory before a new claim form arrives, and then you have to start all over again. A real nightmare this is!

What I cannot fathom is that many of the HCPS who carry out the assessments for PIP and ESA are nurses, paramedics, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists. How on earth could these people understand severe learning difficulties and mental health issues for example? In the latter, they are not experienced psychiatrists at all. Do they have more qualifications and medical knowledge than our own General Practitioners who know us for decades and have been treating us all this time? Now Atos, has changed its name to Independent Assessment Services.  Excuse me for asking this: " Are they really Independent?" Isn't this a clever ploy to distance themselves from the previous bad publicity regarding the inaccurate assessments they have carried out for more than 10 years, which to a greater degree had ruined the lives of so many disabled people, of which many have committed suicide, and the rest still struggling on a day to day basis to cope with their daily living as a result of this firm's cruelty and callousness?

I think it is time that we now start a petition to get rid of these three dangerous and inhuman companies Capita, Maximus, and Independent Assessment services, previously known as Atos. Why should we allow these unscrupulous companies to play God and ruin our lives? To Scope and all our online community members, please keep up the good work, and we must never give up, or lose our fighting spirit! I love you all!