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The Workhouse comes closer…
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23 Jul 2008 by roger
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On Monday, James Purnell the Works And Pensions secretary launched yet another Green Paper on welfare reform, entitled ‘No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility’ a very significant package which proposes even more draconian policies which will impact on the most vulnerable in our society.
For claimants who are disabled, and others, they include:
- A requirement for all claimants in the employment and support allowance (ESA) work related activity group to undertake general work related activity;
- An overhaul of the medical certification system, as proposed by Dame Carol Black (link) away from sick notes towards the controversial (and much derided) "Well Note";
- A full implementation of the Freud review, devolving back to work powers to private and voluntary sector providers, with providers to be paid by results;
- Drug users will be required to undergo treatment to overcome their addiction and get back into work;
- Increased funding for access to work and workstep programmes (access to work will receive double its current funding);
- Attendance of compulsory training with consultation on whether this will apply to those on IB, ESA and lone parents with children above the age of five;
- The possibility of allowing claimants to choose their back to work provider;
- Exploring ways that disabled adults can be given greater control over the combined budget which the government spends on their support;
In terms of Jobseeker's allowance (JSA)
- New claimants will face mandatory back to work ‘group sessions’ and ‘skills health checks’, new "directed job search stages" and after six months ‘supported ‘job search stages where they must widen the scope of jobs they look for and sign on weekly;
- There will be 26 week benefits sanction for non attendance or failure to take a job and even an additional two week sanction for failure to comply with an agreed activity in the claimant's action plan);
- After one year claimants will be transferred over to a public or voluntary sector provider and required to do at least four weeks "full time activity", but which can be as long as needed if it is relevant in preparation for the goal of sustained work, after two years there may be full time work programmes with private and voluntary sector providers;
- There will be tougher sanctions for those who fail to take steps to get back to work or refuse a job.
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The BBC, the On the Fiddle programme and the question of reporting welfare issues
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11 Jul 2008 by roger
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Folllowing the tabloidesque BBC programme: 'On The Fiddle', SWAN republishes a letter to the FT from the Public Policy Manager of Leonard Cheshire Disability, in which he explodes the myth of millions of people fiddling disability benefits. This is something SWAN has repeatedly returned to: one has to why the BBC is continuing to promote this view recently also expressed in the BBC Panorama Programme: 'Britain on the Sick' particularly at a very sensitive time as the most significant welfare reforms since the 1930's are being implemented.
Such 'representations' have a negative impact on all disabled claimants, reinforcing ideas of claimants as 'scroungers', etc, indeed, many members of the public are now not differentiating amongst the broad range of disabled clamiants: on one blog a comment was made saying 'they (benefit claimants) should all be sterilised' . It doesn't help that news reports are also usually sensationalist, have few actual claimants on their broadcasts and are often incorrect in their information,
to this end, Swan believes the BBC are contributing to this atmosphere of growing intolerance
We urge all our allies to contact the BBC to challenge these representations, reports
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/
The Letter
Incapacity claimants are not fraudsters
Published: July 11 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 11 2008 03:00
From Mr Guy Parckar.
Sir, Buried away in the public accounts committee report on the Department for Work and Pensions' Progress in Tackling Benefit Fraud (report, July 8) were figures showing that, other than the state pension, incapacity benefit payments were subject to the lowest levels of fraud. Just 0.1 per cent of expenditure on this benefit is lost in fraud.
Sadly, this remarkably low level is not reflected in much of the lurid media coverage of the 2.6m people who are dependent on incapacity benefit because they are disabled or ill. They are regularly and unfairly portrayed as benefit cheats, fraudsters and scroungers, living the high life at the expense of the rest of us who are working hard. This picture could not be further from the truth.
At the moment the long-term rate of this benefit is less than £90 a week, meaning that far too many of those dependent on it can end up living in inescapable poverty.
Guy Parckar,
Public Policy Manager,
Leonard Cheshire Disability,
London SW8 1RL, UK
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 |
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DAN have meeting with James Purnell
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09 Jul 2008 by roger
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Following on from their brief occupation of the DWP Head Office, members of the Disabled Peoples Action Network(DAN) had a comprehensive meeting with Works and Pensions Secretary, James Purnell, needless to say, no positive changes to welfare were forthcoming and indeed it is likely the welfare regime is to become even more severe.
PRESS RELEASE- 1st July 2008
DAN MEETS WITH JAMES PURNELL MP
Six Disabled People from the Disabled People’s Direct Action Network (DAN) met with James Purnell (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) and Anne McGuire (Minister for Disabled People) on the 30th June 2008 at Caxton House, Tothill Street, London.
After 20 disabled people from DAN had occupied the DWP building near the Strand, staying there for 4 hours 2 months ago, we had a meeting finally on Monday 30th June. We discussed proposed changes to Incapacity Benefit (IB) which could see thousands of Disabled People lose their entitlement to IB and be forced further into poverty.
Although James Purnell and the DWP have distanced themselves from articles in the media recently focussing on comments by David Freud (who is a government advisor on IB and Investment Banker) they fell short of trying to set the record straight in relation to his inflammatory comments. These are factually incorrect and reflect considerable ignorance about IB and Disabled People.
It was also unclear from the meeting how James Purnell and the DWP will deal with workplace and job-market Disability Discrimination. Their plans will in truth force many off benefits and into a very uncertain future.
A spokesperson for DAN said: “Disabled People with Invisible and Fluctuating Impairments will find this situation particularly difficult in terms of employers recognising their conditions and allowing them flexibility in the work environment due to illness. How can we find work in a job-market that actively discriminates against us?”
DAN representatives asked when the DDA will protect all Disabled People comprehensively. Anne McGuire told DAN “the DDA covers substantially all areas of disability.” She made it clear that the government has no plans to strengthen or make more effective the DDA. DAN wants and campaigns for anti-discrimination legislation with full powers of enforcement under the law.
DAN is disappointed by the platitudes we heard at this meeting. The outlook is very bleak. The DWP clearly intends to carry on as usual, discriminating against Disabled People. They seemed determined to ignore our expert and first-hand views about Welfare Reform. We were half-heartedly entertained, but not listened to and it was clear from this meeting that nothing will be done to change the DWP policies and practices unless we intensify our campaign in opposition to these so-called reforms.
A DAN spokesperson said after the meeting: “We will continue to campaign and use non-violent civil disobedience until the DWP and the Labour Government end their discriminatory and oppressive practices around Welfare Reform.”
For further information contact:
Barry: 07508634228
Nick: 07956 682 830
Carlo: 07956 346922
Sue: 07957147710
Mike: 07956 856060 |
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Is Labour abolishing Illness?
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22 May 2008 by roger
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An excellent article in the New Statesman in which Professor Alison Ravetz unravels the Govts welfare reforms and finds them wanting. There are also over 40 very interesting comments/replies
From The New Statesman
Is Labour abolishing illness?
Alison Ravetz
Published 01 May 2008
The new rules on incapacity benefit stake everything on a major gamble: that a large proportion of claimants are, in fact, well enough to work
Incapacity benefit has become one of this year's favourite scare stories. Hardly a day passes without a new headline deploring its soaring costs and the rising numbers of claimants who get "something for nothing", at the expense of decent, hardworking taxpayers. We are told that we are footing an outrageously escalating bill for 2.4 million people, a million of whom shouldn't be on the benefit at all, and each successive work and pensions minister vows to be more ruthless than the last.
more
http://www.newstatesman.com/200805010024 |
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Disabled IB claimants 'will' be worse off under new reforms, says charity
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06 May 2008 by roger
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Although much still remains vague about the new reforms, the Disability Alliance claims that most disabled people will be worse off under the new ESA with claimants £1.85 a week worse off under ESA than they would have been under the current system. They argue that
'there will be an increase in the number of disabled people that will be forced into even greater poverty as a direct result of this reduction.’
an example is that for income support claimants who get a disability premium under the current system receive £86.35 a week. Under ESA the same claimant would be entitled to £84.50 once they joined the work related activity group.
while the CPAG have claimed that the recently announced rates for ESA are ‘against the spirit of the parliamentary promise to disabled people’.
“Some groups will actually be worse of under the new benefit by as much as £400 a year. This reform was never presented as an opportunity to squeeze out savings from the poorest disabled people and it must not be used for that.”
it has also come under fire from the Citizens Advice Burau(CAB) who assert that the new system is ‘unnecessarily complex’
howver, it is not just the level of financial loss, of course, the new system will also be harsher, coercive, and unfair, adding to what is already one of the most
punitive welfare systems in northern europe
from benefits and work
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/content/view/917/92/
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Disabled activists fight unjust welfare reforms
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18 Apr 2008 by jase
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Yesterday more than twenty disabled activists occupied the foyer of Adelphi House, where the Department of Work and Pensions is based. At 1.30 p.m. campaigners breezed in, taking over the foyer, leafleting and asking to hand deliver a letter to James Purnell, Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions.
Members of D.A.N. the Disabled people's Direct Action Network refused to leave until a meeting was arranged with James Purnell to discuss Incapacity Benefit and the changes which are forcing one million disabled people into poverty and unpaid work placements. James Purnell was out of the country, so D.A.N. activists met with representatives from the DWP and Sally Witcher from the Office for Disability Issues and held long discussions. |
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Sheffield Council committed to pathways study
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18 Apr 2008 by jase
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In the budget meeting on 7th March Sheffield Green Party put forward an amendment to the targets that the Council has to acheive. This included a study into the employment experiences of people coming off incapacity benefit to address concerns that suitable work placements would not be found.
Click on read more for the relevant part of the motion |
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Now, existing IB claimants to face new WCA, benefit cuts, unsuitable work, etc.
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13 Mar 2008 by roger
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Slipped into the budget was the announcement that from April 2010, all long-term recipients of incapacity benefit will attend work capacity programmes.'
This is despite John Hutton when DWP Secretary promising the Works and Pensions select committee who were discussing the Welfare Reform Act that they had no plans to 'migrate' existing claimants.
Now, no matter how ill or disabled they are, many of the most vulnerable people in the U.K will have to face very invasive and brutal tests undertaken by private companies. Those who completely fail the WCA will be put straight away on Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) losing a massive amount of money and subject to all the pressures of the JSA, while others who 'pass' the WCA will be put onto the new Employment Support Allowance (there may be transitional protection to protect existing benefit levels) and into two subgroups: a 'support group' of claimants or the 'work-related activity' group in which claimants will face even more intensive interventions
http://www.disabilityalliance.org/f31.htm
Allies of SWAN, disabled people, etc, have to speak out now..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2008/03/benefit_tests. |
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Using state benefits to ‘improve behaviour: first ‘work or lose your home’, now addicts are told treatment or sanctions!
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27 Feb 2008 by roger
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Using state benefits to ‘improve behaviour: first ‘work or lose your home’, now addicts are told treatment or sanctions!
Govt announce plans linking benefits to drug rehab treatment
In another worrying sign that the Govt is intent on linking welfare entitlements and sanctions to behaviour, the Home Secretary Jaqui Smith is to announce plans for drug addicts to incur benefits sanction sunless they agree to treatment. Under the new programme, (part of a wider drug strategy) upto 50’000 problem drug users will face losing welfare benefit payments for up to six months if they consistently refuse or fail to participate in drug rehabilitation/treatment programmes, to be applied on the US style "three strikes and you're out" principle
However, commentators and experts have pointed out that addicts once in drug rehab programmes, do not actually receive incapacity benefit (IB), this goes to the treatment provider. Further, that user’s leading very chaotic lives will just increase the prevalence of crime to ‘feed their habit.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/27/drugsandalcohol
Work or lose your home?
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2252761,00.html
This follows on from Housing Minister Caroline Flint’s proposal that unemployed council tenants should lose their homes if they fail to look for work. The Guardian notes that since the Welfare Reform Act (WRA) legislation was passed last year the payment of benefits can now be tied to new conditions about learning skills and seeking work. Although , much of the media and political commentators have dismissed this as ‘kiteflying’ and unworkable, a look at Chapter 5 of the latest Green Paper, Ready for Work: Full employment in our generation would indicate it is indeed a Gov’t aspiration:
‘These policies will strengthen the link between housing and employment support, particularly at the point of entry into social housing. Jobcentre Plus will play a key role in enhancing links with housing organisations, including exploring ways of providing access to employment information in housing offices and improving referral processes between housing and Jobcentre Plus services. We intend that pilots to test these approaches will begin in 2008.’
Swan says
Sanctions and conditionality are now clearly at the heart of this increasingly authoritarian Govts welfare reform programme and some of it certainly has an slight echo of the old Eastern Bloc Regimes. While noting that Swan are not experts on drug use, treatment programmes, etc, we think our basic principles stands here:
SWAN supports the principle of offering good quality support to claimants who feel ready to accept it. To us, the central issue is one of control. We cannot emphasise strongly enough the importance that many, many claimants attach to having tome to make life decisions and for pressure-free time in which to make a recovery, and the extreme stress and anxiety which they experience when this is threatened. SWAN believes that disabled people themselves are the best-placed people to decide on suitable programmes and work-related activities, to be undertaken at their own pace and at the right time.
We would prefer a humane benefits system where the current mistrust and fear of the DWP is replaced by a genuine feeling of being supported. This will require some considerable work on the DWP’s part, and will certainly not be helped by the threat of sanctions. We believe that claimants will gladly accept good-quality support to return to work if they feel ready, and if this support is offered by agencies that they have no need to fear, and that this will entirely negate the “need” for sanctions. |
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The end of the 'Sick Note'
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18 Feb 2008 by roger
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The Health Secretary Alan Johnson is to announce the introduction of what is being called the ‘Well Note’ Instead of Doctors signing a sickness note to allow people time off work, the new note will focus on what the Patient can do , rather that what they can’t. They will be asked to offer fitness-to-work advice to patients and employers. The idea is part of a report by Dame Carol Black, the National Director for Health and Work, that recommends a series of measures to keep workers in their jobs when they become ill.
Comment
The govt welfare reforms are becoming more Orwellian by the day, now they would appear to be abolishing the notion of sickness and illness in the welfare system. Reseach for this new approach was carried out by a specialist University academic unit, showing how close the relationship now is between academia and the Gov't in relation to its draconian welfare plans. Already there are plans to end the specialist disability employment advice services, to be ‘integrated’ in to one portal for all. So, no understanding that the lifestyle and work culture in the UK may be making people very ill in the first place. Once, sick people were sent to convalescence homes to recover, not they are to put on a 21st version of the treadmill, where in fact, they might become worse.
The sick note that will tell the boss you’re fit enough to Work
Francis Elliott, Deputy Political Editor
GPs will be required to tell the employers of sick patients what tasks they can perform in a new “well note” designed to reduce the number of people on incapacity benefit, The Times has learnt.
Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, will this week prepare the ground for controversial changes, saying that family doctors need to “change our sick-note culture into a well-note culture”. His aides acknowledge that the introduction of a new “well note” risks inflaming GPs, already angry over demands that they improve access, but insist they are not being asked to police Britain’s benefit system.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article3386685.ece |
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Proposal for national demonstration against the welfare reforms in Sheffield
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08 Feb 2008 by roger
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A number of people are discussing the idea of a national event in Sheffield to raise awareness of the reforms and show there is anger about them and to give claimants a national platform to express their concern. Although, the last one at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester was not well attended, one can ascertain that people are now much more aware of the nature and ruthlessness of the WRA and the rest. However,many many people emailed SWAN and other groups last time to say they wanted to go on the protest, but were 'too scared about losing their benefits'
what do you think, is it a good idea?
email us
swansheffield_an@yahoo.co.uk |
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DWP warns of benefit sanctions
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05 Feb 2008 by roger
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| A report from the Department for Work and Pensions, ‘Qualitative research exploring the pathways to work sanctions regime’ has found that the use of benefits sanctions can worsen health conditions – “In particular, the negative impacts on mental health (both among customers with an existing primary mental heath condition and those with other primary conditions) were notable amongst this sample.” - "sanctions hit the more socially deprived or isolated, or longer-term benefit recipients, harder." |
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Freud Redux?
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05 Feb 2008 by roger
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The architect of the last raft of welfare reform proposals Matthew Freud, has been rehired by the new ambitious Works and Pensions Secretary, James Purnell, to pursue a 'revolution' in welfare, though again it is again not completely clear what this means in practice. Described in the media as a 'welfare expert' despite only working on the Freud review for 13 weeks, in articles in Saturday's newspapers Freud has said that it would be ‘the market will decide who is ill’ and who isn’t, and that 'bounties will' be paid, to private companies. Apparently he also considers that those on disability benefits are not ‘hassled enough’ .
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/02/nbenefit202.xml
Freud also made claims (not challenged by the media) such as that 'it is 'ridiculous that that the disability tests are done by people's own GPs' This is completely wrong: it is carried out by independent doctors contracted to Atos Origin by the Department for Work and Pensions. Indeed, Kate Green of Child Poverty Action Group(CPAG points out a litany of errors in his statements and considers that
"Ministers will surely be alarmed that the man charged with major reform of the welfare system and family security rights gets basic facts wrong about benefits that he could found out in a second with a google. His suitability must be under question for the task Work and Pensions Secretary, James Purnell, has set him.
http://www.cpag.org.uk/press/020208.htm |
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Conservatives launch their welfare reform proposals(more)
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10 Jan 2008 by roger
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Following on from the last post we can now post more detail on the Conservatives launch of their new welfare reform proposals
The speed and scope of welfare reform is often difficult to keep up, this must say something about the integrity and robustness of them. The Conservative's have now launched their welfare reform proposals: though they say it is not the US 'Winconsin' model*, it is very close, amongst its proposals are:
*all existing and new IB claimants in the UK would have to attend an "in-depth assessment" to decide if they are able to work. Those deemed fit to work would be taken off Incapacity Benefit and put onto Jobseekers' Allowance, with a minimum £20 cut in benefits and a requirement to seek work immediately.
*Those who have the 'potential' to work would be referred to specialised welfare-to-work providers from the private and voluntary sectors, who would offer tailored programmes to prepare them for employment and would be paid by results.
*While disabled people with permanent disabilities making work impossible would continue to receive "unconditional" support, those with non-permanent conditions would be subject to regular checks.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-7202665,00.html
*http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/johann_hari/article3152362.ece
Comment
Comment,
All parties seem to be presenting ever harsher reforms with a seemingly endless 'race to the bottom'. Again these proposals seem rushed and ill thought out, never mind the sheer nastiness of the US style 'blame the poor' nature of them, The response from many charities, etc has extremely critical with Mind especially critical. In terms of the gradients of 'punishments' those cut off IB immediately would be put on the JSA benefit , claimants could also lose much more than 20.00 a week as possibly other linked benefits would be affected. This is also a much stricter 'enforcement' or sanction regime than IB, many disabled people will find this intolerable and one predicts there may be tragedies' Indeed, the constant 'invasiveness' predicated in these proposals with constant checks, medicals, interviews, etc will certainly impact on claimants well being and sense of self worth. Cruuially, under this and the Gov't's welfare regimes it will largely be private companies which will be forcing disabled people, single parents back to work, the profit motive will be central, so one can expect constant pressure and exhortation. A glaring point is that if claimants are pursuing voluntary work, etc then it will be difficult to find time to locate suitable employment. However, again it is SWAN's main principle that we stand by: we believe it is disabled people themselves who are the best-placed people to decide on suitable programmes and work-related activities, to be undertaken at their own pace and at the right time. This can of course be aided by sympathetic, trained and competent advisers, counsellors, etc, these programmes certainly do not fulfil this principle. |
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Déjà vu as Conservatives promise more tests
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06 Jan 2008 by jase
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| In a repeat of a similar announcement made by George Osbourne last June (see CESI for details), but this time with even fewer details, the Tories weighed in today with sadly familiar prejudice. They state they will cut funding equivalent to nearly a billion pounds by requiring “all claimants to be assessed to prove they cannot work”. Given all claimants are assessed anyway, that many claimants are being needlessly reassessed during the current clampdown, and that the current system implements cuts if a claimant fails the test, this is the political equivalent of loudly announcing that the sky is blue. |
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'Harsh new medical tests for disabled claimants revealed
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26 Nov 2007 by roger
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As expected under the draconian Welfare Reform Act 2007, a harsh new medical test has been announced for those claiming incapacity benefit(IB), described by the Works and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain as designed to end Britain's "sicknote culture" The new medical test, renamed the Work Capability Assessment(WCA) will be introduced in October 2008 alongside the new Employment and Support Allowance, (ESA.) The WCA will now assess ‘what an individual can do - rather than cannot do’ and there is a move away from tests emphasising capacity to perform manual tasks to more cognitive abilities like the ability to use a computer keyboard, seen as now more relevant to the workplace.
All claimants applying for the new ESA will be obliged to take the test, which will replace the current personal capability assessment (PCA.) At present, it is estimated half of those currently on the benefits will not pass, an incredible ratio. As the new ESA is set at Job Seeker Allowance rates, this will also effectively mean hundreds of thousands of claimants will see their benefits cut by over twenty pounds.
Click here for the full article |
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'Outlaw' US Insurance multinational driving U.K Government welfare policy
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07 Nov 2007 by jase
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On Tuesday 6th November, the BBC Ten O'clock news broadcast a report about the massive US multinational UnumProvident and how it is driving UK welfare reform policy. Fronted by the 'Secret Policeman' investigative journalist, Mark Daly: the report uncovered documents from Unum in the UK boasting that they were, and are, influencing Government policy. Policies influenced included the assessment of ability to work, the ending of G.P's sicknotes and the Welfare Reform Act. The insurance giant has been described in the US as a ''an outlaw company ... that for years has operated in an illegal fashion." and been accused of racketeering and cheating tens of thousands of insured Americans out of their claims. Currently a BBC Scotland programme and a Radio 4 programme on the issue are planned.
You can watch the 10 O'clock News here with Real Player...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm
...and directly by copying the link to the video feed here...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/tvseq/news_ost/bb/rm/video/news10_bb.ram
It's on around 18 minutes into the program |
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Sick Notes from GPs to be abolished/advisers to be placed in surgeries?
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31 Oct 2007 by roger
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While the white paper on welfare which became the (Welfare Reform Act) was in gestation one of the more controversial proposals that was floated (amongst many) was the implementation of work advisers in GPs surgeries and the ending of GPs giving out sick notes. There was even a research team at Liverpool University which was commissioned to examine the detail and how it could be operationalised. However, This was considered a step too far by many and the British Medical Association (BMA) was highly critical of such a step. Now, it seems to be making a comeback, The Govt's Director of Work and Pensions; Professor Dame Carol Black, is planning to hand responsibility for Med 3 forms to so-called ‘back to work teams’. Instead, in a pilot areas, so called Pathways Advisory Service advisors will be installed in G.P’s surgeries.
One can argue this is not about the health of patients or claimants, it is again about cutting benefits, reducing the welfare bill and yes, creating a climate where people are fearful and weary of claiming in the first place. While, many sick notes are for temporary periods, many such as those with newly diagnosed and seriously debilitating illnesses such as M.E will be very distressed and just desperate to be left to convalesce. Further, Health should also be a private between the GP and the ndividual and this extension of the state into claimants lives is to be condemned.
Again there is a E petition you can sign
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SickNotesGPs/
more below |
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Food Vouchers for the Poor in Scotland!
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31 Oct 2007 by roger
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Many critics of the govt have noted that in many ways the results of their welfare policies is that we seem to be going back in time: back to the 1930’s or even to the 19th C Poor law. In an excellent and detailed article, the Herald reports that in Scotland, because of what is claimed are 'major failings by the DWP to deliver', Stirling Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) are to launch a food voucher scheme because of the numbers of people they are seeing who are left penniless due to ‘catastrophic failures and hold-ups in the benefits system’ The scheme is to be launched by Alex McLeish, coach of Scotland's national football side.
As a sidenote, the CAB in Scotland would certainly appear to be more progressive than here in England where the national CAB is to collude with the Govt in sharing information on claimants and only weakly criticising the welfare reforms.
From the Herald
Charity food plan fills the poverty gap
stephen.naysmith@theherald.co.uk
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1778637.0.0.php
more below |
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Lie detectors and disabled claimants
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31 Oct 2007 by roger
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The very disturbing news that the DWP are now using lie detectors
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/benefits/unspun/133_lie_detectors.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4211647.stm is causing great distress amongst many claimants, One concerned person has created an online E-petition which she has posted on the Gov’t’s online petition site.
She argues that ‘Proposals to use 'lie detector'-style technology on benefit claimants should be vehemently resisted. This technology is not infallible. It will do more to prevent those who are deserving and vulnerable from claiming the support they need than it will to weed out the skilled and practised liars who can in any case fool the technology. As a claimant, if you think they think you are lying there may be a tendency to become nervous and defensive. It will stigmatise those who seek support when in need as potential liars and cheats and make the process of accessing the basic means of survival stressful and humiliating. Perhaps the technology should be re-directed at those engaged in creative accounting practices that enables them to avoid paying millions of pounds in tax.’
She asks ‘Please sign this petition if you are against the increasingly abhorrent treatment of the vulnerable in need of support, object to this technology being used on benefit claimants and want to petition the PM not to introduce it.
Please support this petition.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ofbenefit/ |
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Pathways project in trouble?
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27 Jul 2007 by roger
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It seems as if one of the key providers for the contrevesial Pathways To Work project is in some difficulty:
From Benefits and Work
Profits fall as Pathways mystery deepens
26.07.07
Following repeated delays, there has still been no official announcement of which private and voluntary sector organisations have been chosen to run the DWP's Pathways to Work scheme to get sick and disabled claimants back into work. However, one private sector company has already announced a fall in profits and suffered another drop in share prices as a result of failing to be chosen.
Carter and Carter, originally a motor industry training company, were shortlisted in all 15 phase 1 Pathways areas. However, on 13 July they announced that they had failed to be selected in any of the areas and would now have to write off the considerable cost of putting in the bids - a process which applicants had to go through for a second time once the DWP realised just how many severely disabled claimants would be passing through the Pathways once the Employment and Support Allowance is introduced. Because of this and other factors, Carter and Carter had to adjust their profit forecasts downwards by £3 million to £10.5 million. In addition, Carter and Carter shares have plummeted in value from a high of over £12 in May to just 55 pence at close of trading on 13 July.
© 2007 Steve Donnison
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/benefits/unspun/117_pathways_mystery.htm |
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SWAN: Letter in todays Guardian
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12 Jul 2007 by roger
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We have had a letter published in todays Guardian, it was quite an angry and assertive letter about the Duncan Smith Report and the WRA, etc, many thanks to the paper for printing it. For those who have come to the site from the Guardian, you can find out more about us on the 'who is swan? link, you can email us with your stories, concerns, etc, at sheffieldwelfare_an@yahoo.co.uk
letter below
'The media's focus on the proposal in the Conservative social justice policy group report to favour married couples obscures the proposals which are of the most significance for millions of disabled people and others. These are the cuts in benefits and the increased coercion they will face as a consequence of the introduction of the private sector and charities being paid by results for forcing people back to work. While they may dress it up as "enabling people", we would argue that it is more about saving money and scapegoating than any genuine attempt to help people on benefits.
What we are witnessing with the Welfare Reform Act, the Freud review and now the Duncan Smith report is that all political parties are moving to advocate a US-style, maximum surveillance, minimal and privatised welfare system where the individual is blamed for their incapacity. We believe that disabled people themselves are the best-placed people to decide on suitable programmes and work-related activities, to be undertaken at their own pace and at the right time.
John Rogers
Sheffield Welfare Action Network
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2124060,00.html |
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Brown to continue with radical welfare reform, privatisations
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25 Jun 2007 by roger
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According to online sources Brown will implement the recommendations in the Freud Review and continue the benefits cuts and harrassment that claimants face almost continually. We will post more when it is confirmed
'Anyone expecting Gordon Brown to steer New Labour a little more to the left - once the arch-Thatcherite Tony Blair leaves No. 10 - will be sorely disappointed.
According to the Work and Pensions Secretary, John Hutton, the incumbent PM will go ahead with plans to put private companies and voluntary groups in charge of getting people off sickness benefits and back to work.
In a leaked copy of a speech to be given in Birmingham, Hutton will say: "I know there are some who hope the coming political transition will mean the Government goes cool on the prospect of further radical welfare reform to benefit the hardest to help. They will be disappointed.”
The Government is also pondering whether or not to allow private firms and the voluntary sector to run the ‘Pathways To Work’ scheme which offers incapacity benefit claimants help and advice on getting a job.
Not surprisingly, New Labour’s few remaining left-wing MPs aren’t happy. Nottingham South’s Alan Simpson says: “Simply shoveling public services into private pockets will not deliver any improvements to the public. Sooner or later, ministers will have to face the reality that they cannot run the welfare system like a car boot sale.”
http://www.kerching.tv/2007/06/gordon_browns_private_war_on_b.html
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Harsh welfare policies outlined by Conservatives
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11 Jun 2007 by roger
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The conservatives have outlined their plans for disabled people on benefits and its as harsh as anything the Govt have implemented. What is strange is that the WRA already contains some of the most stringent welfare rules in the EU and that life is going to get much harder for disabled claimants already.
The Conservatives were involved in consultations around the WRA, so why this now? It seems likely that they, like the Gov't want to create a market in welfare as happens now in Australia and also that disabled people are clearly the new scapegoat in society. What is also clear from the tone of this article is that the media will be used to 'soften up' the public to accept this draconian and cruel policy.
TORIES PLAN TO GET TOUGH WITH SCROUNGERS WHO WON'T WORK
Friday June 8,2007
By Gabriel Milland, Political Correspondent
SCROUNGERS who refuse to get a job will be penalised under Tory plans to cut Britain’s benefit bills.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said last night he would offer radical new ways to help the 2.7 million people claiming incapacity benefit into work. But, Mr Osborne said with a carrot there also had to be a stick.
“We also need tougher sanctions against those who can work but refuse to take steps to get back into the labour market,” he added.
He added that if 1.4 million people were cut from the Incapacity Benefit rolls, it would save taxpayers £8billion a year. Mr Osborne said the Tories would pay charities and firms on a “no win, no fee” basis for finding long-term jobs.
Plans to pay private groups were put forward in a report commissioned by Tony Blair from businessman David Freud. But the scheme has failed to attract backing from Gordon Brown.
Mr Osborne said: “We will go beyond the current limited thinking that tends to offer flat-rate fees to independent providers. That could encourage ‘cherry picking’ of the easiest cases.
“Instead, we will investigate different fees for different cases. That will allow us to pay more to take on the hardest to help: those for example with drug addiction, severe skills gaps and criminal records. “We expect more from those on employment-related benefits in return. To those who can work – we expect you to look for work, take a reasonable job when it’s offered to you and do your best to stick with it.”
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/9227/Tories+plan+to+get+tough+with+scroungers+who+won't+work |
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The Welfare Reform Act 2007
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16 May 2007 by roger
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The Welfare Reform Bill has received Royal Assent and is now The Welfare Reform Act 2007.
Details of Act: http://www.disabilityalliance.org/ibchange.htm
The Act:
The Welfare Reform Act (WRA) will see disabled people threatened with significant loss of benefits, forced into unsuitable work or even medical interventions, an ever more intrusive and brutal welfare regime and the threat of losing homes as housing benefit in the private rented sector is replaced by a fixed rate allowance for each city. Single parents are also to be targeted by the Act. Crucially, though totally denied by Hutton at the hearings into the Bill, existing claimants will now definitely be migrated onto the new benefit. Considered by many, rushed, prejudiced and ‘short on detail’, the Govt ignored the many submissions to its consultation’s which were critical of the Bill. Further, much of the legislation will be enacted by what is called secondary legislation: that is behind closed doors and often influenced by unaccountable civil servants
‘In 2008, Incapacity Benefit (IB) will be replaced by a two tier Employment and Support Allowance. ‘Customers’ who fail to participate in work-focused interviews or to engage in work related activity will lose benefits. With current levels of IB averaging £6500 per annum, claimants could lose as much as £10.93 a week rising to £21.86 for a second refusal. Jim Murphy, Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform was blunt : ‘Work is the only way out of poverty... the benefit system will never pay of itself enough to lift people out of poverty] and I don’t think it should.’’
http://www.compassonline.org.uk/article.asp?n=563
This nasty and draconian Bill has largely been supported by all the main parties, though, hardly debated in parliament, which must raise questions about a political process that ignores the concerns of millions of vulnerable people. Combined with the proposals in the Freud Review(see below) we are now rapidly moving to a US style ruthless, maximum surveillance, minimal and privatized welfare system where the individual is blamed for their incapacity/poverty, etc
While many SWAN members are critical of the lack of support the campaign against the Bill received (with some exceptions) from civil society: unions, churches, charities, the left, other political parties, etc (a full critique/analysis is being published soon) The limited amount of activists involved in the campaign against this Act will be watching this legislation as it unfolds (and of course The Freud Review), bearing witness to the misery it will undoubtedly cause, lobbying, acting, and continuing to raise the profile of welfare issues
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The rotten roots of the Welfare Reform Act
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10 May 2007 by jase
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The Welfare Reform Bill has received royal assent and is now the Welfare Reform Act. A recent article by Jonathon Rutherford highlights how the reform is not grounded in objective evaluation of the welfare state, but a prejudiced and deeply flawed outlook that will fail millions of claimants.
Rutherford outlines how the policy is founded on the motivation of insurance companies such as UnumProvident to reduce claims by redefining physical disabilities as mental, and the motivation of companies who administrate benefits such as Atos Origin to win contracts by discrediting claimants and so cutting benefit costs, and is influenced by the prejudice of figures such as David Freud who recommend privatisation without regard to cost or performance. The result is a system that views claimants as a resource to be exploited rather than as fellows in civil society. As Rutherford states
“The workfare system that is taking shape in this country is turning the logic of welfare onto its head. It is no longer about asking how we can help people who are sick or disabled, but about asking them how they can help us. The demand for performance in return for a meagre subsistence robs people of their autonomy, but New Labour dress it up in the language of individual career development and dignity for the disabled.”
To read the full article at compass online click here. |
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local SWAN meeting: 11th April, 7pm till 9pm
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10 Apr 2007 by roger
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Hello all,
After a rather extended winter break there is a SWAN meeting on Wednesday 11th April, 7pm till 9pm at Inclusive Living Sheffield on the Wicker
http://www.inclusivesheffield.org.uk/location_mapnew.htm
We have had several replies received from MP's and SWAN being invited to several consultations. Unfortunately, due to some short notice, , we have not been able to get very involved. On that note, there is a meeting on 23rd April in London with Kay Smith from the DWP who (as understood) is one of the people involved in designing the new Employment Support Allowance that is going to be introduced. If anyone is interested in going (they are usually pretty informal meetings), particularly if they have some personal experience of mental health issues, please get in touch.
Nationally the campaign has got in the media and there is much more scrutiny of what the reforms mean with offers of support from trade union groups and several MPs. |
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Letter from Jim Murphy to SWAN member
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01 Apr 2007 by jase
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Jim Murphy, DWP minister, replied to a SWAN member last October about the welfare reforms. He seems very confident of the benefit to "customers", and unworried about introducing an unproven and under resourced target driven system...
To read the letter, click on 'read more' below. |
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Child Poverty Increases: charity boss speaks out
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27 Mar 2007 by roger
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New statistics come out today which show the number of children living in relative poverty in the UK rose by 100,000 last year - the first increase in nearly a decade and an increase from 2.7 million and 3.6 million respectively on the previous yea. Official statistics showed that 2.8 million children were living below the relative poverty line in 2005/06, with the figure rising to 3.8 million after housing costs were factored in.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-6511801,00.html
yet, all the govt is offering is more of the same, extending the the New Deal for Lone Parents and a New Deal for Families to be rolled out.
in a press release Barnardo’s chief executive Martin Narey makes some salient
remarks:
“This is a moral disgrace. In 1999, we were all excited by the Government’s determination to eradicate child poverty and, on the way, to halve it by 2010. It is now clear that what they meant was that they intended, not to halve child poverty by 2010, but to reduce it a bit. These figures show that some modest progress has been made, but even with the concessions in the Budget, progress in taking children out of poverty has slowed and may stall all together.”
“We are the fourth richest country in the world, we are a country where we can countenance individual bankers getting annual bonuses of £22 million while we give a family of two parents and two children, living on benefits, £10,000 to live on for a whole year.”
http://tinyurl.com/2x4jhq |
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Petition to stop the Welfare Reform Bill
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27 Mar 2007 by jase
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A petition has been set up to ask the government to stop the Welfare Reform Bill and re-think what they are doing has been started. The URL is:
http://petitions.PM.gov.UK/StopWRB/
Could you please sign this Petition as if this Bill becomes law it will only hurt the poorest and add stress to the lives of people who already struggle to get through the day. |
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Open letter on welfare reform
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20 Mar 2007 by roger
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*Here is a draft of the open letter a number of grassroots group and individuals
including SWAN sent to the media on the WRB and the Freud Review. We hope to build on the response and continue to publish it.
Dear sir/madam
There would appear to be a consensus across the main political parties that drastic welfare reform is needed in this country. However, one needs to ask where are the claimants voices in all this?
click on 'read more' for full letter |
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Welfare Reform: The ‘unthinkable’ may be about to happen
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20 Mar 2007 by roger
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Welfare Reform: The ‘unthinkable’ may be about to happen
When Tony Blair came to power, he asked the iconoclastic Labour MP and Minister For Welfare Reform, Frank Field to ‘think the unthinkable’ on welfare reform: although the welfare regime has certainly got much harder/brutal for claimants and more stressful for DWP workers, his plans largely came to nothing . However, The Freud Review commissioned by Tony Blair and endorsed by Gordon Brown and undertaken by investment banker David Freud, full title: Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity: options for the future of welfare to work’* has put the unthinkable right back on the agenda
Just as privatisation of the NHS was once ‘unthinkable’ and so far out of mainstream political thinking and is now proceeding apace: now welfare reform is to undergo the same process. Policies that would have been fiercely resisted by opposition parties if carried out by the Thatcher Govt are now routinely passed by parliament. There would appear to be a consensus across the main political parties that drastic welfare reform is needed. Combined with the draconian Welfare Reform Bill its clear now that we are seeing the biggest structural changes in welfare since the 1940’s; indeed, there are now clear similarities between the Freud Review proposals and President Clinton's seminal 1996 welfare reforms which have been such a disaster for the poor in the U.S.
Key proposals
The key proposals in the Freud review which in our view are just as draconian and unjust and unworkable as the WRB include:
*Single parents with children aged over 11 will have to seek jobs or else face potential benefit sanctions,
*increased privatisation with private employment companies offered bounties if they can keep claimants, whether lone parents or others such as those on incapacity benefit, in work for at least three years. Claimants would lose benefits if they left a brokered job before that time
*‘Intensive mentoring’ by involved agencies which could mean advisers pressuring claimants by constantly ringing them up at up home or even visiting them in their homes.
*Greater use of private and voluntary sector resources and expertise so harder-to-help benefit claimants receive more employment support.
From this perspective: welfare will be run akin to high pressure sales teams where putative Willie Lomax’s (Death Of A Salesman) will aspire to ‘reach their targets’ their target being disabled people, single mothers and the unemployed again forced into work or training. One very worrying ‘incentive’ in this review towards an ‘activist’ welfare system is the notion that if you leave a job which these ‘proactive agencies’ have procured you before three years, you can lose your right to benefits, yes, three years, they can come after you after that long.
There have been a number of criticisms of these reforms, with even the nominally centre right think tank: the Social Market Foundation criticising some of its assumptions: asserting in a report by Stephen Evans that:
'Full employment cannot be achieved by castigating and stigmatising those out of work. Instead, the focus needs to be on supporting people – this approach is proven to work.”
an open letter was also sent to the media from a number of grassroots groups and individuals including SWAN strongly criticizing the review(will be published on here shortly)
Swan urges all colleagues, friends and allies to challenge these draconian and unjust reforms,
* One should note this paean to the’ unthinkable’ was conjured up in just over 10 weeks, never mind that it will profoundly affect the lives of millions for many many years to come.
click on 'read more' or the use the BBC link below for full details of review
good resources here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/G1941 |
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Even more draconian welfare reform on its way!
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12 Feb 2007 by roger
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It now seems that the Govts welfare reforms are to go even further that the those outlined in the Welfare Reform Bill: from April: unemployed people who cannot speak English will have to show they are learning the language or face losing benefits, there will be also be a ‘crackdown’(don’t you just love that word!) on single parents.(see links for details) Welfare is also increasingly being used as a tool for social policy, hence the sanctions that are applied if one doesn’t go on New Deal and the benefit cuts for those who don’t learn English.
Welfare reform is now a key part of Tony Blair's and No 10’s ‘legacy agenda’ and one can now see see that the ‘gloves are off’ as it were. The Freud review, (led by a former investment banker!) is to present its wide ranging proposals on welfare reform next month and is expected to suggest sweeping new changes to welfare including much wider privatization. John Hutton has also been visiting Australia where a extremely draconian welfare regime has been introduced, (with some resistance), which includes faith based groups running the welfare state. He is looking at plans for the private and voluntary sectors to take over responsibility for finding jobs for the 4.5 (an incorrect figure?) million people out of work in Britain.
The Welfare Reform Bill which is now in the Lords and will probably be voted on in the Spring has gone through opposed, this includes the sessions of the (labour lead)Works and Pensions Select Committee which sadly raised few objections to the Bill and even unprecedentedly authorised funds upfront for its implementation!
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmworpen.htm
SWAN urges you to write to your M.P about these ongoing 'massive attacks' on
welfare and benefits and contact the media with your concerns
btw, do please comment on our stories if you can
Single parents/Freud review
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2011052,00.html
Benefit cuts for ethnic minorities
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6352793.stm
Australia
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/10/352511.html |
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Pilot new PCA test for mental health indicates more people 'unavailable for work' not less!
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23 Jan 2007 by roger
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Some very important news on the WRB: Apparently a pilot of self assessed tests for those with Mental Health problems to ascertain how they would cope with going back to work indicated even more people than at present would be unavailable for work! They have now scrapped this test, bit unfair that isn't it? and gives the lie to the Govt's arguement that this is all about helping disabled people.
Scotland on Sunday Sun 14 Jan 2007
BRIAN BRADY WESTMINSTER EDITOR
Crackdown on mental illness benefit claims will see stiffer fit-for-work test
THOUSANDS of Incapacity Benefit claimants face losing their handouts as the
government ratchets up its campaign to crack down on those failing to work on
mental health grounds. Work and pensions secretary John Hutton has targeted
claimants with mental illness as a key element among drastic plans to cut the
£13bn bill for sickness benefits paid to 2.7 million people every year. The
Department for Work and Pensions has been appalled by the revelation that 40% of IB claimants are suffering from mental conditions such as schizophrenia, stress and anxiety. The figure is twice the number a decade ago. But early attempts to crack down on the toll of claimants with mental health problems through a revamp of the Personal Capability Assessment (PCA), which judges whether a would-be claimant is eligible for IB, have floundered. A trial of updated self-assessment questionnaires and GP assessments, designed to test how candidates would cope if they went back to work, found more people than ever would become eligible for the benefit on mental health grounds.
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=69582007 |
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'Media Blackout' on Welfare Reform Bill?
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23 Jan 2007 by roger
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An important event happened just after the holidays:, the media, well Radio Fours 'You and Yours' programme finally covered the Welfare Reform Bill in some depth. On the programme, they interviewed Steve Blake from Welfare Reform Uk, Claire from Winvisible, and the commediene Liz Carr who made a brilliant and cutting exposition of this draconainan rushed and cruel piece of legilisation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/03/2007_01_tue.shtml
However, the comprehensive and in depth day of interviews which the Today
programme's Kim Catcheside undertook with SWAN late last year has still not been broadcast, despite the Secretary for Works and Pensions being on the programme a number of times.Part of the interview was about why the respective national disabled charities, etc, were supporting the Bill. Maybe this was just too contreversial for the BBC. One of our members has made an individual complaint to the BBC about its coverage of the WRB , particularly on its TV news networks.
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Research report on the effectiveness of Pathways
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21 Jan 2007 by jase
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A DWP report on the Pathways to Work, the basis of much of the Welfare Reform Bill, has provided damning evidence of how misguided the reforms are.
It is our view that this report casts serious doubts over the effectiveness and usefulness of Pathways to Work, and the inclusion of sanctions in the Welfare Reform Bill. We hope that MPs will read the full report and reflect on whether a Welfare Reform Act will commit this and future governments to spending substantial amounts of public money on a scheme which appears not to work, and which places further stress on people who are either genuinely too ill or disabled to work, and who are self-motivated to seek work when their health or impairment allows.
A SWAN summary document with response can be downloaded here.
The full document and summary are downloadable from http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/pubs/pdf/rrep398.pdf |
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