BBC Radio Merseyside

DLA and PIP discussion about the findings of the Papworth Trust's survey featuring yours truly, listen again here. Relevant section starts approx 19min 30 seconds.

Volunteers for ESA documentary required

Anyone remember "Cathy Come Home"? 

Remember how gritty it was, and how it changed public perceptions? 

Now we have a chance to do a day by day, blow by blow account of being 
disabled, on benefits and terrified of the outcome of an upcoming WCA 
or ESA appeal. 

What will it involve? 
Spending time with you and your family (or the people you live with), 
and demonstrating the fears, risks and pitfalls and financial 
implications of the WCA and not getting the ESA. 

We are thinking that we may need 9 or 12 people, not all of which will 
be used, but if we have that many then we can hopefully get a true 
picture. There is no upper limit to volunteers, obviously, but the 
final piece will be editted to have the most powerful impact. 

It doesn't actually matter if your condition is mental health, 
physical health, constant, fluctuating or stable, or any combination 
of conditions. Or if you are a carer. 

Fear of the DWP may stop some people, but for those of us who have put 
our faces out there already, I dont know of one single person who has 
been targetted by the DWP, or any other organisation. 
In fact, having your story out there may actually work as protection. 

You will not be portrayed as fiddling the system if you are found fit 
for work, I suspect quite the opposite will happen and you will be 
shown to have significant problems that prevent you from being as 
employable as others on JSA. 

Its time the tide turned, and the producer is keen to do this. 

If you want more info,  you can email me, and we can chat about it, or 
use this thread. 

Can you also spread the word as much as possible to other sites? 

Ta very much, please feel free to contact us to discuss it if you are 
at all concerned,  or fascinated! 

You can view some of his work here to get a feel of it; 


http://vimeo.com/3863905 

contact me on hossylass@gmail.com

Let's Do The TimeWarp Again...

"Coercion, tears, government rhetoric, employment gap and welfare reform" from Disability Now.

It sounds like a contemporary article doesn't it? All the ingredients are there, a desire to reduce the number of those claiming IB, disability groups outraged and a complicit media readily producing articles on benefit scroungers.

Except this was 2007* not 2011. Not of course that you'd know that unless you were well informed enough to know who Peter Hain is** and that his tenure of the DWP was in 2007 under New Labour.



*estimated
**Winner of the "I've been Tango'd political award"

Resonance FM Podcast

is up here

Tim Abbott, Kaliya Franklin and Stephen Lee Hodgkins of Disability Lib had a roundtable discussion about organising the disabled community and looking to the future.

50 charities suggest Government is using 'dangerously misleading' statistics-From Disability Alliance

 The Broken of Britain fully support today's press release from Disability Alliance.

50 charities suggest Government is using 'dangerously misleading' statistics

Government statistics [1] have fuelled claims this week that high numbers of benefits claimants are ‘faking’ [2]. But a coalition of over 50 charities [3] suggest this is dangerously misleading and contributing to hatred and violence towards disabled people by portraying them as cheats and scroungers. Hayley Jordan, from the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) and MS Society, says:

“Hours after an important committee of cross-party MPs condemned irresponsible and inaccurate portrayal of benefits claimants, DWP statistics led to more reports wrongly labelling people as ‘faking’. Disabled people are very disappointed that the Government is refusing to ensure accurate reporting and may be contributing to stigmatisation, victimisation and exclusion.”

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) released figures on Tuesday which suggest that only 7% of claimants for Employment Support Allowance (ESA), the new benefit that replacing Incapacity Benefits, were unable to do any sort of work. This led to claims that 75% of sickness benefits claimants are “faking”.

But the figures were released just as a report from a committee of MPs [4] decried misleading media coverage, and the false assumption that the tests are designed to ‘weed out’ benefits cheats:

“Media coverage of the reassessment is often irresponsible and inaccurate and we deprecate the pejorative language which some sections of the press use when referring to benefit claimants. Portraying the reassessment of incapacity benefit claimants as some sort of scheme to “weed out benefit cheats” shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the Government’s objectives.”

The committee report also highlights that the number of appeals is rapidly increasing, with people going to the Tribunals Service set to double over three years. 436,000 people will appeal in 2011/12 and this costs the taxpayer a staggering £50 million per year.

Independent reviews, charities, and the Work and Pensions Committee have all now told the Government that the figures for new ESA benefit claims mask the true level of capacity to work and that the assessment system used is ineffective, over-expensive and is denying many disabled people the support they need to get and keep work. But the facts are lost in ‘fakers’ claims which reappeared the same day the committee report was launched due to DWP publishing further statistics on the same day. This led committee chair, Dame Anne Begg MP, to write to the Minister [5] stating: “By what I assume was a coincidence…The coverage of the statistics in some newspapers, notably the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, was a particularly egregious example of the way they can be misused.”

Charities are also concerned that welfare reform is supposed to deliver help to disabled people to get/keep work but support appears to be rescinding. Government misleading statistics on claimants was also published the same day as it was revealed the number of disabled people using ‘Access to Work’ had sadly fallen [6]. Neil Coyle, of the DBC and Disability Alliance, says:

“The Government must ensure appropriate support is available to disabled people to get and keep work. It is very worrying that some support has dropped in the last year. Sadly, the language to describe disabled people needing support has become more offensive and this also contributes to barriers to work as employers suspect genuinely disabled people of faking or being ‘work-shy’.”

Notes:

[1] See: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/newsroom/press-releases/2011/jul-2011/dwp086-11.shtml

[2] For examples please see:

·        Only 7% deemed 'too ill to work'  - Express

·        76% of those who say they're sick 'can work': Tests weed out most seeking incapacity benefit – Mail

·        4 out of 5 ‘sick’ are fit to work – Sun

[3] The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) is a national coalition of over 50 different charities and other organisations committed to working towards a fair benefits system For more information go to: http://www.disabilityalliance.org/dbc.htm

[4] Department of Work and Pensions Commons Select Committee letter to Employment Minister on release of benefit claimant statistics:http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/work-and-pensions-committee/news/letter-to-chris-grayling-benefit-payment-statistics/ 

[5] For a copy of the full letter visit: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/work-and-pensions-committee/news/letter-to-chris-grayling-benefit-payment-statistics/

[6] Access to Work helps employers and disabled people with the costs of adapting work premises or providing accessible software for example and is a net contributor to the Treasury. For more information go to:http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/Employmentsupport/WorkSchemesAndProgrammes/DG_4000347

Neil Coyle

Director of Policy

Disability Alliance

Universal House

88-94 Wentworth Street

London E1 7SA

Tel: 020 7247 8776

Registered charity number: 1063115

Company limited by guarantee number: 2056801

www.disabilityalliance.org

Breaking the link between poverty and disability

 

Sitting Targets For The Government's Welfare Reforms

In today's Society Guardian 

Please read, share and leave a comment. The more popular articles about disability are the more get commissioned, thank you.

TF1 News wants to interview you

TF1 News, leading French television, is doing an news piece for its weekly prime time news programme on the Incapacity Benefit Reassessment.

Plans to reassess people who receive incapacity benefit to check if they are "fit for work" started last month. The first letters were sent out asking some of the 1.6 million incapacity benefit claimants to submit to reassessments.

Charities have voiced concerns that the test for people on incapacity benefit is unfair.

We would like, with your help, to meet film and interview people who had Work Capability Assessments and were refused the Incapacity Benefit. Preferably in London or Greater London.

The aim of the story is to explain our viewers this news system and its impact on disabled people.

TF1 is France’s premier broadcasting network and broadcasts to some 500,000 Britons currently living in France.

Regular correspondence from our British viewers highlights their interests in and demand for information on the UK, which we provide. Furthermore, there are approximately 300,000 French people living in London, around 400,000 in the UK as a whole. In addition, TF1 broadcasts globally to the French speaking world (Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland and North African countries).

It has frequently been noted that the London bureau of TF1 promotes, through its balance and professional reporting, many positive aspects and developments within the UK to our worldwide audience.

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Gaetan Lecointe
News Producer

TF1 News  French TV
Michelle House
45-46 Berners Street
London W1T 3NE

Tel :                   +44 (0) 20 7636 8507      
Mobile:             +44 (0) 77 8530 3164     

The #HardestHit - Day Of Action

 By MarkThree Media in conjunction with Scope.

Radio 4 - You & Yours

I will be appearing on today's Radio 4 You & Yours show between 12-1pm.

BBC Radio London

Sue Marsh on BBC Radio London this morning talking about the issues raised in today's Daily Mail and Daily Express articles for The Broken of Britain. Sue's section starts about 37 minutes in.

Life Can Change In An Instant:Blog and Video

This week I was visited by Robin On The Road - the awareness raising tour from the people behind The Robin Hood Tax. They've posted my blog here and posted a video here.

Cross-posted from The Robin Hood Tax blog

by Kaliya Franklin

Any of our lives can change in an instant; whether it be the sudden shock of finding a lump in your breast or uniformed policemen arriving at 3am to break the news your teenage son is fighting for his life after being hit by a drunk driver. More often it’s the gradual pain of witnessing our elderly parents becoming increasingly frail and dependant, the heartbreaking effects of disease on our spouse and the new awareness of a world which will never be the same again. A world so eloquently described by one parent of a profoundly disabled child.

“The very painful thing about disability – whether your own or your loved one’s – is the feeling that the situation is out of your control. When the system that surrounds you is very top-down, bureaucratic, inhuman, that can only increase your feelings of helplessness … but I do believe there are moments of despair, helplessness and frustration that could be directly alleviated by the work of government.”

As a disabled person I have never before felt such despair and fear for all our futures. Every day I hear of day centres closing, desperately unwell people being denied disability benefits, parents fundraising for specialist wheelchairs the NHS can’t afford to provide their children with, carers at such breaking point they feel their only option is to put their loved one into state residential care, and most chilling of all, people planning exit strategies to end their lives for when the time they most fear comes and their benefit is denied.

We have all paid our taxes and national insurance for ourselves and our loved ones in the expectation the financial support and protection they provide will be there for us in our hour of need. The savage cuts to disability benefits and services mean this will no longer be the case, but unlike that passionate parent we have no other resources we can fall upon as his government take away our safety net and hurl us off the cliff into despair.

Documentary about WCA & mental health claimants

We have been contacted by a journalist who is making a documentary about Employment Support Allowance and particularly the flawed Work Capability Assessment in relation to people claiming for mental health reasons.

They are hoping to find people who've either already had their letter to tell them their WCA date or from mental health claimants who are frightened of the assessment. If you would be willing to talk to them please email me on benefitscroungingscum@hotmail.co.uk and I'll put you in contact.

Kate's writing a book about the cuts, can you help?

Dear BofB'ers, we have been contacted by a journalist who is writing a book about the coalition's cuts. The strongest argument we have against the cuts is to publicise the fact they affect all of us, not the scroungers they are supposedly targeted towards. If you are willing to be interviewed for Kate's book please email us at thebrokenofbritain@gmail.com and we'll forward your details to Kate. 
Thanks, Kaliya 




From Kate;


Here is an outline of my project:

I'll be spending December and January travelling around the UK and
interviewing people for a book that I'm writing about the coalition
government's proposed public
sector funding cuts.

I generally write case studies - so, interview-based pieces where
people speak their situations for themselves, following the sort of
format of some of the pieces I've written (I've pasted links to some
of my recent work below). The book will be a collection of these
stories. I'll be publishing some online along the way as well, with
video where that's appropriate. I'll also be travelling with a
photographer.

So far, I've arranged interviews with Sure Start users, people who use
some housing support, people who are involved in education and the NHS
- quite a broad range of people across income groups and in different
parts of the country. My aim is to return to people later next year to
see how they're coming along and to do follow-up pieces from there.

I'd be more than happy to come and talk to anyone in your group who
would like to be involved, or who may just want further information in
the first instance, so please feel free to circulate this.

Best regards,

Kate.

http://liberalconspiracy.org/2009/11/30/everton-tesco-skelmersdale-and-the-regeneration-dream/
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2009/12/09/the-football-factory/

Recent Guardian contributions:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/10/strike-action-unions-peoples-panel
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2010/mar/19/kate-belgrave-status-dogs-a-defence

BBC Documentary Wants Disabled Ppl Affected By Cuts

Katie Rice Katie@truevisiontv.com tel. 02087427852 is doing a BBC documentary about how the cuts are affecting disabled people and is looking for people who have already been affected by cuts to  benefits or care funding to take part in a programme so if you know of anyone who has sufferred cuts already and they would be willing to take part in the programme could you or them get in touch with katie please.