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Welfare Reform, Not Welfare Destruction.

Jason | 01.10.2006 16:01 | Health | Repression | Social Struggles | Sheffield

On Monday 25th September the Coalition Against the Welfare Reform Bill (CAWRB) lobbied the Labour Party conference in Manchester. Protestors from all over the country strolled and rolled with whistles and cries of “New Labour? Slave Labour!” through the city centre.

Stroll and Roll sets off
Stroll and Roll sets off


NUS Disabled Students' Campaign
NUS Disabled Students' Campaign

Protesting TESCOs part in Pathways to Work
Protesting TESCOs part in Pathways to Work

You Are Not Alone
You Are Not Alone

Welfare not Workfare
Welfare not Workfare

John McDonnell MP speaking at the rally
John McDonnell MP speaking at the rally


There was a fantastic reception from the public with many clapping and waving as the march went along. Outside the Labour Conference a rally heard speakers including Alex Kemp, national officer of the NUS Disabled Students’ Campaign, Simone Aspis, Parliamentary Campaigns officer of the British Council of Disabled People and John McDonnell MP. Delegates could hear the speeches and were made very aware about the protest against the bill and the issues involved.

Later a CAWRB fringe meeting was held at the Disability Rights Commission Equality Zone in the Novotel hotel. Speakers touched on personal experience, the impact of the bill, and the campaign against it.

Mike Higgins of DAN said "today, for the first time ever, we have had a national demonstration of disabled people, organised by the Coalition Against the Welfare Reform Bill, at a political party conference. And which party is it? It’s New Labour, those people who were going to introduce the social model of disability according to their manifesto in 1997, they were going to transform society. What have we got? We’ve got disabled people frightened to come to the demonstration because they don’t want to be picked out on camera because they might have to go to the job centre and they’ll say if you’re fit enough to go on a demonstration you’re fit enough to work ... We want real work for real wages, we are not for New Labour's idea of the worthy and the unworthy poor. We want a proper job for proper pay, jobs that meet our needs."

The campaign demands that Government quickly rethink this damaging policy and that welfare reform is tackled from a social model of disability approach.

Simone Aspis of BCODP said "We want the Disability Discrimination Act to be tightened up to stop employer's discrimination against disabled people. We want a basic disability income that is available to all at the same rate. We want access to work to be more available, both to employers and disabled people. More crucially we want employers to be much more flexible for the rights of disabled people and full recognition that at times disabled people will be unable to work and therefore we should recognise they deserve a decent income that will allow them to have a decent quality of life. "

In response to the demonstrations a spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "We have been quite clear that no-one on Employment Support Allowance [the proposed replacement for incapacity benefit] will ever, now or in the future, be forced to look for a job or undertake a specific activity and the Bill provides neither Jobcentre Plus nor private providers with the powers to do so."

However, whilst claimants will thankfully not be physically dragged into jobs the Welfare Reform Bill is quite clear that if a claimant does not undertake prescribed activities they can have their benefit cut. The DWP is at least being disingenuous and certainly there is little understanding from Government of the impact upon claimants of such threats.

As Steve Blake of Welfare Reform UK said " I’m not in this wheelchair because I want to be ... I’m here because somebody did that. I lost a business, I lost a home, I lost a job because of it. I have to budget for every single thing. We spend £1.50 a day on food for two of us to eat, except on Sundays when it’s £3. So you just think about what that does to me. I can’t afford to buy new clothes; I’ve had one pair of new trousers in eighteen months. And they want to take away half of what I’ve got, what I’m living on already, which isn’t enough to live on."

OJ of People First spoke of her feelings on the reforms: "They are talking about sending me for even more tests to see if I am really entitled to income support and as you can see it is understandable – I look like a person with learning difficulties. Then they say I will have job related interviews where they decide if I really am a cripple. I hope they will be paying for me to go to all of the interviews for jobs. I know that I will not get [the jobs]. I can see us going back to the dark ages where we are in a dark room, menial jobs that would not keep a teenager in trainers."

One reason for this worry is the number of claimants who are wrongly failed disability benefits, over 80,000 a year according to a study carried out for the BBC. The Department of Work and Pensions has assured us that "There would of course continue to be an independent appeal available in order to ensure a consistency of treatment for all claimants.” This would be a positive claim except that the financial and emotional burden of appeals can be a massive drain on claimants. What is needed is an assessment process that gets it right first time, rather than relying on appeals.

All the indications are that there is going to be no funding to back up these reforms and the measures are no more than a cost cutting exercise. Simone Aspis said: "What the government thinks they are going to save on benefit will only be put onto the National Health Service with disabled people being forced into inappropriate work. The NHS will end up picking up the costs for disabled people to have unnecessary health care treatment simply due to impact of inappropriate work on disabled people’s health conditions."

On 4th December there will be a national demonstration in London and The Coalition Against the Welfare Reform Bill calls upon all people and organisations who support welfare reform rather than welfare destruction to be there.

Steve Blake said: "I could run a marathon on the 18th November 2001. On the 19th November 2001 I couldn’t. Didn’t know it was coming. Eight o’clock in the morning, got up for breakfast, had a run round the streets, got in my car, drove somewhere and got hit. And that could happen to anybody you know. You don’t have to be born blind or born with some other disability to be trapped by this, you can become trapped by circumstances you cannot control, that you have no control over. So the Welfare Reform Bill affects everybody you know. Everybody."

Jason
- e-mail: cawrb@welfare-reform.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.welfare-reform.org.uk/

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Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

more on this

02.10.2006 11:43

sadly, the bbc did'nt cover the story, its a big one, read the paragraph about Remploy, it really is a return to the workhouse.

Dear All,

Sadly the BBC unlike some other media, elected not to respond to the press
releases sent to them about the below demonstration at the Labour Party
Conference last week and the action on the same day by the Disabled People's
Direct Action Network (DAN) at a Tescos store in Manchester. Some coverage
has appeared elsewhere on other networks. The BBC has given some regional
coverage in the Northwest to the Government's plan to close Remploy's
segregated sites which pay wages well below the 'rate for the job' but cost
on average £19,000 per job!! These repetitive mainly menial jobs are
outside the real world in segregated
sites making materials for the Ministry of Defence, the hotel and catering
industries for example.

What none of this coverage has picked up upon however is the Government's
plan to shift the emphasis of Remploy's traditional segregated employment
provision into being a key provider of 'Into Work' and 'Pathways to Work'
type schemes. These schemes will be used as dumping grounds for current
incapacity benefit claimants and existing Remploy workers. Those who refuse
these slave labour jobs - often called traineeships in order to avoid
minimum wage regulations - will have £30 a week deducted from their
benefits. AS the Government plans to privatise much of the work currently
done by Department of Work and Pensions staff however, these deductions are
likely to be made by employer's (such as Tesco or Remploy) or Job Brokers -
such as the Shaw Trust. There is sadly, still no sign of real work for real
pay with the genuine prospect of career development, promotion, equal
treatment, decent terms and conditions. Whilst Remploy workers and
incapacity benefit claimants alike face the prospect of nothing better than
low paid jobs in the same workplaces as non-Disabled People, but with none
of the flexibility, career prospects or support we will need, is it any
wonder that incapacity benefit Claimants and Remploy workers alike are
fighting the Government's plans to attack Disabled People.

welfare cuts shy!


Australian charities boycott “welfare to work” measures

03.10.2006 01:52


by Tania Kent via sam
(No verified email address) 03 Oct 2006
It is no coincidence that the Welfare to Work measures have been imposed alongside the new workplace relations laws, because they go hand in hand. The industrial legislation is designed to force workers onto individual contracts that will rip up wages and basic conditions. Having no choice but to accept sub-standard jobs, the unemployed, single parents and the disabled will be used to undermine the conditions of all workers.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/update/index.php

Tania Kent


Game's up

04.10.2006 00:18

No point parading a few genuinely disabled people around the streets to back up your cause. Most people know that Incapacity Benefit is mostly a scam to keep millions of able-bodied people scrounging off the rest of us workers. Get them back to work and paying taxes so we can keep the genuinely disabled and elderly good conditions.

simon


please read very important,DSS infiltrators

06.10.2006 20:22

I used to work at the d.s.s. and recall that some e.o.s(executive officers) used to scour the local newspapers to see if anyone on disability benefit was arrested done for drunk and disorderly etc it wouldn,t surprise me if the civil servicehad a department checking the internet,secretely going on the march with digital camcorders to see who,s involved
with this coalition for welfare reform and who backs it,thus giving disabled people especially existing claimants problems with their benefits ie if they can go on a march they can work attittude.I,m now disabled and on benefits and being aware of this am very reluctant to give my name and address.
Finally please don,t believe that you are secure giving personal details nothing is secure on the internet.I sincerely hope you read this and remember forewarned is fore-armed.

james durkan


Scrounging?

08.10.2006 14:23

"Most people know that Incapacity Benefit is mostly a scam to keep millions of able-bodied people scrounging off the rest of us workers."

Most people (including yourself it seems) only 'know' the scandalised gossip they hear through media and the guff politicians spout. Real claimants do not often appear in the spotlight because when a person is incapacitated they can effectively dissapear from view and many of those formerly incapacitated just want to move on once they are healthy. The reality is that only 0.5 to 1.5% of claims are fraudulent according to the Department of Work and Pensions. Even according to the BMA, in a survey of doctors (and given these are the same doctors that incorrectly fail 80 000 claimants a year there cannot be too much confidence in their attitude to those genuinely disabled) at most 1 out of 10 claimants were fraudulent. So in other words at least 9 out of 10 honest people who are suffering incapacity are going to be targeted by a system that is penalising them for the sins of a small minority.

The fact is if these reforms were backed up by the proper funding and had been implemented in a way that showed any level of care, trust and genuine discussion there would be broad support. As it is they are a dangerous and careless cost cutting measure that will heap more hardship on those already at the harsh end of life.

Jason


lost disability benefit important please read

09.10.2006 14:33

more hassle due for disabled read below

Politics








The Times October 07, 2006

Benefit cheats prosper as 250,000 records are lost
BY CATHERINE BOYLE



A GOVERNMENT clampdown on benefit cheats is in disarray because the records of nearly 250,000 claimants — who are receiving a total of £730 million a year — have been lost, The Times has learnt.



The Department for Work and Pensions has mislaid the case details of 222,120 people awarded disability living allowance, a benefit that ministers suspect is open to abuse.
Since the records were lost — during a transfer to a new computer system in the 1990s — the claimants involved have received a total of £9 billion.
The disclosure has left Tony Blair’s plans to take millions of people off sickness benefits in tatters. It means that efforts by social security officers to check whether claims are genuine will be severely hindered.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the department has lost vital information about the claimants, who receive a benefit reserved for those with a long-term health problem or disability.
Case notes were transferred to a new computer system in 1992, but claimants’ health problems were not recorded. The main disabling condition in each case was listed as “unknown”, the department said. Only their contact details remain.
Since then, claimants have received up to £102.90 a week each and will continue to do so, indefinitely, until their cases are checked.
Social security experts say that the lost information will make it extremely difficult to check on each claimant. No serious attempt has been made to investigate them or find out if there has been a change in their condition over the past 14 years.
Opposition politicians expressed dismay at the error. Philip Hammond, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “This looks like yet another example of incompetence and mismanagement at the DWP. Taxpayers need to be sure that benefits go only to those who are entitled to them, otherwise confidence in the welfare state will be eroded.”
Danny Alexander, Liberal Democrat spokesman for work and pensions, said: “Not only does it question the competence of benefit administration, but it could also mean that some claimants are missing out on the full rate.”
The allowance, which is not means tested, is designed to help people with a health problem or disability. Claimants can work and still receive it. It has two components — mobility allowance and care allowance — and each is assessed according to the severity of the disability.

Last year David Blunkett, the former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, expressed concern at the ease with which disability living allowance could be claimed fraudulently and announced a crackdown.
In June, Keith Jones, a professional boxer who had fought nearly 100 contests while claiming the allowance for chronic asthma, was found guilty of benefit fraud.
The number of people claiming the allowance has risen steadily since it was introduced in 1992.
Only 14,000 allowance cases, randomly selected by computer from the 2.8 million people who receive it, are reviewed each year.
The benefit can be either awarded indefinitely or for a fixed period. More than two thirds of those who are awarded it receive it indefinitely.
The Department for Work and Pensions maintains that some of the missing cases have been investigated but could not say how many.
A spokeswoman said that some of the cases could still be reviewed. “The disability would have been known to the decision-maker at the time the decision was made and would have been noted on the hard-copy file. These cases are subject to the same level of scrutiny as all other DLA cases,” she added.
“At any time a converted case is re-examined, our records are updated to record the main disabling condition




james durkan


get involved!

16.10.2006 11:33

James, you would be a great asset to SWAN and the new coalition, why not get involved? you can be as anonymous as you like.

just email us on  sheffieldwelfare_an@yahoo.co.uk

goes for anyone else as well.

Swanner


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