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Welfare reform: update and thank you
Posted Wednesday 15 September 2010
I wanted to thank our supporters for making such a vital contribution to our submission to Professor Harrington’s Independent Review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). Many of you got in touch either by sending us your experience of welfare and benefits or by responding to our survey on the review. This evidence provided the basis for our response to the review and we are hopeful that it will lead to real changes to the WCA.
The Government is firmly committed to maintaining the WCA and to transferring the majority of incapacity benefits claimants across to the new Employment and Support Allowance system via this assessment of eligibility. The assessment process will therefore have a profound impact on hundreds of thousands of people who are currently receiving support because of a mental health problem – it is vital that it is accurate, fair and realistic.
Although those who will reach retirement age during the migration period (April 2011 to March 2014) will not be reassessed, and the Government has committed to making use of existing information about claimants, we are still concerned that the migration process will be blighted by the issues that have characterised the WCA process so far. The current review is the best opportunity for organisations like Mind to influence the working of the WCA and we are pleased that our supporters have helped us so much in this endeavour.
A copy of our response to the review is available on our benefits and welfare page so that people can see how their contribution helped us to form our submission.
But we know that there is still so much to do.
- The Independent Review will be taking additional evidence from the Disability Benefits Consortium, of which Mind is a member, and you can contribute to this by filling in their survey.
- Once the review is complete we will be pressing the Government to adopt any improvements it recommends, and campaigning publicly if we do not feel the review goes far enough or the Government does not take sufficient notice of it.
- We will then be lobbying around the Welfare Reform White Paper and Bill in December and the New Year.
- After that we will be monitoring the start of IB migration and the introduction of the Work Programme.
Alongside all this we will be working to present a more balanced picture of benefits claimants in the media.
In short, this is going to be a long, hard battle but we are confident that, together, we can bring about real change which will benefit a huge number of people.
Tom Pollard, Policy and Campaigns Officer
21 Comments
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Recent comments from Government ministers reinforce the fact that welfare reform brought in by new labour was solely about benefit cuts and the scrapping of sickness benefit within 15 years
Potential means test of sickness benefit highlights what I am saying. Will not even need the medical if that comes in., as for the medical demedicalise the medical came from one briefing to government from a large charity, not MIND, that statement came from another large charity involved in the unpublished discussions with government that took place last year before the welfare reform act was passed in Nov 2009.
The crocodile tears of the labour party is nauseating in my view.The recent publication of the Pathways to Work results proves that employers are not interested in employing the mentally ill. Very few got jobs and probably the jobs they claim to have achieved for disabled people probably come from dubious statistics.
The charities have been duped by politicians, they now have the legislation in place to do what they like to us.
At least now the cat is out of the bag on what welfare reform really means. Massive cuts to benefits and social care in my view.
I sometimes wonder if the people that represented us have any guillty feeling with their OBE's for welfare reform and huge salaries. Are they having their pay cut or at least frozen. they should at least have the conscience to do that.I also wonder
if they ever reflect on what is coming for so many people with no voice at all. As for reviews, the legislation is in place for financial sanctions, potential forced treatments for those with drink or drug problems and a lfie of continuous perceived threats to comply.
I sometimes think Bob Crow RMT union is the only friend we have, at least he is prepared to tell Osborne, New Labour and the rest who collude with their silence that they are wrong in what they are doing.Paul
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In my opinion, MIND's response to the review highlights very clearly everything we, as a group with mental health problems and claiming benefits, are concerned about.
Independently wealthy politicians and their cronies and highly paid advisors, with no actual experience of the real world of work, our situations, or of the process of claiming and living on benefits, are branding us as liars and cheats in order to implement these changes and I'm convinced that the government has already decided what it will do. In the meantime it will just pay lip service to organisations representing affected groups.
The whole purpose of the WCA/ESA/JSA proposals is to get everyone on to the lowest benefit rate possible (or force them off benefits completely). They don't care if you can't work (it's a "lifestyle choice") and can't guarantee that you can find it if you are able. Prospective employers aren't allowed to discriminate against those of us with mental health problems - yeah, right! Try and prove that your mental health condition was the reason you didn't get the job you applied for. What employer is going to admit it was the reason? No job after 12 months? Your fault, so you lose or have benefit reduced.
Campaigning after the review and lobbying in December is all well and good but something has to be done now (and loudly) to try and inform the general public about what is happening to us. The government and some sections of the media have spent months vilifying sickness benefit claimants and have generated much support for their plans. The public are generally unsympathetic towards anyone on sickness benefits because they have been convinced that the deficit is our fault. What we need now is for the findings in the response to appear in double page spreads in the newspapers, so that the general public can see how we are treated. What we need is MIND on the main news channels/programmes with these findings. What we need is for the stories about incorrect assessments and appeals to be told. For every story about a benefit cheat that is reported, there should be a report about benefits refused and the impact it has. It needs to happen now and it's the only way others can begin to understand and maybe realise that this is the treatment they will receive if they are unfortunate enough to need "help" from the system. Yes, it will be a "long, hard battle" to turn the tide of public opinion and make the policy makers think again but it MUST be done.
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CarerWatch would like to congratulate MIND on the submission of such extensive evidence. As you say the government is determined on this process and it is going to be a long, hard fight.
CarerWatch have also submitted evidence to the Harrington enquiry. We have taken a slightly different approach. We agree that the assessment of people as 'fit for work' and moving them to JSA when they have mental health issues is appalling and must be resisted.
But our main focus is on the 'conditionality' under ESA. As you say - if you are assessed for the work ready activity group of ESA the pressure is going to be to take more and more hours of work and eventually be pushed out unprotected on to JSA. That progression is often not realistic for people with serious mental illness. Because of the 'conditionality' which means coercion, threats and sanctions - the WRAG is not a safe place for people to explore what they can do, have a go, perhaps relapse. If they are not in control of the pace of their progress in to work they will not feel safe to try or risk trying.
What is added by this coercion except fear, anxiety and forced decisions. What could have been a wonderful opportunity to get help to try and get back to work becomes a scary place where they can be pushed in to doing more than is safe or sensible for them to attempt.
While 'conditionality' remains in force on people on ESA it is not safe or fit for purpose. Fiddling round with the WCA will not solve this basic flaw in the design of ESA.
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Let us not forget that it was the Conservatives that introduced the idea of a private company (SEMA) doing these medicals as part of the DWP Medical Services. Since then it has all been downhill with many complaints about the original and subsequent contract holders (basically the same company that has changed hands through the years as more "investment" consortia contrive to milk more money from it). Many select committees and individual MPs have complained about the performance of Atos, indeed there have been instances of GPs working for them struck off by the GMC. Costing over £500m this huge multinational continues to make errors and continues to be unaccountable (protected from the Freedom of Information Act a) because they are a private company and b) because the DWP is not allowed to release "commercially sensitive" information. It is about time that the lid was lifted from this company and its activities. How about Mind asking for that from government ministers? Then we will see the true amount of bias and discrimination taking place. How about Mind challenging that in the courts if they don't get the information?
Besides the Atos scandal it cannot be right to use threat of withdrawal of benefits to in the words of the government "promote mobility" more weasel words for "forced labour", something that is specifically against the convention on human rights that prevails across all EU countries. How about Mind challenging that in the courts?
Many people are not disabled, they are sick AND disabled, a point I keep making but no campaign has so far conceded that it might be the case in most cases! Stopping someones benefits does not provide a cure for their ailments, it will be self evident that treatment will go on after the fact. One need only look at medical records. So the presumption by the government that stopping benefits will effect a sudden miracle cure for claimants will eventually prove incorrect as many will not turn up for "interviews" through ill health. The fact that they will still stop your benefits because they will say "there is nothing wrong with you" needs to be challenged in the courts as many people are too ill to even go for an interview. Will Mind assist in these test cases?
Questions to be answered.
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Link showing failure of Pathways to Work Employment scheme and the concern of MP's Select committee.
Paul
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Today's Daily Mail. A couple of quotes from an item titled "Clegg defiant on cuts""
"The Deputy Prime Minister said the government wanted to get people 'into work in whatever way we can.'"
"The Lib Dem leader had said in a newspaper article yesterday that, 'a fair society is not one in which money is simply transferred by the central State from one group to another. Welfare needs to become an engine of mobility, changing people's lives for the better, rather than a giant cheque written by the State to compensate the poor for their predicament.'"
Words fail me.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/25/mental-health-treatment-rachel-perkins-mind
This individual has been heavily involved with MIND. Perhaps MIND could tell service users if they agree with what she say in respect of welfare benefits. It seems to me to contradict what MIND has said recently.
She is virtually advocating the threats and cuts that are going to be used against the mentally ill.in my view.
I know she has spoken at MIND events and the article says she received a MIND award as well . She has also as written a major report for the labour government.
Hopefully you will publish this link and comments because we all need to know where MIND really stands for on welfare reform. We do not have access to government, the CEO of MIND does.
I also would like to say there is a big difference in mental health difficulties, problems to someone with mental ILLNESS and all that entails in my view. CBT cure all has been used partly due to this word change.
Nearly everyone at some stage in life has a mental problem, that is different to mental illness in my view.Paul
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Disability has moved on and the new liberated thinking is that no one is now disabled but differently abled. This means everyone should be respected and able to work if they want to. Help should always be there to help any one with any disability work.
So there is no longer a 'test' that can determine if someone is fit for work. Everyone is fit for work. Blaming the WCA test is pointless. It just does what it says on the tin and finds everyone fit for work.
This has confused things. Unfortunately sickness, illness, disability has not actually been abolished which is what ESA seems to assume. There are many people still facing enormous barriers to work.
In this situation what people with disability need is a safe place where they can get back to work help if they want it and not face pressure and sanctions if they can't find work or don't feel able to work. ESA does not provide this. ESA provides the support group where people are written off and a work ready activity group where people come under pressure of sanctions.
ESA needs to be redesigned with a safe place for people to have a go, take risks, get help but not be pressurised. ESA need to be redesigned.
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@Paul
Rachel Perkins is this year’s Mind Champion, an award she was given after being nominated by our supporters and winning the popular vote on our website. While we respect the work she has done promoting better mental health, Mind has quite a different opinion on welfare reform. If you want to know more about Mind’s position, see on our campaign page http://www.mind.org.uk/campaigns_and_issues/policy_and_issues/making_benefits_fairer-welfare_reform
On that page you'll not only find information on what we're doing, but ways our supporters can get involved in the campaign.
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Rachel Perkins does not represent the majority of service users both in views and experience which is clear from discussions on online forums and there is substantial disquiet about her promotion of her views on our behalf [even though this is implicit rather than explicit].
We sadly don't have any high profile service users in the media with experience of; living on benefits, living on a sink estate, not having the ability or application to get a degree/masters/Phd, having done minimum wage manual work, having worked in low paid employment where unlike the NHS there is no sick pay. -
Excuse me Eve, but Rachel Perkins research paper "Realising Ambitions" is listed at the bottom of MIND's latest briefing to government on ESA work capability assessment.
As for getting involved in official way means, I am not well enough anymore. It would also mean that I would have to inform the DWP Within a short space of time I would probably end up with a medical. I have learnt the hard way on too many occasions.
With the Can Do, illness cured environment it is even more likely that my tormentors from the government would come to add to my distress. I need to comment from a distance when I can.
As far as I see it the mentally ill cannot rely on anyone anymore in respect of welfare reform.Doctors, psychiatrists CPN.s charities, the media, including the BBC have been lent on.in respect of welfare reform. Alienation will happen on a massive scale. No money will be saved in my view
Contracts have been changed to push welfare reform, many of the others rely on funding from government. Independence has gone. I am paranoid on this issue everyone who is on sickness benefit etc should feel the same in my view.
It is not just the money we are being humiliated and with innuedo of fraud by a society probably the majority both vocal and silent in their approval of what is going on. Many of course have been misled by the propaghanda
One thing is almost certain nearly everybody who loses their benefits will still be unemployed in five years time. Many will disappear off the register completely as they will not even be entitiled to JSA..
Paul
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I had not heard of Rachel Perkins until she was mentioned here. Let me assure you that her views do not represent or address any of my concerns over welfare reform and I hope for all our sakes she is not a significant influence in this matter. Indeed, reading about her brought to mind a comparison with Channel 4's Fairy Jobmother - basically all we need is a good talking to, a kick up the backside and everything will be alright. "...tapering benefit payments so that people are incentivised to work." is forcing them to accept drastic changes in their circumstances because they have no other choice, regardless of whether they can cope with that change or not. Where is the support in that? She and the government are the ones making this about "the right to benefits". I don't think any contributor here would claim they have an absolute right to any benefit but they would say they have a right to be treated with understanding and compassion, and given support, which may entitle them to claim appropriate benefits for which they clearly qualify. Obviously, everybody has "the right to work". Surely what's important is your ability to work?
I noticed yesterday that Nick Clegg paraphrased her assertion that, "Every human being gains their self-worth from being able to contribute to their communities – and let's face it, the most socially sanctioned way to do that is with work.". Well I've worked - long and hard - with 100% effort on my part and I continued to work (even when I knew I was becoming ill because of it), because I believed I should and that I had a responsibility to do so. My "self-worth" was not wrapped up in my "contribution to my community", but by the time I became too ill to continue working, my self-worth was zero. My "community" did not rush to support me in gratitude for my efforts. Working made me ill. I suppose in the current climate that makes me "workshy".
The medical profession is certainly being leant on and I think there is extra pressure on doctors in mental health. My psychiatrist has indicated many times in the last few years that "the system" would prefer those of us who can function in some way be declared "cured" and sent out to fend for ourselves. Welfare reforms proposed will effectively declare a doctor's diagnosis and decisions on treatment meaningless because the government insists we all "can do", yet there is silence from any representative bodies. Maybe I'm too cynical, or suspicious, or even paranoid.
Like Paul, I have strong opinions about this but this is the only place I feel I can air them without being judged. I get very angry and frightened and wish I was able to get involved but as soon as "they" see you are able to formulate an idea and put it forward, you are deemed to be fit. "Fit to fight, fit to work." as has been said.
As Mindreader indicates, there seem to be no high profile figures who have experienced illness or disability (in whatever form) and the benefits system. Perhaps it's because those who are "high profile" are in a position to seek (and get) the best treatment quickly, do not have to rely on benefit to support them in their recovery and are under no pressure to return to their chosen profession before they are ready. Any media appearance is usually about their story and although they may feel they have done their bit to highlight the issue, they lend nothing to our cause because they have no experience of what it is like for the rest of us.
This then, is the crux of the matter. The people making the decisions about us, about our health, about our lives, who call us "cheats" and would deny us even the most basic respect, have (and will probably never have) no experience or understanding of our situations. They are too remote and detached from "real life" and are clearly unwilling to listen to anyone representing that. Welfare reform will not affect them. They will not live in fear of losing their homes because of housing benefit cuts. They will not have to worry about keeping their homes warm in winter. They will not worry about putting fuel in the car. Anything that affects us they will never worry about and as long as that remains the case, we will never be heard sympathetically.
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You're right Paul. I so wish you were not, but I know that you are, I feel like anyone on benefits is being like vermin by government to be purged by pest control.
Reform would never have considered people's chosen voluntary work as an outcome, or part-time work with top ups to the same level of the liveable end of benefits as an outcome, or ad hoc freelance work which was declared and deducted as and when able, or the reality that some people really cannot do any of the above and need to not work which doesn't mean they are living it up.
This reform means you are either fit for full-time work [under any conditions] or a workshy fraud who is guilty until proven innocent. Some people think it's all about money and it isn't, it's about living under constant fear and threat for the next 5 years with the prospect of humuliating medicals, months of appeals and the prospect of £64 a week for life intersperced with forced mickey mouse courses, placements or very short term contract work at the minimum wage/unsocial hours crap end. The sort of companies who 'pride' themselves on employing the crips/loonies for a few weeks with no sick/leave pay.
In retail, hotel, domestic and catering work many employers wouldn't even consider taking on people with 5-20 year old psychiatric histories. Yet Jobcentres wlll be obliged to push people and mental health services [and the voluntary sector] happily jump on this bandwagon that work is the answer. IDS says people are 'better off in work', well Rachel Perkins is on her salary and in her working conditions yes, but someone working for a burger bar/ pound shop isn't neccessarily better off. Low wages are an issue and I want to see that addressed for everyone, not only for service users attempting to get employment. How can work even be better for those who are unemployed without health issues if the wages are so low that even full-time, or doing 2 jobs mean rent is still hard to meet. So instead of addressing low wages the "incentive" torycons want to offer are making all benefits harder to claim. They will cite the medicals finding most people 'fit for work' as a success, but as Paul says, most will stay on JSA because they either won't be able to work, or work enough hours to live, or will get sacked as soon as they take sick leave because of being distressed. In retail people are 'disciplined' even if they take 5 days off with a GP cert, so someone needing 2 months off because of being depressed or manic won't last. Most won't get into jobs of Rachels level where there is the flexibility to go off sick without pay and fear of losing your job, or where work can be done from home for a while [you can't work from home in the level of jobs most people would get even if they can get them].
Some CMHT's are really pushing people into work, some even watch long standing service users fall over again and again and again, refusing to accept that this person ends up on section repeatedly when attempting to do more work, but maintains stability when doing voluntary work. It's like people who do voluntary work are now scum, it's meaningless and worthless because now voluntary work is only supposed to be a 'stepping stone', it is devalued. Voluntary work is only valued in this 'big society' if it's done outside of full-time employment. Those people are saints, anyone else is a wimp by todays standards.
Money won't be saved with people staying on JSA forevermore, or getting readmitted or worse and what grates is that many benefits are taxed, or are unclaimed, and we have the lowest levels of fraud in europe, The main fraud is housing and that's down to landlords and housing is paid directly to them.
It grates that tax evasion is not properly addressed which would not only cover all they want to take from welfare but would contribute considerably to the overall deficit. Vodaphone gets away with 6 million in unpaid taxes.
The budget overall will hit those with the least hardest and barely touch those with the most, that's unfair on everyone not only people with mental health problems.
I think it would take massive demonstration to turn the tide now, maybe resistance needs to be creative, like a day where all service users seek admission - admission costs several times more than weekly benefits. -
A mental health professional with an extreme 'all work is good for you' type attitude shouted me down at a Mind's Wellbeing Conference last year, whilst singing the praises of Rachel Perkins. I was not aware of the report she was writing for the government at the time.
I was surprised to discover she had won Mind's Champion award - especially as I don't remember reading any news report about the result on the website. I personally voted for Marion Janner who also spoke at the conference and would have been a well deserved and less controversial winner.
My views on welfare reform mirror those held by the numerous contributors to the various blogs on the subject and I have posted a response to Paul Farmer's Party Conference Blog.
http://www.mind.org.uk/blog/3926_a_summer_of_love_an_autumn_of_gloom
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I have not worked for 25 years due to mental illness but i wish i was not this way.\but this posting will give people hear what is happening .we have/had a very good kind familly doctor .But heres the story my youngest son has adhd/ mixed emotional conduct disorder/has just been diagnosed with psychoses/ and has total blackouts with no warning.He is on esa holding at the moment but needed another clubnote to take him to his esa medical.He went with his framework case worker to get the note but whem they went into our kind!!!!!!!!!!!!! doctors surgery the doctor totaly out of character started shouting at my son and his case worker telling them how we have a coalition government now and we are no longer paying people to sit at home on there backsides and what was his case worker doing to get him a job he then gave him a clubnote for 3 months and said that was the last he was getting.Where did this come from ?? ill tell you what we his mother and i think .We think that doctors have become the children of the government and are so scared of losing there large sallary that they are no longer interested in the Hipocratic oath and have become brainwashed and lost there ability to make and help and stick up for people who they treat and yes we who are ill will live on a pittance for the rest of our lives as some of us cannot change our mental illness as regards all the charities they say nice things to look good but really do nowt shame on the lot of you .The uk debt problem isnt just caused by benefits but by the greedy people who have aquired huge wealth at the expense of people who areent so well of if all rich folk gave some back we wouldnt have a problem .
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We all no that ESA is not about helping the ill or disabled it about saving money. Work is good for you, BUT at a time when even the cream of society can not find work, what chance have I? or even we? When you mention the word mental illness to people, most run a mile. It is not benefits that need reforming, it is people that need educating. I have to say it, "MIND", you have slowly started to see the true nature of ESA but you did first of all look at it from a service providor point of view not a service user perspective. This government's continual propaganda has made me feel like a third class citizen and even worse, a criminal. My crime is being ill. I worked, I didn't choose to claim benefits as a lifestyle option, if I did then I didn't choose very well. This government makes me feel like a burden. Will be sending us to Switzerland next? After all, Short term expense, long term savings.
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The blogs on these issues this year have produced poignant and incisive responses, the kind of material you would never read in the press or hear on Newsnight, maybe Mind could collate the best from these and use this material in their work. Whatever criticisms we levy at Mind this site remains one of the few places we can express ourselves in a direct manner on these issues without being vilified for doing so.
I would still like to see the CEO's and reps from all the mental health and disability charities hold some meetings to discuss joint strategy and for this to be informed by service users. -
Chris - The doctor's 'out of character' attack at the expense of your youngest son and his carer is the sort of outrageous outburst you might expect on the sit-com Doc Martin!
As he/she is your family doctor and normally kind and understanding, I would be tempted to make an appointment along with your son and carer, just to let him/her know how upset and worried you all are about the potential effects of the withdrawal of support - providing them with an opportunity to explain their behaviour and hopefully offer your son and his carer a sincere apology.
Your son needs a fully supportive GP, so it may be that you will have to find a new one.
Whilst on the subject of sick-notes and 'getting people into work', I have just reread a newspaper article that appeared in the Times in August, with the headline 'Doctors warn that forcing sick-benefit claimants into work is doomed to fail'. (I can't do a link because you now have to suscribe to Times online)
The article is in response to research that was carried out by Jill Morrison, a Professor of General Practice of the University of Glasgow. Amongst lots of other things, she is quoted as stating, "a large proportion of people on long term sick leave were unlikely to return to employment." The researchers also found 'no evidence that GPs were signing people off sick inappropriately or without good reason'. Professor Morrison also added that 'in her experience as a GP, she was "absolutely not convinced that there were many malingerers" who were claiming benefits inappropriately. "Most, if not all the people I see who are off work long term are really not fit to work, particularly because of the type of jobs that are offered them."
I have not been able to find anything more about the research project, but have come across an important and what should be a very interesting conference 'With Work in Mind: Mental Health, Work and Welfare Reform', being held in Edinburgh in November. Key speakers include Lord Freud himself, Professor Morrison and Billy Watson, CEO of the Scottish Association for Mental Health. I hope Mind's Campaign's team will be represented at the conference alongside Local Mind Associations.
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Politicians continue to be out-of-date and lacking a firm understanding of Mental Health. It is not an option to create policies that trigger worsen the mental health of those already on Income Support benefit. Government should be doing all that is necessary to strengthen Community Development and Social Mobility - YES, SOCIAL MOBILITY! As someone who has had personal experience of MPs expressing their 'rights' to lack a Statutory Obligation to Represent.. anybody, I fear for the outcome of cuts, cuts and more cuts. Surely, if there was so much high costs in the beaurocracy that Labour was responsible for, we should not be experiencing withdrawal of funding for advocacy from Mind. Advocacy is the backbone of support for vulnerable people in the community. Unfortunately, Politicians stopped listening a long time ago.
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I have chronic mental illness and I have spent the last few years fighting to regain some independence. It’s taken every bit of energy I can find, and more to build something that can barely be called a life. But my fight is now on hold as I am in the process of curling back up. I cannot go through these reforms on my own, and try and build my life here at the same time. I am too afraid to lose any more of what I try to rebuild. The constant Government threats are suffocating.
Work is my biggest goal and it hurts when I hear the politicians assume I don’t already have enough ‘incentives’ to have a normal life. How dare they! I have been trying to gain control over my life and now the government are approaching me with the stick and trying to take it away by assuming that they know more about my life than I do. There is no control and choice with what they are doing. It’s demeaning. I cannot listen to the rhetoric anymore either.
I pray something Mind can do or say something that can make a difference for ESA and DLA. But until then, I can’t sit and wait for more brown envelopes or the latest from the lynch mob. I cannot take any more uncertainty over my future, independence and support. Those who help support me have been sick with worry, and we cannot do it anymore.
We wish I could fight back – but we cannot. :(
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