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Comprehensive Spending Review
Posted Wednesday 20 October 2010
Updated below.
Today the Government will announce its Comprehensive Spending Review. I know many of our supporters – and people across the country – are braced for bad news. After the announcement, there may still be many areas where plans have not been finalised, which means there is still time to continue to fight for benefits, services and opportunities for people with experience of mental health problems.
The official announcement will be made at 12.30 today. Our Policy and Campaigns team will post updates and thoughts here, as we are able. In the meantime, please use the comments section below to tell us what you’re thinking today. We’ll be checking them throughout the day.
Update 12.35: Osborne states that the government has chosen to invest in healthcare and to cut waste and reform the welfare system that we can no longer afford.
Update 12.46: Osborne says: three principles for this review are growth, fairness and reform.
We say: real concerns about the review disproportionately hitting people with mental health problems which have yet to be properly answered.
Update 12.55: Despite reduction in department budgets there will be support for big society projects and community organisers. We want to find out more about this and how it can support people experiencing mental distress
He says: Expansion of personal budgets for people with long term health conditions. We say: We know that personal budgets can make a real difference to people with mental health problems and give them independence. However, people need to be properly supported in accessing and using personal budgets, and they won't work for everyone. We've made clear to government that people need proper choice and support.
Update 12.59: BBC health correspondent Branwen Jeffreys says: NHS confederation warns that cuts in local council budgets will have knock on-effect on health service.
Update 13.03: The BBC's Iain Watson says: The chancellor points out that councils in England will face cuts of not 25% but more than 28%, though they will have greater powers to borrow, and the government will take £1bn form the "protected" NHS budget in England to help meet the costs of social care. This raises the question of just how protected the NHS budget really is, if some of its budget will pay for services which are usually delivered via local authorities.
Update 13.04: Justice Green Paper will set out plans to intervene early to prevent people with mental health problems ending up in the prisons system.
Update 13.10: No cut to 'visibility' of police, but no guarantee of police numbers. What will this mean for the important work that mental health liaison officers do?
Update 13.17: "We will increase access to talking therapies". No details as yet but welcome commitment - Mind has heavily been campaigning on this, with the release of our We need to talk report just last week.
Update 13.17: £7 billion savings from the welfare budget. DWP need to find further savings from £200 billion benefit bill on top of those identified in the budget.
Update 13.33: Welfare updates:
- One year limit on contribution-based Employment Support Allowance (ESA), meaning that after a year claims for ESA are will be restricted to those with less than £16,000 in savings and, if you have a partner or civil partner, they work for less than 24 hours a week on average.
- Universal Credit introduced over the next two parliaments, with £2bn put aside to pay for this.
- Disability Living Allowance excluded from the cap on benefits received by one household.
Updated 15.50: The Treasury has now published its equality impact assessment for the spending review. Here's what they are thinking the impact on disabled people might be:
- The Treasury points to the fact that health spending has been protected in real terms and the spending review has provided some additional funding to maintain current levels of care as a decision which "relatively protect[s]" disabled people's access to these services.
- It makes clear that in order to protect these areas of government spending, it has made savings in other areas, largely in welfare. The Treasury states that "some" people will be affected by a new time limit of one year on the contributory part of the ESA benefit around work related activity. This means that for some people they will no longer receive ESA after one year. It also states that the impact of this will also be mitigated for the most severely disabled and those on low incomes. The Treasury doesn't give specific figures so we'll be chasing them up for this to see how many people are likely to be affected. The Treasury expects savings of around £2 billion from this change.
- Confirmation that Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claimants are exempted from the new cap on total household welfare payments.
Update 17.50: Thank you all for reading and commenting today. We will continue to pore over today's announcements, and in the days to come will try to form a clearer picture of just what it all means for people with experience of mental distress. We will have more blog posts, news and analysis tomorrow and in the days to come, so please do continue to check back on www.mind.org.uk/blog.
In the meantime, please do continue to use the comments section below.
Vicki Nash, Head of Policy and Campaigns
43 Comments
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David Cameron said he would look after the sick, vulnerable and the elderly.
Nick Clegg said they would not balance the books on the backs of the poor.
It is reported now that every billion saved on Welfare is a billion that can be spent elsewhere. So Welfare takes the biggest hit to support everything else. This explains the persistent campaign against all benefit claimants, to minimise the possibility of any backlash resulting in cuts to benefits.
Child Benefit, Tax Credits, Housing Benefit, Incapacity Benefit, social housing - all in the firing line. Surely anybody that relies on the "Welfare State" is either sick, vulnerable, elderly or poor? I wonder how Mr. Cameron and Mr. Clegg live with themselves.
The contempt in which the coalition holds those of us at the margins is now obvious.
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I don’t understand why so many public sector jobs are being slashed, if the government are trying to decrease the number of benefits claimants, and get those currently in the welfare system back to work? Is our country eternally fixated on private economic gain? I can’t work due to long-term mental health problems. I’m really not sure where my place is in the Big Society...
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Am terrified at what is going to happen , have been very very depressed for weeks now just the threat to my incapacity benefit has really affected my mental health badly , am hardly able to wake up.
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The chancellor says "We are all in it together " and talks of fairness when his own fortune is protected from taxation and death duties by a trust fund , how fair is that ?
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Mr. Osborne has repeated over and over that things are possible now because of his welfare reforms. Still maintaining, by inferrence, that the most needy are ultimately responsible for the deficit. Disgusting.
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I have lived with Bipolar Disorder for many years and work in self-management of long-term health conditions. It does concern me that alterations to NHS funding again will mean vital services may be cut. I waited probably 3 years for talking therapies many years ago and this was then pulled as I lived in the wrong postcode area.
I am living proof that self-management of long-term conditions is exceedingly effective and the focus must be not only on talking therapies with a professional but also the huge importance lay-led self-management courses must be explored. Both services are important. A simple example of cost effectiveness is for 7 years my parents were my carers, I visited the GP frequently and lived on health benefits. I probably cost the NHS a huge amount during that time. Now I actively self-manage elements of my condition and cost the NHS very little, I also returned to work. My main concern here is that refocusing budgets within PCT areas to GP consortia could enhance the post code lottery. Services that benefit and prove cost effective long-term must be enhanced and not lost when services again restructure. The lay-led appoach to self-management is well documented and if it waqs not for that I would not be alive today. I lost 7 years due to the postcode lottery and this must not happen to others in a similar situation. If people learn how to plan and problem solve their condition and recognise triggers and relapse symptoms and adapt life accordingly millions of pounds could be saved. -
i suffer from fibromialgia which means i can hardly walk and i'm in constant pain all over, i have aspergers, mild tourettes and i have asthma. my esa benefits will be slashed, i got made redundant last year and i have been scrambling to get another job, but who is going to employ me. i went to see a disabilty adviser at the job center and was told by them to i'd never get a job, as i'd be a health and safety problem because i have trouble climbing stairs she basicaly told me to forget it. give me a job mr osbourne and i'll do it.
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Like 'in despair' I'm not sure how much more I can take of the news. As it was a lovely day weather wise I decided to go down to the allotment and listen to the radio to chill out. Hence I was subjected to Osborne in full flow in Parliament regarding his comprehensive spending review (you need a sense of humour sometimes). One thing that struck me is the patronising assumption that those of us on benefits will need 'intensive help' to find a job. No Osborne! we need employers to stop discriminating against those of us with MH problems when we are well enough to look for work in the first place. I would also like to see more attention given to the affects of the 'safety culture' we have been subjected to over the years which has worked against the mentally ill. A good example of this is the little know law of "protection of vulnerable adults" (POVA) brought in by the last govt and has been used by employers to exclude people with MH problems from working with for example children and the elderly. This is the assumption that we are somehow a risk to them. I have done research into discrimination and it is so far reaching I'm surprised the figure is only 70%. This is the point I would have put to George Osborne if I'd been in Pariliament today, thing is due to my 'condition' I would probably be barred from being an MP! Again a sense of humour helps but it is really not funny when we are talking about people's livelihoods. Taking away benefits on the premise that we are all lazy scroungers is a lie pure and simple and it needs to be exposed as such.
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The policy on housing issues concerns me most. Housing benefit is to be reduced and council house rents increased to 80% of commercial private rents in any given location. At the same time there will be a continual sale of current council houses and a 75% cut in government investment in affordable housing. Where are people who can no longer afford to rent in the private sector with less housing benefit,less and more expensive council housing, and less affordable rent i.e.housing association properties being built supposed to live-on the streets! Housing for people with mental health needs is crucial to quality of life and already very difficult to obtain.
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Regarding the15:50 update,
"The Treasury states that "some" people will be affected by a new time limit of one year on the contributory part of the ESA benefit around work related activity. This means that for some people they will no longer receive ESA after one year. It also states that the impact of this will also be mitigated for the most severely disabled and those on low incomes. The Treasury doesn't give specific figures so we'll be chasing them up for this to see how many people are likely to be affected."
Philip Hammond took part in a live interview on the BBC this afternoon and in response to a question he said around 1 million people will be affected by this change.
It was said recently that right now there are only 500,000 "real" jobs available. The spending cuts are expected to cause another 500,000 (minimum) job losses, yet IB/ESA claimants will still be put through the ringer and forced into workfare because the coalition maintains we are "scroungers".
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David cameron says " we are all in this together " but he is a millionaire and his wife is part of a family who has a accumulate wealth of 150 million, also 12 others in his cabinet are millionares.
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I have worked since i was 13 yrs old . I have Cellulitis, Oral Lichen Planus,Bipolar Disorder,Social Phobia,n Post Traumatic Stress Disorder . At the moment,my Lichen Planus has flared up,i have a cold,and a chest infection. Ive been signed off work for a fortnight . Ive been turned down twice for D.L.A. I was told i have to work . I dont CUT myself enough,i can use a mobile ,Not properly, i can drive a car . I drive during the day. I no longer have a C.P.N. , I do not have enough support i was told . Ive been in my job for the laast 22 yrs,n im struggling ! I was also told i was dressed too posh to claim benefit . Can you believe it . I was told bout C.B.T . bout 10 yrs ago,n im still waiting. For my Community Care , I have a G.p i see for bout 10 mins,and a psych i see for 20 mins every 3 months . If i get to the state i got myself into a few weeks ago, when everything was changing at work. I could hardly breathe,n thats the sort of treatment that david cameron thinks fair . I was sexually harassed at work twice,n harassed at work also. I then had to go through an investigation with the Police. The said person was jailed 15 yrs . Who says ive been fairly treated ? ,n other people like myself . Where do i get my help from . Forgot Community Care doesnt work. Its just been mentioned on the BBC Adult Social Care needs looking at . Things can only get Better , if youve got some money that is !!!
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David cameron said about protecting the sick and vulnerable and yet it is those very people who are going to suffer as a result of the speech today.
Many people with mental health and physical disabilities have been worrying themselves sick for many months, over the cuts to welfare and public services, becoming suicidal in the process. Today's news on welfare cuts and public spending cuts etc. I fear will lead to deaths amongst those who feel they have no other option but to opt out from a society they feel has let them down, labelled them and condemned them to nothing more than an existence, being unable to manage on the money left for them or being forced back into work with the threat of benefits being taken away after a year, and yet barely able to get out of the bath, bed, house etc. With all the job losses, the unemployment figures will increase and yet if you don't find a job, you lose out yet again.
Someone very close to me has already planned to end her life due to some of the cuts made that will severely affect her and she feels she will have no quality of life or even be able to have a decent future. This person is no scrounger or work shirker. She has severe problems but due to the benefit overhaul she is only too aware of the numbers of people being found fit to work who are obviously anything but. She does not dispute cuts are needed but feels the disadvantaged are being trampled on yet again.
I fear for the lives of many vulnerable people, for the services they need.
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I cant bear to listen to the news as it is so depressing and I am very anxious about benefits. the medical assessment is so unfair and puts people with mental illness through hell. I feel so much pressure is on me and thinking about it all the time. what do these government memebers know about this system anyway.
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@Ricki
Not "together" enough though.
Our politicians keep telling us that they are making "tough", "difficult" decisions. They didn't come into politics to cut services, etc., etc., etc., blah blah blah.
They project an image and would like us to believe they are principled, committed and only concerned with the welfare (pun intended) of the people that elected them. Obviously the principles aren't so strong as to make the 20 millionaire-ministers and MPs in the coalition, who do not need to draw a wage from the state, "share the burden" on their "broadest shoulders" and forgo their salary and "legitimate" expenses and donate their services in the best interests of the country they profess to be so concerned about.
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I too am despairing. When housing benefit rules were changed in April 2008 I almost lost my home (private sector rental), it took until the middle of this year, and the intervention of a local councillor to straighten out my situation, but only for the short term; if anything, the future looks bleaker. As a person with chronic mental health issues who's rather patronisingly referred to as 'high functioning', I can't perform consistently enough to hold down a job at the best of times. The new incapacity benefit tests frighten me to death (metaphorically). The overall situation pushes me closer to the edge of the abyss. Who's going to fight for us, the disadvantaged and marginalised?
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So the sick and disabled are to have their benefits limited to 12 months after which we will be means tested. Too much savings or a partner working and no money for you being ill.
So what was the point of paying National INSURANCE
I feel that my wife is going to ROBBED next year.
Well done Mr Cameron for picking on those with severe and enduring mental illness you must feel so proud of yourself ! -
Anyone with half a brain could suspect what the future was when ESA was introduced, especially with the hysteria against "malingerers" whipped up in the media. Instead MIND were completely supine - even giving qualified praise to the proposals as I recall. I have no confidence they will help us now.
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I'm confused.....
It has been set out that those on contributions based ESA will be moved on to JSA after one year, if not in work, my partner is currently recieving this, but is on long term sick from work, he is still employed by his company even though he has been off for 18 months now. He can't go on to JSA as he is not unemployed. Will we just stop recieving this money each week?
Why are they punishing the sick and disabled? -
I have a non verbal disability which includes dyspraxia which affects my mental health diabetes and severe brittle asthma due to my problems i have been unable to hold down a job since leaving school iam 43 and going back to work is not an option iam petrified of loosing my benefits
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Being a Manic Depressive, 61 years old. I'm fucked.
Open up the veins, and be damned to the Tory bigots.
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I'm worried sick! So much so that I've even thought of ending it all right now. These cuts mean I'll lose at least half of my current income....how will I be able to survive? My physical and mental health problems prevent me from working. And what jobs would there be for people like me, anyway? There aren't enough jobs to go round now, let alone when everyone loses their ESA. The government says these cuts are fair. How on earth can they be when it's the sick and disabled that will suffer the most from them?
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Back to the dark ages. Perhaps soon we'll all be locked up in asylums again- out of sight and out of mind as we are obviously too much of a burden to the state.... Anyone remember any mention of when the bailed out banks have to pay anything back???
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Well when the suicidies start to go up, the government can smile. If morals was a language then david and the third reich government would need a translator. None of the cuts is about fairness or giving us support it about Greed and easy targets to get at. People need to be EDUCATED, we all no talk to a person on the street most run a mile
Will mind start cheep Funeral plans ( you may need to) a very sad day all l hope we have a back bone like the french and fight as for a lot of people it is fight or die
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The shocking thing with the spending review is that Osborne claimed that the public sector workers if I am correct said welfare cuts were the way forward to protect their own jobs.
If that is correct, it is a disturbing way to make policy especially as some of these public sector organisations are involved in our care.Perhaps MIND and the disability charities, psychiatrists, GP's and the rest now regret dealing with New labour and their Tory friends who are now putting the final nails into those with disablilites.
It was clear for a long time that sickness benefit like JSA was going to be time limited and means tested after that.
Many will just disappear within a short space in time off any government employment register.
They will save the benefit money but a heavy price to this country will be paid in my view.
Paul
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I work part time which is a struggle most of the time due to a severe and enduring mental health problem. I work in the public sector which is facing the axe as well. I cannot go out on my own so I rely on my husband who has depression to take me to work. As well as my diagnosis I also have social phobia which makes it hard to work. I do get DLA but am afraid this will be revoked once I have to go to an interview. I do my best to work but need support and the financial support I have been getting up to now. I will never be well enough (even after umpteen years of CBT, psychotherapy and counselling) to work full time and feel we are being penalised as a couple for being disabled. We will have to live in poverty for the rest of our lives.
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The welfare budget gets hit for 18 billion pounds of savings while the banks have to pay back just 2 billion. What a farce !!!
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I just feel like running out into the street and screaming. Anxiety/depression/insomnia and a malign entity in my head thats just loving all this and its all down to my personality! Beginning to really hate myself for being such a failure, not being able to get a job for the last 5 years. What is it, do people see something that I can't? I listened to the moral maze last night and someone said that the welfare system has encouraged people to see themselves as victims! There we go, our fault again! OK well give me a bloody job and I'll stop being such a pathetic victim! That's if the depression will let me, We didn't CHOOSE mental illness people! We didn't chose to be on the margins of society
Why are people like us never mentioned in the media? We are being maligned either as benefit scum or self imposed victims. Where's our voice?
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@Trish, like you we know many people are really worried about these cuts and so are we. We've been working with some of the other disability organisations because of our fears of the disproportionate impact these cuts will have on people with mental health problems. We've asked the government for more details on this change to ESA and will keep you posted as soon as we here more.
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"It's a hard road to travel..." "Hard but fair choices.." Osborne's phrases of the day. And of course, we don't talk about job losses and redundancies anymore, it's "headcount". How cold hearted and inhuman do you have to be to use such a term in order to justify your actions?
He maintains that the top 10% of society will lose more, in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary. "Look at the whole package" he says. Yes, but when you cut 25% of £1 million that still leaves more than enough. Cut 25% of £100 and there's not much left at all. At least it gives him the chance to use the figures he wants doesn't it. What's the old saying? "There are lies, damned lies and statistics" I guess there's plenty of that to come. By the way, did anyone see IDS yesterday? If he was there he kept a pretty low profile.
The coalition are going to make half a million people jobless, yet cut back the system that supports the jobless! Of course, anyone who isn't working has made a "lifestyle choice" so doesn't deserve support anyway. I'm sure I heard someone make the argument that "Why should someone who works and may be on a low wage, pay taxes to support someone on benefits" or words to that effect. Twist it and spin it like they did with the child benefit cut "Why should someone on a low income pay taxes so that someone on £44000 gets child benefit".
Then there are the sanctimonious, self -righteous who are fortunate enough to enjoy good health and be in work. They resent paying their taxes to "keep" us. One of them said on Newsnight that "it's too easy to get benefits" and complained that he "sees them walking down the street, smoking and using their mobile phones.." That's right, we just turn up at the Jobcentre and they stuff wads of cash into our hands, no questions asked and we all have the latest i-phone don't we. I have a mobile phone. It is 5 years old and was given to me. But we won't think about that as an explanation for me having it, will we? What these people don't realise is that when it comes time for them to need support from the state, they won't be able to get it and then they will complain "What did I pay my taxes for?" They'll get no sympathy from me when it happens.
The assumption that those of us who can't work because of illness have chosen not to is an insult. As linda says, we don't choose illness and if it were at all possible to function in such a way as to be able to hold down a "proper" job (not a work placement), we'd much prefer to do that rather than face the continual stigmatisation by the coalition. They refuse (by choice) to understand that we all recognise how limited we are and that recognition in itself can make us feel worse. Their belief that all mental illness (severe or otherwise) can be "cured" with some pills and a chat with a therapist colours their view. There is no question when someone is diagnosed with an incurable physical disease that the illness is real but if you have a mental illness, you must be "shirking" or "workshy".
This whole business is affecting me badly now. Like davemack, I'd probably be classed as "high functioning", so can see and understand what is happening around me and form opinion and argument for and against. What I can't do is cope with the stress, anxiety and uncertainty. As a result I am scared. I've already been through one appeal and am dreading the prospect of another one after my next assessment. I am now almost daily overwhelmed by thoughts and feelings I had dealt with a long time ago. I'm going backwards. That's regressive, Mr. Osborne.
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What the coalition are doing to the mental health of the country is diabolical. How can they expect to re-launch the economy after creating more poverty and making everybody depressed? When people feel so bad, nothing can work properly. Simple logic. Unfortunately, Cameron and co. do not seem to think logically at all. And we're paying a very heavy price for their shortcoming.
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MIND
the peope on here and their are meny who are not dont wish word, as words do not put food on the table and roofs over headsYou fail us before You are our ADVCATE people with mental illness trust you. We need action not nice little chats AS WE are bearing the PAIN, Your not. Just remember ESA how you did nothing till it was to late So until l see Mind fighting back then l will not hold my breath
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Vicki, thank you for your understanding words and support. It's very much appreciated.
What can or should I do to protest against these cuts? Are we going to take to the streets? Should we get some TV journalist to make a programme about us and the effects these cuts are having on us now and will have when they happen? Should we sign a petition?....though I very much doubt that will have any effect. I don't want to sit back and just moan, I can't afford to. We must do something. -
I agree with Trish! We need to do something, like France are. We have to stand up for ourselves, nit just berate Mind when they have helped in many ways before, and I believe, will do again.
It's our issues and our lives so we should take to the street, write to our MPs and wait to see what will happen.
I believe in Mind as without their support, my condition would still be taking over my life and I would still be a mess.
Things aren't great for me and I am claiming DLA and ESa. But I know that this is not where I want to be. I want to live a normal and healthy life, just like the others who have commented on here.
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I don't know of any protest marches specifically organised for people with mental health problems or about ESA cuts, but I have found details of nationwide socialist protests to be held tomorrow, Saturday 23rd October. I'm going to join one of them, and I think we all should, if we can.
Details below:Scotland-wide STUC protest in Edinburgh: There is a Better Way march and rally. Assemble East Market Street, Edinburgh, 11am for rally at Ross Bandstand at 12.30pm. Coaches from across Scotland—for details go to www.thereisabetterway.org
Birmingham protest at 12.30pm, Victoria Square
Bristol demonstration and rally, Castle Park, Broadmead, assemble 11.00am for march through Bristol centre. Rally: College Green, 12 noon
Cambridge assemble 12 noon at Parkside Fire Station, rally at 1.30pm at Cambridge Guildhall
Cardiff march against cuts, assemble Cardiff City Hall, 12 noon
Leeds assemble Victoria Gardens (outside the art gallery), Headrow, Leeds, 12 noon
Lincoln assemble Castle Square, march to rally in the Cornhill, 12 noon
London march against the cuts, assemble outside the RMT head office, 39 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD at 11am. 12.30pm rally—Organising to defeat cuts in public services. Congress House, Great Russell Street. Go to www.tuc.org.uk/sertucevents
Manchester protest outside the BBC from 12 noon
Norwich protest against austerity, meet Hay Hill 12.30pm
Plymouth petitioning and campaigning with charities, campaign groups and trade unions. Meet at the Sundial in the city centre from 12 noon
Portsmouth “There is an Alternative” demonstration, 11.30am Guildhall Square
Yorkshire & Humber regional protest in Sheffield city centre, meet outside the Town Hall, 12.30pm. Sheffield Right to Work feeder march, meet outside Sheffield University student union on the concourse at 11am
York march and rally in the city centre, assemble 1pm in Parliament Street
Protest against the Con-Dems' comprehensive cuts on 23 October
London
Assemble 11am, RMT HQ, 39 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD. March to Bedford Square for a rally, then to the SERTUC rally in Congress House at 12 noon.Cardiff
All-Wales demo. Assemble Cardiff City Hall, 12 noon.Manchester
NSSN demo. Assemble St Peter's Square, 11am. Public meeting after the demo: 2pm, Peterloo Room @ Mechanics Institute, 103 Princess Street, city centre, salfordtuc@hotmail.co.uk 07904 965 780Bristol
Bristol and district anti-cuts alliance demo. Assemble 11am, Castle Park, Broadmead. Rally: 12 noon, College Green.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also on 23 October: demos in Lincoln and Wigan. For more details see www.socialistparty.org.uk
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Even if all the charities were much more co-ordinated and strident I can't see they will get government to make changes or put in safe guards, every sector is looking out for itself.
Perhaps action needs to be more creative - medication strikes and a day where every single service user in the country goes to A&E and seeks admission because of being at risk of harm to self as many people have already stated here. When people end up in hospital it costs several times more than weekly benefits. It would bring health services to a standstill.
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Mindreader.....I'm all for creative ideas, and I think the A&E idea would certainly get us noticed, which is what we need. However, health services at a standstill would put lives at risk, and so would medication strikes.
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Trish what is happening is putting lives at risk already
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Thank you all for joining the debate. We have temporarily closed the comments on this post as we will not be able to moderate them over the weekend. Commenting will reopen on Monday morning.
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I agree with Trish. we should do as much as we can with regard to the proposals for esa. Where did you get the information about the protest from, please, Trish? I have been frantically looking for info such as this, as the changes to esa will affect me too and I am scared to death. I am still in shock as I did not see this coming at all. Regarding the protests my fear is that the protests will focus on the cuts to the public sector and might overlook the welfare cuts. MIND need to act fast.
The Coalition are such hypocrites. The Daily Mail ran a story today that with regard to the new retirement pension proposals, a senior Coalition spokesman stated "The current system is very complex, it forces too many older people to be reliant on means-testing with many not taking up the support offered by the state, too few are rewarded for working and saving, and it generates unequal outcomes for men and women. A radically reformed state pension will reward people who work and save,....".
Well, they are not rewarding people who have become sick and have worked and saved. When the savings run out they will be even less self-sufficient and more reliant on the state.
Being disabled is difficult enough in itself but the Government are trying to make it impossible. I really do not know where the notion come from that it is easy to "go on the sick". We are treated as cheats, scroungers and malingerers. The forms and tests are not really geared towards mental illness and focus on the physical. We are summoned to attend medicals to prove ourselves, over and over and contest their decisions at tribunals. It is in their interest to disallow claims because some people might just drop the claim and others, when proven correct at tribunal, eventually get backpay but without interest. They have refused to allow the people in receipt of incapacity who were previously exempt from work to go onto the support group on esa. The intention with esa is to force sick people who cannot and shouldn't work to get jobs.
It is widely known that the DLA form is difficult to navigate and that it doesn't really matter what you, yourself say about your disability anyway, what counts is what the medical personnel say. They are now intending to make DLA even harder to obtain, with so-called medical tests.
I really didn't think it could get much worse but now they intend to limit our disability to a year on esa.
Each branch of MIND could rally local people together in protest WE ALL NEED TO DO SOMETHING AND GET INVOLVED. If they get away with the present welfare proposals, they will continue with other benefits until the welfare state is eroded.I finish with the famous saying attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up. -
gaskel...... I just surfed the net and found those protest marches.
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Is it beyond the wit of MIND to write to the editors of these papers to demand they stop vilifying the sick and disabled? Or even raise the matter with the PCC?
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So the WCA administered by ATOS finds 75% of those assessed as "fit for work". Of course it does, after all that's what the coalition pays ATOS to do. Don't forget, Gordon Brown stated his intention to get 1.5 million people off IB and the coalition have said that 23% or 500,000 (presumably they use the figure that will have the biggest impact) of those currently claiming are fit (and that was without re-assessing them!).
What is always missing in these reports (and I've said this here before) is that anyone claiming long-term sickness benefits has already been assessed (in some cases, annually) and must have been declared (by ATOS and the DWP) as unfit to work in order to continue claiming them. Conveniently, the media is missing the point that the coalition is actually moving the goalposts so that even if your condition remains unchanged (or worsens) you are suddenly fit.
This from the referenced Daily Mail article, "Even so, those who have failed or avoided the test since it was introduced have managed to claim as much as £500million in total before being screened out." Can anyone make any sense of this? If you fail the test, you don't get the benefit. You can't avoid the test if you want to claim the benefit. If "those who have failed or avoided the test" have been screened out, they must have been tested?!!
We are not told the fate of those who dropped their claims before their assessments or while waiting for appeals.
I cannot recall such a prolonged, vindictive campaign by any government, against a particular section of society as this, yet there are very few voices raised in our support. Others have made the point that if this sort of attack was aimed at any other "disadvantaged" group, there would be hell to pay and the rights of those being discriminated against would be made quite clear in all sections of the media.
Time for MIND to be much more vocal?
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