Tuesday, 5 February 2013

If you too are disgusted by the way this government has treated sick and disabled people please consider signing the petition below.

Petition:

Ian Duncan Smith has caused, and continues to cause, great pain and hardship to the ordinary people of Great Britain, with his unfair, unjust, welfare reforms.

Not least in his reforms, he is declaring that disabled and sick people are 'fit for work' by ordering the French company, Atos, to get as many people as possible off Incapacity Benefit, and into work related groups.

More than 40% of these so called 'fit' people are then taking their decision to Tribunal, and winning their case on appeal - proving that the decision by Atos was wrong!

These assessments are causing many, many people so much distress, that many have committed suicide! While waiting for appeals, claimants' benefits are stopped - so, as well as having to cope with illness, the claimant also has to live without enough money to both heat their homes, and eat!

Another part of the Welfare Reform, the 'Bedroom Tax' is also the most unfair, demonisation of social housing tenants ever to have been allowed in this country!

From April 1st 2013 thousands of long standing social housing tenants face losing their homes, by falling into rent arrears, as they are deemed to be 'under-occypying' if they have ONE spare bedroom! The councils and Housing Associations DO NOT HAVE the amount of ONE BED properties needed for these tenants to move to - but are persecuting them, for something that is no fault of their own! The situation of shortage in housing is the Governments', for not building enough social housing over the years, and for selling off the housing that we DO have left! So these tenants, that have made their house a home, over 20, 30, 40 years, (as their tenancy states it is a 'Lifetime' tenancy), will not be able to pay the extra 14% in rent that IDS has told them they will have to pay, so they will be evicted!

This man is not fit to run our works & Pensions department...... get him out NOW!
<a href="http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/sack-ian-duncan-smith-ids-now.html">SACK IAN DUNCAN SMITH (IDS) NOW! Petition | GoPetition</a>

Saturday, 19 January 2013

Awaiting Atos

More than 20 years ago I was diagnosed with a painful degenerative condition and assessed for DLA and Incapacity benefits. The process at the time was very thorough.  I was sent to a residential assessment center for a week, my every move was watched and I was tested for all possible work activities. The resultant advice was that I could do anything I liked - as long as I did it lying down! I was awarded DLA 'for life'.  Since then life has not been easy by any stretch of the imagination. The pain, frustrations and indignities of my condition are a constant challenge which can be very hard to bear but the knowledge that I would always have a roof over my head and food on the table made it just about possible to cope. Then came Atos.  At first the idea of reassessment  didn't worry me unduly, I am, after all, genuinely and irrevocably too sick to work.  But then the stories started.  Friends who have conditions similar to my own were being tested - and told they could work, on the strength of a 20 minute tick box 'assessment' !  I have watched them go through the arduous process of appeals etc and although they have now had benefits reinstated it has in every case made their conditions worse. I'm still waiting and I am, frankly, terrified! I have coped for this long but everybody has their breaking point and I am now having to take antidepressants on top of everything else as I can't even think about it all without crying. All this talk about 'shirkers' doesn't help either.  Anyone who thinks living like this is a 'lifestyle choice' needs urgent psychiatric assessment. I started paying national insurance the day after I left school and continued to do so until I became ill.  I and my ilk are ENTITLED to the benefits we receive. We are not 'scroungers' - we paid for them!

 I wrote this post this morning,initially as a comment following an article in the guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/17/atos-attack-emotional-commons-debate?fb=native&commentpage=4