Sunday 20 February 2011

Suffering from Irritable Duncan Smith-itis or why my doctor is a liar

A Guest/Cross Post from my friend The Purple Fairy


"Apparently I am a fraud!  Hey!  How exciting, now I am labelled as something other than average or invisible!  Not that I have been officially told I am a fraud.  No, that would be to allocate a humanity to me that the Tribunal were incapable of expressing.  It seems that not only am I unimportant enough not to benefit from assistance but they have written to tell my friend this is the case BUT NOT ME!  How hard must it have been for her to have had to tell me over the 'phone? 

So, there you go - you know those headlines that tell you your taxes are being wasted on wastrels; the ne-er do wells, the scroungers, those citizens that can't be arsed to get off their fat backsides and do a day's work? Those who are profligate with their reproduction resources and leech as permanent parasites from the State?  Well according to three honest, upright citizens, I AM ONE OF THEM!   

But!  Wait!  Not only that!  I am also a benefit cheat!  Under the rather wonderful Welfare to Work programme (thanks to the last government) I was encouraged to seek Employment Support Allowance.  Only problem with that was that it was intended for individuals who did not have a job.  I did.  Not only did I have a job but I benefited from generous terms and conditions that saw me through the first part of my illness.  As I went into the zero pay stage under my sick note (oh! sorry that's out of fashion now - they are no longer sick notes but fit notes) I was required to be screened by the wonderfully named Atos on behalf of the DWP, then referred to TNG (for some reason I want to call them TCP) another organisation employed by the DWP to assess me for any training needs I may have to encourage me back into work.  To overcome my illness(es) and continue to contribute to the State.

The training I needed to get back to a job I already had was a diagnosis of one condition and the management of the excruciating pain of another condition to enable me to function nearly normally for a few hours a day.

Injunctions galore signposted the route back into work.  I must do this:  I must comply with that;  I must co-operate with any and all who asked me;  I must share my most intimate secrets with any 18 year old  spotty Kevin or Kevinette who I was directed to.  Failure to meet any such directions would result in hanging, drawing and quartering.  Oh alright then!  I exaggerate - a bit.  Any failure to follow instructions you could not understand would result in benefit being withdrawn.  To complicate matters further, if your ESA is granted on the basis of contributions paid via the National Insurance Tax you are  precluded from seeking financial assistance with things like poll tax.  If, however, it is granted on the grounds of income, then your poll tax is paid in full!!!   So an income 50 pence higher that the minimum set for a person to live on per day trumps four and a half decades of paying contributions.  A calculation process even the most greedy of bankers would have envied. 

I am sure there are people in this Country who are managing to defraud the system; who know the right words to say, who know how to complete the relevant 46 page forms accurately.  People who can adjust their bodies into the rigid boxes that have to be ticked by a faceless policy wonk who has no idea who or what you are.  I almost admire them!  They must be bloody clever to get around the system!  Perhaps it is a skill that could be added to the curriculum so that erstwhile students can add it to their cannon of qualifications.  I, clearly, have failed. Because I was daft enough to believe that TNG were acting in loco DWP and who shared my day to day information with them, and, because I was silly enough to report two weeks early a
proposed adjustment to employment mutually agreed between me and my employer prior to it's formal implementation, I am now marked as a cheat for receiving £282.00 too much money.  Oh and TNG still owe me the £50.00 shopping voucher they promised me for being a good girl and returning to work.

Having striven through the first age and the second age to make a decent life for me and my family, paying all my dues, obeying all the rules, I find myself progressing through to the third age discounted as a human being; called a liar, labelled a cheat and unworthy of help from all the State.    If I was the only one then I could easily mange the rage I feel because after all, if you are called worthless long enough, you do believe it and there is no need to trouble with how others perceive you.  But I am only one.  There is a large, silently suffering population hidden away under the skirts of Mother England. 

Mr Irritable Duncan Smith is quite right!  The feckless and the foolish should be discouraged from milking the state.  However the tools to be used for such a process need to be much finer than the blunt boxing of people into shapes that do not fit them.  The decision process sidelines the GP's report (the one prepared for me clearly detailed my difficulties and my needs so she too must be a liar) the focus isn't even on any additional consultants' reports (ditto previous comment), it is on the ticked boxes, on strict narrow parameters.  Step outside the line by a toe and you are automatically discounted as a cheat and a liar.

Am I vexed!  Am I filled with rage!  Too bloody right I am! Me and half a dozen people involved in my care have been called liars, but worse, thousands more are deprived or dissuaded from seeking help because the authorities cannot manage the handful of thieves who do plunder the system.  Once more the tail wags the dog. I wonder if any of the people who sit on these appeal tribunals ever trouble to reflect and research on their decisions.  Of course not. That would credit them with an empathy they clearly do not possess.

Love and Peace

THE Purple Fairy xxx"



Originally posted here

Saturday 19 February 2011

Blame And Recrimination


Blame And Recrimination

(A Protest Song in a Reggae Style, inspired by Life, Aswad,  Benefits, Disabilities, Prejudice - and a new typeface called Syncopate, which doesn't copy over!)



*One-a, Two-a, Three-a*


(Nothing but) blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation
No, nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation

They say no, no, we don’t wanna see you shirK
So pick up your broken body, take it to work

Nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation
No, nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation

They say, you ain’t sick cause I seen you online
And that is the proof that you’re perfectly fine
They say no, no, we don’t wanna see you shirK
So pick up your broken body, take it to work

Nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation
No, nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation

They say, I saw you went out on the town
Gonna report you so the judge sends you down
They say, you ain’t sick ‘cause I seen you online
and that is the proof that you’re perfectly fine
They say no, no, we don’t wanna see you shirK
So pick up your broken body, take it to work

Nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation
No, nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation

But they don’t see how we crawl up the stair
The hour it took just to comb out our hair
How we don’t eat if there’s no-one to cook
The struggle to turn over the page of a book
That we need both hands just to pick up a glass
Have to ask for help to clean our own

Aah-ah-ah-aah,
Apparently the government gives us all a free car,
And electric wheelchairs and loads of money
The latest computer and a plasma TV
They send lots of people to do all our chores,
To cater every whim and to open doors
We take three holidays every year,
Expenses all paid, free wine and free running beer
And just to make sure that we never feel cold
They insulate our houses with 18carat gold! Hah!!!

Nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation
No, nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation

Nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation
No, nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation

Nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation
No, nothing but blame and recrimination
On the disabled of our nation


Copyright (2011) vests in the writer here known as Rockhorse. The lyrics may be used for non-commercial purposes only but credit must always be given. For any other purpose, please request permission before use.










Monday 14 February 2011

A Valentine's Gift to Current Welfare-To-Work Programme Contractors and Other Stories

Watching "Live Questions to The Work and Pensions Secretary and his Ministers" on BBC Parliament this afternoon I thought I heard Iain Duncan Smith say, in answer to a question from Dame Anne Begg MP, that the bidders for the new (future) Work Programme had been decided. In this I was mistaken as, according to Hansard, it was Chris Grayling speaking and he actually said that:

"...the Work programme bidding process closed this morning, and we have had a substantial number of bids, which is very encouraging. It looks as if the Work programme is going to go ahead according to plan, which is good news." (Question 18, Hansard: HoC 2.30pm 14.11.2011 )

Reading this relieved me of my belief that a decision had been made within hours of the bidding period closing; so, Good Times. Sort of. Since the new contracts for the new Work Programme were, I understood, due to start in April.

What shocked me was what he said next.

"I would also say to the hon. Lady that, shortly before the start of these parliamentary questions, I placed a written statement before the House, giving details of an extension to the welfare-to-work contracts under existing programmes through to next June." 

Shock and horror. That might sound dramatic (and might be so) but I know a few people who are currently making weekly or twice-weekly visits to the offices of at least two of the existing contractors. Those people are actually quite looking forward to the end of March, as the replacement contractors might actually have some idea how to help them find decent training or jobs. Or, indeed, any training or jobs...

And then there is the question of when, exactly, is 'next June'? I've tried but failed to find an online copy of the written statement so no help there. Is it 'the next June due' which would be this June, 2011. Or is it June 2012? I know not. But perhaps the existing staff will no longer be overheard on the telephone to employment agencies seeking new jobs for themselves. Or they'll go and be replaced by people who'll try harder to help those they are meant to be helping. It'd give me a break from a fair amount of the tear-drying, calming-down, making properly constructive suggestions and even setting up of interviews for training or work which I do for my friends and acquaintances. I don't mind doing it, when I have the spoons, but people and organizations are being paid vast sums of money for a "service" they appear incapable of providing. And they get their contracts extended...

In Other News

A great array of questions were asked of the Secretary and his Ministers regarding Work Capability Assessments, DLA, ESA, Universal Credit, the Mobility Component for people living in Residential Care Homes and Special Boarding Schools; all of which makes a full reading of today's report instructive and often jaw-dropping. 

In particular: during Topical Questions (at the end of the session's report) at "T:9" Atos rears its head:

"Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab): Recently, a constituent contacted me regarding his Atos Healthcare assessment. Three specialists had considered him to be unfit for work, yet it was suggested that he could be a bingo caller or a car park attendant. My local citizens advice bureau has identified many such cases which are resolved in favour of the claimant after an expensive review or appeal. Are there any plans to review Atos Healthcare’s delivery of medical assessments?"

Mr Grayling gave an answer but did not answer the question.

This did not surprise me.

Quotations are taken from the Hansard report on the proceedings in the House of Commons, Oral Questions, Work and Pensions at 2.30pm on Monday 14th February 2011 which can be read in full here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/01.htm

There are two pages and some of the questions do not relate to disability or sickness but all make interesting reading and there are some gems in there...





Sunday 13 February 2011

On Revolution

This post started as a quick reply to a contributor on a discussion board who, quite rightly, castigated another contributor for comparing the need for protest here with the situation of Algeria. Like I said, "a quick reply". It sort of got longer so I'm reposting it here (with a couple of minor corrections of spelling and grammar and a few additions which are italicised) because it poured from my heart...


You're correct in that the situation here does not compare to Algeria's current or recent experience. Our last official civil war was hundreds of years ago. But the oppression of vast swathes of the population continued and the struggles, protests and conflicts we've had since The Civil War have just never been officially called Civil War. But people died or were beaten and imprisoned and starved. Brother set against brother, sister against sister, parents, families, neighbours all divided and torn asunder.

Some rights and freedoms were granted 160 years ago because those in power here were terrified that we'd launch a revolution like the French were having just across The Channel  - it's only 26 miles to France by sea... we can see it on a clear day and the refugees and the instigators and the exiles all alike came here and told their stories. And some encouraged the (massive) underclasses here to rebel against the land- and factory- and mine-owners. And some warned the ruling class that they'd better make some improvements and quickly...

It is less than a hundred years since ALL men over the age of 21 were given the right to vote and women over the age of 30... women over 21 didn't get the vote until 1928. My grandparents and great-grandparents took part in the campaigns that helped achieve those rights. They, and then my parents, campaigned and marched and demonstrated for workers' rights. Life as a pacifist during the first and second world wars was hardly a stroll in the park! Then for a proper National Health Service and welfare system. I was taken as a babe-in-arms and then in a push-chair to protest against nuclear weapons and have since joined campaigns and marches against erosions of civil liberties and against wars and discrimination and racism and religious intolerance and so many other wrongs and short-sighted government policies.

We have laws now on equal rights and equal pay but there is still inequality and discrimination. And we see the things that were fought for in our own lifetimes, even very recently, being eroded, smashed, removed. We are being set one-against-the-other, yet again, to try to protect the things that make this country civilised, a safe and secure place to live.

A government 30 years ago took away many of our rights to protest, to congregate! We got those rights back - watered down but back. The freedoms our forebears risked their lives for still have to be protected and fought for again and again and again. Many of the assets and institutions that had been created through struggle were dismantled, sold off, industries decimated, jobs lost. Some few, through struggle and a change of political colour and policy, were revived but most? Lost. Seemingly forever. Many, many people thrown on the scrapheap remained there. Their scrapheap was cushioned, slightly; but many continued to argue, to protest to campaign whether for themselves or for their compatriots.

This continuing struggle for fair and equal treatment and opportunity is why so many of us support and hope for the peoples of Algeria, of Egypt, of Palestine, of Russia yesterday, of everywhere that people are standing up and saying, "WE matter. WE have a right to freedom. WE have a right to self-determination."

We don't know what it's like to live under a "State of Emergency" for thirty years. Under curfews, martial law etc., But we DO know that freedoms and rights won ALWAYS have then to be defended against encroachment. Always have to be protected against those who rise to power. Because even freely-elected representatives of the people STILL lose touch with the 'ordinary' lives and experience of the people they're supposed to represent. ALL the people. Not just their friends. Or people 'like them'.

And because the peoples of so many countries are standing up against MUCH more oppression than we feel, it gives us the strength and the will to remember that it is only when we unite, rather than fracture over save-the-NHS vs. protect the pensions of disabled people vs. save-the-libraries vs. no-university-tuition-fee-rises vs. everything else that is currently being 'reformed' and cut in such heedless, mindless haste, that we will TRULY succeed in saving or rescuing ANY of them.

Peace.

Edits to correct MORE 'misspronts' - blame the medication ;-)

Thursday 3 February 2011

The Long Answer



A comment on a social network site set me thinking. My response threatened, as so often, to turn into an essay so I hurriedly edited it down to a short answer and popped over here to inflict the long answer on my long-suffering readership. Ok, this is only my third post so you’re not literally ‘long-suffering’ (unless you know me personally) but stick around kids... ;-) Here goes:

“...I do not believe this govt can last much longer. They do not have a mandate to do all they are doing. At some point surely the majority of the Lib Dems will have to break away?...”

Oh I do most sincerely hope so! But, from what I see, the LibDems (the Parliamentary bit of the Party) seem to have wedged into their heads the idea that they DO have a mandate because "the country wanted more consensus politics" and that a coalition is exactly what we wanted because we didn't give either main party a clear majority. I don’t remember having the option to vote for “a coalition”, let alone define which parties would form one.

I must have missed the mass public meetings where we-the-voters all got together and worked out how to vote tactically across, what, 650 plus constituencies to ensure that there was no clear majority in the House of Commons. It could have been a secret meeting to which I was not invited :-( So, in spite of the chunterings* of pundits, when I placed my vote it was for the person and party wanted and I fondly hoped that most of the rest of the UK would vote the way I did. (Not for the same person, of course; that way lies dictatorship...)  

They don’t seem to have given any thought to the fact that perhaps there was an even more secret meeting of the electorate at which it was decided that a minority Conservative Government was just the ticket. Properly strong opposition leading to consensus, perhaps? Thus by entering into a coalition they’ve actually upset everyone.           

I think that what a lot of us meant by ‘consensus politics’ was more along the lines of having almost everything decided by free votes rather than under one, two or three line whips. Maybe, say, spending longer debating issues in order to come to a greater understanding and consensus. It would slow down the pace of legislative change but that would not necessarily be a bad thing. Add in ‘all Public Consultations to be widely and fully publicised and then opened for an absolute minimum of thirteen weeks’ so that the we-the-public felt that we were a part of the debate more often than once in a blue moon! Look them up, blue moons, they’re more frequent than you might think... Certainly more frequent than general elections.

Some LibDems probably still fondly imagine that they're preventing, or can prevent, “the worst excesses” of “pure Tory policies”. Most must surely know that if they cause a fresh General Election they'll (a) lose their seats or (b) retain them but lose the trust of the Conservatives and have to work pretty damned hard to regain much trust from Labour.

So, it’s too early to bail out yet. ‘Have to give things a fair chance’. ‘It’s early days yet’. ‘We’re working hard to push our agenda through’. Et cetera. That’ll probably prevail for another fifteen months. Then they can start having ‘some cause for concern’ about ‘the direction our coalition partners are moving in’ before changing it to ‘stance . . . are taking’ later in that year. Before we know it, there’ll be less than two years before the Fixed Term is up and moving to an early election would involve votes of no confidence and untold/unspoken threats to the ‘green shoots of economic recovery’ so better to ‘see it through’ and hope.

Of course, two and a half years from now there might just really be some green shoots for some sectors of the economy and/or the population. By three-and-a-half years into this Parliament an economic boom/bubble might have got underway by some miracle or sleight of hand - again, for some business sectors and selected parts of the population. And they’ll be on such a high that they wo’n’t notice the people who got left behind and will happily vote the Conservatives back in as long as the election happens before the bubble bursts. (Loadsamoney, anyone?)

The LibDems? Ah, well. They were very much the junior partners in the coalition, weren’t they? No real major policies. Bit of tinkering around the edges. Some of it was quite good. Some of them are all right, the ones who didn’t defect. Or implode. Or get erased when the boundaries were redrawn. Or get kicked ‘upstairs’**.

If, though, we’re still in recession/stagflation/depression then, barring a sea-change/coup in the LibDem Party as a whole, they’ve probably had it anyway.

So, unless Cameron, Osborne et al., Inc., steam-roll something though that shocks the Parliamentary Liberal Democrats to their very cores (and I find it hard to imagine quite what that might be) I’m sorry to say that I think we’re stuck for the next four-and-a-quarter years. Not what I’d wish for. Not what I voted for. But my preferred candidate came second. And my party came second but ended up third... Hope they’re ready for next time!

* * * * * * * *

* this can’t be the correct word but it’s the one my brain instructed my fingers to type and I can’t think for the life of me what word it was I was hoping for***...

** or wherever you get kicked ‘up’ to when you’d decided that it was a good idea to rush things through so that a fully elected second chamber would take the place of the House of Lords at the 2015 election...

*** I am ‘enjoying’ some interesting side-effects from a medication which has recently been released into the wild (been approved for a new use). Combined with existing meds it’s, um, very interesting and sometimes highly amusing. To me. Some of the effects are on very short-term memory and co-ordination, such that what I intend is often not what comes out. ‘Neckst’ for ‘next’ is a particular favourite. Proof-reading and correcting this has taken a number of attempts interspersed with randomly falling (‘fawlign’!) asleep - or getting totally distracted - on top of my usual needing to rest, move around, re-groddle my joints etc., But, yay, I finished it!