Monday, April 4, 2011

What Planet Are The Tories On?

Chris Grayling
Today the government is announcing that it plans to assess the half a million people that currently claim Incapacity Benefit, with a view to getting them back to work. On BBC Radio Five Live today I heard a lady called Margaret, who is partially sighted and has no feeling in her left arm, she was left this way after suffering a brain hemorrhage a couple of years ago. Margaret has been assessed in the government's pilot scheme as fit to return to work. She told her story of her assessment the doctor held his fingers up in front of her eyes and asked her how many, she kept telling him she was blind in one eye and she could not see, he ignored her and kept asking her. This lady broke down in tears on the radio and said she had the awful feeling the doctor thought she was lying, she was obviously very distressed. The next person to talk was Tory minister responsible for this reform and what did he say? "We are doing this to help people like Margaret who want to return to work". Chris Grayling may just as well have been  in the same room as the doctor that refused to listen to Margaret and in my opinion neglected his duty and as a physician by not listening to what Margaret was telling him and neither did Chris Grayling. Margaret was NOT saying she wanted to return to work, she obviously finds the whole thing extremely frightening and she is now riddled with anxiousness and feels totally insecure. How is she going to get to work? She obviously cannot drive, can she use public transport adequately with a hemiplegia affecting one side and her arm after her illness? That is doubtful too. How many people like Margaret are going to be taken off of one benefit and put onto another and classed as fit to work unfairly? It is not just a case of putting her onto another benefit, it is also a case that she may lose other benefits that help her with daily living since her illness. It is one thing to get people back to work who want to go and who are actually claiming incapacity benefit incorrectly, it is quite another bullying sick people that already have enough distress to contend with in their lives, not to mention having to cope with a disability. Here is the example of another human being caused terrible anxiety, the case of "Ben". Ben is in his early 20's, he is severely autistic, doubly incontinent and has severe learning disabilities and the mental age of a child and does not speak, in appearance Ben looks like anyone else, Ben has just been classed as fit to work under the government's pilot scheme. Ben now stands l to lose all the benefits that help with his care and help his parents care for him at home.

How many Bens and Margarets and their families are going to be caused immense distress and unnecessary suffering to appease this totally inept minister and his totally inept Tory government and for what reason?

Iain Duncan Smith
Also today Iain Duncan Smith the Tory minister for Work and Pensions has made the glib and general comment that people coming up to retirement age of 65 do not want to retire, they want to carry on working, no doubt some do, but many do not, are they going to be forced to carry on working maybe with failing health issues? Maybe some 65 year olds work on because they have to for financial reasons, but this is not the same as "wanting" to. Iain Duncan Snith lives in a RENT FREE  country mansion, complete with extensive grounds, swimming pools and tennis courts.

Apart from all of this, can this Conservative government who are in the middle of radically reforming everything in sight, from privatising the NHS to pensions, to welfare, to education to the police and sacking nearly all our armed forces and whose policies are causing soaring inflation  and escalating unemployment actually tell us where all the jobs are going to come from to employ all these people they are bullying and shoving around like cattle? This Government are making hundreds of thousand redundant from the public sector, yet it is the public sector that was the largest equal opportunities employer, if an elderly or severely disabled person is going to find work, then it would probably be within the public sector, how can they now if those jobs have been destroyed by this government and other companies that employ disabled people are not employing or laying off or going out of business?

I would like to know where all the companies are that are going to hire disabled people and go to the expense of providing adequate facilities for them, from access to hygiene to the specialist chairs they may require to sit on. Will these employers not mind when disabled people may suddenly feel unwell and have to go home of find a place to rest  until they regain their strength not to mention their composure? Will employers not mind the sometimes erratic life of how a disabled person or chronically sick person's health can fluctuate often from hour to hour? Can the Government guarantee that employers will not get angry with a disabled person when for the 6th week running has had to take time off from work because of ill health or doctors or hospital appointments?

All that withstanding, just where with unemployment currently at 2.53 million and rising rapidly are the jobs to employ over half million extra people hitting the workplace all being forced to look for work? And where are the employers all falling over themselves to offer jobs to the long term unemployed, chronically sick and disabled?

Once again this government is found wanting and has not thought a policy through yet is forcing it through without understanding the problems it is creating. Once again they are found arrogantly bullying people and are refusing to listen to concerns from disabled groups.

I have noticed something else about this arrogant government, everytime they get into difficulties they attack people who cannot fight back, people such as the long term unemployed, those on incapacity benefit and those on disability living allowances etc. They make comparisons between able people fit for work and set them against others who are not working through no fault of their own.

Bullying...Bullying....Bullying!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

They've been bulling me for years Gracie the DWP i thought it was just me but now it seams they have started on others which is criminal i think

It is not nice at all and i have two care workers one for my care and one mental for my state of mind as i have been abused as i say for years by the DWP

It gets so bad at times the police are called as we get in to a battles of words down the phone and the police have to come round to make sure I'm still around and then all is quite for a few weeks then it all starts up again

I don't know what the answer is and pray to god that he will and come and rescue me

It will be a fight to the death I'm sure but am very week now and maybe the £200 per week i get is not worth the fight any longer

My health team are excellent so is my mp but sometimes it gets so complicated and there maybe no way out from this madhouse of a country

Gracie Samuels said...

There is always a way Fourbanks, easy for me to say I know. Things get tough you have your care workers to talk to. You just have to keep plodding on like the rest of us, we don't really have a choice. Do you see the useless government have announced a 3 month listening process for the NHS? Idiots, well they should listen to this, "leave the bloody NHS alone" they should no touch it, they are not capable. This government have caused nothing but chaos and confusion. They are going to put peoples lives in danger.
See you have to stay around to help us fight the bastards! We have to make them scrap the reforms not just pretend to listen, how can they anyway? The Tories all have cloth ears!

Anonymous said...

Your doing a grand job Gracie and am indeed very grateful and hope over time i will be able to contribute in a more constructive way but at this particular time it is difficult for me as the DWP have just stopped £100 per week from my benefit saying they have been paying me to much over the pass two years and i owe them £5500 back

My mp is on the case and is finding the process most complicated but will let you know how it goes

Personally i think it's a tactic and will leave people short for a long period of time so if anyone gets a letter saying they have received to much the chances are you haven't and to contact your mp who will assist in getting it back i hope ?

Gracie Samuels said...

I am so sorry to hear that, this must be awful, you are an innocent victim of a cock-up. I don't know your circumstances, but I have no idea how they expect anyone to live on a £100 per week, it is impossible. At least it sounds like you have a good MP so that is something, I hope it all gets worked out and soon, you can do without all this nonsense. Meanwhile keep checking back here you don't have to do anything, just be pleased to have you aboard. :0)

Anonymous said...

The overpayment came about Gracie because my wife's earning rose from £65 per week to £90 per week for the 15 hours she works as I had been claiming the adult dependent on my incapacity benefit of £54 per week in which it should have not been paid on that particular benefit

My wife should have been claiming £54 per week carers allowance instead hence the overpayment of which we now have to try to get back

My conservative MP is very good I feel as he does show he cares and is a pity the prime minister can't follow in his steps
David Cameron judgment is very poor and from oxford it's hard to believe he acts as if he knows nothing at all and the tragedy is what does it say about his wife's judgment in living with a man who doesn't show any caring qualities at all but disrespect to the disadvantaged / Disabled and ill?
David Cameron and co are to the sick and disabled what the BNP party are to immigrant's just one of hate and loathing

Gracie Samuels said...

I am glad you have a good MP, that can make all the difference. If you have to pay this back I hope they allow it at a decent rate. It makes me angry to see people like you and your wife victimised and made to pay back when so obviously it was a mistake, yet on the other hand we have George Osborne allowing his friend at Vodafone off without paying the £6 billion Vodafone owes the Treasury, it is so unfair.

Anonymous said...

And this speech from Dr martin Luther king is still very relevant today i feel especially for the sick and disabled

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

Anonymous said...

What depresses me is Ed Milliband said he supports the tory persecution of the sick and disabled.

The ruling class want us to go and die in a corner quietly.

Gracie Samuels said...

He did not say that Anonymous.

Anonymous said...

Edward Miliband: "Let me turn to the issue of benefits and say to the Prime Minister that we will work with him on his reforms to disability living allowance and to sickness benefits, because they are important reforms and they need to be done."


He did not say it in those words but that sounds like support to me :(. That quote from his first Prime ministers questions, I remember thinking Et tu Brutus? I was very disappointed.

It was Labour that first started the persecution of the sick and disabled with Atos.

Gracie Samuels said...

He did not say it in those words, perhaps then it is time to stop putting words into his mouth and making a bad situation worse? Look I know what the Labour party did about Atos and I am not in favour and will not defend it. However, I think it is a mistake to expect Miliband to keep coming out and opposing every cut, he can't, if he does this he will not have any credibility. The benefits for the disabled do need reforming, BUT reforming should not mean saving money, it should mean the right benefits getting to the right people and this is the way I feel Labour under Ed Miliband will go given half the chance. Labour got some things wrong, I am no way defending that, but they are the only hope we have, there is no other credible party in a position to help. I see you used Edward instead of Ed, this is the latest Tory troll trick and it makes me suspicipous of your real intent.

By the way I am not Ed Miliband's keeper and just because I support labour does not mean I agree with everything they say and do, never have and never will. I will continue to fight for the rights of disabled people, no doubt you have heard of Diary of a Benefit Scrounger"? If not type it into Google or follow the link in the sidebar, Sue Marsh is on the case, why not join her?

Anonymous said...

The quote I used said Edward because I copied and pasted it directly from the number 10 websites record of Prime Ministers question time and they use full names there, I wasn't aware the tory trolls use it. You're right I shouldn't have put words in his mouth.

LOL at the thought of me being a Tory I'm a Democratic Socialist opposed to everything they stand for.

Why do the benefits for the disabled need reforming? and in what way? I feel like Miliband was pandering to the Daily Bale and the Sun to prove he isn't "Red Ed" by saying he supports Cameron's "reforms". Camerons "reforms" are disgusting, unfair and barbaric.

If Ed can't oppose every cut to stay "credible" why choose to support the one that hurts the most weak and vulnerable in society!? Surely that is the one set of cuts that should be non-negotiable about opposing!

I was stunned and disgusted when I heard him support it and he lost my vote that day, I don't trust him anymore and I suspect he will swing to the right as soon as he gets into power like Clegg and Obama did.

Finally, I already post at sue's, I found you through her blog.