Cutting Benefit deaths

I agree that the UN investigation is important Jenand FarNorth but can they actually do anything. I somehow don't think this government will be shamed by anything they say.

Don't give up yet. we now have a leader of the opposition who is going to oppose the Tory welfare cuts.
He's only been in the job a week.
We have to make sure we stay in the EU and Cameron does not get rid of Human Rights. You can see why he wants to.

Cameron supports IDS.

politicalscrapbook.net/2015/09/cameron-defends-iain-duncan-smith-over-benefit-claimant-deaths/

A copy of his letter to Debbie Abrahams.

welfaretales.wordpress.com/2015/09/19/his-diabetic-mother-was-found-dead-in-her-home-after-being-sanctioned-for-being-in-hospital-with-heart-problems/

More stories like this on welfaretales.

Just watched Mock the Week, where they were joking about Cameron saying that Corbyn was a threat to your family's security. It was funny, but somehow I couldn't laugh at it.

Gracesgran, this is a link to the UN inspection, and what they are actually going to look into.

dpac.uk.net/2015/08/dpac-triggers-un-inquiry-into-grave-and-systematic-violations-of-disabled-peoples-rights/

It is so sad that the sickness benefit scheme was abused by many who were fit for work for so long and this has now led to this sorry state of affairs where the really needy are having to jump through hoops to prove their genuine need.
No tax payer wants to see the needy deprived, but most do not want to see their earnings being deducted to support those who realistically can and should support themselves.
I have worked with people dying of cancer who came into work until weeks before their deaths and I have knowledge of some who have feigned illness and bragged about it for years and I can tell you these people know every trick in the book and have a sense of entitlement and no shame.

I read the protocol Jen but I cannot see that they can do more than make a statement to the effect that the UK has broken it. I cannot imagine they can do anything else to a sovereign state and nor can I imagine that this government would care two hoots or stop what they are doing but it will, at least, alert others to how extreme this seems to the rest of Europe.

The interesting thing will be if they make a long statement about what the government has done wrong, Gracesgran, and then Cameron tells them to get lost.
He will no longer be able to pretend that the EU is a threat to the UK.

Even if there are large numbers of people who have been defrauding the system, it is completely unreasonable to treat genuine claimants in the way that the DWP has been doing.
It only takes a swift bit of online research to find out that assessments are not being done properly, leading to benefits being denied to people who genuinely need them, and that sanctions are being applied for very minor reasons.
If the government's only concern is to make sure that benefits are not fraudulently claimed, it could easily organise a system to do that without the cruelty that is going on at the moment.

"A report published by Citizens UK recently noted that:

An estimated 5.24 million people in the UK are employed on less than the living wage. Many low-waged workers are in receipt of benefits and tax credits, policy tools used to top up their incomes [and are] criticised in popular media and policy circles.

The calculation of the public subsidy is a new way to think about low pay. In effect it is low paying employers who are subsidised by state payments to their employees without which they would be unable to meet their basic needs and continue to work for low wages.

In other words this is nothing more than corporate welfare on a grand scale which costs the tax payer a gigantic £11bn a year. To put this into context benefit fraud is £1bn. Companies, in effect, have no incentive at all to pay decent wages when they know for certain that the State will (for now) pick up the tab through benefit payments."

Is this benefit fraud by employers? Like you say, Farnorth, there do not appear to be as many benefit fraudsters as suggested. Does the DWP defraud people by not telling them about all the benefit unclaimed?