Cutting Benefit deaths

"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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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/

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.

Cameron supports IDS.

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

A copy of his letter to Debbie Abrahams.

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.

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.

"Last year a group of UN poverty "ambassadors" attacked Britain's welfare reforms. And in 2013, the UN's controversial Brazilian housing "rapporteur" Raquel Rolnik criticised cuts to housing benefit. "

What is the point of the UN investigating, saying it's all terrible, then nothing changes?

Something else that hasn't been picked up.

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/teenager-killed-himself-hours-after-wonga-cleared-out-his-bank-account/

Disability News Service only found out about it last week.
What else has been hidden as far as mental health issues are concerned?
Why was an 18 year old who had just come out of care allowed to take out loans with Wonga?
At least Wonga has tried to clean up its act now.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3216438/Now-meddling-sends-lawyer-Britain-probe-benefits-reforms-violate-human-rights-disabled.html

This is more important to the Daily Mail, Gracesgran. Can't have the EU telling the DWP what to do.

Quite horrifying that this has not been picked up by other paper Jen.

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/coroners-ground-breaking-verdict-suicide-was-triggered-by-fit-for-work-test/

Just been sent an email about this. How are the government going to respond?

Well done Alea. I just worry so much for people who don't have anyone to shout out for them. Yours is a victory over the inhumanity of the system and we should celebrate it.

Tell me about it!(I actually hate that phrase!)
3 years ago DH had just won his Tribunal appeal against having his ESA stopped because he has a life limiting illness which cannot be cured or treated by any conventional therapy and is, frankly, terminal, when within the week he began a 3 month stay in 3 different hospitals with a series of infections which they couldn't sort. Another letter from ATOS arrived when he was flat on his back, needing full nursing and personal care and hooked up to IV antibiotics.
It was not without some satisfaction that I filled in on his behalf (couldn't write either) the wretched form that is meant to assess how "fit" you are for work (unable to walk across a 4bed ward, in his case) and rang the DWP office to tell them what I thought.

We never heard from them again.

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/confirmed-un-is-investigating-uks-grave-violations-of-disabled-peoples-rights/

More good news.

It's so depressing Jen. I don't know what will stop them.

Law students trying to sort out the mess in the DWP while at the same time judges are resigning because of the mess in the courts.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/criminal-courts-charge-mass-resignations-amid-judicial-revolt-against-extremely-unfair-fees-10492130.html

We have another 4.5 years of this!

socialaction2014.wordpress.com/2015/09/09/the-dwp-is-now-largely-being-held-to-account-not-by-opposition-politicians-not-by-well-funded-charities-such-as-disability-rights-uk-but-by-activists-with-virtually-no-income/

This is interesting. Not just about the welfare bill and IDS, but Osborne as well.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-deficit-is-just-a-smokescreen-for-a-tory-attack-on-the-state-former-civil-service-head-says-10491761.html

What I's like to know is why did he take so long to say so.

I would not be surprised if he thinks various sections of society are "different". He is a thoroughly unpleasant human being.

I watched IDS yesterday, before the speech by Cameron, on the welfare bill.
He upset disabled people. I wonder if that was his intention.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/08/iain-duncan-smith-disability-normal-commons

I agree, Gracesgran.
Wouldn't it be good if someone who did vote for the government could actually explain this.