Rees Mogg has a "conversation&q uot; with unemployed youth worker

Oh Miss A, why do people make a dreadful, stressful situation worse, how do they sleep at night? We are slowly rapidly heading back to the poor house and parish relief where claimants will be assessed by the great and good to see if they are deserving or not. Why on earth do people keep voting for more of the same?

It doesn't take much to have compassion does it? I often think think people in this country care more about animals than they do about people.

It is, and it's all the worse when someone is so very ill and suffering, and is treated like a waste of space by unkind staff.

MissA

What a pernicious system.

oh MissA

I also have a tale of my daughter's treatment by job centre staff when she was so, so poorly with cancer.
I can't even bring myself to write it down.
I have to keep it locked away in a box in my head.

I had to help my child gravely ill with cancer to complete paperwork and take a telephone assessment. The person on the end of the line was exceptionally rude - so much so that despite being too overwhelmed with their illness I found the strength to make a complaint and asked for the transcript of the call to be made available to me. (They said all calls were recorded). Surprise surprise, no recording was available.
I’ve never claimed unemployment benefit in my life and I can honestly say the way I was treated as the advocate for my family member was offensive. I regret not pursuing it further to prevent it happening to anybody else but I was so wrapped up in caring for my child I hadn’t got the energy.

JaneJudge

lazy man with bowel cancer, just using it as an excuse to enjoy the job centre facilities

Just looking for a hand out from tax payers according to some here on GN. Where do they find these staff? This could be any one of us FFS.

lazy man with bowel cancer, just using it as an excuse to enjoy the job centre facilities

Yeah it was just a joke.
The man with bowel cancer has no sense of humour.

Oh yes, it was just a bit of banter wasn't it and there actually was a toilet but they made up the excuse it was out of order?

If you are going to call people who are ill and disabled for fit for work assessments, I guess most of them would need an accessible toilet ffs

I read the article after it, too, about the man waiting for a bowel cancer op being told to use the bucket they kept out the back for claimants.

Bloody hell.

I thought this might be of interest

It actually is not as straightforward as not needing to claim it. If you don't claim it it means access to appropriate services are cut off too.

The problem is the old system of assessing sickness and disability was full of holes - we just filled out the Income Support form and my husband would go to the local assessment centre to have a chat with a doctor about it (and I do mean a doctor not a so-called "healthcare professional"). It was, to be fair, incredibly easy under that system to get signed off as sick or disabled. And, obviously, some people took advantage of that to make false claims.

The current Work Capability Assessment obviously goes too far in the other direction, albeit having been improved a little over the last few years. My husband's first assessment under WCA was really adverserial - the woman was hostile and talking over him, I was fuming and said I'd report her to ATOS (who were the useless shower of shite doing the assessment back then). We appealed, got help from Citizens Advice Bureau (they couldn't represent us, too short notice, but were really helpful in navigating the pernicious form that needs to filled out), and on appeal got him into the work related activity group. His condition had worsened by then but the tribunal said they could only take account of what his condition was at the time of his original assessment. The tribunal was far better than expected - they asked the right questions and were polite and encouraging.

Next time around I was fully prepared and he was immediately put into the support group for ESA and, as I said earlier, they even paid for us a taxi home. It shouldn't be this way but unfortunately it is necessary to work within the system we have at the moment. I get so angry about people (like my husband) with incurable conditions that are only ever going to get worse being asked to go through this crap every 2-3 years - but it is what it is, all we can do is campaign for further change and deal with what is in front of us.

PIP isn't means tested. It's for extra expenses you might have, because of a disability.
So Alex Brooker can claim it if he wants to.

"The Last Leg" tonight showed the video of the disabled man shouting at JRM. As someone else said, I thought that his disability made speaking clearly difficult and that he was shouting partly because he was passionate and partly to make himself heard. It was distressing to hear him.

Alex Brooker, one of the regular panelists spoke about the time when he had to apply for PIP. It is obvious that he has permanent disabilities - he was born with hand and arm deformities and a twisted leg which was amputated when he was a baby. Despite letters from his doctor he still had to go for the first assessment and for subsequent ones to see if there'd been any improvement! As he said his arms and hands aren't going to get any bigger.

Alex Brooker is now a comedian and has been on The Last Leg from the first show during the 2012 Paralympics so I imagine he doesn't need (or get) PIP anymore.

actually they tried to get people over who were severely disabled too but without the severe element imposed so they could save money. Ay thay wonderful

PIP is a different benefit though. Income support was generally used for people who were not disabled and yes ESA should have been looked at in the meantime, instead they tried to get people over to universal credit who were not severely disabled so they recoup some of the UC benefit

Actually Tony Blair left office in May 2007, and the workplace capability assessment came into force in October 2008. However, the Tories have been in power for 11 years, so they have had plenty of time to hone it to perfection.

Saetana

Please stop blaming the Conservatives - it was Tony Blair who introduced the "work capability assessment", its actually been improved (somewhat, although not enough) in recent years due to the high number of clients winning their appeals.

If my daughter IS called it is waste of all taxpayers money. She doesn't have mental capacity
every three months we have to get a letter off the GP and that wastes time of the job centre staff which then gets passed onto DWP staff
WHAT IS THE POINT?

Pip was introduced in 2013

But they have to appeal first?

Please stop blaming the Conservatives - it was Tony Blair who introduced the "work capability assessment", its actually been improved (somewhat, although not enough) in recent years due to the high number of clients winning their appeals.