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Post by ceefer on Jul 16, 2015 18:10:46 GMT
Add to that a pay increase of 1 % capped for 4 years - am i expected to say thanks Dave!
Compared to a 10% rise for MP's
Nothing short of scandalous
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Post by gazz on Aug 27, 2015 18:05:49 GMT
Thousands have died soon after being found ‘fit to work’ by the DWP’s benefit tests:Thousands of people have died within six weeks of being found ‘fit to work’ by the Government’s disability benefits test, departmental figures show.
The Department for Work and Pensions battled for months not to release the numbers, with its chief minister Iain Duncan Smith at one point telling Parliament they did not exist.
But the statistics, released on the order of the Government’s transparency watchdog, show that between December 2011 and February 2014, 2,380 people died after their Work Capability Assessment told them they should start looking for work.
The figures related to claims for the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) benefit as well as IB/SDA.
The DWP’s mortality report says that a causal effect cannot be assumed from the new numbers.
“These isolated figures provide limited scope for analysis and nothing can be gained from this publication that would allow the reader to form any judgement as to the effects or impacts of the Work Capability Assessment,” it says.
The DWP, which is responsible for the benefits system, initially rejected a freedom of information request by campaigning journalist Mike Sivier on the grounds that it would publish them in future.
But Mr Sivier won an appeal to the Information Commissioner (ICO), an official body which judges whether government departments are acting in a fully transparent way.
The ICO said the Government had no good reason to withhold the figures.
Mr Duncan Smith later caused confusion when he told Labour MP Debbie Abraham in Parliament: “She knows very well that the department does not collate numbers on people in that circumstance.”
The figures were released this morning.
Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the PCS union, which represents civil servants, said the work capability assessment should be scrapped.
"What lies behind these figures is a cruel climate generated by some politicians and sections of the media that seeks to demonise those in need and undermine public confidence in our welfare state," he said.
"The government should listen to the very real fears of sick and disabled claimants that its policies are making matters worse, not better, and it should not have taken freedom of information requests to uncover these statistics.
"The wholly privatised work capability assessment is clearly unfair and unsuitable and should be scrapped, with jobcentres given the proper resources to provide the support sick and disabled people need and deserve."
In 2012 a government advisor appointed to review the Government’s Work Capability Assessment said the tests were causing suffering by sending sick people back to work inappropriately.
“There are certainly areas where it's still not working and I am sorry there are people going through a system which I think still needs improvement,” Professor Malcolm Harrington concluded.
The tests are said to have improved since then, but as recently as this summer they are still coming in for criticism.Source article
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Post by ceefer on Aug 27, 2015 18:07:19 GMT
Add to that a pay increase of 1 % capped for 4 years - am i expected to say thanks Dave! Compared to a 10% rise for MP's Nothing short of scandalous Am I allowed to quote myself. Believe some may now not even get the 1%...
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Post by ceefer on Aug 27, 2015 18:09:10 GMT
Thousands have died soon after being found ‘fit to work’ by the DWP’s benefit tests:Thousands of people have died within six weeks of being found ‘fit to work’ by the Government’s disability benefits test, departmental figures show.
The Department for Work and Pensions battled for months not to release the numbers, with its chief minister Iain Duncan Smith at one point telling Parliament they did not exist.
But the statistics, released on the order of the Government’s transparency watchdog, show that between December 2011 and February 2014, 2,380 people died after their Work Capability Assessment told them they should start looking for work.
The figures related to claims for the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) benefit as well as IB/SDA.
The DWP’s mortality report says that a causal effect cannot be assumed from the new numbers.
“These isolated figures provide limited scope for analysis and nothing can be gained from this publication that would allow the reader to form any judgement as to the effects or impacts of the Work Capability Assessment,” it says.
The DWP, which is responsible for the benefits system, initially rejected a freedom of information request by campaigning journalist Mike Sivier on the grounds that it would publish them in future.
But Mr Sivier won an appeal to the Information Commissioner (ICO), an official body which judges whether government departments are acting in a fully transparent way.
The ICO said the Government had no good reason to withhold the figures.
Mr Duncan Smith later caused confusion when he told Labour MP Debbie Abraham in Parliament: “She knows very well that the department does not collate numbers on people in that circumstance.”
The figures were released this morning.
Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the PCS union, which represents civil servants, said the work capability assessment should be scrapped.
"What lies behind these figures is a cruel climate generated by some politicians and sections of the media that seeks to demonise those in need and undermine public confidence in our welfare state," he said.
"The government should listen to the very real fears of sick and disabled claimants that its policies are making matters worse, not better, and it should not have taken freedom of information requests to uncover these statistics.
"The wholly privatised work capability assessment is clearly unfair and unsuitable and should be scrapped, with jobcentres given the proper resources to provide the support sick and disabled people need and deserve."
In 2012 a government advisor appointed to review the Government’s Work Capability Assessment said the tests were causing suffering by sending sick people back to work inappropriately.
“There are certainly areas where it's still not working and I am sorry there are people going through a system which I think still needs improvement,” Professor Malcolm Harrington concluded.
The tests are said to have improved since then, but as recently as this summer they are still coming in for criticism.Source article I suppose the question is, were these people ever alive in the first place?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 13:27:25 GMT
Thousands have died soon after being found ‘fit to work’ by the DWP’s benefit tests: Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the PCS union, which represents civil servants, said the work capability assessment should be scrapped.
This would be the same Mark Serwotka who has just been told by the Labour Party that his vote for Jeremy Corbyn has been disallowed because "his views aren't representative of the Labour Party" You couldn't make it up, really you couldn't.
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Post by gazz on Aug 28, 2015 14:02:33 GMT
Thousands have died soon after being found ‘fit to work’ by the DWP’s benefit tests: Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the PCS union, which represents civil servants, said the work capability assessment should be scrapped.
This would be the same Mark Serwotka who has just been told by the Labour Party that his vote for Jeremy Corbyn has been disallowed because "his views aren't representative of the Labour Party" You couldn't make it up, really you couldn't. The Labour Party aren't just a rudderless ship, they're a flagless one too. They can't even be clear what they stand for right now, they've completely lost touch with their core values. I don't understand this demonisation of Corbyn, although hardly an election winning leader, he would give the party a solid, identifiable foundation. Right now with the mess they're in, I can't see them winning a single seat back. Sometimes you have to go back to start moving forward, and right now that's what Labour need to do - with Jeremy Corbyn.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 14:26:58 GMT
What strikes me most mate is that the current leadership contenders are now so remote from so many in this country that they genuinely don't understand why Corbyn is apparently so popular. They seem to be utterly divorced from my realities which are renting a house due to not being able to afford a mortgage due to a vastly overinflated property market with a son who is about to take on 10's of 000's of £'s of debt because he wants to take a degree and working long hours in the woefully inefficient manufacturing sector which has suffered years of underinvestment. On top of that I've come over from home to see my father having paid through the nose to travel in an ancient railway carriage in which the toilet didn't work on tracks that are so far from parallel it was rocking and rolling so badly it was spilling pi$$ all over the floor, and that is just for starters.
Given that lot I'm confronted with the sharp suited and permatanned Scouser Burnham, a professional politician who I doubt has done a decent days work in his life, Cooper who appears to have little interest in me due to my being male, white and working class and Kendall who believes in God alone knows what. The bloody lot of them couldn't drag me out of a collapsing building to vote for them!
Apologies, rant over lol
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Post by gazz on Aug 28, 2015 15:15:49 GMT
What strikes me most mate is that the current leadership contenders are now so remote from so many in this country that they genuinely don't understand why Corbyn is apparently so popular.
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Post by ceefer on Aug 28, 2015 16:14:28 GMT
What strikes me most mate is that the current leadership contenders are now so remote from so many in this country that they genuinely don't understand why Corbyn is apparently so popular. They seem to be utterly divorced from my realities which are renting a house due to not being able to afford a mortgage due to a vastly overinflated property market with a son who is about to take on 10's of 000's of £'s of debt because he wants to take a degree and working long hours in the woefully inefficient manufacturing sector which has suffered years of underinvestment. On top of that I've come over from home to see my father having paid through the nose to travel in an ancient railway carriage in which the toilet didn't work on tracks that are so far from parallel it was rocking and rolling so badly it was spilling pi$$ all over the floor, and that is just for starters.
Given that lot I'm confronted with the sharp suited and permatanned Scouser Burnham, a professional politician who I doubt has done a decent days work in his life, Cooper who appears to have little interest in me due to my being male, white and working class and Kendall who believes in God alone knows what. The bloody lot of them couldn't drag me out of a collapsing building to vote for them!
Apologies, rant over lol The only one with anything about them is Corbyn so its no wonder he's out in front. A Leader has to have an aura, attract people to believe in what they are saying. Burnham, Cooper and Kendal do absolutley nothing for me. I fear for the future of Labour if this is the best they can trot out.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 19:11:25 GMT
The only one with anything about them is Corbyn so its no wonder he's out in front.
A Leader has to have an aura, attract people to believe in what they are saying. Burnham, Cooper and Kendal do absolutley nothing for me.
I fear for the future of Labour if this is the best they can trot out.
Couldn't agree more. They might as well pack up and go home. Unfortunately Corbyn will be slaughtered by the press and the Labour Party will be as good as done. Not to worry though, those born to rule will find themselves elevated to the Lords where they can continue their shameless devotion to money and privilege and the rest of us can go f..........
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Post by ceefer on Aug 29, 2015 12:04:09 GMT
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Post by gazz on Aug 29, 2015 12:38:09 GMT
Their media partner is also taking the piss this week: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34093597Poisonous organisation, and an insult to all those victims of the hacking scandal. I wonder how long it will be before Coulson is invited back to Number 10?
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Sept 22, 2015 16:05:05 GMT
It may have been dead throughout the initiation-ordeal with our PM, but it's still the pig I feel sorry for! Good article here about the sordid revelation currently... erm, hogging the front pages: theleveller.org/2015/09/british-really-laughing/
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Post by another_ruined_saturday on Sept 22, 2015 18:09:29 GMT
i actually hadn't seen this story at all. an utterly horrifying article. cheers for posting macca. i think...
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Post by sandbachhatter on Sept 22, 2015 18:59:25 GMT
"Look, it was an incident that happened a long time ago and was, at the time, just intended to be a bit of a laugh. It's not something I'm proud of, as it has brought shame and embarrassment on my family, and engaging in such disgusting sexual acts with a hideous beast is a dark part of my past that will haunt me forever."
The pig was quoted as saying.
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