Nearly a Third of Working Age People to be Under Harsh DWP Sanctioning Regime When Universal Credit Comes In!!!

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/about_us/media_centre/news_archive/universal_credit_-_the_next.aspx
12 million people to be moved to Universal Credit by 2017

Working age population of the UK is 38 million http://www.agediscrimination.info/statistics/Pages/CurrentUKpopulation.aspx

This means that nearly one third of working age people will be subject to the harsh benefit sanction regime that is currently in place for those claiming JSA.!!

Under current conditions those claiming JSA can be sanctioned by withdrawal of their benefits for various periods of time varying from 4 weeks to 3 years. 

When UC is rolled out then those in part time and low paid work will be subject to the sanctions regime and will be sanctioned ie have their benefits withdrawn if they do not comply with job search, applications etc.  This will come as a cruel shock to many people in low paid and part time work as they will be unaware that you can be sanctioned for such minor indiscretions as turning up late for an appointment or eg failing to comply for a job that the dwp tells you to which requires you to drive, when you have never passed your driving test so used your discretion.  You must follow orders no matter how ludicrous or expect to be sanctioned.

There is a High Chance That Cameron and Osborne Engage in Inappropriate Sexual Activity With Horses

In the recent media it has come to my attention that both Osborne and Cameron are equating the fact that Philpott committed manslaughter on 6 children - with the fact that he was on welfare!!! Therefore the welfare state needs to be reformed!!!

Using the same theory of Logistics - Catherine the Great of Russia engaged in sexual activities with her horse whilst she was a leader in power.

Currently George Osborne and David Cameron are leaders in positions of power who both own horses

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/georgeosborne/9729139/George-Osborne-bought-paddock-with-taxpayers-money.html

Therefore it must be highly likely that they may well be engaged in sexual activity with these horses.

The conclusion being that all rich leaders should be barred from owning or riding horses so as to avoid any possibilities of them committing acts of bestiality.

Only someone with half a brain could think that any amount of logic was used in either of these scenarios and therefore I must come to the only valid conclusion in the whole of this blog.

Cameron and Osborne do not have half a brain between them.

Bedroom Tax, Homelessness and The Extra Costs

Housing benefit for a 3 bedroom house in Manchester is on average  £127per week.  The Cost of B&B for a family that has lost their home because of bedroom tax is £650 per week

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/18/illegal-use-bandbs-house-homeless …

As can be seen from this article – B&B costs have already spiralled by 800% due to the changes in Local housing allowance, which have resulted in many people becoming homeless. 

There is also the hidden side of the homeless where people can end up on the streets as local authorities do not have a duty to house single people or couples without children.

This is all before the governments ‘bedroom tax’ comes into force.  This tax will result in many people getting into arrears and those whom are families may well be evicted and have to be re homed at far greater expense.

Again there will be the hidden side of more single people and childless couples being affected who will become homeless and not be rehoused.

The bedroom tax will exacerbate what is already an overused service to rehouse homeless families and there will be a lot more people homeless and on the streets – This is a tragedy waiting to happen.

Please join the demonstrations across the country and help campaign against the bedroom tax.

Message for ATOS

To the ATOS workers who deliver the work capability assessments.  After watching the Dispatches programme on Channel 4, well actually before that but the definitive proof and truth emerged during the documentary.  You do realise that you are taking part in real world version of the Milgram experiment.

The Milgram experiment 'on obedience to authority figures' - It measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.

You get crisis every so often due to the job, at least I do (atos trainer) Dispatches. I would say this quote shows that the people carrying out the work capability assessments get crisis of conscience from the work they are carrying out.

Miligram designed this experiment to try and find out why so many people in Nazi germany, post war, were using the defence that they were 'just following orders'.

The experiment was set up so volunteers were asked to give 'students who were in fact actors' stronger and stronger electric shocks if they kept on getting a set of answers wrong.  The volunteers were prompted by an authority figure if they questioned the 'authority figure' with regard to them increasing and administering the electric shocks.

Atos assessor Dispatches ‘Ive recently had somebody with prostate cancer but of course that’s not traditionally treated with chemotherapy – so I gave him no points and I couldn’t do anything else – it’s the same with breast cancer – the hormonal treatments don’t count – so he was given no points – I felt very uncomfortable doing it I didn’t like doing it but I had no way of scoring him.'

Most volunteers continued after administering stronger and strong electcri shocks in the Milgram experiment after they had been assured that they would not be held responsible.

Again I return to quotes from the Dispatches programme so you can compare the 'experiments'

(Atos Trainer) always emphasis that the final decision comes from the descision makers at the dwp – just to push the kind of guilt from yourself – the dwp agrees with atos 94% of the time

(Atos Trainer) good thing for us is that even if you make the wrong decision – you don’t see x-rays – you don’t see ECG you just only see the person – so you can be wrong but you never go to the tribunal – this is the good thing – you never go to the tribunal. So sort of, you won’t be blamed.

As can be seen from just a quick comparison between these 2 'experiments' there are extremely obvious similarities the only difference being that in the Milgram experiments the 'students' receiving the electric shocks were in fact actors.  In the ATOS/WCA/DWP 'experiments' the people suffering and dieing are real people.  They could be your brother, your sister, your neighbour, your cousin, your children.

Sources http:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide/series-117/episode-1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

              

Weathermen to Run Economy

Due to the weather interfering with the economy on a regular basis George Osborne has decided to bring in the weathermen to help him factor the weather into the budget.

At a time when harsh winters and cold summer  are having a huge impact and making the economy lurch into a downward trend it has been decided to bring in the weather experts and perhaps even try to alter the weather as this could have a dramatic effect on the economy and solve the defecit problems all in one fell swoop!!

George Osborne has decided that Michael Fish would be ideal in this role as he is as good with his weather predictions as George is with the economy,

Welfare Reform Bill - Screws the Sick and Disabled and Many More

I was struck yesterday by the speech made by Jennifer Willet - who along with the majority of her liberal democrat colleagues - sold us out.

Unless the woman doesnt know her job - she lied through the whole of her speech in parliament yesterday.

Taking the facts concerning ESA and how its supposed to work.

1. Proffessor Harrington told the select commitee that he did not see the need for the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to have any relevance to a real job in the real world.

2.  This means people being found fit for some kind of work (which doesnt mean real life work) are being placed onto JSA - many of these people will never realistically be able to work

3. The ESA (WRAG) group is supposed to be for people who at some point in the future will be able to work - many people in this group have deteriorative conditions ie they are not going to get any better and the chances are they will get worse - so once again will never be realistically able to work - this is the group who now after 1 year are expected to miraculously get better.

4.  The ESA (Support group) this is supposed to be the group who will probably never be able to work again.  However, in the main, the people being put into this group are people with only 6 months to live.

There is a thread running through this - people who are unfit for work are being placed in all 3 groups, people who in reality will never get a job in their lives are being found fit for work or capable of returning to work at some point in the future!!

There have been 31 people who have been found fit for work - who within weeks of being pronounced thus, have died from the very condition which they were claiming for!!

How can Jennifer Willet have been reassured that the word of Professor Harrington had reassured her that this policy regarding time limiting cESA was fair as the correct people were beginning to be put into the support group - when the whole test is set up on a false premise!!! When people arnt even getting on ESA to start with who are terminally ill and have weeks or less to live!!

She reassured her fellow lib-dem MP's that it was safe to overturn the Lords amendment as the WCA test was fair and safe!!! And this was despite the libdem membership voting expressly against it at their party conference and placing that in their manifesto.

I am ashamed and disgusted with the majority of parliament and the majority of the media.

The other amendments that were overturned I am also extremely angry about - in fact the majority of the bill is the most inhumane peice of legislation ever written!

Between 0.00335% and 0.0134% of benefit recipients affected by £26,000 benefit cap

From what I can gather these are the correct figures.

apparently 67,000 people are expected to be affected by the benefit cap whether working part time or out of work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-politics-16675314 looks like figures have been revised upwards frm 50,000 to 67,000

1 in 8 people on housing benefit are unemployed
http://england.shelter.org.uk/news/previous_years/2010/june_2010/housing_benefit_warning

approx 2.5 million people are on JSA

if we times this by 8 to get the total number of people on benefits of some sort this adds up to 20 million.

Dividing 20 million by 67,000 we get 298.5 which means that 1/298.5 of people will be affected by the benefit cap or 0.00335%

To get a more accurate figure of those of working age affected I have doubled that amount as half of the people in receipt of housing benefit are OAPs  resulting in 0.0067% - and then doubled it again as the cap applies per household and many people live as couples - this reaches the figure of 0.0134% - so this is a definate over estimation. 

As such - those affected by the benefit cap are in an extreme minority and therefore in exceptional circumstances. 

To put this in context - a couple living together in my area without children would receive approx £10,000 between them ie for their household - thats adding up JSA, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit and thats if they are over 35 - if they are under 35 it would be less.