DWP refuses to provide information on ESA/IB deaths. What is it hiding?

Brian McArdle. On the BBC's Question Time in November last year, Iain Duncan Smith flew into a rage when Owen Jones challenged him about what happened to Mr McArdle, "57 years old, paralysed down one side, blind in one eye; he couldn’t speak. He died one day after being found ‘fit for work’ by Atos."

Brian McArdle. On the BBC’s Question Time in November last year, Iain Duncan Smith flew into a rage when Owen Jones challenged him about what happened to Mr McArdle, “57 years old, paralysed down one side, blind in one eye; he couldn’t speak. He died one day after being found ‘fit for work’ by Atos.”

Once bitten, twice shy – the DWP has refused to release an update to its figures on the deaths of people in receipt of incapacity benefits (including Employment and Support Allowance).

Long-term readers may recall there was quite a stir last year when these figures were released, showing that around 73 people were dying every week after having been denied ESA or put in the work-related activity group.

This was more than twice as many as the previously-accepted figure of 32 people every week (which was still scandalous).

I received word of the cover-up last night, from Samuel Miller, the long-time friend of Vox Political who has been liaising with the United Nations about the Coalition government’s record on disability and incapacity benefits and the possibility that the Coalition is committing crimes against humanity.

“Just received word from the DWP that they will NOT release an update to ‘Incapacity Benefits: Deaths of recipients’,” he wrote.

“Is this tantamount to a cover-up of thousands of deaths and/or has mortality of the sick and disabled become too politicized for the government?

“Needless to say, I am furious.”

The response from the DWP runs as follows:

“Thank you for your email and apologies for the delay in responding.

“The publication you refer to was released on Department’s website as an ad-hoc statistical analysis publication. As such there is no intention of releasing an updated version of these statistics.” [Emphasis mine]

The “delay in responding” was a particularly long one. Mr Miller sent, by email, a copy of the original acknowledgement he received from the DWP, dated – if you can believe it – November 16, 2012. Were they hoping he would forget about it?

That letter stated: “I am sorry that the information you require is not readily available. As this would take a considerable length of time to pull together I am unable, at this stage, to tell you when the next report will be available.”

Never, if the department has its way, it seems.

This is not good enough, and we would be letting down everybody who has died if we let it pass.

I have therefore, today, sent a Freedom of Information request to the DWP, asking almost exactly the same questions as those to which ‘Incapacity Benefits: Deaths of recipients’ responds.

Sent to [email protected] and under the title ‘Freedom of Information requests’, it runs as follows:

“Please provide the number of Incapacity Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance claimants who have died in 2012. Please break that figure down into the following categories:

  • Those who are in the assessment phase
  • Those who were found fit for work
  • Those who were placed in the work-related activity group
  • Those who were placed in the support group
  • Those who have an appeal pending

“I am aware that the Department for Work and Pensions came under criticism last year because it did not follow up on the conditions of people who had been found fit for work and signed off the benefit. It is to be hoped that this has been rectified and follow-up checks have been carried out. If this is the case, please provide details of:

  • Former ESA/IB claimants who have died after being put onto Jobseekers’ Allowance
  • Former ISA/IB claimants who were taken off benefit but put onto no other means of support, and the number of these who have died.

“Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.”

I strongly urge you to do the same. There is strength in numbers.

96 thoughts on “DWP refuses to provide information on ESA/IB deaths. What is it hiding?

  1. Pingback: DWP refuses to provide information on ESA/IB deaths. What is it hiding? | Street Democracy - where it should reach

  2. voodooshacklady

    YES!!

    I’m so glad that this line of enquiry is being persued – it is vital IMHO.

    I think I recollect a DWP statement in which they claimed to have no figures for the people who were turfed off completely, as they were no longer in the system..?

    1. Mike Sivier

      That’s right; it’s what I mean when I say it came under criticism last year because it did not follow up on the conditions of people who had been found fit for work and signed off the benefit, and it is to be hoped that this has been rectified and follow-up checks have been carried out.
      I didn’t want them to get away with thinking we’d forgotten about this significant proportion of claimants (70 per cent are marked ‘fit for work’).

  3. Graeme hannigan

    Atos have denied disabled people the money that they’re entitled to. They should be shut down, and money reinstated to the claimants.

  4. A Foreman

    Well said its just a joke how the government will cover up everything. My mother died because they took out that silly nhs 24. Ok it not the same but still a government f**k up.
    I’m disabled and have pore mobility and poor balance. But I’m on work related ESA even though they had been told by a professional that I’m not fit to work. But they still trying to put me out to work.

    1. brian williams

      I the same as yourself have been for numerous boards and assesments yet have been signed off incapacity even though told will never work again ,yet still they are trying to get me back into full time employment with no help what so ever ,one dental appointment for one crown has just cost me £377.00 and don’t even have that a month to live on yet no help as been told have to pay for treatment as on esa

      1. Marian Standen

        thats rubbish, what numpty told you that I get esa and I dont have to pay for the dentist, have you got a private dentist probably the nhs wont pay over £350 for a crown go to the dental hospital if you have one near you

    1. Mike Sivier

      I actually know very little about FOIs. I just followed the government’s own website about it – identify the request as being made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, provide personal details – name and address, and make the request. It’s as you see in the article. If this site provides a better way, then please elucidate!

  5. Samuel Miller (@Hephaestus7)

    Thank you so much for your superlative blog piece, Mike. Please also see

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/deaths_of_claimants_receiving_js#incoming-379989

    I have informed Steven Sumpter about my response from the DWP and he intends to file a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

    I intend to inform senior UN officials that the DWP is refusing to comply with FOI requests pertaining to mortality statistics of benefit claimants.

    Samuel Miller
    http://independent.academia.edu/SamuelMiller
    http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/letter-to-the-icc-at-the-hague-re-mistreatment-of-the-disabled-and-sick
    http://voxpoliticalonline.com//?s=Samuel+Miller&search=Go
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnHBfW0_u5A&feature=youtu.be
    E-Mail: [email protected]
    Blog: Hephaestus: Disability Studies
    http://illnessandcivilization.blogspot.com/
    Blog: My Disability Studies Blackboard
    http://mydisabilitystudiesblackboard.blogspot.ca/2013/03/pushed-over-edge-by-benefits-fear.html
    Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Hephaestus7
    (Montreal, Canada)

    1. wrjones2012

      I well remember Ian Lavery asking the question about the death of one of his constituents.I also well remember Ian Duncan Smith standing with his sidekick McVey sneering disgracefully.

  6. Jan Hamilton

    Why is the fact that 73 people a week are dying, after being found fit for work by this flawed assessment system, not a national scandal ?..massive cover up from the highest level!!. This wretched gov’t should be hounded until they produce the figures…which i’m very sure they have tucked away somewhere. I’m so pleased this is being persued and i’m sure when i say thank you I speak for thousands.
    I saw the programme with IDS and Owen and was appalled by the disrespect, rudeness and total lack of care displayed by the arrogant and heartless IDS.

    1. Mike Sivier

      It might be a lot more than 73 – that’s the fear that’s crawling around us at the moment. Why would they cover up the details if they’re not worse?
      The more people press them on this, the more likely DWP officials are to give in – and if anyone can get the media interested, so much the better.

  7. Pingback: DWP refuses to provide information on ESA/IB deaths. What is it hiding? | kittysjones

  8. andy hickling

    i have been doing some digging in relation to this..i am waiting for a reply from atos over ‘declaration of geneva’concerning the handling of ppls cases,and their use of doctors etc…what i have found out is that breaking the ‘declaration of geneva’by use of there ‘doctors contracts’and also getting doctors to ‘down grade’ppls claims is classed as a WAR CRIME’….rather disturbing in this day and age

    1. ian

      they also breach EU human rights …pertaining to the right to an informed medical desision being made about you ( you have the final say in treatment / medication )..the right to a second opinion ..the right to refuse medical treatment / medication without fear of discrimination / censure ..etc

      1. sparaszczukster

        You’re right, Ian, and yet they claim they’re privatising the NHS on the very excuse that patients have a right to choose the best healthcare. The hypocrisy is stunning.
        I’m beginning to feel like we’re living in Nazi Germany.

  9. Denise Prideaux (@DRPrideaux)

    Only recently, William Hague told everybody that those who have nothing to hide, have nothing to fear from all their communications information being known to government security operatives. Now DWP is unaccountably shy about these figures. What are we to conclude?

  10. Mr jeffrey l davies

    nah they want to keep it hiden or there could be riots if the rest get to now that its around 70 or so weekly add this up now we talking thousands nah they very worried us 99percent who are poor will riot jeff3

  11. Lisa Reardon

    I just want to SCREAM! I feel paralysed with horror. I daren’t tell my severely disabled husband about this – this would top him off. We’re still waiting in terror of the post or telephone ringing waiting for the outcome of our esa50.
    All I can say is WELL DONE and THANK YOU everyone out there working together to make this nightmare end.

  12. Alex Casale

    With participation in politics so low at the moment I think Christians should ensure their views are represented at all levels and not leave it to others.
    Iain Duncan Smith

  13. guy fawkes

    Very informative article mIke, those left in limbo by the benefits system show up on the statistics of people that have found jobs.

  14. Christine Ruscoe

    There silence means its not good news I would think ? The answer should be made public we all have a right to know ! How much blood is on there hands ? Seems the public right to view is yet another. Thing this government Applies only if it Wants to ??
    Seems the government deems it self above law and rights yet again ??
    Hopefully others take pen to paper , email , ect. Ask for the same information discloser .

  15. samantha

    Recently there has been so much stuff coming to light that was covered up from the general public, for instance, the Hillsborough cover up, The care homes that abused children for decades, the bbc/ operation Yew-Tree, the phone hacking from the Murdoch group, the nhs cover ups of the baby deaths, companies getting out of corporation tax while the poor get a whole new stealth tax in the form of ‘bedroom tax’ , the witch hunt on those on benefits with the help of ‘the media- owned by Murdoch, the cash for honours scandal, the bankers and bonuses,….the list is just going on and on as I’ve mentioned enough already, but it highlights them for exactly who they always have been – what made these people ‘more qualified’ to run Britain than the rest of us…absolutely nothing….they are a nasty, cliquish, Etonian government.

  16. sparaszczukster

    Reblogged this on Grannie's Last Mix and commented:
    This is a MUST READ blog post . Mike Sivier exposes the utter callousness of DWP ministers and their attitude to legitimate requests for information. about the number of deaths of sick and disabled people who have been found ‘fit for work’ by ATOS and in some cases been left with no means whatsoever of financial support. A crime against humanity is going on under our very noses here and Duncan Smith should not be allowed to get away with it any longer. Please read this and follow Mike’s example, as I am about to do, by sending your own FOI. Read the post for details. If we swamp the DWP with requests they surely must respond. PLEASE SHARE THIS AS WIDELY AS YOU CAN.

  17. Smiling Carcass

    The Nazis covered up the deaths of 6,000,000 Jews, Gypsies, Intellectuals, political opponents and significantly disabled, including children.

    I rest my case.

    1. Slugabed

      Exactly.
      Dr.Josef Mengele and his colleagues worked for the (then) Government in a state-approved facility.
      This proved no defence once the war was over.
      The Nuremburg Trials and the conclusions drawn from them were the basis of the civilised society this Government holds in scorn.
      I sincerely hope that,one day,International law will catch up with these murderers.

  18. guy fawkes

    Samantha you missed staffordshire hospital killing patients, but a brilliant compilation of the governments failures and the media’s hand in it all.

  19. Pingback: Work Capability Assessment: Time to make your experience count | Vox Political

  20. Pingback: Letter from Samuel Miller to Liam Byrne « Save Disability Benefits and Services

  21. Pingback: Will the DWP do ANYTHING to avoid revealing the true extent of the Atos deaths? | Vox Political

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  24. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    I used the “what do they know” freedom of information site on a regular basis, till i, and three others got banned.
    The reason we got banned is plainly obvious, we asked the wrong questions and pressure was placed upon the site by the glorious DWP,.
    Many times i made reference to the escalating death rates as a result of their twisted, heinous policies against the poorest,weakest and most vulnerable in our society………
    Each time they used the same clap trap to wriggle out of giving the answer. They say they have the information but the cost of collating the information will come to more than the permitted £600 threshhold, therefore they seek to withhold it….

    Another ruse that they often use is that its not in the publics interest. Who are they to decide whats in the publics interest?
    Yet another reply, the latest ploy, is to suggest the request is “vexatious”.

    I have requested over 76 answers to differing subjects regarding the demonisation of the welfare state.
    Hardly any are answered properly, each one shrouded in the cloak of invisibility that the DWP are able to hide behind……….

    People are starting to rebel and are demanding answers to why their world is crumbling beneath them.

    I would urge anyone and everyone to hit the “what do they know”, website with as many questions as possible.

    You are being pissed upon from a great height, its time to fight back.
    PUBLIC OPINION IS A GOOD STARTING POINT!!

  25. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    Did your readers realise that three times more people have died from the savage cuts imposed on welfare than troops we have lost in Afghanistan since 2001?

    This figure is shocking, yet nothing is being done about it…………..

    The media is being controlled to withhold any such information or play it down as best they can……….

  26. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    These crosses are not an indication of love, neither are they an application for spot the ball, they represent the people who have died due to government cuts since the coalition came to power.

    Each and every cross represents a human being, somebody’s son or daughter, who has succumbed to the “Murder by Decree” policy which is in full swing in the UK.
    The true extent of this butchery, and i repeat butchery, will never be made public as the powers that be, distort information to try and bury it……
    The only thing they bury is our loved ones……

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    Maybe one of your family or friends are represented here……
    While the clock ticks, the pendulum moves to and fro, the list becomes ever greater.

  27. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    If this one line of crosses captures your imagination, the true extent is seventeen times as many,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

  28. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    Soon be winter, my joints are starting to hurt bad as the temperatures subside.
    Looking forward to gazing at the beautiful patterns in the ice on the insides of my windows. The gas fire has not been lit for four years now but the glow from the cuppa soup and several layers of clothing should ease the pains………….
    Some will be celebrating, but i doubt the poor, homeless and disabled, will not be taking part this year.
    The DWP party, with its banter about achieving sanction tables and “how i made them suffer”, will be in full swing.
    Staff bonuses from the £44 million they stole from us will help pave the way for a great night out, alcohol running freely as their victims idly stare at the clocks, shivering and wishing they could end it all………
    Ofgem and its ilk will also be on a jolly up, talk of how they misled the public once again and sided with their paymasters to push the energy prices beyond the realms of the most vulnerable.
    As the clock strikes midnight on christmas eve, many will have perished. Hopefully they will transfer to a better life where people treat people like human beings. Their are no shirkers with closed curtains or disabled being spat at.
    They might have considered the alternative, the infernos of hades, at least it would be warm!
    What would we do if we had a bonus for failure? Could you ever consider a real branded item from a top shelf or would it be the usual, economy line plain wrapper item that you have grown so used to buying?

    Yes, Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat, and so is, Duncan Smith, the evil f*ck*ng prat!

    ……..as the last chimes of Christmas eve, herald in Christmas day, those of you who can still manage, raise an empty glass to those who could not see the error of their ways………….

    Doff your cap as the hearse of welfare reform sneaks past your window, crunching tyres on the newly fallen snow as the crackers are pulled in Downing Street……….

  29. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    GEOFF REYNOLDS says:
    August 20, 2013 at 10:25 am

    On last nights BBC news there was a snippet of a story relating to physiotherapists being given the right to prescribe medicines. This morning the story had mysteriously vanished….

    Forgive me for my tenacity in following up things, but i have a feeling that something else is unfolding without our knowledge.

    I found this article in the Independent;

    Physiotherapists in the UK will be the first in the world to be able to independently prescribe medication to their patients, the Department of Health has announced.

    Confirming plans that were first outlined last year, the care and support minister Norman Lamb said that the new legislation, which will also empower podiatrists to prescribe medicines, would speed up treatments and free up GP’s time.

    Currently, physios and podiatrists must refer a patient to a GP in order to get a prescription. Practitioners who want to issue prescriptions will have to complete a training course and will only be able to prescribe medications in their specific area. The changes will come into force when the first wave of training courses has been completed in summer 2014.

    “This change will not only benefit patients by making it more convenient to get treatment but it will also free up valuable GP time,” Mr Lamb said. “We are showing the world that the NHS is at the forefront of healthcare, paving the way for other countries. Physiotherapists and podiatrists are highly skilled professionals and these changes will allow them to give better care to the millions of people with acute and long term conditions.”

    Phil Gray, chief executive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said: “This is a landmark moment that will lead to patients receiving faster, more effective treatment for their condition.”

    END

    Nothing may seem sinister, but on the BBC news it also reported that at present, nurses can also prescribe medicines as well……..

    When you put Physios and Nurses into one sentence the word ATOS and HCP’s, springs to mind.

    Our government, the crooks who purport to pull the strings on behalf of their paymasters, have just come up with a plan to try and introduce the disabled back into mainstream work. It is mandatory to attend a briefing by a HCP, ALTHOUGH TAKING PART IS SAID TO BE VOLUNTARY.

    Upon seeking clarification about the, so called course, a freedom of information request was submitted to the DWP, requesting many points to be made clearer.

    These actual questions were asked…..

    Can a doctor, nurse or physio employed in conjunction with the DWP, enforce a course
    of action or taking of medicines, against the wishes of the claimant, the claimants own GP, or the
    claimants specialist advisors?

    By virtue of the fact that you have chosen to include, “they will not replace a persons GP”
    casts much doubt on the inabilities of the health team who will carry out the procedures. Will the
    claimants own GP have the authority to deny any procedures that are prescribed?

    This is the answer they gave in response;

    If the HCP was unsure of any aspect of the claimant’s treatment the claimant would be
    referred back to their own GP. Claimants’ GPs will not have the authority to deny any
    procedures recommended in the 18-24 months prognosis pilots.

    What they are saying is, they have the authority to overrule your own GP!
    Meaning a physio or nurse wields more power than a qualified doctor, in this case, your doctor, the person who knows you best and has treated you……..

    I see this as being absolutely preposterous and wonder what other “SHABBY”,short cuts they will try to implement.

    If your GP is in a position where, he or she, has a damning workload, will you be hived off to a “SECOND BEST”, who will have the ability to prescribe medicines and treatment?.

    Watch this space carefully, the dirty tricks department is in full swing to cut costs and endanger even more lives, hiding beneath the banner of welfare reform!!!

  30. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    Have you ever asked yourself how some of the most twisted, heinous and shocking reforms in UK welfare are ever able to proceed?.

    You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to work out that someone, somewhere, has given the green light for these things to be introduced………

    What you must first consider is, who has given the go ahead, what they represent and what do they gain?

    The government use a particular criteria for choosing who actually does an “IMPACT ASSESSMENT”.

    The usual criteria that comes first, is who can we choose who will give us the very answers that we require?
    In laymans language, to push a policy through, we need someone on the same wavelength, who has something to gain other than the service that they are supposed to be carrying out and getting paid for.
    All the impact assessments contain a section that asks the author of the report if the measures will have any Social impacts on health and wellbeing.
    Guess what the report says, NO!
    Will it infringe human rights, NO!
    Impact on justice system, NO!
    Of course it won’t. They have taken away every means of challenge for the working classes by stealing the rights of legal aid………..

    One must ask, “How the fuck do these comedians get away with it?”
    ……………….and more importantly, “Which government minister, signed off the impact assessment as being ok?”

    At present there is a call for a “Cumulative Impact Assessment” because of the fallout, in human terms, of the WELFARE REFORM ACT 2012.
    The impact on the poor and disabled is being played down by the ” in pocket” media, yet the tragedy of the impacts are yet to be fully known. We are just experiencing the first phase of casualties of which a huge deluge will certainly follow……

    For many, the cruelty and stress will never be reversed, they have already been uprooted as their benefits have been systematically raped by the DWP, the government hit squad.

    Our country is so deep in red tape and legislation that it is fast becoming a dictatorship.
    Freedoms are long gone, the talk of a free country are a thing of history……………….
    Wake up and start challenging the system………

  31. Pingback: Christmas Is Coming, Some Are Getting fat… | SMILING CARCASS'S TWO-PENNETH

  32. Francis Dooley

    ATOS and the DWP are only doing their masters bidding. The welfare reforms were started by the Labour party when in government and carried on with the coalition. The welfare reforms are the fault of all MP’s who voted them into law. Each and every MP should be asked to revoke the bill that past the welfare reforms into law. The present government can do as they please as there is no opposition against the welfare reforms because they are the brain child of the Labour party. It is the 650 members of parliament who have passed the barbaric and inhumane welfare reforms into law and the only way to get them to change what they have done is to vote them out of office. Ask your own MP do they support the welfare reforms or not and tell them you will not vote for them unless they support the scrapping of the present system. Your attention should be focused on the MP’s as I said ATOS and the DWP are only doing what they are told to do by their masters. ATOS do not give a dam what people think of them and it it will continue to do as it is told as long as it gets paid The DWP again are only doing what they are told to do by the government. The focus has to be those who pass the reforms into law. The 650 members of parliament have killed thousands and have inflicted pain,stress and suffering onto millions of innocent sick and disabled people. How can so few be allowed to get away with murder millions are being denied their human rights and treated worse than vermin there are laws that give rats more rights than a UK citizen claiming or trying to claim benefits. The rat has to be killed humanly the claimant does not even have that right.Contact your MP and tell them enough is enough demand that the appalling treatment of the sick and disabled is stopped and that those responsible are made accountable for the crimes they have committed against their fellow man.I am an ex soldier I have been shafted by the war pension rules I am about to be shafted by ATOS on behalf of the political system that rewards bankers for being corrupt and punishes anyone who dare be sick or disabled . Both this and the last government financially rewarded NHS trusts for reaching targets for killing people on the pathway to death if they done this and are continuing to do this do you think they would have any sympathy for a sick or disabled scrounger of the state . Think about it for a moment no infirm or elderly no sick or disabled no welfare bill they want us all dead and buried and they are doing a bloody good job considering there are so few of them. Change the ATOS medical centre for a gas chamber and you will be a little closer to the truth about what they are doing.Dammed if you do go Dammed if you don’t go. Its our government doing this to our own people..

    1. Mike Sivier

      Your story is an important one because you are an ex-serviceman saying people including yourself are being denied their human rights.
      Are you aware of Samuel Miller, who is trying to get the United Nations interested in investigating human rights abuses in the UK? I think you might be able to help each other a great deal and I would recommend that you contact him by emailing [email protected]
      You are mistaken on a couple of points: In these matters, Atos and the DWP are doing the bidding of Unum, a large and criminal (in its home country, the USA) insurance company that wants to demolish the British social security system in order to sell its own extremely dodgy health insurance policies to people here in the UK. These are the policies that got it prosecuted in several US states, that are based on the company’s unique interpretation of a theory called the ‘biopsychosocial’ model which basically contends that any condition you claim to have is entirely in your mind. This is probably why people with only one arm have been asked when the other one is likely to grow back again. Unum was brought in by Peter Lilley, a Conservative social security secretary, around 1993. The changes are therefore Conservative in origin.
      Having said that, Labour was hoodwinked into going along with the plan, so you are right that they should all be encouraged to make amends for it.
      But it was not dreamed up by Labour.
      You are wrong in saying that all 650 MPs are responsible for this – some who were not members of the last Labour government, the current Coalition or the Conservative government of the early 1990s had nothing to do with it.
      Your suggestion, that people should ask their MP to support scrapping the present system or lose their vote, is a very good one.

  33. Meredith Ong

    All this talk about submitting substantial evidence to the DWP in regard to a claim is “ONE BIG PISSTAKE”…….

    The DWP already hold all information about your health history in their archives……….

    I requested that the DWP send me all the information they held on me. Anyone can request this, it costs you nothing but it costs them a lot of time and effort to collate it all…………
    Drop them a line, recorded delivery of course, and ask for your files. They must provide them by law!!!

    My files came in three huge envelopes. The paperwork was seven inches high…………

    They contained every sick note and visit to my doctor, every questionnaire i had ever filled in as a result of my benefits and all relevant scoring of my rights to have the benefits….

    In other words, they are sending you on a “WILD GOOSE CHASE” to furnish them with information that is already at their disposal.

    “ANOTHER BIG CON TRICK”………………..

  34. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    Controlled killing, or murder by decree, whatever you wish to call it, was a master stroke swiftly executed by the DWP.

    It left thousands dead and millions in a state of anxiety, poverty and trauma in its wake.

    Sadly, the truth of the matter will be hurriedly buried as the lawlords and cabinet ministers are briefed on the pending disclosure of, probably the worst atrocity, since the second world war………..

    As eyes focus on the barbarity of the acts against the disabled, poor and most vulnerable in society, the DWP try to distance themselves from the rising death toll.

    Announcing that they will not gathering statistics of peoples lives claimed by their heinous policies is just one way of trying to escape the onslaught of claims that will be heading their way soon.

    “We were only following orders”, has worn rather thin over the years, culpable homicide springs firmly to mind……

    Whatever way you look at it, murder is murder, especially when premeditated to bring down welfare costs.

  35. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    The Guardian, Wednesday 12 September 2012 21.00 BST

    This week the sixth International Forum on Disability Management, IFDM 2012, takes place at Imperial College London. It is sponsored by some of the world’s largest medical insurance companies, Unum among them, and speakers include DWP chief medical adviser Dr Bill Gunyeon and Professor Sir Mansel Aylward, formerly DWP chief medical adviser and director of the Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research at Cardiff University, which was sponsored by Unum from its inception in 2003 until 2009.

    Unum’s website states that during this sponsorship period “a series of papers was published, identifying the range of factors that determine why some people become long-term absentees”. The Cardiff papers advocated a “biopsychosocial model” of disability which Unum says “informed its approach to medical underwriting”. It is the same approach upon which the current Atos work capability assessment (WCA) is based. Concomitantly, the company were advising the UK government on welfare reform.

  36. Meredith Ong

    THEREFORE THE DWPs NEW DEFINITION OF A LIFETIME AWARD IS EXACTLY AS STATED,

    THEY FIRST REMOVE ALL YOUR BENEFITS USING, “NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE”, BOGUS MEDICAL REPORTS.

    AFTER A YEAR OF STRESS, ANXIETY AND POVERTY, YOU THEN DECIDE, ENOUGHS ENOUGH, AND TOP YOURSELF!

    WHICH IN TURN FORCES THE DWP TO MAKE STATEMENTS INDICATING THEY HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF THE ABHORRENT DEATH TOLLS OF THE WELFARE REFORMS, WHICH NEATLY FITS IN WITH TRYING TO ENABLE THIS;

    Draft Deregulation Bill: Government moves to shut down judicial supervision and criticism of DWP-Atos decision making by abolition of duty by Tribunals’ President to publish annual report

  37. geoff reynolds

    The DWP ARE SINKING TO ANOTHER ALL TIME LOW…………..

    IT SEEMS THE DEPTH OF THEIR DEPRAVITY HAS NO LOWER LIMITS.

    CAMERON BOASTED THAT JOB CENTRES HAD STARTED REFERRING PEOPLE TO FOOD BANKS WHEN THEY REPORTED AS BEING IN DIRE STRAIGHTS FINANCIALLY AND HAVING INSUFFICIENT FUNDS TO EAT………..

    THE TRUSSEL TRUST CHARITY WHICH HAS SET UP OVER 380 FOODBANKS, HAS REPORTED THAT STAFF WITHIN THE DWP ARE BLOCKING THE AGREEMENT.

    IN OTHER WORDS THEY HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO HUSH UP THE AVAILABILITY OF AID TO THE STARVING………….

    “PROBABLY ON ORDERS FROM THE VERY TOP TO MAKE THE POOREST SUFFER THE WORST EXTREMES”

    EVIL HAS NO BOUNDARIES WITHIN THIS DEPARTMENT.
    ITS HARD ENOUGH HAVING NO MONEY TO EAT WITHOUT HAVING YOUR FACE RUBBED IN THE DIRT………..

  38. geoff reynolds

    “HOW LONG CAN THE CHAINS ON THE CREAKING GATES OF THE DWP’s CEMETERY OF SHAME, HOLD OUT?”

    It seems as though most of the British public are asking the same question.
    Every freedom of information site connected to the DWP, are awash with the same question, how many have died as a result of the ill conceived welfare reforms?…………………

    The real answer would stagger anybody. This is the reason the DWP are reluctant to publish the “KNOWN” figures.

    Controlling the media is easy when you hold the power, suppressing the truth is another matter. Whatever they try to withhold has a way of leaking out.

    Friends at their department update me regularly on the discontent within their ranks and the bullying afforded to them.

    Strangely, the once cast iron cauldron of the goverments nasty arm is starting to resemble a colander full of holes……..
    Wherever they place their fingers to stop the truth leaking out, it finds another channel.

    Daily they are bombarded with freedom of information requests. They give out replies but the public are no fools, finding time after time, they have been lied to. Answers they gave on one request, contradict that given on another……..

    You have to have a good memory to be a good liar!!!

    Foolishly, they employ more than a handful of employees to answer requests. Each employee is out of touch with what their colleagues have posted, therefore gaping errors are being seized upon, to their regret………………

    I hope you have all requested the information that the DWP hold on you.

    It costs nothing but it costs them time and money to collate it all. Why not put in a request today?

    My information was seven inches deep and contained all my medical history. The same history that they request from you at an ESA, but is already in their domain.

    Don’t hesitate, put in a request today!!! It costs you absolutely nothing, zero, zilch………

    The chains are starting to stretch on the gates of the DWP’s cemetery of shame, the question of the day will be, “Who will take the wrap?”

    Will it be the man at the top, Duncan Smith, the evil witch, Mcvey, or will it be put firmly on the shoulders of Gunnyeon, the medical chief of the DWP, “THE ANGEL OF DEATH”, who sold his soul and the lives of thousands to the greed of the private health insurers………………………….

    Lobbying has it’s perks, but the needs of the hangmans halter have to be met………..

    Who will fall first? Only time well tell.

    THE BLAME GAME IS YET TO START, BUT WHEN IT DOES, WHO WILL BE CARRYING THE PROVERBIAL CAN?

    ……………the mind boggles.

  39. Pingback: Information Commissioner to decide about DWP deaths | Vox Political

  40. geoff reynolds

    “MURDER IS MURDER, WHATEVER WAY YOU LOOK AT IT”.

    ANYONE, PERSON OR ORGANISATION, THAT WILFULLY TAKES THE LIFE, OF A HUMAN BEING IS A “MURDERER”.

    SADLY THE DWP ARE TAKING LIVES BY THE THOUSANDS AND YET NOTHING IS SEEN TO BE DONE ABOUT IT?

    CAN LEGISLATION BE USED IN THE SAME WAY, A KNIFE, BULLET OR EXPLOSION REMOVES A PERSONS EXISTENCE, FALL INTO A DIFFERENT CATEGORY? I DON’T THINK SO FOR ONE MOMENT…………………………

    THE DWP ARE VIRTUAL ASSASSINS, EMPLOYED BY THE TWISTED, LOATHESOME GOVERNMENT TO ERADICATE POVERTY AND DISABILITY BY KILLING ON A HUGE UNPRECEDENTED SCALE.

    A CULL OF THE WEAKEST AT THE BEHEST OF THE STRONGEST. NOT THE STRONGEST BY NATURE, THE STRONGEST BY WEALTH ALONE……….

    A SICK AND VILE CREATION OF MURDER BY DECREE. A TROUBLED NAZI DOCTRINE THAT STAINED THE PAGES OF HISTORY WHILE EXPOSING THE LIMITS OF WHAT MAN COULD INFLICT ON MAN.

    PEOPLE ARE FALLING VICTIM TO A CRIME MORE CALLOUS THAN ANYTHING YET INVENTED IN OUR PREVIOUS CENTURIES. THEY BEAR NO COMPASSION AS THE DARK WINGS OF THE ANGEL OF DEATH, STRANGLES THE LAST GASP OF AIR FROM THE LUNGS OF THE INNOCENT VICTIMS…………

    “MURDER IS MURDER, WHATEVER WAY YOU LOOK AT IT”……………………………………………………………………….

    STATE ENCOURAGED DEATHS ARE SPIRALLING OUT OF CONTROL AS THE CROOKED MEDIA BARONS, IN THE POCKETS OF THE TRIGGER MEN, SIMPLY HIDE THE EVIDENCE.

    WILL YOU BE NEXT???????????????????????????

  41. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    Yesterday i received a letter from one of the DWP’s ambassadors of death, JOHN ROTHWELL of Blackpool.

    He informed me, in no uncertain terms, that my Disability Living Allowance has terminated…………..

    Surely this is the act of celebration after all?

    I was robbed of my “lifetime award of disability” over a year ago and are still awaiting my appeal, thanks to an exterminator working for ATOS, EMMA BRODRICK.

    The reason they terminated my DLA was because i refused to fill in a 35 page questionnaire they sent to me that asks about my disability. it was a DLA80.
    It states that i have to fill it in so they know that i am receiving the right amount of benefit…………..

    As you all know, this is just a load of bollocks that seeks to reduce my benefits further.

    To put it in a nutshell, Esther Mcvey told parliament that existing holders of DLA benefit would not face PIP tests until 2015. The new tests are engineered to strip the mobility from as many as possible by using descriptors that hardly anybody will achieve.

    Not content with leaving existing DLA claimants till 2015, they decided on a plan to relieve you of your benefits even faster by claiming your circumstances have changed after receiving the answers you wrote on your questionnaire. Indeed, this is entrapment or trying to gain pecuniary advantage by deception………….
    A well known underhand trick to push you to another ATOS examination and further reduce your pittance.

    Stangely, when i examined the law regarding the matter of informing the DWP of a change of circumstance, i found this;

    “The effect is that claimants are required to report any change of circumstance which the secretary of state (ie the DWP), has told them to.
    However, there is no specific provision about where or how the change must be reported”.
    ………………………………………………………………………………
    Therefore by not filling in the questionnaire, and informing them that my circumstances have not changed, i have fulfilled my obligation.

    IN JULY LAST YEAR I HAD A DISABLEMENT FOR LIFE, NOW I HAVE NOTHING……………………

    1. Mike Sivier

      Geoff – as a matter of urgency, get onto Facebook and visit the Fightback page and the 4UP page. Explain your situation and request help. These people are experts and should be able to provide you with information that can relieve some of the pressure that you must be suffering now.
      Also contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau.
      Do it now.

  42. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    What a truly hypocritical country we live……………

    “Jolly good show, old chap”, and all the b*ll*cks that go with it!

    At the moment, Royal Wooton Bassett, the place which was given an honoury title of “Royal” because it was the place where our fallen heroes were flown back to, is preparing a commemoration.

    Yes our fallen comrades should be remembered, but it should never be forgotten that Blair, the Americans lapdog poodle, put us into a position of war, in the first place, based on fictional evidence that is still being investigated today……..

    Over four hundred of our finest personnel gave their lives to a cause that should have been overlooked if the parliamentarians had listened to the electorate, instead of following the “gung ho” British Bulldog sentiments……….

    …….Nevertheless, the fodder of what we are being fed, is a mask to cover what is going on behind the scenes……..

    The “New Eugenics and Murdering Arm”, of our government, the inglorious DWP, is closing ranks swiftly to try to cover up the amount of victims it has stockpiled in its bulging cemetery of shame that has resulted from its sanctions against the weakest and most underprivileged in our society……..

    Call it what you will, i recognise it as murder on an epic scale, unrecorded and hidden from not only the rest of the world, but Britons alike.

    Over ten thousand six hundred and counting have fallen to this bitter, twisted regime, manufactured by a few elite officials commanding central posts in our crumbling coalition government.

    They bear no thoughts of shame or remorse, their wallets telling the true tales of involvement in the greatest mass murder since the last war……….

    Our memorials to the fallen always say, ‘lest we forget’…

    What these *rs*h*l*s in power are doing, is just the opposite, they are instrumental in a mission used by the Nazis in our darkest past.

    You are being driven into a situation where the NHS is being hived off in huge chunks to satisfy the greedy, grabbing private health insurance industry. Your welfare means nothing to these giants who are pulling the strings via our corrupted politicians. You are just another stepping stone that lies in the path of total dominance of greed…………….

    Deaths are of no significance to these butchers. All our present legislation has been significantly altered to welcome the changes they are trying to fulfill………..

    Please check how many people have used the freedom of information channels to ask how many have succumbed to death since the introduction of the welfare acts………

    The answer from the DWP is always the same, they are unaware of the spiraling death count and it would cost more than £600 to archive the information, therefore it cannot be collated……….

    Meanwhile the murders are increasing whilst the biased media run hand in hand with our corrupt government to hide the truth of the real carnage.

    The reason that the other political parties stand by and do nothing is obvious…….
    They are quite content with what is happening because deep down it is doing them a favour in the long run. Lowering debt is beneficial. They may moan during prime ministers question time to give the impression that they object, but deep down they welcome it as it makes their ascendency a little easier and leaves scope to blame the party who was last in power.

    “GREAT BRITAIN, WHAT A F***ING JOKE”………………..

    1. Mike Sivier

      In fact, the DWP cannot use the “it would cost more than £600 excuse, because we all know that it already collects the information we want.

      And the other political parties know that the Coalition government is NOT lowering debt. George Osborne is having to borrow much more money now than he claimed he would have to in 2010, because his policies were useless.

  43. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    Yesterday i watched Labours attempt to get a repeal of the much hated BEDROOM TAX.

    It was a long debate that led to a vote in the early evening.
    Labour gave all they could in a well put together, much concerted effort, to rid this country of the most heinous law ever introduced…

    Some members were close to tears as they gave impassioned speeches to the government benches.
    It made me aware of the hatred that now exists between the haves and have nots.

    Such hatred is beyond belief, reaching some kind of fever pitch last seen when Nazis were encouraging German citizens to smash the windows of the jewish shopkeepers and ridicule and beat them in the streets while trashing and stealing their hard earned property.
    History has a way of repeating itself and the actions of the government, by ridiculing the pleas of the poor, left me with a sour taste in my mouth………….

    The suffering of those worse off, the disabled and poor, has become a national sport, a sport driven by one thing only, wealth.
    Kicking a person when they are down is the easiest thing to do. They are vulnerable and are lacking, not only money, food and shelter, but a means to overcome their problems and rise above what they are lacking.
    Civil society has gone out of the window as the trendset of “F*** YOU JACK, I’M ALRIGHT”, is the new norm………

    Yesterdays vote was not indicative of the voice of the people in our country, it was a political strategy to try to cling onto power at all costs, despite the suffering of the many.

    Our government do not reflect the voice of the people. They never have for a long, long time. They are merely pawns used by the multinationals and Monetary sectors to control the interests of greed. Joe Public does not even get a look in as the corporate giants bribe and lobby to reach their hidden agendas……

    Our ministers, mostly within the DWP, are following an agenda that was made possible by the groundwork of the “Faculty of Occupational Medicine”, an organisation that has links to Private Health Insurance and the disgraced UNUM insurance giant of the USA.

    The tentacles of the aforesaid faculty run deep and wide and control all aspects of welfare reform including the desecration of the NHS and the introduction of the private health insurance onto our shores.

    BILL GUNNYEON, the CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER of the DWP is at the helm, enabling a swift transition of power to those pulling his strings whilst other strategically placed faculty members clear the roads ahead……….

    Changes to sick notes, ESA examinations, PIP and and a whole raft of changes to disability rights have been engineered on the behest of the UNUM giant.

    You, my friends, are the waste product that this elaborate network saw as a price worth paying……………..

    ” you have been sold down the river by a conspiracy so deep, and yet, the truth is slowly emerging every day”…………

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    1. Mike Sivier

      I could, but my bet is that the government would ignore it. The only way, in my opinion, is legal action. I’m taking the Information Commission and the DWP to a tribunal in a few weeks’ time; Samuel Miller is urging the International Criminal Court and the UN to take action. After that, we’ll see what we shall see.

  48. Harvey

    I did not click the notify by email for follow up comment on last post so reply here please, ta

    1. Mike Sivier

      No. Go and look at the article again.

      Oh all right:

      I could, but my bet is that the government would ignore it. The only way, in my opinion, is legal action. I’m taking the Information Commission and the DWP to a tribunal in a few weeks’ time; Samuel Miller is urging the International Criminal Court and the UN to take action. After that, we’ll see what we shall see.

  49. liza barton

    im im on esa and was in a support group then they said im fit for work when things are still the same i have spine problems and seizure that arent controlled im doing a appeal but they havent sent me anything in bout 6months ans its only ment to take a year! its already nearly a year they are complete idoits!

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