It’s not the DWP’s envelopes that need changing, but the attitude behind them
Kiss of death: for benefit claimants, letters from the Department for Work and Pensions – no matter what colour the envelope in which they arrive, cause more problems than they solve. It isn’t the packaging of the letters that is the problem, it is the content – and the malice of the people writing it. [Image: www.disabledgo.com]
Officials have apparently discovered the existence of “brown envelope anxiety”, which is a nervous condition triggered in some people whenever they receive an envelope of that colour – denoting a communication from an official source – through the letterbox.
They have wrongly deduced – probably from the name of the condition – that merely changing the colour of the envelope will magic away the anxiety.
How stupid can they be?
As a friend posted on Facebook,
It’s not the envelopes that need changing, DWP and Tory government, it’s your inhumane assessments processes that cause untold harm and distress to many.
I have a total fear of the postie coming to my house; that’s a huge trigger for me, let alone what’s put through the door.
[It’s about] living with never knowing when the review will come up and living with constant financial insecurity and the amount being taken away and leaving you destitute and probably homeless.
To add insult to injury, DWP officials think people with brown envelope anxiety will be more likely to read their white-envelope missives immediately if they print on the front: “IMPORTANT INFORMATION INSIDE. PLEASE OPEN.”
In fact – as they would know if they had asked any experts instead of listening to the tweeting birds inside their empty heads – this is more likely to trigger an anxiety (if not a heart) attack.
Rather than reading the contents of these white envelopes and responding to the Job Centres, it is more likely that overworked doctors will be examining the recipients’ vital signs – if they manage to get to a hospital in time.
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It looks like we ain’t going back to the days where the peasants opened their brown envelope they found a new way just to make one sick nervous or just downright frightened to death the government isn’t going to change no matter whot colour aktion t4 isn’t going to change
I will borrow a fellow disabled persons words to help you understand better what this story is about…
>[It’s about] living with never knowing when the review will come up and living with constant financial insecurity and the amount being taken away and leaving you destitute and probably homeless.
This is the reality of most disabled people never knowing when the next interrogation and that’s what it feels like having to fill out an 80-page book. Remember were disabled just repeating the same information again and again and they have already had this usually multiple times before!
Where there look for any gotta you’s and try desperately to use a pack of lies and deceptions to deny you benefits. It’s a vile disgusting system that only the bullies at the DWP seem to enjoy inflicting pain on disabled people. Then they wonder why people can’t take any more and commit suicide and then blame the victim ignoring they have any responsibility!!!
Now tell me this is fair or responsible? You just want to change the colour of the sodding letter like that will help! This says it all how they don’t want to change or see how messed up your system really is..
From the DWP who only care about bonuses like WTF aren’t they meant to be public servants so why are they getting bonuses? From the private lier companies who do these so called reports full of lies there is no respect or dignity for disabled people only accusations and attempts at removing the pittence we are meant to live on!
Colour coded terror coming to a letterbox near you !!
I noticed they actually already did this a long time ago. No longer can I be sure that ANY A5 envelope is safe without opening it.
I hate being pedantic but this is not simply the DWP this is the ‘Nudge Unit’ who design envelopes and the forms for all government departments in order to ‘levy discomfort’ etc (the actual phrase used)
These ideas are not from within the DWP but are from central government and are always implemented with their full support..