‘We don’t care that you’re disabled and distressed – don’t miss your DWP courses’ | The Poor Side of Life
Arbet macht frei: There was a big fuss over an image like this recently, so I’ll tell you what: I’ll stop using it when Job Centres stop persecuting the benefit claimants they process.
Parliament may be all about Brexit and an early election right now but out in the country the business of the Conservative government is the business of depriving ordinary people of their cash and their dignity.
This Site has been following the stories of genuine people at Ashton under Lyne Job Centre, as posted by Charlotte Hughes in her Poor Side of Life blog for years.
This week she brings us the following cautionary tale.
Bear it in mind when Boris Johnson is whining on the telly about how he’s the one having a hard time.
Jill is disabled but the DWP are treating her terribly. I’ve noticed her having to attend appointments at the Jobcentre every week. If that alone isn’t stressful enough she been forced to attend a DWP course elsewhere.
Jilll is really struggling with this. She feels that she’s being targeted both by the DWP and the course providers and she can’t cope.
Visibly distressed she told her adviser that she couldn’t cope with the demands made to her both both on the course and the DWP, she asked if she could stop attending the course.
Her advisor then told her that she would have to attend the course regardless and she started to cry. Her tears were ignored by the DWP but not by us.
I get both angry and upset when I see the DWP treat vulnerable people like this. It shouldn’t be happening but it is and to thousands of people every day up and down the country. Luckily I and my comrades were there to support and advise her.
Can you imagine how hard it is to cope with the constant stress and discrimination relentlessly metered onto you from the DWP? It makes people I’ll, many take their own life because they can’t cope.
In an ideal world this wouldn’t happen. We would all be treated with respect and dignity. I know that this is a dream and it most likely never happen but it doesn’t do any harm to want to achieve this.
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“Arbeit Macht Frei” certainly sums it up, very apt.
Well i must have been dreaming all through the 90s when the DWP were helpful and fair. Staff would not have dared treat people the way they do now for fear of prosecution undef the disability discrimination act. Not that they would want to, the cultural change of hatred towards the disabled begun around 2013. I cant put my finger on what triggered this but it eas like havjng a caring parent suddenly becoming abusive. A frightening experience that has got worse every year
I think it was triggered by the fact that their campaign against the unemployed had been so “popular”. It’s currently the disabled (according to Hammond we are responsible for the low productivity the country is suffering from, nothing to do with lack of investment or money grabbing shareholders) that are the target of those that save taxpayers money, from the taxpayer. Once they have taken everything from these two groups it will be pensioners in the firing line. It has already started with the occasional comment in the press, “should pensioners be better off than young people who work full-time? Anybody with half a brain can see which way the wind is blowing there. The more immediate danger though is that they have taken the “benefit” Mortgage Interest Relief and tested the water by turning it into a loan, there hasn’t been a public outcry so watch this space to see which benefit is next. Widows pensions which used to be paid for life now attract a lump sum and 18 “generous” monthly payments. I imagine this is just the tip of the iceberg and it’s not been a bad start, 130,000 unnecessary deaths. Many by suicide, starvation, poverty, the re-emergence of Victorian childhood diseases, slum dwellings, unsafe tower blocks, unaffordable rent the rise of foodbanks, I don’t need to go on, we only have to look at social media to see the true depth of the horrors they have inflicted on working people and they have managed to use Brexit as a convenient smokescreen. Would they have got away with it without Brexit? Probably but it would have taken a lot longer to convince us to shoot ourselves in the foot!
How long is Boris going to be Prime Minister? He should have been out of British politics longtime ago, but for the stupid Tories.As long as Boris continues to be PM, the DWP cuts & surveillance(on the low paid workers) will continue.
For Boris, read Tories. They are all the same. Including the ones that have joined the Fib Dems.
I’ve posted this ad nauseam, I am trying to exist on a small occupational pension because I can’t handle the stress of the brown envelopes, being treated as sub-human by the DWP and having to justify my existence to the jobcentre anymore. I do get PIP but I know that this could be stopped at any time. I’m approaching 59 years of age, a little too long in the tooth to be accused of lying or exaggerating my prolems by some, wet behind the ears career minded target driven individual who isn’t bright enough to realise that, as soon as all benefit claims go live online, they will likely be subject to the same level of indignity, humiliation and total lack of respect they inflict on others. That said, some of the jobcentre staff are sympathetic , empathetic, and even apologetic and thoroughly decent people, they’ll probably be the first to go.. “I was only following orders” now where have we heard that before?
The problem is they make it so confusing and they keep moving the Goalposts i have social phobia so I can’t be around people, I have an eating disorder and I have to use my phone to be able to read and write yet according to to DWP I look like I get plenty of nutrition even though you can see my ribs but how would she know that if I never removed my top and I’m wearing baggy clothes I also have a facial hair to hide the fact that I look gount in the face they don’t accept that I get anxious nor do they understand a 20-minute walk Takes Me 2 hours so that means I can walk unaided even though I don’t leave my house without my dog, the question of can I read and write but they know I can’t so they changed it to symbols so because I can work out a toilet sign apparently so I can read and understand complex text unaided, I’ve worked it out unless you’re female with mental health you’re not getting nothing they treated like a piece crap I nearly done myself in yesterday but my dog stopped me.
Er, mental illnesses aren’t taken into account on PIP claims, at the very least. And of all those penalised by Tory austerity, women were hit hardest.
They’re all for equality and fairness until it means getting off their arse and getting a job.
The lack of any kind of awareness of what others are enduring really is tasteless.
The problem with things like the various acts (disability, equality, care, etc) in place is they are not actively enforced and local authorities apply their own “in house” policies subverting the national framework because they know 9 times out of 10 the service users/patients/clients are none the wiser and wouldn’t think to actually question a state run organization
Much has been the same with DWP you have people working through out their lives who have an accident or fall into poor health who wouldn’t stop to think to question a government department because they’ve had no previous dealings.
And they take full advantage of the fact. Take a look around the likes of rights.net where even pensioners are placed in financial instability off the backs of questionably poor advice from none other than DWP themselves.
100,000+ deaths linked to policy changes and zero accountability as when the public wise up the policy makers who indirectly ruined or caused peoples lives to end prematurely simply walk into the sunset.
Whatever happens in the current political theatre those involved will always get their golden handshake, and find a way to take credit for their “good work” (whitewashing all the negatives). Like how barely anybody is talking about the IDS’s work, TM’s hatchet job with Windrush, etc (make no mistake I have no love for blue but new labour under blair are equally complicit)
Would it really be any different under a Corbyn-led government though? I woŕry that it won’t. If, one year into JC’s leadership, the humiliating Work Capability Assessments and PIP Assessments were still in place, and the burgeoning, almost impossible to satisfy criteria for both benefits were still being used by private healthcare companies were also still active, who could we turn to then?
There is only one way to find out if it will be different under a Labour government and that is to have a Labour government.
Bear in mind that changing this system for the better is a Labour manifesto promise.
“changing it for the better” haha the fact that you believe that means anything if so funny to me.
Here’s another pro-Tory troll. Don’t engage; just smile, shake your head and walk away. Bless.
Tell that Messiah of yours to call an election to sort the country out. Oh wait he’s a coward
Imagine this guy’s humiliation when BoJob asks for another election and we call him a coward for going to the country rather than following the clear instruction he has received from our democratically-elected Parliament.
Yeah but the people elect those people to serve the will of the people. But the idiots in that parliament don’t follow the will of the people so we need new elected MPs to get what the country asked for.
This is where people have really kicked themselves up the backside, if there is a downturn following any form of Brexit, a lot of job go, even only in the short term, what are people going to live on if they have voted for reduced welfare? You can talk up the “get a job like me” how long will you have that job for? It really is a case of be careful what you wish for. They aren’t going to make an exception for you because you voted for them!
That’s what I save for, rainy days.
I really believe in a Brexit where we can have a great relationship with Europe and America. It will do us better.
The thing for me is that we hear what Corbyn “might” do but we have history that tells uus what the Tories “have” done. They certainly aren’t going to change. This “end to austerity” will soon end if they hold on at the next election. Probably citing economic problems left over from the last Wilson government!
What the tories will end history. What bullocks they’re the ones who created all these horrible changes ie: bedroom tax, universal credit, pension age highered, private health care etc and its going to get alot worse!
The faster labour get in the better for the poor and the disabled JC has already said he will scrap universal credit I’ve been fighting them for just over 4 years and I will continue fighting them after I was declared for for work and scored zero points when I can’t hardly walk my body movements are limited and iam suffering severe chronic pain everyday and everytime I move my doctor and specialist at the RVI hospital says iam unfit for work
The first year will seem like a fairy tale under JC, but just wait until he gets his claws into the job, you will long for the days of the broken Conservative benefits system.
The problem with the disabled and its support is that they all think a government will wave a magic wand and make things better, it won’t.
Often the disabled and its supporters make things alot worse!
Look at this. When things get tough for the Tories, their supporters come out with the prejudice.
They want us to think that the problems faced by disabled people are of their own making and nothing to do with the parasites in Westminster.
But our own experience makes a nonsense of this insulting fantasy.
We know that the Conservatives deliberately set out to deprive disabled people of the means to live a worthwhile life, from the moment Iain Duncan Smith arrived at the Department for Work and Pensions… aided and abetted by the twisted campaign of disinformation of which this comment is just the latest part.
Doesn’t matter what political party is in power. I looked after my mother for 5 year’s as a carer. I took voluntery redundancy from a place that I had worked for almost 15 years because my mother was 84 years old and having numerous amounts of fall’s. I received carers allowance for a period of almost 5 year’s, my mother unfortunately had a stroke that rendered her bed bound and peg fed in a nursing home. I had to find work and was within a month of my mother going into a care home thrown away and told to get a job, luckily I’m not useless and found work. My mother passed away 18 months later, the way you are treated by DWP I will never forgive and never forget. Just remember that!
I’m an ordinary person who works for my money and I’m not deprived. So maybe these people on benefits should do what I do and get a job.
There’s also plenty of opportunities for the disabled helping them get into work like the guaranteed interview scheme, which is a Tory policy.
There appears to be a co-coordinated pro-Tory trolling campaign going on here. Let’s not engage; just marvel at all the wrong in these comments.
Some of you loony lefties are deaf in one ear and only hear the lies coming from corbyns mouth. I pity you all.
As I mentioned before, don’t engage with this one. Just enjoy the comedy.
Are you all going to be on the streets with your signs asking for another election when you lose the next election or are you going to respect our democracy for once?
Imagine this guy’s dumbfounded astonishment when Labour wins. Will he take to the streets?
I see the old “I’m alright Jack, get a job” pillocks are at large. Now, I have no problem with them because, I know that when they lose their jobs, get ill or have a life changing accident, they will stick to their superior minded principles and not claim benefits. Happy to starve themselves and their families to death knowing they can take the moral high ground, it’s admirable really and I totally respect them. When they are near death If they let me know where the funeral is I’ll send some flowers, it’s the least I could do! So, so brave .
Nope I’ll leave the country when communism hits the country. It’s what my savings are for not Corbyns lazy needy followers.
We need a more 1950s approach to communists
My 22 year old and I waited in for 3 hours for a home PIP assessment and no one turned up added anxiety for an Autistic, socially anxious selective mute young person. When called the DWP said that they had tried to call her mobile – there’s a note on file that shes unable to speak on phone!!- when challenged on this the person said they have no access to records as only administrators- what makes this even more upsetting is the Autism team, Gp and other medics have contacted DWP to say due to social anxiety it’s not appropriate to have an assessment. What a caring society we live in. Younger sibling recently had a pip assessment and on report states no phsycological input or meds, clearly states on her forms CAMHs involvement and meds shes on. What is going on with this broken system?
What I would like to know is if the true figure of benefit fraud is less than 1% (as Amber Rudd stated 24th July 2019 in the work and pensions select committee) why do they treat 90% of claimants as fraudulent? Could it be that along with with the general public the assessors have been influenced by the channel 5 documentaries about benefit fraud making everyone believe there are no genuine disabled/sick people in our society? Obviously the assessors are also influenced by their bonuses and incentives to drive people to suicide. I have asked people I know what percentage of claimants are faking and the astonishing answers are 50%-70%. This is why there is no public outcry. Channel 5 should be forced to stop repeating those programs and taken to task about demonising ALL disabled people and creating a completely false perception. I believe their programs are no different to hate speech and they should be brought to task over this.
I don’t give a fig about the “I’m alright Jack” brigade, they actually deserve to go into the “system” and suffer what they voted to inflict on others, I’m afraid I have lost a lot of sympathy for the state they find themselves in. Don’t get me wrong I sympathise with anybody suffering from cancer, it killed my wife lasy year. I saw a woman post “I have terminal cancer and because they said I’m fit for work I only get £73 a week until they sort out a mandatory reconsideration or an appeal and I could be dead by then, what am I supposed to live on?” Up until that point I was really feeling sorry for her and I would have helped out if I could, Sympathy draned when she added ” Ill never vote Conservative again”.