Tag Archives: Debbie Abrahams

Sick and disabled people are dying while trying to claim benefits; Tory press calls them ‘scroungers’ again

A cartoonist’s view of government sickness and disability assessments; ministers set the bar at an impossibly high level.

The Conservatives seem to have launched another attack on sickness and disability benefit claimants – labelling them as “scroungers” again, even though many are dying before they even receive state payments – due to the Kafka-esque assessment process.

Tory lickspittle Andrew Pierce has published a poison pen piece in the Daily Hate Mailaimed at whipping up division between claimants and the rest of the population.

It’s a classic Tory “divide and rule” tactic, that was deployed to devastating effect during the years of the Coalition government. It comes out whenever the government needs to distract people away from its own shortcomings.

So, for example, today you could be asking why the Conservatives ignored warnings that schools built with RAAC concrete were falling down – for 13 years – and only started doing something about it after collapses came to public attention. The Tory answer to that is: “Look at those skiving benefit scroungers!”

The reality isn’t remotely similar to Tory Boy Pierce’s claim.

The reality is that people claiming sickness and disability benefits often die before they receive a penny, because the system already works very hard to deprive them of it – as Labour MP Debbie Abrahams pointed out in a Westminster Hall debate earlier this week:

If a coroner writes a ‘Prevention of Future Death’ report, it means they believe a death could have been prevented but the circumstances in which the deceased had been placed – in this case, a benefit claim process that is so complicated and obstructive that it not only discourages claimants but depresses them and further harms their physical health – actually contributed to or caused their death.

Obviously, if we have a claim process that is actually harming or killing claimants, it should be impossible to suggest that they are lazy scroungers; a lazy scrounger would not put him- or herself through the trial of such a procedure because it would not be worth the hassle.

And the underlying reality is that prime minister Rishi Sunak and Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride want to make the Work Capability Assessment harsher, in order to force a million sick and disabled people back onto the jobs market.

They’re not doing this because those people are actually fit for work and shouldn’t be on benefits.

They’re doing it because more people looking for work means employers can pay less; if a job applicant wants more than employers are willing to pay – like an actual living wage – they can refuse the application on the grounds that they can always find someone else who will take the lower payment.

But you won’t see that fact in one of Tory Boy’s hate screeds.


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Equality watchdog may act to stop DWP discriminating against people with disabilities

If the Equalities and Human Rights Commission does decide to investigate discrimination against disabled people by the DWP, This Writer will applaud.

It means every time a departmental spokesman tries to evade responsibility for causing hardship or even death to a disabled benefit claimant, we can all say…

How disgusting of the DWP to say this, when it is being investigated for discrimination by the EHRC!

… in exactly the same way that the crazy bigoted witch-hunters have been, whenever accusations of anti-Semitism are batted away by the Labour Party.

Anybody suggesting this is unfair treatment of the DWP would have to admit it is also unfair for people to say it of Labour in respect of alleged anti-Semitism – and This Writer would say they were right to do so.

Such claims may only be made if the EHRC records a finding against the organisation it is investigating.

In that – of course – the Labour Party’s situation differs hugely from that of disabled benefit claimants. There is a wealth of information to show discrimination against people with disabilities.

This is also an opportunity to praise Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, who has continued to champion the cause of disabled benefit claimants, even after she was replaced as shadow work and pensions secretary.

I have known Debbie for years, as we have both worked on this issue, and can confirm that she is absolutely dedicated to protecting vulnerable people in the benefit system.

I hope the EHRC makes a swift decision to investigate this ongoing scandal as soon as possible.

Yes, we are going into a general election and a future government may not be formed by the party responsible for the way disabled people are currently treated.

But any findings from an EHRC investigation will serve to inform that government’s future policy – and may even lead to justice for those the current system has so badly betrayed.

The equality watchdog is considering taking action to tackle discrimination in the way decisions are made in the social security system, it revealed this morning… in response to continuing calls for action from Labour MP Debbie Abrahams.

She had told Disability News Service that evidence from disabled people about their appalling experiences of benefit assessments was helping to build a case to persuade EHRC to launch an inquiry into links between the government’s actions and the deaths of claimants.

Abrahams has met with EHRC to discuss her concerns about the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions, following a letter she wrote to the watchdog in June.

She asked EHRC in her letter to investigate why ministers hid documents from Dr Paul Litchfield, their own independent reviewer of the work capability assessment (WCA), when they knew the information would link the “fitness for work” test to the deaths of disabled benefit claimants.

And she told EHRC of her “grave concerns” about how DWP investigates deaths linked to its activity, and the lack of official scrutiny of the treatment of disabled people by DWP and its private sector contractors, Maximus, Capita and Atos, which carry out assessments.

Abrahams is working with disability blogger Dr Chris Whitaker, who has so far collected 570 stories in less than two months from disabled people who have been through the personal independence payment (PIP) assessment system.

Source: Equality watchdog ‘considering action’ on benefits discrimination – Disability News Service

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Tell this MP about your problems with PIP assessments

[Image: Black Triangle Campaign].

A former Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has appealed for members of the public to tell their stories of failings in the assessment process for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – as carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Labour’s Debbie Abrahams has teamed up with blogger Chris Whitaker, who explains the situation better than I could on his site, disabilityspeaks.com:

“Recently, I have heard some of your accounts about the PIP process.  Some of them were particularly worrying, so I got in touch with people to see if they could help.  One of them was Debbie Abrahams MP.  I’m working with Debbie to call for improvements to be made to the PIP process.

“To be clear, this isn’t a political thing.  It is far bigger and more important than that.  It is about treating people fairly, with decency and dignity.  To me, that is about more than a political viewpoint, and we need support from across the political spectrum to bring about positive change.

“To help support the case for change, I need you to tell me about your experiences of the PIP process. Tell me about how the PIP process felt for you, what you would improve. It’s important to highlight any good practice too.

“If you would like to tell me about your experiences as a claimant, an assessor, or someone who has been involved with PIP via a professional role, I’d like to hear from you.

“You can give your name, or tell your story anonymously.   Your name, or other information that might identify you, will not be publicly named unless you give your consent to this.  I understand that telling your story about PIP can be hard, so if you want to talk about this, please let me know.

You can use the form here, or email Chris at [email protected].

If you can contribute, please do.

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Abrahams demands £2.4 billion dementia fund to help bridge social care gap

Debbie Abrahams: Campaigning for people with dementia – and for improved social care all round.

My own grandmother had dementia. The family looked after her – but many people don’t have that kind of support.

Ms Abrahams said: “Typically, people with dementia spend £100,000 on their care, an astronomical sum, which would take 125 years to save for, well over a lifetime.

“Social care is in a desperate state and in urgent need of a complete overhaul. People with dementia are left struggling with a system that is unfair and unsustainable.

“The injustice of people battling to get care, on top of battling the devastating effects of dementia can’t go on and the Government must act quickly.”

It is more than an injustice. It is uncivilised.

But Tories like to pretend they are civilised. Let’s see what they do about this.

MP Debbie Abrahams has backed a call for a new £2.4 billion dementia fund by tabling a cross-party parliamentary early day motion (EDM).

The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP is co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG)on dementia.

This follows an Alzheimer’s Society report calling for urgent investment and arguing that people with dementia face an average 15 per cent higher social care costs than others

The EDM calls on the government to include a dementia fund in the forthcoming spending review to break the deadlock on reforming the social care system and end the unfairness facing people with dementia.

Source: MP Debbie Abrahams calling for £2.4 billion dementia fund | The Oldham Times

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Vile Tory ploy portrays McVey as a victim

Esther McVey: She was Theresa May’s second choice for the role of Work and Pensions Secretary – and now the Tories have launched a bogus campaign to distract us from her appalling record [Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA].

What do Tories do when their (second) choice as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is shown up as a liar and a law-breaker who positively revels in torturing the unemployed, the sick and the disabled?

They dig out an old recording of a Labour frontbencher talking about her, clip it so the words are taken out of context, and use it to accuse their opponents of abuse.

This is low, even for them.

And as inept as ever.

The person they chose to launch their ‘Respect’ offensive (and I use the word with several meanings) was Brandon Lewis, the new Tory Chairman and private landlord who is on record as having shown his own kind of respect for his tenants by voting down a Labour Bill to ensure that all rented properties are fit for human habitation. That shows which side his bread is buttered.

Politics Home explains:

New Tory chairman Brandon Lewis has called on the Labour party to crackdown on abuse in politics by pledging to suspend candidate who breach a new code of conduct.

Mr Lewis… challenged Jeremy Corbyn to tackle the ‘rot’ of violent language being used by senior political figures.

He announced a new ‘respect pledge’ which all Tory candidates will have to sign up to, binding them to “behave responsibly” throughout the election process, and urged Mr Corbyn to follow suit.

Mr Lewis also criticised John McDonnell for previous remarks in which he referred to Tory MP Esther McVey being lynched and called her a “stain on humanity.”

Mr Lewis said: “When we have got people at top of the party, of the Labour party, the Shadow Chancellor, using the kind of actions and language and behaviour they are and endorsing threats against other MPs, physical threats… He has not apologised for that he has simply condoned that.

When it was put to him that Mr McDonnell maintains that he was merely repeating comments made by others, he replied: “If you look at the recording that is what he actually said.”

It’s not good form to start your campaign for respect with a fat lie, but there you are. When you have friends in the media, you hope to get away with it, one supposes.

That seems to be the message from the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme, which ran a segment on the McDonnell claims, including the edited recording of Mr McDonnell’s comments about Ms McVey, from 2014:

Presenter Sarah Smith, discussing the issue with Barry Gardiner, admitted that Mr McDonnell had been quoting other people, but went as far as to say he did so “approvingly”. Mr Gardiner dragged the discussion back to the real political issue – Esther McVey’s suitability for her DWP job.

And after the Labour Party complained about the inaccuracy of the segment, Ms Smith had to eat humble pie:

Still, The Spectator seemed content to hop on the bandwagon, publishing its own perverse version of the story:

Why wouldn’t Labour complain about broadcasters referring to this three-year-old story out of context? It’s an unwarranted attempt to blacken a man’s name – as Ms Smith had to admit in her “clarification”.

The Tories are pressing on with their campaign:

But they’re only preaching to the converted; the only support they’ve received is from Tories.

The rest of us take a different view:

Apologies for the profanity in the tweet quoted above, but I wonder how many readers saw that and thought it was meant seriously, rather than ironically?

Susan, below, nails the Tory credibility problem:

Mention of racist, misogynistic, homophobic abuse instantly brings Toby Young to mind – and raises a pertinent question:

If you need reminding of his behaviour (it has been a few days since Mr Young resigned from the Office for Students), here’s Evolve Politics with a brief refresher:

So, yes – let’s see the Tories sign up Mr Young to their “Respect” pledge. Oh – but he’s not likely to be a Conservative Party electoral candidate, is he? So it won’t count for him. Or perhaps the Tories think their pledge should only apply to Labour candidates and members?

Yes, that seems more likely.

But Labour candidates and members are encouraged to be respectful, and avoid abuse, at every opportunity. Look:

Here are some of the tweets that resulted:

https://twitter.com/ClareClarke51/status/952983465066196994

They’re not friendly – and nobody would expect them to be. But they aren’t abusive either.

And right-wingers? Shall we see the kind of “Respect” they show – for example, in response to the Spectator tweet? Let’s see:

https://twitter.com/caroselambra777/status/952669807404617728

https://twitter.com/CreigiauBear/status/952940612134801408

And so on. Of course, the whole story is a matter of deflection – from Esther McVey’s unsuitability to be Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Debbie Abrahams, has written to Ms McVey, in accordance with Parliamentary protocol, with an offer to “work constructively”.

But she has made her opposition to Ms McVey’s appointment to the role an underlying theme, quoting many – if not all – the concerns that have been raised about her.

Here are the relevant parts of what Ms Abrahams had to say:

“As we know from numerous studies more and more people, in work and out of work, are living in poverty. More worrying still is that these numbers are expected to rise over the next few years. But instead of getting the support that they need, they are being driven to destitution as a result of the decimation of the social security safety net by your Government. On top of this the culture you and your predecessors have developed in your department has meant that instead of feeling supported and enabled, people feel demonised and even dehumanised. Your policies are hurting the people they should helpl most.

“The manner in which you quietly pushed back the retirement age for women born in the 1950s has detrimentally impacted on a generation who have worked hard, paid into the system, often for decades, only to be badly let down when they most needed it. So much for “tackling burning injustices”. Your predecessors’ unwillingness to even consider Labour’s cost-neutral or low cost proposals that would make an immediate difference to millions of older women’s lives is unfathomable.

“Sick and disabled people have faced savage cuts in support which at the very least have driven more and more into poverty and isolation, and, at worst, has led to many deaths of disabled people. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has estimated the average cumulative cuts for a disabled adult at £2,500 a year, and the UN Committee on the Convention of the Rights of Disabled People has said this Government’s treatment of disabled people amounts to a “human catastrophe”. Your Government’s failure to make any reduction of the Disability Employment Gap adds insult to injury.

“The incompetent roll-out of Universal Credit (UC) is having a devastating effect on these claimants, causing rent arrears, debt and even homelessness. The poverty that they and their children are facing in 2018, in the sixth richest country in the world, shames us all. I recognise the measures introduced at the Budget to address some of the many issues associated with Universal Credit, but as I said to your predecessor, these are not nearly enough. I set out Labour’s key asks on UC and I look forward to your response on these.

“Of course, as a previous DWP minister, you have personally seen through many of these ill-advised reforms. In fact, we have had exchanges at the Work and Pensions Select Committee on these matters on many occasions. I’d be grateful to know, given the impacts of these reforms, if you now have a different position?

  • You saw through a cut in support to more than 300,000 disabled people when Disability Living Allowance was replaced by Personal Independence Payments.
  • You refused to undertake a second full independent inquiry into the effect of the Government’s punitive sanctions policy.
  • You suggested that the bedroom tax was never about saving money.
  • You originally estimated the number of children to be lifted out of poverty be 350,000 but downgraded this in 2013 to 150,000. Now your Government has refused to publish figures on the impact of UC on poverty, although the Child Poverty Action Group has estimated that by 2022 the number of children living in poverty will increase by one million, directly as a result of cuts to UC.
  • You suggested rising foodbank use was not the fault of Conservative social security reforms although foodbanks across the UK have consistently maintained that the demand for emergency food is as a direct result of social security cuts, sanctions or delays; in UC areas demand is up by an average of 30 per cent.

“Do you still stand by what you said? Do you finally acknowledge the real hurt these so-called reforms have inflicted? Do you recognise that you need to go beyond the measures introduced in the Budget to fix UC and when will you be making a statement to the House on this? Will you guarantee, as your predecessor David Gauke did, that there will be no further cuts to the social security budget?

“Will you look again at the ‘rape clause’? It is fundamentally wrong to include a ‘rape clause’ in our social security system. This, and the wider impact of the two-child policy on the poorest busts the myth of your Government’s support for families.

“I share my colleague Jon Trickett’s concerns, outlined in his letter to the Prime Minister, about your record as a director of J G McVey & Co regarding Health and Safety breaches. Given that Health and Safety at work are DWP responsibilities, how is your role compatible with your record as a director of this company?

“The DWP has a huge impact on millions of lives. It needs compassionate leadership. At a time when your local Mid Cheshire foodbank has seen a 30 per cent increase on food parcels in the previous year you must now fix the botched roll-out of Universal Credit. You much rethink the inhumane cuts that disabled people are facing and provide the dignity and security in retirement that our older people deserve.

“We need a fairer social security system which works for the many, not the few, which provides hope and restores trust between citizens and Government. I am willing to work constructively with you in the best interests of the country. However continuing down the current road will only cause more misery.”

These are the issues – and Brandon Lewis wants his “Respect” campaign to distract you from them.

How would you describe that?

I would call it: Disrespectful.


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Tories agree to release secret Universal Credit reports – but only to a Commons committee

Work and Pensions Secretary David Gauke has agreed to provide a committee of MPs ‘secret’ reports into Universal Credit.

Don’t be fooled by Tory government rhetoric; this is a serious victory for Labour.

Discussion of those parts of the Universal Credit reports that the government doesn’t insist are kept confidential will put them in the public domain.

And we will be able to work out what’s in the confidential parts by their omission from such debate.

The social media have already started a debate of their own, of course.

Here’s Debbie Abrahams, speaking at the Commons debate:

After Mr Gauke agreed to provide the reports, Steve Topple had this to say:

Judy Hamilton added:

They’re not wrong, are they?

David Gauke has accepted a Labour motion to provide reports into the rollout of Universal Credit to the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee.

In a victory for Jeremy Corbyn’s party, the Work and Pensions Secretary told MPs on Tuesday that he will honour an opposition request for the unpublished files to be passed to the committee on an “exceptional” basis.

Yet despite the Information Commissioner ruling the documents should be fully published, the government still won’t release them to the public.

And with the Government insisting some key elements are kept confidential, questions have been raised over how the influential select committee can use the information it gains through reading the files.

As part of its bid to pause the nationwide roll-out of Universal Credit, Labour used the same ancient Parliamentary procedure that it deployed to force the publication of confidential Brexit impact assessments last month [a “humble address” to the Queen, asking that she order the government to pass on the information].

Labour’s formal motion stated:

“That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, That she will be graciously pleased to give directions that the five Project Assessment Reviews carried out into Universal Credit between 2012 and 2015 by the Government’s Major Projects Authority now known as the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, and any subsequent Project Assessment Reviews carried out into Universal Credit by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority between 1 January 2016 and 30 November 2017 that have been provided to Her Majesty’s Ministers at the Department of Work and Pensions, be provided by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to the Work and Pensions Committee.”

The Information Commissioner’s Office has previously ruled that the DWP should publish the files concerned in full, a decision the government has said it will challenge.

Source: Government Bows To Pressure Over ‘Secret’ Universal Credit Reports


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These are the financially-crippling reasons Universal Credit has to be fixed

Debbie Abrahams, Labour’s shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, (pictured speaking at the Labour Party Conference): She provides more sense on Universal Credit in a short news article than the Tories have in the last seven years.

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Debbie Abrahams has written in The Independent, highlighting the reasons the minority Tory government’s version of Universal Credit is flawed in its conception.

Simply put, Tory Universal Credit is neither universal, nor a credit; it is restricted to a limited number of claimants – and still plunges them into debt.

So Universal Credit harms people while providing the Tories with a pretext to claim they are helping.

It pushes people toward suicide:

https://twitter.com/MutazElnour/status/920697937927311361

And the struggle to change the system is Herculean because, as this audience member on yesterday’s (October 19) BBC Question Time points out, the Tories’ contempt for the poor is disgusting:

Although the vote on whether we should pause [Universal Credit] was won, the battle continues. We know that it is the serious flaws in the design of Universal Credit that are driving the rising debt, arrears and even evictions being faced by those brought under the programme. The high cost of calling was aggravating these deeper issues.

Primarily, the six weeks that the Government were asking people to wait between making a new claim and receiving support was leaving families with nothing to live on.

Foodbank use is rising in areas where Universal Credit has been rolled out. Based on local authority estimates, the Greater Manchester Mayor raised concerns that rough sleeping in the city could double over the winter as a result of the programme.

Surely the social security system is there to prevent people getting into debt and suffering hardship, not exacerbate these problems? The Government could follow Northern Ireland and proposals in Scotland and introduce a two week payment system which would go some way to addressing this problem, at little additional cost.

The programme has also suffered deep cuts by this Government that have moved it further away from its original ambitions.

A reduction to the amount you can earn before support is withdrawn, cuts to disability premiums, and an inflexible approach to the self-employed are all leaving people worse off. Some families are losing £2,600 a year compared with the old system. Child poverty is expected to increase by a million children by 2020.

The cuts to Universal Credit have meant that the key principle that work should always pay has been lost. The cuts together with the delays in receiving the first payment, the costly call charges to the so-called helpline and other design issues have led to the issues so many claimants now face.

It is therefore vital that the Government looks again at the design of the programme before roll out continues. Under the current schedule, a million people will be using Universal Credit within the next few months, up from 600,000. We must get it right before so many are asked to rely on the programme to make ends meet.

Source: Theresa May might be scrapping helpline charges, but the battle to reform Universal Credit goes on


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Labour has accepted that benefit claimants are being pushed to suicide. Will the DWP?

Debbie Abrahams, Labour’s shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, speaking at the Labour Party Conference.

Debbie Abrahams just laid down the gauntlet – but does the DWP, let alone the Tories, have the courage to pick it up?

In her speech at the Labour Party Conference, she very clearly stated about sick and disabled people, that “with dwindling social security support, too many are dying early, and even taking their own lives.”

The DWP has stubbornly refused to accept any such connection between its treatment of benefit claimants and suicide – and the Conservatives have demanded that their legislation has absolutely nothing to do with deaths.

But Debbie Abrahams just came right out and said it.

And Labour is going to form a government – sooner, rather than later, This Writer suspects.

What will the DWP say then? And, more to the point, will there be an investigation into who is responsible for the many thousands of deaths caused by current DWP policy?

Here’s the relevant part of her speech:

The United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recently reported that this Government’s policies were leading to a ‘human catastrophe’. Increasingly, sick and disabled people are facing poverty and isolation. As my Disability Equality Roadshow revealed, many feel like prisoners in their own homes; with dwindling social security support, too many are dying early, and even taking their own lives.

As we promised in our Manifesto with and for disabled people, Labour will deliver on the rights of disabled people, enshrining the UN Convention into UK law.

Conference, a Labour Government will transform our social security system from one that demonises, to one that is supportive and enabling. Like the NHS, it should be there for any one of us in our time of need, providing dignity and security for all.


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