Tag Archives: diabetes

Loach heads campaigners calling for benefit assessment ban after job centre death

Pointing the finger: Ken Loach joined the call to end unfair benefit assessment interviews after the death of a man in Llanelli.

A campaign to ban benefit assessment interviews has been launched after a 65-year-old man with diabetes collapsed and died after being found ‘fit for work’.

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) has called on the DWP to halt assessments for Personal Independence Payment and Employment and Support Allowance after the man died while waiting for an interview to discuss his future benefit options.

Discussing the death, This Site stated: “He would have been old enough to retire if the Conservatives had not decided to raise the retirement age for both men and women in an attempt to save a few pennies.”

I wrote: “Yes, he was obviously ill. But that doesn’t mean a thing to a Tory government… They call it a ‘positive benefit outcome’.”

Others compared the tragedy to a similar scene in left-wing film-maker Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake.

Now Mr Loach himself has spoken in favour of DPAC’s campaign.

Unconsciously paraphrasing my words, he said (according to the Morning Star): “What has happened really was disgraceful. The man was only 65 — he only had a few more months to go and he would have been retired anyway.

“Such is the brutality of it, but it’s clear that the Tories have no intention of changing their harsh system.”

And he said: “We have to vote them out — we may as well start with Iain Duncan Smith, the architect of this misery, who is as callous as he is sanctimonious.”

That is already well in hand – as you can read here.

Demanding an end to PIP and ESA assessments, DPAC activist Jennifer Jones raised the relevant point – that a man has died in a manner that could have been prevented.

It happened because a benefit assessor “lied about his fitness levels and abilities and he wasn’t given the support that his individual needs deserved”.

She’s right – and it makes a nonsense of repeated attempts by the DWP to claim that it does provide support tailored to the needs of each benefit claimant.

So far – in this case – the DWP’s only comment has been a message of sympathy to the deceased man’s family and friends.

DPAC – and Mr Loach – have demanded an end to benefit assessment interviews, for the obvious reason that they have now been proven to do more harm than good.

But there is no way the DWP – run as it is by a Conservative government – will take such action willingly.

Labour has promised to overhaul the benefit system completely, though.

The only way to be sure this does not happen in the future is to elect a Labour government.

Source: Campaigners call for benefit assessment ban after man dies in jobcentre | Morning Star

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Elderly man – with long-term illness – dies at Job Centre after being found ‘fit for work’

Protest: This is the most appropriate image I have for the story below. It shows a protest by an artist known as VoidOne. More information is available here.

If this does say everything about why we need a change of government, I don’t know what does.

A man collapsed and died while he was waiting for an appointment to claim unemployment benefit at a Job Centre in Llanelli.

We are told he was diabetic, and must have been receiving some form of sickness or disability benefit until recently because his appointment was a consequence of being found “fit for work” after an assessment interview.

We are also told he was 65 years old, which means that he would have been old enough to retire if the Conservatives had not decided to raise the retirement age for both men and women in an attempt to save a few pennies.

Metro quotes a witness who said: “The man next to me told me that the poor guy had diabetes and had been declared fit for work by the job centre earlier in the year but he was obviously ill.”

Yes, he was obviously ill.

But that didn’t mean a thing to a Tory government that would rather see you dead if you can’t be made to work for a pittance to increase the profits of the super-rich.

That’s why so many people are refused sickness and disability benefits, even though they clearly qualify; without the money they need to support them, either their condition will kill them, or stress, or they may take their own life in despair.

It’s all the same to the Tories; they call it a “positive benefit outcome”.

There is only one way to end this barbarity – and that is to vote a Labour government back into office.

Source: Man dies at Llanelli Job Centre while claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance | Metro News

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The brutal difference between what Tories say and what they do

What Tories say:

Today – November 11 – is Remembrance Day. To mark the occasion, the Conservative Party announced a series of policies for ex-servicepeople.

Here’s one of them:

They have also announced extra childcare for military families and a law to protect veterans from “vexatious” legal action connected with their activities in the Armed Forces.

You may think that seems like a nice package.

What they do:

This is David Clapson:

He was a Lance Corporal in the Royal Signals serving in Belfast at the height of the troubles before leaving the army to work for BT. After working for the telecommunications firm for 16 years he became a carer for his elderly mother.

He suffered with Type 1 Diabetes and relied on regular insulin injections to survive.

Ordered to claim Jobseekers’ Allowance by the Tory-run Department for Work and Pensions, his payments were stopped after he missed an appointment and he died three weeks later, of diabetic shock, on July 20, 2013.

He had been unable to pay for the electricity to keep his insulin at the right temperature, meaning it had become unusable.

He had less than £4 to his name, and died with an empty stomach.

The Tories can say what they want and it won’t mean a thing.

This is what the Conservatives do to our ex-servicepeople. 

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The ‘diabetes tax’: Some patients must pay £1,200 a year for tool Theresa May said was freely available on the NHS

Theresa May: She might get her FreeStyleLibre diabetes tool on the NHS, but her government has made sure many members of the public have to pay a fortune for it.

An apparently innocent interlude in Prime Minister’s Questions has opened up a potentially-huge controversy for the Conservative government.

Labour MP Steve McCabe noted that Theresa May uses a FreeStyleLibre diabetes tool, which monitors her condition and warns her when she needs medication. He asked when it would be freely available on the National Health Service. Here’s the dialogue, from the official record of Parliamentary affairs, Hansard:

“Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)

“Even the Prime Minister’s fiercest critics—I believe she has a few—must be full of admiration for the way in which she manages her diabetic condition and holds down such a tough and demanding job. I understand that she benefits from a FreeStyle Libre glucose monitoring system. Wouldn’t it be nice if she did something to make that benefit available to the half a million people who are denied it because of NHS rationing? Perhaps we could call it “help for the many, not the few”. [907106]

“The Prime Minister

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments. I do use a FreeStyle Libre, and it is now available on the national health service, but it is not the only means of continuous glucose monitoring that is available on the NHS. Yesterday I saw a letter from a child—a young girl—who had started on the FreeStyle Libre, but, because of the hypos that she had been having, had been moved to a different glucose monitoring system. There is no one system that is right for everyone; what is important is that those systems are now available on the NHS.”

Technically, she was correct and the FreeStyleLibre is available on the NHS.

But, thanks to Tory meddling, its availability to people with diabetes is based on a postcode lottery.

You may remember that Andrew Lansley’s hated Health and Social Care Act of 2012 imposed Clinical Commissioning Groups on the NHS. These are local organisations that decide which services should be available to patients in their areas, based on the amount of money that is made available to them. The creation of CCGs was justified with a claim that GPs would serve on them – but in fact GPs are far too busy and the work seems to have devolved to businesspeople.

Unite the Union surveyed the 3,392 CCG board members in 2015 and reported that 513 were directors of private healthcare companies: 140 owned such businesses and 105 carried out external work for them. More than 400 CCG board members were shareholders in such companies.

As a result, trust in CCGs’ ability, or indeed willingness, to provide the best-quality healthcare their budgets can afford is low. It seems the bias is more likely towards offering private firms the contracts they want, in order to appease shareholders who sit on these groups.

The FreeStyleLibre – together with those who use it – appears to be a victim of this system.

While it is nominally available on the NHS, as Mrs May claimed, it is not available to huge numbers of NHS patients because the CCGs in their area simply haven’t offered to pay for it. Instead, they have to fund it themselves at a cost of £100 per month.

That’s a “Diabetes Tax”, if you like, of £1,200 per year.

This information comes from a segment of the BBC’s Politics Live that I was lucky enough to notice:

Here’s the clip the programme put up on Twitter, in which Type 1 diabetic Tessa Nejranowski destroys Mrs May’s claim:

So there you have it:

Mrs May lied to Parliament. FreeStyleLibre is not available on the NHS – at least, not everywhere in England – and where it is not, people have to pay £1,200 a year to have it privately. That’s a “diabetes tax” imposed on people with the condition by the Conservatives.

And it’s about as strong an argument as any for the dissolution of the CCGs and the repeal of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. But you’ll have to wait for a Labour government before that happens.

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Diabetic woman who died after benefit sanction ‘was literally killed by the government’

Clifford Watson says his girfriend’s benefit sanction triggered her ill health and death.

The current focus on Tory benefit cuts harming the mental health of claimants – leading to suicide – should not obscure the fact that government cuts can kill in other ways.

Amy Driver’s case is all-too-common; the Department for Work and Pensions sanctioned her out of Employment and Support Allowance, meaning she could not afford to manage her condition properly.

She was given useless advice and her medical condition worsened until she died.

Note also that her benefit was sanctioned because she had been summoned to a hospital appointment at the same time as she was asked to attend the Job Centre. This, also, is common.

Too common to be a coincidence, in This Writer’s opinion.

The sanction after a clash of commitments and the useless advice on managing a self-evident medical condition seem to be straight out of some DWP manual.

Of course, the death may be recorded as due to a worsening of Ms Driver’s condition and the DWP can therefore wash its hands of any responsibility.

That’s how the Tories get away with it.

A man says he blames the Government for the death of his partner who slipped into a diabetic coma after her benefits were stopped.

Amy Driver, 27, was given a four-week sanction after she missed one appointment at the Job Centre due to a hospital appointment, Clifford Watson claims.

Clifford, who cannot work due to a disability, said the halt in their income meant she couldn’t afford to eat properly – which triggered the low blood sugar attack.

When they complained Job Centre staff told her to go to a food bank, he alleges.

Clifford said: “She was told to go to a food bank – we called one and they said they didn’t have suitable food for diabetics.

“She was literally killed by the Government.”

Source: Diabetic woman, 27, died after slipping into a coma when her benefits were stopped and she ‘couldn’t afford to eat’ – inews.co.uk

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Victory for Hazel Macrae – DWP u-turns on decision that blind disabled woman is fit for work

Hazel MacRae from Byker, who has won her case against the DWP [Image: Newcastle Chronicle].

Well done, everyone who kicked up a fuss about the unfair and farcical decision to find Hazel MacRae fit for work.

The DWP has reversed its decision in an unusually hasty about-face. Was the publicity getting a bit rough, guys?

The joy of it is that people still aren’t letting this go. Check out some of the comments on the Chronicle story detailing the happy news:

Here’s Longsufferingfan: “This is not an unusual occurrence, about 60% + of people who are rejected win on appeal. the System is set up to reject people and hope that they don’t appeal. It needs overhauling but so far the Govt are happy with the way it is performing as it works in their favour!”

And Ruiseart adds: “This woman is just one of many, many thousands of people who the government has directed the DWP and the assessment companies to declare “fit for work” in an attempt to save money on the welfare bill.

“Examining the figures shows that had they left every person they declared “fit” alone, and not tried to deny their disabilities, they would have spent £millions LESS!

“The whole assessment regime is designed to fail the people the DWP is supposed to be helping and it should be scrapped and the people behind it should be hauled up before a court and charged with MULTIPLE MURDER!”

Feel free to add your own observations, here or on the Chronicle‘s site.

Blind and epileptic Hazel MacRae has won her appeal after a public outcry was sparked when she was deemed ‘fit for work’.

The 62-year-old received the good news on Wednesday after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) performed a u-turn.

Hazel’s fight made headlines across the country after the Chronicle revealed how she had been classed as fit for work despite being blind since birth and suffering with epilepsy, Type 2 Diabetes and osteoarthritis.

But that decision has now been reversed, and Hazel, of Walker, could not be happier.

She said: “I can’t thank the Chronicle enough for their help . The support I have been getting is fantastic.”

Source: Victory: Blind Hazel Macrae wins her fight after she was deemed fit for work by DWP – Chronicle Live

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The tide is turning as blind benefit claimant’s tale provokes backlash against DWP

Hazel MacRae from Walker, who has been told she is fit to work despite being blind, epileptic and suffering from osteoarthritis [Image: Newcastle Chronicle].

The Tories are going to have to find a new narrative, as it seems the “workshy” angle has stopped working.

Readers of at least one local newspaper reacted angrily to the Department for Work and Pensions’ decision to make a blind woman, who has diabetes, epilepsy and osteoarthritis, look for work.

This Site’s own Facebook page has received a few pertinent comments after I put the story up on Vox Political.

Susan Fairweather wrote: “In a decent society not only would this lady get all benefits she is entitled to but she would have extra funding to improve her quality of life – such as entitlement to a guide dog without having to rely on charity and waiting for years. What type of job could she do, realistically? These ‘assessors’ are criminals.”

Jackie Motti added: “ANOTHER unfair and tragically unnecessary case of abuse and discrimination which will make this poor lady’s health worse…. shameful (for normal people with hearts…. Tories don’t have them) bless everyone in this position and hopefully this bloody awful government will collapse very soon! The real SCROUNGERS are banks, landlords, tax avoiders and the like …. and the bloody MPS themselves!”

Here’s Kathleen Garrett: “Disgraceful and inhumane. The tories have manipulated the system and the people of Britain into believing it’s our poor and vulnerable that are to blame for austerity. They have distracted us from the real culprits. The rich and the downright greedy who don’t pay any taxes into our system but take from it. Shame on us.”

Simon Balfre wrote: “The Conservative Party and the media have created this insane idea that welfare recipients are a drain on the economy.

“Do welfare recipients hold onto their money and keep it out of circulation? Of course they don’t, they can’t afford to. Every penny of the pittance they receive goes back out again.

“It’s the obscenely wealthy who siphon off millions into off shore tax havens, and find all manner of ways to avoid paying tax, who are the real drain on the economy.

“And I’m not the only one who has figured this out.”

He’s not – This Writer has been saying it on This Site for a considerable period of time!

But Tracey Kay warned: “There are still too many people who think benefits are a lifestyle choice. Who would like to be targeted incessantly for the crime of having a disability or illness? It can happen to any of us at any time and the way the tories are ‘reforming’ the system there will soon be no safety net left for any of us.”

A decision to deem a blind, house-bound 62-year-old ‘fit for work’ has been branded “absolutely shameful” by Chronicle readers.

Hazel Macrae, who also suffers from epilepsy, Type 2 Diabetes and osteoarthritis, was claiming Employment Support Allowance (ESA) – until she was told she has “limited capacity for work”.

Her benefits were slashed by £15 and she was told she would be trained to find a job – even though she can’t leave the house by herself and isn’t able to make a cup of tea.

Brian Lewis said: “I’m all for disabled people making the best of a poor situation but the DWP need to get a grip and use some common sense here, what realistically can Hazel do for a sustainable job?”

Sandra Weaver said: “Absolutely shameful. As if the poor woman hasn’t got enough to worry about. Who are these people making these decisions? It’s disgusting.”

Sheilagh Barlow said: “Where is the DWP’s accountability? They cause so many people great distress that it’s totally unacceptable.

“The staff aren’t trained, they only train them to use a computer so when they don’t put in the correct information they get the wrong answer out!”

Many laid the blame firmly at the feet of the current Conservative government.

Daniel Gallagher said: “Look how people are targeting the “lazy work shy” instead of looking at the multi national corporations that don’t pay tax or the banks that got us into this mess in the first place.”

He added: “The Tories want us to blame each other but in actual fact the blame lies firmly at their feet.”

And some spoke of their own struggles appealing against similar decisions.

Natasha Barrett said: “The assessment process is a complete joke. The appeals process is very long and drawn out.

“I hope this lady doesn’t have to wait a year as I did. It also hurts to think that people don’t believe you when there is medical evidence from highly qualified consultants etc to back it up. Very, very sad to read.”

In spite of everything, the DWP still managed to be defiant in the service of its Tory masters. This is staggering ignorance:

A Department of Work and Pensions spokesman said many blind people and those over 60 can be supported back into work with training.

Source: ‘Absolutely shameful’: Readers react as blind, housebound 62-year-old deemed ‘fit for work’ – Chronicle Live

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While the Tories tinker with benefits, this is the reality for claimants

Hazel MacRae from Walker who has been told she is fit to work despite being blind, epileptic and suffering from osteoarthritis [Image: Newcastle Chronicle].

The future will be bleak for Hazel MacRae. While the Tories vow they are doing everything to make their murderous ‘benefit’ system fair, they are taking money away from her and trying to force her to find a job she can’t do.

Will she be able to survive on the reduced amount now available to her? The Tories don’t care.

Will she be able to find a job? Absolutely not, because firms simply would not spend money on adaptations for a disabled person who is unlikely to last very long in a job. The Tories don’t care.

Will she be stricken by the usual problems that afflict benefit claimants who are attacked by the Tory system – despair, mental ill-health, suicidal tendencies? Probably. The Tories don’t care.

If she doesn’t survive, the Tories will deny responsibility and enjoy the benefit saving. They consider her to be a “useless eater” and are probably looking forward to her becoming another statistic for their policy of chequebook euthanasia.

It’s all about money with the Tories, you see. They want it all, and don’t care who they take it from or how badly they will be harmed.

Blind since birth and stricken by a string of disabilities but told she is fit to work – this is the reality of Government benefit cuts.

Hazel Macrae, who also suffers from epilepsy, Type 2 Diabetes and osteoarthritis, was claiming Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and was told she’d have to undertake a back to work assessment.

The 62-year-old filled in a questionnaire explaining she’s unable to leave her home without the help of her partner or son because she is afraid of falling, can’t use a pen or pencil, telephone, and would be unable to “move safely” in a workplace.

She was also required to meet with a health professional in Gosforth to undergo a face-to-face assessment where she was asked a series of questions about her daily activities.

Echoing the award-winning Ken Loach film I, Daniel Blake – which was shot in Newcastle – Miss Macrae has been told she has “limited capability for work” and her ESA has been moved from the Support Group to Work Related Activity Group, and reduced by £15 per fortnight.

She said: “They think they can support me back into work but I can’t do it. There are no jobs that I can do.

“They have said that I can use my hands and I’m expected to apply for all jobs going… I can’t even make a cup of tea myself because of the boiling water.”

Source: Blind from birth, epileptic and unable to leave home alone – but Government says she’s fit to work – Chronicle Live

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Formal demand for further investigation into ‘unnatural’ death of former soldier after benefit sanction

The late David Clapson, who died after his benefit was cut [Image: change.org petition site].

The late David Clapson, who died after his benefit was cut [Image: change.org petition site].

Vox Political welcomes the formal request for an inquest into the death of ex-soldier David Clapson.

His is a story This Blog has followed since his death was first reported, back in July 2013.

Mr Clapson, a former Lance Corporal in the Royal Signals, died of fatal diabetic ketoacidosis caused by a severe lack of insulin.

He had been unable to keep his insulin at the correct temperature because he was on benefits and these had been sanctioned – meaning he had no money to buy electricity for his fridge.

A post-mortem found that his stomach was completely empty. His sister Gill Thompson said he died with six tea bags, an out-of-date sardine tin and a can of tomato soup to his name – and a pile of CVs next to his body.

The DWP has refused to accept any causal relationship between the withdrawal of benefits and the deaths of claimants – but this may change after Ms Thompson lodged official papers with the Hertfordshire Coroner on October 28, “on the basis that he died an unnatural death due to the imposition and effects of the benefit sanction… in force at the time of his death”.

If it does, it seems likely that coroners across the country may receive many more formal requests for reconsideration of other deaths that took place in similar circumstances.

David Clapson is far from the only person to have died after losing benefits.

Both local coroners and the DWP have managed to turn away such calls – the former most commonly by claiming deaths were from natural causes, while the latter has refused to act on calls to review benefit-related deaths.

But this case could set a precedent that may become impossible to ignore.

No doubt the DWP, the Tory Government and the right-wing media will do their utmost to ensure as few people know about this as possible.

So please tell everybody you know – and tell them to tell everybody they know, too.

It’s time we got to the heart of the benefit death scandal.

The family of David Clapson, the former British soldier who died after his benefits were sanctioned, has formally requested an inquest into his death.

After David died in July 2013, the coroner turned down further investigation and an inquest, ruling that his death was due to natural causes. But, backed by the Daily Mirror, Mrs Thompson has fought for three years for a public investigation.

Leigh Day law firm says there is a “strong public interest” in a fresh investigation because “a benefit sanction arguably played a contributing or causative factor in the death”.

The legal submission to the coroner states: “The role played by the imposition of a benefit sanction in Mr. Clapson’s death, the systems in place to manage the risks posed by benefit sanctions to those who receive them, and the decision-making of DWP staff when imposing benefit sanctions on vulnerable and at-risk individuals, are of wider public importance and are matters of significant public concern.

“These matters have been considered in a number of reviews and reports, which support Ms. Thompson’s submissions on the strong public interest in this case.”

In a letter to David’s MP, the DWP stated they were “aware Mr Clapson was insulin dependent”.

In 2014, Mrs Thompson started a petition with Change.org that gained over 200,000 signatures which helped to secure a Parliamentary Select Committee Inquiry in March 2015. However, the Government rejected the Select Committee recommendation that the number of peer reviews into deaths of persons subject to a sanction be made public.

The Government also rejected Ms Thompson’s calls for an Independent Review into David’s death and the deaths of others in similar circumstances and of an independent body to conduct more reviews into the deaths of those in receipt of ‘working-age’ benefits.

Source: Family of soldier David Clapson who died after benefit sanctions lodge formal demand for inquest – Mirror Online

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DWP hounded diabetic, mentally ill mother to her death after ‘fit for work’ verdict

150920Urbacz pic copy

Your caring government will say there is no evidence to connect its policies with the deaths of benefit claimants. Does anybody – at all – believe that any more?

This was posted on Facebook today.

Peter Urbacz

My mother Ruby Urbacz age 59 was found dead at her home on the 6th September as a result of a heart attack. She had been admitted to hospital a 01/08/15 for chest pains where they found she had had three minor heart attacks. Even though my mother had poor mobility , type 2 diabetes, very basic numeracy and literacy skills and mental health problems including depression, she was deemed “fit for work” by the DWP. She was put on JSA and hounded to show evidence of looking for a job she struggled to write a shopping list and thus constantly worried about money and if her benefits would be stopped.

Her benefits were stopped without without any investigation as she missed her jsa appointment whilst in hospital, after her discharge she had received no money for five consecutive weeks of the £50 per week she would have normally received she was also paying £20 per week in bedroom tax. On only £30 per week She could not afford to feed herself properly as bills were her main priority, so was living off food bought from poundland which obviously worsened her diabetes.
She was getting carer visits from the red cross.

After her discharge from hospital. On the the 4th September the carers notes say “Ruby is worried about money, still waiting for benefits to be sorted.” She died less than 48hours later.

I’m writing this not because I want sympathy but to make you aware that Iain Duncan Smith’s policies are directly contributing to the deaths of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Please do not comment with sympathetic messages as this will not change anything, instead share this post and make as many people aware of the contemptuous nature of our self serving government who punish the poor and give to the rich.
Thank you for sharing.

Source: His diabetic mother was found dead in her home after being sanctioned for being in hospital with heart problems. | Benefit tales

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