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GPs Won’t Be Responsible For Issuing Sick Notes Under Rishi Sunaks New plans

Every now and then I get so angry when the government reveals new plans for disabled people I have to delay writing this blog. Today is one of those days.

I’ve been writing this blog for over 10 years now and since then it’s been an endless onslaught of changes to the social security system that willfully marganalises and causes an immense amount of suffering to those already struggling and in need.

No one chooses to be disabled and neither does anyone choose to become ill, it’s an awful situation to be in however the government clearly believes that they do.

The difference between the haves and have nots is becoming much bigger as each day progresses. For example if a Tory government minister or indeed a prime minister becomes ill they can afford to pay privately for the best care to recover or manage their situation. An everyday regular person cannot afford to do so.

Some people never fully recover from an illness because they can’t afford to access the care that they need and they manage the best that they can.

Imagine being such a vile, awful person that constantly attacks those in need whilst smiling at the same time… Well Rishi Sunak did just that in an interview on Radio 5 this morning  April 19th 2024.

Sunaks clearly is not happy with doctors and consultants rightfully declaring that people are unfit to work. They do this having extremely good medical knowledge. They want the best for their patients.

Sunak plans to stop this and has declared that if his ideas come into fruition GPs will no longer be in charge of issuing sick notes. So basically a person with zero medical training will do so, most likely a DWP sadist that has no qualms doing this.

In the interview Sunak declared that  claim Britain has a ‘sick note culture’ and  people are being ‘unnecessarily’ written off work.

Sunak announced that there would be a review of the fit note system to reduce the number of people being declared not fit for work and that doctors shouldn’t be ‘over medicalising everyday challenges and worries of life’.

Reading this you’d have thought that he  has had some medical training to come to this decision but he hasn’t. He probably sat in a meeting with colleagues discussing how they can continue to hurl more punishment to already marginalized people afterall they regard disabled and ill people as ‘useless eaters’

He most likely sees this as a vote winner and back in the day it probably would have been, but people have clearly had enough of this now. There’s only so many times you can kick a person whilst they’re down without some retaliation.

And people will definitely rebel against these evil plans. I can bet there’s more in disgust at these plans than think they’re a good idea.

The ‘scrounger against scrounger’ way to manipulate the public isn’t working as well as it was before. Many of those that had this view now find themselves at the recieving end of it now

A Lot more people can see right through it and thank god they can.

What Sunak needs to do is to acknowledge that nobody chooses to be disabled and ill, it can literally happen to anyone at any time. He won’t and he never will.

His kind hates working class people especially those that are disabled.

One thing that I do know is that if you think these plans are dreadful they’ll become a whole lot worse if they win the next general election. Let’s vote them out.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/gps-no-longer-charge-issuing-32617749

Photo by Mikael Blomkvist on Pexels.com
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Unpaid Carers Forced To Pay Back Thousands

And so the DWP cruelty continues and we shouldn’t be surprised.

Unpaid carers have been told by the DWP (Department Of Work And Pensions) to repay thousands of pounds of benefits after unknowingly earning too much money years ago.

Not only is this cruel it was entirely preventable if the DWP had done their jobs correctly. But forcing unpaid to pay back thousands is unbelievable especially when they save the government millions every year.

The DWP system shows when carers have gone over the earnings limit but they failed to inform claimants instead allowing their claims to continue for months or even years before recovering the full amount owed.

This has also been highlighted in a series of articles by Patrick Butler in The Guardian which shows exposing the cruelty in how they treat unpaid carers

Along with this the folks over at Benefits And Work have raised the reasons why the DWP should never get the police powers they desperately want.

This also proves why the DWP should never be given police powers.

This has resulted in the DWP given free reign to threaten  carers with jail terms.
They have also used laws that were  designed to strip drug dealers of their property to take  money from carers.


The DEP have unlawfully ignored judges legal directions in order to increase the amount they can take back from carers.


The DWP have been shown to misleed MPs for years by promising that new technology meant large overpayments would no longer happen.


Alongside this they are refusing to publish a report on the effects of overpayment recovery on carers which was completed years ago.


Take for example the heart breaking  case of Vivienne Groom who cared for her elderly mother who had dementia and suffered from a stroke is a disturbing example of how the DWP treat carers.

Vivienne was given incorrect advice from a  social worker that she didn’t need to declare her part-time minimum wage at the  Co-Op job to the DWP whilst still receiving carers allowance.

When her hours increased she did inform the DWP, who said they would get back to her.

Unsurprisingly they never did reply to her.

Years later she was threatened with prosecution and began repaying the overpayment at £30 a month.

This is a large amount of money for her to replay each month but she did so.

Her mother sadly died and left her a £16,000 inheritance. The DWP went on to  prosecute  Vivienne using the Proceeds of Crime Act.

This was created to take expensive cars and large houses from drug dealers, not people who have cared for loved ones

They also threatened her with up to seven years in prison in order to steal her inheritance.

Vivienne decided to take legal action and was refused legal aid because she had £16,000 in capital even though she couldn’t access it because the DWP had her account frozen the day the money went into her bank account.

The case ended with the DWP legal team ignoring judges directions on three separate occasions to make calculations that may have reduced the amount Vivienne owed and, instead, getting the whole of her inheritance.

It’s extremely disturbing that the possibility that  a vengeful organisation as is the DWP could be given the power to search claimants homes, seize their possessions and prosecute them or impose fines upon them must be challenged whenever it is raised.

As proven time after time the DWP will ignore a judges ruling and will appeal any decisions made in a court of law.

It’s wrong, beyond cruel . The government should be thanking unpaid carers for the work that they do because ultimately they save the government millions of pounds each year.

It’s our job to challenge this whenever possible and share articles to raise awareness because believe it or not there are people that aren’t aware that this does and will continue to happen.

A huge thank you to Patrick Butler for his hard work in producing these interviews

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/unpaid-carers-allowance-payment-prosecution-earnings-rules

Also thanks to the folk over at Benefit And Work for the hard work that they do to help people.

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

Thanks to my partner for sending me the article as soon as it was published.

This time of the year is especially hard for me because of the anniversary of my son’s passing and everything that went along with that.

This is why I’ve been absent from social media because it’s tough for me to handle but I will be back to normal soon

Thank you for your patience

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Cruel Universal Credit Sanction Rates Continue To Increase


It’s no surprise that the DWP (Department Of Work And Pensions) is continuing to punish universal credit (UC) claimants with their harsh sanction regime afterall it’s their favorite and easiest method of punishment that they use.



The latest official figures show that sanctions rate had remained to above 7% from August through to November of 2023 which are the most recent months of which figures are available.

However in in March 2020, just before the pandemic began, UC sanctions rates were at just 2.5% having fallen steadily since January 2017.

The DWP have unsurprisingly given no explanation for this almost threefold increase in sanctions.

I mean how on earth could this happen?

Sanctions are imposed for various reasons but the most common are for failing to attend or take part in mandatory interviews, indeed 95% are given for this reason.

What we do know from past experience is that sanctions are given for wrongful reasons.

These reasons vary but are often and not excluding others claimant not receiving notification of having to attend a meeting,  being ill and notifying the DWP that they were not able to attend or already working at the time given and their employer won’t allow them to leave for their DWP appointment.

We know that sanctions can and should be appealed however many aren’t aware that they can do so and have the energy to fight it.

Sanctions are particularly cruel because not only does the claimant get sanctioned it also affects any dependants that live with them.

Combine this with the cruel benefit caps and this with the three child limit which directly impacts a child’s health and well being.

Are incentives being given for Job Coaches to refer people for sanctions?

I can’t say for sure but we do know that they’ve been using these methods for years now and it’d be very out of character to stop doing this.

I do know that sanctioning people like this is cruel, inhumane and needs to be stopped now before more people fall victim to the DWPs cruel regime of punishment and blame.

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Jobcentres Told To Stop Referring Claimants To Food banks


Jobcentres have given claimants referrals  food banks for many years and on the whole it’s worked quite well. It’s helped possibly millions of people throughout the years.

This referral comes in the form of a referral slip which contains some personal details about the claimants for example if they have children and any other essential details.

Some food banks will only accept people if they’ve been referred by outside organisations such as the DWP, social services and so on.

For no apparent reason the DWP aren’t happy with handing out food bank referrals stating that it’s and have decided that it’s now an  “inappropriate use of personal claimant data” and referrals need to be stopped.

Thousands of claimants rely upon these referrals and often request them when they’ve had their benefits sanctioned or are  waiting weeks for their first benefit payment, they’ve literally kept people alive as they are unable to buy food.

The DWP have decided that claimants now have to approach another agency, such as their doctor, housing association, social worker to obtain a food bank referral.

This then automatically puts another barrier to receiving much needed food from a food bank.



I dont for one minute believe the DWP’s data protection argument is valid,  after all they don’t have a problem with sharing claimants details to other organisations and agencies that work alongside them. Nor do they respect a claimants privacy when they’re looking up a claimants details and activities on social media etc.

That’s apparently ok.

Contrary to the DWPS depiction of  claimants they are intelligent enough to read the contents of the slip and realise that they will be handing over their personal details. to food banks, it’s ridiculous to think otherwise.

However the real reason that the DWP don’t want food banks to be able to publish their statistics showing that massive amounts of claimants are being forced to access food banks 

This is as a direct  result of the benefits system completely failing claimants and pushing them further into poverty.

Unbelievable aren’t they willing to put a claimants basic human rights at risk  in order to save themselves and hide essential details.

Their benefits systems were created to make people suffer afterall how dare they ask for help.

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A huge thank you to everyone that reads and shares my blog it is appreciated.

If you like my work and would like to donate to keep it and myself going there’s a donation button at the top and side of this blog post.

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Cruel Severe Disability Group Assessment System Exposed

At last the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) has revealed the details of their appalling new system that assess claimants that are in the severe disability group.

As we know every person’s circumstances are different depending upon their diagnosis and entry to this group may be based on and is not exclusively

Having medically precise definitions that are not connected with the benefits system :

Having information that only a claimant or carer will know however a specialist will still have to provide details:

Having availability of specialist services and access to said services  where the claimant lives

And unbelievably no clear criteria given  at all.

    There is also great concern that their distinct lack of clarity on the overlap between the Severe Disability Group and the light-touch review system for PIP will cause claimants to be wrongly assessed and treated.

    We can only imagine how disastrous this will be for severely disabled people which gives me great concern for their well-being.

    God help us they certainly have no regard for the lives and well-being of extremely vulnerable people.

    Many claimants and disability charities are sharing their concerns that the creation of their planned separate group of severely disabled claimants will be directed purely at reducing future payments for those that they allege are not as severely disabled.

    And there lies the real reason for the creation of this new group. It’s all about the money and how to take away as much as they can take away from vulnerable people to line their own greedy pockets.

    It’s vile and inhumane.

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    DWP Intent On Creating Own Anti-fraud Police Force

    As we know the DWP are pushing a bill which will give them access to approximately nine million claimants bank accounts through parliament.

    They are already pushing for additional powers of arrest, search and seizure additional to having access to bank accounts and it’s a scary thought.

    If they are successful with their aims the DWP will therefore have its own anti-fraud police force. With this they could also be able to impose huge fines without going to court.

    This is extremely worrying considering if they are successful they won’t have any real accountability by anyone but themselves and we know what that means.

    By default the accountability given to their actions will be very low if any at all. Yes they make claimants follow their rules when they often don’t follow them themselves.


    Whilst this  legislation hasn’t been given to  the DWP yet it’s vital to be aware that this could happen and to prepare for it if it happens.

    Keeping good records of everything that you do and have done. Double check everything and keep everything safe.

    Please note this hasn’t happened yet so don’t worry and I will be sharing more about this and what you can do as and when more information comes out.such immense powers does appear,

    Please don’t panic this hasn’t happened yet and it might not go through parliament yet and I’ll keep you updated.

    To be forewarned is to be forewarned.

    Keep safe and warm and  love to everyone

    Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com
    Ashton Under lyne, baby, benefit repayments,, benefit sanctions, Black Isle Media, Boris Johnson, Brighthouse, child poverty, confidence, conservative government, Cookery, coronavirus, cost of living, covid 19, Damien Green, Decision maker, dignity pre paid funerals,, disability, DLA, domestic violence, domestic violence,, DPAC, DWP blog,, dwp debt, Elderly, energy poverty,, ESA, eugenics, Family, feminism, Food, Food bank, food poverty, Free, frugal, fuel poverty, funeral plans,, G4S, government, Green Party, high street retail, Homeless Manchester, Homeless women, homelessness, homelessness,, Housing, hunger, Hygiene Poverty,, International Women's Day, Ireland budget 2024, Ireland,, Jeremy Corbyn, Jobcentre, Ken Loach, liz truss, loose women, Manchester, Mandatory reconsideration, Money saving tips, New Charter Housing, NHS, NHS dentist, Northern resisters, Payday loan, PIP, PIP claim, poverty, pre paid funeral plans,, pre paid funerals,, prepaid energy, prepaid energy metres, prime minister, public transport, republic Ireland Budget, Republic Ireland budget 2023, republic Ireland Budget 2024, Republic of Ireland,, rishi sunak,, safe hands,, sanctions, Steven Crabb, suicide, targets, Tax credits, television, Television Licence, Television Licence fines, Teresa May, The Big Issue, The Labour Party, The Poor Side Of Life, Theresa May, trade union movement, Uncategorized, Universal credit, wilkos, womens rights, Workfare, Workprogramme, young people

    New Claimants With Mobilising Issues To Be Hit Hard By Proposed Changes To Work Capability Assessmets

    New claimants with mobilising issues will be the largest group hit by the proposed changes to the work capability assessment (WCA) planned for 2025, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has predicted.

    Those that have severe mental health conditions will also be hit hard.



    The OBR has estimated that by 2028-29 there will be;

    Approximately 371,000 additional claimants placed in limited capability for work (LCW) group and not the limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) group. This is happening because of changes being made to the mobilising descriptors.

    Approximately 230,000 additional claimants will be placed in LCW group rather the LCWRA group because of the upcoming changes to the substantial risk regulations.

    Approximately 29,000 claimants will be placed in the intensive work search group rather than the LCW group because of the future changes that are being made to the ‘getting about’ points score.



    It was confirmed as evidence to the Commons Work and Pensions Committee in parliament last month that the DWP is still intending to introduce the changes to the WCA in 2025 and that they will only affect new claims.



    It is also estimated that by 2029, over 600,000 people will miss out on the additional payments that they would have if they were still in the LCWRA group.

    As a result of these changes it has been reported that almost a quarter of a million claimants many of the those with mental health conditions, will knowingly have their health and wellbeing put at risk.

    It has also been estimated that only one or two percent of these claimants will actually be able to find work because most of these claimants either aren’t well enough. Also many workplaces cannot make the required alterations to their workplace to make it disabled friendly.

    These changes have been implemented to save them money, to give more tax cuts to those that are already getting a good deal.

    To take away a person’s vital payments and to make them look for work that they won’t be able to do is unbelievably cruel.

    How many of these already extremely vulnerable people will be sanctioned or forced to do tasks that they aren’t capable of.

    It’s unacceptable to treat people like this and all of us should be angry about this I know that I am.

    There’s no price that can be put on a person’s life but this cruel and calculated government will continue to throw as much hatred as they can before the next general election.

    They don’t care and no one should expect them to either.

    Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

    Many thanks to the team at Benefits And Work for their original reporting of this.

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    No Blog This Week

    Hi folks sadly they won’t be a blog this week I’ve had a really stressful busy week

    I don’t like doing this but I do need a clear head because I don’t want to write a rubbish blog post.

    I’m struggling to pay my home internet bill which is essential for blogging, researching and helping people which I’ve been busy with this week.

    Thanks to all of my supporters every share helps to raise huge public awareness of how life is for so many of us. Believe it or not some people aren’t aware of how people are suffering under this Tory government.

    If you like my blog and can afford to there’s a donate button at the top and side of this blog post.

    Thank you so much

    Charlotte x

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    DWP To Spend Estimated £30 Million To Investigate Benefit Fraud

    It comes as no surprise that the DWP has announced that they will spend approximately £30 million a year for them to investigate supposed benefit fraud. This apparently will be identified by their new system. It is also estimated that they will save £500 million a year through as a result of this.

    The DWP have also estimated that over the first ten years their new surveillance powers which will potentially result in 74,000 prosecution cases and 2,500 custodial sentences.

    As we all know the DWP intend to use their new powers much more widely and as a tool to financially attack innocent social security claimants.

    The impact assessment for the new powers states:

    “The power is not limited to a specific type of data or type of institution/Third-Party to allow us to fight new fraud and error issues as they emerge and engage with new institutions as efficient opportunities become available to us.”

    Also:

    “This measure is drafted broadly . . . to enable DWP to apply this measure to non-financial organisations in future if it is deemed appropriate and proportionate”

    However the DWPs new surveillance powers appears to have been welcomed in parliament having gained cross party support.

    Sadly only 51 MPs voted against the amendment, with 30 of those being SNP and just 7 each from Labour and the Lib Dems.
    This is so frustrating because anyone with any experience of the DWP and their operations will know that they will use their new powers for nefarious reasons. They won’t use them fairly and will use them to target already financially vulnerable people.

    It angers me even more that hardly anyone in parliament are concerned about their well-being. Of course Tory MPs would vote for it because it will ‘save’ the government money resulting in more money for them and their friends.

    However they fail to remember that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was introduced to combat terrorism and organised crime but in reality was used to spy on people dropping litter, dog walkers not cleaning up after their dogs and so the list continues

    In my opinion it was used very unfairly and for the wrong reasons. Will the same thing happen when the DWP introduces their new powers?

    You can bet they will, I can imagine the DWP are already rubbing their hands with glee. Any excuse to intimidate social security claimants.

    However in reality capital and abroad fraud account for less than 15% of benefits fraud and error, yes less than 15%.

    Of course the DWP will use this as an excuse to unfairly delve into all aspects of claimants lives in order to identify the other innocent 85%.

    This is extremely worrying because social security claimants shouldn’t have their privacy and confidentiality taken away as a default for claiming benefits.

    Of course the government has no intention of investigating their pals in high places for their blatant fraudulent behaviour and lies. This is exactly why the government is losing money, not a few hundred quid but millions of pounds.

    It deeply sickens me that the DWP will be given these powers which will undoubtedly be used to intimidate and harass vulnerable people.

    Also knowing that they’ve got hardly anyone in parliament that will stand up and fight against such measures.

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    Keep safe and warm if you can, the recent storms have been very worrying especially for those without a home to live in and everyone that can’t afford to heat their homes.

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    DWP Enforced Volunteering Schemes (Workfare) Are Awful. Here’s Why.

    It’s been a long while since I’ve focused upon the DWP’s enforced volunteering (Workfare) schemes so I thought I’d revisit it.

    Myself and many others have been protesting against them for many years for the reasons below.

    Enforced volunteering goes against everything that actual volunteering stands for and it’s so bloody wrong.

    Here’s a list of reasons why Workfare is wrong, and what the knock on effects are for people employed at these work places.



    Workfare actually puts claimants at an increased risk of sanctions If they can’t attend their Workfare placement for any reason albeit disability, Illness, childcare etc their DWP work coach can refer them to be sanctioned.


    Enforced volunteering criminalises the unemployed, setting the so called deserving and undeserving poor against each other after all how dare people not work for nothing. (I’m being sarcastic)

    Of course everyone should be paid a wage for the work that they do.


    Work for nothing schemes perpetuate poverty and inequality. It’s soul destroying being forced to work for nothing whilst doing the same things as paid employees are.


    Workfare schemes have displaced paid workers and workers. I’ve written about previous employees being forced to volunteer at their previous employment doing the same job.


    They provide free labour for private companies. Why pay someone when they can fill those positions with unpaid workers. It’s a win win for them.


    Workfare undermines the fundamental rights to social security, which gives the claimant free choice of employment, equal days pay for an equal day’s work.


    It undermines a workers basic rights to pay and fair working conditions by introducing a claimant workforce doing the same job without the legal status as workers.


    Workfare drives down wages and conditions for all workers by undercutting the labour market and undermining bargaining power. Once again why should they pay employees when they can get free labour.

    It doesn’t help people into paid employment despite this being the premise of the reason why Workfare was created.


    Enforced volunteering actually prevents claimants from doing their own job searches based upon the work that they’re qualified to do.


    For a long time now Workfare schemes create false employment statistics because claimants undertaking workfare are counted as in employment.


    Workfare undermines the values and practice of volunteering. It can’t be called volunteering if it’s not voluntary.

    It’s shocking that this is still happening and that no one is talking about this anymore. I’ve called Universal Credit being a digital workhouse, claimants having to do everything their work coach says or face being sanctioned.

    No one should ever have their main means of survival taken away from them. Every person deserves to have the ability to buy food to eat, to keep warm and have somewhere decent to live.

    Sanctioning people is totally unacceptable, a sadistic way of punishing people especially taking the cost of living and energy cost crisis.

    As I write this the temperature outside is -4 and I worry about everyone that is now chasing warmth every day. Job searching is extremely hard when your main focus is hunger and cold.

    My thoughts are with everyone that can’t get out and can’t access warm spaces, not can they access food banks.

    Whilst although I’m glad that these warm spaces have been created for people to use we should be protesting about the need for them in the first place.

    They say ‘The greatness of a nation can be judged by how it treats its weakest member’. The UK is clearly failing those most in need. The only way of rectifying this would be a general election and a new government that would prioritise those most in need first.

    Will this happen? I’m not sure but I hope that they do.

    EDIT I forgot to thank Boycott Workfare for their hard work and campaigning which resulted in some charities from using unpaid workers.

    Please take care everyone my thoughts are with you.

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