Tag: disability

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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 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.

    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
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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
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    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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    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.

    Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

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    Happy New Year.HMRC To Investigate Accounts Of People Selling On Vinted And Ebay

    I approached the new year with great trepidation thinking about what horrors the government could inflict on us. I didn’t have to wait long.

    It has been officially announced that HMRC are going to look into the accounts of people that sell their old clothing and belongings on Vinted and EBay.

    HMRC are also going to investigate Air B&B hosts and people that work for Uber, Deliveroo and suchlike.

    The majority of people that sell on platforms such as Vinted and EBay are just ordinary folk struggling to pay bills etc and are doing this as a last resort.

    Whilst I accept that there are some that make a fair bit of money doing this and they should pay tax on what they earn the majority don’t.

    For example they might be selling things to pay for a funeral of a loved one, to buy the basics such as food and energy and just to get by.

    As the cost of living crisis continues to worsen the amount of people forced to sell their much loved things and aren’t doing this with joy.

    Let’s look at it another way, it’s easier for the government to financially attack poorer people because it’s easier for them to squeeze money from them. They like to kick a working class person whilst they are down and not give them any help I mean how dare they.

    This will undoubtedly scare people from selling their unwanted clothing etc on these sites not because they want to avoid paying tax but because of the massive invasion of privacy granted to HMRC.

    I’m not a paranoid person, far from it but I’m extremely worried about the amount of powers given to HMRC and the DWP. At the touch of a button they can learn everything about us and this does make me very concerned.

    At the same time they don’t investigate their tax evading millionaire and billionaire friends though, they don’t intend to either.

    This comes at a great cost to the country as a whole and our economy isn’t going to improve until this is tackled.

    Money makes money something they still fail to recognize.

    So why are they doing this?

    It’s classic Tory handbook stuff, distracting the public from their wrongs by attacking the poorest in society. They do it time and time again it’s what they do best.

    We need to stop this rot from the top and the constant attacking of working class people. Investigations of the governments involvement with their tax avoiding multi million pound business pals.

    Can you imagine how much better off the UK would be if they actually paid their taxes.

    One thing for sure, Tory corruption won’t stop any time soon but we need to take away their governmental power and start rebuilding the mess that they’re going to leave behind.

    I truly hope that this year treats you better than the previous one, you deserve better, we all do

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    Half A Million Universal Credit Recipients Sanctioned In Last Year



    According to the latest DWP statistics that have been released reveal that 522,690 UC claimants have been sanctioned in the previous year to July 2023.

    They show that in  July 2023  49,000 new sanctions were applied.

    These figures are very concerning with 6.48% of the claimants sanctioned is now almost reaching the peak rate in October 2022.

    According to the statistics 96.5% of sanctions were applied for failure to attend or participate in a mandatory interview.

    However these statistics don’t reveal the claimants reasons for not attending or participating in mandatory interviews.

    One of the most common reasons for the above is not receiving any communication from the DWP that would inform them of these appointments. For more information about this please see a previous blog post titled ‘The case of the missing letters’

    Other reasons for non attendance include illness, childcare commitments and not being able to physically attend an appointment.

    Of course claimants can appeal these decisions but it isn’t easy to do and many still don’t know that they can do this.

    It’s also important to know that sanction decisions are made by work coaches and are often based upon opinion not fact.

    For example if they explain to their work coach that they couldn’t attend because of illness, the work coach will decide if this is a good enough reason to do so.

    Also in the event that an appointment letter hasn’t been received by the claimant the onus is on the DWP to prove that it’s been delivered.

    Of course they can’t prove this, indeed I’ve helped in cases when the letters hadn’t been sent in the first place and I actually saw them still in a claimants paperwork.

    It’s especially concerning that we are going through a cost of living and energy cost crisis. The prices of everything appear to be rising daily and many essentials are no longer affordable.

    The cost of turning heating on is also impossible for many, and as we are heading towards what will be an extremely cold winter being sanctioned is unnecessarily cruel.

    Despite the right wing media portraying the amount of Universal Credit is too much in reality payments are already barely enough to survive on.

    It’s also vital to know that debts such as council tax debt repayments and suchlike are garnished from UC  payments before they receive them. This leaves claimants with barely enough to buy the very basics needed.

    As a result of this an ever increasing amount of people, working and not working are becoming dependent upon food banks. Food banks are also struggling to keep up with the increasing demand because of the cost of living crisis, leaving many that used to donate food unable to do so anymore.

    Sanctioning already vulnerable people in the midst of a very serious cost of living crisis and a cold winter is beyond cruel.

    Taking away a person’s very means of survival is totally unacceptable, with the ramifications of this lasting a long time, some never recover from it.

    We need to start campaigning against sanctioning again because there’s never been a more important time to do so.

    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

    Thanks to everyone that reads and shares my blog posts, without you this wouldn’t be possible.

    Please share this post because it raises awareness which is much needed at the moment.

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    3.8 Million People And One Million Children Living In Destitution New Report Reveals

    3.8 Million people in the UK have experienced destitution In 2022 including One Million Children new report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds.

    This is almost two and a half times the number of people in 2017, and nearly triple the number of children. There is a desperately urgent need for action to tackle destitution in the UK.

     The legal definition of destitution is ‘the inability to afford the absolute basics required to maintain a healthy life: food, shelter and warmth’. Let this sink in… 3.8 million people and 1 million children are forced to live like this through no fault of their own and I expect these figures to rise every year until a politician, maybe even a future prime minister is actually brave enough and committed to tackle this and do something about it.

    I say brave because from where I’m sitting save but a few opposition politicians that are brave and committed enough to challenge and to stand up and speak about it, many of the others continue to drone on about ‘working people’ whilst ignoring those most in need.


    It’s totally shameful, a true reflection of how the government regard the people living in the UK, you know the ones that don’t have huge trust funds, have friends in high places and the ability to avoid paying tax. Instead theres an ever increasing number of people struggling to afford to meet their most basic physical needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed.

    Not only does this have deep and profound impacts on health, mental health and people’s prospects, indeed mortality, it also puts strain on already overstretched services.
    Nearly three-quarters of people experiencing destitution are in receipt of social security payments, further evidence of benefit inadequacy. Ad-hoc and totally unrealistic support from the Government, first during the pandemic and now to help with the cost of living, hasn’t halted the rising level of destitution, namely because this help doesn’t even touch the sides. What is needed is to actually admit that this is happening and an outstanding ambitious programme of action to address destitution and its corrosive impacts that doesn’t pander to those that have caused these increasing figures.
    It comes as no surprise that Rishi Sunack has decided to give bankers another a massive windfall for Bankers.

    The Joseph Rowntree Foundation that conducted this report have several recommendations that would help to take people out of destitution and they are as follows;

    Universal Credit should have an ‘Essentials Guarantee’ to ensure everyone has a protected minimum amount of support to afford essentials such as food and household bills. An independent process should determine the Essentials Guarantee level, based on the cost of essentials. Universal Credit’s basic rate would need to at least meet this minimum amount, and deductions would not be allowed to reduce support below that level.


    Undertake wider reforms to social security, including: lowering the limit on deductions from benefits to repay debts; reforming sanctions so people are not left with zero or extremely low income; and ensure people can access disability benefits they are entitled to.


    Ensuring cash-first emergency financial assistance is available in all areas, along with free and impartial advice services to address the crushing debt, benefits and housing issues that keep people destitute.


    Enable everyone in our communities to access help in an emergency whether they have ‘no recourse to public funds’ or not – and resource local authorities to meet this additional need. Local authorities, charities, independent funders and housing providers should also work together to prevent destitution and homelessness for people with restricted entitlement.

    Of course more than this is needed but it’s a start, sad to say that unless theres a change of government and the future labour government actually putting those in most need first because at the moment people aren’t living they’re existing until they die.

    Photo by Keira Burton on Pexels.com
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    Taking This Week Off

    Hi folks I hope you’re as ok as you can be.

    This week’s been pretty rough for me so I’ve made the decision to have a break from blogging this week.

    I don’t do this often but I feel that all things considered it’s the best decision for me.

    My thoughts and prayers are with Tony Husbands family who passed away unexpectedly this week.

    His work was amazing always funny and spot on and I’m sure he’ll be missed by his colleagues over at Private Eye.

    Here’s one of his cartoons.