Posts Tagged ‘labour-party’

1 Feb

Mo Stewart asks: “Safeguarding vulnerable claimants – how?” 

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

A guest blog by Mo Stewart, Research Lead of the Preventable Harm Project.

“As the House of Commons returns to Parliament following the Christmas break, the select committees are back in action. The new Work and Pensions Committee (the Committee), chaired by the Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, was taking evidence on 8th January for their ongoing ‘safeguarding vulnerable claimants’ inquiry.

“Significant evidence was provided by the first panel representing Women’s Aid, the mental health charity Mind, the National Autistic Society and the Child Poverty Action Group. These professionals testified to the suffering created by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for benefit claimants with various needs and stressed the negative impact of the DWP on benefit claimants.

“The next person to give evidence to the Committee was Dr Gail Allsopp, the DWP Chief Medical Advisor (CMA) appointed sixteen months ago, following the failure of the DWP to appoint a CMA for over five years.

“The evidence provided by Dr Allsopp left a lot to be desired after the Chair invited her view on ‘the actual scale of the deaths of claimants’. Dr Allsopp claimed her main concern regarding deaths of DWP disability benefit claimants was in the very rare Prevention of Future Deaths reports provided by coroners, identifying that something at the DWP ‘had gone wrong.’

“However, the hundreds of confidential internal process reviews (IPR) investigating DWP related deaths was downplayed. The Chair did advise Dr Allsopp that the Committee believed that the IPRs were ‘probably the tip of the iceberg’ regarding the deaths and serious harm linked to DWP actions, but they both failed to acknowledge the thousands of deaths of chronically ill and disabled benefit claimants following a disability benefit assessment.

“Whilst the DWP created the Serious Case Panel (the Panel), which Dr Allsopp attends, following concerns regarding the numbers of deaths linked to disability benefit assessments, the Panel is not independent and the minutes are limited and totally inadequate. This researcher believes it is past time to adopt an Independent Advisory Panel for DWP Related Deaths, similar to the Independent Advisory Panel for Deaths in Custody, which is linked to the Ministry of Justice, is totally independent and offers very detailed reports of their findings, which is a suggestion brought to the attention of the Attorney General, Lord Kermer KC.

“A letter to Dr Allsopp attracted a reply claiming she could not add ‘any further advice’ as I was in contact with the Minister for Disability, Sir Stephen Timms MP.  However, this researcher’s letter to the CMA didn’t invite any advice, but simply provided evidence that, as the CMA, she should be made aware of. It remains unclear to this researcher why the CMA claims to be responsible for clinical governance across the DWP given that the WCA continues to disregard all clinical need. Any disability assessment that disregards diagnosis, prognosis, past medical history and prescribed medicines is dangerous and guarantees preventable harm to many, regardless of any possible improved clinical governance of the staff who conduct the assessment.” 

Mo Stewart

Research Lead

Preventable Harm Project

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Seated at a desk under a sign that reads ‘New Work and Pensions Committee’ are Dr Gail Allsopp and Debbie Abrahams MP. The front of their desk has a sign that reads ‘Safeguarding vulnerable clients enquiry’. Two sets of documents lay discarded on the floor. One is ‘Coroners report – the prevention of future deaths’ and the other (which is in a bin marked rubbish) is ‘internal process reviews’. Standing opposite them are three people, representatives of the national autistic society, MIND and woman’s aid. In front of them is a large placard that reads ‘our collective evidence points to unnecessary suffering created by the DWP for disabled benefit claimants’. Another piece of paper is on the floor reads ‘thousands of deaths of chronically ill after assessment’. Dr Allsopp is saying to the group: “I’m afraid that we don’t have time for that – we can only concentrate on any future deaths!” Each of the charity reps looks suitably stunned.

16 Dec

Bah Humbug!

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Well, that’s another year almost over with Deaf and disabled people reeling from repeated assaults on our basic human rights. Although this time we’re being shafted by the political party that was supposed to oppose the Tory party and its anti-disabled people retoric.

But come to think of it, when they were the opposition party, Labour didn’t actually do much in the way of challenging the Tories. So, why are we surprised that once in power, Labour just picked up the Tories inhuman policies regarding benefits, education, health care, euthanasia, etc., and just claimed it as their own. It’s as though the Labour party has given itself a quick coat of blue paint and its now difficult to tell these two political parties apart!

Various Crips have spoken out about how punch drunk they are feeling, what with having to challenge the government in so many different areas, areas that we thought we’d been making some progress in, but here we are, back at the beginning again. And this time without any real political allies!

I don’t know about you but I’m getting really pissed off with being governed by rich pricks who are doing everything they can to remove us from society, or at the very least making the general public believe that we’re all a bunch of useless eaters who are responsible for the £127.5 billion deficit, the low wages and high prices, the breaking down of the NHS and just about everything else that’s going down the pan due to their asset stripping.

Bah humbug doesn’t really cover it … I can see that I’m going to have to take my gloves off next year and really start challenging this corrupt status quo!

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

 A threadbare, drooping christmas tree stands in a red pot which has ‘Merry Christmas’ written on it. It has a few hanging baubles and some broken lights along with three signs which read ‘Broken Labour Promises’, ‘Recycled Tory Policies’ and ‘Benefit Cuts’. A large red label hangs from the tree which is being looked at by a black disabled wheelchair user. The label reads ‘From your caring Labour Party’. The disabled person is wearing a purple t-shirt that has ‘Not Dead Yet’ printed upon the front.

26 Oct

Crippen asks again “Fraud – What Fraud?!”

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

They’re at it again, claiming that billions of pounds are being lost to fraudulant benefit claims, which includes those by people on long term sick and those who are disabled.

Where they get these figures from is a real mystery as the last government’s own figures showed that benefit fraud was at its lowest ever at less than 3.5%, much of which could be attributed to DWP error.

And you’ll remember it was ex-PM Rishi Sunak who claimed that millions were being  fraudulantly claimed through Personal Independent Payments (PIP) at the same time that DWP figures, released just days before Rishi Sunak called a general election, showed that overpayment of PIP due to fraud had dropped to Zero per cent, a fall from 0.2 per cent the previous year. 

So, where are they getting this misleading information from? Or, are they just making it all up? But why?

Perhaps it’s something about finding a scapegoat for the shambles that exists called ‘government’ and the billions of pounds that are lost, mis-appropriated or mis-managed by initially the Tory party and then the Labour party. The two words ‘piss-up’ and ‘brewery’ come to mind!

Or is it, as has been recently announced by Labour, just an excuse to access the bank accounts of all those who claim benefits? Just another example of the carrot being replaced by the stick once again?

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Keir Starmer is standing behind a BBC microphone holding in his hand a script with the words ‘Billions stolen on benefits’. Other pieces of paper are spewing out of a printer behind him with ‘Fraud, fraud, fraud’, ‘Disabled are all workshy scroungers’ and ‘disabled costing billions in fraudulant claims’. Sitting at a computer is Labour MP Liz Kendall who is saying: “I wonder what they’ll say if they ever find out that we’re just recycling old Tory lies?!”. Starmer replies: “Don’t start thinking Liz – just keep with the programme!”.

1 Oct

Crippen asks “Fraud – What Fraud?!

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , .

You may remember back in April of this year I ran a blog article about the DWP hiring more covert surveillance officers to track down disabled people who were fraudulently claiming benefits. At the time the government’s own figures showed that benefit fraud was at its lowest ever at less than 3.5%, much of which could be attributed to DWP error.

Well, having got rid of the Tory’s, we now have a labour government that has decided to continue with the harmful rhetoric that the DWP continue to pump out to a gullible public through the national press. But how did this attack against disabled people start, especially those claiming benefits because they cannot find accessible employment?

You’ll remember the Coalition administration elected in 2010? Well, it was this administration that started to change the public’s perception of disabled people. They vehemently challenged the integrity of the chronically ill and disabled community and routinely accused disability benefit claimants of fraud while failing to produce evidence to support their claims. Their often hostile rhetoric encouraged a 213 percent increase in prosecuted disability hate crimes, with successive administrations disregarded the thousands of deaths directly linked to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA).

And what with recent stats from the Home Office revealing that disability hate crime has risen by 43%. It doesn’t take much of a leap to connect this to the vitriol being pumped out by the DWP.

If you’ve read Mo Stewart’s book you’ll know how the WCA “ … was adopted using a discredited and dangerous biopsychosocial model of assessment to restrict access to long-term disability benefit. Influenced by corporate America since 1992, the UK social policy reforms guaranteed that many of those in greatest need were destined to die when, covertly, killed by the State.”

Sounds a bit dramatic, doesn’t it? “Killed by the state”. But this has exactly what has been happening since Margaret Thatcher started her devotion to neoliberal politics, which is the ideology that supports free market competition with an emphasis on minimal State intervention, would eventually be identified as being at ‘the root of all our problems’ (Monbiot, 2016).

Thatcher’s well-documented insistence that the welfare state was an unacceptable financial burden on the public purse, opened the door to the influence of corporate America with UK social policy reforms and the ‘planned demolition of the UK welfare state’ (Stewart, 2016).

Incidentally, every 30 years confidential Cabinet Papers from past UK governments are released into the public domain. In 2012, the 1982 Cabinet Papers from the first Thatcher administration (1979–83) were released, offering evidence demonstrating the political expectation to eventually demolish the UK welfare state, including the National Health Service (NHS).

It’s all there folks, you just have to dig for it as John Pring, disabled Editor of Disability News Service (DNS) and Mo Stewart, disabled researcher and lead on the Preventable Harm project, have done. Mo writes:

“Thatcher’s social policy right-leaning neoliberal legacy has been continued by every successive administration. This included introducing American corporate influence for the development of UK social policy reforms by the Major administration (1990–97) (Stewart, 2018); the adoption of American social and labour market policies by the Blair administration (1997–2007) (Daguerre, 2004; Daguerre and Taylor-Gooby, 2004); the adoption of the Work Capability Assessment in 2008 to limit access to the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) disability benefit by the Brown administration (2007–10) (Gentleman, 2011); and the increased use of sanctions, which removed all income to successfully intimidate disability benefit claimants, and to starve some of them to death (Pring, 2020a), by the Cameron-Clegg Coalition administration (2010–15).”

In the Independent Living review of John Pring’s book they comment that: “As demonstrated in the ‘Department’, a disturbing number of chronically ill disability benefit claimants committed suicide, linked in no small measure to persecution by the DWP, and to the fear instilled by the relentless threat of sanctions that meant the total loss of their only income which guaranteed destitution.”

Description of cartoon for those people using screen reading software

The PM Keir Starmer and a Civil Servant are standing each side of a large Labour Part Press Release statement hung on the wall. It reads ‘Disabled benefits claimants are all work-shy scroungers with most of them fiddling the system and taking your hard earned money!’ On a table in front of them are four other cards. One reads: ‘Benefit fraud at its lowest rate ever’, another reads: ‘PIP fraud at zero!’, the third one reads ‘Disability hate crime up 43%’, and the final card reads: ‘DWP ignores research re 600 suicides linked to WCA’. The civil servant is asking the PM: “But Sir – what about the facts?!” whilst pointing at the cards upon the table. Starmer replies: “Facts – when have they ever played a part in politics?!”