Tag: disabled

Shaping future support: The health and disability Green Paper

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27 September 2021 — True Publica

Excerpt 

“What is constantly overlooked is the fact that the disabled community’s experience of this DWP “help and support” is via the politics of fear using the  WCA. The assessment is conducted by an unaccountable American corporate giant, with the fatally flawed WCA using a discredited BPS model which failed all academic scrutiny. Every clinical lead in the UK demanded that the WCA should be abolished, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of  General Practitioners, the British Medical Association, and the British  Psychological Society, who all identified the WCA as being unfit for purpose. They were all disregarded by the DWP, as is the growing mental health crisis directly linked to the fear of the next WCA, and the constant DWP threat of sanctions. To  date, the DWP have disregarded all published, independent academic research  which identifies the ongoing and inevitable public health crisis created by social  policies adopted since 2010.” (p7)
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UK: Two-Thirds of Coronavirus Deaths Are of People With Disabilities

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24 July 2020 — Novara Media

by Sophie Hemery

@SophieHemery

“When the figures first came out from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), I shared it on my Instagram and thought, ‘Oh this is definitely going to pick up and make all the major news outlets,’” says Nina Tame, a disability rights activist with 17,000 followers on Instagram.

The stats, however, didn’t make nearly the kind of impact Tame was expecting. “It’s just that feeling of, ‘Oh, well it doesn’t really matter,’” she says. “This pandemic has highlighted how disposable we’re seen as.”

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Influenced by corporate America: Adoption of dangerous social policies ‘destined to cause death’

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30 November 2019 — True Publica

This extract is the conclusion from the ‘Influences and Consequences’ report, which concludes research as conducted over the past ten years by disabled researcher Mo Stewart. The detailed and often disturbing research evidence exposes the human consequences of the adoption of neoliberal politics, together with American social and labour market policies, which guaranteed the creation of preventable harm for the UK disabled community who are unfit to work. Despite political rhetoric, the welfare reforms were unrelated to costs, which always was a political smokescreen. The ultimate political goal was to demolish what was once the psychological security of the UK welfare state which would make it easier to eventually remove, to be replaced by private healthcare insurance, as planned by every UK government since 1992.

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Police surveillance used to report disabled protesters to UK government for alleged benefit fraud By Dennis Moore

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23 September 2019 — WSWS

Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, spoke at a conference in Belfast last month to warn that innocent people are being caught up in a mass surveillance system enacted by the UK government to combat welfare “benefit fraud.”

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Penniless and vulnerable disabled – ‘most now waiting a year’ as lives disintegrate and thousands die

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17 September 2019 — True Publica

Penniless and vulnerable disabled - 'most now waiting a year' for help

By TruePublica: The vulnerable, penniless and disabled are the very people any civilised country would ensure had at least the basics to survive and be comfortable. But while MP’s are looking the other way, these very same people are denied a benefit called Personal Independence Payment (PIP). It’s designed to keep them afloat, but now wait an average of 69 days just for an internal review by the Department for Work and Pensions and then a further seven months while they fight a system designed to deny them any assistance. Three-quarters then win tribunals while their lives disintegrate.

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UK’s most vulnerable subjected to welfare decisions by algorithm

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29 November 2018 — True Publica

Big Brother Watch wrote to the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights (before his visit) to raise the alarm about the hidden use of automation and predictive analytics for decisions about benefits entitlements and social care, and the negative human rights impact on the UK’s poorest people. The submission follows them sending of over 1,000 Freedom of Information requests to authorities about their uses of AI, algorithms and big data in decision-making.

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Barbarian Britain: The letter The Guardian refused to publish

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31 October 2018 — True Publica

By TruePublica: Mo Stewart, an Independent disability studies researcher and fellow of the Centre for Welfare Reform, sent a letter to the Guardian newspaper last week to acknowledge the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), as used to resist funding the Employment and Support (ESA) long-term sickness and disability benefit to those in greatest need. Influenced by corporate America, the deplorable treatment by the DWP of chronically ill and disabled people, who live in fear of the WCA, is well documented and the Guardian had published letters in the past on the same subject yet failed to acknowledge this significant anniversary and failed to publish the letter. Co-signed by over 80 individuals made up of doctors, academics, charities, carers, campaigners, journalists and researchers along with other members of the public, it is cause for concern that the Guardian would fail to publish this most important of all letters.

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Disabled Protesters Heading Back To DWP As Fight To Save Independent Living Heats Up

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11 June 2014 — The Void

dwp-protest2

A previous protest outside the DWP in protest at the closure of the ILF

The fight to save the Independent Living Fund (ILF) is heating up with a fresh court challenge to this needless cut which could lead to some disabled people being institutionalised to save money.

A judicial review has been launched against the closure whilst protest is also hitting the streets with an Independence Day Party starting outside the DWP on July 4th.

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The Department of Work and Pensions and Atos Healthcare: still failing UK’s most vulnerable By Jennifer Kennedy

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9 January 2014 — Our Kingdom

Disabled people are forced to live on the breadline for months as Atos failed to give them an appointment. Sick people are told they can work months before dying. People are driven to suicide. The breaking of our support system for ill and disabled people continues… Continue reading →

Britain: Disabled widow commits suicide after benefits withdrawn By Mark Blackwood and Paul Mitchell

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11 December 2013 — WSWS

Despite being partially sighted, only able to walk with the aid of a cane and in constant pain due to slipped discs, Jacqueline Harris, a 53-year-old former nurse from Bristol, England, was pronounced fit for work in November 2012, following a government Work Capability Assessment (WCA).

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