Goverments Attack on the Disabled?

[Sammme]

How do people feel on this issue?

We all know that there are people out there bleeding the system with false claims but they are only really small in number in the grand scheme of things.

Now this Goverment, and the Daily Mail have taken it upon themselves to brand everyone as Benefit cheats on Incapacity benefit. And with newspapers like the Daily Mail making false headlines with next to no research saying 2 million disabled on incapacity benefit are faking it, is absolutely disgusting.

How in the world does the Daily Mail get away with writing such garbage on this issue? Do they not give a damn about people with disabilitys, do they not think disabled people exist? How can they write articles saying 94 percent of claimants are faking it?

No idea how many people are following this but ATOS the people who do these medicals are frauds, hundreds of thosands people are having to go to tribunals because these clowns are falsely declaring them fit for work with 70 percent of these cases being won if they have representation.(i.e help from Citizens advice).

The appeals system is currently in a huge backlog, with people waiting up to 6 months to get an appeal heard, and in this time they have to live on reduced benefits(As much as 30 pounds a week less). These appeals are costly to the taxpayer, yet so many are being won, which proves that these *Medicals* Are a farse.

Yet it seems as anyone on Incapacity Benefit has been demonised by the Goverment and Daily Mail, we all have to get *Re tested* i.e *Kicked off* regardless of condition.

This isn't a way to help the legitimately disabled, this is just kicking the people who NEED to benefit off the benefit to save a few quid because the disabled are an easy target for them.

You may want to pay attention to your newspapers/news sites, although none of them report on the high amount of successful appeals on ESA, as they spout Goverment propaganda. It will be an interesting read from April.

Basically from April they want to *Re assess* 2.6 million on the benefit. This is where the system collapses, with tens of thosands of appeals left to be heard every month, it's going to be chaos.

Anyway, why does no one care about the Disabled in society anymore? It's like the Daily Mail, and it's staff have no morals, or anyone disabled in their families. The way they've demonised benefit claimants with badly written articles saying everyone on the benefit is cheating the system is so. Morally wrong.

[Jimmy-J]

It's just like some of the other stuff they write about, they'd like us to believe that nearly all Muslims are terrorists, all BNP/EDL members are racist thugs, and that nearly everyone on benefits are cheating ****. The sad thing is, there are many, many people that believe it. What we should believe is, some of the media are just a bunch of **** stirrers.

I've been through an appeal for my benefits some years back, it took more than 6 months to finally have my appeal heard, but I won the appeal and got the benefits that I was rightly entitled to. I advise everyone who has had their benefits stopped or reduced for no realistic reason i.e nothing about your claim has changed for the better, to go straight to their local CAB for advice. Don't let the *******s get to you! (Easier said than done) because those 6+ months without my proper benefits were really bad.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by Sammme

We all know that there are people out there bleeding the system with false claims but they are only really small in number in the grand scheme of things.

Virtually all of the pilot schemes have found the majority of claimants were fit for work.

No system is ever ideal but I'd rather people were given the chance to work rather than parking them on disability.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

The Government WANT to save money, so they will hit everyone they think won't argue with them.

What theyn have to do, is decide who is in that ' category' can they walk, can they run, can they jump, do they need assistance etc, if you can, to them you don't need benefit.

My brother in law is crippled with arithus and he goes for a medical each year to assess him for benefit, he cannot work, but he has been told that if he can walk properly, they WILL make him find a job.

This government has to start somewhere else, like stopping benefits from immagrants who ponce on our system and getting benefits by living in a 1.5 million pound house that was recently in the news, instead of picking on people who cannot depend on themself.

[Chrysalis]

I stopped reading the daily mail years ago, they are a disgusting paper even worse than rubbish like the sun. It often prints rubbish with no backing of facts. What is disgusting is if someone prints something about a individiual or company they have to be more careful else they done for it without proof (libel), yet on a regular basis benefit claimants are called all sorts of names and lied about by papers.

Not going to go into the ins and outs of the medical other than to say the new medical has been deemed unfit for purpose by various people (including the guy who designed it) however that has been ignored by the current and past governments so as such its clear what the agenda is.

The paper's should only be printing facts and need a tough watchdog to enforce this.

---------- Post added at 07:06 ---------- Previous post was at 07:03 ----------

Originally Posted by Derek

Virtually all of the pilot schemes have found the majority of claimants were fit for work.

No system is ever ideal but I'd rather people were given the chance to work rather than parking them on disability.

Thats because they designed to do just that, they simply moved the goalposts until they got the result they wanted. These pilot schemes have told terminal cancer patients to go look for work. Want to help people work? then they need specialist work environments and employers who are willing to accept crippled workers who will have a poor attendance record. Employers like remploy which got scrapped. Removing people's benefit and telling them to queue up for jobs with healthy people is not helping them.

---------- Post added at 07:17 ---------- Previous post was at 07:06 ----------

I see the universal credit is starting to hit the news now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12486158

more rubbish really, he talks as if everyone on benefits is doing it out of choice. Very out of touch.

[Ignitionnet]

Doesn't change that more people than ever before are on benefits out of choice Chrysalis, which must be addressed.

The balance is the rub though, of course.

[Chrysalis]

using a sledgehammer to kill a fly comes to mind.

You cannot solve the problem by placing ALL disabled on the same list.

I pay my taxes to not just provide funding for the infrastructure but I also expect there to be a safety net involved for the most vulnerable of society whom don't have family to take care of them.

Yes I expect everyone including the genuinely incapacitated to be able to work if they can and want to BUT the reality is that no amount of heavy handed persuasion to get them off benefit will help to do so UNLESS there are employers prepared to accept them and the extra costs involved in employing them due to funding specialist equipment so they can be in the workplace.

[dilli-theclaw]

Yup, my main barrier has been finding someone willing and the cost of specialist equipment.

Still, things are looking up - although I've had to put it all on hold for a couple of months 'till I'm more mobile again.

I do agree something needs to be done to sort it out, I'm just not convinced the govt are going to do enough to help those who need the assitance to look for work.

I hope things to change for the better as I've been turned away multiple times from the job centre and they had nothing to do with me finally getting a job.

[Osem]

We can blame HMG for toughening up the system but if there weren't so many people abusing the system (either claiming entirely fraudulently or exagerrating their 'conditions' to qualify for benefits) it probably wouldn't be deemed necessary. As is the case with the abuse of the blue badge scheme, it's these people who are the problem NOT the genuine disabled.

[Gary L]

There are real genuine claimants out there, but I think all the fraudulent claims are because most of the benefits are too great to lose.
As a kid I saw people claiming for anything and everything. and at the time they were entitled to it because of the system being how it was.

you have people on DLA and/or Mobility. when the time comes that they are no longer eligible for either, they have to give them up. so obviously they don't want to and maybe start using crutches again. where before they were walking normally and carrying heavy loads without a problem.

the problem with the media is that they do try to make out that every single person today that claims any benefit at all is a fraud or a waste of resources.

and those that don't claim any benefits actually believe it.

you could have someone on benefits that claims full rent, full council tax, a brand new car, free prescriptions and dental etc.. travel costs paid for. and whatever else comes with it.

when you got someone who works full time earning say £250 per week. out of that they have to pay full rent/mortgage, council tax, car costs, prescriptions and dental. and everything else.
you can see why it looks unfair, but that's how it is.

I personally don't have that much of a problem with it really. only if I knew the person or persons were taking the pee.

Derek i normally agree with most of your views usually on crime but on this sorry but your totally wrong the medical assessment system currently being used is a complete disgrace and isn't designed to do anything but class everyone as fit for purpose. I recently had an appointment with atos and the person i saw had never even heard of my condition so how the hell can they know what impact it has on me or my daily life or how it limits me and the answer was and ids that they didn't.

If you want to remove the genuinely disabled from the frauds the means to do it exist already most people with a genuine problem will be under the care of a consultant even if the exact problem hasn't been determined they will be seeing a consultant. So instead of handing large cheques to atos to run their usual farce remove all those currently under a consultant because trust me of all the consultants i have seen (sadly quite a few) none of them have been the type to maintain a patient they didn't believe had a genuine problem.

Here's the thing for me everyone wants all these frauds off the benefit system and is supporting the medical reasssessments to supposedly do this but these medicals cost the government more then a years benefit to do and they are neither done well or hold up on close examination with the decision being overturned in i think the current rate is about 74-75% of the time which again costs the government more money so the actual savings here are non existent.

As for the daily mail is there really anything i can say about this complete **** of a paper that hasn't been said before i don't think there is they are the perfect example of the "we will tell you who to be scared of and make some stuff up to scare you with" there is, they are one of the biggest problems in this country and in my mind far more of a problem then the minority of cheats in the benefit system.

[peanut]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

Snip..

I totally agree with all that you've said.

What gets me, is that the genuine people that can't work are being classed as 'Work-shy'. Basically as you stated, everyone that can blink or breath is being taken off sick as if they are miraculously cured off all illnesses then deemed fit for work.

It's all so easy to have an opinion on this subject when you're fit and healthy and pay your taxes.

[Osem]

There's no doubt that the geuniely sick and dsiabled can be stigmatised but I'd have thought removing the malingerers from the lists and putting those who would seek to do likewise from trying in the first place ought to reduce that stigma. If the Blue Badge scheme was such that it was impossible to abuse, then I believe the vast majority of people wouldn't have a problem with those who use it. It's the abuse of the system which hurts the genuinely sick/disabled a) because they're treated with suspicion and sometimes worse by people who don't believe they're genuine and b) because the resources wrongly taken by those defrauding the system are no longer available for the genuinely needy.

IMHO HMG has a duty to reform the system to make it fairer for those who really need it. Sadly, that'll involve reassessing a lot of people but there's no way around that. All we can hope is that common sense prevails and that the real effort is put into sorting out the dubious cases as opposed to those which are clearly in no doubt.

I have to make a confession to enjoying watching the BBC's Saints and Sinners.A show where benefit cheats are revealed and prosecuted and where people whom are genuinely in need are highlighted as are the organisations, most of them charities and non profit,that help such cases.

I like it because doesn't imply that everyone on benefits is a cheat but that those who do cheat are the lowest of the low.