The report in The Daily Record which claims that Atos style assessments for sickness and disability benefits are to be scrapped should sadly be treated with caution.
There is no doubt that the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is in chaos, after the announcement from Atos that they are pulling out of the contract to run the tests. This has led to a predictable tantrum from Iain Duncan Smith, who is now running round telling everyone he was going to dump Atos anyway and is threatening them with huge fines. This is the same Atos that he is dependent on to sort out the shabby assessments for Personal Independence Payments, which are currently also mired in chaos. But there has been no announcement as yet that the WCA is to be scrapped, and the report the Daily Record’s story seems to be based on does not call for this.
The story refers to the recently published response by the Government to the review of the Work Capability Assessment carried out by Dr Paul Litchfield. The Government have accepted all but one of the recommendations in this report, which includes agreeing to carry out an impact assessment into whether in some cases a decision could be made without a face to face assessment.
Litchfield recommends: “The Department carries out a full impact assessment on an alternative process whereby DWP Decision Makers triage cases” and that “where suitable and sufficient evidence is available on paper and a face-to-face assessment would provide no additional value, the Department should make a decision without referral to its HAP;”
The Government have responded: “DWP will carry out the recommended impact assessment to inform decisions about if and how triage of cases by Decision Makers might be implemented.”
So unless the Daily Record know something that no-one else does, and if they do urgent clarification is required, that unfortunately, appears to be it. An impact assessment into whether in some cases a face to face assessment is not required – as in fact already happens in some cases – will be carried out. A small step forward perhaps but a long way from the claim that assessments are set to be scrapped. Atos still kills, for now at least.
Some of Litchfield’s recommendations will be welcomed, such as a six month time limit before someone who has recently won an appeal against a WCA decision can be called for re-assessment. Others are more dubious, including the idea of involving the Government’s snake oil salesmen, the nudge unit, in the drafting of correspondence sent to claimants about the WCA.
Perhaps the most telling part of the Government’s response to this review is the recommendation that is rejected. Litchfield makes the fairly reasonable suggestion that so-called Healthcare Professionals carrying out assessments of people with mental health problems should have: “suitable and sufficient previous experience of dealing with people with mental health problems”.
We’re not having that say the DWP, who have deferred agreement on this point complaining that they don’t know what suitable and sufficient means.
All of the recommendations and the Government’s response can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296328/wca-review-year-4-response.pdf
Litchfield’s initial report is at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/265351/work-capability-assessment-year-4-paul-litchfield.pdf
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Cunts.
Says it all.
Those with so called experience with mental health issues are nothing but a pack of quacks and charlatans anyway, from social workers falsifying reports to serve their own agenda’s to quack psychiatrists forming diagnoses from these false reports and the mental health workers acting like prison warders.
The whole psychiatric system wants closing down given that they imprison the innocent in locked wards and leave those really mentally ill to walk free.
Once they have written false reports about you, you cannot get this information removed from your records by the data commissioner, even though you have proved these so called professionals wrong.
Here here!
Hear, hear!
Shutter Island
🙂
Shutter Island
More a case of doctor Creepy Cawley playing on shutherup island.
The drug companies would be bankrupt were it not for the mental health industry, who are forcing their medication on innocent people to keep them quiet about the corruption in the country.
why has the above comment of mine been moved from the top to the bottom of the page?
Because the comment you responded to went into moderation. Should be fixed now.
Admin?????????
🙂
g fawkes
“the mental health trap” where the bully constantly implies a mental illness, or other emotional attributes to put one’s views down with, (collective cognitive convergence, ie ganging up, by cause of others being afraid of the prime bully)…it is well known that bullies use this tactics a lot ie the WCA, the power to take ones income is the gravest threat of all, remove vitals of life (steal the others dinner money!) …yes, political diagnosis is rife…a russian psychiatrist wrote about it, anyone dissonant to the state was said to be insane…they often imply this by saying the problem must be “something else”, which obviously as one is in a medical setting cannot be implying physical in origin, and i have much to say about the physical origins of mhp’s…the DSM5 is now purely political…check out the work of joanna moncrieff, alice miller, dorathy rowe, bob johnson, and robert whitaker author of “mad in america”…they all have written books that attends to this very subject, among other interconnected topics…
And what happens in America OBD finds it’s way here, one way or another.
g fawkes
the dsm5 is from the usa…it’s 2 way BS…more or less implies that what is good for desert people applies to eskimos….it is based purely on political fantasy….we believe…with no empirical scientific basis at all, in fact goes directly against it and all reason…all we need is a wellbeing INCOME….
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson’s “Against Therapy” is well worth a read, it’s another gem outing the repulsive, life and soul destroying practices of psychiatric creed.
overbd, I thought, that all mental health assessment’s were to do with one’s National Health Contributions. WCA, as I understand it, looks at your national health contributions and deem you either way. Am I insane?
bernadette
here is bob johnson on nihilism in psychiatry…i am a firm believer in psychiatry but it has very much lost it’s way…
Click to access 176_16-18.pdf
Guy fawkes, It is interesting that you should raise that issue of not being able to remove ‘expert opinion’ from records. A neighbour of mine has just last week tried to do that. It remains to be seen if she is successful. I am aware that we can request to see what has been written, I have always refused. Scared of what names they have attached to me. On the other hand, if they have said something derogatory (likes she’s completely insane) I could use it TO NEVER HAVE TO FUCKING SIGN ON AGAIN !!! Turn the tables, so to speak.
Bernadette H
According to medical opinion it is good therapy for the mentally ill to work!
My beef is with the fact that the sanctioning system, followed by the unjust psychiatric system for political reasons actually causes mental illness not the other way around.
Who wants to be labelled anything they are not?
but I appreciate your humour!
guy fawkes, Whilst not deeming the sufferings of our fellow men and women (and children) from the ‘sanctioning system’ I often laugh how words influence other ideas: Sanctions against Russian, Libya, South Africa (1970s) and now sanctions against the unemployed, vulnerable, poor and those in physical need. It truly is a disease of words applied and misapplied in others. As for Mental health wealth being, rightly or wrongly, I admire R.D Laing, in that, families are where the notion of good mental health is where it all begins. As for ‘labelling’ it does not exist. We are all different.x
People when they reach adulthood, no matter what their upbringing should reach an understanding that the only place to move is to move on, you cannot live in the past.
All the psychiatric system does as well as keeping it’s purveyors and the offshoots of the psychiatric system in a job, is to impose labels, so that they can constantly monitor and control, which some may need, but more do not, the system thus keeps people trapped in bad memories, resentment and labelling.
…and worse, in that, it keeps people trapped in bad memories which the industry tells them are not important, not significant, didn’t hurt them and they just remembered and processed it all wrong. Behaviourist thuggery doesn’t take much effort or intelligence, so it’s a cheap breeze for bean counters and allows shrinks, psychologists and piss poor counsellors to make even less effort to practice humaneness.
Yes Lucy, sometimes a good friend or neighbour could substitute the services of the professionals and do a better job instinctively given that they probably care more about the person and are not incentivized by money or reward.
ps. a friend or neighbour would not be writing copious reports of condemnation for the victim, while praising their own hypothesis, conclusions etc either, which goes on with medical files, whereby with the rapid turnover of psychiatrists and staff they need these reports so that they can have a bias opinion or diagnoses which has already wrongly been written and which they just follow through on, not wanting to criticize the previous doctors diagnosis. Another lot who are all in it together and they call themselves ‘the professionals’, i call them ‘the corruptibles’.
I agree, guy fawkes, there’s a lot to be said for simple peer support. It can make the difference between someone making it and not making it.
Psychiatrists and sadly an increasing number of psychologists seem to allergic to the fact that most people know exactly what will help them to recover. They don’t like it that ordinary, untrained people may help the person with the issues and that often, that help is ultimately more effective than the abusive, ego driven, reductive, punitive garbage the industry peddles.
Even the questions they ask a person are adversarial and founded on a belief that we are wrong in every aspect of our existence. Being honest with them about what has happened in life, which they find it hard to listen to, frequently leads them to use their discomfort to assign a damaging, vindictive label to a person. A label that sticks harder than super glue or the stickiest form of shit. That label, will be used as intended. To make sure that the person is never taken seriously, or helped again. This kind of response leads to individuals being refused an ambulance in cases of physical emergency. It leads to people being refused life saving physical treatment, because they are considered “attention seeking hystericals”
Simple humaneness won’t make money for anyone, so sadly it’s seen as a non starter. The person who has insight and true knowledge of what has happened to them, is the very person that the industry wants to shut up. The informed patient is the curse of therapists everywhere.
The waning of humaneness has given us a world where hating is encouraged, it’s positively rewarded, sometimes with a fabulous career in the slaughterhouse that is “modern” mental health care provision.
Depressing beyond belief, and worse, beyond survival.
well said Lucy.
All of those being wrongly classified as mentally ill, or those that are mentally ill but not happy with their treatment by the so called professionals or atos, should remember the words of Gloria Gaynor, “I will survive”.
who is admin? Why is jv not replying?
admin is someone who is helping out with admin, please don’t give them a hard time, it can be a difficult job and it’s for the benefit of everyone who posts here.
Thanks for that johnny, just wondered why you did not answer initially.
Why are my comments replying to Fink moderated and his eliminated, especially as he is trying to put his favourite subject bisexuality on the agenda anywhere and everywhere and I have exhausted this subject on other sites, yet always consistent in my views and opinions.
He is entitled to his opinion but not if it is based on his own perception and his own lies as most of his comments are.
Therefore unless you want to make the subject an issue jv I would request that my comments in reply to this also be taken down.
GF, when comments go into moderation and stay there, only you (the poster) can see them.
Please just don’t respond to them Guy, his comments willl be removed, as will any responses until the sad sack finally gets bored of posting comments no-one will ever read.
WE HAVE ALL BEEN TO THE DARK SIDE. THE SIDE WHERE YOU DON’T WANT TO, GO BUT ARE FORCED THROUGH NO FAULT OF YOUR OWN………..
WHEN YOUR DISABILITY BENEFITS ARE STOLEN, YOU ARE DRIVEN TO A NEW LOW, THE DECISION WHETHER TO CARRY ON OR THE DECISION TO END IT ALL.
I HAVE BEEN THERE ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS, WONDERING IF THE PAIN AND THE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS WOULD DISAPPEAR IF ONLY I TOOK THAT ONE STEP………..
BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR THE DWP HAS MORE IMPLICATIONS THAN THEY WOULD EVER UNDERSTAND. AFTER ALL THEY ARE THE PEOPLE WITH LITTLE FEELING OF THE EVIL THEY DISH OUT EACH DAY.
THEY PROBABLY GET A SMALL KICK READING OF ANOTHER VICTIM WHO HAS DECIDED TO LEAVE THIS WORLD, TRAPPED IN A CORNER WITH NO PLACE TO RUN.
I FEEL FOR EVERY FAMILY MEMBER WHO HAS LOST SOMEONE DUE TO THE HEINOUS TREATMENT OF THE DWP………..
HAVING ANY KIND OF DISABILITY, WHETHER PHYSICAL OR MENTAL, IS A BURDEN THAT SOMEONE NOT CARRYING, CAN EVER IMAGINE.
“THIS SITE IS A TESTAMENT TO THE PAIN AND SUFFERING OF THOSE WHO, FOR NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN, CARRY THAT BURDEN AND LIVE IN HOPE THE NIGHTMARES WILL GO AWAY.”
Reply
Geoff
I can honestly say the only thing I have ever wanted to end was the sanctions regime, professional misconduct and corruption in business and politics – not much of a challenge really 🙂 but it keeps me going.
Don’ give them the satisfaction, as long as you are live, you are a costly thorn in their side.
i sescond that.
cunnts.
sorry ment to say cunts.
I don’t see that it would be a small victory for face to face assessments to be scrapped as the appeal process has shown that a face to face appeal is the best hope for overcoming wrong decisions. To do away with a face to face assessment is a bureaucratic saving device only. What we need is an assessment procedure that is as good as the appeals system.
I can only see the victory as being an anti ATOS victory which would be shallow indeed if the stresses and anxieties we face are to continue by a device that continues to penalise disabled people
The Record may have its heart in the right place, and has done a lot to publicize government evils, but it tends to jump the gun, as with the ‘Bedroom Tax Axed’ story, and then claim it was the Record wot won it.
No, it wasn’t… it was the Scum wot won it… 🙂
Breaking News: Iain Duncan Smith Killed by Angry Mob of Disgruntled Benefit Claimants! Oops, jumped the gun again 🙂 … soz 😦
Yes! Let’s make it a reality.
Assuming it’s still only a matter of time before the WCA is dumped, it’s starting to look as if the TORIES could ultimately take credit for ‘abolishing LABOUR’S WCA regime’ and then BLAMING LABOUR for the Atos corpse mountain.
It’s probable that under a continued Labour government, the WCA would have fizzled out years ago after a disastrous pilot. But that wasn’t what happened, and there will be bereaved families campaigning for justice for decades to come.
Eventually the suppressed ESA ‘corpse count’ figures for this government WILL be released, and when they are, they will be horriffic and a national human rights scandal. The Tory propaganda machine (and perhaps history) will point to Labour as the party responsible for bringing in Atos.
Labour must pledge NOW to roll back all austerity benefits ‘reforms’ to the previous safe and efficient system. They must also start talking NOW about what they will to do, should they come into power, for the bereaved, as well as restitution for WCA ‘survivors’ who have suffered worsened health, loss of homes, extreme poverty, and other devastations under IDS.
Labour must pledge that work must never again be compulsory for anyone signed off work by their doctors. A right to retire on grounds of chronic ill health (and for everyone else at age 60, thus freeing up jobs for the young and able-bodied) must be enshrined as a basic human right in one of the world’s richest nations.
Labour is betraying the most vulnerable and throwing away votes and credibility by failing to stand by UK’s doctors and nurses in condeming the WCA.
I agree with your sentiments completely.
Except Labour will not do as you wish.
For such a party – a party which purports to represent interests opposed to those of the Tory – to have reached a stage where they employed Atos, set up the WCA, promoted privatisation, basically swallowed the whole neo-liberal gamut – well, that party is largely now geared up, politically and psychologically, for an agenda wholly different from what we still hope the Labour should be i.e. interested in a progressive just society.
Any party capable of doing what Labour has done is not currently capable of changing tack.
the Labour Party is NOT GOING TO CHANGE TRACK
Cassandra
Labour were the government that brought in jsa, new deal and atos. They were the first to sanction benefits and if you had a labour mp he condemned you for not following his parties order and work for nothing or accept sanctions.
They also introduced student loans instead of grants if I am not mistaken?
Labour are as bad if not worse than the tories.
ps labour also sold off council housing to private housing associations.
All of them just sell the poor down the river to make profits.
Talking of workfare, have just passed a chain-chain of TCV (The Conservation ‘Volunteers’) slaves toiling away in the local park in the torrential rain and howling wind. Have rarely witnessed such a horrendous and pitiful sight. It was like stepping into Nazi Germany in the UK 2014!
Disgusting. So despite the week of bad publicity they’re still doing it?
I think the above comment is on the right track, but is insufficiently suspicious of political statements. In my experience many such statements have manifest and hidden intentions. Suppose face-to-face meetings are formally abolished, even in only certain specified types of cases. Suppose further that, as I have read, evidence from a doctor (e.g. a GP) is accepted. Then still, one must then submit a report and supporting documents to a bureaucratic black box. There might be room for arbitrariness, secret or little-known rules and laws, and informal understandings. This would allow legal abuse. I’m not being overly suspicious here, since I have been demonstrably subjected to similar abuse once, perhaps twice, in another country. I would be quite wary of any such assessment regime. I don’t have a solution.
Daily Record claimed it was single handedly behind Atos leaving/sacked and the Bedroom Tax being abolished. Neither close to the truth and of course nothing to do with all the campaigners.
Awful rag that spouts misinformation like the above constantly.
Excellent article Johnny. Do you mind if we re-post on the InclusioN Scotland FB Page?
Of course not
Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog.
Rather worryingly, there’s been no further mention of the 2 year deferral for all routine ESA review assessments either.
The refusal of the recommendation that for MH cases the HCP should be suitably qualified being rejected is no surprise at all. It’s just a direct mirror to the status MH has within our society.
…and before anyone starts, the same prejudice and incompetence is rife within the private sector as well as the NHS.
Blown up by an IED? Limbless and blind?
Go back in two years to Atos and find out from their experts if you are still limbless and blind.
Atos has some holy water from Lourdes and will sprinkle it on you and cure all paralysed/broken spines. They will rouse people from comas or persistent vegetative states. Grow back limbs. Heal all burns and disfigurements. Cure terminal cancer. Pogo stick to the moon and bring back some cheese.
Atos has a magic computer program that deletes all disabilities, proving such things are figments of the imagination.
Atos has a CEO who rides to work on a flying pig.
hear hear Lucy!
Cassandra is right in at least one respect. Atos Origin acquired the combine SchlumbergerSema in 2004. Up till at least then, Sema had been doing assessments, but without the present version of the computer system, LIMA (Logic Integrated Medical Assessment). The first version of LIMA was developed by Schlumberger around 2001-2003, as a device to assist mental health and cardiorespiratory evaluations. In 2005 DWP got some sort of legal rights to LIMA software, as Intellectual Property. Some details and a full timeline are still unclear to me, but 2004 and 2005 are crucial dates.
For the next year Smith will retreat inside his bunker creating ever madder, more dangerous and wasteful schemes in the hope of provoking Labour into opposing some of them so he can portray them as the scroungers’ party, secure in the knowledge he won’t have to clear up the mess after the next election.
kent
yeah, they just try use us as weapons to score points with, and to justify their lavish life styles with, as if they know what is good for us and we don’t….well they are wrong, we know what is good for us, not them….
Creating dangerous and wasteful schemes has been all they have done from day one, welfare deform has been about the sum of the appropriately named condem government.
Not much more they can do without causing a catastrophic collapse of the entire welfare system, doubt they really want that as it would destroy them politically for decades to come.
Death by a thousand divisive cuts is their immoral (nudge) strategy not open and honest confrontation for they know they would lose that war.
Cheers for this.
One thing: I was told I wouldn’t be reassessed for six months – then four months later I get another assessment form… when I asked the DWP they said, in their usual corporate bullshit-speak – “oh, we do that for everyone, we send them out after four months so that we can get them processed by six months after the previous decision.”
The usual crap, in other words.
So it’s not six months at all, because you’re filling in the form about your condition at that point in time, i.e. four months.
Reblogged this on glynismillward189.
Page 30, paragraph 4 of the Government’s response to Litchfield’s report (link article above):
“Dr Litchfield also notes the very wide spectrum of mental health function conditions. This applies both to diagnoses and their impact on functional capability. The Government welcomes this observation: the evidence is clear that a range of people with mental function conditions do work; that diagnosis alone is not a barrier to employment; and that self-efficacy and support can be very important in helping people find employment.”
This is a perfect example of how the DWP arrogantly and vindictively try to usurp the role of the experienced and qualified GP. They are forever turning everything into a reason why they are right and everyone else is wrong, and sod the truth and the actual symptoms of a mental or behavioural condition, for example. They truly are like wild dogs, waiting to ensnare innocent and ill people. Of course it is dressed up as helping the individual and society. Dressed up as saving vast sums. Dressed up as justice, the right thing. This surely is a sign of psychopathy. We are ruled by psychopaths, in all main parties, and in Ukip.
As for their explicit claim that you’d get support in work – exactly how would that work? It wouldn’t happen. And if it did, it would be some crappy half-hearted help from someone who has probably never experienced health problems, or been out of work. I have had as good as no help for three and a half years. You’re put on lists for NHS therapy, lists which treat you as very low priority even if you have a condition which seriously affects your ability to live a normal life, let alone work.
dave
check out the UT judges rulings they support your views…the test is based purely on functional abilities, limited functional abilities, and not diagnosis…
THERE ARE FOUR MAIN REASONS FOR THE DWP TO SUSPEND WCA ASSESSMENTS AND THEY HAVE NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH LITCHFIELD’S ANNOUNCEMENT IN WHICH HE SAID THEY WERE A WASTE OF TIME………….
THE FIRST AND FOREMOST REASON TO SUSPEND WAS THE HUGELY EMBARRASSING MORTALITY FIGURES WHICH THEY STILL REFUSE TO RELEASE……….
SECONDLY IS THE QUALITY OF REPORTS DONE BY GROSSLY UNQUALIFIED CHARLATANS PARADING AS EXPERTS WHEN THEY ARE HOLDERS OF A GOVERNMENT CREATED CERTIFICATE RECOGNISED BY NONE OTHER THAN THE SECRETARY OF STATE…….
THIRDLY, ATOS LIED ABOUT THEIR CAPABILITIES AND GAVE FALSE INFORMATION DURING THE TENDERING PROCESS RESULTING IN A BACKLOG OF CLAIMS AND CLAIMANT’S IN DIRE STRAITS RESULTING IN SUICIDES…………….
FOURTHLY, THE GOVERNMENT ARE AWARE OF THE ADVERSE PUBLICITY THAT HAS RESULTED IN COMPLAINTS SURROUNDING HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES.
JOHNNY VOID AND OTHER GROUPS HAVE LED THE FIELD IN LETTING THE REST OF THE WORLD KNOW THE ATROCITIES THAT HAVE BEEN UNLEASHED BY AN UNCARING GOVERNMENT WHO SOUGHT TO PUNISH THOSE LESS ABLE TO FIGHT BACK.
EACH AND EVERY ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE DWP IS JUST ANOTHER CROCK OF LIES, A DECEIT TO COVER IT’S HEINOUS CRIMES.
You are absolutely correct Geoff.
This says it all about this bunch of heartless criminals picking on the most vulnerable in society with sanctions.
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/2717-dwp-target-mental-health-claimants-for-esa-sanctions
Thanks for posting that Raining. I think that MIND have a lot to answer for. Their mealy mouthed response to B&W shows again, how weakly they have committed to helping those with MH needs who are being persecuted by the whole system.
The plight of those on ESA on the WP is made 100% worse by the idiot advisers and managers of the WP not understanding the guidelines or vindictively ignoring them. Add to that the generally accepted prejudice against people with MH problems in our society, along with bitter, badly paid advisers wanting a bit of sport and you end up with people dying by their own hand.
“ANY SYSTEM OF DISABILITY ANALYSIS THAT RESTS ON THE DECISION OF A DWP DECISION MAKER IS FLAWED FROM THE OUTSET”
A staggering six out of ten employment and support allowance (ESA) claimants hit with a sanction are vulnerable people with a mental health condition or learning difficulty, according DWP figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The proportion has rocketed from 35% of sanctioned claimants in 2009 to a massive 58% in 2013. The statistics prove that sanctions are now overwhelmingly aimed at the most vulnerable individuals by a government department which relies on a policy of institutional discrimination to cut benefits costs.
Another example of their ignorant treatment of people.
“If forty one percent of 400 ATOS medical reports scrutinised in a government audit were found to be substandard, how many bonafide claimants have been robbed?”
More than 40 per cent of the reports carried out on disability benefit claimants by the back-to-work assessor Atos are flawed and unacceptable, according to an audit commissioned by the Government.
Following months of complaints about allegedly unfair and slapdash decisions made by Atos, the Department for Work and Pensions audited around 400 of the company’s written reports into disability claimants, grading them A to C. Of these, 41 per cent came back with a C, meaning they were unacceptable and did not meet the required standard.
But they failed GCSE Maths and it was actually 82% ‘utter shite’, 14% ‘substandard’, and 4% ‘paranoid vicious delusional lies’.
7 March 2013
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
Can you please confirm if it is possible to attend an ATOS
examination that lasted 35 minutes, walk from a chair to a couch
and get on it, be examined, decline to be examined on 75 movements
and be observed to stand in one place for duration of the
interview?
I did.
Yours faithfully,
GEOFFREY REYNOLDS
Link to this
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/gobbledygook#outgoing-261640
Shatos dream that one day they will have killed everyone normal off, and will then be forced to spend eternity Shatos-ising eachother.
The biggest state mass-murder of disabled people since the 1930s German Nazi Government is set to continue and, just like the Nazi Government policy, with the full support and involvement of the nation’s beloved civil service and medical profession.
It would be interesting to compare the statistics for the 1930s German Government and the 2010s British Government to see which one killed the most disabled people and their rates of killing to see which one was the more efficient.
There is no point comparing the medical ethics or the medical science used by both regimes as there is none but, to be fair to the Nazis, at least their back-to-work regime, which killed thousands of sick patients and disabled people was controlled by an ideologically deranged lunatic beyond the reach of empirical evidence and human reason unlike our own dear Tory minister in charge at the DWP…oh hold on!
yesterday i turned sky news on to see if the missing plane had been found,i was greeted with a picture that made me feel ill the queen greeting the irish pm but not that BUT MILLIBAND CAMERON AND CLEGG LAUGHING AND JOKING TOGETHER they really are in it together milliband has become camerons bitch,he should keep a dignified distance from the encumbent murdering government the man milliband shafted his brother hes shafted the unions hes shafting us and now hes camerons buddy,in anger i contacted the labour party, for me milliband is beaten already…and you know what..HE DOESNT GIVE A FLYING FUCK HE JUST ENJOYS THE PERKS OF LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION LAME DUCK LEADER my personal suicide plan is ready im done with this charade 5 years of torie hell to come…THANK YOU MILLIBAND..if ive got this wrong please tell me
miliband is seriously going to lose the election for labour
New labour voters and their policies on welfare, bailing out business, cronyism etc., have lost the election for labour.
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Maria Miller resigns from government.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26951726
Just a reminder to everyone that since we have just started a new tax year you now have a brand new £5,940 cash ISA allowance 🙂 (or £11,880 in stocks and shares 🙂 ) in which to stash your spare dosh! 🙂 Cheers, George! 🙂
ONE MUST WONDER IF THE SIGNIFICANT RISES IN THE INCIDENCE OF SCARLET FEVER WITHIN THE UK HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH CUTS TO WELFARE……….
MALNUTRITION HAS BECOME MORE COMMON AS PEOPLE STARVED OF BENEFITS ARE LIVING ON THE BREADLINE AS TAKING UP FOOD BANKS AS A SOURCE OF NOURISHMENT.
GENERALLY I HAVE SEEN A HUGE DROP IN THE AMOUNT OF MONEY AVAILABLE ON OUR HOUSING ESTATES, COULD THIS BE THE CAUSE?
PEOPLE ARE BEING DRIVEN FROM THEIR HOMES BY THE THOUSANDS, EVICTIONS AND REPOSSESSIONS ARE SKY HIGH AND THE NHS IS BEING SYSTEMATICALLY ROBBED OF IT’S FUNDING TO PROMOTE PRIVATISATION.
IT’S ALL TO EASY TO LAUGH SCARLET FEVER OFF AS SOME SORT OF NATURAL BLIP, I HONESTLY BELIEVE THERE IS A LINK TO AUSTERITY AND THE ENFORCED SHORTAGE OF HEALTHCARE PROVISION.
“WE ARE SPEEDING UNCONTROLLABLY BACK TO THE DARK AGES INSTEAD OF PROGRESSING TO THE NEXT CENTURY”
IT’S NO GOOD HAVING THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY IF IT IS ONLY GOING TO BE AVAILABLE TO THE ELITE WHILST OTHERS ARE FIGHTING TO SUSTAIN LIFE……………..
THE UK HAS BECOME A HUGE CROCK OF SHIT MIRED IN CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS.
FUCK OFF MARIA MILLER, YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT FROM THE LIKES OF THE SO CALLED PEASANTS THAT I KNOW………
IN THE MEANTIME, HOW ARE THE SECRET MORTALITY RATES DOING?
YES THE ONES THAT ACTIVELY DESCRIBE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE GOVERNMENTS SUSTAINED BLOODBATH OF THE WEAKEST……………………
YOU CAN HIDE BUT ALL THE SEPTIC IS GOING TO BE SQUEEZED FROM THE CANCEROUS SORE OF WESTMINSTER.
AFTER SUBMITTING MEDICAL CERTIFICATES WRITTEN BY DWP’S OWN DOCTORS, WHICH STATED THAT I WAS INCAPABLE OF ALL WORK, THIS IS THE REPLY THEY SENT ME……………………
“IT IS ENTIRELY POSSIBLE THAT A CLAIMANT MAY BE PASSED UNFIT FOR WORK UNDER THE PERSONAL CAPABILITY ASSESSMENT BUT BE FOUND CAPABLE OF WORK UNDER THE WORK CAPABILITY ASSESSMENT”
…………..IN OTHER WORDS, DWP DECISION MAKERS WHO HAVE NO MEDICAL EXPERIENCE WHATSOEVER ARE BEING USED TO STEAL ENTITLEMENTS AWARDED BY QUALIFIED DOCTORS, USING FALSIFIED MEDICAL REPORTS BY THE DISGRACED ATOS HCP’S…………..
Steve ‘cunt’ Webb stated in the Commons that the DWP’s figure that 60% of JSA sanction appeals at Tribunal were successful had been found to be incorrect; there had been a ‘coding error’. He then went on to say that the correct figure was in actual fact 17%. But according to the skywallker1964 blog 87% of sanction appeals at Tribunal are successful. So which, if any, is the correct figure?
the correct figure is immaterial to this ideologically drive load of nazis – the image is more important to them – ie they are doing something – i would like to do something too – burn their fucking houses down with them in them!!!!!!!!!!!
“HOW COME DR PAUL LITCHFIELD WAS CHOSEN TO DO AN INDEPENDENT APPRAISAL OF WCA, WHEN HE IS FAR, FAR, FROM BEING INDEPENDENT?”
……….IN FACT HIS CONFLICT OF INTEREST IS HUGE!
Dear John Wood,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request received on 1st March 2013 in which you
ask:
“Dr Paul Litchfield will replace Professor Malcolm Harrington, but will continue to work as Chief
Medical Officer and Director of Health, Safety and Wellbeing for BT, a post he has held since
2001, He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and the Faculty of Occupational
Medicine for which he is currently Chair of the Ethics Committee.
The Faculty of Occupational Medicine (FOM) is also a member of the Faculty of the Royal
College of Physicians, The FOM works as a partner with the Royal College of Physicians on
the support and management of Occupational Medicine Qualifications receiving sponsorship
from Atos and has received grants from the Dept. of Health. In 2006 Dr Paul Litchfield was a
member of the Mental Health Technical Group who were involved in proposals to ‘transform’
the old Personal Capability Assessment, and recently was co-author of the DWP sponsored
independent review “Realising ambitions: he is also a member of the aptly named Fit For Work
Coalition.
Occupational health services serving more than 1,000,000 Government and private employees
had achieved SEQOHS accreditation by October 2012. this is managed by the Royal College
of Physicians (RCP) on behalf of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (FOM). Staff working
for some of the country’s biggest employers are receiving occupational health advice and
support from accredited services; this includes 1,000,000 staff looked after by ATOS
healthcare,
As Dr Paul Litchfield is a member of these organisations which also has close connections with
the DWP and other organisations who could benefit financially and strengthen their position
from any proposals……
A- Please supply details of the guidance to be followed when selecting candidates for such
reports, in particular with regards to independence and impartiality.
B- Please supply the guidance to be adopted, to provide safeguards against bias and
predetermination in the making of such reports.
C- Please provide a full list of other involvements, interests and connections that Dr Paul
Litchfield has with the DWP and Atos?”
In answer to questions A and B: the Department does not hold the requested information; the
specified guidance documents do not exist. However, Dr Litchfield will undertake his review in
accordance with Terms of Reference (to be agreed) and his work will be overseen by an
independent Scrutiny Group whose role will include ensuring the reviewer maintains his
independence.
In answer to question C: Dr Litchfield currently has no other involvements, interests or
connections with the DWP or Atos.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number
above.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
Talking of independent bodies, I was asked to sign a petition calling for an independent body to set expenses for MP’s. If it is anything like the independent body that was set up to decide salary increases for MP’s they can forget it, it is just another costly tier of bureaucracy.
Dr Paul Litchfield, who has been asked by DWP to carry out the 4th Independent Review of the WCA is not as independent as he seems.
He was part of the Mental Health Technical Working Group commissioned by DWP in 2006, with, among others, Sue Godby from the College of Occupational Therapists and Unum Provident, and Dr Angela Graham from Atos Origin, to develop ‘proposals from transforming the Personal Capability Assessment (the forerunner to the WCA), from an incapacity-based tool for determining entitlment to Incapacity Benefit to a more positive assessment incorporating assessment of capability and of health related interventions which would contribute to overcoming health-related barriers preventing people with disabilities from engaging with work’.
– See more at: http://dpac.uk.net/2013/11/dwp-tactics-ask-litchfield-designer-of-the-wca-to-review-it-anita-bellows/#sthash.IfFwyaBq.dpuf
By “a six month time limit before someone who has recently won an appeal against a WCA decision can be called for re-assessment” do you mean six months minimum?
Only ask because the ruling in my Tribunal was that I was not to be reassessed for 2 years, which is (I think) the maximum a claim can last..
I may be dead but my policies live on. God bless you Tony Blair for making this possible as for years we worried about a Labour Prime Minister but by jove were we wrong. Tony kept the bed warm for my disciples and David is very grateful indeed. The fools fell for this New Labour crap and they always will. “More coal please Devil…”
have a look at this
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-claims-jesus-invented-the-big-society–he-is-just-continuing-gods-work-9250449.html
truly delusional
“If there are things that are stopping you from doing more, think of me as a giant Dyno-Rod”
Is that article for real, David Cameron thinks he is God’s plumber?
@ Martha – and it’s not even April 1st.
Many months ago an advisor at the jobcentre told me that she could see my UJM account even though I had not allowed it and today finally proves she was right. This morning I logged into my UJM account to allow access as I’m signing later today and it makes it quicker but I noticed that my saved searches had todays date. Every fortnight when I sign an advisor looks on my UJM account and when I get home I notice that the saved searches date has updated to that date. Today my saved searches was for 10th april even though I had not clicked on it for at least four days. I still had a tick in the box to deny access. I only allow it on the day I’m due to sign and when I get home I untick it. It will be interesting to find out if they have anything in store for me when I sign later today.
Rob and everyone else – get a load of this:
List of 70 DWP staff who have full surveillance access to Universal Jobmatch accounts.
With and without user permission.
http://refuted.org.uk/2014/04/10/access/
http://www.tusc.org.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26919780
Would you two trolls take your childish argument elsewhere? It’s got nothing to do with the WCA and is clogging up my Inbox.
which two trolls is that?
IDS isn’t happy with the amount of people already thrown off ESA, he wants more. So whoever gets the contract after Atos, the regime will be far more strict, if you can believe it. I’m guessing Atos want out because it is impossible to meet IDS targets under their current system. Plus they are taking the heat from the public and the families of the dead.
who is blocking my comments?
no-one, unless they reference other comments which have since been deleted or a row with another blog, the comment you mentioned is showing: https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/join-the-physical-or-online-blockade-of-the-salvation-army/#comment-92342
IDS has cost the taxpayer at least 200 million quid. He should be put on workfare and face sanctions, the toff scum.
Reblogged this on and commented:
Where the WCA is at the moment. Sadly, not gone, like ATOS. From Johnny Void…
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