DWP Finally Own Up To Fake Online Campaign

The DWP have admitted their involvement in the Role Models: Inspire A Generation youtube channel after first attempting to mislead people that it was initiated ‘by young disabled people for young disabled people’.

The youtube channel hosts 50 videos of disabled people with successful careers and has been criticised as being soft propaganda for the vicious cuts to disability benefits.

The youtube page previously gave no indication that it was a government run campaign, however this has now been changed to admit that: “This account is a co-production between young disabled people and the Department for Work and Pensions.”

The facebook page for the campaign, which also gave no information that it was a government run page, is still missing after it disappeared shortly after it was launched.  Scores of people had visited the page to criticise DWP inspired policies which are forcing hundreds of thousands of disabled people into desperate poverty.

Luckily the youtube channel, which currently has a less than impressive 49 subscribers, is still accepting comments.  The DWP say they want to encourage open and lively debate – but no swearing.

You can join in the open and lively debate at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/rolemodelsinspire/

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

Achieve Your Potential Or Starve, The Government’s Real Message To Young Disabled People

Any campaign from this Government which claims to support disabled people should be viewed with suspicion and the latest offering from the DWP is no exception.

The department yesterday put out a press release boasting: “Celebrities have joined forces with the government to help launch a campaign aiming to promote positive role models for disabled people.”

This campaign features a youtube channel where 50 videos have been posted which have “been produced with a focus on overcoming barriers”.  Many of these videos are unsurprisingly about disabled people who have high flying careers, such as Dame Anne Begg, or are stories of disabled entrepreneurs.

The accompanying press release includes a gushing quote from Emmerdale actor Kitty McGeever explaining how after becoming disabled it ‘took some time to get back into work’ but she managed it with the help of the Government’s Access To Work scheme.

This scheme provides funding for workplace adaptions, travel or some care needs for disabled people in employment.  The number of people benefiting from Access To Work has plummeted by over a third since this Government weren’t elected showing the true situation for disabled people currently seeking employment.

Whilst this campaign may be a cheap attempt to improve those figures, it comes against a background of savage cuts to benefits, services and housing for disabled people.  It is a campaign run by a government which is declaring hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people to be ‘fit for work’ with the aim of stopping their benefits.  A government which has been only too happy to force sick and disabled claimants onto workfare as part of the Work Programme -  with no public scrutiny of where they are being sent or for how long.  A government that is set to force potentially hundreds of thousands of disabled people from their homes due to the bedroom tax, benefit cap and other measures.

And when Personal Independence Payments (PIP) fully replace Disability Living Allowance, this is a Government which will have slashed completely a vital benefit for 20% of disabled people.

This move alone is likely to mean that over 50% of disabled people are forced to leave work as funding for specialist equipment, care and transport disappears*.

Vast numbers of disabled people are set to be plunged into poverty by these measures, and it is this which reveals the true intentions of this latest DWP run project.  One of the charities involved in the campaign is quoted as saying that the “project is about showing what disabled people can do – not what they can’t”.

This is eerily similar to David Cameron’s line when interviewed shortly after the  opening of the Paralympic games when he said: “It’s about the inspiration and it will change people’s minds and that’s what matters. It’ll teach people about what they can do, rather than what they can’t do.”

It is also the line used to justify the benefit-stripping Work Capability Assessment which according to the DWP focuses on “what an individual can do despite their health condition, rather than simply what they can’t.”

Minister for Murdering Disabled People, Esther Mcvey also pops up in this week’s press release, and whilst not quite so explicit, her underlying message is the same:  “young disabled people tell me they want to see more inspiring role models to show where disabled people have achieved their ambitions despite the odds being stacked against them”

For young disabled people the odds are stacked against them like never before due to this Government and in this context the true nature of the DWP’s latest campaign becomes clear.  This is not about providing role models for young disabled people or helping people fulfill their potential or even changing perceptions of disabled people as is claimed.  This Government doesn’t care about any of that.  This campaign is yet more insidious DWP propaganda attempting to give the impression that those plunged into poverty due to the ruthless cuts to disability benefits will only have themselves to blame.  If only they’d learnt to play wheelchair rugby, or been a fucking Dame, then they could afford to put the heating on.

The campaign also has a facebook page which might be a good place to share experiences of what people can no longer do due to the vicious cuts to benefits:
https://www.facebook.com/Rolemodelsinspire

Dawn Willis writes well about this kind of narrative: ‘I’m not Stephen Fry, how damaging is that?’ from Dawn

*this figure comes from a survey carried out by Disability Rights UK (DRUK) which reported that 56% of those asked said they would have to leave work if they lost their DLA.  DRUK are notoriously in the pockets of the DWP, with Chief Executive Liz Sayce writing a report which recommended the closure of the Remploy factories.  The survey relating to the number of people likely to leave work due to PIP seems to have disappeared from DRUK’s website, for which there is surely an entirely innocent explanation.

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Disaster For Disabled ‘Stock’ As Support For Those In Work Continues To Plummet

Despite a gushing press release from Minister for Murdering Disabled People Esther Mcvey, statistics released this week show that the number of disabled ‘stock’ helped through the Access To Work scheme remains at record low levels.

Access To Work is used to fund transport, support workers, specialist equipment and other vital measures for enable disabled people to start, and stay in work.  When the decision was made to close the Remploy factories, this was the scheme that lying ministers claimed would help sacked workers find employment.

Despite these bold claims, figures suggest that the number of people helped by the scheme has collapsed since this Government weren’t elected.  16,540 people started to receive support from the scheme in the year 2009/10.  By last year that number had fallen to just 10,000 and this week’s statistics, in which disabled people are referred to as ‘stock,  show the situation is not getting any better.

The bottom row in the above table reflects the number of people who actually received help for the first time in 2012/13, which is likely to be around 10,330 – and only then if the numbers remain stable.

The figures for new registrations to the scheme, which means people accepted on Access To Work but who have not necessarily yet received any help, are even more underwhelming.  There were just 9,740 new registrations in 2011/12 and 7,380 in the first three quarters of 2012/13*.

Mcvey claims that she is ‘encouraged’ by these dire figures.  This is down to the simple fact that a couple of hundred more people with mental health conditions have received help than previously.  Usually we hear of ministers talking in terms of millions, or at least thousands of people.  Access To Work is such a shambles that the number of disabled people helped is discussed in the 100s.  The number of sick and disabled people who are unemployed is estimated to be around 2.5 million.

Astonishingly, there is no guarantee that those who have used the scheme are even in real paid jobs.  Changes introduced in October last year mean that Access To Work can now be used to fund people who are “about to start a Work Experience placement through the Youth Contract”.

Perhaps the scheme should be renamed Access To Workfare?

The latest figures can be found at:
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/atw/atw0413.pdf

*Whilst this may result in a miniscule rise of 100 registrations over the year these figures are not yet finalised and may change slightly. They could of course also fall over the last quarter.  In other words all we can really say for sure is that since Esther Mcvey took over as Minister, nothing has changed.  The number of people helped into work is still well over a third less than it was prior to this Government.

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How the Big Disability Charities Let Down Disabled People … again

An important recent post on Disabled People Against Cuts’ (DPAC) website reveals how the big disability charities once again let down the very people they claim to support by being indifferent at best to the closure of the Independent Living Fund (ILF).

As the name suggests, the fund is designed to support the most severely disabled people in living independent lives.  In a chilling sign of what was to come, less than two months after this Government weren’t elected it was closed to new applications.  Funding is now being devolved to local councils, who will have no legal duty to maintain the support offered under the scheme.  All ILF claims are planned to end by 2015.

The closure of the fund has met fierce opposition from grassroots campaigners such as Disabled People Against Cuts and Black Triangle.  Documents recently revealed in a high court appeal against the fund’s closure reveal it has been met by little more than apathy from the major disability organisations.

The documents show that the DWP recognise “that upon reassessment by LA’s (Local Authorities) most users are likely to see some reduction in the current funding levels, and there are a group of users with low care needs that may not be eligible for local authority support under current needs thresholds in most LA’s.’”

Despite this – according to the DWP at least – Mencap (highest paid earner £190,000 pa*), The MS Society, and Scope (highest paid earner £140,000) all supported the closure of the scheme, although Scope’s support was weak and they showed ‘concern’.  RNIB (highest paid earner £140,000) disagreed with the closure of the fund, but this disagreement was summed up as ‘weak concern’ by the DWP.  Only Disability Wales and Inclusion Scotland are mentioned as strongly disagreeing with the closure.

Charities will no doubt argue with the DWP’s assessment of their indifference to disabled people’s lives, however for once it seems the department may be telling the truth (stop laughing).  The documents point out:  “none of the largest national disability organisations requested ministerial meetings and many did not submit responses to the consultation. While we have had an increasing number of letters from MPs on users’ behalf, the proposal to close the fund has received almost no attention in the mainstream media.”

DPAC themselves have requested several meetings with ministers over the closure of the fund.  All requests were ignored.

* Where The Workfare Money Goes – Charity Rich List Released

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Protesters Gather at the Courts to Save the Independent Living Fund

Around 70 people gathered at a well attended protest outside the Royal Court of Justice today to demand a halt to the close of the Independent Living Fund (ILF).

The ILF is used to support the most severely disabled people live independent lives.  In what the Government claim is reform and everyone else knows means cuts, funding will be devolved to local councils. This funding will not be ring-fenced meaning that the money may well be spent plugging the gap in Town Hall budgets due to the already savage cuts.

Campaigners warn that disabled people could be forced back into institutions due to the closure of the fund as councils seek to cut costs..

Today’s protest, which saw speakers from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Inclusion London and the PCS Union, came as six people challenged the closure of the fund in the high court.  The case, which is ongoing, will argue that the closure of the fund will breach the United Nations Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities which provides the right to independent living and the right to an adequate standard of living and protection.

Lawyers will argue that the consultation into the closure of the fund was illegal due to a failure to provide adequate information about the changes.  The court will also hear that there has not been an adequate assessment of the impact of the closure of the ILF on disabled people’s ability to live and work independently.

For more information about the closure of the ILF and the personal testimonies of those affected visit:
http://www.dpac.uk.net/blog/

Don’t Blame Us For Disability Benefit Cuts Say Capita, We’re Just In It For The Money

“The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.”  Nuremberg Principle IV

Nothing sums up the current profit obsessed capitalist culture more than the claim that as long as you are making money then you have no moral responsibility for your actions whatsoever.

This is exactly the position Stephen Duckworth from Capita attempted in The Guardian yesterday to justify their involvement in the upcoming Personal Independence Assessments (PIP) which will see a fifth of disabled people stripped of life-saving benefits.

“Don’t blame us for policy” say poor Capita, the company brutally forced by this Government into making millions of pounds out of abusing disabled people.  “I was only following orders” has been replaced by “I was only making a buck” as the footsoldiers of austerity attempt to spin away their vile behaviour.

Stephen Duckworth is head of Capita’s PIP programme and was interviewed in The Guardian yesterday in what reads like little more than a puff piece for the public services company more commonly known as Crapita.

The new PIP Assessments will be based on the discredited and brutal Work Capability Assessment (WCA) which has driven hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people into poverty, and in some tragic cases suicide.  Infamous IT company Atos run the WCA and alongside Capita will share running the PIP.

Duckworth, who is disabled himself, boasts that 40% of staff working on PIP will be disabled people – except there is no minimum target for the number recruited, so this is basically a lie.  In an echo of the Government’s benefit cuts are good for you spin, he claims that the new regime will be ‘enabling’.

Capita even boast that the new centres will be all on the ground floor, as if having disability assessment centres which are accessible to disabled people is some great triumph.

The truth is that the no doubt handsomely paid Stephen Duckworth, and Capita themselves, are about to make a fortune on the back of human misery.  They are every bit as accountable for the decision to do that as the companies who used concentration camp labour to build the gas chanbers (Atos Healthcare’s corporate partners Siemens since you asked).

Above pic from a blog chronicling Capita’s destruction of public services in the London Borough of Barnet:
http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

Number Of Disabled People Helped Into Work Drops By Over A Third Boasts DWP

Minister for Murdering Disabled People Esther McVey has released a press release today boasting that less disabled people have been helped into work than at any point since 2007.

Murdering McVey refers to regional figures for the Government’s Access To Work scheme, which show that even in large cities such as Leeds or Glasgow, barely a few hundred people are being helped by the scheme.

The latest official figures for the Government’s Access To Work scheme were released in January (PDF), and did not merit a DWP Press Release.  It is easy to understand why.  The figures cover the six month period between April and September 2012 and show that the number of disabled people helped into jobs has plummeted since this Government weren’t elected.

At its peak in 2009/2010, the Access To Work programme, which helps pay for specialist equipment for disabled workers, helped 16,540 new disabled people into employment.

By 2011/12 this numbers had dropped to 9,980.  The latest figures show that just 4,960 people had benefited from the scheme in the first six months of the latest period – meaning if such pitiful performance continues this will be the worst year yet.

This is despite the promises from Ministers that the thousands of sacked Remploy workers would find new jobs through Access To Work.

Even during the worst of the recession 14,010 new people were helped into employment via Access To Work, almost a third higher then the recent dire statistics.  The latest figures suggest one of two things.  The Tories have either broken the Access To Work scheme or despite the manipulated unemployment figures there are no fucking jobs.  Of course both of these things are quite likely to be true.

Defend Independent Living: Save the Independent Living Fund

The Independent Living Fund was established as a ring-fenced sum of money which could be accessed by severely disabled people who often need expensive 24 hour care.

This funding has made it possible for people to remain in their homes rather than in institutions.  In 2010 the fund was closed to new applicants.  Last year the Government decided to close down the fund completely and make local Councils responsible for administering funding.

Local authorities will not have to ring fence any money from Central Government for this kind of support meaning they cash strapped councils may simply divert the money elsewhere.  With local authorities already buckling under harsh cuts, soaring homelessness and an upcoming Council Tax crisis, many may choose to place some disabled people back in (no doubt privately run) care homes in an attempt to cut costs.

As spokesperson for Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC),  Linda Burnip has said, the closure of the fund:  “in terms of independent living, is the single most regressive action the Condems could have taken.”

Support is needed urgently to save this vital funding which allows the most severely disabled people to stay in their homes and lead independent lives.

Please visit, share and tweet the latest information from DPAC on how you can help: 
http://www.dpac.uk.net/2013/02/defend-independent-living-save-the-independent-living-fund/

Those in London join the vigil to save the Independent Living Fund on March 13th.

Meet outside the Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand on 13th March at 12.30pm.  More details on DPAC at:
http://www.dpac.uk.net/2013/02/vigil-to-save-ilf/

Pic from the highly recommended Crippen Cartoons.

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

Co-op Campaign: Stop the Atos Contract!

Action is being called for around the UK as fake hippy bankers, the Co-operative Bank, consider whether to continue using the service of disability deniers Atos to provide Occupational Health services the company.

Atos carry out the notorious Work Capability Assessment, the crude computer based test which is used to strip benefits from sick disabled people by finding them ‘fit for work’.

Last year it emerged that the Co-op currently use Atos to provide Occupational Health to their staff. This led to furious protests both on and offline with the Co-op attempting to weasel their way out of trouble by claiming they couldn’t do anything about it for contractual reasons.  Now the contract is up for tender and astonishingly the Co-op have refused to rule out using the services of Atos again.

Many workers of other companies have found themselves laid off for health reasons after recommendations made by Atos, only to be found fit for work as part of their benefits assessment.  The company have previously boasted on their website that they have “a team of Organisation and HR professionals who undertake the analysis, design and execution of headcount reduction.”

Atos are equal opportunities wankers, they treat workers every bit as badly as they treat people who cannot work due to sickness or disability.

Two pickets of the Co-op have already been called in Glasgow on the 17th and 19th of January calling on the company not to renew their contract with Atos:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/01/505265.html

Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/488541864531259/

Pickets are currently being planned elsewhere in the UK.

A Communications Blockade has also been called for the 17th January, details at:
http://www.dpac.uk.net/2013/01/co-op-campaign-stop-the-atos-contract/

Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/357131177718217/

You can contact the Co-op on twitter @TheCooperative or on facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/TheCooperative

Action called by the Crutch Collective, Clydeside Industrial Workers Of The World and Glasgow Solidarity Federation

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

How This Government Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love ID Cards

A new ‘virtual’  ID Card scheme and Identity Assurance database are quietly being introduced by stealth as the government presses forward with plans to make all public services ‘digital by default’.

Just like under Blair’s scheme, the new virtual ID Cards will not be mandatory (yet) but will be required to access all government services including benefits, tax assessment, the NHS, and possibly even services provided by local councils.

Whilst for most people the new ID system will be ‘virtual’, meaning that it will be accessed by smart phones or internet connections, tender documents suggest that those who are not online may be forced to use physical ID cards to access services.

Defenders of the new scheme claim this is nothing like the ID Card and National Identity Register introduced by the last government because information will be held by private companies and not centrally by the state.  However with Theresa May desperately trying to introduce new powers to snoop on emails and social networking, the idea that government will not be able to access the new database is beyond naive.  All the involvement of the private sector means is that unaccountable private sector sharks will also have access to personal information.

With companies like facebook rumoured to be involved, and the recent awarding of an ‘identity assurance’ contract to credit reference company Experion, this suggests that data-harvesting could go way beyond anything contemplated by Blair’s band of government busy-bodies.

Somewhat predictably it will be benefit claimants and disabled people who are used as guinea pigs for the new database.  Claims for both Universal Credit and the upcoming replacement disability benefit Personal Independence Payment, will be the first benefits to be digital by default.

Recently the DWP announced contractors to manage the  ‘identity assurance’  database for benefit claimants which includes the aforementioned Experion, along with arms company Cassidian.

What has not been reported is that one of the contracts placed out to tender was for a face to face identity verification service.  If this doesn’t mean ID Cards then it’s difficult to know what it could mean.

Tender documents also reveal that DWP access to the database is being built into the new provision stating that ‘data attributes’ may be “be requested by the DWP and provided by the service provider: e.g. verified telephone numbers, history of addresses, etc.  The initial service should also meet the following requirements:”

All benefit claimants, including those on in work benefits such as tax credits and housing benefits, will be need to choose an ‘identity assurance’ provider which will then allow them to access Universal Credit.  21 million people are expected to be affected by the change to the benefits system and entered onto the Universal Credit database – which is the most extensive data gathering system ever devised by a government.

Universal Credit will not just collect details of income on a monthly basis, but will contain details on health conditions, employment, job seeking activity, housing, family make up, bank details, childcare, tenancy agreements, and personal information such as dates of birth and National Insurance numbers.  There have even been recommendations that this database could be linked to NHS prescription records (PDF), whilst the launch of Universal Jobmatch is giving Jobcentres unprecedented access to spy on how and when claimants look for work.

People on Self-Assessed tax are likely to be the next group who will be forced to sign up to an ‘identity assurance’ provider to fill in tax returns.  Eventually this will be extended to cover all government services, including the NHS (PDF).  Signing up to ‘Identity Assurance’ will soon be necessary even to make an appointment with your GP if this Government get their way.

The  feeble excuse for this mass data gathering operation is that people currently have to use different passwords to access different online services.  This flimsy justification falls apart simply by pointing out that people are well within their rights to use the same password to sign up for different things – a hardly unique concept amongst internet users.

The real reason is a long term plan to make thousands of public sector workers redundant by abolishing any face to face relationships between citizens and the state.  And of course, with government eavesdroppers GCHQ having been involved in designing the Universal Credit system, the spooks will have a field day as they have new powers to trawl through huge amounts of detail about people’s very personal lives.

There are even plans to use ‘voice biometrics’ as part of identity assurance, meaning providers, and ultimately the state, will have access to the individual voice print of everyone using the system.  Whilst this technology is untested on anything like this scale, this could, in theory, be used to track people’s phone conversations simply by scanning the airwaves for individual ‘voice prints’.

Before they became the enabling arm of the Conservative Party many Lib Dems were quick to point out that it’s not just what a current government might do with a national identity database, but any future administration.  Whilst it may seem difficult to conceive of a worse government than this one, as the neo-liberal bandwagon rolls on ever more authoritarian measures will be necessary to stamp out resistance to the suffering caused by naked capitalism.  A free market does not mean free people.

And that’s why Big Brother is back, just this time hidden beneath a cloak of Tory deception and Lib Dem spinelessness.