Millionaires picking on cripples

That's the Government bullying the sick and disabled. Whilst the nation is singing the praises of the Paralympians, what is the Government doing? Firstly David Cameron announced that he was going to set up a special Olympic and Paralympic honours list just to commemorate their achievements, and the flip side of what the Government are doing?

Yep that's right - threatening to withdraw £71 a week from sick and disabled benefit claimants! This is from a weekly total of £99.15.

People who claim Employment Support Allowance are judged to be too ill or disabled to work.

These people are split into two groups: Firstly the support group, who are deemed to be a long way off from rejoining the workplace. The second group are named the Wrag group. This is an acronym for Work Related Activity Group. This latter group are assessed to be capable of taking steps towards moving into work straight away. Therefore they must undertake a range of activities to help them get back into work

According to the Department of Work and Pensions these activities are to include:

• Attending and taking part in work-focused interviews.
• Carrying out work-related activities that the claimant's adviser asks the claimant to do.

This is to include unpaid and unlimited work experience according to what the DWP told the Guardian newspaper. In order to legally permit officials to make the sick and disabled in the Wrag group do work experience as a condition of their benefit claim the Government had to pass an additional clause to their Welfare Reform Act of 2012.

There are people concerned about the implications such new conditions will have for those affected. Gillian Guy the chief executive of the Citizens Advice Bureau, said there were already lots of cases that had cropped up where benefit sanctions had been applied "inappropriately, often causing great hardship". Ms Guy went on: " People have their benefits cut with little or no warning or explanation or understanding of what they failed to do."

Paul Farmer, who is the chief executive of Mind, the mental health charity warned: "It is important to remember that people in the work-related activity group have been assessed as unfit for work - they are not at full health and are still very vulnerable, they face significant barriers to return to employment and need support rather than the threat of sanction."

On top of this, the Government are "reforming " payment of Disability Living Allowance. What they are doing is replacing DLA with the more restrictive personal independence payment (PIP) from next year. DLA helps with the cost of transport, equipment, care and other specialist needs. DLA is currently paid to 3.2 million people. Under PIP, the Government estimates that up to 500 000 people will lose entitlement to the benefit in the coming years as the eligibility criteria are tightened and people's claims are reassessed.

Here are just a selection of remarks from some of the British paralympian team:

• Aaron Phipps, Wheelchair Rugby:: "DLA pays for those essential things I would need. It is just completely essential, I would be completely lost without it."
• David Clarke, Blind five-a-side football: "It seems as though disabled people's independence is being jeopardised by the Government's proposals, but it is so wide of the mark..."
• Natasha Baker, Dressage: "DLA enables disabled people another life...it allows us to be independent. I love my independence."
• Kylie Grimes, Wheelchair Rugby: "DLA is really important.I have been injured now five and a half years. For me it is hugely important. I would have been lost without it, to be honest."

Our Prime Minister this morning announced that he was setting up a separate honours list for Olympians and Paralympians. He has spoken of a legacy from both the Olympics and the Paralympics. Yet he and his Government seem hell bent on depriving some of the very people he is speaking of, of monies that they need to live independent lives.

Some legacy Mr Cameron.

You couldn't make this stuff up

They have got a French company Atos sponsoring the Paralympics. These are the people who have been charged by the Government with deciding whether sick and disabled people are fit and able and suitable for work.

Atos hold more than £3 billion of government contracts across 10 different departments. The contract with the Department of Work and Pensions is annually worth more than £100 million alone and it is that which is provoking the most ire. What Atos are doing is carrying out what are called Work Capability Assessments.

Anyone who claims Employment Support Allowance must pass a WCA, conducted by one of Atos's 1400 staff. At the time of writing, more than 40 of Atos's doctors and nurses have been reported to medical authorities for alleged misconduct.

Paddy Murphy of Disabled People Against Cuts described the firm's sponsorship of the Paralympics as "beyond a joke". One of DPAC's co-founders; Linda Burnip commented: "The fact is that Atos is getting all the credit for the Paralympics and at the same time it is destroying disabled people's lives through Work Capability Assessments."

40% of people who are deemed fit for work by Atos apppeal. Of these, 70% of claimants who attend an appeal with the support of  the Citizen's Advice Bureau successfully overturn the decision. The figure for those who go it alone is 40%.

I just think that the whole business is a very cruel irony.

Hidden homeless

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18145323

Here is a link to a piece written by young rapper Speech Debelle who made a TV programme that was broadcast on BBC Three the other day about homelessness. I've included it  for In My Shoes because this young woman was eloquent on the subject of hidden homelessness.

London living wage and hotels

There was some good news on the jobs front yesterday if you are one of the 850 staff who work in one of the eight hotels in London managed by the InterContinental Hotels Group. But the fanfare of publicity comes with a caveat - there's always a but.

The managing director for the UK and Ireland, Stephen McCall made the announcement: "We've made a commitment to become a London living wage employer in all the London hotels we manage...over the next five years."

The Living Wage Campaign was started by the campaign group London Citizens in 2001. Since that time the Living Wage Foundation has accredited over 100 Living Wage Employers.

The reason the story caught my eye was that hotels in London are notoriously poor employers. So the fact that an international chain has made this commitment is something of a surprise. OK so they're not going to fully implement it for five years, but I think the fact that IHG have made a public commitment is a start.

I know of one hotel near Tower Bridge where if you queue up from 6.30 in the morning you stand a good chance of getting a day's work - and this has been the case for years. You are paid a pittance and they don't ask too many questions, they hassle you to clean as many rooms as possible, but they'll pay you cash at the end of the day.

I've never worked there but have pointed people I know in that direction - they tell me it's awful and that they shout at you constantly. This is only one example I know of but you do hear of horror stories often. All of which puts what IHG in quite a good light.

On the subject of  the London living wage the Evening Standard carried out a survey of the shops on Oxford Street before Christmas just gone. There was only a handful of those shops that paid the London living wage. This is supposed to be London's premier shopping street. It is clearly not so first class for the workers!

The Work Programme - how come it doesn't work very well?

I think we all know what the Work Programme is - it is a compulsory scheme for those claiming Job Seekers Allowance for 12 months or more. I've written about this before; http://inmyshoesnorthlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/welfare-to-work-new-way-with-new.html

It says on the Directgov website that  it is: "delivered for Jobcentre Plus by specialist organisations, called 'providers'. Your provider will give you all the support you need to find and stay in work,"

So the DWP wrote to me and said I'd failed to go to an appointment and unless I came up with a valid reason, they were going to "sanction" my benefit - which means; cutting it off. I knew I'd missed the appointment, when I'd signed on they told me - all these buggers are linked up on some giant computer.

So I rang my adviser that afternoon, her words to me were: "Oh, maybe I didn't send you out a letter, don't worry, you're getting a new adviser, I'm being promoted, I'll let her know - she's really nice."

The morning after I'd received the threatening letter from the DWP I rang the office that sent it. I explained the nature of my call to be told by the man on the other end - who doesn't know me from Adam, that he has "proof" that I'm not keeping up with my responsibilities. I point out to the man that he should be a little more careful with the language he uses and agree to write them a reply. I ask if there is a time limit, he tells me I have five working days and that I need to contact my provider.

The funny thing is if you need their help, or you're trying to get signed on say, it will take them weeks to sort it out. If they want to cut your benefit off, you have five working days to stop them!

So then I get another letter, this time from my provider telling me of a mandatory appointment warning of dire consequences should I fail to attend. Funny thing is, it is for the day when I am working. I am now working part-time at Poached Creative. My provider knows this. When I ring the new adviser to reappoint it turns out there is no record whatsoever of when I work, although my file does tell her that I am working part-time.

My point is, if the Work Programme providers are employing people who can't cope with sending out letters, can't manage basic record keeping and fail to communicate basic information to their colleagues, how in heaven's name are they going to "give you all the support you need to find and stay in work."?

And this "specialist organisation" promoted this woman!

Bully-boy landlords

My landlord served me seven days notice the other day because I'm in arrears - I wasn't especially worried as he often says this. The amount we're talking about is less than £150!

When I say landlord, I mean one of the two managers of the place where I live. I live in a Bed and Breakfast cum hostel. The deal is that Housing Benefit pay my rent and I pay a surcharge on top of that of £25 per week. This is to cover electricity, heating, hot water and breakfast. (Breakfast is two sausages, two eggs, baked beans and two toast.)

The next time I saw this man he assured me he meant it "this time". It wasn't until I spoke to one of the security people on the front door who forewarned me that Mr X was really gunning for me and had spoken to the lawyers that I became alarmed.

So I took myself down to the jobcentre to use their free phones and phoned the advice people at Shelter. I knew I had very few rights as I only had a licence to live in my room, nothing like a tenancy. I was under the impression that due to the length of my stay, my landlord had to give me more than a week's notice.

When I got through and spoke to one of Shelter's advisers she quickly disabused me of this notion. I didn't have a legal leg to stand on - I had no more rights than a guest in a hotel who hadn't paid the bill! The adviser was able to give chapter and verse on the small claims court in terms of getting my stuff back, and also to point me in the direction of Community Legal Advice for any future difficulties.

So I went back to my room, packed up three boxes of important bits and pieces, stashed these in the room of one of the few people in my B and B I can call a mate, along with my suit and a leather jacket. I  then wrote a careful note to the landlord with future payment dates and pondered my lot.

The thing that really pissed me off was that it was so arbitrary, that I could become homeless on just the whim of someone else! Come the morning, nothing happened.

George Osborne video

Please check this out - it is very funny and says so much about our Chancellor!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxBMT0rH9hU

Many thanks to the comedian and writer Wendy Wason who flagged it up to me when she was reviewing the papers on BBC London radio on Sunday morning.