APPG on ME: Agenda meeting 2 December 2009

APPG on ME: Agenda meeting 2 December 2009

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The APPG on ME maintains a website here: http://www.appgme.org.uk

Agenda APPG for ME 2 Dec 2009

APPG agenda 02/12/2009

19 December 2009

The next meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on M.E. will be held 3.15-4.45pm, Wednesday 2 December 2009 in Committee Room 15, House of Commons.

1. Welcome by the Chairman

2. APPG Report on the Inquiry into NHS Services

3. Speaker: Mike O’Brien MP, Minister of State for Health Services

4. Minutes of the last meeting

5. Matters arising

- APPG legacy paper (in preparation for the General Election)

- New research: murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV)

- Accessibility of venues for future meetings

6. Welfare update

- Employment and Support Allowance

- Welfare Reform Bill

7. Any other business

8. Date of next meeting

Declaration of interests for the CFS/ME Expert Group

Declaration of interests for the CFS/ME Expert Group

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On 13 November, Tate Mitchell reports, via Co-Cure, a new page on the MRC’s website:

Declaration of interests for the CFS/ME Expert Group

http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Ourresearch/ResearchFocus/CFSME/DoI/index.htm

Interests for members of the Expert Group are declared under the following categories:

Personal Remuneration (employment, pensions, consultancies, directorships, honoraria etc)
Registrable Shareholdings and Financial Interests in Companies
Research Income during current session (over £50k per grant)
Major academic collaborations (national and international)
Unremunerated involvement with and membership of medical, biomedical, pharmaceutical, healthcare provision or similar activities/organisations
Political/pressure group associations
Members are informed of the MRC policy of declarations of interest at the first meeting and asked to return their completed forms to the Secretariat. The interest declared to date are listed below.

Dr Charles Shepherd

Dr Derek Pheby

Dr Esther Crawley

Dr Jonathan Kerr

Professor Anthony Pinching

Professor Hugh Perry

Professor Ian Kimber

Professor Malcolm Jackson

Professor Peter White

Professor Philip Cowen

Professor Stephen Holgate

Sir Peter Spencer

Benefits and Work: You’re not so easy to silence

An update from Benefits and Work’s Steve Donnison

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Steve Donnison  |  10 November 2009

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk

You’re not so easy to silence

With just a few days of consultation left now, Andy Burnham’s attempt to ‘close down…the debate and controversy over disability living allowance’ seems to have been only a partial success.

As we explained in our last newsletter, Burnham gave an assurance that DLA for people aged under 65 was not going to form part of the funding for the National Care Service. Like many others, we pointed out that this means that DLA for people aged 65 and over, as well as AA, is still under threat. We urged people not to let this cunningly worded concession succeed in silencing them.

And you certainly didn’t.

People have continued to sign the No 10 petition, which is now at number 6 on the Downing Street site with over 20,000 signatures.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/AttendanceA/

And posts have continued to pour into the Big Care debate website which now has almost 3,400 submissions.

http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/greenpaper/execsum/

Many recent posts make it clear that you are aware that assurances have been give about DLA for people aged under 65, but you’re still not happy.

In addition, following our revelations in a members only article on the site at the end of last month, many recent posts have been about the fact that the government proposes to send everyone a one-off £20,000 tax bill on their 65th birthday to help cover the cost of the proposed National Care Service.

More secrecy around National Care Service
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1123-more-secrecy-around-national-care-service

The tax will be means-tested, so not everyone will have to pay the full amount. But it can be recovered from your estate after you die, if you own a home or other property. And the tax also won’t cover the cost of food and accommodation if you have to go into residential care, only the care itself.

So, you still facing losing your disability benefits at age 65, you’ll still get handed a £20,000 tax bill and yet, if you do have to go into residential care for two years, the green paper estimates that you will still have to pay half of the estimated £50,000 cost from your own pocket.

MPs were also not fooled into silence by Burnham’s DLA announcement. In a debate on the proposals at the end of last month, Burnham was repeatedly questioned about whether DLA for people aged 65 and over would be used to fund the National Care Service. He repeatedly dodged answering the question.

Burnham refuses to answer DLA questions
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1122-burnham-refuses-to-answer-dla-questions

Suspicions about the government’s plans have been further fuelled by its refusal to publish promised details of how the new service will be funded.

More secrecy around National Care Service
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1123-more-secrecy-around-national-care-service

A coalition of charities – the Care and Support Alliance – is now set to make a Freedom of Information request to try to obtain the information.

Unfortunately, there is at least one organisation which continues to claim that DLA is now safe. . . Disability Alliance. Until the end of last week their home page still proclaimed ‘DLA no longer part of social care plans. See our press release.’

The link has now been removed from their home page, but the press release stating that “…the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) benefit will not be affected by Government plans to merge some benefits with social care funding” remains. So, Burnham may have succeeded in closing down the debate in one place at least.

For the rest of us, we still have until Friday to make our contribution to the Big Care debate and to sign the petition.

We’ll be back next Tuesday with our final email of this campaign and information about how you can stay in touch with what happens next.

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

Please feel free to forward or publish this article.

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk
Company registration No. 5962666

POST YOUR NEWS
Finally, remember that you can post your news in the Benefits and Work forum, if you’re a member, at:

http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=showcat&catid=13

and/or in the free welfare watch forums at:

http://welfarewatch.myfineforum.org/index.php

You can also keep up with news about opposition to the green paper at the Carer Watch campaign blog:

http://carerwatch.com/cuts/

Unfortunately, we’re getting so many emails on this subject that we are unlikely to be able to respond individually. But we do appreciate hearing your news and views and we do encourage you to publish them for others to read on the forums detailed above.

Guardian: Bending the rules

From the Guardian’s Melissa Viney, Wednesday 28 October 2009:

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/oct/28/work-capability-assessment-incapacity-benefits

Bending the rules

Critics of new medical tests aimed at getting claimants off benefits and into work say they are target-driven measures that penalise genuinely ill people.

By Melissa Viney

[Photo of Anna Wood] Anna Wood, who has severe ME and is dependent on help from her home carer, was initially deemed ineligible for the new form of incapacity benefit. Photograph: Frank Baron

“Had Anna Wood realised that by bending down to pick up an object off the floor she would be deemed fit to work, perhaps the 33-year-old former academic would have thought twice. Wood, who had been forced to give up a prestigious fellowship position at Strathclyde University last year after developing severe ME, was made to perform the exercise as part of a medical test that all claimants of the new sickness benefit for ill and disabled people have to undertake….”

“…This tough medical test, called the work capability assessment (WCA), is at the heart of controversial changes to sickness benefit that were introduced last October when employment support allowance (ESA) replaced incapacity benefit (IB) for new claimants…”

Read full article here

Benefits and Work: DLA saved – for some

An update from Benefits and Work’s Steve Donnison.

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From Steve Donnison  |  27 October 2009

DLA saved – for some

It’s a start, but nowhere near enough.

Health secretary Andy Burnham has said that he has “heard the concerns and worries about disability living allowance”. As a result, he has announced that:

“I can state categorically that we have now ruled out any suggestion that DLA for under-65s will be brought into the new National Care Service.”

Good news indeed . . . for some . . . for the moment.

But definitely not for the one and a half million people who depend on AA.

Nor for the for the three quarters of a million people aged 65 and over who receive DLA.

Not even for the 400,000 DLA claimants currently aged between 60 and 64, many of whom will have reached the age of 65 by the time labour’s proposed National Care Service is introduced.

Because, of course, DLA is not just paid to people under 65. You have to make your claim before you are 65, but you can then go on claiming indefinitely if your needs do not change.

Unfortunately, many organisations who should know better seem to have forgotten that – perhaps just as the government hoped.

Because Mr Burnham made no secret about why he made this announcement: he wants to shut people up. He said in his speech, given at a conference in Harrogate on 22nd October and also published on the Big Care Debate website:

“One avenue I do want to close down, however, is the debate and controversy over Disability Living Allowance.”

In that ambition, he seems to have succeeded, at least so far as some disability charities are concerned.

Immediately following Burnham’s speech, Disability Alliance sent out a press release stating that:

“ …the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) benefit will not be affected by Government plans to merge some benefits with social care funding…Andy Burnham’s announcement will reassure disabled people that DLA is safe – for now at least.”

The Disability Charities Consortium told the media:

“This represents a real victory for disabled people who felt very strongly that the DLA should be retained and made their collective voice heard on this issue. “

Macmillan Cancer Support also issued a press release saying that:

“Whilst we are pleased the Government has said Disability Living Allowance (DLA) will not be used to meet the shortfall in social care funding, we remain deeply concerned that Attendance Allowance (AA) is still under threat.”

But that isn’t what Andy Burnham said at all. He said DLA for under 65’s is not being considered.

This was echoed by Yvette Cooper, the DWP secretary of state who told a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on ME on 21st October that DLA for people of ‘working age’ is not under review.

It was also made clear by Burnham that there will be no transitional protection of existing awards for current claimants. Instead, ‘an equivalent level of support’ will be provided by your local authority.

Burnham’s announcement seems to have had the desired effect, however – the ‘debate and controversy’ over DLA appears to be over as far as some disability charities are concerned. Yet, in a little over two weeks time the deadline for submissions on the green paper ends.

It’s vital that the case for saving DLA for all claimants is still made. Only now there is a real worry that not only have the disability charities relaxed, but also that Burnham will claim that because 3,000 submissions to the Big Care Debate were made before his announcement that DLA for under 65s is safe, they should mostly be discounted.

If you don’t want the government to get away with closing down ‘the debate and controversy over Disability Living Allowance’ there are things you can do.

Contact disability groups you have a connection with and warn them that they still need to respond to the green paper in relation to both DLA and AA.

Respond to the Care Green paper yourself, again if necessary, making it clear that you are aware that DLA for under 65s is not under consideration and giving your views on axing AA and DLA for people aged 65 and over.

http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/greenpaper/execsum/

Email: careandsupport@dh.gsi.gov.uk

Rouse people to sign the No 10 petition, which is gathering real momentum again: it now has over 19,000 signatures and is at number 8 out of over four and a half thousand petitions on the site. Not bad going for a petition that has been running for less than two months.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/AttendanceA/

Tell your MP what you think or, better still, go and visit them and tell them face-to-face.

One final thought. The revelation that the government is considering slashing the income of 2.5 million older disabled claimants was made by Andy Burnham in a keynote speech last week.

The subject of that speech?

Outlawing ageism in the NHS.

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

Please feel free to forward or publish this article, which is also available online at: http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1118-dla-saved–for-some

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk
Company registration No. 5962666

POST YOUR NEWS
Finally, remember that you can post your news in the Benefits and Work forum, if you’re a member, at:

http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=showcat&catid=13

and/or in the free welfare watch forums at:

http://welfarewatch.myfineforum.org/index.php

You can also keep up with news about opposition to the green paper at the Carer Watch campaign blog:

http://carerwatch.com/cuts/

Unfortunately, we’re getting so many emails on this subject that we are unlikely to be able to respond individually. But we do appreciate hearing your news and views and we do encourage you to publish them for others to read on the forums detailed above.

—————–

From Steve Donnison  | 30 October 2009

£20,000 shock birthday tax for all

A £20,000 tax bill on your 65th birthday sounds like the stuff of nightmares or political satire. But it’s one of the proposals in the care green paper which has so far received little attention as the government struggles to deal with the outcry over disability benefits cuts.

On the subject of which, people who receive the campaign newsletter will already know that the health secretary has now said DLA for the under-65s will not be used to fund the proposed new care service. But he has offered no such guarantee in relation to either AA or DLA currently paid to people aged 65 and over.

Combine a £20,000 tax bill with your DLA being stopped and 65th birthdays could become the most financially ruinous occasion of many people’s lives. Members can read the full story at:

£20,000 shock birthday tax for all
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/members-only-news/1121-p20000-shock-birthday-tax-for-all

Of course, none of this may happen and you still have a chance to have your say about whether it should or not by visiting:

http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/greenpaper/execsum/

or emailing: careandsupport@dh.gsi.gov.uk

Employment and support allowance is also proving financially ruinous, not just to claimants being refused it, but possibly also to the private sector companies involved in the mandatory work-focused Pathways interviews.

We look at claims by a multinational company that delays in ESA medicals are leading to lost profits for them and to terminally ill claimants being forced to attend Pathways interviews.

The company also suggests that claimants who make real efforts to move towards employment before their medical may be losing their entitlement to ESA as a result and thus also losing the support that Pathways is supposed to provide.

Finally, in an effort to end on a slightly cheerier note, we have the news that CPAG have put an end to bullying attempts by the DWP to recover money from claimants where they have no legal right to get the money back.

It’s good to know that there’s still a little justice left out there.

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

DLA saved – for some
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1118-dla-saved-for-some
Health secretary Andy Burnham has announced that: “I can state categorically that we have now ruled out any suggestion that DLA for under-65s will be brought into the new National Care Service.”

CPAG victory over DWP bullies
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1117-cpag-victory-over-dwp-bullies
Children Poverty Action Group (CPAG) have won a court order to stop the DWP threatening legal action against claimants in order to recover money the department has no right to.

Lords warn attack on DLA and AA will be “very strongly resisted”
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1116-lords-warn-attack-on-dla-and-aa-will-be-very-strongly-resisted
Disabled benefits claimants have finally found influential allies in their fight to save DLA and AA from being used to pay for the government’s planned national care service. Bizarrely, one of these allies may even be David Freud, now the shadow work and pensions minister.

MEMBERS ONLY
Not yet a member?
Find out how to join Benefits and Work and get instant access to all our downloadable claims and appeals guides, DWP materials, members news items and more.
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/join-us

Claimants who try lose benefits
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/members-only-news/1119-claimants-who-try-lose-benefits
A private sector provider alleges that claimants risk losing their employment and support allowance (ESA) as a result of diligently taking part in the Pathways to Work programme. They also claim that delays in medical assessments are causing ‘confusion and distress to claimants’, with some terminally ill people being forced to attend work-focused interviews, and are hitting the private sector’s profits.

£20,000 shock birthday tax for all
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/members-only-news/1121-p20000-shock-birthday-tax-for-all
It’s your 65th birthday. A pile of cards drop through the letterbox. There’s also two brown envelopes…

Benefits and Work: Charities claim it’s too late to save DLA and AA

An update from Steve Donnison of Benefits and Work

Charities claim it’s too late to save DLA and AA

6 October 2009

CHARITIES ADMIT DEFEAT

We have received a copy of an email which a campaigner says came from the charity ASBAH (Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus) in response to his concerns about the care green paper. The email appears to admit defeat in the fight to save DLA and AA:

“…ASBAH, in line with many other larger bodies is of the view that these proposals have already gathered too much momentum to be reversed and that major changes are inevitable… it is vital within any alternative system that people retain elements within their budgets where they can exercise choice in how they spend that money. Although we have not adopted a position where we are fighting to save DLA and AA we would fight to see this element of choice protected and would resist any attempt to convert all support to ‘in kind’.”

We have emailed ASBAH to ask for confirmation that the email is genuine and to ask which other ‘larger bodies’ – presumably disability charities – have also given up the fight to save DLA and AA.

We have yet to receive a response.

MINISTER’ STATEMENT: IS DLA REALLY SAVED?

One week on and there has been absolutely no corroboration of Care Services minister Phil Hope’s off-the-cuff statement that DLA is not being considered for the axe.

As we pointed out last week, Hope’s ‘don’t worry, be happy’ exhortation contradicts previous statements made by the DWP. So, the continued failure by either the DWP or the Department of Health to make any official statement confirming that they have changed their position and that DLA is now safe can only be a cause for deep suspicion and grave concern.

In addition, no reassuring words whatsoever have been offered in relation to AA.

So, at Benefits and Work, our message continues to be ‘It’s not over yet: carry on campaigning’.

NO 10 PETITION STRUGGLING

The petition about DLA and AA seems to be grinding to a halt again, at under 12,000 signatures. As we said last week, if any agency starts a petition it’s vital that they give it maximum publicity or it ends up damaging, rather than promoting, their cause.

Do you have time to check the website of any disability charity that you have a connection with and, if there isn’t an obvious link to the No 10 petition, email them and politely ask them to publish one.

You could point out that the petition was started by the Disability Charities Consortium and that it’s important that disability charities now work together effectively to promote it. If they can’t act together on so simple a thing as getting signatures on a petition, then what exactly can they act together on and how can they claim to be representing their members’ interests?

The petition can be found at:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/AttendanceA/

GREEN PAPER WEBSITE AMAZED

The Big Care Debate website have answered our queries about missing responses by replying that “we have received an amazing response from the public in regards to the Green Paper, on both the website and via email. We are doing our best to work our way through them, and have them online and ready to view as soon as we can.”

We know that in the past, such consultations have struggled to get responses numbering in the hundreds, let alone the thousands. So, we can certainly believe that the ‘amazing’ response by Benefits and Work campaigners has taken the Department of Health by surprise. But we do wonder how hard it can be to read and publish a few thousand posts over several months. Is the sheer volume of communications really the only problem? Rather than, say, the fact that most responses are overwhelmingly hostile to the green paper?

If you haven’t yet sent a response to the green paper, please do so by visiting this link:

http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/greenpaper/execsum/

Or emailing: careandsupport@dh.gsi.gov.uk

We’re concerned that there doesn’t appear to be any complaints procedure for the green paper consultation and we’re looking into this. But at the very least, if they don’t publish your response it will give more grounds for challenging the validity of the whole green paper consultation, which is after all a statutory process.

POST YOUR NEWS

Finally, remember that you can post your news in the Benefits and Work forum, if you’re a member, at:

http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=showcat&catid=13

and/or in the free welfare watch forums at:

http://welfarewatch.myfineforum.org/index.php

You can also keep up with news about opposition to the green paper at the Carer Watch campaign blog:

http://carerwatch.com/cuts/

Unfortunately, we’re getting so many emails on this subject that we are unlikely to be able to respond individually. But we do appreciate hearing your news and views and we do encourage you to publish them for others to read on the forums detailed above.

Good luck,

Please feel free to forward or publish this email.

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk
Company registration No. 5962666

(c) 2009 Steve Donnison. All rights reserved.

Benefits and Work campaign: DLA is not under threat says minister

Benefits and Work 100 Days campaign

An update from Benefits and Work from Steve Donnison

“DLA is not under threat . . . be very happy” says minister

Steve Donnison  |  29 September 2008

In what may represent a dramatic victory for campaigners, Care Services Minister Phil Hope yesterday told a reporter at the Labour Party conference that DLA is not under threat by the care green paper.

According to the Disability Now website, Phil Hope, when asked if he would abolish DLA after the election, replied:

“No. All the models that we have done have not included DLA. But if people were to make a case to integrate DLA into a comprehensive system, then I’m very happy to hear that case and have those arguments.

“DLA is not under threat and people can be very happy”.

For more details and our reaction, visit here

We know that some people will claim that the minister’s comments are evidence that campaigning to save DLA was unnecessary. It’s a claim, however, that can only be be made by ignoring such as the following.

1 Earlier this month the DWP press office said in relation to whether DLA would be scrapped: “It depends on what people say in the consultation. We need to see what people say when they respond.”

2 The same minister who is now saying DLA is not under threat wrote to MEP Liz Lynne just a fortnight ago stating that: “…this is a consultation exercise and no final decisions have been made about which disability benefits might be involved, or how they would be affected.”

3 The same minister also refused to rule out the possibility of DLA being axed in an interview earlier this month with Disability Now.

4 Last month CPAG claimed that it had received assurances from ‘senior sources’ at the DWP that DLA was not under threat. Just four days later CPAG revealed that it had “subsequently been contacted by the DWP who have said that no decisions have been taken as to the future of DLA whilst the consultation is ongoing.” CPAG then went off to lobby the Department of Health on the issue.

5 For almost two months national charities such as the MS Society have tried, but failed, to get clarification from the government as to whether DLA would be affected by the care green paper.

6 Just last week, David Behan, the Director General of Social Care at the Department of Health, published a blog post on the Big Care Debate website clearly trying to reduce the flood of hostile responses. He could have easily done so by saying outright that DLA would not be affected by the green paper – he didn’t.

The reality is that, if the government have now stepped back from an attack on DLA before the care consultation has even ended, it is because of the literally thousands of angry responses on the Big Care Debate website, the thousands of signatures on petitions, the torrent of angry letters to MPs, the motions before the Scottish and Welsh assemblies and the growing pressure from disability charities who were themselves under enormous pressure from outraged claimants.

It’s because the focus on the single issue of benefits is fast becoming a public relations disaster for a green paper signed by no fewer than six secretaries of state.

Above all, if there’s been a change of heart, it’s because you have fought so effectively to protect the benefits of disabled people.

Here at Benefits and Work we don’t know if the fight is yet over for DLA, but we do know for certain it’s only just begun for AA.

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

LATEST DLA AND AA THREAT ARTICLES

CPAG admits DLA is not safe
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1104-cpag-admits-dla-is-not-safe

DLA threat website tries to stem hostile responses
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1105-dla-threat-website-tries-to-stem-hostile-responses

Scrapping DLA is an option confirms DWP
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1106-scrapping-dla-is-an-option-confirms-dwp

Is the Big Care Debate being nobbled?
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1107-is-the-big-care-debate-being-nobbled

Scottish and Welsh assemblies campaign for DLA and AA
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1108-scottish-and-welsh-assemblies-campaign-for-dla-and-aa

No 10 DLA and AA petition needs you
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1109-no-10-dla-and-aa-petition-needs-you

“DLA is not under threat . . . be very happy” says government minister
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1110-dla-is-not-under-threat—-be-very-happy-says-government-minister

Please feel free to forward or publish this email.

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk  

Company registration No. 5962666

(c) 2009 Steve Donnison. All rights reserved.

Benefits and Work Campaign: Save DLA and AA: have you signed the No 10 petition yet?

Benefits and Work Campaign: Save DLA and AA: have you signed the No 10 petition yet?

September update from Steve Donnison. Check back for newsletter next Tuesday…

Steve Donnison | 25 September 2008

We’re back from annual leave now and have been catching up on what’s been happening in our absence.

We’ll be sending out a detailed newsletter on Tuesday which will include evidence from several reputable sources that DLA is definitely under threat, plus voicing your concerns about what exactly is going on with the Big Care Debate website, where your responses are often not being published even when the website is working.

Meanwhile, however, we would strongly urge campaigners to sign the DLA and AA petition on the No 10 website, posted on 7 September by Peter Hand of Mencap.

The petition is at:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/AttendanceA/

So far it’s collected 3,728 signatures and is the 33rd largest petition on the site, which is not bad, but far short of what’s needed.

We know lots of people are very sceptical about petitions on No 10 – they feel they achieve very little other than dismissive responses from civil servants. Some also don’t like the fact that you’re asked to give an email address and your home address.

However, the petition is up and running and, unless it gathers lots of support, it could be used as evidence that there’s actually little concern about the future of DLA and AA.

Bear in mind that signing up to the Benefits and Work campaign is not like signing a petition – we aren’t going to be passing on your details to anyone else. So the fact that almost 26,000 people have now signed up to the campaign can be ignored by politicians.

But politicians know that virtually every signature on a No. 10 petition belongs to a voter and, with an election less than a year away, every signature really could make a difference.

So, please do sign the petition and spread word of it around forums and to people on your email list.

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

Please feel free to forward or publish this email.

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk
Company registration No. 5962666

(c) 2009 Steve Donnison. All rights reserved.

Save DLA and AA (Benefits and Work): Campaign update

“We run your life, so you don’t have to” courtesy Gordon’s Good Idea

————-

Update from Steve Donnison | 1 September 2009 

Save DLA & AA: a brief update

Just a brief update on what’s happening with the campaign, which now has 22,692 members.

GREEN PAPER CONSULTATION

The number of responses on the government’s own green paper website has more than quadrupled since we asked you to post there last Tuesday. The number of posts on the executive summary page – where the vast majority of responses are published – has risen from 133 to 640 in the course of the last week. The overwhelming majority of posts are strongly against any changes to disability benefits. You can read the responses, and add your own, here:

http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/greenpaper/execsum/

We would strongly urge you to have your say here if you haven’t already. The green paper argues that:

“And because the decision is so fundamental to our society, we believe that there must be a clear consensus across society on which option is preferred before we decide which is the right option for England.”

This is your chance to make it clear that there is absolutely no consensus for a raid on disability benefits. So, please, keep those responses coming. Anything from a single sentence to hundreds of words is fine, just so long as you have your say.

CAMPAIGNERS EVENTS

Campaigners in Cornwall ran an excellent petition signing event last week. They got coverage on local tv and radio and even managed to oblige a minister in London to make a statement on the issue. You can watch the impressively produced video and learn more about planned events in:

Bristol 28 September
Taunton 29 September

at www.politicalcripple.com/d/

GOVERNMENT EVENTS

Meanwhile, the government’s own green paper events, the “Big Care Debate public roadshows, where members of the public can discuss and have their say” , are happening around the country. The next events are in the North East (including Darlington tomorrow), the East Midlands and the North West.

The ‘debates’ include the chance to watch videos, talk to representatives and post on the green paper website. The events are likely to be carefully stage-managed and positive feedback from them may well be used to justify aspects of the eventual government decision.

If you want to attend and help ensure the feedback is genuinely representative, a full list of dates and venues is available from:

http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/news/2009/08/big-care-debate-roadshow-schedule/

MPs RESPONSES

Welfare Watch now have a forum dedicated to responses from MPs, so please consider adding any reply you get to those already on their free forum at:

http://welfarewatch.myfineforum.org/forum6.php

KEEP UP WITH THE NEWS

The Benefits and Work office will be closed for annual leave for the next two Tuesdays, so there won’t be any more emails from us before Tuesday 22 September. But remember that you can post your news in the Benefits and Work forum, if you’re a member, at:

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=showcat&catid=13

and/or in the free welfare watch forums at:

http://welfarewatch.myfineforum.org/index.php

You can also keep up with news about opposition to the green paper at the Carer Watch campaign blog:

http://carerwatch.com/cuts/

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

Please feel free to forward or publish this email.

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
Company registration No. 5962666

(c) 2009 Steve Donnison. All rights reserved.

Benefit Busters C4: Catch up on episodes 1 and 2 on 4oD

Update: Information good at 8.30pm  Monday, 7 September

Episode 2 now re-available to watch on 4oD at:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters/4od#2935220

 

“They run your life, so you don’t have to” courtesy Gordon’s Good Idea

———–

Update:  Benefit Busters: Episode 2, which screened on Thursday, 27 August, had been scheduled for repeat on Monday, 31 August.  The repeat appears to have been pulled.  It is reported that Episode 2 was briefly available online but that, too, has since disappeared. 

There is no information about the change in scheduling or the removal of Episode 2 on the C4 or 4oD sites. So if you missed Thursday’s broadcast, as I did, please be aware that only Episode 1 is currently available to watch online via 4oD and that only two very brief clips from Episode 2 are now available.

Commentary here and here on WordPress New Deals Scandal site. Here and here on Indus Delta site.

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Benefit Busters Channel 4

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters

Benefit Busters

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters/episode-guide/series-1

Series Summary

In 2009, Britain will pay out more in benefits than it raises in income tax. Welfare and pension payments cost more than education, health or defence.

Now, as the government attempts to revolutionise the welfare system – controversially rewarding private companies according to their ability to coax people off benefits and into jobs – this documentary series follows the people on both sides of this new welfare state.

 

Series | Episode 1 | Benefit Busters  [48 mins]

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

Thursday 20 August  9PM Channel 4

Hayley Taylor’s job is to persuade single mothers on benefits to go back to work.

The company she works for, A4E, which is helping to tackle the Government’s target of getting 70 per cent of lone parents into paid work by 2010, is the largest welfare reform company in the world [1].

A4E is run by multimillionaire entrepreneur Emma Harrison, who believes her business is ‘improving people’s lives by getting them into work.’

Until recently, the 700,000 lone parents receiving benefit didn’t have to look for work until their youngest child was 16. Soon, they must either work, or be looking for work, once their youngest child is seven.

At Doncaster A4E, Hayley runs a course called Elevate that aims to give lone parents the skills and confidence to enter the workplace and convince them they’ll be better off doing so. Cameras follow her group of ten single mothers during their intensive six-week course to prepare them for work.

Watch again on 4oD at:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters/4od#2932683

 

Series 1 | Episode 2 | Benefit Busters [60mins]

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters/episode-guide/series-1/episode-2

Thursday 27 August  9PM Channel 4

Unemployment is rife in Hull, but for one company business is booming: A4E has won the lucrative contract to help get the long-term unemployed back to work. Mark Pilkington is an ex-soldier who hasn’t worked for 10 years. He welcomes help and within a fortnight he finds a job. But the joy of receiving his first pay cheque is short-lived; after just four weeks a business downturn results in Mark being laid off.

Facing a return to A4E and potentially a four-week wait to restart his benefit payments, Mark begins to wonder if there is more security in a life on benefits.

It appears to be a shockingly common perception amongst the clients at A4E, who are at the mercy of an increasingly casual labour market.

Watch again on 4oD at: 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters/4od#2935220

Two brief clips at:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters/episode-guide/series-1/episode-2

 

Episode 3

Series 1 | Episode 3 | Benefit Busters

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters/episode-guide/series-1/episode-3

Thursday 03 September  9PM Channel 4
Sunday 06 September 3.20AM Channel 4

One of the government’s targets is to shift one million people off long-term sickness benefits and get them back to work.

In Oldham, the charity Shaw Trust  has won the contract to implement this policy [2].

Sherrie Jepson, a former car saleswoman, has the job of selling the idea of employment to people who were previously considered too sick to work.

Keiron Tandy fell from a third-floor balcony while celebrating his 18th birthday in Turkey. He has metal pins in his back and has restricted mobility.

His family doctor had confirmed him as ‘unfit for work’ but under the new system he’s examined by an independent medical examiner employed by a private health care company, which will determine whether he is fit enough to return to work. Meanwhile, Sherrie starts to try to convince Keiron that he could work if a suitable job that allowed for his condition could be found.

Watch again on 4oD at:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters/4od#2934042

[1] See previous posting:

Elephant in the Room Series Three: Channel 4: Benefit Busters, A4e and the Sykes brothers: http://wp.me/p5foE-1RY

The CISSD Project (Conceptual Issues in Somatoform and Similar Disorders), co-ordinated by Dr Richard Sykes, PhD, between 2003 and 2007, and administered by UK patient organisation, Action for M.E., was funded by The Hugh and Ruby Sykes Charitable Trust to the tune of £62,750. Dr Richard Sykes and Sir Hugh Sykes are brothers. Sir Hugh Sykes is a non executive director of A4e (Action for Employment) – the largest European provider of Welfare to Work programmes.

Sir Hugh Sykes has authored pamphlets for the right-wing think-tank “Politeia”: http://www.politeia.co.uk/about/default.asp

[2] See: 10 August Third Sector Online report on Shaw Trust:

“Shaw Trust accounts show crippling cost of DWP contracts: Charity blames Pathways to Work programme for huge deficit”

also see: Shaw Trust Press Release, 20 August :

“Shaw Trust Stars in Channel 4 Documentary ‘Benefit Busters’”