With our thanks to @kennyblong
The WOW Petition - 100,000 signatures captured. Next #WOWdebate2014 to stop the War on Welfare
13/01/2013
12/01/2013
The WOW Petition Passes 13,000 Signatures!
The WOW Petition has exceeded 13,000 signatures!
The total now stands at 13,126.
Thank you to each and everyone who has signed and shared this important petition calling for an impact assessment of all the cuts to vital benefits and support services, and a new deal for sick and disabled people.
11/01/2013
Spread the Word - The WOW Petition Needs You!
In order for the WOW Petition to reach the target of 100,000 signatures we need your help. It is very important that people who do not have access to a computer, to twitter and facebook can learn about how serious the situation is for sick and disabled people.
It is simply not true that the country cannot afford it's welfare budget to support sick and disabled people. Employment and Support Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Carers Allowance and Incapacity Benefit account for just 9% of the entire welfare budget. 52% goes to pensioners and they are not having to bear any of the cuts. Rightly so, but then, neither should disabled people. The very last place to look to make savings should be the incomes of the some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society.
Since 2007 the UK has committed to spending £1.162 trillion
at various points on bailing out the banks. In March 2011 this added up to 31% of the UK GDP. Disabled people were not responsible for the deficit and cutting disabled people's benefits will not help the economy. Removing their benefit incomes will simply shift the costs elsewhere as more demand is placed on care services, GPs, the NHS, local mental health teams and families already struggling to cope.
We refuse to be fobbed off again with weak excuses. That they are "making work pay". Sick and disabled people are not feckless or lazy. If they were well enough to work they would. No one chooses to be made unwell with a chronic illness, be born with a limiting disability or be struck down with a degenerative disease so that they can claim benefits. It's frustrating and upsetting that the only disabled people the public seem to be interested in are the ones that are not disabled at all. The fact is that fraud is a tiny 0.5% of DLA according to the DWPs own figures and Incapacity Benefit even less at 0.3%.
We urge you to spread the word. Please consider writing to the readers letters in your local paper or ask the editor to run a story about your own concerns so that we may reach out to other sick and disabled people who understand what we're going through and ask them to sign the petition. Let's educate those busy people who don't have time to stop and understand what is happening and ask them to sign the petition. They might need social security, or have to rely on care services one day too. We're under no illusion. Gathering the support of 100,000 people is not going to be easy but together we can do it. Please tell everyone you can think of and ask them to sign the WOW Petition.
If you need a little help to get you started we will be publishing some template letters for you to copy and paste. Feel free to use and share them and amend them as you need.
The first letter is for local newspapers:
Dear Editor,
Many people in (insert name of area/town covered by paper)
will have been affected by the government’s changes to benefits for the sick
and disabled.
The Work Capability
Assessments which determine whether somebody is fit for work have been
condemned by GPs, who at their conference in 2012 voted for them to be scrapped.
But the
government didn’t listen to the Doctors and these cruel assessments continue,
with many people dying soon after being declared fit to work.
Similarly with Disability Living Allowance, the government has admitted
that when it is replaced by Personal Independence Payments, hundreds of
thousands of people will lose the help they get to allow them to live a decent
life. Anyone who can walk more than 20 metres will not get any help with
mobility, though they may not even be able to walk far enough to reach a bus
stop. Many people may become housebound as a result.
These and other changes are making sick and disabled people frightened and
stressed, often making their conditions worse. Growing numbers of suicides are
being linked to these fears, and health professionals tell of patients who are
making plans to kill themselves, if their lives are made unbearable.
For this reason sick and disabled people have united through social media
to set up the WOW petition. WOW stands for the War on Welfare which is being
waged by the government, and which the petition wants to stop. Contrary to the
propaganda, welfare spending has not grown uncontrollably.
Even if you are fortunate enough not to need this help now, that could all
change for you or a loved one tomorrow, through accident or illness. So, to
protect the safety net we may all need at some time in our lives, please sign
the WOW petition, and tell your friends about it too. Go to www.wowpetition.com to resist the War on Welfare.
Yours faithfully,
09/01/2013
Government Broke Its Promise to Protect Disability Benefits
You could be misled into believing that disabled people are protected from benefit cuts when Iain Duncan Smith said that "they had nothing to fear" and the Chancellor claimed that "we will support the vulnerable." However, today in Parliament MPs voted to cap Employment and Support Allowance which will be limited to a rise of just 1% for the next three years. In real terms this is a cut as the rise falls well below inflation.
This income based benefit is given to people who have been through the ordeal of the flawed Atos work capability assessment and have been found unfit to work. They are too ill to "make work pay". Around 500,000 sick and disabled people depend upon this essential benefit to pay for their most basic necessities. The work related activity group includes people with progressive and chronic physical and mental illnesses, diseases and disabilities. Their benefit will not rise above 1%. The government claims to have protected disabled people in the ESA support group. This higher premium benefit is more difficult to receive because of a restrictive and narrow set of criteria which excludes all but the most severely disabled and terminally ill with short life expectancies. On closer analysis however, this too is subject to the real terms cut. It is made up of a basic allowance of £71.00 which is now capped at 1% and the support group component of £34.05 which is exempt and will rise with inflation. Essentially a benefit cap of 1.4%. This brings the total number of sick and disabled people effected by the cut to just under one million. Let's be clear. The government are not protecting disabled people.
A rise of one per cent equates to approximately £1 per week. Or one loaf of bread. This week the managing director of Waitrose has warned that the price of basic food items could rise as much as five per cent in 2013, or even higher across the whole market. The cost of utilities is also set to rocket further. For someone already battling with illness, at home needing to heat the house throughout the day these costs are simply not affordable. Disabled people are being forced to choose between food and heat, some are cancelling hospital appointments because of transport costs. This, at the same time as the very richest people in the UK who are earning over £150,000 receive a 5% tax cut.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has calculated that the minimum amount a single working age person needs to participate in society is £16,400 a year, or an hourly pay of £8.38. The average wage in 2012 was £26,000. "A disabled person in the support group will receive £5,486 a year, or £15 per day. Less still for those who have work related conditions attached to the benefit who receive a daily amount of £14.12. Barely enough to survive yet alone participate equally in society. To suggest that it's unfair that benefits have risen with inflation when working incomes have not risen at the same rate misses the point entirely. There is no fair comparison to be made. Disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty and only a small loss of income can tip people with a sickness and disability into greater dependence on health and social care services.
This is yet another cut that disabled people were not anticipating. Since writing the WOW petition the government has attacked us yet again. This is why we ask for a cumulative impact assessment of ALL of the cuts that effect sick and disabled people. I urge you in your good conscience to please sign our petition so that the consequences of the cuts to benefits and the services they rely on can be fully recognised and hopefully, some of the damage may be undone.
The Benefits Uprating Bill. See how your MP voted. (scroll to the bottom of the link to find the list)
This income based benefit is given to people who have been through the ordeal of the flawed Atos work capability assessment and have been found unfit to work. They are too ill to "make work pay". Around 500,000 sick and disabled people depend upon this essential benefit to pay for their most basic necessities. The work related activity group includes people with progressive and chronic physical and mental illnesses, diseases and disabilities. Their benefit will not rise above 1%. The government claims to have protected disabled people in the ESA support group. This higher premium benefit is more difficult to receive because of a restrictive and narrow set of criteria which excludes all but the most severely disabled and terminally ill with short life expectancies. On closer analysis however, this too is subject to the real terms cut. It is made up of a basic allowance of £71.00 which is now capped at 1% and the support group component of £34.05 which is exempt and will rise with inflation. Essentially a benefit cap of 1.4%. This brings the total number of sick and disabled people effected by the cut to just under one million. Let's be clear. The government are not protecting disabled people.
A rise of one per cent equates to approximately £1 per week. Or one loaf of bread. This week the managing director of Waitrose has warned that the price of basic food items could rise as much as five per cent in 2013, or even higher across the whole market. The cost of utilities is also set to rocket further. For someone already battling with illness, at home needing to heat the house throughout the day these costs are simply not affordable. Disabled people are being forced to choose between food and heat, some are cancelling hospital appointments because of transport costs. This, at the same time as the very richest people in the UK who are earning over £150,000 receive a 5% tax cut.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has calculated that the minimum amount a single working age person needs to participate in society is £16,400 a year, or an hourly pay of £8.38. The average wage in 2012 was £26,000. "A disabled person in the support group will receive £5,486 a year, or £15 per day. Less still for those who have work related conditions attached to the benefit who receive a daily amount of £14.12. Barely enough to survive yet alone participate equally in society. To suggest that it's unfair that benefits have risen with inflation when working incomes have not risen at the same rate misses the point entirely. There is no fair comparison to be made. Disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty and only a small loss of income can tip people with a sickness and disability into greater dependence on health and social care services.
This is yet another cut that disabled people were not anticipating. Since writing the WOW petition the government has attacked us yet again. This is why we ask for a cumulative impact assessment of ALL of the cuts that effect sick and disabled people. I urge you in your good conscience to please sign our petition so that the consequences of the cuts to benefits and the services they rely on can be fully recognised and hopefully, some of the damage may be undone.
The Benefits Uprating Bill. See how your MP voted. (scroll to the bottom of the link to find the list)
07/01/2013
The WOW Petition Reaches 12,000 Signatures!
We have now exceeded 12,250 signatures!
Thank you!
1250 more people have supported the WOW Petition in just three days. Please keep signing and sharing this important petition everywhere.
1250 more people have supported the WOW Petition in just three days. Please keep signing and sharing this important petition everywhere.
Song Of Life - Work Capability Assessments Cause Suffering
Work Capability Assessments cause suffering for the mentally ill
...It is a sobering statistic that 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem in any given year. It is often quoted, but it is not a cliché; it is based on sound evidence obtained from several studies.
The impact of mental health problems are often exacerbated by the social and economic environment. Periodic hospitalisation may have impact on housing and jobs and on maintaining contacts in the community. All these problems can create instability. It is a time when help within the community can be of greatest benefit to maintain that stability. Financial problems can be acute because of periodic or long term inability to work. Financial help is a vital part of care in the community, enabling people with mental health problems to lead as stable life as possible.
The government should think again about the way in which WCA has been set up and is operating...
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