On the Eve of Black April, This Is How We Will Resist The War On Welfare

Have a good holiday, be assured the WOW Campaign will fight on. We are not just a petition, the petition is a tool, a key in a lock that opens the way to challenge the very seat of power in the UK. Let us tell you about our larger strategy:-

Phase One: Gain 100,000 signatures to give our demands democratic legitimacy in seeking parliamentary redress.

Phase Two: With a caucus of supportive MP's gain as much as possible in the democratic & parliamentary process to stop the human rights abuses against us and restore our health and social security systems. Including debate, free votes, Cumulative Impact Assessment and independent inquiry.

Phase Three: Where parliament and inquiries fail us we will pursue justice through the courts both national and international for the human rights abuse perpetrated by the UK government and its associated corporate allies.

You can help by getting everyone possible you can to sign the petition, we need 100,000 signatures by December 12th 2013 http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154

We also want as many people to volunteer to intensify the campaign, in social media, general media, charity connections, union ties, civil society links, newsletters. email, lists and websites.

Failure is not an option because many thousands of lives are at stake. There have been too many deaths already.

We shall improvise, adapt and overcome.

When the government came and destroyed the lives of sick and disabled people, carers and families what did you do?

If you are reading this, you are the resistance.

Join Us

info@wowpetition.com

Govt doesn’t want to know what Welfare Reform will do to people

Guest Post by @latentexistence

WOW Petition – that’s a petition to stop the War On Welfare – calls for the DWP to carry out a cumulative impact assessment on all the welfare reforms together. It is obvious to most people that the impact of cutting many benefits all at once is more damaging than cutting just one. But the government claim that it is just too difficult to do a cumulative impact assessment, that the changes are too complicated. In reply to the petition (a reply that was long overdue, the petition having doubled the necessary 10,000 signatures to merit one) the government said:

“Cumulative impact analysis is not being withheld – it is very difficult to do accurately and external organisations have not produced this either. The Government is limited in what cumulative analysis is possible because of the complexity of the modelling required and the amount of detailed information on individuals and families that is required to estimate the interactions of a number of different policy changes.”

It is not that difficult though, and certainly within the means of a government department when millions of people will be negatively affected. To prove the point think tank Demos have had a go at it themselves. They estimate that the total loss over five years will be £28.3bn. Let me spell that out: Twenty-eight billion pounds. That is not – as my MP told me – the vulnerable being protected. That is the vulnerable being mugged. Writing in The Guardian, report author Claudia Wood said:

At one end of the cumulative impact scale, 88,000 disabled people currently claiming employment support allowance (ESA) will feel a double whammy of a 1% cap on uprating and a 12-month eligibility limit. At the other end of the scale, at least 1,000 disabled people (possibly up to 5,000) will face six separate cuts to their benefits income. By the time the next round of cuts are due in four years, they will be £23,300 worse off per person. In between these two groups are about 120,000 disabled people facing a triple cut, and 99,000 a quadruple cut. These combinations represent at the very least a loss of £6,309 per person by 2017. The worst loss of £23,461 per person by 2017 will be experienced by those unfortunate enough to lose their eligibility for disability living allowance and ESA, and who are reliant on other benefits that will only increase by 1% because of the rating cap or by the consumer prices index (CPI) instead of inflation.

Wood points out that these figures are an underestimate, cuts to child benefit, the independent living fund, social fund or council tax credit being just a few other factors. Underestimate this may be, but it seems that the DWP are refusing to calculate even the minimum impact because they can’t work out what the maximum impact is. We don’t need to work out the worst case to be able to see that even the best case is not good.

It doesn’t really matter though, because the government are just making excuses. The fact is that they don’t want to know what the impact will be because if they knew then they would have no excuse for continuing with these savage cuts. It’s actually worse than that, because they must know, but they don’t want to be seen to know. As we saw last week, government ministers don’t actually want to talk to the people affected, making bizarre excuses to get out of talking to Spartacus. They don’t want to hear anything that would contradict their rhetoric.

 These cuts don’t make economic sense either, even when you view them for what they are rather than “reform” aimed at helping anyone. Cutting DLA will leave people stranded at home where their health will deteriorate and lead to higher costs to the NHS. Cutting the Independent Living Fund will institutionalise people, sending them back to expensive care homes and preventing them from living and working alongside the rest of society. Cutting money that is spent by disabled people on care and travel will damage the car industry and cut jobs for carers. Welfare isn’t money that disappears, it is money that is ploughed straight back into the economy and its loss will be noticed. Although possibly not by George Osborne.

 The government are sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting “La la la I can’t hear you” when it comes to welfare reform. Sign WOWpetition to tell them that we know they can hear us and we’re on to them and we won’t stand for it.


Demos – Destination Unknown: April 2013
The Guardian – Claudia Wood: The government has a duty to assess the impact of its benefit cuts
The Guardian - Welfare cuts will cost disabled people £28bn over five years

The Dog Ate the DWP's Homework: Unhelpful response to the #WOWpetition

Guest Post from Funky Mango's Musings by Margo Milne @MargoJMilne

 I don't know if you're already aware of the WOW petition. It was started a little over 3 months ago by comedian Francesca Martinez, and is well on target to achieve 100,000 signatures by its closing date. That means it would considered for debate in the House of Commons.

[Download this poster and more at wowpetition.com/downloads/]

WOW stands for War on Welfare. Because frankly, that's how it does feel. Like this soulless government has declared war on those of us forced to claim welfare benefits.

Let's say you're on Disability Living Allowance, and when that gets changed over to Personal Indepencence Payment you lose out. Well OK, that's just one thing (apart from the blue badge, and Motability car, and disabled railcard, and so on that it passported it you to). Maybe you can manage without the DLA. Maybe.

But you're also on contributory Employment and Support Allowance, and you've been on it nearly a year. So that's about to stop.

And that's before we get anywhere near the changes to Council Tax Benefit, and to Housing Benefit (the Bedroom Tax).

Tens of thousands of sick disabled people are about to go under financially. And this government just doesn't give a damn. Oh, they always have a soundbite:

There's a lot of misleading stories about the impact of our welfare reforms on disabled people, which could lead to unnecessary scaremongering. Our reforms will make sure the billions we spend every year give more targeted support and better reflect today's understanding of disability. Hundreds of thousands of disabled adults and children will actually receive more support than now with the combined effect of benefit changes under universal credit.

Targeted. Some people receiving more support than now. Well, as someone pointed out to me today (thanks Eggy!) all the NHS funds don't get allocated to intensive care: support is required at all levels of need.

So, returning to the WOW petition, what it asks for (among some other things) is a cumulative impact assessment, not looking at the effect of each benefit "reform" (*spit*) separately, but how people will be affected in real life. Real people are complicated. Lots of us claim more than one benefit (partly because the system's so complex!)

When a government e-petition gets 10,000 signatures, the department responsible for it gives a reply. It's taken a while for the WOW petition's reply to turn up: I only just noticed it, and the petition has over 27,500 signatures.

To summarise the reply, it seems to be:

• We're not avoiding you.
• This is hard.
• The policies haven't all been decided yet.
• There are impact assessments for individual benefits or for all tax, benefit and expenditure changes across households, but nobody's ever done what you're asking for, which is in between.
• Did we mention this is hard?

My reply to that would be, with the greatest possible respect (and as civil servants they would know what an insult that is!) pop down to Ryman's, buy a new scientific calculator and get on with it. These are people's lives you're messing around with (at the command of your political masters), and there is a clear case for a cumulative impact assessment to be done.

If you haven't already signed the WOW petition, would you take a look and consider signing it? The more signatures on the petition, the more pressure sympathetic MPs like Michael Meacher can put on the DWP on our behalf.

Thanks!

Edit: I'm all for avoiding unnecessary government expenditure, so I'm sure it would be fine for the DWP to use this cumulative impact assessment, which Scope and Demos have just done. It calculates that those disabled people most severely affected by the cuts will lose £4,600 each year from what are already low incomes. As Richard Hawkes the chief executive of Scope says:

At the moment there’s no place for disabled people in the Chancellor’s aspiration nation.

Sadly, that seems to be very true
.

The reality of Discretionary Housing Payments & Bedroom Tax

From Ian S @cactusjack01 who lives in a Labour controlled council area-

"Following your claim received for the above, I am pleased to advise that an award of Discretionary Housing Payment has been made. The award is as follows:-
Discretionary Housing Payment (Rent)
From 01 Apr 2013 to 02 Jul 2013 an amount of £13.32 per week.
This award will be paid with your Housing Benefit payments.
Please be aware that payments from the discretionary housing fund are designed as a short term solution for applicants who are suffering financial hardship. Payments are not designed to enable applicants to remain in accommodation that they are unable to afford on the normal levels of housing benefit.
During the period of the award you should consider seeking cheaper alternative accommodation, or review your income and expenditure to enable you to afford your current accommodation without long term assistance from the fund.
If you make a further request for a payment from the fund at the end of the current award period the Benefit Service will consider what steps you have taken to help yourself financially or in seeking alternative accommodation during the period of the award.  If you have not sought to reduce your outgoings or looked into moving to cheaper accommodation this will affect the outcome of a further payment request.
Payments from the fund are cash limited, this means that once the fund is exhausted no further payments can be made.  Because of this you should not become reliant on payments as a long term solution to your housing and/or financial difficulties."

WOW's own Wayne Blackburn talked on the BBC about the reality of the Bedroom Tax & DHP too, that it really means either going hungry or moving from a house they have adapted for disabilities to an unsuitable and uncertain place. It will mean huge stress and physical pain, risk of homelessness and severe negative impacts upon health.

Wayne Blackburn and his wife live in a small, social housing bungalow in Nelson, Lancashire. Mr Blackburn suffers from conditions which severely limit his mobility and leave him in constant pain. Although their house is classified as a two bedroom property, the second bedroom is principally used to store mobility aids. The Blackburns stand to lose about £12 per week as a result of the benefit changes and Wayne says he fears whether they will be able to make ends meet.

WOW's Francesca Martinez on Cuts and Austerity at the People's Assembly Launch

Francesca Martinez speaking at the launch of the People's Assembly.

   

Caroline Lucas MP - journalist Owen Jones - comedian Mark Steel - Labour’s Katy Clark MP – comedian and disabled activist Francesca Martinez – Steve Turner (Unite) - Zita Holbourne (Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts).

The People’s Assembly – a new initiative backed by major trade unions such as Unite, Unison, NUT, PCS, the Green Party, Labour MPs, Coalition of Resistance and campaigning groups – hosted a press conference on Tuesday 26th March at Unite’s head office.

The People’s Assembly will be holding a 3,500-strong rally at Westminster Central Hall, 22nd June 2013, as well as meetings and rallies across the country. 

This new movement will be pushing the arguments against austerity currently missing from British politics, and fighting for all those people currently being hit by Government policies: whether low-paid workers, disabled people, unemployed people, the young, women, BME people and others.

Purple Day: Raising Awareness

By @EpilepsyHackney

I'm a female in my thirties and I’m a carer for an adult family member who has had Epilepsy for many years. Speaking to others over the years it seems not many people actually understand Epilepsy other than the name and the ‘shaking’, not the before, during, and after effects that a person with Epilepsy goes through. There are lots of fantastic organisations out there that are doing so much, but I think there is still a lack of public understanding/education about this common neurological disorder.

I began my Epilepsy Twitter account (with tutorial help from my neice/nephew) to learn from others and to help raise awareness at the same time, as well as supporting others by retweeting, as it’s nice to see on Twitter lots of other active accounts/groups/pages all over the world sharing tweets to help get the information regarding Epilepsy ‘out there’.  I’m glad I started my Twitter account just before worldwide Epilepsy awareness ‘Purple Day’, as this is the best time to raise the awareness . . . . . . Happy Purple Day everyone.

Purple Day: Epilepsy, Out of the blue

By Sarah Carson   @Sazzle262    Sazzle's blog

I was diagnosed with Epilepsy at 8 years old. I had no warning whatsoever and the seizures came out of the blue. One Sunday morning out of the blue my family had to witness me suffering a cluster of grand mal seizures that lasted 2 minutes per seizure. Unfortunately I suffered memory loss and remember the last comment before going into the seizure and the first memories of me coming out of one. As a result of having six seizures at one go I had paralysis down my left hand side that lasted approx 24 hours and was in hospital for a couple of weeks. 

Whilst in hospital medical practitioners ran tests on me; those included an EEG and a brain scan that revealed that I had borderline Epilepsy with a build-up of electricity on the left lobe of my brain. After numerous conversations with my family and neurologist I was told that Anti Epileptic drugs would be the way forward. I was advised that I could possibly grow out of my condition. 

The overwhelming sense of disappointment when I was diagnosed manifested into constant worry. It got to the point where I hid behind my condition till I went to Therapy a couple of years ago. People don't fully appreciate the concerns you have when you suffer from Epilepsy. Basic tasks such as making a cup of tea, ironing, and bathing alone cannot be done unaccompanied. As I have no warning signs there is always the possibility that should a shaking episode/fit occur then the end result could be disastrous. 

The first medication I was put on was Epilim at a low dosage of approx 200mg. This was the only medication I would remain on till I was 14 and came off medication entirely. My seizures were sporadic and with no warning I was on guard regularly. My confidence was the worst effected as I was unaware as to when and where a seizure would occur. The fear inside of me was overwhelming and I felt that no one fully understood me. My worry was that all my family and friends would treat me differently.

Fortunately my family have given me their undying support and have provided me with the stability I needed and encouraged me to do socialise as normal with children of my own age however to ensure that I was careful and took my medication regularly. When I was 17 years old my seizures returned frequently till I was 21 and remained till I was 23 years old. Like the previous pattern no warning signs were given, the medication however was altered and I went onto 200mg of Lamotrigine and 3000mg of Keppra. Since January 2009 I have been seizure free for just over four years however have remained on 1500mg of Keppra only. 

As a result of my Epilepsy I questioned my own abilities and worried constantly about my condition as I was not only worrying about my seizures however had the stress of coping with shaking episodes that my consultants believed could have started as a result of my increase in medication. 

After dealing with my Epilepsy for over 16 years I consulted neurology and was given the opportunity to trial Cognitive Behavioural therapy (CBT) that changed my entire thought process. CBT is something I would recommend to all on the basis they commit to the services offered. Slowly but surely I am in the process of getting better and are now in a position to understand my condition fully. 

I have been given the opportunity to seek additional advice through support networks and since creating my blog in January 2012 to raise awareness on Twitter I have had the pleasure of liaising with people like me who experience similar issues. 

Epilepsy is a condition that in my case wasn't hereditary. It was something that I personally believe I was born with however didn't surface till I was a small child. Doctors believe that the cause of my Epilepsy could be stress therefore I try my utmost to not put myself in stressful situations and try to maintain a positive outlook at all times. As hard as it may be channelling your frustration into exercise and hobbies is the best stress reliever and by extension can have a feeling towards your condition. 

My one word of encouragement is to focus on you and take one step as it comes. Never feel like you're alone as there is always someone to help. x