ATOS

[shetlandpeat]

....one that has been widely accepted.

 

Or ignored, or glanced at and forgotten. There's hardly a wealth of posts in support of what the OP is doing, or in the subject matter they are providing, and there are ones critical of one or both too.

 

Accepted as there has been little complaint.

 

Now, if I were to "hijack" say Kavis house picture thread with houses I like that are built differently I am sure that would be quite wrong and out of order. I would start a new thread.

[shetlandpeat]

....one that has been widely accepted.

 

Or ignored, or glanced at and forgotten. There's hardly a wealth of posts in support of what the OP is doing, or in the subject matter they are providing, and there are ones critical of one or both too.

 

Accepted as there has been little complaint.

 

Now, if I were to "hijack" say Kavis house picture thread with houses I like that are built differently I am sure that would be quite wrong and out of order. I would start a new thread.

[MuckleJoannie]

 

• We are also reforming the Disability Living Allowance. Disabled people can face some of the toughest barriers to living an independent life. Conservatives in Government are committed to continue spending over £40 billion a year on support services for disabled people. But at the moment, we can’t be certain that support is always going to those who need it most, which is why we are moving forward with the next stage of our reforms to Disability Living Allowance.

 

 

From this article

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22804563

Under the new assessment system, 75% of applicants will be required to attend face-to-face interviews.

 

Those interviews will look at people's ability to wash, dress, cook and make journeys. But they will also assess reading and verbal communication skills. The government says they will therefore test mental, as well as physical health.

 

But Scope says the planned test is "deeply flawed."

 

Marc Bush, from Scope: "The assessment itself is fundamentally flawed"

 

Scope claims it will be a "tickbox-style medical assessment", which will not achieve the desired objective. It is worried that there could be a repeat of problems that occurred with the fitness-to-work test, known as the Work Capability Assessment.

 

If it ends up being like the Work Capability Assessment I am very worried for my daughter.

[shetlandpeat]

daveh, it was good practice to put the link. If you do not want to, I would wonder if you were making it up or altering text to suit. Please, put links, especially as it is not your work and I would think there could be an issue with reproducing others work as your own.

 

Much of what you post removes a level of quality of life for someone. How do you justify that and are the policies just creating problems for the future

 

It must be terrible to reach retirement age only to find out you have to work more years.

 

I would like to add that I tried to post other pictures of Norwegian houses with comments and had posts deleted by an admin/mod in Kavis thread about wooden houses.

 

Anyone tell me why this thread is any different?

[daveh]

^ ^

The articles come from the excellent Conservative website.

 

Like it or not, accept it or not, the welfare budget drastically needs to be reduced and there will always be folks affected by such changes. Labour spent money on welfare and the total just spiralled out of control to such an extent that choosing not to work and/or living entirely on benefits became a lifestyle choice that was not challenged by the Labour government. Those missing out will always have the opportunity to appeal if they feel the need to.

 

As for reaching retirement age, I have reached it already. As for working more years as you get older, so be it. We have had a pension timebomb for many years with the average life expectancy gradually rising and this is the first government to have the guts to do something about it.

 

We all miss out due to various government policies over the decades. My wife is having to work an additional 3 years to get her state retirement pension and we are now having to eat into our moderate savings to live, due to ridiculously-low interest rates whilst the younger generation can have cheaper than ever mortgages. That is the way of the world.

 

However, I fear for the future of my children and grandchildren were Labour to come to power again.

[shetlandpeat]

They may do so.

 

So, how about another thread to match this one. Then, we could gauge the results on the views they receive. I would guess that, you do not have the stamina to continue such a thread for too long.

If you ever come to the NW, let me know, I can introduce you to some good folk who spend much of their time assisting those ConDemned. Real folk.

 

Spouting Tory policies and achievements from a Tory site is not a reliable way of distributing information.

 

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Business/Pix/pictures/2013/6/12/1371040315376/Drop-in-UK-wages-001.jpg

[Ghostrider]

Spouting Tory policies and achievements from a Tory site is not a reliable way of distributing information.

 

No different than spouting sensationalised cherry-picked articles from anti Tory sources.

 

Accurate, objective, impartial accounts are what is needed, but that's not what the OP has made this thread, or the course chosen by most of the media in the UK, is it.

[daveh]

Spouting Tory policies and achievements from a Tory site is not a reliable way of distributing information.

 

No different than spouting sensationalised cherry-picked articles from anti Tory sources.

 

Agreed.

[go.oot.by.dog]

Oh dear who left the door open and let in the undesirables MY Tory stalker daveh good to see that you are still with us and not passed over yet.

 

I see we have also had the pleasure of Shetlink's in house Mr & Mrs Troll Still if they are here perhaps one of the other threads that they Troll may get some peace so it is like i am taking one for the team.......

 

paulb, shetlandpeat and mucklejoannie thanks for your posts they are greatly appreciated.

[go.oot.by.dog]

Atos doctor ‘sickened’ by claimant requests

 

A senior doctor working for Atos Healthcare told colleagues he was “sickened†that disabled benefit claimants can now demand to have their “fitness for work†assessments recorded, according to a leaked email seen by Disability News Service (DNS).

 

Geoff Douglas, who has been assessing disabled people for their eligibility for disability benefits for more than 10 years, sent the email in reply to an Atos manager who had complained that colleagues were refusing to carry out audio-recorded work capability assessments (WCAs).

 

Full article here -

 

http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/06/atos-doctor-sickened-by-claimant-requests/

[go.oot.by.dog]

Welfare reform – heading towards the rocks?

 

Not infrequently, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, recalls being made redundant and facing life on the dole. Of course, most people being sent down the road are not so fortunate as to be able to rely on the wealthy in-laws.

 

Less frequently mentioned nowadays was his second enforced redundancy after just two years as Leader of the Conservative Party.Why do I mention this now? I will take IDS at his own words and, therefore, not underestimate the determination of a quiet man. However, word on the street is that IDS’s welfare reform programme is heading towards the rocks. If that results, he will be facing his own interview on the Work Programme in the near future.

 

The Treasury has been consistently sceptical about IDS’s welfare reform programme. Forget the objectives; forget the specific policies. It’s the practical delivery of the programme within the financial parameters that’s the key problem. However, it’s also important to look at the unintended (or were they?) financial and social consequences.

 

Let’s just consider a few elements:

 

DWP has already been forced to ditch three of the four proposed Universal Credit pathfinders because the IT systems – even for this limited application – are nowhere near ready.

 

Insiders are now confirming that there is no chance of 1 million people receiving universal credit by April 2014, as IDS promised in November 2011.

 

Applications for discretionary housing payments (DHP) in April, as a consequence of the bedroom tax, leapt from 5,700 last year to more than 25,000 this year and many more will claim when they find out about them.

The budget for DHPs will shortly be exhausted, or so constrained that arrears will take a further leap.

 

As the DHP budget runs out, there will be thousands of bad news stories about the impact on adults with disabilities and on children who are no longer able to stay with one parent, after relationship breakdown.

 

The costs of collecting the bedroom tax, including managing arrears, could well take up most of the extra income.

 

A housing association at the heart of the first direct payment pathfinder experienced a 29 per cent rise in people contacting its financial support team in the last year, and a 19% rise in the total amount of debt referred.

 

Rent arrears in these pathfinders are already increasing dramatically. The reality is that ‘direct by default’ is already being carefully ditched.

 

The welfare reform agenda will increase costs in a whole range of other service areas, say 95% of senior council officers. None of these costs were included in the DWP impact assessment.

 

It is clear that DWP simply didn’t understand or take account of the frequency of changes in personal circumstances which affect housing and some other benefits which they are trying to incorporate into the universal credit system

 

Of course, if the government had really been serious about subsidising under-occupation, they would not have excluded pensioners from the scope of the bedroom tax. Not that I am advocating an expansion of the bedroom tax, rather the opposite.

 

Perhaps the biggest unintended consequence of IDS’s plans is that, because of the necessary extra provision for increases in arrears, increasing costs of collection and advice, and possibly increased borrowing costs social housing providers are cutting their investment plans for this year by an estimated £1bn plus, mainly impacting on the construction industry and building materials’ providers. So, at the very time that the government is rushing around trying to find good-value infrastructure investment projects that can be on site quickly, it scuppers over £1bn that fits the bill.

 

It has not been a good few weeks for IDS. He

 

Called for people to voluntarily return winter fuel payments. Just 200 did so.

 

Lost a major court battle to keep the locations of thousands of workfare placements secret. The judge said the DWP had “a paucity of compelling evidence†to back its claims. Sounds familiar!

 

Was defeated when the Court of Appeal ruled that workers had been unlawfully made to do unpaid work

 

Has again been rebuked by the UK Statistics Authority over the deliberate misuse of statistics.

In November 2003, Iain Duncan Smith released his novel The Devil’s Tune. The critics panned it. "Really, it's terrible ... terrible, terrible, terrible" was one of the more generous. The book never made it into paperback.

 

Now, with welfare reform being “terrible, terrible….â€, perhaps IDS is determined to mark his place in history with the greatest crash on the rocks of all time. The dreadful prospect is that millions of the poorest families will be the ones most affected.

 

Article here -

 

http://clivebettsmp.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/welfare-reform-heading-towards-rocks.html?spref=tw

 

The net is closing in on you Smithy.........

[go.oot.by.dog]

Employment Support Allowance

 

Some information on ESA which may be helpful for anyone who is new to it from the "rethink" website -

 

http://www.rethink.org/living-with-mental-illness/money-issues-benefits-employment/employment-support-allowance

[go.oot.by.dog]

http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q799/magnacube/9370bdd1-e389-4b17-bec9-e684ed94646e_zps438f53e2.jpg

[EM]

...I would wonder if you were making it up or altering text to suit.

A valid point though you, of course, barefacedly do exactly what you warn of:

We cannot change anything until we accept it. ConDemNation does not liberate, it oppresses.

That is not a Jung quote. You presumably think you are being clever.

[daveh]

1.3 million more private sector jobs across the UK in the last 3 years

Wednesday, June 12 2013

The latest employment numbers show over 1.3 million jobs have been created in the private sector in the last three years.

 

Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that there are 432,000 more people in work than the same time last year, and 24,000 more than the previous three months.

 

Unemployment has also fallen, and the fall in youth unemployment has been particularly marked, with 43,000 fewer young people unemployed between February and April than in the previous three months.

 

Grant Shapps, Chairman of the Conservative Party, commented:

 

"These numbers are a credit to British businesses, with 1.3 million new private sector jobs created in the last three years. There are now more people in work than ever before. Businesses are rising to the challenge and creating jobs for people across the country.''

 

"The Conservatives have cut taxes to reward work and we're fixing welfare so it always pays to work.''

 

"Of course there is always more to do and we are not complacent. Our priority now is to carry on getting more people into work, and to help everyone who wants to work hard and get on in life.''