Cancer patients to face back to work interviews.

[wubblybubbly]

I'm posting this because it's not in the news, totally unreported so far as I can see.

www.macmillan.org.uk/Aboutus/News/Latest_News/DWPproposestoforcechemotherapypatientstoundergostressfulbenefitchecks.aspx

Honestly, thanks to Dave and Gideon, otherwise these scrounging layabouts would be living on our handouts. Some of them are so bloody lazy they're actually dying just to avoid doing a honest day's work.

Yes, sorry for perpetrating that. But Adadvent, can you for the blog explain more about the way in which ESA is an in-work benefit, to avoid further confusion.

Because your comment that people who get it it transfer from JSA or SSP is also not fully accurate. Some of us lost jobs or were no longer able to be self-employed, etc, and went straight to IB/ESA.

www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Illorinjured/DG_171891

I'm sorry I don't get where I am being innaccurate?

JSA claimants who are found to be too ill to work will have to apply for ESA if they cannot jobhunt/are not available to work as then they are not fulfilling their JSA agreement.

SSP for employed people - runs for upto max of 28 weeks - after that you can apply for ESA. This does not mean you automatically lose your job. You can remain employed by the company for as long as they wish to employ you and recieve ESA.

They may decide to start dismissal procedures which they are perfectly and legally entitled to do, as long as they do it properly. You may also get some company sick pay after the 28 weeks of SSP has ended still which would then affect any ESA entitlement of course.

If you are medically unfit for your job and you choose to leave then you can claim ESA.

There is no IB any more for new claimants. People on IB now are being transferred to ESA.

Oh it was just inaccurate the way you first phrased it (because not everyone has transferred from JSA or SSP), no big deal.

As we're all working together to give an accurate full picture, I just wanted to correct that bit, is all.

Actually, I'm now at the way you've been treated by your ex-employer. So they actually had the option of continuing to employ you, unpaid and applying for ESA, for a probably time-limited problem, and instead they sacked you?

I understand it in part, they are a business after all, but at the same time I am not costing them anything, they could have just left me to it and when I was ready to come back if there was a suitable vacancy then ok, if not, fair enough I wouldn't have kicked up a fuss, it's not like maternity cover whereby the person covering knows they has a defined time to work and the person coming back has their position held for them, I do understand that.

I hated the place anyway

[silver lining emoticon]

Not just the one work foccussed interview from what I understand either.

just when i think i can't be any more disgusted by this government...

you've got to hand it to them, really. Astonishing.
it's in the guardian today here

I've signed the petition. Just hope it makes a difference. This government is a disgrace.

how interesting that today is the day the powers-that-be decide to get a load of experts all over the media to tell us that the causes of cancer are heavily influenced by your lifestyle

that may be true, to a certain extent but fuck me how blatant does the govt's message have to be ?

"You lazy, chainsmoking, alcoholic, work dodgers are bringing it all on yourselves....why don't you just fuck off and die because this govt intends to withdraw your financial support or work you into an early fucking grave"

Disgusting.

It reminds me of the 48 hours before the public sector strike last week. "Leaked" reports to say that more patients in hospitals died at the weekend when staffing was lower. Fucking blatant negative propaganda against people standing up for their pension rights.

< fumes >

"forcing people to a life on benefits when they want to work is wrong" (Guardian article).

Fuck me.

No one is being forced to receive benefits.

If they have an employer willing to pay them, they can simply not apply for the benefits. The entitlement is automatic, but application's not compulsory.

Thanks for posting petition - will try to repost link elsewhere, as since the OP was posted, this story has now (thankfully) been reported everywhere, with near-universal horror and disgust, BUt I have not seen a link to this or any other petition against it anywhere. I'm sure far more people would sign if they knew it was there.

Have signed, obviously.

AnyF - so true, so true.

it makes me feel quite sick BAB

I don't (thankfully) know anyone currently suffering from cancer

but how can this be right ?

clue: it isn't

Really glad someone has started a thread on this as I was going to after reading it the Guardian yesterday. It's a bloody outrage and like others above, makes me hate this government more than I thought possible. When my brother was undergoing chemotherapy there were days he couldn't open his eyes and was barely aware that I was even in the room. And then other days when we could walk (slowly, and often against medical advice) on to Hampstead Heath so he could breathe in fresh air. If he'd been assessed on one of those better days, would he have been deemed fit for work? Utter arseholes.

Have you seen the Frothers Unite thread in politics, missM ?

yes, there are some notable rightwingers very obvious by their abscence

I haven't seen it - will have a look.

That's appalling that they're even considering it. I have signed.

When I read about this on the Guardian website the other day it made me want to bang my head on the keyboard in despair.

We were very very lucky, and DH's employers were amazing and he received full pay through 4 months of chemo (I'd just given birth and was on SMP so we'd have been utterly fucked otherwise). And yes, he did have days when he would have felt up to working, only his immune system was so completely decimated by the treatment that catching a cold could have killed him, so commuting and spending 8 hours in a crowded office during the winter months would have been a crap idea.

Bunch of fuckwits.

Let us all take note of the sterling work done by 'Honest' Nick Clegg and the LibDems in ameliorating the worst excesses of the Tory Coalition govt. Let us further note the 1million p/a contract held by Atos to cut benefits to disabled people by 20%. Closely observe - this is judged by amount 'saved' not fraud detected or criteria not met.

Julia I've wanted to know details of that for ages. Do you happen to have a link about the ATOS contract specifying "amount saved".

Try fb Benefit Claimants Fight Back while I go and have a look, I can't reemember where I saw it