To ask you to all sign this petition asking the government to investigate 9,580 benefits-related deaths?

[BowieFan]

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/170364

The excellent Jack Monroe has started a campaign on twitter and has been collating stories of awful experiences with the DWP, Atos, Capita and Maximus. Some of the stories are heartbreaking.

Please, please sign this petition - at the very least, the families of people who died because of the DWP deserve some closure.

Take David Clapson - former soldier who died of hunger and insulin-related shock. He had been sanctioned for being late for an appointment, and couldn't afford to pay for electricity for his fridge to keep his insulin cold. The coroner said his stomach had had no food in it for upwards of three days. Nobody should be dying like that in 2016.

I recommend you check out Jack's twitter (@MxJackMonroe) and read some of the stories using the #HungerHurts hashtag. It's heartbreaking, but we need to confront this.

Well I've signed. I don't care that Jack Monroe started it (I'm no JM fan) but I'm horrified at the experiences and repercussions being reported about these fit for work interviews.

Vulnerable people starving to death in the UK in 2016? It's barbaric. Inhumane.

Came on in exasperation at the term 'excellent' to describe Left-wing activist Monroe but see I have been beaten to it.

Signed.

I just can't believe some of the comments on this thread.

A disabled man died of diabetic shock having not eaten for three days. This was because he didn't have any money.

This was because the government did not provide the help he was entitled to.

Anyone blaming the dead disabled man or making weaselly excuses for his murderers (or objecting to the person who started the petition, as if that's relevant to the issue at all) needs to take a long hard look at themselves.

Vulnerable people starving to death in the UK in 2016? It's barbaric. Inhumane

Admittedly I haven't studied the figures in depth but this 9,500 figure could also include people who are declared fit for work and then the next day are hit by a bus or die of a completely unrelated accident/illness. We don't know the breakdown of what happened but this is being touted around as 9,500 directly killed by government policy which is blatantly not true but which fits with Ms Munroe's Guardian-writing narrative perfectly.

Came on in exasperation at the term 'excellent' to describe Left-wing activist Monroe but see I have been beaten to it.
Gosh, do think about what she may be doing for those of us without a voice...

Is there a new book or deal out for her

The benefit system is long long overdue an overhaul, its way out of hand and needs reining in.

As for GPS over riding decisions, that would be a very poor move, People manipulate doctors all the time. It needs to be independent.

It was certainly still the case in Aug 2014 that people with progressive conditions who had finally reached the unable to work phase were being placed in the WRAG.

A number of charities representing people with Cystic Fibrosis, Motor Neurone Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's and Rheumatoid Arthritis wrote to the government about it:
www.sheilagilmore.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Progressive-Conditions-Dossier-FINAL.pdf

Trouble is Luna if you did a bit of googling, you'd find it was true and that none of them were hit by a bus, but hey, if that's what you need to reassure yourself that the government are doing us all a favour, so be it.

Trouble is Luna if you did a bit of googling, you'd find it was true and that none of them were hit by a bus,

The stats say - taken from the very petition we are being urged to sign - "From Dec 2011 to Feb 2014, 2,380 people died shortly after being declared 'fit for work' and having their benefits stopped"

That does NOT MEAN that the deaths were necessarily related to the benefits being stopped. It means that one event followed another, not that one event caused the second. You'd have to be very hard of understanding not to see that.

You could try googling the stats yourself. They are there. I am not by any means 'hard of understanding' my comprehension of the UK benefits system and all it's ills is in fact remarkably good.

Oh, and the government is cutting the level of ESA for people in the WRAG.

Because the reason all these people with stable or deteriorating conditions aren't getting better and being embraced by employers is lack of incentive. According to the DWP.

Even some Tories are objecting to that one. And demanding that at the very least, other support be put in place before the cuts to benefits. Rather than the "cut first, ask questions later" approach we've grown to know and love over the last 8 years.

Gosh, do think about what she may be doing for those of us without a voice...

She couldn't give two hoots about anyone, only promoting herself/himself/they (whatever Jack is this week)

I'll repost my crib note about ESA, from my other thread about these disability cuts - the total restructuring of disability benefits in 2008 made them so confusing it's hardly surprising some posters don't know what's what.

Since 2008 people too sick or disabled to earn their living have been divided into three groups for ESA.

1. Nothing - people the controversial new tests deem Fit to Work receive nothing, regardless of whether they are actually fit to work and employable in the real world. Some people in this group have become destitute.

2. Work Related Activity Group - people deemed Unfit to Work but not far below the Fit to Work threshold. They are expected to prepare to return to work in the future. HOWEVER, many people in this group have conditions which are stable or deteriorating. They will never become Fit to Work. They can in theory stay in this group for decades (until they deteriorate, die or reach retirement age).

3. Support Group - people deemed Unfit to Work and a long way below the threshold.

The DWP acknowledges that only 1 in a 100 people in the WRAG moves into work per month. Not too surprising, given who's in it.

She couldn't give two hoots about anyone, only promoting herself/himself/they (whatever Jack is this week)
That's your opinion, the fact is those of us on ESA are going under. Whether you like her or not, it would still be kinder for those of us who need the help, for you to sign the petition. Does your dislike of a person really overrule the fact that people are dying because of this governments attitude toward us?

Thanks to everyone making this about a personality they dont like. Its such a huge help (to the current government) to know how much you support disabled people.

Surely a GP is far more aware of a patients needs than an "independent assessor" who has met them for half and hour?

Pushing this back to GPs is likely to cause huge pressure on GPs to sign people off work. Abuse too if they refuse to sign off somebody who they don't believe to be ill. Terrible idea and definitely not what the GP is there for.

But jelly more influential people and organisations have tried and failed to make changes. What on earth makes people think this wannabe will be listened to? She does not care. Don't fall into that trap. It's all about her ego.

One of my gp's tried to force me into work when I physically couldn't speak. That was fun.

One of them wants me to give up work completely to help me manage my condition better.

Another listens to what I want and supports me.

This variance is why i feel we can't let gp's make the final decision.

lateBreakfast

Not really, you have to get a sick note from your GP in the first place to start claiming ESA, so why is that not enough? Why do you need to go through an extra layer of nonsense and be assessed by a paramedic who has no training in your condition?

Over half a million people die in the UK each year. A large number of these will have been "fit for work" (and actually working..) just before they died. I don't think these numbers from the DWP are saying anything significant at all.

As for "there are plenty of people on PIP/DLA who can work" - well yes, there are. That's why you can claim them if you work or even if you don't, because they are there to help with the extra costs of living with illness or disability.

The fact that people think everyone on DLA/PIP is a scrounger says it all. This is why people keep voting for Tories - they don't do basic research and just believe what the media tells them.

you have to get a sick note from your GP in the first place to start claiming ESA,

And I have talked to GPs who already receive abuse if they don't do that. It'll be far far worse if they're the decision point for the whole system.

The more people that protest the changes the better IMO. I'm already in a trap. No one is bothered about it.

If 'GP' was replaced by 'hospital consultant' would you still object? Should my consultant be able to overrule the ESA assessor?

Surely there will have been an inquest into the disabled man who died having not eaten etc..is this not enquiry enough?