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.

All Tory voters aren't thick, but many have an "I'm alright Jack" attitude and couldn't give a stuff about vulnerable people, and believe this could never happen to them.
A bit like disability, it's generally not really understood until you experience it.

Jack Monroe may have an agenda, a book, or self publicity, and so bloody what? Someone is standing up for people who suffer from such a shitty system, someone who has actually experienced poverty and isn't going to dismiss others' experiences, so what if she isn't in poverty now?

Bowiefan. I understand you are commenting from a position of good intent towards something you feel is morally wrong, but you are accusing me of blindly agreeing with the government whilst you are also blindly following the opinions of The Guardian and lefty types who are forever bleating about DWP staff being targeted for sanctions, with the DWP denying this is the case. Afraid everyone in political parties and the media have their own agenda, and I just speak from my own opinion.

I think that I should be re-assessed, because I have a fluctuating condition.

I think that a person with a permanent, stable condition should not be reassessed. Or at most once a decade to pick up other changes which might interact with that condition (might well increase award).

I think I should be assessed fairly. I should not be lied about or to. The aim of the assessment should be to get as accurate and full a picture as possible of my capacity: not to be an elimination game show where any trick is valid to try to head off my claim.

Livelove - there have been real people who have died because their benefits have been cut. That's not a leftie media agenda thing - that is real people's lives.

I remember watching the last leg and Jonnie peacock and Alex broker were talking about being called for reassessment.... Because of course their legs have grown back

I agree the assessment process needs changing, not sure GPs are the ones to do it but clearly the current system doesn't work.

I've signed btw, jack Monroe isn't really.mt cup of tea but whether they have an agenda or not this is something worth shooting a light on.

Livelovebehappy

I may be a lefty but I'm not blindly following anything. I work part-time as a CAB adviser and see this kind of stuff daily. The DWP do have sanction targets - I've seen them.

Yes, fluctuating conditions should be checked. But it should be a "how are you, how is your condition?" thing not a full assessment.

People who have conditions that are never going to change should not be subject to these tests.

Absolute best case of this was a client of mine who is Epileptic but has a very complex type which they simply cannot pin down. He has seizures every day and does not get any warning about them.

PIP people keep calling him in for assessments, he just keeps telling them "Unless a miracle cure is suddenly developed overnight, it's not going to change. That is, unless you want me to have a lobotomy?"

Talking of which, last time I was at the assessment place, a woman was waiting patiently at the counter for the receptionist to return.

Receptionist arrived, looked at letter woman presented, and said, "It's past the time given on there now. I'm going to mark you as non-attended and your claim will be closed."

Woman replied, with commendable calm, "I've been waiting at this counter since before that time; you weren't here."

Receptionist havered but grudgingly agreed not to screw up woman's claim.

This happened in front of a packed waiting room. Receptionist made no attempt to hide her behaviour and showed no shame.

And I felt completely shit about it, because receptionist had left her post in order to deal with me (I'd gone down in an awkward location in front of a door and she wanted me to move while I recovered enough to get up).

So was very relieved that the other woman didn't have her claim cancelled because of me.

I will sign.

Hate the way this government and parts of society have become less compassionate.

People fighting over crumbs whlist others have huge wealth. ..
Yes usually tory voters or people who have no qualms with taking money from the disabled. I don't get how people can vote for this shower.

I think that a person with a permanent, stable condition should not be reassessed. Those with long term conditions still need to be assessed regularly (over years), as advances in medicine could change someones condition.

Those with long term conditions still need to be assessed regularly (over years), as advances in medicine could change someones condition.
Yeah, because Dd's cerebral palsy and Asperger Syndrome are going to change due to advances in medicine.
Honestly, at least try to bung a couple of caveats in. DD is back for an assessment tomorrow. She's 20. She's not supposed to be called back until next summer, but no, they've decided they'll call her in early, you know, just in case she can magically walk. Oh, and because they do it when they want and not when we want, it's costing 120 quid for us. I don't have the heart to take it from her, so it magically had to come out of my 73 quid a week.

Livelovebehappy what about the assessors that lie in the assessments?
In my online support group i was shocked to find out how many people This had happened to!
How are people supposed to be assessed when you can't even trust the assessors?
I'm very thankful that i'm managing now as i honestly would hate to be off work again.

I did say 'could' change their condition, as in improve it so as to enable them to work - not cure them.

Ah yes , Ms Jack, she who intentionally put herself and her child on the breadline by walking out of a well paid job then showing us how to cook shit food beans in a creative way or something and rant at the Tories.

Yes, how dare they call for assessepments ! The bastards! Fuck off not signing this skwewed bollocks to promote her latest shite boil your vaginal yeast cookbook.

Err she didn't do it intentionally. In the months leading up to giving birth she was led to believe she could go flexi hours. This then didn't happen. So she asked to go part-time. Again, they said no. She asked for literally any other job in the service but there were none. She applied for hundreds and hundreds of jobs but nobody took her on - she couldn't afford to go full time as she could not get childcare for her son.

Sorry, but unless you know the story, don't type your shite out.

Reassessing according to type of condition and cause of disability would be much more sensible. You know, like the old DLA assessment awards used to.

Treating everyone the same as some kind of job lot of ill people underscores the contempt the policy makers and implemented a have for us.

Especially when the physical(& mental) impact of going through an assessment will be huge, it's insane to force people to use their last reserves of health on proving their illness rather than going to hospital appointments or even, shock horror, doing some bloody work!

Because assessments are no longer based on the relevant expertise of HCP's, and no longer asks for any specific input from specialists, the decisions are a lottery.

I've recently been re-diagnosed and although my new label is utterly shite for me as an actual, err, person, I have felt relief that I no longer have to run the gauntlet of ignorance that my previous label prompts. It's disgusting that a 'decision maker' can legitimately allow their own ignorance, assumptions and stereotypes to form the basis for decision making.

If my DLA was stopped, I'd lose my job (can't get to it), and my health would deteriorate ralodly (couldn't pay for the carers needed to function daily), and within weeks, me & DS would be homeless, unable to access healthcare, unable to take care of my child due to the physical hit temporary housing would create (with no adaptations, equipment etc,) etc etc etc.

It really wouldn't matter if they decided to reinstate it after the lengthy appeal process, the lives of me & DS would have already collapsed and being, err, ill, I wouldn't have to resilience to weather that man-made disaster.

A system where this type of cascade into tragedy is built-in, clearly doesn't care about helping people be as productive as possible. It's about eliminating the problem by immoral means. Whilst others believe the spin which legitimizes the systemic cruelty of vulnerable people.

Housing & caring for a completely dependent and un-able disabled person, plus the cost of fostering my child, and his curtailed future potential, would add up to FAR more than just giving a bit of help to enable me to get on being able to earn, pay taxes and bring up my child independently.

Even more depressing is that if that all happened, I'd then be judged as a worthless piece of scum and a drain on society.

Bowie Sorry, but unless you know the story, don't type your shite out

Thats the version she put out, which neatly fits her 'benefit' story. However, she did give up a well paid job.

MiscellaneousAssortment yes! My mental health was actually made worse going through the assessment.
If my health declines again i think i'd rather struggle than go through that process again, it's just too much.
at one point i was having panic attacks everytime the post came.

I'm shocked that people who were awarded dla for life are now having to go through this too! There's a reason some are awarded it for life.
I struggled through the process, some can't even manage this.
This just isn't right.
I wonder if they've changed this so some people don't claim it.

'She was lead to believe'

Don't people investigate things for themselves? Why do people not take at least some personal responsibility for themselves?

No. I won't sign because it's another ego trip for Ms Monroe

This ^^

Given Mx Monroe's push for the spotlight, I wouldn't want to give them the publicity that they crave.

I have only heard of Jack on MN - they aren't the celeb they think they are, and now they are trying to go the full 'Jaime Oliver' and have a cause to shove at people.

lefty types who are forever bleating about DWP staff being targeted for sanctions, with the DWP denying this is the case. Afraid everyone in political parties and the media have their own agenda, and I just speak from my own opinion.

My friend was followed out of a job centre, broke, no food or power on at home. The DWP staff member put my friend in her car, took her tot he shop, bought her £10 of electric, some food and teabags, some biscuits "Because you need something with a cup of tea" and drove her home.

She told my friend, "I have to do what they say in there, out here it's my choice".

Someone who works at DWP was on here a while back asking about the ethics of putting some money through a door as she knew someone would be without money for a week.

If anyone is watching 'The Victorian Slum' have a look at what we are heading towards.

Dawn may I ask. Why it's costing £120?

I note the petition now quotes a lower number of deaths (which is still frighteningly high) : I have signed.