WTF are Frothers? Have you seen them around and wondered? Not a quiche, but a protest group. Tory, Labour, Lib Dems - Common Goal - Protest Against the Cuts

[MmeLindor.]

What are the Frothers?

The term "Frothers" came about one dank and dismal November day in 2011. A frustrated user of the parenting forum Mumsnet started a thread about her dismay at the cuts that the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government was inflicting on the British public.

She stated that she was not "quite a frothing berserker but I am getting rather cross with our government messing with the good stuff".

The good stuff - policies, benefits, institutions that had taken years to achieve were being cut for no good reason, often leaving gaping holes in the fabric of British society.

The NHS, with which we Brits have a love-hate relationship, but like a favourite sibling, we wish to protect from harm.

Sure Start, a successful scheme that supported parents who were struggling and offered children from deprived backgrounds a better start in life.

Universal Child Benefit was cut for those families who had one earner bringing in more than £44k a year. If both parents each earn less than £44k, they keep their UCB payments. This obviously hit single parents and families with a single earner hardest.

Disability Living Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance - which enabled those with disabilities to live a decent life, without feeling that they were begging for assistance or were a burden to the taxpayer.

Student Fees, the introduction of which, contrary to Lib Dem pre-election promises, means that a whole generation of young people will have to think carefully before applying to higher education.

These and many other cuts are being made in the name of austerity. We are "all in this together", but some of us are deeper in this than others.

We all understand that there are sacrifices to be made but why should these sacrifices be borne by those who already have so little?

The general public seems oblivious of the dangers being faced, they are unaware of the injustices being wrought on the already disadvantaged.

The government is winning the war of the headlines. They have blasted the recipients of DLA and ESA as scrounger and cheats so often that the general public believe it. They misinterpret data to "prove" their points. Teachers are painted as being irresponsible and greedy, while the bankers rake in the money.

The poster on Mumsnet was not alone for long. Within a few days, a group of over 30 posters had formed. They asked themselves, "What can we do?".

The idea of a blog was born. Three days later the blog had over thirty authors signed up, a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

The Aims:

• to open the general publics' eyes to the injustices being created by the governement

• to inform those who are facing cuts about their rights

• to link with other activists and charities, in order to put pressure on the government

Are you a Frother?

Come and join us.

BLOG

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

I have finished my piece on housing benefit 'reform' if anyone want's to put it on the blog?

My laptop battery's got a problem so I'm on phone which is a right pita. Will try to get back online properly later. I'm trying to keep up but posting's difficult.

How did this morning's meeting go, Katie?

OM, where's your article? Do you need to email it?

Here's another fred about the cuts. I've put links to here and the blog which I don't think they'd seen.

Oh yes, forgot to say I'm allowed back on Twitter. I'll be a bit more careful this time

@garlic yes I need to e mail it. Who to? PM me.

Have done. Sorry for the delay.

Garlicfrother. it looks like something's gone ary with the formatting of that post. probably when added graphs. theres a misordering. mobile at mo but will have a look on laptop and sort within hr. grrr. sorry.

Oh, you've posted it?

Ah, not yet :)

Just get it in the right order, with as little formatting as possible. Blogger tends to cock that up anyway. I'll sort it if anything needs sorting :)

Sorted it out now. a graph had overlayed a para! Put right now.

its already posted. i didnt do it? Did i? Thought you had per link above? Take back to draft if your not ready for it yet! Its ready and last para fine.

Aggh! No. last sentance isnt ok. it misrepresents it. they are changing the private patient cap to 49%. So thats the maximum. and having private patients in nhs hospitals is a good thing in that the money they bring in helps pay for expensive kit that they otherwise might not have for nhs patients to get to use.

So can you please adjust the last sentance... mid bath time at mo so on phone not laptop now! the 50% private line makes it sound like the beds wont be available for nhs but they will too.

Ahhhhh sorry. having grr day.

Have made sure its still draft. but cant edit last sentence from phone! Will leave to your excellent care!

Off to shampoo....

I just took off the privatisation bit.

Am very confused now, is this the same post you were emailing?

Hope bathtime's all happy & relaxed ... Email me if you need to. x

Garlic. its opinionatedmum who is emailing the housing benefit reform piece. mine is the nhs info one that i posted direct into the blog and checked today that had the stuff about about private beds at the bottom. ? Does that help?

Oh, crikey, yes, sorry! Have been out making little coats for my plants - I hate gardening, the cold makes me hurt and my brain's gone into hibernation.

As you were ...

No prob! Still unclear if you wanted the nhs published yet though? It was. ??

In other nonrelevant news.. I found out today the lovely la senza vouchers...£35..I received for christmas are useless as they have gone in administration and although the store was open they are not accepting the vouchrrs. The economic climate finally hits our pant drawers!

and Yummy. You never think about that when buying vouchers, do you? Maybe have a look on the MSE forums for info on whether you have rights ... if not, they'll be having a very good sale soon!

I published your NHS post as it was the only new one. We don't have an editorial plan afaik, just to keep going! Sorry about the wrong ending. Have fixed it now.

I'm working on my numbers posts. There isn't a benefits problem, you know - there's a jobs problem. Can't see how these corrupt useless workfare schemes are supposed to help with that. 4.7 jobseekers for every job. I haven't broken the data out by demographics, but read recently that there are 23 young people for every suitable vacancy.

Blog traffic is declining. The single biggest factor is Twitter. I've had to back off it today - it's exhausting, isn't it?! - but please do tweet with #frothers and, preferably, a link to the blog, whenever you have anything to say about Those Numpties and their Government Fails!

Again no problem. Happy to help. My trouble is being a bit scared to express strong opiniond on anything unless I feel I fully understand it which is why info posts are in my comfort zone.

Will keep sharing. Though I dont have a big enough follower base to help much! Being such a newbie! :-)

Chipping away is good though. keep at it!

the change from dla to pip gets debated at HoL on tuesday, so I think we need a post tomorrow - can anyone volunteer?

I'll do it as a last resort but - tiny baby - am struggling to get anything written atm.

Summary as I understand it: DLA to PIP debate is in the house of lords on Tuesday:

Disabled Living Allowance is a pretty much fraud proof benefit that gets paid out to people whether they are in work or not whose diabilities mean they have extra costs to get around and care for themselves. It's the one that can be 'traded' in to rent a mobility car (+ a deposit and paying for any adaptions you need yourself)

Currently children under 16 will keep recieving DLA, don't know if this will change.

Key issues with changing DLA to PIP is that the change involves a face-to-face interview as assessment instead of the highly vigorous paperwork trail and medical evidence based system from before.

The aim is to reduce the budget for DLA by 20%

Since the fraud rate is less than 1% this means 1/5 of current genuinely disabled claimants being reclassified as not-disabled, with a potential kick-on effect for other benefits they recieve - particularly important for anyone currently not able to or unable to find suitable work. The interview is a tick-box system, meaning that some disabilities are extremely likely to be 'missed' most vulnerable seem to be mental health issues and conditions such as Autism - and anyone who puts a brave face on it.

As well as some other equally shitty 'tightening' of the rules which means genuinely disabled people (like those in wheelchairs) will miss out not just on the extra money that in many cases enables them to work but also to leave the house at all... clearly not conducive to helping anyone get a job!

Middle rate care and mobility also being scrapped.

Amendments we're looking for on tuesday:

effectively pat's petition - a pause to reconsider the impact cuts are having on disabled people before anything else is pushed through

exemption some people for whom face-to-face interviews aren't going to tell them much and who will find it very difficult to cooperate (for eg, people with autism)

keeping a lower paying entitlement for those with more moderate difficulties who DO need the extra cash to help them live as normally as possible (and be as employable as possible) but aren't severly disabled.

PIP is far from fraud proof!

Thirty minutes ATOS assessment by someone who knows nothing about your condition- nah.

In reality old cheater who goes oooooh me back convicingly for thirty minutes is more likely to get help than someone with ASD who can't play the game, or someone with a bit of dignity who can't do the whole poor me thing.

All middle rate / high rate means currently is the ability to sleep at night: plenty of people who cannot work get MR, in my own family the one who gets HR is more likely to work than the one on MR. Becuase of the whole night thing. However there is a rumour that needing constant supervision will cease to be a criteria for PIP and if that's true a great many of copmpelely unable to function people will lose all help. If you lose PIP / DLA you will then lose exemption from the minimum working hours for universal credit and workfare.

If ds3 was placed on workfare I would have to go with im menaing i could not work.

My ehad hurts!

this was posted elsewhere

Data protection and disability

from that link 'These assessments are the single biggest issue that disabled people have with ESA. They are designed to exclude many genuine claimants, some people are dying just hours after being found "fit for work" the assessment centres are often inaccessible to wheelchairs (yes, really) and the entire process is farcical. To use this disaster to decide yet another vital support that sick and disabled people rely on is absolutely unforgivable.
'

Ok, what are the main issues?

1. Dependence on ATOS assessments;
2. Removal of middle & lower rates

or not/what? I'll write if required, but can't face investigating it as I'm in the middle of my own DLA application and it's all a bit upsetting.

My last assessment was done by ATOS, who refused my claim. I sent off an appeal form & the tribunal reversed ATOS's decision. Tribunals, apparently, look at your medical history which the ATOS woman clearly had no clue about.

With the new scheme, will tribunals then not do this?
Will PIP payments be more than higher-rate DLA?