Labour’s new DWP shadow secretary attacked for toxic comments

Labour’s new shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds is showing that incompetents are not solely within the Conservative Party or is he a Tory plant within Labour.

Jonathan Reynolds and the Labour Party need to get their act together, otherwise we will have Tory Governments until infinity and Labour will be finished forever.

Motion – National Independent Living Support Service – DPAC

Disabled People Against Cuts and our allies in the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance are campaigning for a National Independent Living Support Service capable of upholding disabled people’s rights to independent living and building on what was so effective about the Independent Living Fund before it was closed in spite of enormous opposition in June 2015.

Please call on your union branches and CLPs to pass motions supporting the campaign. Thanks to Sean McGovern for the wording of a suggested motion as below. If you would like someone to speak at your branch meeting please send details to mail@dpac.uk.net.

For information about our vision of a National Independent Living Support Service, download this document: NILS-summary-doc-2

 

 

Source: Motion – National Independent Living Support Service – DPAC

Please help our research on charging for Social Care – DPAC

Carer Voice

Following on from the Independent Living Strategy Group report into charging for social care we’d like to get more information on charging and how it is affecting people.

Please could people fill in details in the form below.

Could you also email us at mail@dpac.uk.net if you’d be willing to speak to the journalist Frances Ryan about charging and it’s impact on your lives and support.

We are also looking for someone who is willing to be in a video about the negative impact charging has on their ability to access the care and support they need or who has been left in debt by these charges for use in a separate campaign. Again please email us at mail@dpac.uk.net if you are interested.

The ILSG report can be viewed https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Chargingsurveyreport-18Nov2018.pdf

To proceed to the form to fill in please clink link here

Source: Please help our research on charging for…

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The DWP is about to get a bit of a shock over Universal Credit

My Speech on the UNCRPD Judgement at the SNP Conference-Fiona Robertson – Black Triangle Campaign

“Conference, delegates, friends. I know I speak for the whole Disabled Members Group, and for disabled people up and down the country, when I say we are deeply grateful for the overwhelming support shown by so many branches, members and elected representatives for this resolution.

When the UK signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities in 2009, Labour were in government, and although disabled people were already dying from Blair’s reforms, the full weight of these seemingly disparate deaths wasn’t yet understood.

A year later, when the Coalition took office, we know that they had already received a Coroner’s Report on the Prevention of Future Deaths, which would save lives if implemented. Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling decided to ignore it, and the Tory/LibDem Coalition dedicated their time in government to implementing sweeping, devastating cuts to social security, health and social care – a programme which continues to cut further and deeper with every passing year.

In 2012, Disabled People Against Cuts began the formal process of triggering a UN investigation into violations of the CRPD. This was based not just on the lives lost, but on the multitude of ways the Austerity cuts have made life harder for disabled people. We have been pushing for a cumulative impact study for years, because disabled people are rarely affected by just one cut.

It takes a long time to initiate an investigation, as multiple sources of evidence have to be submitted, verified and researched. In 2014, the UK became the first government to ever be investigated by the CRPD, a shameful mark on our history. No UN investigation is undertaken frivolously – t

 

Source: My Speech on the UNCRPD Judgement at the SNP Conference-Fiona Robertson – Black Triangle Campaign

UK faces UN examination: DPOs ‘delighted’ with exposure of government’s failings – Black Triangle Campaign

Disabled people’s organisations who travelled to Geneva this week to help highlight the government’s continuing human rights violations have praised a UN committee of disabled experts for publicly exposing the UK’s failings.

Civil servants from eight UK government departments, and the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, were grilled over two days about the UK’s record in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

The two days ended with the chair of the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD), Theresia Degener, telling the UK government that its cuts to social security and other support for disabled people had caused “a human catastrophe” (see separate story).

Another CRPD member, Stig Langvad, said members were “deeply concerned” by the government’s failure to implement the convention, and delivered a withering putdown, telling the UK delegation: “I could provide a long list of examples where the state party doesn’t live up to the convention. Unfortunately, the time is too limited.”

Among the DPOs that travelled to Geneva were representatives of Inclusion London, the Alliance for Inclusive Education, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Equal Lives, Black Triangle, Disability Rights UK, Inclusion Scotland and Disability Wales.

Source: UK faces UN examination: DPOs ‘delighted’ with exposure of government’s failings – Black Triangle Campaign

McDonnell calls for disabled-led solution to care crisis, as DPAC occupies parliament | DisabledGo News and Blog

Labour’s shadow chancellor has called for disabled people themselves to be given the job of designing the solution to the social care funding crisis. John McDonnell was speaking to Disability News Service (DNS) as activists from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) were protesting about cuts to social care, in parliament’s central lobby yesterday (Wednesday). He said there were two strands to finding a solution to the social care crisis: “One is more money, and two is a system that is designed by disabled people themselves.” Both he and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn supported the actions of the activists who protested in the heart of parliament, within earshot of the main Commons chamber, while there was also support from Green party co-leaders Caroline Lucas MP and Jonathan Bartley. DPAC had arranged the lobby of parliament – as part of its week of action – so activists could raise concerns with their MPs about cuts to independent living support, with campaigners coming from as far as

Source: McDonnell calls for disabled-led solution to care crisis, as DPAC occupies parliament | DisabledGo News and Blog

Nobody is Unfit for Work – Black Triangle Campaign

What you will read may be very distressing for you, but we are looking at the worst-case scenario and identifying measures to help you and other claimants.

It would be good to have some feedback on the Health and Work Conversations from people who have made an ESA claim. More we know about it, and more we can fight this.

What you should not do, is to decide not to claim ESA. That is what DWP wants you to do.

Some documents released by the DWP have shown the direction of travel in terms of claiming ESA under UC.

Under the old regime, a person wishing to claim ESA was placed in the ESA assessment phase, attracting the lowest ESA rate (JSA rate), and also no conditionality, and this until a Work Capability Assessment could decide whether the claimant was fit or unfit for work.

The Work and Health Conversation

Under Universal Credit, a person wishing to claim ESA will be first called for a Health and Work Conversation (HWC). This conversation is basically a Work Focus Interview, and is mandatory, which means that a claimant can be sanctioned for not attending. Attending does not only mean being physically present at the interview but also fulfilling all the requirements set by DWP for a WFI:

Regulation 57 of the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2008:

57.—(1) A claimant is regarded as having taken part in a work-focused interview if the claimant—

(a) attends for the interview at the place and at the date and time notified in accordance with regulation 56;

(b) provides information, if requested by the Secretary of State, about any or all of the matters set out in paragraph (2);

(c) participates in discussions to the extent the Secretary of State considers necessary, about any or all of the matters set out in paragraph (3);

(d) assists the Secretary of State in the completion of an action plan.

 (2) The matters referred to in paragraph (1)(b) are—

(a) the claimant’s educational qualifications and vocational training;

(b) the claimant’s work history;

(c) the claimant’s aspirations for future work;

(d) the claimant’s skills that are relevant to work;

(e) the claimant’s work-related abilities;

(f) the claimant’s caring or childcare responsibilities; and

(g) any paid or unpaid work that the claimant is undertaking.

(3) The matters referred to in paragraph (1)(c) are—

Source: Nobody is Unfit for Work – Black Triangle Campaign

Shock as Universal Credit rules treat sick as ‘fit for all work-related activity’ – against GPs explicit orders – Black Triangle Campaign

Activists ‘horrified’ by universal credit rules forcing sick claimants into work activity  

“Very dangerous” rules are forcing severely-ill people applying for the government’s new universal credit to look for jobs and take part in training, even though their GPs have said they are not fit for work, “horrified” disabled activists have warned.

The rules – which have never been announced or publicised by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – apply to new universal credit claimants who are waiting for an assessment of their “fitness for work”.

And they mean they could have their benefits sanctioned for up to three months if they fail to follow strict instructions from a job coach with no medical training.

They are forced to take part in work-related activity, such as a work-focused interviews and “work preparation”, which could mean training or employment programmes.

They could also face sanctions if they fail to show they have searched for a job for up to 35 hours a week, and have not made themselves available for paid work.

Potential sanctions will continue to hang over their heads until their fitness for work is eventually tested through the notorious work capability assessment (WCA), which could take months.

Dr Stephen Carty, medical adviser to the Scottish grassroots campaign group Black Triangle (BT), who

 

Source: Shock as Universal Credit rules treat sick as ‘fit for all work-related activity’ – against GPs explicit orders – Black Triangle Campaign

DWP report confirms fears over impact of ILF closure – Black Triangle Campaign

Source: DWP report confirms fears over impact of ILF closure – Black Triangle Campaign