Victory as court of appeal upholds ruling on ESA and mental health

Posted on by
5

The Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling which found that the process used to decide whether hundreds of thousands of people are eligible for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) discriminates against people with mental health conditions, learning disabilities and autism.

The original judgment, at an Upper Tribunal hearing in May this year, was the result of a Judicial Review brought by two anonymous claimants with mental health problems. You can read the origins of the challenge and the story here.

This was an action brought by the Mental Health Resistance Network and is a tribute to that member-led group and the hard work that people who use services have put in – with little help from established charities or politicians. That should be said and must be said and I am not going to stop saying it. There is a press release on the issue and today’s announcement on the Rethink site, but I make the point again that the MHRN and the Public Law Project deserve all the credit here. I’ll say it again good and loud and why not – it is the member-led groups like Boycott Workfare on workfare and the work programme, Disabled People Against Cuts on issues like the closure of the Independent Living Fund and the Mental Health Resistance Network on the fight against the work capability assessment that are achieving the results in the fight against this government.

And that is the key point to make about resistance and results in our era. People are fighting a vicious government here and they’re doing it on their own pretty much. Just imagine how much further ahead we’d all be if those who had the resources and the political clout contributed those things to the fight.

Don’t start me.

Here are DPAC and MHRN campaigners outside the Royal Courts of Justice in October when the DWP took its case for overturning the initial ruling to the court of appeal:

Fighting #workfare and #sanctions: there is no negotiating with the political class or corporates

Posted on by
3

Here are Boycott Workfare protestors outside Senate House today, defying police clampdowns on campus protests and making plenty of noise about the political class’ disgusting embrace of workfare and benefit sanctions…

….and inside the building, the ultimate rogues’ gallery of thieves and state-funded robber barons who are making a filthy pile out of workfare, taxpayers and the misery of people who find themselves unemployed or unable to work. ERSA, the trade body for the so-called welfare-to-work industry, was holding an annual workfare conference in the building today. The roll-call of attendees included: Esther McVey and Stephen Timms, the DWP’s director of social justice (ironic job title of the millenium there), the CE and director of Tomorrow’s People – the organisation that brought you the scandal where unemployed people were forced to work without pay and had to get changed under a bridge during the Queen’s Jubilee. There was also, apparently, a smorgasbord of plundering work programme providers – the likes of Avanta, Seetec, G4S, A4e and Pinnacle People. Joy.

Anyway. History will judge these people harshly. It’s just a pity that the political classes, and organised labour and Labour refuse to judge them harshly now. To date, it has been the member-led groups that have beaten the government and pro-workfare companies and charities back – on the streets, online and in the courts. Same thing with the fight to save the Independent Living Fund – member-led groups like Disabled People Against Cuts were behind that success and pretty much on their own fighting for it. Established charities and the political class ignored them. So. There are people who are going to find themselves on the wrong side of history here and I only regret that I won’t be around to see it. Workfare is absolutely a labour issue, but Labour was not to be seen today – unless you counted Timms, who was somewhere inside the conference, hoovering lunch up with the crooks. I counted a couple of Unite community flags at the protest, but really, there should have been a couple of thousand. And more. But there weren’t. Which was and is extraordinary, albeit totally expected… except the fact is that we’re seeing something very significant here. We’ve been seeing it for a while. We’re at a point (again, we’ve been at it for while) where the very notion of a wage for work is under threat and if things continue as they are, very few jobs will pay. Everyone will be under the boot of a sadistic corporate. As for decent terms and conditions to go along with some sort of wage – forget it. As one speaker rightly said today – the workfare juggernaut will end up driving everyone’s wages into the dirt. It’s bad enough that people on benefits are expected to work for free. It’s only a matter of time before everyone else will be. That has certainly been the case in America, which is something I’ve said before, but I might as well say it again. An example: several years into New York city’s workfare programme, District Council 37, a union which represented municipal employees, took Rudy Giuliani to court, saying that his workfare programme “had illegally replaced nearly 2000 unionised clerical workers with unpaid welfare recipients in three agencies.” That sort of thing. It’ll be that sort of thing all round.

And if you rely on a wage to get by – as opposed to a trust fund, etc – it’ll be that sort of thing coming your way soon, if it hasn’t hit you already. Meanwhile, the member-led fightback groups get on with the battle. They know that there is no negotiating with the political class and/or the major corporates that the political class represents. And they are right. Austerity governments of all stripes exist only to hand public money to the private sector. They will do that and do that until there is nothing left.

Ho hum.

Boycott workfare: join the week of action

Posted on by
Reply

If you’re here, head over here to Boycott Workfare for a list of actions planned against workfare and benefit sanctions this week.

As Boycott Workfare says:

“Things are very wrong: each month 70,000 people face hunger and hardship due to benefit stoppages – ‘sanctions’. Millions of hours of work which should be paid are being replaced by workfare. But we’re taking action and having an impact.

This week, from 2-8 December,  join thousands of others across the UK to push back against sanctions and workfare – with action online and on your high street. Here’s the latest list of actions planned across the UK.”

Also:

Here are some longer interviews with people who have been sanctioned.

Here’s another story about a man who was sanctioned. I’ve compared this with the story of an MP who used public money to heat his horses’ stables. This is the world we’re living in.

Here’s a list of ridiculous reasons for sanctions

Here’s a very detailed CAB report on people who have been sanctioned and the problems that has caused them.

Join the protests.

#FuelPoverty: they’ll take our kids

Posted on by
1

This video is from the UKUncut-DPAC fuel poverty action on Tuesday.

I’m posting this because it’s about women who are struggling to meet their bills and are worried that their kids will be removed by social services because of those financial problems. I hear this repeatedly. It one of austerity’s most sinister refrains – women saying again and again that they fear women their kids will be removed because they can’t make ends meet.

Later on Tuesday, I met with another young mother who told me that she deliberated for ages when it came to asking for a foodbank voucher, because she did not want to alert social services to her financial troubles. “There’s that constant worry that they will take your kids [if they think you’re not coping].”

The truly appalling part of all of this is that the reason people can’t make ends meet is because viciously unfair and unnecessary costs have been imposed on them by an out-of-control ruling class – and there’s no political opposition to that. People are dealing with wage cuts, job losses, the bedroom tax, council tax benefit cuts, energy price hikes and plenty else besides. But the fact that people can’t magically produce a financial response to these attacks is something for which they are threatened and punished. So – mothers can’t ask for help with the financial problems imposed by the ruling class, because they fear the establishment will decide that the real problem is they’re unfit mothers who can’t budget. That is an awful position for people to be in. This is a feminist issue if there ever was one.

As the woman in the video says – (she’s from Single Mothers Self Defence in Kentish town):

“The big problem now we’re also finding is that there are so many children being taken into care, not just because of neglect, but because they’re struggling financially. It’s absolutely outrageous that the government can talk about taking your children from you, because you can’t do the most basic things such as feed your children and heat your home to keep them warm.”

She’s right. It is absolutely outrageous. But on it goes. You’ll remember recent stories about a Knowsley Housing Trust bedroom tax letter which said that social services would be advised if someone facing eviction for rent arrears had children.

I wrote then that women had also raised this concern when I was in the northwest talking to people for this article about the bedroom tax:

“The other concern people have is that social services will remove children from parents who are found to be struggling due to the extra cost. People say this a lot. “Nobody wants social services butting their noses into people’s business, because it’s a danger game when a mother hasn’t got enough money to feed her kids properly,” Jill says [at the West Everton Community Centre]. “She’s going to starve herself to make sure her kids are fed. You’re hearing about kids being taken away when they shouldn’t be.””

As I said then too –

“this put me in mind of a conversation I had a couple of years ago with a Wisconsin woman called Pat Gowens. I’d rung Pat to talk about Wisconsin’s punitive workfare programme, which she had some experience of. She and other women had set up Welfare Warriors – a member-led campaign made up of people who were fighting the demands and sanctions of that workfare scheme. We talked about that and then our conversation moved onto other work the group was involved in. That work included representing women whose children had been removed by social services. “They come into your homes,” Pat said, “usually on an anonymous call, or [a call from] your husband. They decide you’re a bit crazy, or your house isn’t clean enough – a mother didn’t vacuum her carpets, or just swept them [or something like that]. Then, they take your kids away. You used to get them back in six months. Now it can be six years. If you want them back you have to do parenting classes, therapy, anger management, domestic violence therapy.”

It is time to do more on this. Why must women live in this fear? Why must women pay for austerity with everything? And why don’t the political or media classes give a shit?

Answer:

Because if it isn’t happening to the twitterati, it isn’t happening.

Our joint Mirror, False Economy and Moore Lavan film on the Independent Living Fund

Posted on by
3

Mirror story today on the film that Ros Wynne Jones, Moore Lavan Films and me at False Economy have made featuring Mary Laver. Mary was an Olympics gamesmaker volunteer and torchbearer and is also an Independent Living Fund recipient. The ILF is a fund that severely disabled people use to pay for the extra care help they need to live independent lives like everyone else. Naturally, this disgusting government has tried to close the fund. Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal overturned the closure decision that the government made at the end of last year, but the government has not said what it will do next – ie whether it will make another attempt to close the fund and leave disabled people without the money they need to keep living. Mary has lost about three stone this year, because of the worry and uncertainty caused by the government’s closure announcement at the end of last year.

In this film, Mary let us film her and her carers working with her over a 24-hour period so that people could see what high-level care really looked like. She also went without her carers for some of that time so that people could see what her life would be like without that care:

MaryLaver’s Fight for Independence: Cameron’s Cruellest Cut ? from moorelavanfilms on Vimeo.

Public accounts committee to grill private contractors on “delivery” of public services…

Posted on by
3

….or non-delivery, that is.

Tomorrow (20 November) at 2:15 pm, the public accounts committee will (hopefully) do this lot over for failures to deliver the public services for which we have forked out billions:

Witness(es): Ashley Almanza, Chief Executive, G4S, Paul Pindar, Chief Executive, Capita, Alistair Lyons CBE, Chairman, Serco and Ursula Morgenstern, Regional Chief Executive Officer, UK and Ireland, Atos.

Location: Room 15, Palace of Westminster

Tune in. Capita is taking over Barnet council as we speak so we might as well hear a bit more about how shit they are as they do it.

Oh yes and Capita is lined up for the electronic monitoring contract that Serco and G4S are supposedly in the dock for. So this is an excellent chance to hear from the companies that screwed us over with that contract and from the one that is about to.

Even Melvyn Bragg says the #bedroomtax is rubbish

Posted on by
Reply

Don’t often do celebs here, but since this one pretty much fell across the lens and because everyone else is doing Brand and Webb and whatnot – here’s Melvyn Bragg saying the bedroom tax is a waste of space at today’s bedroom tax protest outside the House of Commons (sound quality is a bit crap as I was still faffing with the directional mic when Melvyn wafted into frame):

Said Melvyn:

“I agree with this demonstration. I think it’s (the bedroom tax) is doing a lot more harm than good. And I’m glad you’re here today. It’s a pity there’s such a panic on inside the House of Commons. I agree with this demonstration. It’s a tax on very poor people and often very disadvantaged people and it’s completely unfounded. The sooner they get rid of it, the better.”

Way to go Melvyn. Up yours, Cameron.

The panic Melvyn referred to was caused, apparently, by a bomb scare at parliament. I’d been queuing to get in to hear an hour of the bedroom tax debate (Iain Duncan Smith had already done a runner from it), but then security told us to leave and ushered the whole protest up the road. The police cordoned off the entire area, then un-cordoned it after about an hour. Have put a bit of video of that in at the end.

Here are the vote results. Grim. Time for Labour to instruct its councils and housing associations to simply refuse to collect the tax and to introduce no-evictions policies across the board. Been time for that for a while, of course. Ho hum.

And here’s a full list of Labour non-voters. Includes my own – Joan Ruddock. Have said it before and I’ll say it again – people are on their own with this. Political class doesn’t give a shit.

More #JSA stories – and comparisons with the MPs who are really ripping us off

Posted on by
4

To Liverpool, then, where I spend an hour or two with a guy called Peter S_ (may add  his surname later) about his experiences of jobseekers’ allowance. He’s on JSA at the moment. There’s a transcript of the interview with Peter below.

Peter used to work as a carer. Like many carers, he had a job which paid so badly that he couldn’t meet his bills. He started his day early and finished it late, but – again like many carers – was not paid for the time that he had to spend travelling between caring jobs, which meant that he couldn’t make enough money to get by. (Said the Resolution Foundation in an August report on this serious and growing problem: “Careworkers often lose at least £1 an hour because they are not paid separately for the time spent travelling between appointments and because providing decent care often takes longer than the time allocated by the employer for each visit.”)

Then – this is hardly surprising – Peter became very depressed. He suffers from depression and the working situation made it worse. He applied for ESA, but was found fit for work. He was still very depressed and couldn’t find the energy to appeal. So, he signed on for jobseekers’ allowance and was promptly sanctioned for “leaving” his job (depression, it seems, is no longer considered a “proper” reason for breakdown). He was sent on the work programme with the British Heart Foundation and is now applying for zero hours caring jobs which will also pay next to nothing.

So.

The best part of all this? – that Peter is supposed to feel grateful for his crappy wages and his life on JSA. He is supposed to accept every sanction and attack without complaint. He is expected to rise to all hurdles. Everybody is supposed to. Everybody is supposed to feel grateful for the chance to grind away on dwindling wages and get nowhere while the well-connected and well-appointed loot the nation’s pay packets and the public purse. I’m sure I tell you nothing new when I point out that when Cameron says “work hard and get ahead” he means “work hard for stuff all and help my corporate mates get even further ahead.” Why should anyone feel inspired to work to advance corporate interests? I’ve never seen that as a golden ticket, myself.

You’ll read more about this in the transcript below.

You’ll also read a few short comparative paragraphs about very wealthy and well-connected persons who – unlike people in Peter’s position – genuinely feel entitled to public money. They are taking that sense of entitlement to a new plane.

You’ll note, for instance, that I post Peter’s story as we’re lobbed an “apology” by Nadhim Zahawi who claimed parliamentary expenses to heat his stables. I mean – heated stables. Who the hell has stables? People I speak to can’t afford to heat their homes. MPs can, of course. You would have read plenty about MPs heating their second homes on expenses. I head out for an hour to walk the dog and by the time I’m back, we have career twat Nadine Dorries finally forced to register her I’m a Celebrity fee. These people are taking the piss.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s the gross lack of balance I can’t stand. It’s the extraordinary double standard. This is unreal. It can’t last. Peter in Liverpool has been paid utter crap, had his tiny benefit cut and sent to work for free on the work programme. He spends his time applying for zero-hours caring jobs which won’t pay him enough to survive. If he doesn’t like this and doesn’t accept it and his mental health suffers, he and people in the same situation will be pillioried by members of a political class who care only to trample us all as they race for the lolly. I wonder, on the other hand, how things will pan out for Nadhim Zahawi. Comparatively, you understand. Will he be sanctioned, written off as a scrounger, forced to take a zero hours contract for tiny wages that won’t cover his costs and told to be grateful or to get out? Will he be forced to queue for one of two computers at a jobcentre to find non-existent work (as Peter was – you’ll see this below), sent on meaningless work programmes and made to turn up to a jobcentre each day for pointless jobsearches and workfare? Will he be held up before the electorate as an example of someone who is responsible for the recession – someone whose sense of entitlement and flagrant abuse of the public purse stands between the nation and economic greatness? Continue reading →

Video: disabled people celebrate victory over government to save the Independent Living Fund

Posted on by
3

Update November 8 2013: Disabled People Against Cuts says that the government will not appeal Wednesday’s decision:

“Breaking news: the claimants in the ILF case have heard that the Government will not be appealing the decision taken by the courts on Wednesday to quash the closure of the Independent living Fund. All processes related to the closure e.g transition interviews for ILF users have been halted.

We all owe a great debt of gratitude to the five ILF users that took this to the courts and the solicitors and barristers who worked tirelessly, as well as all those involved in the research processes, and in supporting this. It has proved that disabled people can and will fight back, it has proved that disabled people can win.”

Amen to that. Member-led campaigning at its best. No support from the establishment to be seen.

—————–

Video from outside the Royal Courts of Justice today where the Court of Appeal today upheld a legal challenge by five disabled people against the Government’s decision to close the Independent Living Fund. As lawyers Deighton Pierce Glynn reported, the court held that the Minister for Disabled People had breached equality duties when making the decision in December 2012 to close the ILF. The Court of Appeal has quashed the decision.

Said ILF recipient Jenny Hurst:

“I think it is absolutely fantastic. It is the right decision. The consultation [the process the government used to justify the closure] was definitely flawed. The closure of the Independent Living Fund would have an absolutely terrible impact on people like myself and people that I work with. We can breathe a sigh of relief for the moment.”

Kevin Caulfield at courts of justice

Image: ILF recipient Keviin Caulfield celebrates the victory at the courts

The ILF was set up in 1988 as a stand-alone fund to which people with severe disabilities could apply for money for added carer hours. That extra money meant that people could afford to pay carers for the help that they needed – round-the-clock, in some cases – to live independent lives.

The decision to close the fund was appalling and would have left people with dangerously low levels of care support. The inescapable fact is that cash-strapped councils can’t meet care demands as it is. Provision is already a catastrophe. Councils are tightening care eligibility criteria and only funding people who have “substantial” or “critical” needs. Councils have been taken to court for trying to restrict care, or for increasing charges, or for capping care packages.

Said David Wolfe QC today:

“The court has held is that the government minister didn’t properly look at the impacts on disabled people and that was unlawful. Parliament has said that government ministers, like every other public decision maker, has to take into account the impact on disabled people of what they’re doing. They [the government] haven’t said that they will try to appeal, so we’re waiting for that in the next few days. Assuming they don’t appeal, they will now need to go back and think about what they want to do. Obviously, the appellants hope that the government doesn’t carry on with the closure, but the government can rethink again as long as it does it lawfully.”

A very good victory for ILF recipients, Disabled People Against Cuts and Inclusion London, who’ve fought for this without much [any] help from politicians, or established charities. Interesting how member-led groups must make history for themselves again and again. Very important to keep the pressure on, too, and for people to support the campaign for independent living. Follow Disabled People Against Cuts for updates and plans.

And also – that’s three court losses in a very short space of time for the government: last week’s Supreme Court ruling against Iain Duncan Smith on his flawed and useless “back to work” schemes, Jeremy Hunt’s appeal loss on his proposed Lewisham Hospital closures and now today’s result. As Public Interest Lawyers noted last week: “the Supreme Court was moved to note that the government has rather unattractively taken up court time and public money.” Indeed.

Capita brags of close relationship with government…and holds a conference on collecting social housing rent arrears

Posted on by
3

A helpful someone has pulled out all sorts of useful direct quotes from the so-called service delivery method statement that Capita has with Barnet council. Am posting a few of those quotes here to give everyone a feel for the pride this company has in its lobbying powers at government level…

This is how private companies operate and this will give you a little insight into their reach.
These are the people who are eyeing up the NHS as we speak.

———————————-

“We have relationships with senior officials in Government who we can engage with on behalf of Barnet and bring to the Borough to see the transformation that the Authority has delivered.” (Page 118 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“We also commit to seeking out opportunities at key conferences such as LGA and SOLACE and supporting the Borough in attending these conferences as speakers to promote the name of Barnet as an exemplar council and innovator in service provision.”(Page 117 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“We sit on the Public Services Strategy Board, Whitehall & Industry Group, reform, policy exchange, intellect, Localis and a research and data partnership with Dods.” (Page 116 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“In this role we worked directly with Francis Maude’s team and the Efficiency Reform group (ERG) to develop various initiatives that improved quality and saved money for Central Government,” (Page 116 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“We also have frequent meetings with the cabinet office at official level, and occasional meetings at ministerial level.” (Page 116 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“We will provide Barnet and its key partners the opportunity to communicate the success of the One Barnet programme and therefore secure attendance for Authority staff at these events alongside speakers from the Authority.” (Page 115 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“Our speakers are drawn from the leading industry professionals, and recent Local Government and Communities speakers have included: Andrew Travers, Deputy Chief Executive, London Borough of Barnet; Graham Burgess, Chief Executive Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and NHS; Gavin Jones, Chief Executive, Swindon Borough Council; Derrick Anderson, Chief Executive, Lambeth Council and Sean Harris, Chief Executive Bolton Council.” (Page 115 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“In the three months from November 2012 – January 2013 inclusive, Capita Conferences will hold 54 government conferences.”(Page 115 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence).

“We hold meetings and events with government representatives on a daily basis” (Page 114 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“We are well engaged with policy officials, special advisers and ministers in a number of key departments and hold regular discussions with them. We also have good relationships with a number of key influencers, such as think tanks (e.g. reform, policy exchange, Localis) and consultancies.” (Page 110 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“We also benefit from the regular involvement of our Executive Directors, Group Board Directors and expertise of ex-employees from key Central Government Departments, advisors and Think Tanks. These include Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Department of Health (DH), Ministry of Defence (MoD), Policy Exchange, Localis and the Technology Strategy Board.” (Page 109 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“The Public sector represents 50% of Capita’s business. Within this, Central Government is one of Capita’s core markets: we generate around £300m revenue per year from the sector, or 10% of our overall business. As a consequence we bring detailed knowledge of many of the departments and arms-length bodies that present big opportunities and risks, in terms of changing policy to Barnet, such as Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Business Innovation & Skills (BIS), Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ).” (Page 109 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“At Capita, we have been thinking beyond the short-term to the types of authorities that will emerge after necessary spending reductions have been made.”……“We will work with the Council to help them shape the transformation journey to deliver their vision to become a Commissioning Council.”(Page 86 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013 Commercial in Confidence)

“Capita approaches consultation on change, including consultation on potential redundancy, with an open and positive mindset. We believe that through frank consultation and discussion within the consultation process we can explore ways to mitigate the risk of redundancies having to be effected.” (Page 45 of 135,Transformation Method Statement,4th March 2013,Commercial in Confidence).

Cute. Sounds like a great little earner.

Update via @1000cuts – check out this upcoming Capita conference on collecting rent arrears from social housing tenants:

“As the Government enacts its welfare reform programme, effective income collection is more important than ever. Capita’s National Rent Arrears Conference is ideally timed, bringing together key stakeholders from the social housing sector to share successful methods of income maximisation and rent arrears prevention.

Over the course of this year, Universal Credit, the under-occupancy penalty and the benefit cap are being introduced. As a result of these changes, rent arrears are expected to rise in 2013. This conference provides expert guidance on how the social housing sector can overcome this unique combination of challenges and counteract falling rental incomes.”

How to squeeze the last few pennies out of social housing tenants. Charming. Just charming.

And as @ChiDeltaWithNOR has just pointed out on twitter, one of the speakers at the conference is from First Ark – parent company of the Knowsley Housing Trust. The Knowsley Housing Trust is already… involved in rent arrears – it is sending out eviction threats and telling people that social services will be advised if people with children are in that situation…a threat people have read as “pay your bedroom tax, or we’ll take your kids,” as well they might. Very nasty indeed. Interesting that a speaker from that trust will appear at a Capita conference to hand out advice on pursuing social housing tenants for rent.