Wednesday 11 May 2011

Welfare Reform Bill Committee Confirms Disabled People As The Hardest Hit

Public Vill Committees are formed in order to scrutinise proposed legislation, and should be the stage at which amendment are made to the Bill. The Welfare Reform Bill Committee has failed miserably at this task with the creation of PIP and abolition of DLA passing unamended, with absolutely no changes from the original proposals.
The result is the same as for the time-limiting of ESA discussed last week.

The Opposition did work very hard to make some well-considered amendments, and they deserve credit for that. Unfortunately, the Government maintained its staunch opposition to changing the Bill. Yet again, Maria Miller and Chris Grayling demonstrated their contempt for people with disabilities, and their fellow party members obeyed their ministers.

Much of the blame falls squarely on the shoulder of Jenny Willott MP and Ian Swales MP, who were absent during important votes, withdrew their own amendments, forgot their own regularly stated principles on the issue, and ignored the decisions of the Liberal Democrats' spring conference on mobility in care homes.

This is another disappointing development, but it is not the end of the road for this issue. The Bill must still pass through the Report stage of Parliamentary scrutiny before its Third Reading in the Commons, and will then have to pass through yet another five stages in the Lords. It does, however, intensify the urgency of our opposition. It is now vital that as much support as possible is gathered for EDM 1756 opposing the abolition of DLA in order to pressure the Government.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

In Sweden you can see a gallery of horrors implemented by the prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredrik_Reinfeldt ) , the minister for finance Anders Erik Borg ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Borg ) and the minister for social security Ulf Hjalmar Kristersson ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulf_Kristersson ) .
In Sweden are increased the cases of sick and disabled people that commit suicide after the cut of the subsidies , sick and disabled people with cut subsidies that fall in ruin losing their properties , sick and disabled people that die from job stress because they have not a subsidy , persons suffering from cancer that have been cut the subsidy , etc

1) I DIED IN THE NIGHT
Marten Wallin , 42 years old with serious psychiatric problems , attempted the suicide after the cut of his disability pension and was saved at the last moment .
He was left with only a pair of pants and has no future . http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article8562385.ab

2) NEW DISABILITY GUIDELINES FOR THE CANCER : THEY WILL WORK UNTIL DEATH
Anna Olsson was found that had breast cancer in spring 2006 . She underwent surgery twice, but during a routine check doctors found tumor metastasis in both lungs.
Despite illness and the chemotherapy treatment the 38 year old Anna Olsson worked on a part-time as she could . But she will need to remain sick for a long time.
When she asks for the continuity of the sick benefit she was shocked. She got a letter from the Social Insurance Agency, which stated:" You can obtain further sick payments if you have a very serious disease. Very serious illness means in this context that the disease is so severe that there is a clear threat to the sufferer's life within the next few months. " http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=22620&a=1188459&lid=puff_1188516&lpos=rubrik

3) ARNE , 62 YEARS OLD , WAS CONSIDERED TO BE HEALTHY - DIED
Arne Carlson, 62 years olds , had epilepsy and angina. But according to Swedish Social Insurance , he was too healthy to get a sick benefit. Arne died last Sunday, he collapsed on the kitchen table. http://www.expressen.se/ekonomi/1.1820551/arne-62-ansags-vara-frisk-dog

4) THREATS OF SUICIDE AFTER THE WELLFARE REFORMS
Torgny Collin , director at the Swedish Social Insurance , stated " we noticed last summer when the new wellfare rules have been introduced , we started getting calls where sick and disabled people threatened to commit suicide " http://www.expressen.se/ekonomi/1.1825915/hot-om-sjalvmord-efter-nya-reglerna

Anonymous said...

Well that's my take on it as well and the uk mp's are no different and wont let up until your dead and it's as simple as that

My conservative mp says one thing to me and he'll work hard on my behalf but in reality has done nothing in the house of commons

As a group of people we lack all the skills needed to be heard and taken seriously we haven't even a lawyer on our side and the government know that

Over the next few years they i'm sure will kill off many of us and there is nothing much one can do then to go round and round in circles like we are at the moment and making ourselves more ill into the bargain

zimmie said...

Same here fourbaks my MP has said he does not believe it was rtight to cut ESA and DLa, but like you the strange thing is when you see what he has said in the house not one mention of the reform at all, kinda strange dont you know

Anonymous said...

Very true zimmee sad to say and for the life of me i cant think of an answer or how this evil way the government thinks of us as a group of people in the first place

Some people are just born with an evil intent on the weak and that seams to be the case and wont change unfortunately

Sam Barnett-Cormack said...

Of course, those of us with an MP who's a PPS can't be represented in this way, they get to refuse to justify themselves, as there's a strict convention (apparently) that they not sign EDMs. Not that mine would seem likely to, being a Tory.

MRadclyffe said...

After seven months of letters and emails to my (Labour) MP, I finally received an answer this morning, dated 10th May. It was basically "I've read your concerns, I've written to Maria Miller, I'll be in touch." I'm pretty sure many people don't have time to wait that long...

Interestingly, I wrote to her less than two weeks ago about the NHS and received a letter about that this morning too.

My MP also claims that, as a Shadow Minister, she is unable to sign EDMs. Has anyone else come across this? Are there other reasons why MPs claim they are unable to sign?

PPLIC said...

Bril­liant! Great talk that was extremely insightful and very enter­taining. It’s given me loads to think about.