Responsible Reform? #spartacusreport

Timed to coincide with the return of the Welfare Reform Bill to the House of Lords, today sees the formal launch of the report 'Responsible Reform'. Written, researched, funded and produced by sick and disabled people, our friends and family, Responsible Reform is a detailed investigation into the government's consultation on DLA reform which ended in February 2011. 

The population affected by and contributing to the consultation were always suspicious that the government were not playing by the rules. Once a consultation has been started, regardless of whether there is a duty to consult, there are clear legal duties; particularly that there must be sufficient time allocated to complete that consulation. Examples from case law show that when disabled people are involved in any consultation, reasonable adjustments apply, ie a longer time for the consultation may be needed or access to accessible format information, something which many disabled people's organisations reported as being impossible to obtain in time for the consultation, despite repeated requests. Despite an established legal guidance on consultations, the consultation into DLA was two weeks shorter than it should have been, and ran across the christmas and new year period, which would typically merit an extension to the time, even if it were not aimed at a population usually given additional time to complete tasks due to the nature of their health conditions. Eventually the consultation into DLA was closed two days after the Welfare Reform Bill returned to the Commons, meaning that there was no way the results of the consultation could be properly considered as part of the bill.

Despite this and another potential legal challenges to the WRB highlighted in Responsible Reform, the DWP will tell people that they 'are listening to and working with disabled people' because their most recent impact assessment into the proposed replacement of Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, published in October 2011 is 'significantly different' from the consultation. Although there are some very minor changes, in essence the latest impact assessment is identical to the original consultation report, with cherry picked, misrepresented responses. Whilst it is shameful that the DWP have misled the public and potentially parliament with their original consultation response, refusing to publish the full responses meaning that the report authors had to use Freedom of Information requests to obtain them, it is unconscionable to continue with this attempt to misrepresent the views of sick and disabled people and the charities which work on our behalf after the evidence proving this deception has been revealed.

Back in September 2010 The Financial Times ran an article describing cuts to disability benefits as "the easiest bit of welfare reform to sell". The arrogant assumptions behind that statement are that sick and disabled people are a minority group without any powerful support, something which in their desperation to accuse sick and disabled people of being scroungers, politicians of all parties have failed to think through.  A faulty and deceptive consultation combined with overwhelming opposition to the new Personal Independence Payment, make it obvious that neither the DWP or government have changed their assumption that sick and disabled people are fraudulent scroungers to be sacrificied upon an altar of 'austerity cuts'. Far from saving money, it is clear throughout Responsible Reform that sick and disabled people are deeply concerned that introducing PIP will not save, but rather cost vast sums of money, when any practical savings which could be made to the DLA budget could be done without requiring a new, unwanted benefit.

Much of the WRB is predicated on the assumption that sick and disabled people are workshy scroungers who need to be forced into the workplace. There are no workable proposals to alter working practices to fit with the demands of sickness and disability, no incentives for employers to make it more affordable and attractive to employ sick or disabled people, just ever increasing conditionality and sanctions to cure us of the scrounging nature we so clearly inherit with our medical conditions. Although Responsible Reform exposes the deceptive and dishonest nature of the government and DWP's actions, it also shows something of equal significance. The author's of the report variously have severe illnesses or disabilities; Crohns, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Friedrick's Ataxia, Lupus, kidney dialysis, ME, autism, and mental health issues which have removed us from, or prevented access to the traditional workplace. Sick and disabled people are a vast, untapped resource of talent, skills, experience and desire to contribute to society. Working together, using technology and working practices to fit with the reality of our day to day lives, sick and disabled people have proved our potential for employment, if only there was a potentail for that employment to work in a way our bodies and minds allow us to do.

Six days to get rid of the 12 month time limit to ESA

I know we're all a tad busy ;)

But on 11th Jan, the other campaign we fought so very, very hard will see a vote in the Lords. Our brilliant supporter Caron over at Caron's Musings wrote this so that I could cross post it - knowing how busy I would be with the DLA campaign.

In all the excitement, do see if you can manage to do any of the things Caron put together for us. In particular, please contact Lib Dem peers and remind them how vital it is to us that they keep their promise and vote against time limiting ESA. If they cannot rebel, we beg them to abstain.

"Next Wednesday, 11th January, the House of Lords will be debating the Welfare Reform Bill. It's expected that the controversial clause time limiting contributory Employment and Support Allowance to one year for those in the Work Related Activity Group, those people who are judged to have a limited capacity to work. This change does not affect the sickest and most disabled people in the Support Group.

At the moment, if you receive contributory ESA (based on your NI contributions), you get around £90 a week and are eligible for that until you reach State Pension age. Now, you will lose your entitlement to it after a year. So, if you work for 40 years and pay tax and NI for all that time, you will only, when you need it most, get a year's support if the Government plans become law. This will take effect in just 3 months' time.

That means that people who are too ill to work will effectively have to rely on their families to support them. Being ill is a pretty expensive business - if you need to have regular medical treatment there's transport costs affected with that. Also if your mobility is affected, you will need your house to be warmer. Not want. Need.

I think depriving sick people of the support they get from the State based on an arbitrary time limit is wrong. It flies in the face of everything I believe as a liberal in terms of looking at the person and what they need.

Most people, thankfully, do recover from illness within a year but some don't. It certainly took me two years after contracting Glandular Fever to feel remotely human again and it's left me with continuing health problems. Luckily I didn't need to claim ESA, but if I had, I am fairly sure I'd have had problems proving eligibility because of the fluctuating nature of the condition. If Sue Marsh, who suffers from really severe bowel disease, has trouble convincing the authorities that she's ill, then we have to suspect that the system is very flawed. Sue isn't my only example. Four years of working as an MP's caseworker provided me with many examples of the wrong decisions being taken and overturned after a lengthy and stressful appeals process.

The best argument I've heard against the time limit was put forward by Ken Reed, the new Chair of RNIB Scotland. He and I were speakers at a fringe meeting on welfare reform chaired by Secretary of State for Scotland Mike Moore at the Scottish Lib Dems' Autumn conference. Ken said that if you became blind as the result of an accident today, it would take a year just to get used to being blind, let alone being ready to get back into the labour market.

At our Federal Conference last Autumn, we passed a motion which called upon ""Liberal Democrats in Government to oppose an arbitrary time limit on how long claimants can claim Contributory ESA". To me, that means that our people in the Lords should vote against the time limit. The views of Conference are pretty unequivocal and the motion was passed with very little opposition.

If you haven't done so already, please get in touch with Liberal Democrat members of the House of Lords. A full list is here. Tell them briefly why you think this time limit needs to go.

Bear in mind that previous votes on the Welfare Reform Bill, including the one where 14 Lib Dem peers defeated an element of the Housing Benefit proposals, have been very, very close. It is possible for this vote to be won. We members can encourage that process so I would urge you all, again, to write to as many peers as you can, to give them an indication of the strength of feeling in the party. Please feel free to copy and paste this post into e-mails, tweet it, share on Facebook and spread the word in as many ways as you can think.

We don't have long, but if we don't get rid of this time limit, sick people will start to suffer in less than 3 months' time. That should be enough motivation for us to devote some time to this today."

First They Ignore You. Then They Laugh At You. Then They Fight You. And Then We Win.

Some much needed positive news....

As most of you know Sue Marsh has been co-ordinating a report researched, authored and funded by sick and disabled people which is released formally on monday.


As happens with every government welfare report, mysteriously, somehow, details leaked out to the media yesterday and so the coverage has already started. It turns out that Boris Johnson's submission to the DLA reform consultation which closed in February 2011 was the smoking gun we needed and the government hoped no-one would ever find. The Mayor's submission stood out from the other consultation responses, not because it was supportive of our claims (almost all the submissions were) but because it was incredibly thoughtful, well written and researched. Some people are concerned that this may be to do with forthcoming mayoral elections. Whilst we understand the concern, we do not believe that is the case as the Mayor's submission was completed in February 2011 along with all the other submissions. It would be very helpful if we could all let Boris Johnson know how much we appreciate his carefully considered and supportive statement over the weekend.


We desperately need to keep up the momentum over the weekend to ensure this becomes an even bigger story.

We all need to pull together to make this happen. If everyone shares the news on their facebook, twitter, google+, blog, email list, friends, family etc we can keep the focus on the report.

AllBigIdeas is collating a list of the news articles here and so far we've had coverage in;


The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Mirror and The Mail!! Yes, you read that correctly. No you're not dreaming. The Daily Mail have actually covered a welfare story, from a welfare campaigners perspective and had to include the fact that the fraud rate for DLA is only 0.5%. Left Foot Forward have always led the way amongst the political blogs with their support for sick and disabled people's campaign against the Welfare Reform Bill and have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help us. They would never ask us for anything in return, but one way we can all thank them for their support is to ensure their articles are widely publicised.


So please, share these stories everywhere, with everyone you know. Leave your opinion in the comment threads, email the papers, contact your local media, tell everyone and anyone. Keep watch here, on Sue's blog and The Broken of Britain and Where's The Benefit for us letting you know the latest developments and most of all take a moment to step back and think.

Finally we are breaking through. We can be ignored no longer. We have truth and justice on our side. The next few weeks will be the fight of our lives, but no-one is better prepared for that than us. We are people who face and overcome challenges in our everyday lives bigger than many ever have to face in a lifetime. We are used to dealing with confusing bureaucracy, lack of proper support and having to find our own solutions. Above all we know how to endure, that however dark the night, tomorrow will be another day and eventually we find another way.



If you are scared, remember you are not alone. We have come together to show the true power of our community and that we will not be ignored. If you think you won't be affected by these cuts, remember those who will. If you think it'll never happen to you, remember anyone's life can and does change in an instant. We fight this battle not just for ourselves, but for you, your family and loved ones to make sure that in the darkest times of your life the protection you need and have given to us will be there for you.


With love from Kaliya and Sue.


"Alone We Whisper. Together We Shout"

Open Comment to Liam Byrne

I just posted this in response to Liam Byrne's article in the Guardian.


"And what do you propose Liam? When you disappear off into your think tanks and focus groups?

For over a year, you have avoided meeting with me. You promised, but you haven't discussed your plans with sick and disabled people.

You talk of "unearned support" Liam, but this is the Guardian! Here, on these comment threads, we all know the details of ESA, DLA, contributory time limiting and independent living funds very well - almost certainly much, much better than you do Liam. We know about the hundreds of thousands terrified about what happens to those who CANNOT earn support. Until recently, we believed you gave it freely.

You have the audacity to attack an erosion of ESA?(time limiting) When it was your government who introduced this terrible failure? Your government who wrote the descriptors making it simply impossible for many conditions to qualify? "like employment and support allowance that working people have actually paid in for."

Then, you dare to criticise the appeals system for the failure of ESA? When you have ignored me and Kaliya Franklin and all others who have been trying to warn you for years? When we warned you repeatedly? when we tried everything, some risking their lives to engage with you? "current chaos in the assessment of those on disability benefits, with spiralling appeal times and poor back-to-work support, deeply troubling."

You let Ed loose in the Daily Mail then think you can throw us a bone with a few tag on lines about ESA and disability? We already know this is a pattern! Give the scroungers a good kicking then say something nice and fluffy about sick and disabled people in the Guardian.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

I strongly recommend you stop dreaming up ways in which the welfare state can be auctioned off to the highest private bidder - even planning the very systems in partnership with those very same businesses and insurers.

I suggest you :

Listen to the suggestions and alternatives of disabled people.
Look at our ideas and policy suggestions
Stop designing policy based on a complete disregard for the evidence
IMMEDIATELY stop reinforcing the scrounger narrative - it makes a Labour Party look utterly ridiculous and confirms dangerous stereotypes.

We will win the public Liam. I promise you. By 2015, we will have made this the "NHS 1997" issue.

So stop casting around for spurious, tough-talk soundbites, that conveniently stuff a few billion more in private pockets and get a real strategy on disability.

I suggest you do it very quickly indeed. Those prepared to apologise for these failures may retain some credibility.

The arrogant will simply be exposed as those who oversaw the biggest abuse of sickness and disability rights and protections since the welfare state was introduced."

A New Year's Message From The Broken Of Britain

"There is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken,
a shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable.
 
There is a sorrow beyond grief which leads to joy
and a fragility out of whose depths emerges strength.
 
There is a hollow space too vast for words
through which we pass with each loss,
out of whose darkness we are sanctioned into being.
 
There is a cry deeper than all sound
whose serrated edges cut the heart as we break open
to the place inside which is unbreakable and whole,
while learning to sing."

 
~ Rashani