National Disability Benefits Conference, Sheffield 15/10/05

SWAN | 04.10.2005 12:02 | Sheffield

The government is planning to make some of the biggest changes in welfare provision for sixty years, particularly that of disability benefits and specifically Incapacity Benefit (IB). Sheffield Welfare Action Network (SWAN) is setting up a national founding conference (to be held Mid October) in Sheffield to highlight these changes and the present state of disability welfare and to facilitate the setting up of a national framework to campaign against these punitive changes.

National Disability Benefits conference, Sheffield 15/10/05 — Challenge the cuts!

‘Welfare reform is one of the Governments seven priorities for the coming term’ — Tony Blair

‘Incapacity benefit (IB) can no longer be used as a "crutch" for those who refuse to work.’ — David Blunkett: Secretary Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)

The Govt’s Welfare Reforms: Survival of the fittest?

The government is planning to make some of the biggest changes in welfare provision for sixty years, particularly that of disability benefits and specifically Incapacity Benefit (IB).

Over 800,000 disabled people may lose over £30 a week from their benefit and face being cajoled into unsuitable work. These are changes which are of real concern to most disabled people, and which will plunge many into poverty and despair.

While the changes are comprehensive and also involve issues of personal choice and civil liberties (see below), the main thrust of the changes is that there will be a penalty /cut of over £30 (well over a third of benefit) if the person receiving IB does not attend what they (the Gov’t) are calling ‘work-focused interviews’ to prove they are actively seeking work. Clearly, as this will be based on targets not need, (over 80% of IB claimants will be required to attend), we will have the frightening and frankly bizarre situation whereupon hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable people in the UK who find it hard to ‘just get through the day’ will be pressured into looking for work that is not available or impossible to undertake, or face losing this money.

Where are these jobs?

Clearly this is not about 'helping the sick back into work' because as many critics of the policy have noted, where are these jobs going to come from?

In the UK there are just 628,000 job vacancies at any one time and there are about 800,000 people who are unemployed on Jobseekers Allowance and therefore 'actively seeking work' in addition to the single parents (around 700,000 people) and in addition to the 2,700,000 people on incapacity based benefits.

So, a whole lot of people looking for suitable work!

David Blunkett the DWP Secretary has been looking enviously over the water to our U.S cousins to see how the private sector and faith based charities can be used to administer such welfare, perhaps he should look at New Orleans to see how successful that model is.

Challenging The Reforms…

In Sheffield, political seat of the DWP Secretary David Blunkett, a new non party political group: Sheffield Welfare Action Network (SWAN) has been set up to challenge and campaign against these iniquitous and cruel changes.

Changes, which will affect and burden vulnerable people, who already face one of the most punitive welfare systems in Europe.

A National Response

However, SWAN is aware that such changes will need to be resisted on a national level to be effective and is proposing the formation of a network of U.K wide campaigning groups to be called ‘Dignity: The National Campaign Against Punitive Welfare’.

To this end, SWAN is seeking the widest support from individuals and others, NGO’s, Health Support Groups, Faith Groups, the Labour Movement, Student Unions, etc, to help create this network.

SWAN is setting up a national founding conference (to be held Mid October) in Sheffield to highlight these changes and the present state of disability welfare and to facilitate the setting up of a national framework to campaign against these punitive changes.

As well as the conference we aim to have other future activities such as street protests, lobbying ministers/MP’s petitions, etc.

The Conference

The Future of Benefits

A national conference on cuts in disability benefits and the reality of living on welfare

15 Oct 2005

Venue: Sheffield Hallam University Union of Students The HUBS, Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2QQ Complete Disabled Access and right near main Train station)

Time 10.30 AM – 4.30PM
Food / Refreshments
Donations Will be accepted on the door

Speakers

Lorna Reith – Chief Exec. of Disability Alliance.
Sheila Messider - Advice Centre Support in Sheffield

Workshops (TBA)

Including: how to campaign, running groups, researching information, models of ill health/disability, media views of welfare

Testimonials

Personal stories from those on disability welfare and the difficulties they face.

Focus

To highlight the coming disability welfare reforms and raise the profile issue of disability welfare rights and related issues (sadly neglected for many years) and disability benefits issues generally and to promote and widen its scope.

To set up a national campaigning network against the proposed disability benefit welfare changes, specifically disability benefit cuts and any coercive measures that may be implemented.

Contacts

To find out more or if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact our secretary Chris on 07903453006 or email us on sheffieldwelfare_an@yahoo.co.uk. (website coming soon.)

Regards,
SWAN

Resources / Links

Labour to crack down on incapacity benefit

Fraser Nelson — Political Editor
David Blunkett yesterday drew the battle lines for an autumn battle over welfare reform as he warned that incapacity benefit (IB) can no longer be used as a "crutch" for those who refuse to work.
The Work and Pensions Secretary said reducing the number on IB - 2.8 million, including two in five working-age adults in Glasgow - will be a defining mission of Labour's third term.
news.scotsman.com

Ministers plan biggest shake-up of the welfare state for 60 years

By Andrew Grice, Political Editor — Published: 12 September 2005
The Government is to embark on the biggest shake-up of the state benefits system for 60 years, according to David Blunkett, the Work and Pensions Secretary.
news.independent.co.uk

Information

SWAN
e-mail: sheffieldwelfare_an@yahoo.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

Just because there are no jobs

04.10.2005 16:07

doesn't mean we have to pretend that thousands of people are 'disabled'. Only disabled people should get something called Disability Benefit, and 'disabled' should mean something a lot closer to what it meant years ago, with less of this silly talk about there being tens of millions of disabled people in the country. If less money was wasted on this benefit there would be more to spend on the relatively few genuinely disabled people in the country.

Ted

"Tens of Millions"

04.10.2005 16:55

" with less of this silly talk about there being tens of millions of disabled people in the country."

If you read the article Ted, you will see that there are 2,700,000 people on Incapacity Benefit.

That hardly makes "tens of millions"

The silly talk is yours.

Ted talks tabloid tripe

They wouldn't claim benefit if employers didn't discriminate

04.10.2005 21:47

Many people have disabilities like back problems and stress caused by the increasingly disgusting working practices employers force their wage slaves to put up with. A lot of people on disability benefit might be able to work if employers didn't bully workers and work them until they nearly drop every day. Employers I know want increased productivity but in non-minimum wage jobs, wages are lower than a few years ago.

There's a lot of discrimination against disabled people in the workplace. Employers should be forced to offer more flexi hours and part time jobs so that workers don't get so ill especially for people with dependents like children, the elderly and disabled. Most employers discriminate against the disabled which is why these people can't get work, and are forced to claim benefit.

Access to buildings and poor public transport are also why the other abled find it difficult to work.

http://www.bcodp.org.uk/ British Council of Disabled People

http://phabengland.org.uk PHAB

Employers are the reason a lot of people claim disability benefit

publicise the conference here

05.10.2005 12:25

this kind of fits in nicely, for anyone who's interested:

7th Oct 4pm Public Meeting - Benefits Service in Crisis
Grosvenor House Hotel, Charter Square, Sheffield

Meeting jointly sponsored by PCS DWP Derbyshire and Sheffield Branches of PCS

Plans to cut 30,000 jobs in Department for Work and Pensions is already resulting in to severe delays in processing claims to benefit in Sheffield and Derbyshire. Job cuts and the drive towards call centre operations, using failing IT, has led to a crisis where those who rely on benefits are suffering hardship. The Sheffield Contact Centre has had to
abandon CMS2 and revert to clerical operations in response to missed call rates of up to 80%.

publicise the campaign

Jobs for the disabled

06.10.2005 12:17

Disability has become like special needs. Years ago when I taught, the headmaster gave us a talk about special needs. He told us that in any class of 30, about 26 children could be thought of a having a special need of some sort. Those who work with disabled people are empire building, which is why we hear of the millions of 'disabled' people in Britain. 8.6 million seems to be the agreed figure, not the 'tens of millions' of my last comment .There is a need for more people to be regarded as disabled, but it is the need of workers in the disabled 'industry' to keep themselves in a job. Disabled people are their raw material. I know six disabled people. One is an autistic child who needs constant help from his family, his special school and the NHS. The other five are adults who are on Disability Benefit, and only seem unable to work. Holidays abroad, driving a car, going to the pub or the cinema, shopping - strangely they seem to be able to manage these things as easily as the next person.

National Disability Benefits Conference

07.10.2005 18:11

Wonder what point "Ted" is trying to make?
Do you consider yourself, "Ted" to be able-bodied or disabled? What is the difference?

Tell us, if you can, why you discriminate if you indeed do?

It would be good for you to attend the conference, to listen, to learn AND to input any suggestions or good ideas that you might have.
Hopefully, you are NOT one of these serial trolls that we read about on indymedia from time to time.

Weallhavetopee

Tom

Charge for the privilege of having real work. Lower standards for all.

08.10.2005 13:05

Todays workers participate in the Military-Industrial -Financial Complex that is destroying the Earth's ability to support Life. One day, perhaps quite soon, the climate will tip over into an irreversible change leading to mass extinction.

There is a very small chance that disaster might be averted: Stop using fossil fuels now. Shrink the econommy to what it was in 1932, -the depth of the depression. That means a lower living standard for the disabled, but it means that everyone else will suffer the same. A basic survival income for everyone, and there is a new idea of a flat rate tax on income being put forward by our lunatic friends in the Tory Party. They have not realised how good that idea is. CHARGE 99p in the pound on all income above the basic sustenance rate. Or 99.99p!

As there will be very little income in a collapsed economy, there will have to be a tax on wealth to replace it...

there is a hint here for those Tories searching for a Policy: Undo Thatcherism and restore the National wealth by cutting the National debt to the nothing it really was when the Nation owned the Nationalised industries. When she took Office Thatcher sold them cheap to her friends, and also doubled the National debt they balanced.

But seriously, we are now facing a mass extinction that will include homo sapiens. Has any economist read "The Negative Outcome of Economics"? They certainly have not put forward any policies relevant to the emerging problems. When they do it will be too late.

Written here because I could not copy a comment to this article to post on Indycymru, what blocks copying from here? THis now used to inform Indycymru readers that the Coference is about Benefit cuts so New Labour can cut income tax.

Ilyan

Disability reform well overdue

10.10.2005 18:33

I am on disability benefits for mental health reasons and I would very much like to go into work, as do a large number of claimants. However there is not much support for getting back into work. The government would be doing a lot of people a service if they made it easier for people to get jobs, for example by offering more supported work, confidence building and so on. Many people do not start work because they are terrified that if they can not cope then they will have to wait a long time and go through endless bureaucracy to get their benefits back. Currently the government lets people stay in a rut rather than offering them any help out of it.

I find the paragraph below to be completely ridiculous:

"What is just as disturbing are the mechanisms that will be used on People with Disabilities (PWD’s) to get them back to work which include training five thousand psycho-therapists in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) (considered by many to be a controversial therapy) in order to develop mandatory sessions in which they can be ‘persuaded' they are ready and suitable to pursue employment."

To offer CBT psychotherapy would be a fantastic idea in my view. Rather than being a contraversial therapy, it has the best success rate and effectively encourages people to see the positives in their lives. I would jump at the chance of getting a place, because there is currently very little provision for free psychotherapy- I asked my doctor to be added to the waiting list and was told it would be 5 years! CBT does try to change peoples thought patterns, like from "Im a useless failure who cant do anything" to "Perhaps Im a worthless while person who has some talents". CBT psychotherapy costs about £30 a session privately so people on benefits cant afford it.

Of course I dont want people who are not ready or unable to work to be forced to do so, however giving people with mental health difficulties the opportunity to be supported and encouraged to work rather than just left to it, is something which is well overdue.

Sarah

The party is over

12.10.2005 00:22

The government has most probably given up on those already on Incapacity Benefit, except for the most obvious cases of abuse. The message being sent out is that from now on new claimants will actually have to be incapable of work to get Incapacity Benefit, not just fed up with work at the local council or unable to find a job with a good wage after all the mines or factories in the area have shut. It's going to be a lot harder to persuade a government doctor that you've got ME, 'stress' or other some other dodgy illness, instead of just going to a GP who signs you off because he's got the nod from the government to help massage the unemployment figures. About time too. The current system is a joke and an insult to the intelligence and the pocket of the working population and a shameful diversion of cash away from the much fewer people who are genuinely incapable of paid employment.

Many of the 'professionals' going to this conference will have known no other period other than that of the golden years of Incapacity Benefit. Face facts, like all parties, this one is coming to an end.

People like ted make my days more hellish than they need be

01.11.2005 10:35

You have no idea how things like this really panic people who suffer like me . I may seem normal ( at times ) to people who meet me , but you have no idea of the suffering or restrictions on my life . Whay do you mean by definitions of disability years ago????Do you mean lock us all back up so your community can feel better about itself? One in four will suffer a form of mental illness in their lifetime .Thats someone you know , love , a relative , depend upon. So narrow minded . Sure every one has experience of people who seem fine but are on benefits of some sort , but that doesn't mean attack the support people like me need . You want to save tax money , what about white collar buisness fraud related to the goverment . What level is benefit fraud? A fraction of other fraud , tax evasion on diggers imported/exported is academically thought to be greater.Party over....it was never a party for me , just a matter of making it from one day to next.

I wish you could have my life for five minutes just to feel what it's like

conference a great success!

03.11.2005 13:36

The Disability Welfare conference was a major success, we will soon be publishing a report on the event which have all the resources and information needed (as well as a full report on the conference itself) which will provide all the evidence one needs, to counter people like Ted and his/thier various myths, misinformation, prejudices, etc about welfare.

it will be all be posted on our website soon (note: still under construction)

you can also join our discussion group at