Archive
Sick and disabled claimants face being sent on unlimited workfare from the beginning of next month a memo issued to Work Programme providers has revealed.
Claimants in the WRAG group, who have been judged by the shabby Atos testing regime as possibly able to work at some point in the future, will from next month be mandated to unpaid community work or face losing benefits.
In a new low for the third sector, charities such as Scope, MIND, Mencap, the Salvation Army, RNIB and the Leonard Chesire Foundation will now be able to force disabled people into unpaid work or report them to the DWP for benefit sanctions.
Astonishingly these charities will also be able to use workfare workers in their own businesses, meaning that charity shops could soon be staffed by sick and disabled claimants forced to work without pay under threat of poverty and possible homelessness.
The memo…
View original post 291 more words
Carers Rights Day 30 Nov 2012
http://www.carersuk.org/get-involved/carers-rights-day
Carers Rights Day is all about getting information to carers – we know that it can take years for people to find out about their rights as a carer and the support available to them.
Each year Carers UK organises the Carers Rights Day to:
- Increase the take up of benefits – it’s estimated that millions of carers’ benefits aren’t claimed each year.
- Make sure carers know their rights – every year, more than 2 million people become carers, many don’t identify themselves as carers and miss out on support. Even those who have been caring for years sometimes aren’t aware of their entitlements.
- Guide carers towards practical support – it’s not just about benefits. Carers often do not realise practical support is available, like replacement care to give the carer time off, help with lifting and bathing, equipment and home adaptations that can be vital in protecting carers’ health.
- Raise awareness of the needs of carers – Carers Rights Day raises awareness of the needs of carers with the public, decision makers and professionals.
Over 700 local groups register each year and alongside their work across the country, Carers UK releases new research to illustrate the importance of carers accessing advice, information and support as early as possible.
Carers Rights Day 2012: Getting help in tough times
In 2012 Carers Rights Day is taking place on Friday 30th November and the theme is ‘Getting help in tough times’, focussing on helping carers:
- Find financial help.
- Get a helping hand.
- Make the most of technology.
At a time of rising living costs, salary freezes and job losses many families are struggling across the UK. But families affected by illness and disabilities are often the hardest hit, as they struggle with the additional costs of caring and lost earnings; and now face the risk of cuts to essential services and benefits.
These tough times mean that there has never been a more important time for carers to know their rights, and access all the support they are entitled to. Carers Rights Day is about getting carers the information and advice they need to claim benefits, access practical support and find out how technology can help take the pressure off.
Steve Bell on Workfare
Mental Health Foundation Newsletter (November 2012)
This appalling health inequality simply can’t be allowed to continue | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I bet Iain Duncan Smith was praying nobody would produce any statistics disproving his rant at Owen Jones during the BBC’s Question Time last week.
Some of us were praying for the opposite, and it turns out that our God is quicker than his.
I know the new report released today (Monday) by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, showing that more working people are living in poverty, will be just another document that the UK government will blithely ignore.
But some of its findings bite deeply into Department for Work and Pensions policy, and the claims of the man who runs that department.
For starters, in 2012, 18 per cent of working-age households were workless, but in only two per cent of households had nobody ever worked. More than half of adults in ‘never-worked’ households were under 25.
Therefore, when Iain Duncan Smith told Owen Jones on Question Time last week…
View original post 1,025 more words
A quote from History (or His Tory)
“After the recession of 1989 to 1992 we had to raise taxes because the budget deficit reached dangerous proportions. The alternative of slashing spending and cutting benefits would have been inhuman.”
David Cameron
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 April 2002 17.51 BST