CarerWatch, Pat's Petition and GE2015

Statement from Carer Watch and Pat's Petition

Hi there

Pat’s Petition and CarerWatch are issuing this statement today.

It’s a bit of a shock for us to have departed so far from the Labour Party. This isn’t where we hoped to be by now.

Frances

Emergency Ceasefire for ESA
Statement from Pat’s Petition and CarerWatch

 Pat’s Petition and CarerWatch have tried to find out from all parties whether, if elected, they would call a halt and make time to put right the mistakes that have been made in welfare reform for disabled people and carers. Thousands of people have signed petitions asking for the government to assess the impact of all the changes before continuing with the experiment. We have asked for a ceasefire on ESA until they can prove that work programmes are successful.(1)

Our findings are that the SNP, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru are supportive of these views.

The Conservative and Labour Parties are not.

Many thanks to all of you who have supported the Emergency Ceasefire campaign.

Please pass this statement on to everyone who may find the information helpful in deciding how to cast their vote.

http://carerwatch.com/emergency-call-for-ceasefire-in-welfare-reforms-2/

The Contradiction that makes the WRAG(2) Inhumane

The primary legislation for ESA defines sick and disabled people awarded ESA as having a condition that means that they are not required to work.

However the conditions in the WRAG for the last five years – mandatory work activity enforced by sanctions and a time limit of one year – is a regime that appears to require people in the WRAG to find work within a specific timescale. This is in contradiction to the legislation.

This is despite the evidence that continues to show that people in the WRAG don’t and can’t find work: the work programme isn't working.

There is now also a terrible legacy of the many sick and disabled people who have been through the WRAG but have not found work within a year, and then been unjustly timed out from ESA. The disappeared.

Continued at http://carerwatch.com/emergency-call-for-ceasefire-in-welfare-reforms-2/

Notes

(1) ESA = Employment & Support Allowance, the out-of-waged work disability benefit introduced by a Labour Government in 2007 to replace Incapacity Benefit

(2) WRAG = Work Related Activity Group

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Where does MPs' more-informed debate get us?

New post on Carer Watch's blog

Opposition Day Debate and disabled people

by Carerwatch

There was an Opposition Debate yesterday in the House of Commons – called by Labour on a motion to condemn the recent statement by Lord Freud about disabled people possibly working for less than the minimum wage. Lord Freud has since apologised and the motion was lost.

However for those of us who have been watching the debates on Welfare Reform since 2007 – it was chance to see how far in some ways we have come and how far in others  we haven’t moved forward at all.

For the first few years of welfare reform no one had a clue what it would be like in reality. All we had was Freud and James Purnell talking pure theory.

That has certainly changed. All MP's now have a deluge of disabled constituents coming in to their surgeries, and they have found out what it is about. So the debate is finally informed amongst MPs. Yet still they do nothing.

Fundamentally the big problem with Employment Support Allowance remains. Both Tory and Labour parties have not Read more of this post on the Carer Watch blog

carerwatch | 29 October 2014 at 11:33 | Tags: disability, employment support allowance, freud, work capability assessment | Categories: disability, Disabled, employment support allowance | URL: http://wp.me/pHmFD-15Q