grayling admits more ppl sick & sicker than expected

5/30/2012 11:22:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 11 Comments

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/newsroom/ministers-speeches/2012/30-05-12.shtml

Grayling; (8 Hours ago)

We have more people fit for work, and moving to JSA.

We have more people needing long term unconditional support than expected.
And those in the middle group, who would expect before too long to be mandated to the Work Programme, have proved to be sicker and further from the workplace than we expected.

So it will take far more time than we predicted for them to be ready to make a return to work

Via hossylass

11 comments:

Ceeej said...

y'know, if only someone had told them, now who could they have asked I wonder.

Tony Holden said...

The simple conclusions are that, a one year limit is flawed and so the system is not helping the people it's supposed to help (wasn't that a big thing, support targeted at those who need it?). Also, that if those people are that much sicker, surely the testing process is flawed, if there are to be regular assessments what is the harm in putting them in the support group?

The problem is (well one of the MANY problems) that Grayling thinks being 'work ready' means 'having a job'. A person might well be work ready, but that just means they are ready to get to the back of an already enormour queue of other work ready unemployed people.

hossylass said...

My thoughts exactly.
Can people move this around, use it to again pressurise for a longer (or no ) time limit?

Unknown said...

well it is interesting, but i still need to ask how do they get the money to pay for all this. From my own experience with the jobcentre the support just isn't up to it more information is needed for disabled people to have a better understanding of what is going on, but that's all the way from the start and up to this but that's another topic. Work to be done yes but more than he thinks.

Anonymous said...

Notice that he says there are "more people fit for work" and on JSA than expected - implying that there are more people who were not really ill at all and just scrounging than they thought.

This is very different from saying more people are "being found fit for work" than expected. This, as we all know, is the truth. People are "being found fit for work" by Atos but in reality are not. Many are simply being bounced back and forth between Jobcentres saying they are not fit to work and Atos saying they are.

So in effect, people in all three groups are actually sicker than they thought. Well, who knew?! Perhaps they shouldn't have believed so much of their own propaganda.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the jobcentre/atos 'ping pong' is very serious indeed.

The criteria for claiming JSA states that people must be available and fit to work a 40 hour week. So when I had to finish work due to chronic ill health, stupidly thinking that the job centre could find me something physically not strenuous for 16 hours (I was kidding myself as I couldn't even sit comfortably and my cognitive functions were shot, but I was just so desperate to work), I was told that I was not eligible, and would have to claim ESA.

Now, fortunately, I was put in the support group, but in government documentation it state that individuals who are not able to work a 40 hour week and so can't claim JSA, who have also been denied ESA 'must find their own means of supporting themselves'. I had to chuckle because I imagined that the government thinks we all have trust funds and wealthy families to fall back on. It is so serious though: people are falling into this category.

How they are managing goodness only knows. You lose your income, you lose your phone, internet, and any means of letting people know what is happening. There are probably thousands of cases like this at present, but they aren't able to contact sites like this, campaigners, their MPs, unless of course they have families who can help, but many won't have that.

I have just commented on Left Foot Forward with regard to social mobility. People at the very least need a roof above their heads, food, and enough to pay utilities. After centuries, thousands of years of servitude, poverty and slavery for the poor and disabled, in the 21st century, having this basic standard of living should not be out of reach.

It is a disgrace that all of the progress in that regard is being wiped out in what we thought was a civilized country.

clarebelz

Anonymous said...

Right, so will he now be providing a public apology for everything he's put us through? And how's he going to make amends for people driven to suicide as a result of this process? And will the press give as high profile coverage of this statement of Grayling's as they have to all the lies and campaign of hate?...

Nah, didn't think so.

Anonymous said...

Right, so will he now be providing a public apology for everything he's put us through? And how's he going to make amends for people driven to suicide as a result of this process? And will the press give as high profile coverage of this statement of Grayling's as they have to all the lies and campaign of hate?...

Nah, didn't think so.

Anonymous said...

Surely it would have been far more sensible to have a three tier system on ESA, with a level lower than the WRAG maybe paid at the same level as JSA or just a few pounds more/week. This would be for those people who are too sick for JSA yet deemed to be well enough to be looking for some kind of work.
Of course they would have to be allowed to choose part-time hours and limited travel time to work (forgotten the proper word for it!).
But of course this is far too sensible for the government.

Niahm

hossylass said...

My view exactly. Without a tier that recognises sickness that is long term, we are caught in a charade that has been created on the basis of assumption.
Three tiers is the only solution, but as they cant get the two tier system right we have no hope.

They claim that three tiers is what makes DLA so hard to administrate, which makes me despair of the calibre of the DWP.
God only knows what they would do if they had proper jobs - get sacked for incompetance I suppose!