Correspondance on the Welfare Reform Bill - Mark Williams MP

On the 6th of June along with many others I sent an email asking my MP to not support the welfare reform bill. This is the email I sent

Dear Mr Williams MP

I write to ask that you OPPOSE the Welfare Reform Bill on this months vote.

The Bill is an attempt to scapegoat those on welfare, part of the coalition’s plans to slash £18 billion from welfare payments. The plans will also further privatise welfare delivery and result in a less generous and more punitive welfare system at a time when people need it more than ever.

There is true need within this country. Please note the FIGURE of £18 Billion is a "We will reduce regardless" figure that ignores the True and Actual Needs within this society.

I therefore on vote request that you oppose this Bill.

I myself am both sick and disabled and I will suffer greatly under the proposed changes should this bill go through. I will be forced into a job that I am unable to do and will make my health considerably worse. Fearing that the bill will be passed people have already committed suicide in this country, how many people will die should it be passed? I myself confess to feeling suicidal at the thought of being forced into work which will hospitalise me or forced into destitution. I beg of you to take a stand against this bill. Your voting record in parliament is poor, you either vote for or abstain. Please make this something that you take a stand on and say no to with a definitive voice! Abstaining from voting on this issue is not a choice as it risks so many people’s lives! I have lost my faith in the political party which you stand under, please don't make me lose my faith in you as my local representative.

S Ross

I  received this reply today from Mark Williams MP

Dear S,

Many thanks for this email, apologies for the delay in my response.

I appreciate your concerns and worries, however I am afraid I do not agree that this is the Government is making a scapegoat the poor.  It is simply doing what is necessary considering the size of the deficit and the unsustainable size of the benefits system.

The Government is seeking to update the benefit system, but will still certainly protect those who need support.  The whole benefit system was outdated and not fit for purpose, and any Government that was in control after the last election would have been irresponsible not to address that. 

It is therefore with a heavy heart that I support reforming of the current welfare system. The Lib Dems are making very difficult decisions in Government, but we are doing good work.  Indeed due to the Lib Dems influence in Government, around 900,000 people have been taken out of the income tax payment bracket.

I can assure you that I, as you do, care about the old, the sick, the disabled, the vulnerable and the needy, and will work hard to protect the people of Ceredigion as I have done as the MP for the past 6 years.

You say my voting record is poor, however there have been a number of issues I have rebelled against the Government on which I feel would go against the issues I have stood on since I became an MP.

I am willing to meet with you to discuss this matter further if you wish. If so please do get in touch.

Best wishes, Mark Williams

I have no replied to him. It is clear to me that he has done very little research on the matter and so therefore I have pointed out several pieces of research to him.

Mr Williams I have to disagree with you most vehemently that this bill does indeed scapegoat the poor. One of the predominant reasons stated for the reforms to welfare in this country is that there is a huge amount of benefit fraud but I would like to draw your attention to two graphs

http://passingnightmare.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/fraud-graph.png

This first graph shows how money lost due to benefit fraud is tiny compared to other amounts lost. The government would do better to spend its time raising money from consolidating debts owed to it rather than making expensive changes (the implement costs far out weigh the money saved in the welfare reform bill).

http://passingnightmare.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/fraudlevels.png

This second graph shows that a large amount of money each year is lost due to clerical error or mistakes, not due to fraud. I kept records, as have many other disabled activists, of the mentions of the word 'scrounger' in reference to the disabled and sick and I have to say I am completely disgusted. You say we are not being scapegoated but the disabled and sick are being scapegoated, made to feel as though we are all liars and that the entire burden of the countries debt is on our shoulders.

There is also the matter of whether welfare reform would be suitable at this time for our country. Many international advisory bodies have warned the current government that cuts to welfare and health services could and will irrevocably damage this country. The government has also been warned that the current rate of cuts is in fact harming our economy greatly and will push back growth by several years. Economists put this down to one factor, that the government today is trying to make cuts similar to those Canada made to its welfare and health service in 1990s but Canada made these changes while their countries economy was stable and it does not work as a model of reform to use this approach now when our country is on its knees.

More than 700,000 people with cancer will be affected by time limiting ESA, as will people with variable conditions and those with degenerative disorders like myself. This along with the recent suggestion that those who are sick and disabled should work for less than minimum wage because they are 'less able and less capable of the same level of work' means that people who are already struggling to survive will be pushed into work that not only damages their health and well being but also into jobs which cannot ever cover the cost of living let alone living with a disability. In and of itself the statement that the disabled are capable of less is insulting to many disabled people as although our bodies may be broken a vast majority of us are intelligent and forthright people, many of us have higher level honours degrees and the only thing wrong with us is we have the misfortune of ill health or a condition which limits our capabilities physically, this does not make us worth less nor does it make us stupid. We are devalued at every turn and attitudes such as this make it harder for those of us who wish to gain employment to do so as employers also have this very same attitude that disabled people are worth less than someone who is able bodied and this attitude pervades the entirety of society. Evidence of this is the massive increase in disability hate crime, spurred on by the devaluing of the disabled and sick and given force by the scapegoating of them with phrases such as 'scrounger'.

A better and more major way for the government to save money on benefits would be to scrap ATOS. ATOS have been found incompetent at every turn but instead of being dropped they are being given a further contract and more power and control. If you care to just browse some sites online such as Broken of Britain then you will see how many people have had bad experiences with ATOS, people have in fact died as a result of ATOS's bad system and bad judgements and others have committed suicide due to the pressure they felt going to a tribunal. More than 50% of ATOS decisions are overthrown which is an alarming rate, why would the government continue to employ a contractor with such a poor record of success? They do not weed out those who are fraudulent but upset and distress those who are genuinely ill and genuinely disabled. Their WCA is intrusive, embarrassing and inaccurate. It expects those with illnesses and disabilities to fall neatly into boxes but the very nature of being human means that everything affects people differently. The welfare reform bill gives more power to ATOS and with every disability, mental health and health charity in the country asking the government to get rid of them how can you agree to give them more power by supporting the welfare reform bill?

The current system is indeed inadequate but there are better ways to change the system than the welfare reform bill suggests. People who are disabled and sick are often living below the poverty line. I myself received food parcel this week because I could not afford to purchase any food and yet I am still better off than many people who are sick and disabled. There has been little or no consultation with those who this bill will most affect and any consultation has largely been ignored, various advisory bodies have also been ignored in the process of formulating this bill. Again I ask you, how can you support a bill that is so poorly researched, poorly thought out and poorly structured. The far reaching consequences of the bill have not been considered or if they have then I can only assume that there is a fundamental lack of understanding in the current government of what it is to live in the real world and live on the poverty line and what a change could do to those who do live this way. There are better ways to reform benefits, a peoples consultation has taken place which has many better and more well thought out and researched ideas than the current welfare reform bill, please read it http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/2011/05/welfare-for-people-by-people.html

The predominant problem with the bill is its lack of consideration for the changes it will affect to those who are sick and disabled in regard to their health and well being. Health and well-being are fundamental human rights. I would also like to point our several other human rights which this bill will affect:

1. The right to participate in society - Loss of benefits will lead to many disabled and sick people becoming house bound, unable to leave or do anything other than sit at home. If you have never spent weeks on end at home staring at the same four walls I suggest you don't try it, it is like torture, but many will be expected to live this way.

2. The right to access employment - Rather than making employment easier to access for those who are sick and disabled the welfare reform bill will make it vastly more difficult because of the culture of malcontent surrounding its implementation and also because they will find it increasingly difficult to access assistance to work due to those services being cut (assistance once offered at Job Centres for finding work, keeping in work, flexible working advice and setting up a home business is now being cut or has already been cut)

3.The right ti live without discrimination - The welfare reform bill as it has made its way through parliament has increased hate crime against the sick and disabled, the government itself has used phrases which are discriminatory and has allowed newspapers to use defamatory language about sick and disabled people completely unchecked!

This welfare reform bill is more than just a vehicle to push more vulnerable sick and disabled people into poverty it is a vehicle for human rights violations on a major scale. Particularly when we considder the changes to ESA (time limiting and the poor research that has been released - a first year law student could have produced better) or the change from DLA (a system that predominantly works well) to PIP - an ill conceived and ill thought out system. I have more information on human rights violations here http://thebrokenophelia.blogspot.com/2011/06/human-rights-eu-and-un-and-violations.html

I am sorry that you are still supporting the welfare reform bill but I hope that you can see my points and arguments as to why it will be detrimental.

S Ross

We will see what kind of response I get this time.

Anyone else write to their MP asking them to oppose the welfare reform bill? If so, have you had any response from them? I would be interested to know if anyone has had positive feedback too, are we making dents yet?

Human Rights EU and UN and violations

It is incredibly difficult to talk about the subject of human rights for me without becoming righteous or indignant. Human Rights is something I firmly believe in, that all people have rights which should make sure they are afforded equal living and equal opportunities, that no one is oppressed or hurt needlessly. I believe we have a right to be protected and to be looked after, to be seen as equal, have freedom of speech and be free from threat or harm. I believe in the principles set out in the UN charter and the EU convention of human rights. There can be found here and here. We also hear a lot about the Geneva Convention, a subsection of the charter of human rights specifically relating to the practices of war.

Mostly we are unaware of what our rights are specifically, we take these rights for granted because for the most part in the UK our governments have upheld these rules and we have been treated fairly as people. However, when these rights are compromised we need to educate ourselves as to what our rights are and defend them. Currently the UK government has been told that it is not conforming to the UN charter of human rights on the points specifically relating to disability. The main points can be found here and these are:

• The right to not be discriminated against
• The right to an education
• Right to employment
• Right to health
• The right to equal and fair justice
• The right to participate in culture and life

For the absolute full list of rights please see this list here. I want to focus on the first and last points I have shown. Firstly that we have the right to live without discrimination. George Osbourne shortly after the ConDem government came into power stood in parliament and said that all people on benefits where scroungers and that there would be strict reform on benefits for the disabled and sick as too many people where claiming these falsely and that benefit fraud was highest in regard to the benefits associated with the disabled and sick. In actual fact this is utter tripe, the actual money lost through real benefit fraud makes up just a tiny fraction of the amount of money the government loses each year. This Graph shows that the majority of 'fraud' is in fact mistakes either by the DWP or by applicants and just 20% is actual benefit fraud. Another Graph shows that just a tiny amount of money each year is lost because of benefit fraud. Compared to some of the other figures the £1.1 bil lost through benefit fraud is almost negligible yet those on benefits are being demonised and are suffering the largest cuts, shouldering the burden of an imaginary deficit.

So to support their arguement that the unemployed and the sick and disabled should shoulder a sickening amount of cuts the government publicises certain cases of fraud to newspapers and releases information only to certain newspapers who will write supporting stories. As you can see in this article (also the source of the graphs) the headlines are inciting, aimed to get people riled up and angry at people claiming benefits.

The reality is what the government has done is opened the flood gates on disability discrimination in this country. It has become normal and acceptable to just assume that anyone who is disabled is also a liar or to assume that because someone has a fluctuating condition and is currently well they are somehow lying about the other 50-90% of the time when they are so ill they are house bound. The governments planned policy changes have advocated disability discrimination and as such disability discrimination has taken a sharp rise, many more people are having a problem with it and lets face it, being sick and disabled wasn't easy street to begin with.


Now lets look at the right to participate in culture and to a life. The government under the UN conventions is supposed to do its best to remove obstacles and difficulties which prevent disabled and sick people from exercising this right. There are two things that the government is changing which will make exercising this right practically impossible for many disabled and sick people in the UK.

Time limiting ESA is currently in the impact assessment stage and the so called impact assessment research is ridiculous. You can read the report here (courtesy of Sue Marsh). They seem to think that time limiting ESA to one year wont impact:

• Health and well being
• The justice system
• Human rights

Now time limiting ESA is certain going to affect sick and disabled people in regard to their human rights. They will lose the ability and therefore the right to participate in culture and life as they are suddenly kicked from ESA onto the new universal credit and made to take a work placement which will potentially make their illnesses worse or be dangerous due to their disabilities. People are going to become entrenched and house bound. Simply put people will become trapped by an unsolvable circumstance. The ATOS system of assessment already fails 50% of the time as 50% of appeals are won and this is set to continue as ATOS isn't set to change. This however is the tip of the iceberg. As we know ESA is split and awarded into two seperate categories; The work related activity group and the supported group. Those in the work related activity group are the most at risk under these proposals as they are considered essentially fit to work despite the fact that realistically these people probably should not be working the majority of the time. 

DLA the other support for those with disabilities and long term illnesses is also going to be changed to the PIP payment which will be more difficult and harder than DLA for people to access as the guidelines will be increasingly strict. This again will rely on ATOS and their flawed WCA tests. So with less sick and disabled people able to access the benefits which afford them the right to live life and access culture how exactly is the government following any code of human rights or helping to protect the most vulnerable members of society?

It does get worse...Currently bills going through parliament include one to withdraw from the EU conventions of human rights. We are about to lose some of the laws which protect our basic rights. Fight for these rights, lobby MPs, write to newspapers. Do something! We all have to. Our human rights are already being abused by the current government, don't allow them to get rid of them altogether. You can access the bill here. Please help me and many others who have no voice in taking a stand on your rights and the rights of everyone in this country, lets make the government listen and lets make them at least stick to allowing us the basic human rights afforded to us!