Has anyone heard any news about the transfere of IS-IB to ESA... The mind boggles!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/29/gps-patients-capacity-to-work

No, GPs can't always be objective over patients' capacity for work There must be better ways for doctors to spend their working day than having stand-up rows with patients over sick notes, See full story http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/29/gps-patients-capacity-to-work

Erika, I here your the girl with a good idea of the benifits. This situation your in you will blast them inside out, go girl give them some stick.

Here You Go... http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DoItOnlineByCategory/DG_172666 Hope this helps

Might be of interest to some Musculoskeletal disorders are among the most common causes of sickness absence, long-term incapacity for work and ill-health retirement. The number of Incapacity Benefit (IB) recipients in the United Kingdom has trebled since 1979, See full story. http://bmb.oxfordjournals.org/content/77-78/1/55.full another edit from the full story... Pathways to work The Pathways to work pilots run by the UK Department for Work and Pensions [1] are based on and provide a test of the biopsychosocial approach described here. Pathways is an integrated package of support specifically designed to help IB recipients manage their health problems and get back to work. It is particularly appropriate for non-specific musculoskeletal conditions (and common mental health problems—which often coexist). Over 58,000 people took part in the pilots, and Pathways is now being rolled out to one-third of the United Kingdom. Early outcomes show much higher take-up rates than expected and an 8–10% increase in return to work rates, which is much better than any such social security initiative has ever achieved worldwide Conclusion Some people with musculoskeletal pathology will always require specialist treatment and rehabilitation, but most non-specific musculoskeletal conditions are, and should be, managed in primary care and the workplace. The challenge then is to incorporate basic rehabilitation principles into clinical and occupational management. Randomised controlled trials(RCTs) of clinical guidelines and biopsychosocial rehabilitation for low back pain show how management can be improved and how that can lead to better clinical and occupational outcomes. The number of people on IB in the United Kingdom increased 3-fold within a generation, for no good biological reason, and there is no biological reason that could not be reversed. The Pathways pilots and the 42% reduction in new awards of IB for low back pain show what can be achieved. The UK government’s stated target is to reduce the number of people on IB by 1 million. We could reduce sickness absence and the number of people who go on to long-term incapacity by at least one-third to one-half and in principle by much more (fully recognizing the practical problems of delivering that vision). To achieve this, however, depends on getting all stakeholders onside and a fundamental shift in the culture of how we think about and manage non-specific musculoskeletal conditions—in health care, in the workplace and in society. You might see this on your connsultants or dr's reports. Waddell's signs Here's what that means..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waddell%27s_signs

Jonathan Rutherford looks at the connections between government and the insurance business in their joint project to reduce eligibility for sickness benefits. See full story. http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/articles/rutherford07.html More crapp

I agree with that rebel11

George Osborne has been criticised for his 'vindictive' attitude to the poor, Full story here. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100061653/george-osborne-must-correct-his-claims-about-benefit-fraud-and-his-portrayal-of-the-poor-as-mean-minded-and-cheating/

This country is a mess they won't be happy till they take all our money. no social life, no food, no house ect. whatever next i think were all better of in prison at least we won't be hungry and have a roof over our heads. oh and no parking charges!

Well done jacbrass O god Dj i hope yours goe's well to.....

jacbrass Please let us know how it went, well i hope.

Worth a read. The coalition has launched plans to reassess everyone currently on incapacity benefit, with the intention of forcing those "fit for work" out into a non-existent jobs market. Rigg's health problems had been previously diagnosed by a psychiatrist and were certified by his GP as a "long-term underlying mental health condition." He is also deaf in one ear, has osteoarthritis and a bad back and knees. See the full story here http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/97072

Cheers for those links

Thanks CARO

“Birmingham against the cuts” rally, 13th November October 29, 2010 This rally will be supported by DPAC Message from Right to Work - West Midlands Right To Work is hosting a “Birmingham against the cuts” rally on 13th of November, 2pm, Carrs Lane Church, Carrs Lane, Birmingham. This rally is supported by UNISON Birmingham local government branch and West Midlands PCS. Th…is Con-Den government has unleashed the biggest ever assault on benefits targeting the ill and the disabled. We are being asked to foot the bill for the £1.4 trillion bail out for the bankers. That means cuts in services and living standards, a massive job cull and us all having to work longer and enjoy less retirement. The Con-Dems will move to replace all benefits and tax credits paid to those of working age with one ‘universal’ benefit which will pay out less. Today Osborne says “we’re all in this together”. But as the Channel 4 Dispatches programme revealed that along with two other Cabinet ministers he’s avoiding paying tax. We have seen Vodaphone being let off of paying £6 billion in tax as public services are being slashed and burned. We are clearly not in it all together!! The rally on the 13th November will bring together a wide range of speakers from the Labour movement. We can confirm that the FBU is arranging for a striking London firefighter to speak and we are the process of organising a French striker and student to address the rally. These speakers will be reporting from the sharp end of the international struggle against the cuts along side local speakers from the CWU, UNISON, PCS, NUT, UCU, Labour Party, disability groups, students and more. Please come along to the rally and help build the resistance and defend our welfare state. Matt Raine West Midlands Right To Work

Cheers L Ranger. I thought it was a good statement as to what is going on, i like the bit about that turncoat D Alexander that just sums up this whole situation. well people we need our voices heard and quick. good luck with your involvement re defying this un-elected excuse for a government re. benefits "reforms" and cuts which affect us. There's a good and competent team shaping up where I am now supporting. keep us posted

here here dj, The trouble is everyone knows this is going on and we have no one to fight our corner nowbody seems to be able to do nothing about this so to me it look like were going to suffer if we was in france at least they try and fight back to me the british let everyone walk all over us!

We need to act now before it's to late..

Hi all, Doe's anyone know of any action coming over this farce they call ESA and ATOS it seems just talk and no sign of any progress. please post anything that might shead some light of our future.

By Helen McArdle Herald scotland Opposition: Susan McPhee says the ESA is not working.27 Oct 2010 Every MP and MSP is today being sent a dossier highlighting the impact on their own constituents of a “nightmare” benefit intended to get sick and disabled people back to work. The campaign by Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) marks the second anniversary of the introduction of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), which replaced incapacity benefit on October 27, 2008. CAS argues that instead of improving the lives of ill and disabled people, the “deeply flawed” benefit has brought misery for thousands of Scots. It has been applied to all new sick and disabled claimants since that date, but from January 2011 ESA will be extended to all incapacity benefit claimants, meaning some 350,000 Scots will be assessed for the new allowance. In last week’s spending review Chancellor George Osborne announced that people will only be allowed to claim ESA for a maximum of a year. CAS acting chief executive Susan McPhee said: “We said last year that ESA was unfit for purpose and we see no reason to change that view. “We are still seeing case after case across Scotland where people are being found fit for work even though their illness or disability restricts them from any type of work. “ESA isn’t working for the most vulnerable. “We need to protect people in times of suffering, not cause them further hardship.” From today, every MP and MSP in Scotland will receive the personalised “nightmare dossier” from CAS. It argues that ESA has forced thousands of extremely vulnerable claimants with conditions such as cancer, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease back into employment after being declared fit for work despite medical evidence from GPs suggesting otherwise. The dossier being sent to First Minister Alex Salmond, whose Gordon constituency in Aberdeenshire is currently monitoring a pilot of blanket ESA introduction, details the cases of a number of constituents, including one man who was ruled out of ESA benefit because the medical assessor declared that he was fit enough to go to work. When he attempted to claim Jobseeker’s Allowance, he was told by the same job centre that he was unfit to work and therefore not entitled to that either. The Department for Work and Pensions said in a statement: “It cannot be right to leave people trapped on benefits. “That’s why we will assess everyone on incapacity benefit to see whether, with the right help and support, they could get back into work.”

Won't let me post the link. From disabilitynow.org.uk. Are people once more about to break out the handcuffs, the chains, the padlocks, the cans of red paint? With spending cuts apparently putting disabled people and government once more on a collision course, Sunil Peck asks what did the direct actions of the 1990s achieve and should we expect a return to those times of militancy. "Cuts Kill” was the stark message from disabled campaigners who took to the streets in protest during the Conservative conference in Birmingham. Eleanor Lisney, one of the disabled organisers of the rally, says that two disabled people have committed suicide because of cuts to their care packages and benefits. “We’re saying to disabled people don’t wait until you’re really up against the wall because of the cuts because it’ll be too late.” We will have to wait and see whether the Birmingham demo turns out to be the first stage of a battle in a sustained campaign against the coalition Government’s cuts. But disabled people are certainly angry and there is a history of angry disabled people using direct action to fight injustice. It reached its height in the 1990s. Campaigns waged by the Direct Action Network (DAN) and the Campaign for Accessible Transport (CAT) sparked important changes like the erosion of negative images of disability in the media, the Disability Discrimination Act and a more accessible public transport network. It’s hard to imagine that only 20 years ago the tubes and buses in London were inaccessible to disabled people. For most people the only option was Dial-a-Ride. As former CAT stalwart Tracey Proudlock puts it, “even the taxis at that point weren’t accessible because they had narrow doors and no ramps.” She says that it was negative attitudes within London Transport that led to the setting up of the first pan-disability group to embark on a sustained campaign of direct action in the name of disability rights. “We got CAT together because the decision makers we were talking to seemed totally unaware of our experience. They would say in meetings that there was no proof that disabled people wanted to use buses because they never saw disabled people at bus stops. That to us was the green light to get us on the street. We said that we would queue at every bus stop we could find. Even though we knew we wouldn’t be able to get on any buses, we were queuing to make a point.” CAT’s two year campaign began with a demo in Oxford Street in 1990. Tracey Proudlock says that it was the first of about ten demos and was chosen for good reasons. “We decided on Oxford Street because it’s such an emblem of London. It was also a good venue because it had a vast number of buses running up and down it and because there were shops nearby with accessible loos.” It wasn’t long before CAT’s tactics became more militant and they began chaining themselves to buses in central London. Allan Sutherland, then CAT’s press officer, says that CAT was effective because its demos were well-organised, its message was simple, it provided good photo opportunities for the media and it had public support. “CAT’s demonstrations brought the west end of London to a standstill. But the public really understood the issue. I can remember one person saying ‘this is a real pain for me but I do think that you’ve got to do it’.” Tracey Proudlock, the driving force behind CAT, took a back seat from campaigning in 1992 to bring up her family. But London gained accessible buses when Ken Livingstone became mayor in 2000. Also in 1992, disabled people from around the UK converged in London for a second protest against ITV’s charity Telethon. The programme broadcast films depicting disabled people as leading sad and tragic lives in order to raise money from viewers. The first protest had taken place in 1990. Still an activist and performer, Alan Holdsworth – aka Johnny Crescendo – one of the organisers, says that the protests were a manifestation of the “collective hatred” of the programme in the disability movement which meant that mobilising people was “easy”. “It was just about making sure that everybody knew about it. We were trying to get the Telethon off the air. We didn’t like the imagery and we didn’t think they were capable of changing the imagery without us and we didn’t want to be involved in charity.” Holdsworth says he was “overwhelmed” by the turnout and atmosphere at the protests. “We surrounded Frank Bruno’s car so he couldn’t get in. He was really annoyed. I thought he was going to hit me.” The protests garnered tremendous media attention which, says Holdsworth, hammered home a message that disabled people were sick of being portrayed as objects of pity. The Telethon was scrapped and Holdsworth became convinced that disabled people could use direct action to campaign on other issues and the Direct Action Network (DAN) was born. “We wanted to make what CAT was doing more national. We worked with CAT and they came to the first meeting concerned with setting up DAN.” DAN’s first high profile campaign was in July 1993 in Dorset when it hounded Rob Hayward, a Conservative MP with multiple sclerosis, who had talked out a civil rights bill for disabled people in Parliament and who was standing in a by-election in Christchurch. He ended up losing which, according to the retired academic and member of DAN, now Disability Now columnist Mike Oliver, led to a significant development in government policy. “The Conservative majority had been huge and DAN showed that that kind of direct action could affect politics. It was the crucial piece of action that made the Conservatives go down the road of having an anti-discrimination act.” DAN still protests for the rights of disabled people living in homes and against benefit cuts and social services in the UK. But its profile began to wane after a protest where members threw red paint over 10 Downing Street. Nevertheless, Barbara Lisicki, a DAN member, says that both CAT and DAN have left disabled people with another important legacy. “It was hugely empowering. One of DAN’s strengths was that nobody was ever excluded. We had people with learning difficulties who hadn’t ever had a niche because nobody had wanted them to contribute and we’d say ‘if you want to do this, come and do it’.” So with so many disabled people feeling threatened by the coalition Government’s cuts, and with user-led organisations going to the wall, could direct action be an effective way of campaigning in the future? Barbara Lisicki is itching to get back out onto the streets because she thinks it’s one of the few ways of fighting the cuts. But she has learnt important lessons from her time with DAN which she says the new generation of activists have to take onboard. “Actions have to be non-violent; you must also focus on one issue at a time and don’t be distracted. You must also be prepared to be arrested. If you’re going to push the boundaries, that’s what could happen.” She, like many other activists, says that direct action has to be part of a wider campaigning strategy. “The point of direct action is to get people’s attention to stop an issue getting buried. But you’ve got to have a negotiating strategy for getting around the table with people because unless you’re clear about how your demands can be realised you shouldn’t be doing it."

Good point thou lone R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We must have something in life we aint got much else so why not have a smoke. lol

I gree with you there i rekon they don't bother to send to you docs either. it's a puzzle in itself if they do or don't!

even i would make a better job running this country!