Labour are not blameless, sorry if I come across that way.

 

On certian things both parties are bad. Labour eg. are not against these welfare cuts and they did set the wheels in motion. Personally I think if labour stayed in power things would not have been as brutal, eg. the bedroom tax, the one room rate for 25-35 year olds, the benefit cap, UC. I think these things wouldnt be happening under labour, but at the same time they may not have got harrington and then no things like recorded medicals. Also labour are not so anti taxing the rich as the tories, the upper tax rate was increased, and some one off tax's were imposed. We also were starting a recovery at the election, so its a plausible argument that labour's ideas for recovery were viable but they didnt have the time to see it through.

 

In terms of the banks, I think labour were wrong to bailout the banks, america did let their bank go bust, that of course caused the recession but america are now recovering better than us, likewise germany is who are not carrying out such severe austarity measures. I believe the tories did support the balout tho and are also allowing more funds to be released to the banks as well.

 

In terms of consumption taxes, I expect these are higher than historical levels, as there has been a deliberate shift of taxation so it affects the poor more than the rich. In terms of overall taxation since income tax is so low I mean very low, its not just a little low I believe overall taxation is still low. The key ones been are income and corporate tax since they provide large %'s of overall tax intake. No government can drop corporate tax without consequences, it has to be paid for by something.

 

Also the corporate tax drops are you aware only benefit large companies like tesco? small companies like your local garage didnt get any such drops.

 

Also if companies are getting claimants shipped to them for free labour where is the incentive to pay them full wages?

 

All I see is a social engineering exercise that is anti growth. That what it looks like to me and I do have qualifications in economics and business studies.

 

There is also the matter of the 30 something billion cash the government is sitting on unspent and the many billions of retained profits by uk companies not been invested. I personally believe demand is deliberatly been manipulated to prolong the recession so the social engineering has justification to continue, it would be harder to do all these cuts when the economy is booming.

 

The current welfare cuts are probably actually funding the corporate tax cuts for the likes of tesco.

 

Also interesting is not only that the deficit still exists which in my view isnt a major issue but also that it has increased since the election so its not only still there but that there is no progress after multiple years of austerity.

 

Think about who the government is really working for, only the rich get meetings with the top ministers they pay for these meetings, and we also have ceo's having hotlines to the ministers as well.

Its almost as if its all been planned.

You'll be better off in jail the way things are going.

You could say there going back in time

 

Think it's was around end of 1980's the old Mobility allowance was changed to DLA "self assessment" by Maggie Thatcher government.

 

Before that under the old Mobility allowance you Had to have a Medical 1st before Mobility allowance was paid,from next year No medical No PIP...

Well it suited the government of the time to get people off the unemployment figures as they were going through the roof.

The big difference is we had the money from North Sea Oil to pay for it all.

We still manage to find enough to pay for all the pensions for the MPs though.

When all said and done, the government have just moved the goal posts so they can get more people off benefit.

you really answered your own argument there, 'the banks here were guilty of not checking what was in the box' just as the original poster missed the date for returning her cv...difference is the banks were bailed out of this to the tune of billions, and the poster loses their benefit....if that is what you call justice, then the world is a bl**dy sad place

Take no notice of him...he's obviously a government mouthpiece, or at best a WUM (wind up merchant)

Forums are full of these people unfortunately.

It was just mentioned on Radio 4.

According to ATOS, 90% of their customers are satisfied with the service.

Surely they mean dissatisfied?

I agree with you, and by far the biggest group of scroungers are pensioners, I think if they won't work anymore they should be uthanased. Same with the sick and disabled.

 

Its good to keep unemployment benefit though as that will keep a reserve number of workers to replace the ones that get sick or old and have to be put down.

 

Also housing takes a far bigger slice than it should, much of it being taken by those in work. That should be stopped to, and those workers put in work camps.

I nearly voted for the Lib-Dems; to my mind the Tories have moved further to the right and New Labour had moved to fill the gap for a centre right party. By their policies manifesto etc. (before they dropped all their principals to join this evil administration) the lib-Dems seemed the party of the people. I can't see the labour party looking after the vulnerable either, seems the sick and disabled that aren't ex service have no chance.

It won't matter who is in power, the welfare state will be dismantled.

If you look back in recent history all parties have made cuts to the welfare state.

The big difference today is, they have a great excuse to make the cuts they really want to.

"We have to make cuts to get the economy back on track"

They're getting away with murder, and the majority of people are just accepting it.

Once its gone it won't come back. People need to wake up and see the big picture, before its too late.

Re-classified as 'defective' or 'not fit for purpose' ? Perhaps the next initiative will be to terminate a foetus that does not come up to specification unless the parents can guarantee independent financial support and ensure that the abomination is kept locked away so as not to offend the rest of the 'master race'.

 

We can then focus attention on pensioners, after all they have served any useful purpose and are now surplus to requirement, and a financial burden, just queue in an orderly fashion at the local euthanasia centre when you get the official notification.

 

Rest assured it won't happen in the UK, after all, we are a caring compassionate people that look after the vulnerable in our society......Aren't we?

Sounds far fetched, but just give it time.

People are already accepting the cuts without batting an eye.

When the time comes for the big one, it won't be that much of a shock.

This is just a softening up process. A rehearsal if you like.

Good news indeed.

But this is yet another example of lying sneaky governments trying every trick in the book to get their doctrine through.

Undoubtably there will be countless claimants having to go onto JSA because their doctor has done what he though was right.

Never mind the consequenses, as long as they are saving money, everything is great.

If people still believe there will be such a thing as the welfare state in a few years time must be living in a dream world.

Governments around the world are taking full advantage of the 'credit crunch' and slashing the welfare bill into oblivion.

I predict there will be no such thing as a disabled person in this country in ten years time, possibly less.

After seeing the inter-departmental correspondence Timms told the Guardian that the emails appeared to show Grayling's answer was wrong, adding that the government was "ignoring the needs of disabled people".

"Many people are finding they have to appeal against wrong decisions on their disability benefits. With cuts to legal aid, it will be harder in future for them to get help. Now DWP ministers are stopping people even from seeing a video that might help them, produced by the Ministry of Justice. They also appear to have given an incorrect answer to my parliamentary question. This looks like a department that is losing its grip and ignoring the needs of disabled people."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jul/31/minister-accused-video-disability-claimants

That fits in rather well with the ATOS thing last night where the HCP said 'if they can use one finger they can work' One fingered pickpockets! The only problem is they will have to concentrate on Polo mints.

Surely they would be able to apply for a grant for one of those grabbers the council litter pickers are so fond of using?

Just think of the options that would open up for them then.

The dole queue's would be slashed at a stroke.

You have to think about the long term plan here. Keep moving the goalposts until EVERYONE is off benefits!

Most people on the forum don't need to see programmes like this.

A blind man can see what's going on here.

The government give Atos a massive contract to lower the welfare bill and lo and behold they lower it.

In order to keep said contract, they have to do the governments bidding. So that's what they will continue to do.

There's no way anyone will stop it, there's too much money involved.

http://lbc.audioagain.com/?action=howmuch

The hell with that!

we not skint, we have just written off and started a process of reduction amounting to 10s of billions in lost taxes. simply put its a decision made to take money from one set of people and give to another set of people.

But that money doesn't really exist, its just invented by The Bank of England.

They don't even have to print it these days. Just type the figures into a computer.

"How much do you want?"

"Err, can you manage 500 billion?"

"Certainly Sir...there you go"

"Thanks"

"Next!"

Many thanks for sharing these experiences.

 

So it's not just me then....

 

I may well be taking DWP to the Parliamentary Ombudsman - may I share what's happened to you if I do?

Of course.

And of course a lot of the time it is not exactly "engaged" but you get the pleasure of holding and listening to THAT music....at your expense....for ages....

 

I average 10 -20 mins holding each time....but of course that is not "engaged" but nor is it speaking to anyone......

 

And yes the callbacks are promised but not always received and when they are it is almost always dead on 3 hours.

 

God forbid you have to do something else that day and then miss that call though...have to start the process all over again.

Right, so that's how they get around it? Might have known.

Responding to machines and listening to classical music is classed as getting through.

I looked at the DWP report and accounts for 2010/11 and was astonished by what I found.

 

As my username suggests I am in dispute with DWP and therefore I have had to try and phone the Carer's Allowance Unit at Palatine House many times. Because of my caring duties I usually have to phone after about 3.30 pm.

 

My experience is completely opposite to the statistics listed in the PDCS Annual Report and Accounts 2010/11 targets (I have a difficulty with URLs on this site because I'm not allowed to post them yet (

 

Telephony

Ensure that at least 93% of calls to our telephone service are answered first time. 94.2%

Ensure that less than 1% of calls to our telephone service receive the

engaged/busy tone 0.2%

 

a) I nearly always get an engaged tone for many attempts

b) if I do get through, it's often to a call centre who offer me a callback service. This callback has come once and that not at the arranged time.

 

Obviously the targets in the Report and Accounts are for the whole service, but even so....

Or is it that some parts of DCS are so good at answering calls that it skews the figures (!)

 

 

 

Anecdotal evidence welcome - I'm probably going to take my complaints against DWP to the Parliamentary Ombudsman so any weight to my cause would be very helpful.

I must have rang them about 20 times over the last 12 months and every single time it was engaged.

I've mostly hung on, and every time it was for about 20 minutes.

Also the 0845 number is there to discourage people from phoning. If it was a free service they would be swamped.

Why is it that this country has the highest percentage rate of population that 'claim' sickness & disablility in Europe?

 

We are not at all a healthy breed!

Of course, it was started in the 80s. A very convenient place to hide the masses of unemployed people created by the government of the day.

The difference between then and now is, we had North Sea oil to pay for it all, but now we're skint.

The bottom line is all about saving money.

All the bull sh!t about helping disabled people getting back into work.

And how work is good for you and people shouldn't been thrown on the scrap heap just

because they are disabled, is just a cover.

They make it sound as if the government are doing us all a favour by putting us through all this mysery and stress.

Not to mention the loss of benefit.

"You'll be much better off in work!"

I wonder if the Daily Mail will have headline about the programme on Tuesday morning?

RealName.

Unfortunately you seem to be falling into the same trap that countless other job seekers have, in that you have rights.

You are just a number and "numbers" have no rights, only functions.

Your function is to fill quotas, for the Advisors.

Your function is to either get a job, or they stop your benefit for at least 2 weeks, in either case they get a nice + mark in their exercise books

when they show it to Teacher, and a good report at the end of term.

You can try, and I wish you the best of luck, (suppose youi have nothing to lose), but I would be amazed if they overturn the decision to sanction you.

Its all about saving money and if it isn't you it will be someone else.

Everyone has to take his or her turn in this cruel game.

Just stumbled upon this in the Guardian.

Proof, if any were needed, what we always suspected.

Atos assessors told to keep disability benefit approvals low, film suggests

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jul/27/disability-benefit-assessors-film

You quickly have to realize that you are just another tick in their good deeds account, the more ticks they get the safer their job is.

Just think of them as Gestapo interrogators. The less you tell them the better.

On no account tell them the truth, unless its to your advantage.