Couldn't give ATOS

Carer Watch's 'forum' seems to have been taken down after threats by ATOS to the site host:

The increasing problems that ATOS and the DWP are causing with their drive to remove ESA from claimants are well documented.

• Patients who are seriously ill are being told to work
• Evidence of false assessments is mounting
• Doctors making those assessments are being referred to the GMC
• MPs have strongly crticised ATOS and said that their name triggers "fear and loathing".
• A variety of e-petitions have sprung up, e.g. here and here.
• Around 40% of appeals are upheld, but the stress and pain that claimants are put through is proving very difficult for them.
• ATOS have threatened to sue a disabled man who set up a website exposing them.

According to 2 year old statistics produced by the DWP:
There have been 189,800 WCA assessments up to the end of August 2009. Of these assessments:
 • 10% have been assessed as Support Group
 • 22% have been assessed as Work Related Activity
 • 69% have been deemed Fit for Work

Call me old fashioned and boring, but I just don't believe that only 10% of ESA claimants are fit to work. It just doesn't feel right. The report suggests that 69% of claimants should look for a job now.  Sorry, that doesn't stack up... the assessments must be politically motivated.

The latest move by ATOS to silence people is appalling. Threatening a disabled man last week and then removing a support forum for ATOS sufferers (can't think of what else to call them...) is despicable.

It is difficult to know where to go with this though. The BBC have published on it, some MPs aren't happy. Perhaps an investigation by Panorama might not go amiss?

Grapes of Wrath: 2011 sequel?

The US predicament is looking increasingly like the dust bowl / poverty sceanrio that was the setting for John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

There is a monster heatwave and drought raging across the country and while there is little talk of a return of the 1930's dust bowl, the weather pattern is certainly impacting on the country.

Alongside the weather, the US economy seems on the brink of collapse. The budget talks are in difficulty with a breakdown on Friday although they seem to have restarted yesterday. They are still discussing how to handle $14 trillion of debt with an assumption that this needs to be reduced and of course the Republicans want to cut benefits and taxes to do so.

It is worth remembering that in general terms the size of the money supply is defined by the totality of debt, so reducing the government's debt can only be achieved by either shrinking the money supply or shifting the debt to someone else. I doubt neither option would be palatable to them.

The real impact is being shown on the streets. Unemployment has been running between 9% and 10% for last two years and there are stories about the displaced people with no jobs and no homes. Worse still are the actions by authorities to confiscate and destroy the vehicles and tents that people are living in. If you haven't read Grapes of Wrath, I would recommend it.

Petition for Kent County Council to extend the Freedom pass to 16 - 20 year olds

Please sign the petition here. With car insurance quotes for teenagers coming in at £4k and bus fares being extortionate in Kent, young people need to have access to travel that they can afford. Finding work when there are few jobs out there is hard enough, not having access to affordable travel just adds more misery.

Currently 18-24 year olds account for 26% of claimants, i.e. unemployment disproportionately affects younger people. Kent County Council could make it easier for some of them.

A feel-bad recovery says the IOD

Kent's unemployment has soared by 1900 in Jan. Growth was negative in the last quarter of 2010. If you make people unemployed then you will create a further recession. You can't get growth by removing work from the country. Basic economics but the Tories are trying to pursuade us that black is white.

Also from the KM, this has to be the crap comment of the week: 'Graeme Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said higher unemployment and lower numbers in work made it a "feel-bad" recovery.' WTF is a feel-bad recovery?

Whether we have growth or not, the whole point is that we should not 'feel-bad. I don't support unfettered growth but the key point is that we need to get people into work and ensure that public services meet the needs of the population. To do that we need proper taxation of the rich.

Pfizer jobs losses

While not being a fan of big pharma generally, the loss of the Pfizer plant in Sandwich is not about the company but about the people and their families who work there. 2400 job losses is gong to devastate an area which already has high levels of deprivation and unemployment. My heart goes out to those families that will be affected and I hope they find new jobs quickly.

Dover and Thanet already have high levels of unemployment compared to the rest of Kent (Thanet is currently running at 5.2% and is highest in Kent, Dover is at 3.3%) and this closure will add 2400 to the 6200 already unemployed across these two areas.

This type of closure will be symptomatic of the combined rush to globalisation and the fundementally unsustainable society that we live in.

Moving production and work to the cheapest labour sources will be a race to the bottom in both wealth for the workers across the globe, but also for workers' rights - just look at Coca Cola. And while we need companies to produce medicines, they need to understand that huge profitteering is not the way forward in a sustainable society.

Why are young people being punished?

Punishing adults by taking away their income is the grown up version of punishing children by taking away their pocket, but there is usually a reason for the punishment.

Young people have lost the Education Maintenance Allowance, they are having their fines for going to university increase threefold and they are facing unemployment levels of 20%.

Why are they being singled out for this systematic punishment? Perhaps the coalition are keen on the school of hard knocks. Personally, I'm keen on supporting future generations to get a good education and a good start in life.

Kent youth hit hard by unemployment

Mid Kent College are shedding more than 10% of their workforce, meanwhile 16-24 year olds are being hit hard by the recession with a 1100% increase in long term unemployment across Kent compared to the national average of 300%. Astonishing how the government cannot see a link between unemployment and training.

Let's prepare people for work, not take away their chances.

Let's provide a decent education and decent training in jobs that we need for the future.

Let's make the tax avoiders pay so that we can have a stable economy.

Poverty is now a lifestyle choice

Apparently there are millions of people milking it at taxpayers' expense, apparently they need more incentive to find a job, apparently there are lots of jobs waiting for people if only they weren't so lazy... and the best way to get them into these non-existant jobs is to ensure that they are plunged into serious poverty.

This is from our glorious chancellor who as we are aware has not had the advantages of privilege, who knows what it is like not to be able to afford food, who has been homeless:

But Mr Osborne told BBC political editor Nick Robinson that those making a "lifestyle choice to just sit on out-of-work benefits" would be affected. 

Mr Osborne said: "We are going to reform out-of-work benefits so there's a strong incentive for people who can work get work... 

"People who think that it's a lifestyle choice just to stay on out-of-work benefits... that lifestyle choice is going to come to an end."

While I'm sure there are a few people who have made this type of lifestyle choice for a short period, the vast majority of people on benefits want to work or are unable to work and may either need help getting and keeping a job or may need long term support from society.

There are also a few people who have lost the plot when it comes to work and do need help with motivation. I'm sure a key part of the lack of motivation is a lack of meaning and purpose. I'm just not sure that poverty is the kindest way to provide someone with purpose...


There is also the benefits trap to consider and there  is a real need to find a way to allow people to increase their income without losing benefits - certainly at the lower levels of income. Osborne seems to want to tackle the benefits trap by removing benefits - possibly the harshest way possible. To do so when jobs are scarce is even more harsh.

It is worth remembering that poverty is a key feminist issue, poverty affects women far more than men.

Increasing the gap between rich and poor has always been the Tory ideal.

Maidstone to be hit hard by job losses

In the past few days two major employers in Maidstone have announced that they will be making drastic job cuts spelling misery for hundreds, if not thousands of Maidstone families.

Kent Police have announced 1500 jobs are to go, with around 1000 of these being administrative. The HQ for Kent Police is in Maidstone. Particularly galling is the reponse of the Tory MP for Rochester and Strood, Mark Reckless: "In the past few years many of my constituents have lost their jobs, many have had pay freezes or pay cuts. I do think savings need to be made. One element of that is numbers and the other is pay and pensions." I find it nauseating when uncaring politicians think it reasonable to dump on people like this. Perhaps the police should sack people for being drunk at work?

Also last week, it was announced that the Royal Mail sorting office in Maidstone is to close with an assumed loss of around 100 jobs. A new super sorting office covering much of West Kent is to open in Strood increasing the level of traffic and transport required to deliver and collect mail. I'm sure that people in Strood are not looking forward to the extra traffic!

The impacts that are not being reported are the effect on the families who suffer with wage earners being made redundant and the impact on people (especially older people and those without cars) who collect parcels from the sorting office in Maidstone.

In both cases, and with earlier KCC announcements, it will be front line services, the public and lower wage earners who take the brunt of the cuts.

Cameron's calls for more unemployment

Unemployment has doubled in Maidstone in the past 12 months so what does David Cameron propose? To take 500,000 people off of disability benefit and make them unemployed. This will not create more jobs, will not tackle unemployment and will not address the reason these people were on disability benefit.

Simply increasing unemployment from 2.47 million (Sept 09) to 2.97 million will benefit no-one. There are three good steps that government can take to increase employment.

Firstly, create jobs that society needs. This requires money to be pumped into the economy - not by making cuts.

Then tackle the built-in benefits trap by introducing citizen's income. Allow people to live on CI without shame if they want to, allow people to feel good about contributing to society in other ways such as volunteering or caring.

Finally, tackle the barriers to employment that society calls disability.