A new Political Period.

Original:  http://croydonmhf.livejournal.com/1789.html

Also:  http://croydonmhf.livejournal.com/1831.html There will be controversy here be warned.

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As the dust settles a new Political Period has begun. We have a Majority Tory Govt, and Gavin locally admitted to me in a husting that the Work Capability Assessment was not done well enough by ATOS. So...

What other issues are there?


This is a list of what we have so far:

- PIP: Money is ok, but the waiting times are awful. I don't know about decision accuracy yet. This is one to watch. They do seem to assess the right things, but we also know Motability is not generous enough ( leading to Disabled People having to give up their jobs for example ).


- ESA: Maximus is the new provider for Medical Assessments, and Gavin has agreed that the WCA was badly done by ATOS. I need to keep an eye on the injuries etc ( that now have to be published ), and also make sure said WCA *does* improve. 50% Support might not be generous enough, being honest about it. We'll have to see what the official bodycount is ( my estimate was a ~4% fatality rate due to errors in ESA & PIP, near-enough ).


- Universal Credit: The amount given to Disabled kids has halved. That cannot be allowed to stay as is.

The Live Tax Calculator could be VERY useful to people like me who can do a little bit of work.

1 Income Stream per family is a fundamental flaw. It has to be one income stream per adult, for entirely 'Domestic Violence' reasons. The local UC Development Team know this, but are under orders from above. I'll have to lobby above to get that changed.


- No money on appeal or when a decision is delayed: This personally kicked me in for 2.5 months total in the end. It was agony. For real. I simply could not work at all during this period.  That has to go. You can't protect a policy this extreme.  It may be cheaper to not pay them in the first place ( rather than going for a 'claw-back' ); but if you injure or kill them doing this then you've either upped the NHS workload or, well, killed them (obviously).


- Mental Health Money/Funding: Obviously. Talking Therapy waiting times targets are most welcome, but how will that be paid for? Watch this space.


- Social Housing: Obviously not good enough. If the Housing Associations are badly damaged by a new Right To Buy Agenda they'll have to sell up. Private Landlords will step in at this point, so expect Rents to go up here. A solution might be The NHS taking over some of it, so that it can be shielded from the extremes of The Market. Not sure yet. It depends on what is forced on us.

Anyone building Social Housing will be welcomed, obviously.


- The UN is investigating us for Disability Rights violations: That's a good reason for Boris' Rebels to march on Cameron. There may be some hope there.


- Co-habiting issues: Obviously keeping us this poor if we find love, by taking away all of our Benefits ( bar DLA/PIP ) if our mrs/mr earns £10k a year or more, is just too extreme. I'll need to Lobby to get that pushed up to about £23k ( I doubt I'll get it higher, due to how extreme the Tory view on this subject is ).


- Benefits Cap: It's obvious that irresponsible breeding is a problem, but... Harming the kids already alive is not an option. Big Families etc.

I can't abandon those kids being left to rot, but this Govt IS going to push on this one. I will have to play the medical card more often most likely. Kids will turn to drugs and crime if left with no future options etc.

I think it reasonable that Child Benefit be limited ( in some way ) so as not to encourage people choosing to use kids as a wage ( as that clearly harms said kids. The Philpott case was particularly shocking ), but...  The kids that are already with us must not be left to die either.

This will not be an easy subject.  I suspect The Govt will not be generous enough here.


- Racism, Immigration, Asylum, & NHS stuff: Yeah, a toughy. Black Youth are in a real bad place now. Add to that the drug-culture thing that has risen around awfully right-wing White kids and... Both groups will fall Mentally Ill more and more now. That's a lot of work to deal with.

Talking Therapies will help, but you will need Equality stuff in the community too. Too many lynchmobs have happened ( which does link with the UN thing ).

This alone is a huge subject. Youth Provision and Education options will come in here A LOT. If there is no hope for these kids then we're stuffed before we even start. They'll simply turn to crime, and go for easy targets ( typically The Elderly ). No-one wants a collapse in Law & Order like the Croydon Effect on their door-step.


- Mental Health Prejudice in The Community: This one remains huge. Education must continue, to try and get people more welcoming to those of us unlucky enough to be injured. The Forum has a Mental Health Guide, so I have a tool to help with awareness. The Police remain useless on this subject for example. Just too many mistakes are being made. This needs seriously sprucing up.


- Carer Support: Carer burnout remains high. They're just too Poor. I need to watch this one. I suspect The Carers are the next in line for a kicking. Seeing as tired staff make mistakes the system is already too risky with the current poverty-pay Carers get generally. You can't have the injured carrying the injured. It's obvious how risky that is.

If Carers Allowance goes then the workload on The Council will massively increase.  At a time when there is little money in the system.  It's gonna be rough, that much is obvious.

Child Carers will need special attention, so that they can get an education whilst helping mummy ( for example ).  Kids frying due to burnout is simply NOT an option.

They can jump side-ways to Income Support at present, but for how long if The Govt is serious about these cuts?


- The Work Program.  Much as getting some work in can often be a good thing ( who wants to be poor? ) if the work placement is not appropriate it can injure a Disabled person ( sometimes badly ).  At that point you are back to square one.  Accuracy in any placement needs to be there if ANY force is to be applied to Disabled workers.  That much-needed accuracy clearly does not exist at this stage.  ESA deaths will be published soon.  We know it's going to be bad.

At the same time access to Tribunals is now VERY expensive, and there is next-to-no Legal Aid about these days.  Some Unions are offering to cover these fees, so it may well be worth joining a Union.

Being able to lie about Mentally Ill people to have them forcibly removed from 'things' remains too easy.  In Social Inclusion language this is a disaster.  Again, The Police need training here ( for example ).  The number of Rights the ill and infirm can actually use in the real world remains pretty-much non-existent; due to a combination of poverty, discrimination ( by the services ), and too many innocent mistakes.




So this is where you tell me if I am right or wrong on the key issues.  Please use the comments below, or you can email us at CroydonMHFStaff@gmail.com.

Just to say that this one is on the radar under 'ESA - Support Group access not being generous enough'.


If someone is so Mentally Ill they can't function in the WRAG, and then pick up a sanction, we have 3 key issues:

- ATOS/Maximus bad work. If their assessment is bad, obviously.
- DWP bad work; for ignoring the long-term doctors, and instead rolling with a quick 20min assessment by a physio ( usually not an expert in Mental Health, let's face it ). This is a shocking level of medical ignorance.
- DWP cruelty, in not having the option to emergency re-assess due to this decline in health ( if someone is spiralling health-wise the last thing you do is to then starve them ).


The Mental Health Forum is vehemently opposed to people who are already ill to the point where they are having trouble working then being starved if their illness gets in the way of their normal functioning. It's clearly not good practice.