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1. When Bair talks about reforming the benefits system,he means cuts,loss or denial of entitlement and measures to bring our system into line with the draconian American welfare system.Since New labour came to power they have proved worse than Margaret thatcher,(who began benefit reforms in the 80’s), ever was.
   I am at a loss to understand why a so-called Labour government seems to hate some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in our country.
   Blair will not dicuss current benefit levels,nor will he explain this pathological crusade he and his cronies are carrying out against those on incapacity benefit.Oh he never ceases to remind us about benefit fraud.It is the only benefits topic he and in fact the media are willing to discuss. He will mention what his government have done for pensioners.Let’s not forget the pensioner’s vote and that they have a powerful lobby is the thinking behind that.
   People living on other benefits,especially those on disability benefits are a continual target for Blair,and have been since he came to power.
   Claiments have an extremely difficult time trying to get the benefits,and even people with Consultant’s reports detailing life threatening illness,poor life expectancy etc.,are rejected by the DLA and Incapacity benefit decision makers.This is common practise.That this oppression is instigated and sustained by a self professed Christian is more disturbing than ever.Blair is on record as saying he bases his socialism on Christianity.However if you try to querry his policies as to whether they square with his profession of faith in Christ we are told by his spin doctors,"we don’t do God".
   For years benefit claiments,particularly the sick and disabled have had no political party to stand up for them.This is still the case.
   We all know benefit fraud exists and that it is wrong;but fraud extends to many areas other than the benefits system.
   It is evil and wrong that a group of voiceless and defenceless unrepresented people(benefit claimants) should be singled out to be the special target of draconian and uncaring policies from Blair’s hypocritical government.
   If we want to talk about fraud the whole invasion and occupation of Iraq has been sustained by fraud,and how much money has this cost the taxpayer?

   Comment by lazarus issass — 12 Oct 2005 on 7:13 pm | Link

2. FIRST, I KNOW OF MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE TAKING FROM THE STATE.WHY ARE THEY STILL GETTING AWAY WITH
   THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO GET CARS ON THE STATE AND ARE FIT, THEY CAN WALK MUCH BETTER THAN MYSELF
   IVE TRYED AND HAVE BEEN TOLD. NO.I DONT MAKE THE GRADE YET PEOPLE WHO HAVE BIG CARE GET PARKING PERM, AND HAVE THERE ROAD TAX PAID.WHY IS THIS STILL GOING ON,,I HAVE REAL MEDICAL PROBLEMS. AND
   I CANT GET HELP.WHY ITS SO WRONG,

   Comment by ROBERT SAYLE — 16 Oct 2005 on 11:11 pm | Link

3. FIRST, I KNOW OF MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE TAKING FROM THE STATE.WHY ARE THEY STILL GETTING AWAY WITH
   THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO GET CARS ON THE STATE AND ARE FIT, THEY CAN WALK MUCH BETTER THAN MYSELF
   IVE TRYED AND HAVE BEEN TOLD. NO.I DONT MAKE THE GRADE YET PEOPLE WHO HAVE BIG CARE GET PARKING PERM, AND HAVE THERE ROAD TAX PAID.WHY IS THIS STILL GOING ON,,I HAVE REAL MEDICAL PROBLEMS. AND
   I CANT GET HELP.WHY ITS SO WRONG,

   Comment by ROBERT SAYLE — 16 Oct 2005 on 11:12 pm | Link

4. Firstly,I have heard a number of people say the kind of things you have said about fraud.In the fifteen or so years I have been suffering with two life threatening illnesses,I have only ever met one benefit fraudster,and he was caught and dealt with.What I have found is that some folks make allegations of fraud but on further investigation they turn out to be groundless suspicions.
   What I can say say is that when some fraudsters are caught they are put on T.V.or the front page of gutter rags like the Sun or Daily Express.This helps to put in the public consciousness the idea that fraud is more widespread than it is and this creates a culture of suspicion,which is what the government wants.In this climate it is easier for them to introduce benefit cuts.The press and media will not discuss,either because they don’t care or because of a clandestine agreement with the government,benefit issues other than fraud like benefit rights,benefit levels and cases of unjust denial of benefits to people who are in desperate need of help.
   Some years ago the Blair government wrote a glossy to all G.Ps telling them how they would like doctors to deal with patients who were likely to claim Incapacity benefit or other disability benefits.This was a blatant interferance with the independent clinical judgement that every patient has a right to expect from their G.P..This placed doctors and patients in a very difficult position with some patients feeling they were denied support because of the political sympathies of their particular G.P..This has led to much friction between patients and their family doctor.
   In response to Robert’s statements about his knowing many taking from the State,(I assume he means fraudulently),some examples of benefit injustice rather than benefit fraud follow:-
   1.A family in desperate need denied a grant for help with floorcoverings by the Ministry of Work and Pensions(D.H.S.S.)were threatened with having their children taken into "care"because they couldn’t provide these floorcoverings themselves.
   2.A disabled man whose only way of getting about in his home from room to room was to drag himself around on his bottom ,denied a grant for floorcoverings.(Unbelievable but true)
   3.A man who had a heart bypass but suffered unstable angina afterwards had his benefit cut to \xA355.00 a week because he’d had the operatiion which should have cured him.
   4.A man lost his disability benefit on release from hospital after a cancer operation before it was determined if the operation was a success and he could actually now return to work.(This was the partner of someone who actually was a DHSS Civil Servant)
   5.A man with diagnosed serious heart disease given a comparatively short time to live by his Cardiologist denied Disability Living Allowance four times by DHSS Decision Makers.
   These are just some examples including two with whom I have personal involvement to illustrate what has been going on.They are not unusual by any means.THE COUNTRY JUST BY AND LARGE DOESN’T KNOW,OR DOESN’T WANT TO KNOW.
   All I can say to you Robert is that if you are ill and have a benefit entitlement keep fighting.Don’t give up.That’s what they want you to do.That’s partly why the system is so complicated.Go to the C.A.B.or write to your M.P.if you haven’t already.Find someone who will take an interest in your case:and,there are caring people out there:they’re by and large just not part of New Labour.
   Keep on keeping on.Remember there are millions and millions of unclaimed benefits each year.Why should you not get what you need.I hope you do.

   Comment by lazarus issass — 17 Oct 2005 on 2:29 am | Link

5. What we should not lose sight of is that, in a very real sense, at the end of the day, the bottom line is that, clearly, we need to wake up and smell the coffee and realise that the pm and his family have nothing like the level of benefit provision which, as a grateful nation, we should afford them. It is a national disgrace, for instance, that Mrs Blair-Booth cannot, as a QC, a judge and -in her own words -a "prime minister’s consort" make ends meet and is often forced to beg for money from the public in Washington DC and to appear in public in clothing donated by world-renowned passport specialists Hinduja Bros plc. Add to that the fact that when Mr Blair does retire he will struggle on a meagre six-figure sum pension and will also be forced to solicit living expenses from Messrs Haliburton Inc and from various charitable publishing houses and media friends of the late Mr Alastair Campbell and we can see clearly and in a veryrealsense that disabled persons, the elderly, the sick and the pensioners have a really cushy time in this country and should all try a bit harder; it really is time that the wheelchair brigade asked not what the government can do for them, but rather what they can do for the government, which, as we all know, has its hands full rendering disabled or downright dead large sections of the civilian population of Iraq.

   God help us Mr and Mrs Blair-Booth cannot even afford a holiday and were it not for the kindnesses of Mr Sir Richard Branson and Mr Sir Cliff Richard would not have had one for years, unles you count the ones in Italy with that prince fellow.

   As a disabled person myself -although wholly unacquainted with Ms Kimberly Quinn and sadly no longer siring children- I call on my fellow disablees to renounce their benefits and their parking privileges and insist that savings so delivered be placed in a special fund ring-fenced for the futures of The First New LAbour Family; God knows that they would not be too proud to take money from anyone. God bless David Blunkett.

   Comment by nigel chambers — 18 Oct 2005 on 11:16 pm | Link

6. What we should not lose sight of is that, in a very real sense, at the end of the day, the bottom line is that, clearly, we need to wake up and smell the coffee and realise that the pm and his family have nothing like the level of benefit provision which, as a grateful nation, we should afford them. It is a national disgrace, for instance, that Mrs Blair-Booth cannot, as a QC, a judge and -in her own words -a "prime minister’s consort" make ends meet and is often forced to beg for money from the public in Washington DC and to appear in public in clothing donated by world-renowned passport specialists Hinduja Bros plc. Add to that the fact that when Mr Blair does retire he will struggle on a meagre six-figure sum pension and will also be forced to solicit living expenses from Messrs Haliburton Inc and from various charitable publishing houses and media friends of the late Mr Alastair Campbell and we can see clearl and in a veryrealsense that disabled persons, the elderly, the sick and the pensioners have a really cushy time in this country and should all try a bit harder. God help us Mr and Mrs Blair-Booth cannot even afford a holiday and were it not for the kindnesses of Mr Sir Richard Branson and Mr Sir Cliff Richard would not have had one for years, unles you count the ones in Italy with that prince fellow.

   As a disabled person myself -although wholly unacquainted with Ms Kimberly Quinn and sadly no longer siring children- I call on my fellow disablees to renounce their benefits and their parking privileges and insist that savings so delivered be placed in a special fund ring-fenced for the futures of The First New LAbour Family; God knows that they would not be too proud to take money from anyone. God bless David Blunkett.

   Comment by nigel chambers — 18 Oct 2005 on 11:29 pm | Link

7. Excellent comment!

   The PMOS has revealed the ‘truth of the situation’ as Blair might have it. It’s now confirmed that the government is having a fundamental think. I have always believed that this government thinks with its fundament – and usually speaks from it as well. Hence when they are in a seated position their voices seem to go all muffled.

   You could not make Blunkett up – no one would believe the combination of sheer stupidity and (visually needy?) arrogance that this buffoon has displayed to date. Add to that his appalling vindictiveness and you have a real caricature of a human being.

   Comment by Chuck Unsworth — 19 Oct 2005 on 1:48 pm | Link

8. Yes,
   I heartily endorse these comments.One gets the sense that "out there",is a scream that is deafening in it’s silence.
   Real suffering is taking place and has no representation in this growing dictatorship.I have wondered many times if the nation is under a spell or in some altered state of consciousness that it will not look at the pain,or doesn’t believe the pain that many of it’s citizens are existing in.So good has been the propaganda assault on the public’s collective mind that it is almost impossible to penetrate the dense cloud of suspicion and ignorance that covers benefit claiments and benefits issues.
   To be sure we must as a nation do more to relieve poverty in the third world,but we must also realise honestly that there is very real poverty in this country of a different order and nature.And wheras the citizens of the third world command sympathetic endeavours and programs from many organisations set up to do just that,and rightly so,there is only a profound silence from the country at large concerning our own poor.
   Does the average person know anything about benefit levels?How are they worked out?Who decides how much a person needs to live on?
   Do they care that people with life-threatening ill health or serious mobility or care problems have their cases routinely dismissed no matter how much medical evidence they produce?
   It is bad enough to be ill but to feel one is a target of suspicion and that what one receives one has to fight for,and then it’s always under threat of review and possible withdrawal,(as benefits rules change through a system of internal reorganisation secretly becoming ever more draconian),only adds to the suffering of people.
   And stress makes an ill person more ill,and also contributes to premature death.
   This terrible government know of the link between stress and illness and also poverty and illness.
   Blair’s hard and callous personality has been on display for the world to see in the death and misery he and Bush have created in Iraq.We can’t really expect him to show any mercy to our own people.It is foreign to his nature.
   The only hope for people on benefits whether one is disabled or not is for some coming together to stand against the injustices collectively in unity,and for decent people amongst the press and media to take on board these issues and to publically highlight them.What is needed also is for people to confront what has become an uncaring national attitude serving the gods of self and materialism.Hardness of heart has become the order of the day and it’s time it wasn’t.We are our brother’s keeper.Let’s not be his destroyer.

   Comment by lazarus issass — 19 Oct 2005 on 3:46 pm | Link

9. Robert, inform the SUN or Daily Express, they have publicised and shamed the various organisations involved with your dilema in the past and have possitive results, fortunately for us we have gutter rags eh!.

   Comment by P.M.Kinnie — 29 Oct 2005 on 2:33 am | Link

10. Well the Daily Gutter Rag,er,Express is at it again with it’s ultra Right Wing one-sided view of Benefits issues.Here we go with the front page devoted to alleged benefit cheats.The justification for this is usually something like,"genuine claiments are glad to see the cheats weeded out.It’s better for them."The truth is nobody ever asks benefit claiments what they think.People on benefits have an opinion not worthy of consideration it seems.
    What reporting like this does is put in the public mind the suspicion that all claiments are cheats.So how does that help genuine claiments?
    Also how can the public judge,with all the journalistic licence that takes place how true this story is.
    What is certain is it will suit Blair and his evil hard hearted crowd in their current campaign against incapacity benefit.The Express like most of the press and media knows this full well,and if they cared one iota about the voiceless and politically unrepresented benefit claiments their reporting would focus on the injustices of the Government’s benefit policies and the suffering they cause,as well as fraud.

    Comment by lazarus issass — 14 Nov 2005 on 5:31 pm | Link

11. Amen to that.

    The difference between all the rags is harder to find, though. Its not just the Express. The Guardian is run by smug rightwingers, professional celebrity liberals who’d screw their grannies for a few quid; the Independent has that vile woman Yasmin Brown who has made a fortune our of promoting racial separatism and some chubby rightwing teenage moron called Harry Johnson or something telling all the boring grown-ups that Mrs Thatcher was right really, like a force-fed and uglier version of the young William Hague. Private Eye just a part-time interest for the little fat dwarf Hislop, broadcaster, journalist and all-round BBC parasite.Have I Got License Payers Money For You?

    The press is enough to make strong men puke. Best thing is to lead by example and not read it. I think william Rees Mogg said that.

    Comment by tasty macfadden — 14 Nov 2005 on 11:43 pm | Link

12. Reading through what people have written here I have to say that I agree with it all. I am on Income Support for health reasons, and I can’t remember when I last read a newspaper article sympathetic to people on benefits. They only write about benefit fraudsters, or they try to give the impression that everyone on benefits is living the life of Riley with three cars, Sky, 5 foreign holidays a year, and designer clothes. They never write about the true picture, about the continuous uncertaintanty we have to live with of not knowing if or when the whole benefit system will end, or about how we have to struggle to manage to make ends meet. It is frightening the way that the government and newspapers are saying excactly the same things on benefits-sometimes I feel as though I am living in a communist country, because of the way that not one newspaper speaks out on our behalf.

    Comment by Tiina — 8 Jan 2006 on 5:21 pm | Link

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