British government’s war on disabled people

This satiric music video from Britain says about itself:

The Iain Duncan Smiths – “Girlfriend in a Coma (She’s Fit for Work)”

3 November 2015

Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know she’s fit for work
Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know she’s really fit for work

I think we’ll have to find her a placement at Poundland (unpaid!)
Or if not, maybe a menial role at the local Job Centre
Prop her up at a desk

Do you know yet if she’ll pull through?
And if not, when is her expiry due?
Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know she’s fit for work

She’s fit but, my gosh, she doesn’t know it

Just because she can’t respond to any stimulus
Doesn’t mean she should get to skive off like some kind of wastrel
Is that how you’d like to see her?

Do you know yet if she’ll pull through?
And if not, when is her expiry due?
You better give her her last rites, I think she just died

The British government is not only waging war in Syria, including on Syrian civilians. They are not only waging war in Britain itself ~~against terrorists~~ … oops, against doctors.

But that is not their only war against an ‘enemy within‘ in Britain.

From daily News Line in Britain:

Saturday, 9 January 2016

Disabled ‘fit for work’ assessments failure!

THE privatised assessment tests which find sick and disabled people ‘fit for work’ are ‘failing claimants and taxpayers’ and must be ‘brought back in-house’, civil servants union PCS said yesterday.

The PCS was responding to the latest National Audit Office (NAO) report released yesterday which shows disability benefit assessments have doubled in cost, costing the taxpayer a whopping £579m last year alone.

Labour MP Meg Hillier, who chairs the public accounts committee, said the cost was ‘staggering’ and sick and disabled people needed ‘a better deal’. Private provider Atos was forced to quit its contract in 2014 after the government itself admitted that Atos ‘was not fit for purpose’ and that the ‘process was riddled with problems’.

Figures show that thousands of disabled and sick people died or committed suicide within weeks of being declared ‘fit for work’. Atos was replaced last year by US firm Maximus. Now the NAO report states that problems ‘have not been tackled – and may even have exacerbated’ under Maximus.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘This report, while disappointingly limited in its scope, casts grave doubts on the policy of privatising this very sensitive public service. ‘Claimants need to feel they are being supported, not targeted, and we will continue to press for this work to be brought back in-house.’

The key findings in the report include:

• Schemes still suffering from backlogs, delays and poor quality
• Providers continuing to struggle with hiring and training staff, with knock-on effects on costs and standards
• DWP not learning from its mistakes, with recent performance showing ‘it has not tackled – and may even have exacerbated’ – problems when setting up recent contracts.

An example of one of the tens of thousands of disabled and sick people wrongly assessed as being ‘fit for work’ is the tragic case of Dawn Amos. Dawn Amos was a 67-year-old woman who suffered from severe breathing problems which meant that she could not even walk to the shops.

Nevertheless she was told to attend a test and was assessed as ‘fit for work’. Dawn Amos was sent the letter telling her that she was ‘fit for work’ and not eligible for disability and sick benefits on the day after doctors turned off her life support machine. She died of chronic lung disease.

Her husband Mick said: ‘By the end she could only just get down to the bottom of the garden, about 45-50ft, and that was about it. She had to sit down before she could walk back. She couldn’t even get to the shops on her own. How ill do you have to be?’

Shadow Labour minister for disabled people, Debbie Abrahams, said the report exposed a ‘shambles’, adding, ‘Too many disabled people have been badly let down by these assessments.’

19 DEAD, 25 WOUNDED IN VICIOUS KNIFE ATTACK IN JAPAN In the worst mass killing for the country in decades, Satoshi Uematsu went back to his former place of employment, which was a facility for the disabled, and went on a stabbing spree. He had previously warned that he wanted to attack the facility, saying he would be helping the “disabled die in peace.” [Reuters]