Housing Benefit - effective reductions

I've received my latest assessment for Housing Benefit. I gave the Council notice in July when I received notice from my landlord of the annual increase - which this year was well above inflation. The increase started in Oct. The Council sent me the assessment on 3 Dec. Are they overworked?

The upshot is that for the third year in a row my rent has increased at more than inflation and my benefit award has stayed the same. This amounts to an effective 10% reduction in Housing Benefit. And that extra comes out of ESA (Income Support as was).

If Housing Benefit does keep pace with rents then the poor will be getting poorer. I'm not too badly off being single, frugal and living in shared accommodation, but for some people this effective reduction in the amount of money they get will be hurting.

ESA and WCA

So. I last mentioned that I was waiting for my WCA results in August (4 Aug 2012). The result came that I have been put into a Work-Related Activity Group. And at the time I had no idea what this meant. It sounded like a scheme to get me back into work. I could have saved myself a lot more misery by reading more about the process, but at the time I was in no fit state to go seeking information - this is part of the problem, yes? And when you get the letter there's really nothing to say what it means.

What it means is:

"Claimants identified for this group will take part in work-focused interviews with a personal adviser, and have access to a range of support to help them prepare for suitable work." 

A guide to Employment and Support Allowance – The Work Capability Assessment. ESA214. June 2011

Anyway I decided to appeal without the full information. But once I found out I decided to see it through for  several reasons. I felt I needed more support from the government, and I did not want to be subjected to the horrors of the WCA again. I haven't written about my experience of the WCA yet, but it was traumatic. But I also just wanted to appeal to say FUCK YOU to the system that was saying fuck you, to me. I wanted time and resources to be tied up. I wanted to contribute to the wave of appeals, to boost the statistics that the WCA does not work.

A couple of weeks later I was summoned for my work-focussed interview. Each letter one gets from the DWP is combined with a subtlety stated threat that if one does not comply one's benefits will be cut off.

So I attended the interview where I alternated between extreme hostility verging on paranoid about how this might affect my appeal, and breaking down in tears. And it took some time for the information to sink in that I was not expected to look for work, but that if I did decide to do so they're support me in some way. It took a long time to get an answer to what "support" means. It seems to me that it's aimed at people who're never worked (whereas I was a professional for many years before becoming ill) or who were living really sheltered lives. Which I suppose I am, though I'm reluctant to see myself this way.

After this as I say I decided to continue my appeal. I must say a big THANK YOU to the Citizen's Advice Bureau who coached me through the stages of the appeal and gave me an over-view of the process. I can recommend CAB to anyone thinking of appealing a WCA judgement.

To support my appeal I had to approach medical professionals and ask for their help. My GP was very helpful and supportive and wrote a note which emphasised the points that I had asked him to more or less. Part of the CAB strategy is to go through the transcript of the WCA and identify places where one got less points than one should have, and ask Drs etc to reinforce the need for more points. I also approached the past pyschotherapist I had seen and asked for her help which was also generously and compassionately given. (And she said that she thinks I have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder which I'm not sure we had discussed before). Then I wrote, with the help of a friend, a long critique of the WCA pointing out inaccuracies, omissions, and numerous spelling and grammatical errors! I bundled it all up and sent it off.

And I won! I WON! I got moved to the Support group:

Support Group: If the effects of a claimant's health condition or disability are so severe that it would be unreasonable to expect them to prepare for work, they will join the Support Group. These claimants will receive the higher rate of Employment and Support Allowance and do not have to take part in any work-related activity as a condition of receiving benefit (although they can volunteer to do so). ESA214

And the good news is that I get about £20 extra a week. Now I'm still not sure how long this will last, or whether they will force me to undergo the WCA again soon, but I did point out that in the three years between my initial assessment for Incapacity Benefit and Employment Support Allowance my condition had not changed, and that the balance of the medical advice was that my condition was unlikely to change much, and that work if anything would make it worse. So hopefully they'll leave me alone.

That said I'm looking into ways of escaping from the system. I am looking at full-time study. This would be extremely challenging both physically and mentally but it might be doable with the right help. I'm more than capable of getting a PhD but my illnesses at various stages have made me back away from following through on my potential. My interests have changed since I last considered the possibility and I would need to do an MA or similar in my chosen subject before enrolling for a PhD. I'm using this year as a run up and a chance to explore funding opportunities for a one year MA or MPhil. It's what I love doing anyway and would take about 5 years. Not a bad five year plan! After that who knows?

This process has been six months of debilitating stress:

• Apr 26 - warning that benefits are about to change.
• May 10 - request to complete ESA50 (which replaces IB50)
• Jun 03 - reminder re ESA50
• Jun 18 - notification of WCA
• Jul 09 - WCA (by registered nurse).
• Aug 22 - notice of benefit change to ESA.
• Sep 10 - acknowledgement of appeal 
• Sep 26 - DWP employee rings me to try to "sort out" my appeal over the phone. I take this to be a thinly disguised attempt to screw up my appeal by an unscrupulous employee trying to meet targets.
• Oct 02  - Personal Advisor interview.
• Oct 22 - Appeal decision
• Oct 25 - Notice of change of payments.

Self deceptions

I've noticed with the Olympics that it gets co-opted.

A woman I followed on Twitter wanted to make the point that women were dominating the medal podium one day. She was apoplectic when I pointed out that it was because they only competed against women. If they had taken equality to it's logical conclusion the Olympics would not have a separate category for women it would simply celebrate the best at each sport. And some women would make it. I imagine that South Korean archer Ki Bo Bae would be there - she is awesome. But in athletics men run faster, jump higher, lift and throw heavier weights, the swim faster etc etc. Look at who holds the world records in most sports activities and it will be men. I don't see this as a put down, it's just a fact. And yes it is quite true that the fastest women are faster than the average man, faster than me. But this does not alter the fact. I grew up with women assuring me that thy were not only as good as men, but better in many respects; that they could do anything and probably better than men; that women deserved to be treated as equals or betters in any aspects of life. OK then let's have a level playing field in sport. There's no reason why most sports need to have separate leagues and separate competitions for women. Why should women runners not run against men? Where size is a factor - as in weight-lifting or judo - we already have weight grades to even things up. I'm all for equality.

Another person wanted to compare the medals that Scotland won with the medals that New Zealand won. Except that Scotland didn't win any medals - the United Kingdom certainly won a lot of medals and within Team GB (as it is inaccurately called) there were lots of Scottish Athletes. Would Scotland win so many medals if they were independent? We'll never know until they follow through on the independence movement. New Zealand is a separate nation, and we did not benefit from UK money or facilities. And we did not have a home crowd advantage in the last couple of weeks. Same with Yorkshire claiming to have won more medals than any other county. So what? Yorkshire wouldn't survive for 10 years as an independent country - they're absolutely dependent on wealth generated elsewhere in the UK (including Scotland). One of the main proponents of this Yorkshire lark is Jon Lord Prescott - who is so fat these days he couldn't run 100 metres let alone race it, though I'd want to be arms length away when I said that because not doubt he's still got a mean left hook.

It's all just a weird form of jingoism - dividing into arbitrary groups and then saying "we're better than you are". As if that really means anything that one's neighbours are good athletes. I like seeing Kiwi's doing well, but I don't then claim to be a superior person on the basis of that. It's not me that won the match! Why should I feel good about myself because someone I've never met and never will has played a good match, or run fast?

Medals were won for your country not by your country.

ATOS Victims Group: a webpage which tells the truth about ATOS, who they are, how they operate to force ill and disabled people off benefits and into the job market (at a time of high unemployment); and the government and what their program of welfare is really about.

Unfortunately the government have waged a campaign of press releases which deride and disparage the ill and disabled and have manipulated public opinion. So welfare reform is a popular policy and many of the government's lies have been accepted as true. The truth is that benefit fraud is tiny, and mistakes in payments are high. Tax cheating costs the UK 100x as much as benefit fraud. White collar fraud in banking and finance have cost this country trillions of pounds. 

Still waiting

Still waiting to hear the result of my WCA. Depressed and despondent. Suicidal thoughts.

So now we know...

What we've suspected all along is that ATOS employ artificial targets aimed at shifting people of benefits into the workforce, and this at a time of high unemployment (though the most recently figures showed a decline in the jobless, the figure is still higher than when the ConDem goct came to power).

The Guardian have reported on a secret film made of ATOS training:

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

GP applied for job with Atos assessing whether benefit applicants were fit for work, and secretly filmed his training.

"Undercover filming shows Bick being told by his trainer that he will be watched carefully over the number of applicants he found eligible for the highest rate of disability payments."

The article also says:

"Large numbers of people found ineligible for the benefit are appealing against the decision to find them fit for work; about 41% of those refused support go to tribunal and 30% are subsequently granted the benefit. There have been more than 600,000 appeals since the WCA started, costing about £60m a year."       

Of course ATOS continue to deny that they set targets.

The film was shown on Channel 4 8pm Monday 30th July. It can be seen on Channel 4OD online.

Coming Out

The politics of mental healthLast month, four MPs bravely told the world about their own mental health issues in an effort to reduce the stigma. They talk about what happened next - Guardian.

The article mentions this website:  Time to Change. Thousands of people talking about their mental health problems.

Meanwhile 

Million jobless may face six months' unpaid work or have benefits stopped.
Community action programme to tackle long-term unemployment could prove expensive failure, says thinktank - Guardian.

WCA

I had my Work Capacity Assessment yesterday.

I was interviewed by a nurse rather than a doctor. The nurse did not perform any of the standard tests I have come to associate with my conditions -- fibromyalgia or anxiety/depression. He seemed to take my diagnosis as read, but was solely concerned with my ability to work despite the diagnosis.

But then as a nurse he could not really make that assessment and his job was simply to run me through a questionnaire so that other faceless bureaucrats could make a decision well removed from me. I have no right to face my accuser or to have a day in court over this. To the people making the decision I'm not even a person, just a file. And they have no idea of the consequences of their actions.

He was all business, appeared quite friendly, but not particularly sympathetic. At one point I burst into tears and it took me a while to get myself back under control. He pushed a box of tissues across to me. I tried to convey what my life is like when things are bad. He seemed to take me at my word on this which was one thing. But then I did not see what he was typing on his computer.

It was a grueling experience that I have no wish to repeat.

The one thing that has become all too clear is that being at the mercy of these cunts is not something I think I can tolerate long term. I'm going to have to find a way out of the health trap. I'm wondering about going back to school, but I'm not interested in practical subjects. If I could I'd like to study economics and public policy for instance. I've become quite concerned about how the government is trashing things. But where's that going in employment terms?

In any case I have to wait a few weeks now. I'm dreading being forced into job seeking. I wish I could have found a way out for myself before now. Losing the Income Support I've been getting and dropping down to the level of basic ESA is not going to be easy. It's about £25 a week less. At present I have about £50 of disposable income -- from which comes clothes, shoes, and any extras. I confess to spending most of it on trivial stuff, but it includes books.

At 47 and not having worked for five years now, who is going to offer me employment? Or will I be forced into one of these workfare benefit slavery deals? The chances are I'm going to fall apart under pressure and that's all going to be distressing for me, any employer and the people I work for.

Sensible Economist

Steve Keen, Autralian economist talking about the world financial crisis (which he predicted in 2005). He identifies the amount of private debt as the big problem. In the US it reached 300% of GDP. It will take decades to get back to manageable levels by paying off and bankruptcy. 

The solution is to abolish debt. Have a debt jubilee (by giving money to the debtors, but requiring people to pay off debts if they have them). Allow the banks to go bankrupt. Restructure them. Never again allow banks to lone money to people so they can speculate on the price of assets. If we don't the right-wing will probably rise up (as it did in the 1930's), and there will be widespread social unrest.

Reform economics so that it reflects reality (which is doesn't now). Don't over-rate sincerity, the most sincere person you'll ever meet is the maniac with an axe trying to chop your head off. Or indeed the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions...

Physical Functions

Can you walk at least 200 metres before you need to stop? [this unaided by another person, but including
walking stick, wheel chair, crutches]
Can you walk up and down 2 steps without help from another person?
Can you sit for an hour without help from another person.

And the answer is every case is HOW OFTEN? How often am I required to do this? Once a week? Once a day? 10 times a day? 100?

ESA50

Filling in the ESA50 form which has replaced the IB50. The last time I filled one of these in, the emphasis was 'what is wrong with you?'. Now it's 'why aren't you out working?'.

The questions are terrifying in a peculiar way. They want to know shit like

can you get out  of bed and wash your self?
do you eat?
can you stand up or sit in a chair?
can you walk at all?
can you leave the house?
have you got minimal use of hands and arms?
can you socialise at all?
what do you do that might upset workmates?

The lists is so minimal. Like a basic list of human functions. And you just know that behind each one is the implied question, 'if  you answered yes to this question, then why aren't you working?' Can you fill in this form? Yes? Well you, my friend, just qualified for the workforce. Are you alive? Well get a fucking job.

This is much worse that IB50. I don't think I'm going to make it, but then that means that I'm supposed to go back into the workforce. I'm panicking just thinking about it. What it will mean is that welfare is cut by £25 a week, and I'm forced to apply for jobs that no one in their right mind would give me.

Some of the things I can do once or twice, but not continuously or repetitively. Certainly not two days in a row, and not without the help of a hefty dose of codeine. But they do not test for this, and they never have. How do I make them test me for the problem I have?

Weasle Words

Got my letter today and the form, but only after a very weasely phone call. What with all this stuff about "may affect your benefits" - you must fill in this form or it "may affect your benefits". What they mean is FILL IN THE THIS FORM OR WE'LL CUT OFF YOUR BENEFIT. Why don't they just come out and say it?

And what are they still saying 'You may be asked to come to an assessment"? It's fucking government policy that every single person receiving welfare because of illness will have to attend an assessment, so why fudge it and make it sound like an option. It's just bullshit.

Is it just them being English do you suppose? Fucking irritating. No one who has listened to the news in the last two years can misunderstand the intention of the govt, so why are they making it seem otherwise on the official forms?

OK, yes, I'm, freaking out. But wtf? Actually I'm terrified. I was looking forward to celebrating my 10th anniversary of arriving in Blighty, but it's going to be right in the middle of this process.

Meantime I have a molar in its death throes giving me agony when anything under about 15C touches is; plus swollen and tender gum around the root. So no room-temp food in the morning for instance. Dentist says he might be able to save it by replacing the filling, which over the years has grown to cover about half the tooth. So we're having a long drill in two weeks, and will have to see what happens. A root canal is next option.

And the current set of MEBs seem particular bent on driving me mad. I'm tired all the time and can't just pop out to the shops, so I asked them to not eat the white bread that I need to eat because of my hiatus hernia, and to either eat the brown bread that one of the other MEBs make, or to buy some more bread. But will they help me out on this? Will they fuck. I'm sitting here starving. Wondering what to do. I put 4 sweetners in my tea instead of 2 and it's undrinkable. It's four flights of stairs back down to the kitchen which is beginning to seem like a marathon each time I have to attempt it.

I've been having a lot of dark thoughts lately. Like I'd be better off dead. I actually don't think it would make much difference to most people, and my house mates would probably not notice for a week or two, and then I doubt they'd really care. One less irritation in their lives.

I get quite angry when I'm depressed. It's a thing apparently. Something that happens especially to men. I'm angry about having lost control of my life, right down to the white bread situation. I fucking hate white bread, but I need to eat easily digestible food that won't sit in my stomach and cause acid reflux. I'm fucked and waiting for it all to be over, but the humiliations never seem to end. And I'm powerless to do anything about them.

Review Time

It's been a long while since I posted anything here. Things got kind of busy and I was dealing with it all. My health has been declining gradually in that I'm becoming increasingly tired. Which makes everyone ask: have you got Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or ME? No. I have Fibro-myalgia... still. I'm now taking codeine as my main pain relief, but don't feel very good about it, and I don't really like it (fuzzy head, constipation, and worry of habituation & addiction etc. that come with opiates). At the moment I have a candida infection in my ears, and I'm somewhat haunted by all the stuff that used to go around about systemic candida infections. Might have to look into this.

Anyway I'm writing now because I finally got a letter from DWP saying they are reviewing my case. The inevitable consequence will be an ATOS review. I feel sick with anxiety, and I can't really talk about it to anyone.

Step one: they ring and talk to me on the phone.
Step two: fill in another IB50 form or whatever the equivalent is.

Then they say "you may need to attend a Work Capacity Assessment" but of course they're forcing everyone to have a WCA and ATOS are charged with taking welfare away from as many people as possible.

I suppose one must grant that the welfare bill is high in the UK and that it is fair enough that they check from time to time whether I still need it. But as the NHS can provide no effective treatment for my conditions (except maybe the ear infection), then I don't know why they expect me to have improved.

I don't know. I'm just worried sick. And it means I'll have to start answering the phone during the day as well!