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. 

Opposition

A number of voices are emerging which are critical of the welfare reforms:

Atos doctors could be struck off.

Twelve medics at the disability assessment centre are under investigation by the GMC over allegations of improper conduct. Guardian 14.8.11.

DWP admits disability reform based on dodgy figures, as reported by Left Foot Forward. 11.8.11

Statistics Authority steps in over disability benefits tests. Full Fact. 11.8.11.

These work capability assessments are a farce.
So, politicians designed an incapacity benefits system in which virtually nobody qualifies for help. How can that be justified?, Guardian. 26.7.11

Some of these via Benefit Scrounging Scum.

Meanwhile local housing charities, with encouragement our millionaire uni-student PM are taking it upon themselves to pre-empt the courts and punish rioters by evicting them from their houses. Apart from the alarming prospect of state sponsored vigilante justice (why not just lynch them and be done with?) we have to ask how evicting people who everyone acknowledges to have no stake in society is going to help?

Please write to your MP and ask them to put a stop to this madness and let the courts punish wrong doers. Let's tell David Cameron to just shut the fuck up. Cameron is not trained in law, or policing or any of the disciplines he is trying to micro-manage in the last few weeks. He's got a degree in economics, philosophy and politics, and work experience as a secretary. He is not fucking qualified to have an opinion, and that's why he has advisers. I was very pleased to see the police telling him to fuck off and mind his own business.

There is NO BENEFIT to Being Debilitated!

Glancing at the disabilities and welfare blogs I read I can see that the situation is dire in the UK. We're doomed basically. All kinds of other policy initiatives introduced by the manic phase new government are being reversed or rethought because they are incredibly unpopular. Welfare reform is not unpopular. And one has to ask whether this is because from day one, aided by a parasitic news media culture, the DWP waged a propaganda war against the benefit system, often stretching the truth to make their point, and making the most extreme abuses seem like the norm for all benefit claimants? Or is the popularity of welfare reform really what people want? I would argue that it is a clear case of manufacturing consent.

The very language here is fucked. The welfare payment is not a benefit, it's a fucking consolation for losing your job (so often because of economic forces outside your control) and/or becoming so ill that one cannot work. It's a minimal payment - and they reinforce the minimal in their communication with the applicant: "this is just enough to stop you dying, but don't get cocky".

There is no benefit to becoming so ill you have to stop working. Even Pollyanna would struggle to look on the bright side of debilitating illness - oh yes it's great not having to work, and the charity shops have the most intriguing range of hand-me-downs; if only I were not in constant pain and able to walk I would feel I was the luckiest person in the world. NOT. And welfare is not claimed, it is applied for certainly, but it is granted by the powers that be whose mercy we are at, and we are never allowed to forget it! Rather than a benefit claimant I would prefer to be known as a Consolation Grant Applicant, and the payment to be called a grant rather than a benefit.

The trouble is no one is listening to people who rely on welfare payments. All they see is someone getting something for nothing. So, even more than bankers, the system targets those who receive welfare, and the general population either supports the measure or quietly turns away and let's it happen. Pray you never get ill - all you able bodied people out there. Pray. Because once you do become ill, you become "outcast".