Universal Credit what is in store for us all?

[sabine]

HI there well this is an update on my previous blog on ESA. Have just come back from the job centre and been told I will face an 'OUT SOURCING' interview with a private company to get me back into paid work. It sounds like a ploy to having my ESA reduced or messed about with when I am entitled to it for another year!! I have just picked up voluntary work after struggling for a year and now they want me back to full time work asap!! I actually want to work but after just achieving "Voluntary work" in the next breath the JC are pushing me into something I am not ready for. Seems like this government are targeting the disabled and sick!!!

[Melinda]

According to the DWPs own figures, benefit fraud is actually quite low. It stands to reason if the government want to save money on welfare, they are going to have to go after the genuinely sick and disabled.

The media will highlight benefit fraud, leaving people with the impression, that benefit claimants are scroungers. They don't mention the people who die having been found fit for work.

[tintin49]

its going to be hard. having to pay 10% of council tax bill. the bedroom tax and a general cut in most if not all the benefits will be hard for everyone. if you are sick and need to pay more money for convenience and help it can only mean more hardship.

i dont even tell people i have lupus as i look very healthy. very tall and i look quite fit. lots of hair and no rashes apart from heat rash on my neck/chest. i am not a candidate for help or sympathy. people would have a field day if i ever had to claim sickness benefits.

its like creaming but you have no voice

[katerowley]

its most likely to get you off ESA and onto the work programme.

my names kate, and im just starting my second year on the work programme, with pertemps my first year the jcp made me voluntary full time for 30 hours a week, and i was glad when friday came that i had a day off cause i was that tired.

I find i get more hassle from the jcp than i do from pertemps, like at the moment the jcp want to push me into 16 hour vacancies, which i dont think pay enough, and all you get told is get two jobs ( wish i had the energy for two jobs) and then you get threatened with sanctions all the while, I feel im stuck between a rock and a hard place, with the lupus and being tired, and im recovering from cancer to, having had 2 major ops to remove tissue and muscle from my shoulder and my back, which has left me weak, and unable to carry anything on that side.

and to top it all i had an appointment for in work assessments yesterday, and they told me with the new benefit changes, would depend if i still got DLA then i would be better off, if i lose my DLA i will also lose any working tax credit i would have been entitled to and i will be worse off by £50 a week.

im having a problem finding a job for this week, i really dont no what i will do, as i really dont want my money stopped for 6 weeks.

[sabine in reply to katerowley]

Thank you kate, you are right they have tried to get me onto a work programme. I have stuck them out and explained that I am doing the voluntary work they asked me to do and i cannot at the moment manage full time work. Its frustrating as i want to work but have to listen to my body and nap when i am tired. i think self employment will be the way ahead for me.

[katerowley in reply to sabine]

obviously where you live they are kinder, I didnt have a choice although they say its voluntary, voluntary to them means, refuse and get your money suspended, like i said i have been on it a while, and you treat animals better than what they treat us, I have had my money suspended for 6 weeks, the reason they give is i missed a vacancy i could have applied for, im sure i didnt, when i asked what vacancy and for them to show it to me, they couldnt. They will tailor the work programe for you, like im only able to do part time, but i was told by a previous advisor that its not worth their while to find me a job because they dont make any money out of it, and only last week i overheard one of the advisers say he was sick and tired of hearing jobseekers moaning and complaining of reasons why they could not apply. I stopped voluntary work last month, cause i was getting bullied, im still on anti depressants, but in january i have to go back on voluntary work, and back to college to do IT2, so im going to be exhausted again. I have done 2 yrs voluntary work so i have proved i can work, like you i would love a job, but because of my headaches and blackouts, i cant drive, and im finding employers dont want you if you cant drive, i.e. gala bingo and fighting cancer has taken a lot of strengh, and im not out of the woods yet, has ive found a lump on my leg tomorrow ive got to have an ultra sound to find out what it is. In the work programme defence it is good for some people, like my sister, who has connective tissue disease like me, she hasnt worked for a long time, cannot use a computer, and doesnt meet the governments basic numeracy/literacy level, but after that they have no resources available, their idea of work training is 24 hours, and only if you have an interview lined up. im sure there are full time vacancies that they dont fill which could be job shared one of my ideas put to their head office. But I cannot tell you in all honestly the point of me going there, they dont do jobsearch for you, unless they think your lying, then you can prove them wrong I think this service could have been better provided by the jobcentres and saved 9 billion pound.

[nicky1234]

blooming eck what is this esa? i am so sorry you are being forced to work when your

not able and threatened in a way. this govenment is a disgrace i have heard 72 people a week

are dying either cause of suicide or after they are have been declared fit for work.

they have not called me up yet, but they call my husband and he was placed in wrag they did not see him he had no interview .

nicx

kate have spoken to your mp? xx

[katerowley in reply to nicky1234]

its employment support allowance nicky, i think it was incapacity benefit at some point. the citizens advice bureau have told me i should be on that, i would lose £30 a week for 12 weeks, and after that probably still end up on JSA, so i really dont see the point. I am not surprised actually that people are feeling suicidal, ive spoken to people who have admitted to me, that the work programme, has made them grow grey hair, trouble is if you have any problems there is no one you can turn to, I found they were parking me to one side, and when the JCP bought the new job sheets out where i had to put what my work provider pertemps were doing for me, i didnt have anything to put down, and the JCP said they couldnt help me it was down to the work provider, so I made a complaint,the manager called me on the phone, shouting, and screaming like a fishwife, so i just said whatever and put the phone down. I called my local MP, and i got a message back, that it was not his problem.

In desperation I sent a letter to david cameron, who replied to me, and he also ticked the work programme off, i was hauled in front of the bitch of an area manager, interoggated like i was a criminal,i was told i wouldnt be transferred to another provider, I was slandered i wasn't really ill and was making it up, and i was making excuses to hide behind so has not to get a job, at this point, i refused to reply, so when i got home, i wrote a letter to my consultant, although he was away at that time and its taken a while i now have that letter, and i emailed it to my employment advisor, with a message, I hope this satisfies you and your manager, and proves your allegations were unfounded.

Well im following things closely, because my sister is a long term sick case, shes had a letter, and forms to fill in, a telephone call, so im waiting to see if she has an interview, I cannot comment how sick my sister really is, we both have the same illness but she has asthma, we both have had cancer, but mine was more intesive surgery than hers, and ive got slight mobility problems, but i got a feeling if they are making me work, they might do the same for her, which i can tell you she doesnt like the idea off.

[nicky1234 in reply to katerowley]

hi wrote a reply then clicked off { doh. }

have you thought of going papers i know a lot could not do

this but its something to consider.

i am on a site about benifits on facebook.

if you join let us know i will give you my name on there.

its disgusting what people are going through. big hugs xx

facebook.com/groups/1384411...

[katerowley in reply to nicky1234]

Well after what they did to me last time, i dont want to go through that again ( i was publically humiliated infront of all the other unemployed people, i.e. this what happens if you start complaining) unfortunately they hold all the cards, they could easily tell the jcp to suspend my money, so i have to tread carefully, and im due to leave the work programme in 2013, although i hate it, i have to be realistic i need money to live till i can get a job. we dont have a local paper, its closed down, i have posted on the guardian site, when they were investigating the work programme. i will join cause im already on facebook. but i think the brunt of it is, there is nothing we can really do we just have to go along with it, i have already told mr. cameron this is an expensive white elephant, that will never work, and we wont get rid of it, unless we get a new government.

[nicky1234 in reply to katerowley]

hugs kate sorry they are doing this to you.

it should not be allowed but now many people are suffering,

was not there a law against victimisation against the disabled.

seems human rights dont apply to us.

you will see me on there infact can you send private messages

on here. will try a litttle later and give you my facebook name.

or will be back with the sites i am on. keep your chin up. not easy

i know hugs nicx

[katerowley in reply to nicky1234]

I think a lot more will suffer before this government is done, before they only threatened the ones signing on with sanctions, now if you dont fill the forms in they tell you, you will get your money stopped.

well i just think about my end date with work programme, every week is one week less, and by the time i finish college which will be about april 2013, i will only have 5 months then

Well i have joined the group on facebook, and im using the same photo on here, so if you want to look for me, do so.

[nicky1234 in reply to katerowley]

hi hun which one did you join? wwill have a ganders. xx

[katerowley in reply to nicky1234]

the one you gave me

facebook.com/groups/138...

[silverback]

hi my wife was diagnosed with lupus 19yrs ago at 18, when she was 23 she was advised to give up work due to cronic fatigue & other symptoms but she refused to give up work saying she would not let her illness run her life. she continued to work for another 7yrs untill due to severe hip/back pain caused by failing joints/callapsed discs, she has had two ops on her hips every 2/3 months she has cortisone/steriod injections in her hips & epidural in her spine, she is in constant pain suffers from depression she has a whole host of other unerlying symptons. Apart from the rash on her face she looks fine she was registered disabled & recieves DLA. now someone has reported her saying because we have a horse she is not disabled although we got it through RDA (riding for disabled) & gives her something to get up for/look forward to, she is being investigated for benifit fraud she has had 2 interviews under caution which they are not interested in what is wrong with her they are only interested in proving she is not entitilled to the DLA she recieves she has been interaggated not interviewed called a liar,told she lied on the forms she filled out although the princes trust helped with all the forms to make sure everything was correct & above board & she got what she was entitilled to. Now she won't leave the house she thinks every one is against her, she is so paranoid I've had to take her back to the doctors to get a change in meds to help her cope with it. I know they have a job to do but when you tell them contact her specialist they can tell you what is wrong with her they say that is down to her to do they are just trying to prove she is not entitilled, it just seems the goverment is out to get people off benifits by any means possible. she has been told she has to attend another interview (the last 2 have totalled 6hrs),But this time I have cotacted a soliciter to go with her so we will see what happens now !

[nicky1234]

hi,

get in touch with your m/p tell them your wife is being hounded and you need help,

well done on the solictor.

can you get help of the princes trust at all?

if i come across any help as i go on other boards i will let you know.

please tell your wife she is not alone and i am sending her big gentle hugs xx nic

[sabine]

Thank you all for your comments they have been helpful.