Thursday 7 March 2013

#ESAendgame: Day Two's Task


Here is the great Sue Marsh's ESAendgame task for today - absolutely anyone can join in. Please post your comments & links via the following:



I have however listed the links I posted on Sue's site as examples. Happy searching!


You in for today's little task? #ESAendgame


*Waves at all the #ESAendgame people blushes a little there are so many, clears throat*

So, most of the public don't have a clue what ESA or WCAs are. For the next few weeks we need to dig out and share some of the best ESA stories or TV programmes or radio debates we remember and share them around. Everywhere.


Please post your favourite links in the comment thread. **IF LINK IS LONG PLEASE INDICATE WHERE IN ARTICLE INFO IS** 

Again if you can please leave your 

Name (or Twitter/Facebook/Pseudonym) &
Constituency


Here's a few tips :

-Always use the full Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) at first so people start to learn what it is. Same with WCAs

-Remember a particualar time Graying got shown for the liar he is? 
-Remember punching the air when the Mail or Telegraph or somewhere actually wrote something fair about ESA? 
-Remember a statistic that literally blew your head off?
-Remember the first time you read something so clear, a huge penny dropped?

-Dig them out and share share share. At work, online, on twitter
-Be prepared to be patient at first if people ask questions. They almost certainly won't be very sympathetic at first, but that's what they've been told, most people aren't unkind.
-Absolutely never rise to trolls under any circumstances. Stay polite and informative.

We need people to really start thinking about ESA, understanding what it is and what we're actually so afraid of and cross about. Print some off and scatter them round at work, in the hairdresser, on noticeboards - nothing is silly.

Time to fightback with facts!!!!

1 comment:

  1. Too well for ESA, not well enough for JSA:
    http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/2224-esa-appeals-nightmare-confirmed

    Ed Miliband/Labour's letter on ATOS/WCA & failure to adapt quickly enough:
    http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/02/27/letter-from-ed-miliband-on-atoswca-but-is-it-enough/

    Workprogramme's 0.2% success rate for getting disabled into work; so what point WCA?:
    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/work-programme-finds-jobs-just-1723543

    "The iniquities of the work capability assessment (WCA), which disabled people have to pass in order to continue to receive benefit, have been well recorded. Decisions are overturned in 38% of appeals heard and 14% of GPs say they have patients who have self-harmed as a result of fear of the assessment or actually going through it. A further 6% of GPs say they have patients who have attempted or committed suicide.":
    http://www.communitycare.co.uk/articles/25/02/2013/118938/flawed-fit-to-work-tests-pile-work-on-social-workers-and-harm-clients.htm


    "A poll out on Monday showing that a majority of the public believe welfare spending should be increased or kept at the current level has surprised many people.":
    http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013/02/public-attitude-to-welfare-claimants/

    Now "more and more stories are filtering into the press creating negativity for the Government. Stories of poverty, of starving children, of people dying..." These are "Sign[s] Of Weakness: The Government Are Losing Their War Against The Welfare ‘Scrounger’":
    http://welfarenewsservice.com/a-sign-of-weakness-the-government-are-losing-their-war-against-the-welfare-scrounger/#.UTiwshxJI_0

    "If, as IDS says, benefits are being paid as wages for work experience schemes, then ... I suspect that it breaches minimum wage laws. If they are not, as officially claimed by his department, then we have forced unpaid labour.":
    http://www.latentexistence.me.uk/iain-duncan-smith-has-no-respect-for-manual-labour/


    Clause 99, Catch 22 – The ESA Mandatory Second Revision and Appeals. Unfairness. Weeks or months with no income:
    http://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/735/

    "The figures are pretty stark: out of 68,000 ESA claimants placed on the Work Programme since it began, only 1,000 have found jobs lasting three months or more...":
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ouch/2013/01/the_great_disability_scam_as_t.html

    Stats counter official ConDems rhetorical narrative, so naturally DWP unwilling to comment...:
    http://www.thefedonline.org.uk/disability-in-the-news/government-stats-show-most-new-esa-claimants-are-not-fit-for-work

    **Trigger Warning** Alas since "not found" altho' listed when searching! Benefits Cuts, suicides and deaths. | Politics UK
    26 Dec 2012 ... Mark and Helen Mullins were found lying side by side in their home after committing suicide together.They had been left destitute after Helen ...
    politicsuk.eu/archives/12537:
    http://politicsuk.eu/search/?cx=partner-pub-6454226542398136%3A4908208190&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=suicide&sa=Search

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