Crippled, Queer, Anglo-European Ranter: Ekklesia

Showing posts with label Ekklesia. Show all posts

Monday, 12 October 2015

Non-Governmental ESA & WCA Research

Ekklesia are researching how Employment & Support Allowance (ESA)‬ & the notorious and much-hated ‪Work Capability Assessment (‎WCA)‬ might be reformed or replaced. To this end they have devised an online questionnaire. Most of the questions are multi-choice with optional boxes.

I only wrote one long answer in respect to how any future benefit ought to look. My answer for Q. 30:

"I think it should be far more tiered, with the more points you get the higher the benefit awarded in order to account for extra costs - or if not tiered then with the addition of non-refundable grants. For example, someone with impaired mobility should be given an award towards a wheelchair and with each additional impairment an extra grant; someone who is sight-impaired should be given a grant to cover the costs of technology. At the top would be quadriplegics awarded grants to cover all necessary equipment.

Alternatively, the State should have a centralised purchasing body in order to save money through mass purchasing. Or a mixture of the two, so if someone wishes to pay more for equipment or does not want the State-offered product, they are free to choose.

Those requiring care, ought to receive additional components to cover such costs or the State ought to be obliged to pay for necessary care as in Sweden, for example. The additional benefit to society is the creation of employment opportunities and thus more folk boosting the economy.

There may also need to be a way for folk to receive grants or extra benefit to access private health-care which the NHS will not/cannot provide. E.g. I need physiotherapy, which I have to pay myself, as due to very variable conditions I cannot keep appointments, thus the NHS refuse to provide. Similarly, I cannot access mental-health support, etc."

If you have been through the WCA-process, please do help out with this research. One is given plenty of opportunities to save and go back at a later time, if one so wishes.

[Image description: Ekklesia logo ©]

Sunday, 29 June 2014

Christian Hierarchy Forgets to be… well, Christian!

By now many will have heard or read about yesterday's demonstration on Westminster Abbey land in Parliament Square (London) by inter alia DPAC protestors. Disabled People Against Cuts can be followed on facebook or via their website. Bernadette Meaden has written the following succinct piece which unwraps the issues. Her brief biography appears below the article. She has very kindly given me permission to re-blog here. Bernadette writes for Ekklesia, a sort of think-tank looking at issues from a Christian & social justice perspective. There are many interesting, well-argued and thought-provoking articles on their site. Please take a look at one or two.

[Image description: Ekklesia's gif logo]

OCCUPY WESTMINSTER ABBEY

This summer almost a thousand people will be ordained as deacons or priests in the Church of England. It is a season of celebration, but for many who look to the Church to be a beacon of justice and compassion, events at Westminster Abbey yesterday left them feeling extremely disappointed.

As priests and deacons are ordained the Bishop will say,

"They are to proclaim the gospel in word and deed, as agents of God's purposes of love. They are to serve the community in which they are set, bringing to the Church the needs and hopes of all the people. They are to work with their fellow members in searching out the poor and weak, the sick and lonely and those who are oppressed and powerless, reaching into the forgotten corners of the world, that the love of God may be made visible."

On Saturday 28th June, people who are sick, and weak, and powerless, arrived at Westminster Abbey hoping to get the support of the Church in their struggle to save services on which they completely depend.

Disabled people are afraid that the government’s closure of the Independent Living Fund (ILF) will mean many of them are forced into institutions because it is easier or cheaper than providing care in their own homes. To understand what this means, please watch this video. And this applies to all age groups: severely disabled people in their twenties or thirties fear spending the rest of their lives in an institution, or trapped in their own homes without adequate care.

Journalist Kate Belgrave was at the protest and reported, ‘Disabled people continue to fight for the ILF through the courts. Today, they attempted to take things to another level and set up a camp in the grounds of Westminster Abbey. The hope was that the church of England would see the point of this extremely serious and important protest, and help facilitate a protest camp and discussion. The lives of these disabled people will be threatened without that ILF money. It’s as simple as that.

Unfortunately, the church seemed to miss that point – perhaps in its rush to get the Met on the line. Christianity was in very short supply at the Abbey today. Police poured through the gates to stop the protest and to stamp on tents, to make sure they couldn’t be pitched. They were very heavy-handed all round and must easily have outnumbered protestors ten to one.’

The reaction on social media was extremely critical of the Church. What was very interesting was that many who commented had a very clear and positive idea of what the Church’s position should be. Many may not have been church goers, or counted themselves Christians, but they had a clear view that Jesus was on the side of the poor, the weak, the sick and the powerless, and they were crying out for the Church to be so too.

John McDonnell MP, who was at the Abbey to support the protest, tweeted ‘Looks like Church of England has turned it's back on the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount as police surround disabled people at Abbey’ and ‘No contact from Dean of Westminster so it looks like at the most iconic site of Christian worship in Britain the Church is evicting disabled’. Financial broadcaster Paul Lewis tweeted, ‘Wonga shareholder calls police to clear disabled protesters off its lawn’

As it transpired, as evening fell arrests were threatened and police refused to allow food or medication to be taken to the protesters, so they were not evicted, they left of their own accord: to applause. The Church came out of the whole situation very badly. Al Barrett, a vicar in Hodge Hill Birmingham tweeted ‘Yet again CofE’s public face is that of the oppressive, defensive neoliberal state and not the vulnerable’

Disabled People Against Cuts who organised the protest, commented: ‘The protesters had no option but to leave the site……….many thanks to the church for chosing to protect their interests and their income from tourists over arguing in solidarity for justice for disabled people. #saveilf’

It was a great shame that the Church did not extend the hand of friendship and hospitality when it was so clearly needed.

For more information on the Save ILF campaign visit the campaign website

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© Bernadette Meaden has written about political, religious and social issues for some years, and is strongly influenced by Christian Socialism, liberation theology and the Catholic Worker movement. She is an Ekklesia associate and regular contributor. You can follow her on Twitter: @BernaMeaden

Thursday, 7 March 2013

#ESAendgame: Update on Day One

Title says it all - and what reaction! Here's Sue Marsh's follow-on blog. Remember: please leave your comments on Sue's site at -

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/esa-sos-starting-gun.html

#ESAendgame Beyond Day 1

The launch of #ESAendgame yesterday was simply remarkable.

Nearly 9,000 people have read about #ESAendgame in under 24 hours.

It was the most shared and read article online in the UK yesterday. (Ebuzzing News)

318 people have taken part in our consultation "What Most Needs to Change about Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Why" In DWP terms, 318 responses is very large. But I want 1,000 - 2,000 We MUST show that we truly represent the experiences and opinions of sick and disabled people and their carers. A consultation here with thousands of comments is a VERY powerful tool in anything we compile.

PLEASE keep sharing any of the consultation posts like yesterday http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/esa-sos-starting-gun.html

whenever you can and encourage people to comment - you don't have to be sick or disabled or a carer to understand that ESA is inhumane and want to stand up for justice. I can't stress enough that #ESAendgame is open to EVERYONE. In fact, the more non-disabled people, DPOs, charities, MPs and "influential politicoes" that contribute and who join with us, the more credible our response and more frightening for Government.

It is ONLY unity that will convince the government to think again, but with unions, the TUC, disability groups, political sites, everyday blogs on shopping and cooking and fishing, charities and politicians ALL talking about why ESA must be changed NOW we CAN win. But every last one of us has to join. Please, cross-post everything - you don't have to ask, just link back so we can estimate our reach.

So far, the issues people believe to change about the WCA and ESA RIGHT NOW (In order of most mentions) are :

Fear and Dread caused by the process

Constant Reassessment

The One Year Time Limit

Worsens Mental Health conditions

Continuing scrounger Rhetoric and made to feel dishonest and worthless

The Error rate and inaccuracies on forms and in decisions

Continuing inability to deal with Mental Health conditions

Makes symptoms/illnesses worse.

Assessments are inhumane

The assessment ignores own Drs/medical evidence

Removing ESA indefinitely for reconsiderations before appeal - fear of no income

Fear of the Brown Envelope

WCA is designed to make you fail

The Assessors are not appropriate to the condition

Only 30 days to return the ESA50 application form

The form is to hard to fill in and takes enormous emotional toll

It's just a tick box system that gets 1 in 6 decisions wrong. LIMA must go

The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is not a "real life test", not about what you can do in a real job

Poverty casued by out of control process

People dying days after being found "Fit For Work" - in ever increasing numbers

**TRIGGER** ESA process making some suicidal

A growing number of people are "Fit to Work" according top Atos, unfit according to JCP and stuck in limbo

Changes are purely ideological and not based on evidence

The process is clogged up and taking far far too long

Many Disability Testing Centres are still inaccessible

Lies on forms

Fear for the future of dependants without carers

The descriptors do not apply to many conditions

Money taxpayer is paying for this failure

Forcing abuse victims to discuss abuse with stranger

I think that's a pretty good start as mini-sections of a report to present to the public eh? Your quotes explaining each one and adding human warmth?

PLEASE we need new people to join every day and leave comments.

Name (or twitter/Facebook/pseudonym)

Constituency

1 line on what needs to change NOW about ESA

And please keep sharing every day and using #ESAendgame on twitter when discussing ESA. Let's keep building momentum

**PLEASE do remember to leave your constituency. It's not an address, but will be SO helpful later when we want to contact every MP and peer in the country to already have people who can send a quick email or two in every constituency.

Ekklesia wrote this wonderful article with a selection if #ESAendgame tweets, it's very powerful and another GREAT article to share. http://t.co/5yRsJCUpSd

As always, if you care about this, please sign WOW petition

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

LibDem President Fails to See Parallels with History

Are there any lessons to be gleaned from Nazi era pre-WWII Germany?

Tim Farron MP, President of the Liberal Democratic Party, is an open-minded sort. The following demonstrates that those in power really have no idea of the impact of their in/actions let alone of their utterances. Please do not attack Tim. He is one of the very few MPs I contact on a regular basis who bothers to reply and in fact, actually goes further, he tries to engage in debate.

The tweets are listed in chronological order from amongst different threads, so one can follow the wider conversation.

Colin-Roy Hunter @criquaer

@timfarron Read this for Holocaust Memorial Day & ponder why disabled folk in the UK feel so petrified! #wowpetition andrewbradfordauthor.com/ap...