The Perilous Politics of Envy

I am disabled - hence the "crippled' in the name of this blog. I also live in the Manchester area (in North-West England). Our local newspaper is titled Manchester Evening News, which is locally and within the press sector abbreviated to M.E.N.

[Image description: a screen-shot of part of the cited article]

Today the paper published an article authored by Jennifer Williams and entitled: Revealed: Human cost of hard-hitting welfare cuts in Manchester.

Below is an extract:

The first detailed study into how benefits changes are hitting Manchester has revealed the ‘human cost’ of swingeing welfare cuts.

New research warns of overcrowding, new social ghettos, soaring levels of debt and mental illness – with minorities bearing the brunt.

The analysis – by the council, housing providers and Citizen’s Advice Bureau – examines a string of policies, including cuts to legal aid, the ‘bedroom tax’ and the benefits cap.

It finds minority groups – including the disabled, women and certain ethnic groups – are being hit disproportionately hard by the policies.

As far as I am aware this is the first time our respected rag has printed such an item since the creation of the UK's ConDem coalition government. Most of the the twenty-odd comments were rather reactionary. This stimulated me to submit the following commentary.

"I am simply appalled by some of the comments listed under this article; but wish to express my gratitude to M.E.N for publishing the item.

It looks like many commentaors (sic) have bought into the insidious polemic in the mainstream media: the rhetoric of divide & conquer and the politics of envy.

I am non-partisan. I am disabled. I worked for the Civil Service in the 1980's where each year under Thatcherism I was a recipient of annual salary cuts due to below-inflation 'rises'. I retrained as a teacher, a job I loved until disability forced me to retire on ill-health grounds. I have no regrets: life took me where it took me.

However, I have no compunction about claiming the benefits to which I am entitled. I paid and still pay thousands in taxes (income tax, duties, VAT, etc.) as well as National Insurance Contributions. There's a clue in the latter's nomenclature - 'insurance'. I paid into the scheme and now, due to circumstances beyond my control, I am making claims on that scheme; in the same way one makes a claim against car insurance, home insurance, health insurance, credit-card insurance, warranties, and so forth.

Some commentators seem to be under the impression that I should exist in penury just because I claim social security payments. Instead of envying that to which I am entitled, I should suggest such commentators support moves for all citizens to be paid a living wage (not to be confused with the minimum wage) including our pensioners, who are some of the worst looked after in Europe. Additionally, I should suggest that folk sign up to campaigns, such as wowpetition.com, that are attempting to ensure that our treasured social protections are not removed.

British culture has long had the values of fairness and justice at its heart: I sincerely hope we don't lose such treasures. %)"

Update:

A commentator retorted:

"Colin, the majority of people have no problem with people like yourself. As you I and millions of other people have a problem with those who have not contributed put it you have "Paid In". 
a single bean, but expect to be given something for nothing.
I managed to retire at 48, having been sensible and making provision to have a decent pension. I hate to think how much i have paid into the system, and will continue to pay into the system as i am taxed on my pension.
The only benefit i will get is the oap, thats if the goalposts are not changed in the next 15 years or so."

So I responded:

"Disabled children have not paid into the scheme; youngsters in local authority care have not paid into the system; qualified unemployed youth and young adults cannot get jobs, so cannot pay into it either; then there are the carers who save the nation a fortune (usually estimated at £Billions) in care costs, their insurance is paid for them by a grateful nation.

On your logic, these folk should not receive benefits to which they have not directly contributed.

I iterate that this is against British values of fairness & justice."

Billions removed from local economies - due to Government folly

The UK ConDem coalition government in its economic stupidity and arrogance is part-way through slashing social security payments to those in need - the vast majority of the British population benefits from such payments, now euphemistically termed 'welfare' by the spinning propagandists amongst the neo-liberal élite.

For those unfamiliar with UK taxation: inter alia, all employees, self-employed and carers pay (or have paid on their behalf in the case of the latter) national insurance contributions. These monies are supposed to be used to fund social security payments: for those who find themselves in straitened circumstances (the unemployed, the underemployed & the working-poor); for those with disabilities (to help towards the extra costs they face residing in a disablist society); for those with illnesses which mean they cannot work; for the terminally ill; for parents to help raise children. It is a type of insurance scheme. As such, not everyone will need to claim; but most do at some point in their lives, even if for example only child benefit.

The ConDems have cut billions of pounds from benefits whilst they have in practice turned a blind-eye to tax avoidance & evasion by international conglomerates and wealthy individuals. In April they gave millionaires a whopping tax-break whilst at the same time cutting benefits to tens of thousands causing misery through penury, hunger (hence the concomitant rise in the use of food-banks) and increased homelessness. The ConDems in their rhetoric call this "fairness" to taxpayers. However, every adult is a taxpayer, paying a least one of the innumerable taxes in the UK: from income tax, duties, television licence fees to VAT and car tax.

[Image description: Cameron transmogrified into a Ferengi]

A week ago I reported that the BBC chose to ignore the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion's (CESI) report commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents all English and Welsh local authorities whatever their respective political colours.

I have taken details from pages twenty and twenty-one of the report and list below the effects in roughly ten percent of these local authorities. The reader will note that local economies are losing millions of pounds. The knock-on effect is that local businesses have less custom and end up closing. This results in even more money lost to local authorities, not taken into account in the figures listed, due to loss of business rates and so forth. Furthermore, the Exchequer loses out on corporation taxes from once profitable companies. And so on. This is economic madness all done in the name of austerity, a policy adopted in the early part of the twentieth century and which led to the length of the Great Depression.

Everybody, including the middle classes, is losing out. Only the ultra-rich continue to prosper. And this is "fairness"…

The Stats

Woking Local Authority’s economy loses c. £14,400,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,735.30 to 8,287 claimant households.

Burnley Local Authority’s economy loses c. £29,300,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,736.49 to 16,874 claimant households.

Waltham Forest Local Authority’s economy loses c. £70,400,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,739.64 to 40,487 claimant households.

West Somerset Local Authority’s economy loses c. £8,000,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,757.22 to 4,526 claimant households.

Hounslow Local Authority’s economy loses c. £57,300,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,758.32 to 32,597 claimant households.

Islington Local Authority’s economy loses c. £55,900,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,761.23 to 31,735 claimant households.

Tower Hamlets Local Authority’s economy loses c. £71,600,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,761.64 to 40,621 claimant households.

Luton Local Authority’s economy loses c. £55,700,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,770.39 to 31,448 claimant households.

Rossendale Local Authority’s economy loses c. £19,300,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,771.81 to 10,892 claimant households.

Blackpool Local Authority’s economy loses c. £57,600,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,778.63 to 32,365 claimant households.

Oldham Local Authority’s economy loses c. £72,700,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,788.95 to 40,652 claimant households.

Croydon Local Authority’s economy loses c. £91,700,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,792.01 to 51,171 claimant households.

Hyndburn Local Authority’s economy loses c. £27,700,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,819.52 to 15,222 claimant households.

Blackburn with Darwen Local Authority’s economy loses c. £53,500,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,826.31 to 29,276 claimant households.

Brighton & Hove Local Authority’s economy loses c. £67,000,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,830.55 to 36,591 claimant households.

Hammersmith & Fulham Local Authority’s economy loses c. £38,800,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,832.17 to 21,204 claimant households.

Pendle Local Authority’s economy loses c. £28,300,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,835.59 to 15,406 claimant households.

Lewisham Local Authority’s economy loses c. £81,700,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,835.65 to 44,511 claimant households.

Newham Local Authority’s economy loses c. £98,500,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,869.03 to 52,682 claimant households.

Slough Unitary Authority’s economy loses c. £37,300,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,873.91 to 19,925 claimant households.

Kingston-upon-Thames Local Authority’s economy loses c. £25,100,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,874.66 to 13,400 claimant households.

Redbridge Local Authority’s economy loses c. £65,300,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £1,881.08 to 34,695 claimant households.

Haringey Local Authority’s economy loses c. £81,700,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £2,019.10 to 40,487 claimant households.

Enfield Local Authority’s economy loses c. £97,600,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £2,019.26 to 48,315 claimant households.

Harrow Local Authority’s economy loses c. £51,800,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £2,046.22 to 25,320 claimant households.

Ealing Local Authority’s economy loses c. £91,700,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £2,076.59 to 44,181 claimant households.

Barnet Local Authority’s economy loses c. £81,400,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £2,105.62 to 38,664 claimant households.

Hackney Local Authority’s economy loses c. £89,300,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £2,132.97 to 41,863 claimant households.

Camden Local Authority’s economy loses c. £58,600,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £2,194.93 to 26,677 claimant households.

Wandsworth Local Authority’s economy loses c. £66,200,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of 2,242.61 to 29,257 claimant households.

Brent Local Authority’s economy loses c. £124,000,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £2,774.80 to 44,688 claimant households.

Kensington & Chelsea Local Authority’s economy loses c. £57,000,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £4,068.80 to 14,048 claimant households.

Westminster Local Authority’s economy loses c. £129,200,000.00 due to an average loss from social security cuts of £5,161.14 to 25,038 claimant households.


WoWpetition

If the reader is a UK resident or a UK passport-holder resident outside the UK, you may wish to support the campaign against the War on Welfare, known as WOW. The link to the official petition and more information can be found at wowpetition.com .

WoWPetition Plea

For good or ill, I have just posted the following letter on my facebook status. Some 35% of my facebook friends have confirmed they have signed the petition; but I really don't think that is good enough - do you? Maybe you might be willing to write something similar yourselves. We have to do something to increase the signature count. That means ALL of us. Please take action!

[Image description: the writer in wheelchair signing a huge card

to celebrate the 65th birthday of the NHS]

Dear friends & followers,



I am severely disabled under NICE criteria and more often than not sick; house-bound the majority of the time; bed-ridden some two-thirds of the time.

I am doing something to fight for Our NHS so it does not become fragmented and expensive and unaffordable to the majority as in the USA, including the middle-class.

I am doing something to help ensure social security protections, the national insurance scheme that nearly all have paid into or contributed to in other ways (e.g. by caring for others, saving the State a fortune), is not downgraded to a USA welfare system that does not even protect children.

I am doing something to raise awareness of inequalities, unfairness, discrimination, bureaucratic bullying & intransigence; and thus standing up (metaphorically - obviously!!!) for traditional British values.

I am grateful for those of you who have already signed the WoWPetition; but many of you still have not done so (unless you're hiding your light under a bushel!). I spend much of my limited awake time and expend much of my very limited energy fighting. I have caused myself increased pain and made myself ill by attending demonstrations. Surely you can spare a couple of minutes to sign a petition, verify the email and share the petition with your followers. I am willing to listen to justifiable excuses for not doing so; but I do expect you folks to rouse yourselves and take action with me.

If you cannot even sign a petition to protect your way of life, your health, your social protections and those of your kith & kin, what does that say about you?

If it really is too much to ask, please defriend me now...

Many thanks once again to those of you who have already signed and shared WoWPetition. Together we are stronger, united, one community. My gratitude. %D

Here's the link folks:

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

I hope you'll sign. Please.

[Image description: the writer in wheelchair (itself adorned in WoWPetition paraphenalia) wearing a wowpetition.com T-shirt, holding WoWPetition flyers

ESA50 Resolution?

[Image description: my ninety-eight page pro-forma ESA50]

In relation to my previous post Ongoing Torment of DWP's ESA50-form I have today (10th April) received a letter dated (4th April) from JobCentrePlus an off-shoot of the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP). 

(Not sure why it took the Royal Mail so long to deliver a letter, but hey!)

The contents advise me that I am "entitled to contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance" (ESA); but oddly enough, and quite typically for the DWP, there is no explanation as to what this is or what the ramifications are, if any. However, I note - though this is not expressed within the missive - that the decision has been made without reference to ATOS. Well, that at least saves tax-payers the cost of a fee. Hurrah for common-sense! And thanks to the kind decision-maker (DM); as that is one extra stress-factor I can now avoid.

Additionally, I "have been placed in the support group because [my] illness or disability restricts the possibility of working." Again no elucidation.

Apparently I am also going to get a '"top-up" payment'; but I am uncertain why it is needed or what it is.

I've had to go scrambling to the internet to attempt to determine whether this, all added together, is good or bad news. My understanding - and it is on very weak ground -  is that because I am in the so-called 'support group' AND am entitled to ESA based on previous payments of National Insurance (NI), I remain on ESA until such time as I ameliorate spontaneously or there is a miracle cure (none expected for at least the next fifteen years). So, I believe - shakily - that I can breathe a sigh of relief. Phew! Mind, my pulse is still racing from the panic-attack the arrival of the brown envelope and very long letter induced a few hours ago.

There is no information to enlighten me as to how the DWP reached their decision. However, I am permitted to:

" •     ask for an explanation

  •     ask for a written statement of reasons for our decision "

I think it is in my best interests that I do so, as one never knows what future changes are up the politicians' sleeves; so I really do need to know on what basis the decisions were reached. Furthermore, I can be re-assessed at the DWP's caprice. So no chance of my levels of anxiety abating.

Even now, I still feel as if I am in a skirmish with the DWP. As I previously wrote, the ongoing torment...

Judgmentalism of Invalids

Screaming. I awake to incessant screaming. But before I can work out the source, I am inundated by excruciating pain all over and throughout my whole body. It is then that it dawns upon me that it is me in agony and that the screams are mine. Except there is no external noise. Like the pain, the sound is internal. I open my eyes. It is still night-time: I can see the amber hue of the streetlight seeping around the edges of the window-blind. I try to lift my head to see the clock, but to no avail. I attempt to stretch out my arm and hand in order to bring the clock to my line of sight, but they will not move either. Gradually I try out various parts of my body to the accompaniment of rising panic, the never-ending pain and the continued screaming. I realise I am totally paralysed, save for my eyes. "So this is death", I think. I remain thus for a couple of days: occasionally lapsing into restless and fitful sleep; only aware of the passing of time due to the changing light conditions within my bedroom. Death. And I am in Hell, and hence the constant torture with no prospect of escape.

[Image description: photo of the manuscript image Hortus Deliciarum - Höhle (Hell) by Herrad von Lansberg, c.1180; folk being tortured in various manners by dæmons.]

It transpired I had caught a virus, a viral form of arthritis, giving me polyarthritis. Unfortunately, this proceeded to ignite my genetic disposition to osteoarthritis. In the fifteen years since that attack, arthritis of one kind or another now effects my left hip (with deferred pain into my right hip); lower spine; knees; ankles, feet and toes; wrists, hands and fingers. I am naturally of a fairly slim build, but there are days on which I swell up to look like a miniature version of the Michelin Man (inflated in all the wrong places!). However I can laugh about the effect these days with those that see me this way.

[Image description: black & white outline drawing of the Michelin man.]

I resumed my career for three months, before another bout saw me finish work permanently - although I did not know this at the time.

Since starting my last job, I had been constantly tired; but found that I did not recover at weekends or even after holidays. By the end of the week I would be limping and having to drag my leg. I was a tad scared, for I had known several folk up to that point who had experienced similar problems and they had all been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). After some tests I was relieved to discover I did not have MS. It transpired I have the neurological condition ME, or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, sometimes inappropriately and incorrectly referred to as Chronic fatigue Syndrome/CFS.

All in all, I suffer from some eighty (not eighteen) conditions and/or serious symptoms. I have to keep a spreadsheet to keep track of them. These fluctuate: some with the time of year; some with the weather; some from doing activity; some from lack of activity. No two days are the same. I never know what admixture I will awaken to nor how any day will pan out.

The amount of sleep (and I am not talking about the kind of restful slumber that leaves one feeling refreshed; but rather the kind that is fitful and leaves one feeling drained); the amount of sleep I average each night has increased from twelve hours, ten years ago or so, to fourteen-and-a-half hours currently. Unfortunately, there is no pattern to my sleeping. I cannot even always predict when my body might decide it needs to rest. One specialist has described my need to sleep as “narcoleptic”.

My mobility over time has also reduced dramatically. Over sixty percent of the time I am bed-bound. On really good days I can walk with sticks and a companion. In-between times I sometimes can use a mobility-scooter and sometimes a wheelchair I propel myself, though more often I have to be pushed. I can rarely climb stairs, so more usually have to crawl up them.

My current main consultant has forbidden me from swimming and recently also from walking more than one hundred metres at a time. Furthermore I can no longer do yoga, tai chi, ærobics, cycling, gym, hiking and especially dance.

I have lost my ability to read for periods of between two months and a year. I have developed dyslexia. I have difficulties concentrating and frequently forget what I am doing. In my previous home I was advised to have the gas cooker cut off to prevent me from burning down the house! At the moment I have care-workers to supervise my culinary exploits.

Blood tests, x-rays, CT scans, MRI scans, monitors, examinations. Specialist to specialist. There is nothing much that can be done for me. Though my current GP and consultant are doing their best for me, I know, and I appreciate their efforts. I have tried all sorts of drugs off-licence and am willing to try others. I have offered to go on any trials or experimental treatments and have done so in writing not just orally. I should dearly love to retrieve my old life: to work again; to socialise whenever I wanted; to dance. To dance again.

Most days I have to decide between eating or washing as I do not have the energy for both. For someone who was very OCD, not cleaning is a personal nightmare. Not eating has worse ramifications.

Fourteen years ago I was retired on the advice of my then specialists and the occupational health team of my (large) employer. No-one in the know expects me to work again, well bar some miracle-cure or wonder-drug.

Apparently the Government thinks that only about thirty percent of those that were on incapacity benefit (IB) should actually be on it. So I and just about every other disabled person I know lives in constant dread of the brown envelope that advises us we are going to be re-assessed. I have no issue with the authorities checking that benefits are still needed. I have no issue with the Government trying to encourage folk to work if they can. Unfortunately the system they have is not fit for purpose. Their independent adviser publicly stated that the system is not working in all areas of the country. Tens of thousands of folk are having to appeal and many are winning. In the past, twice I gave up my right to some benefits because I was too unwell to appeal. When I finally did succeed I was awarded the highest of three rates, which rather demonstrates that I really ought to have been awarded the lowers rates previously, as my condition deteriorated gradually. I imagine that really sick folk are just giving up and so many do not bother to appeal.

There is also a separate benefit called disability living allowance. It is not an out-of-work benefit (although the right-wing media and even Government ministers conflate it with IB which is an out-of-work benefit), but rather is meant to compensate the disabled person for the extra costs involved in doing activities that non-disabled folk take for granted. For example, were I to meet a friend in the city centre it would cost me the best part of £30 in taxi fares rather than £5 to use the tram (inaccessible to me). Many disabled folk cannot prepare their own meals so have to purchase ready-made foodstuffs, which are more expensive. And so on...

[Image description: black cab or hackney carriage.]

So occupational health say I am incapable of work (not just the job I did). Various medical personnel, including doctors and specialist consultants say I am incapable of work (not just the job I did). Even the Government thinks large numbers of disabled folk will never work. Despite all this, with no medical expertise, with no occupational health expertise, with no evidence, without even knowledge of one’s personal circumstances, some of the public, and especially the right-wing media, insist that I am capable of doing some work. Those in this category always back up their assertions with everyone knows someone who is cheating the system. Well, if they do know someone, surely it is their civic duty, as they are so keen to save taxes, to report the alleged fraudster. There is a Government hotline for this very purpose. Interestingly some ninety-seven percent of the so-called cheats have been found to be genuine claimants.

I, along with many other disabled folk, have paid high levels of National Insurance (NI) in the past, along with our taxes. The State took the money promising to support us if one’s health deteriorated or one found oneself in straitened circumstances, i.e no money on which to survive. But even those who have not paid tax and/or NI, ought to receive assistance in a civilised society.

The politics of envy is divisive and cruel. It’s about time politicians grew up and behaved like the exemplars they are supposed to be. It’s about time individuals grew up and educated themselves. Judgmentalism is not pretty and it certainly is invalid.