Time's Up

After several months of waiting, today I’ve heard back from ATOS. I have a date for the WCA on the 4^th of June. I filled my ESA50 back in January and it’s taken them 4 months to process it. I could try and change the appointment for an earlier time of the day as I’d much rather be the first appointment than be stuck in the waiting room surrounded by complete strangers and inevitably delayed. I have no doubt that the time I’ve been given (2:55 in the PM) will not be the time I’m seen.

Now begins two and a half weeks of stress and dread. I wish I didn’t feel that way, but then if that were the case I wouldn’t be in this situation of course. I have to travel to the appointment (I won’t tell them how) and sit in an environment I don’t feel safe in – despite the likelihood of the others present being even more dysfunctional. If these appointments could be carried out at, say, my local surgery, that would be much more amenable, but that’s part of the experience.

It is a sad and strange indictment of our world that I’m left dreading a service intended to be helpful. Even worse is the catch 22 that claimants are left with: if they turn up then it’s a sign they don’t need help, but if they fail to turn up, ostensibly because they can’t cope, it’s because they are lazy and don’t deserve help. It’s a horrible no win engineered by the government serviced for profit at our expense by ATOS.

But we all know the arguments. We all know ATOS and the WCA – and the government – stinks; just ask this guy. Now I have to decide what to do. The situation is even more complex: my sick note expires the following week and, until the decision following my test, is made I still need to supply notes. This means I have to persuade my GP to write another note, which I remain sceptical, or there is no point going through the test. If I were to eschew the test I’d have to claim JSA. To be honest I suspect that’s where I will end up; I don’t believe I stand a chance of passing this test at all given how the dying are being told to get a job! Oddly though, if I were to try and find or start a job right now and it didn’t work out I’d be worse off because I’d have to go back to the GP and somehow get a new note having just foregone my WCA for trying to do the right thing. This system means that you cannot do right for doing wrong.

So there you have it, I’ve got to queue up, hold my shit together, hope that the environment is safe and that the staff on hand aren’t a bunch of arseholes, hope that I am not kept waiting for hours on end – and hope I can get at least one more note pending an outcome that may take just as long to materialise (as this sentence) as this appointment.

And I’m one of the lucky ones in this awful disability lottery. 

Isolating The Weak

I do not want to dwell on the particulars of the murder of Stephanie Bottrill for two reasons: firstly it feels somewhat distasteful to bandy about the name of someone I have never met, and secondly because suicide is not painless. I use the word murder quite deliberately; austerity is being inflicted deliberately to cold effect. These people know what they are doing and incidents such as this as merely collateral damage to them. I’m afraid that is unacceptable; there must be some accountability and so I use a deliberately emotive and provocative term. Murder.

However, that aside, what is beginning to become clear is that when incidents such as these occur it is very easy to traduce them by way of mental instability. Mrs Bottrill must have had something wrong with her, specifically something psychological – mental – for her to take this course of action. This is reasoned out using the same mob tactics and fallacies that are always used: other people aren’t killing themselves, and other people are struggling. So the system, the status quo, avoids blame by effectively weeding out the ‘weakest’ and blaming it on imagined failings.

It may have been that she was particularly sensitive. I do not know, so no more can I say. There is nothing wrong with being sensitive; indeed it should be a respected quality of empathy and understanding that would help our society. Instead it is a weakness; one must be callous in order to succeed. The message from the government responsible for this tragedy is that she was at fault – or that the failings of her psychology are the problem. No matter how light a touch in delivering that message her failings individually are the catalyst; not the austerity, the forced impoverishment of everyday folk.

The system will not accept blame, and nor will its adherents. My greatest fear regarding the implementation of this nasty bedroom tax is that it will be rolled out so slowly and over such a long period that individual cases like this will seem few and far between. You will hear, what appears to be, the odd case, from time to time: a suicide here and an eviction there. The point is to make it seem as insignificant as I have portrayed it when of course the reality is very different with people’s lives being torn apart. As a result the solidarity won’t be as easy to come by as if the government launched its assault on everyone simultaneously.

Consequently cases like poor Mrs Bottrill will be further traduced by an already biased media. Comments from the government and the disgraceful ‘Lord’ Freud refuse to engage with the issue citing the tired cliché of not being able to speak on individual cases, or that it would be ‘inappropriate’ to do anything more than offer, with breathtaking hypocrisy, condolences. That itself represents a stunning psychopathy: I can’t remember the last time I heard of a murderer offering condolences while continuing to act.

To defeat this government there must be solidarity and there must be action. These are not isolated cases where the failings of the individual are more pertinent than the horrible policies of a vile government. This is just more divide and rule: separate the weaker members of the herd and isolate them – even in death.

Arrogance

Fuck.

I can’t believe how angry I get these days.

We have no voice in this society. No representation; it’s a closed shop. But beyond the predictable hatred of the ruling elite which no one can be surprised by lies the fulcrum of the problem: the media. If we can crack that, then half the battle would be won. But this is a propaganda war as much as it is anything else and the mainstream media not only ignores issues but frames discussions, using the lie of ‘balance’ against us.

It is a lie: they will invite on two people on opposite sides of the debate under the guise of balance when the truth is that one party is simply a bulwark for the status quo that the media then reinforces. This is exacerbated by the choice of speakers: it is very easy to bring on someone strong willed and opinionated by claiming they want to provoke robust discussion, and then offset them with a feeble and inept opposition voice; perhaps someone not used to speaking. For example, I saw an episode of the Alan Titchmarsh Show (the Daily Mail made flesh for god’s sake) in which the Taxpayer’s Alliance token pretty girl Emma Boon along with a right wing female journalist whose face you’d recognise but who’s name escapes me and, dismally, Kelvin MacKenzie were opposed by the hopeless token ‘leftist’ (a word I find quite condescending), Rachel Reeves. During this laughable debate about the state of the nation MacKenzie drew applause by claiming that we’d just suffered 13 years of socialism!

There was a piece in the Telegraph I have just accidentally discovered in reading about the recent murder of Stephanie Bottrill over the weekend. Stephanie, whom I have never met nor heard of until she tragically took her own life citing the government’s hateful pogrom against the poor, specifically the Bedroom Tax, as the last straw. She leaves behind children and grandchildren. This government are responsible for her death, hence my above choice of words. They have robbed a little boy of her grandmother; there is nothing else to say.

This piece, written by another right wing propagandist called Brendan O Neil, can be found here, claiming that the attitudes of the left are doing the disabled more harm than anything this government have done. This is a notion so offensive that it beggars all belief. Surely now all bets are off and it’s open season. How can we continue to allow people like this to draw a wage from the misery of others and from spreading lies and misinformation?

In fact some people claim this is satire. The implication then is that Mr O Neill is a very clever man and I am merely a pleb: someone too stupid to spot the truth. He’s a smart man and therefore he can get away with this.

Bollocks.

This is just elitist crap and this is not the first time such comments are attached to contentious commentary. We hear this a lot. It’s just a mask for nastiness. It’s no different than saying “I fucking hate queers” and then, in reply to the deliberately provoked and correct response, to say “aha! I was merely being satirical and you’re just stupid”. This is odious class warfare, but it’s what I’ve come to expect from the BBC and the press.

Enough is enough. These people need to be called out and shamed at the very least. I don’t condone violence, that’s what they want. But it’s not enough to just ignore them. They are trolls of the worst kind and deigning to ignore them is another form of feeding the troll. It’s being forced to behave in a certain way in response to their nastiness. Get these wankers sacked, shame them. They have to learn this cannot go on.

We are living in a society where kids are fainting in schools because their parents, having been sanctioned, cannot afford to feed them! Meanwhile the mainstream media bolsters the lie that, because this is Britain, poverty cannot exist here.

Enough!

This Isn't A Terribly Exciting Post

Just went to the doctors to see about rebooking an appointment to get tested for ADD/Aspergers/Whatever – it’s a great big nebulous area that no one seems to understand. Unfortunately I had to see a different doctor because of how badly organised my surgery is, but she was ok. It’s always nice when you see a pretty lady doctor; takes the edge off!

I still have to see my regular GP; my sick note will end in a month’s time. I tried to book an appointment afterwards only to find that, again, he’s on holiday. I have no problem with doctors having a break for heaven’s sake, but I seem to only ever want to see him when he’s doing just that (or moving house). Not only that but because he’s only available one day a week he’s in huge demand. I couldn’t even book an appointment for the following week because, despite advances in modern computer systems and IT, his diary doesn’t go that far. I can buy a paper diary that lasts 365 days, but the admin software at the surgery thinks the limit of the spacetime continuum is 3 weeks. Perhaps this is post-NHS Britain!

On the way home I bumped into a friend of mine not long removed from Incapacity Benefit now signing on. He tells me that the JC are making people give access to their Universal Jobmatch account. This doesn’t surprise me, even though the latest guidelines that I can find state that people cannot be mandated. It confirms the nature of this system: even if you are in the right all you do by complaining is make yourself a target. It depends on the attitude of the adviser you see. If that person happens to be a wanker then complaining will just get your card marked. You can’t really win and I’m sure they’ll just refer you to the Decision Maker which at the very least would cause no amount of trouble as the system presumes guilt before innocence taking much longer to rectify mistakes – if indeed it is a mistake, the rules might well have changed. 

Noted

According to the Telegraph, GP’s are writing sick notes for people that aren’t sick!

Now this is based on a survey of 4100 and roughly 80% of them said they had done this. They don’t mean sick notes of course; they mean the ‘fit’ notes that instead are meant to tell what a person can do. So for example a person that’s unable to walk could answer the telephone. But if he can’t get access to public transport (or he’s lost his motability car thanks to DLA changes) he’s got no chance of doing that job. In other words, it doesn’t represent the reality or the totality of a person’s experience. I for example could be helped to work from home, but that isn’t an option. Instead it is extrapolated that if I can work from home, I can work; period.

It’s not a huge survey and of course being reported in the popular press means it suffers from spin and an agenda. However I can understand the point being made. But what are doctors to do? If someone who has been sanctioned and left penniless turns up, what are they to do – wait till they need hospitalisation because they haven’t eaten in three months? Wait until they’ve ended up addicted to crack or are sleeping rough facing a life of crime through desperation? Doctors are issuing notes not because the world is as binary and simplistic as the Tories would have us believe, but because life is complex and expensive; this is the only option to help people.

I say I can understand this because this is the position the Work Programme, and thereby the DWP, has put me in. As a result of the sheer inflexibility of the WP and their lack of choice in being able to help (so they say) or recognise individual circumstances, I’ve had to ask my GP for a sick note. All along I have said that it isn’t that I can’t work at all, it’s that I have problems that make functioning in the system as it is extremely difficult. So what choice do I have but to ask? I know he isn’t happy about it; in fact because ATOS still have yet to get back in touch I’ve had to ask for a second and potentially a third (I don’t fancy my chances). Maybe they haven’t contacted me (and likely many others) because it’s keeps the results manageable. In reality it means being left in limbo: the Work Programme has failed me utterly and, as I’ve said many times, the help promised as an ESA claimant hasn’t materialised and that is why I claimed ESA!

Doctors are being used by this government to do its dirty work and unfortunately they don’t seem to realise this enough. Some think that it’s down to ATOS to sort out the malingerers and are happy to sign people off believing the problem is out of their hands. I’ve seen a GP with that attitude; I couldn’t really fault him for it that is what ATOS is supposed to do (actually what it’s really supposed to do is kick people off benefits according to DWP targets they don’t admit). Of course many doctors are probably Tory voters and so don’t really understand what’s going on. Others may be in favour of the current government and its policies, even on the NHS. Others still, like most of society, simply take the superficial view and regard us as lazy and weak willed. In all these cases the real problem is being ignored.

The article concludes with the following gems: 

"Overall, employee sick leave costs the UK economy £15 billion in lost output, the Government estimates.”

I’ve no idea what brand of tea leaves they divined this from but it looks like a massive guesstimate to me. How can they possibly know this? More importantly, if lost output – i.e. money – is so important then the government would surely be motivated to crack down on tax abuse? No? Quelle Surprise!

“An independent inquiry in 2011 concluded that many people with “manageable” conditions like stress or back pain are effectively being signed off work for long periods when they could actually do some sort of work.”

Who is to say what is or isn’t manageable? One person’s ache is another person’s agony. If you are suffering from pain in the workplace, even if it’s from something as ‘trivial’ as a bad back then you aren’t going to be very productive. Now maybe the employer can be convinced to equip his workplace with suitable furniture (if that’s enough), but more likely he’ll just employ someone that isn’t a ‘whinger’ or a ‘skiver’. That’s the reality, and that just means further marginalisation of the ‘weaker’ parts of society. It’s the law of the jungle that we ought to have transcended by now. I’ve already said I could work from home, but you try getting help with such things. Think the JC+ will help? The Work Programme? Hell no! 

“In 2011, David Cameron promised to change sick-note rules to strip GPs of the power to sign workers off sick, declaring “We need to end the something for nothing culture.”

What more is there to say? When Cameron can actually articulate what this pernicious and loaded phrase ‘something for nothing culture’ means I might listen. Until then it remains another barrier to progress. People are told this phrase and all discussion is frozen with most people simply accepting that people on benefits are given what sounds like a blank cheque, never mind the hoops people have to jump through, never mind the callousness rampant in those operating the system on his behalf. Forcing people to apply for work, under the guise that stopping people writing sick notes is ‘getting Britain working’ is laughable: it doesn’t create work nor does it compel those that seek staff to employ anyone other than whomever they choose for whatever reason they choose. 

“In January, the Coalition announced the creation of a new independent “assessment and advisory service” that will provide occupational health assessments for small employers whose staff are signed off sick for long periods.”

This is the real danger – handing the entry point to ESA/sickness benefits over to ATOS. This is something hinted at – and not particularly subtly – by Grayling before he went to prison – sorry, I mean became minister of prisons! The government clearly doesn’t like anyone getting a sick note, or a fit note, and I’m sure they fully intend for ATOS to handle both ends of the system: the first point of claiming and the assessment. It’s bad enough that assessments are even needed – isn’t that what doctors and specialists are for, not profiteering target driven IT organisations? If our doctors aren’t annoyed about this, if only from a sense of professional respect, then they are lost to us.

Dysfunctional

Even archive footage of Marlon Brando on the radio in the early hours couldn’t help me get back to sleep last night. Instead I drift off at gone 4am and wake up a few hours later feeling absolutely awful.

I’ve made an appointment to see the GP (a different one given how poorly organised they are now). He, or someone, needs to understand that I cannot function in this society. Once again I’ve tried to find somewhere local that can undertake neuro diverse diagnoses. I should have attended the appointment last year, but I couldn’t deal with travelling to the venue. Now it seems there is somewhere more local – or so they tell me. I have to assume it’s true.

I cannot continue under this system; the friction is such that no claim can linger. Even people with lifelong conditions – including soldiers that have lost limbs – are being re-examined. The idea being that they might have ‘recovered’. Though my condition isn’t anywhere near as debilitating, I believe it to be life long; it is how I’m programmed and I need a system that can accept it and work with it according to my needs. If that cannot be found then god knows. The first step is to get something recognised and codified if possible.

The next step means having to see my regular doctor, and getting an appointment is hard enough given that he’s, inexplicably, only available one day a week! I only ended up with him because the previous GP was never there either. My current sick note expires in the middle of June. If he doesn’t want to write another note I’ll have to apply for JSA in time to allow how long it takes for the claim to go through. I can understand why he’d be reticent to do so, but I have yet to hear from ATOS so I’m in WCA limbo though ironically I’m not particularly keen to be sat in their waiting room for hours to undergo an assessment I have zero chance of passing because it’s not designed to recognise my needs. It is a hopelessly blunt instrument wielded by an equally blunt government.

The purpose of my ESA claim was firstly a response to the appalling way Salvation Army Employment Plus seems to operate, and it was to get into the Work Related Activity Group wherein I could – at least in theory – get the support necessary. Unfortunately for me what I need isn’t recognised by the system. I occupy a position between JSA and ESA which instead is taken to mean: I can work.

The Work Programme isn’t interested in offering specialist expertise or tailored support even though I’m obliged to attend. I was told that in order for them to recognise my particular needs I must claim ESA. Unfortunately that requires that I be sufficiently ill/disabled enough to pass the WCA. It’s a catch 22 I’ve already commented on.  Unfortunately also the Work Programme has decided that it can’t offer any of the help it hinted at when telling me to claim ESA.

The alternative is JSA which isn’t there to recognise issues. Its there to make sure you fulfil your jobsearch requirements and to be available. If you have sufficient issues that would warrant an ESA claim then you’d be ineligible for JSA. They are mutually exclusive and there is nothing in between nor any effort to work with people to that end. It’s either or, and a curious aspect of the welfare system that a benefit called Employment Support is nothing of the kind and only available to those so unable to work they are pushing up daisies.

I do not want to have to deal with the Jobcentre again. They are not going to accept the presence of any mitigating circumstances beyond what JSA, while it lasts, allows, which is to say not much at all. I could ask to see (and likely will) the Work Psychologist again, but she turned out to be not much help at all. I think it’s fair to say she was somewhat sympathetic (how’s that for unequivocal praise), but in the end she told me that, knowing I’d end up on the Work Programme, she couldn’t influence the process. Even though that is technically accurate, I felt that was a cop out. Putting something on record, which she initially offered to do, would be better than nothing.

This whole process is not designed to help. There is nothing available to me and there is no space that I can occupy that allows me to function. If I go back onto JSA there is a good chance my Work Programme adviser will tell me she has no choice but to enforce ‘conditionality’ on me. This means they demand my CV, under threats of sanction, to forcibly apply for jobs without my permission or even knowledge, and without them having the first clue as to whether it’s suitable. They will assume I can work, because I won’t be on ESA and this supposedly compassionate charity will operate in a hopelessly rough and uselessly binary function – at my expense.

Easy Mistakes Made Easier With Universal Credit

This morning I went for a walk before stopping off at the post office; the last best hope locally for cash as we can’t have nice things like cash points in villages without the likes of Tesco. I had checked my bank balance over the last couple of days since doing my shopping on Wednesday to see if the debit card payment had cleared. Even though I’m not particularly stupid I find keeping track of card payments a pain given how each interaction can take its own sweet time to clear, regardless of venue. It seemed I had about £24 more than I thought – quids in! I had even considered going to town (not cheap on the bus at all). I treated myself to a baguette and a caramel slice yesterday from my good fortune!

After about five minutes I suddenly realised why I had that extra money – that was next week’s shopping budget. Had I gone out today, on top of yesterday’s culinary extravagance, I would have spent a few quid I would likely have irreversibly spent money better off saved.

This is how easy it is to make a mistake accounting on benefits. Fortunately for me I have relatively few expenses and can make a few quid last a bit longer even if it means foregoing expensive bakery luxuries. Had I spent money today it would have come from my rainy day amount which, if I ever really needed it, would soon disappear.

A simple oversight based on a fortnight’s money like this could be a lot more catastrophic for someone with more expenses, perhaps from dependents or caring responsibilities. This can only be made much worse when Universal Credit comes in; fortnightly payments will be made monthly. This is something that people like Iain Duncan Smith and his attack dogs will never understand.