Advice If Sanctioned - by Samuel Miller

Claimants who have been unjustly or egregiously sanctioned by JobCentre Plus are asked to read http://mydisabilitystudiesblackboard.blogspot.ca/2014/03/how-to-challenge-your-benefit-sanction.html, and should consider filing a complaint with the UN's human rights office:

Ms.Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais Wilson
52 rue des Pâquis
CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland.
E-Mail: srextremepoverty@ohchr.org

See: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Poverty/Pages/MSepulveda.aspx 
and http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rp0uui

Please be aware that the OHCHR cannot base their findings and recommendations solely on media reports. It is recommended that claimants submit personal evidence to OHCHR human rights officials.

IMPACT? Is this Impact enough? - A Letter I got ...

Dear Jules etc etc, and an explanation this should remain anonymous...


-----------------------------


I KNOW SOMEONE who is being murdered. He doesn’t know it, but he is. And the
perp, his killer, is walking free, and probably will continue to do so. You see, many
years ago, in a place I cannot name there was a company whose identity is unknown.
It had an accident, and there was a toxic leak which polluted the water table for miles
around for years afterwards. The victim, Stephen, lived nearby as a young boy and so
he bathed, showered in and drank this water. The poisons and heavy metals were
absorbed and integrated into his growing body, causing mutations and storing up
major problems for later in life.
This is nothing to do with his murder.
He is an innocuous, almost invisible kind of man. You know the sort… you see
plenty of them in bus queues on rainy days, and your eyes just kind of slide off them.
If you work in an office – which is where a lot of them seem to congregate – you will
leave your desk to fetch coffee or run an errand, and he’s the one you’ll either bump
into or find lurking at the back of the lift.
At the monthly evening out at the pub, you’ll almost sit on him, yet find that when
you actually talk to the guy he’s a pleasant, well-spoken and slightly shy kind of
fellow with a wicked wit and sharp mind… only to have forgotten all about him by
Monday morning despite your best intentions. He’s the one in the office who is
just… there.
If you work in a shop, you’ll find him tucked away, quietly getting on with whatever
it is he does – and usually it will be a complete mystery to you until his day off – then
you know. You find out by experience, but again, it turns out that by the next day,
with his presence restored, his invisibility has returned.
None of this is anything to do with his death.
You see, Stephen’s health has deteriorated to such a point that he is now in hospital
full-time, hooked up to machines draining the poisons from his non-functional liver.
It isn’t because Stephen drank alcohol to excess, it’s the result of the toxic spill all
those years ago that no one knows about because the company had ‘connections’
(allegedly). Again, though, it isn’t anything to do with Stephen that his killer has just
signed his death certificate in advance.
Stephen has a brother, called Michael. Michael has also been suffering with
deteriorating health, but in varied and different ways, and he finally – having run out
of savings to live off – put in a claim for social security, being too ill for work. The
claim went in during the summer. Due to the top-down incompetence of the system
supposed to provide a safety net, and due to the backlog of applications requiring
assessment, Michael only heard about any decision just after Christmas, and went to
meet his appointed contact at the social security place.
Yet again, this is nothing to do with Stephen’s murder. Michael explained his health problems to the appointed contact, who could see quite
clearly that Michael is not a well man… and that the health problems are severe
enough to prevent any commitment to anything which is considered to be
employment, and the meeting went cordially.
A couple of weeks later, Michael was called by Atos to attend a Work Capability
Assessment, and after rearranging the appointment, went on the due date – only to
find, once he had travelled for nearly two hours to get to the town where the test
centre is, that they phoned him and asked to cancel. He declined, and insisted that as
he had made such a Herculean effort to get there, he must have this dreaded W.C.A.
After a while, he was phoned again with a slightly later time. He went and had the
assessment, which he considered to be mostly irrelevant, but felt he was dealt with in
a courteous and genteel manner. Far different from what he had been led to believe.
Once more, this is disconnected from Stephen’s murder.
A month after the W.C.A, someone, a Decision Maker at the social security phoned
Michael to make an appointment for a ‘telephone interview.’ Michael thought it was
because the original application for payments and W.C.A. did not quite match up due
the Michael’s doctor diagnosing and investigating more ailments since the form went
it, all made worse by worrying about his brother Stephen’s near-terminal condition.
The time came, the phone rang, and Michael answered it. During the conversation, he
was told that he was disqualified from illness payments because they knew the
distance from that bus stop to the test centre, he was deemed as fit to be working.
This was regardless of the pain, the anguish and length of time it took to do it, and
because he had actually attended the W.C.A. He commented on the absurdity of it:
attend the interview or get no payments, but by attending it proves you fit to work and
your payments get stopped. There was silence on the other end of the phone. The
call concluded.
Michael’s world fell apart so fast he couldn’t even begin to understand what had
happened. His interim payments were now stopped, and that meant his housing
assistance would end. With no money at all coming in, he wouldn’t be able to pay the
rent, which meant he would be evicted and homeless. But there are more points in
this puzzle to connect to get the picture.
The only thing that will save the life of his brother, Stephen, is a liver transplant –
which is one of the reasons he is in hospital. The only reason he is on the transplant
list is because Michael is his designated care-giver after transplant… but because he
most likely will lose his home, he can’t actually do that. You can’t look after
someone if you have nowhere to do it, so Stephen will come off the list once all these
threads tie together.
And once off the transplant list, Stephen has no hope of life, so he will at some point
sooner rather than later… die.
It isn’t Michael’s fault that Stephen is going to die. It isn’t the fault of the Atos
operatives, nor of the Decision Maker at the social security. It’s mine. It’s my fault because I should have advised Michael to walk away from the
assessment, but I didn’t. I insisted that he put his foot down and made sure it got done.
That was only on the day, though. I should have insisted all those months ago that I
hekped with the initial claim form. I could have ensured he had other – proper –
advisors back when they were still able to take on new cases in this area. But I didn’t.
Dear God and Sonny Jesus, in the Names of All The Blessed Prophets I cannot name,
I DIDN’T. I KNEW BETTER AND I LET HIM GO ON AHEAD WITHOUT
SUPPORT. So Michael will lose everything, and Stephen will die, and I might just as
well as strangled him with my own bare hands.
I am Stephen’s murderer.

---------------------------------------------

The writer of this ISNT a murderer. Why are they made to feel SO much this way?

Because the SYSTEM IS BROKEN> THATS WHY.

IMPACT? YOU WANT IMPACT?

ESA experience Summary.

On the IB to ESA WCA I had, I had to ask my MP to find out what went wrong with ATOS. They gave 12 pts only. Very different than the DWP.

I got Standard Bumph back from IDS on what happened. And they didnt address a central issue in my question either.

THIS last time, I got a completely different approach in the WCA, and I got support group, when before I had WRAG, AND NOTHING WAS DIFFERENT WITH ME.

So I lost money i was entitled to for a year - someone can calculate Support Group minus Wrag amounts and work out how much, I dont mind.

Well this last time straight into Support, the time before ATOS gave 12pts/ DWp added 6 more = wrag. With SAME INFO

I've done Other Blogs on The process , feelings , etc etc. I havent really summarised yet.
So Voila.

Rights of Speech? Opposable thoughts

Rights of Speech?

Im just thinking, on the prevalence of UKIP in the media. And social commentary twitter/ facebook and other forums all seems highly to be fixated on them when they have no MPs.
And i'm wondering if thats because ignoring them might be dangerous. On the other hand it helps their campaigning positively or negatively by bringing them to wider audience WITHOUT them having to spend funds they may or may not have.

I abhor the party above discussed.

But thinking on two levels , which is disconserting.

!) are you "feeding the trolls their required number of goats"
2) are you "enabling a voice so that it can be discounted, discussed, or accepted as it stands".

Probably theres a mix of both.

But I do feel theres rather too little focus on the failings of current encumbents , or even the official opposition in SOME QUARTERS, anyway.

I blog about stuff lightly even with what i know.....

I do.
I blog lightly. You might think i dont. Sometimes people ask me "whats that all about" but hey ..


I read LOTS of stuff and know quite a lot myself, which , i maybe should share more of, but I personally dont.

Why ? cos others do that and are far more read and credible, and regular with their thoughts than I am.

But due to a conversation, i thought I might share this blog with you ....

From an ex banker, brilliant thinker, and all round reasonable person.

Thank you Frankie .

A Massive Outbreak of Callousness...


And you mayve thought callous was what you get on finger from pen? Nope.

The One where i Read the Telegraph and say OMG.

And so this being a sort of blog of musings, sometimes, I thought my musings would make a blog. 

So In the Telegraph , the darling minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is summarised, in a paper that generally takes the Govt stand on most things. 

The link I read was this one
 Economic-recovery-is-not-yet-secure-says-George-Osborne (Telegraph) 

And so the musing started: 

So Osborne says Reliant on Consumer spending too much. I stopped laughing.

Because when high MPTC (marginal propensity to consume) demographic has money things FLOW. That my friends is Consumer spending. Osborne is not supporting high MPTC demographic.

For instance high MPTC is usually poorest sector. We know what he thinks of poor and vunerable. CUT THEIR MONEY. (examples in Welfare Reform, Work Programmes etc ) so is he truly mad?

The simplest way to explain MPTC is , and I'll explain. Give me a grand? Id probably spend most of it. Give a Highly Paid CEO a grand, hardly any of it spent.

Consumption drives production, in theory at least, which drives jobs, wages, and a thing called Circular Flow - which is ALL GOOD.

Consumer spending either domestically or in international trade (goods bought by other countries for THEIR consumers) is a key driver. So How can there be doubt that saying reliance on it is wrong - is actually wrong?

So in summary *How* can you EVER be "too reliant" on a key economic driver?


I hope you enjoyed my little foray into thought there.

If we were french it would have possibly been called a "happening"

A mate of mine goes hospital monday, he was a bit anxious yesterday, and wanted company, so i went to see him.

AND Last night with anxious mate re his hospital on monday, we may have consumed eight beers and a bottle of isla negra sauvignon *may have*

WE also may have chatted lots of bollocks

Good bollocks though, not the bollocks thats like sandpaper or turd.
But that would bore lots of people... hes a good mate.
We also spoke of need and not solving. Knowing sources of help but not asking. It was quite a deep chat.
Where neither of us draw on our friendship enough and sit as islands, all that sort of bollocks.

All in all was amenable , with a few disputed mooted points. I like convos like that.
We touched on some japanese philosophy too.
And we still are mates... which is phenomenal control and understanding.

If we were french it would have possibly been called a "happening"
*smiles*

When #earworm s get you and you research and discover more

I had the Vincent Price monologue from Thriller in my head earlier,

so being a bit <whatever the word is> i was then told of a bint he did in an Alice Cooper song , all credit to Jane.

On further action, i found an episode of something FULL of horror and hilariously appealling to my funny bone, or whatever piece of you it takes to coerce a smile or laugh from. I was indirectly told that was neuroscience as well,

So without further ado, this really "jollied me" is that a phrase, who knows, in this complex world of moods.




And therefore i wend my way from this blog , and think of "stuff" , as you do. But remember fondly my escape through releasing my mind from Vincent Price Earworms.

You are more than welcome. I thank you.

*swoops off with cape flaring and teeth all ashow*

Benefits in UK are TOO LOW

A very quick blog here.

I have multiple ills. One of which is a bowel disease.

On ESA how am i supposed to afford clothes?

I will expand that.

I have broken FOUR pairs of jeans within the last TWO months, trying to get to the place you need to go when bowels say so.

Broken?

Yes Zips and buttons.

I cant find VELCRO JEANS

You may not see what I mean here.

But jeans break.

I cant afford the rate of breakage of jeans.


I'm putting THIS POST out. Because some may not know this happens, others may applaud my honesty.

But as the title says Benefits are too Low..... How do I afford this without sacrifice to food and heat?

Hmmm there MAY be a clever thinker that can tell me how. But I have trawled my brain , and cant find the solution.

Chuggers.

Comment.

Scope hounded the door the other week.
Chuggers.
So Do you think I want to speak to them in a supermarket lobby on the way out with shopping?
 No . "Good afternoon, how are you" should be met with " I wanna get the fuck out of this shop, and back home" but I havent actually SAID that to them.  IF i want to speak to them, I will chose when and how, or if at all.

Is that a Strange thought?
Does it happen to you?
Are you much the same?

You wanna get out and get home and it annoys you immensely?

That and satellite sales in shops.

In fact , any intrusive lobbying - "lobbying" used cos its normally in a lobby/ entrance - I dislike immensely.
Its not as if you walk over to them and say "can you tell me what this is/ can I have some info,,," Anyway. As you were.

A Blog about NOT writing a blog post...

I was trying to write a blog about Illness and when my attitudes can change, but I couldnt find the right words.
See, Friday night unleashed some shock, and sunday I was reeling. I have no excuse. And wanted to blog about that. The words wouldnt come.
Perhaps they shouldnt, anyway. Who knows.
I drafted a few lines, But decided No. Im not sure I can describe it right.

Waiting an ultrasound appt booking, and next scheduled appt is another fibroscan. This isnt light illness, and *sometimes* it hits my head hard.

It also throws up all the "what you did before you were ill but dont do now" stuff. Thats the tough bit.

Remembering the end days of last job. I shouldnt do this .

Yep theres probably a blog there in all that but cant think how or even why I should.

So I suppose this is the blog that replaces the one I intended to write but found I couldnt.