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Posted: 27 Nov 2011 02:24 PM PST
On Wednesday over 3 million public sector employees will take strike
action together but the only legal reason unions can strike on November
30th is over planned changes to their pensions. We know that for the vast
majority of public sector employees the coming strike is really about much
wider issues. It is a strike to save our services from privatisation and
ultimately destruction by the millionaire government who currently hold power.
The patterns of welfare abolition we are now seeing in the UK follow those
seen in the US, Canada,Australia, and other parts of northern Europe. The
first targets of these abolition programmes being uninsured benefits, such
as Income Support and income-related IB and ESA, followed closely by the
abolition of entitlement to contributory benefits which people are entitled
to through paying national insurance contributions. The final target of
welfare abolition is pensions, both those of public sector workers and state
pensions which are disgustingly already amongst the lowest in Europe.
Even though state pensions are amongst the lowest in Europe this
government have moved to further reduce the amount people have
to live on in later life by changing pensions indexation from RPI to
CPI knocking 15% off the value of pension in average retirement.
This too will be the case with benefit up-ratings in the future and
we already know that Osborne is planning to renege on benefit
uprating next year arbitrarily changing the link between benefit rates
and inflation rates.
DPAC are asking anyone who can to support their local strikes on
Wednesday and or anyone who can’t to contact David Cameron and
Nick Clegg to say they support the strike.
You can contact David on facebook:
Or log on to send him an email at:
http://email.number10.gov.uk
Or you can telephone David on: 020 72193475
Or you can email him at:
Tell them why you want to help get rid of them and what their policies
are doing to your life. In London disabled people will be at Triton Square
on the morning of the November 30th from 8.30am where we’ll be joining
the PCS picket line outside Euston Tower and will no doubt be paying
Atos a visit. Keep an eye on the website or facebook page for more details:
And for post-strike excitement the following day on December 1st:
We have Ian Duncan Smith, butcher of benefits venturing out to
meet protesters 1st December – 5.30pm-6.30pm
LSE Campus, Aldwych
WREXHAM;
Assemble at Queen’s Square 11.30am, march to rally at Little Theatre
12.30 pm.
Protest at Iain Duncan Smith’s LSE Talk. Millionaire Iain Duncan Smith
wants you to join his army of unpaid workers.
Come and expose his doublespeak!
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Posted: 27 Nov 2011 01:57 PM PST
The following is a letter of complaint to BBC led by Mad Pride and
supported by the other signatories
We are writing to complain about a lack of balance in the BBC’s coverage
and programming in relation to the government’s proposals for welfare
reforms and benefits, and their implications.
Disabled people, unwaged carers, trade unions, low-paid workers and
unemployed people have raised serious concerns about ‘mandatory
work’ programmes that force people on benefits to work without pay.
These pose a direct threat to the basic minimum wage, restrictions
on working hours and rules on unfair dismissal, and therefore to the
pay and conditions of people in paid work. These implications have not
even been mentioned, let alone been properly aired.
Instead we have a torrent of programmes aimed at stigmatising and
demonising benefit claimants by highlighting benefit fraud, especially
for incapacity benefit (“Britain on the Fiddle”, Panorama 3 November)
and the ‘feckless’ who supposedly don’t want to work.
An impact of this wholly disproportionate misrepresentation of claimants
as frauds and scroungers by some sections of the media has been cited
as a direct cause of a reported increase in assaults and other abuse on
disabled people, and to appearances parallel The Department of Work and
Pensions own propensity for distortion, itself criticised for the way it has
released misleading figures and statistics that have been used to feed this
biased propaganda.
Reality here is for the best part skewed by the BBC. Rates of fraud for
disability benefits are the lowest – 0.3% to 1.9% — and are insignificant
compared to the low amounts people are expected to live on, and the
billions in under-claimed benefits. People who can work should be entitled
to a reasonable living wage and decent and safe working conditions.
Many disabled people are not able to work. Many fear they will be wrongly
ruled ‘fit for work’ by the revised ‘work capability assessment’ that has
been much criticised. And for the many made unemployed through no fault
of their own by the effects of the economic downturn – or passed over to
unemployment benefit via assessment! - they now face being forced into
‘mandatory’ work with no pay.
Our very real and legitimate concerns are not being aired. We have not
been given an opportunity to make ourselves heard and understood.
Is it right that the BBC is part of this propaganda? Should a publicly-funded
body engage in what is tantamount to the promotion of hate crime?
The BBC’s charter says it must show proper balance in its reporting and
programming and should not be politically biased. It seems to us that there
has been no proper balance and that the programmes aired show a political
bias to promote and defend the government’s welfare reform, while hiding
the views of those who will be directly affected by them.
We insist on our right to have our concerns properly heard and we demand
the right to a full and effective ‘right to reply’ to help to counter the weight
of the prejudicial propaganda put out by the BBC.
Disabled benefit claimants, unwaged carers and unemployed people are also
licence payers, and we have as much right as people who are in paid
employment to have a say in the content and conduct of the BBC.
We look forward to a response to start a process by which BBC Directors
and programme makers can redress this current bias as soon as possible.
This is a matter of urgent concern for thousands of people who have been
barely managing to survive and are now faced with destitution or worse.
Claire Glasman- WinVisible
Ellen Cifford – Disabled People Against the Cuts Joanna Long – Boycott Workfare Dave Skull -Mad Pride Johnny Void -Benefit Claimants Fight Back Andy Greene – Islington Disabled People Against the Cuts Paul Smith – Atos Vic tims Group Richard Rieser- Co-ordinator UK Disability History Month Warren Clarke – Boycott Workfare |
The response received from the BBC goes as follows:
We have received a wide range of feedback about this programme and feel it is
worth highlighting that considerable correspondence to us has been generated
by online lobby activity. Bearing in mind the pressure on resources, the response
below strives to address the majority of concerns raised but we apologise in
advance if not all of the specific points you have mentioned have been answered
in the manner you prefer. Please be assured we have raised your concerns with
the programme and have done our best to issue a substantive response.
Panorama’s ‘Britain on the Fiddle’ looked at a number of issues surrounding public
sector fraud, including benefit fraud, the nature and extent of the unlawful
subletting of council properties, the issue of identity fraud and the misuse of blue
badges. The programme also followed the work of some local authority fraud
investigators and by doing so revealed how time consuming and costly inquiries
into suspected fraud can be.
The programme made it clear that fraud effectively takes money from all of us,
especially those in genuine need. On benefit fraud, including incapacity benefit
specifically, the programme stressed that most people on benefits really need
them and don’t cheat the system.
Far from concentrating on the economically deprived, the programme featured,
for example, the case of a man claiming benefits to pay for a council flat whilst
owning and running a pub business many miles away – travelling between both
destinations in a luxury car.
Furthermore, the film featured fraud investigators tackling the misuse of blue
badges. Many people have since written to Panorama to express their gratitude
to the programme for highlighting the problem which causes them distress and
much inconvenience.
We don’t agree that the cases featured in our film were extreme or were not
broadly indicative of instances of benefit fraud. That is not the experience of the
local authority fraud investigators who were kind enough to allow us to film their
work. Dr Mark Button, from the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies said in the
programme:
“I think a lot of organisations are not realistic about the levels of fraud that they
face because in any organisation there are large levels of fraud that are
undetected. So if they rely on detected levels of fraud they are not getting the
picture of the levels of fraud within their organisation.”
Emphasising this, it is important to note that just recently the Audit Commission
released its most up to date figures for detected fraud against local government
which explains that these figures are only the tip of a very large iceberg.
We believe the programme explored a subject which is clearly in the public
interest and did so in a fair and impartial manner.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.
Kind Regards
BBC Complaints
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