Thank you Jojosimmo123 it really is terrible. Very glad that you obviously have a great employer, that is wonderful to hear - only wish they were all like that.
Unfortunately my exerience having worked at the DWP shows me that unfortunately the true blaggers will always get away with it - they only have to feign depression, which is an insult to people with depression I know, but it’s not possible to ‘prove’ depression and it’s easy for those who know the system inside out to fake depression.
If people with terminal cancer are being declared fit for work, anyone can be.
The government have whipped up a frenzy against sickness related benefits and have done a good job, the fraud rate for ESA is tiny for such a huge organisation, but the government would have the public believe that everyone claiming is a scrounger.
You are quite right, they should be targetting the people who really are playing the system, but they are targetting anyone they can, purely to make them look like they are doing a good job at getting ‘scroungers’ off benefits and the benefits bill reduced… the best way to target the real scroungers would be to listen to benefits staff and NOT ATOS, as if asked, benefits staff could give a list of claimants who they know are ‘faking’ it - something ATOS cannot do as they do not have either the experience or the knowledge of these people that the DWP staff do.
Working there, you get to know these people and see them week in week out over many years - ATOS staff will not have the recall as they won’t see the same people each time and won’t remember them or build up any kind of relationship with them. I’m afraid it’s just a con to make the government look like it’s doing a good job and genuine people are suffering and even dying in the process.
When I am not feeling too rough I am contacting every relevant organisation I can to ask them to investigate this and am starting to see results, usually propped up with pillows from bed. This has got to stop, the law says that people with MS do not have to prove how their disease effects their day to day lives and abilities, and cannot be forced into work and yet the government is forcing them to. I know that investigations are in process and hopefull Cameron will be forced to answer some awkward questions at the International Criminal Courts in the Hague.
I hope that you continue to be able to work as long as you can and are comfortably able to & don’t have to claim benefits. Hopefully if you ever do, we will have these wrongs righted so that people with incurable progressive conditions are not forced to work if their MS makes their every day lives so difficult that working is out of the question.
The fact that someone receiving a diagnosis of MS is automatically covered by the Equality Act/DDA does not have any bearing on their actual ability to work. MS is massively variable and many of us are perfectly capable of working (with or without any reasonable adjustments).
The MSS does not deserve the attacks that are being made on this thread and elsewhere. Its employees are not well paid. They do not drive fancy cars. Some of them have MS. Many of them have relatives with MS. And they all work very bloody hard on our behalf.
Well as the International Criminal Courts are taking up the case I beg to differ, as well as the EHRC - so if there was no concern for breaches of law, they wouldn’t even be investigating these breaches And whilst I am fully aware that the condition is variable, it is fact that people who are in no fit state are being declared fit for work. The point of law is that the law itself states that people with such diseases are not required to prove how their ability affects their day to day lives, but are being forced to.
As someone who has been investigating this for over a year & who also worked within the system for many years, I am fully aware of this. What experience do you have of this issue? I always laugh when people with no idea of how the system works from the inside think they know better than someone who has.
Well all I see is them disuading people from treatments that have cured people or improved peoples lives far beyond the drugs they ask people to blindly inject themselves with without knowing why they even work, and I find it very strange that all these drugs are very different, yet have the same % of remittance rate. Other MS organisations seem to be far less biased on the subect. They should be fighting for those for whom there is no treatment to have stent treatment for example, who feel they have nothing to lose and could indeed be heled very much by the procedure. But I have been advised that the MSS has been given big bungs from big pharma co’s so this does not surprise me. Money makes the world go around, in the most underhaqnd ways sometimes.
I dare say there are good people working for the society I never said there wasn;t, some people do like to put words in others mouths for kudos - but the top brass won’t be getting peanuts, that’s pretty obvious & a flash car no doubt. And I do not see them giving any help to people I have encountered who have been fraudulently deprived of benefits. Some of you may be very lucky and be able to work, for that I am very happy for you, some may be well off or have partners who can afford to keep them, but it is not the same for everyone.and the main concern I am finding through my research, is that peoples main concern is how are they going to cope when their benefits are stopped. The examples I have given more than prove the reality of what is going on, and luckily there are people like me fighting for them to get what’s right and just and not adopting the I’m alright Jack mentality.
My only purpose is to make people aware of the truth of what is happening, to MS sufferers and others, and to give them some comfort that some of us are doing everything we can to stop them being fraudulently deprived of their entitlements, whilst others are doing swett fanny adams it would seem.
Big bungs from big pharma - as Greg has stated elsewhere that would be 100k out of the national revenue of 29million…and if my arithmetic is correct that is 0.003%…hardly big bungs.
Also I think the campaigns team would be a wee bit annoyed that you think they don’t care and are doing nothing Campaign with us | MS Society.
As for CCSVI - thanyou to the research dept. for this info. which can be found on this website:
To speed up the research effort in this area, we have been working with MS Societies from the USA, Canada, Italy and France as well as the MS International Federation to ensure that key research gets funding and that this research adds to our current knowledge of CCSVI and MS.
(1) Quite right, Karen. I was lucky enough to be able to work for a number of years after diagnosis, and I would not have appreciated any suggestion that I was being kept on as a sort of charity case who by rights should have been at home on the sofa. When the time came to give up, I was glad that my physical and cognitive problems were recognized, don’t get me wrong. But it would be ridiculous and insulting to label anyone an irredeemable invalid simply because they had an MS dx.
(2) I do not appreciate these attacks on the MSS either, particularly when these take place using a facility provided by MSS. Other MS fora are available for those who prefer them.
Jayne, I think you need to differentiate between an illness and a disability in your argument. The United Nations Disability Act states that a person who is disabled by Multiple Sclerosis is covered by the International Covenants of the above act but having the illness of MS does not necessarily equate with being disabled.
On origin, Disability, Society and Change the UN Disability Act states that:
the origin, or causes of disability are many and varied, but it is possible to identify some broad differences and similarities between them. Some disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, deafness or Downs Syndrome may be there from the moment a person is born. Other disabilities can result from illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, polio, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, which may develop either during adulthood or childhood. Accidents are another major cause of disability.
I am aware of the inequities inherent in the legislation and policies currently being used in the UK and am in no way defending these practices but I do not agree that having a diagnosis of MS automatically qualifies someone as disabled and nor should that diagnosis preclude them from work assessments.
However, and this is a most important difference, if the person has developed a level of disability that is incompatible with working then of course they should not be subjected to the ridiculous testing and requirements that are currently in place.
But Jayne, to argue that having the illness alone should be enough for a blanket exemption is naive. MS comes with so many variables and many people with MS are not disabled by it and are well able to continue working productively throughout their lives.
My experience is irrelevant. I did not say that there weren’t people being wrongly assessed. I said that having MS does not automatically mean that one is unable to work. Any government, publicly funded body or employer assuming that would be vilified and prosecuted just as fervently as you pursue this. And yet that is what you are asking them to do. So, while I applaud your zeal for changing the current system, please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water in the process! Re your other points: information “researched” from conspiracy theorists has a tendency to be groundless. I suggest that you improve your knowledge of CCSVI and DMDs from reputable sources and published, well-designed research. The multiple sclerosis research blogspot is excellent and based on facts, not rhetoric. Although I have no idea how these things are remotely relevant to this thread! But I’m happy to debate them till the cows come home if you want to (with plenty of science thrown in for good measure).