Disability issues in GE2019

There is a hustings organised by Hereford Mencap in Hereford today.

Today! 3 December 4.30-6 at Life & Soul Kitchen, Unit 1, Three Elms Trading Estate, Hereford, HR4 9PU. Organised by Mencap.

Mencap is a charity addressing learning disability and learning difficulty issues. Suggested reading:

1. The Green Party 'Easy Read' manifesto was released at the same time as the 'mainstream' manifesto. It can be obtained via https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/Elections/EasyRead%20Manifesto%202019.pdf
2. Access to Citizens Income/Unconditional Basic Income has long been Green Party policy and is immensely different from terms and conditions of claiming Universal Credit. Universal Credit terms and conditions are made especially worse for adults with learning difficulties who cannot use computers, because Universal Credit is 'digital by default', as instanced at https://www.katebelgrave.com/2014/09/learning-and-literacy-difficulties-no-computer-but-do-your-jobsearch-online-yourself-thanks/ and https://www.katebelgrave.com/2017/10/learningliteracy-difficulties-and-cant-use-the-online-universal-credit-erm-find-a-friend-to-help-says-dwp-so-much-for-support-this-is-dire/
3. In 2004 while volunteering in teaching [other] adults with learning difficulties very basic computing skills, I was commended for “endless patience with slower learners.” Yet there was no paid future in that for me, as Learning & Skills Council prioritsed  NVQ Levels 2 and 3 — with no extra investment overall — so as to implement the London 2012 Olympics agenda. I, and the trainees I supported, and their Guardian/Channel4 Teacher of the Year Award Winning paid teacher, were let down yet again! (“Learning & Skills Council [existed] to help make England better skilled and more competitive,” according to their website.)
4. In 2013, Prof. Peter Beresford wrote "Why welfare literacy is vital: lack of knowledge about state support services is putting the system at risk." That message is more important today, especially as Brexit would make our welfare state more vulnerable to outside interference. https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2013/jan/30/welfare-literacy-state-support

Green Party Basic Income would make life easier for adults with learning difficulties especially,
than Universal Credit.
More at https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/Elections/EasyRead%20Manifesto%202019.pdf

Accessible Housing

Wednesday 11 December, 7.30-9.30pm at Left Bank Hereford. Not an official hustings but a chance to discuss 'what should the council's core strategy say about housing?'. In association with the Herefordshire Centre for Community-led Housing.

Housing is an important issue in relation to disability. See, for example, https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/?s=housing

Benefits & Work Publishing review GE2019 party manifestos for benefit claimants

I forward the below from Benefits & Work Publishing Ltd Newsletter, to which I've added some explanatory text for the acronyms such as ESA.


Alan Wheatley

Benefits & Work Publishing Ltd logo, with link to
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/4128-the-manifestos-are-out-but-will-they-influence-your-vote

THE MANIFESTOS ARE OUT

We’ve taken a look at each of the main parties’ manifestos, with the exception of the SNP which is out too late for this newsletter.

If you are voting solely on what each party is offering, then there is little doubt that Labour have made the most effort to capture sick and disabled claimants votes.

Their undertaking to immediately stop all new transfers to UC, and then scrap the benefit completely when they come up with a new system, would be an enormous weight off many claimants minds.

As would the plan to end the current work capability assessments (WCAs) [toward disability-related Employment & Support Allowance/component of Universal Credit] and PIP [Personal Independence Payment, re additional living costs of having a disability] assessments and take everything back in-house.

Increasing ESA [Employment & Support Allowance] by £30 for claimants in the work-related activity group (WRAG) and raising carers allowance to the level of JSA are two other potentially popular moves. [Alan adds that those in the Work-Related Activity Group -- WRAG -- of ESA claimants are especially prone to the perils of benefit sanctions, as witnessed at https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/account-of-sanctions-desperation-leaves-disabled-peer-in-tears-at-wrag-research-launch/
]

Both Labour and the Lib Dems say they would scrap the benefits cap, the two child limit and the bedroom tax.

And, like Labour, the Lib Dems would end WCA’s and reverse the cuts to ESA for claimants in the WRAG.

Both have more offers in their manifestos.

The Green Party take a different approach, saying they will introduce a “Universal Basic Income (UBI), an unconditional financial payment to everyone at a level above their subsistence needs”

The adult rate of UBI would be £89 a week with an additional supplement for disabled claimants.

They would also replace UC and benefits sanctions.

The Brexit Party are not trying too hard to capture the claimant vote. They are simply offering to have a five week maximum wait for payment of universal credit and undertake a review of the benefits system, followed by reform.

The Conservatives possibly get the prize for irony when they say in their manifesto that “. . .we will continue our efforts through the tax and benefits system to reduce poverty, including child poverty.”
Other than that they have little to say to claimants, except that they will “reduce the number of reassessments a disabled person must go through” and “publish a National Strategy for Disabled People before the end of 2020”.

Will the manifestos influence your vote?

Post a comment in our manifesto round-up (see Benefits News below) and let us know what you think.

....

---

BENEFITS NEWS
Only 40% of universal credit claimants get their full entitlement
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that only 40% of universal credit (UC) claimants get the full amount they are entitled to.
Fight to outlaw mandatory reconsiderations has begun – can you help?
The fight to outlaw mandatory reconsiderations has begun, thanks to Benefits and Work members, but more help is needed.
The manifestos are out, but will they influence your vote?
Well, with the exception of the SNP, all the party manifestos are out now. Will their offers to claimants make a difference to how you vote?
BBC and Channel 4 both to air Jobcentre friendly documentaries
Campaigners have criticised the BBC and Channel 4 for airing similar ‘fly-on-the-wall’ documentaries based inside jobcentres, which are likely to cover-up the misery caused by Universal Credit (UC).
UC fraudsters becoming bolder in targeting claimants
A housing association in Teesside has issued a warning to tenants about universal credit fraud scammers who are going door-to-door offering bogus loans to tenants.
Bedroom tax supreme court defeat for DWP
The supreme court has ruled that, for a small number of cases, the bedroom tax is a breach of human rights and should be ignored by tribunals.

GE2019 hustings in Hereford & S Herefordshire parliamentary constituency

I've received the following from Helen Heathfield of Herefordshire Green Parties:

Spread the word about hustings

Do you know someone who's not sure how to vote yet? Then send them to a hustings!

1. TONIGHT! [Friday 22 November] 7.30pm at The Kindle. Organised by The Civic Society. £3 donation for non-members of the Civic Society.
2. Wednesday 27 November, 7pm doors, debate at 8pm, Left Bank Hereford. Book your free ticket here.  Email your two questions in advance to: info@herefordleftbank.com
3. Thursday 28 November 4-5pm, Art College.
4. Friday 29 November 7pm at John Kyrle School Ross-on-Wye. Questions by 9pm Sunday 24 Nov to tim.shelley@ymail.com
5. Monday 2 December 2-3.30pm at the GW Railway Club Hereford. Organised by Herefordshire Carers Support.
6. Wednesday 4 December, 6.30pm at The Barrels, St Owen Street Hereford. Organised by BBC Hereford&Worcester. Please let Diana know if you want to be part of her team of ten - diana.toynbee@greenparty.org.uk
7. And for all those people who won't be attending a husting, please share Diana's Facebook posts and tweets with friends, family and local groups:

https://www.facebook.com/diana4hereford
https://twitter.com/diana4hereford

UK GE2019 dominates Disability News Service uploads for Thursday 21 Nov 2019

The UK General Election set for Thursday 12 December dominates this week's headlines from Disability News Service, that is updated every Thursday.

I present the headline links below without analysing the items themselves, due to time constraints and disability factors on my part. Disability News Service is run by responsible journalist John Pring, and the presentation below helps flag up items of likely interest to my most regular readers.

My main task here is to flag up the 'keywords' related to his output. It also helps counteract my feelings of powerlessness related to what is presented more generally in news media as a 'two horse race' and features demonisation of main opposition rather than focusing on policies.


Do not forget though, that this December 2019 UK General Election falls within Disability History Month!

Alan Wheatley

Latest Stories

Election 2019: Disabled Lib Dems complain to their party over candidate’s disablist tweets

Election 2019: ‘Tories forced a million members of disabled families into poverty’

Election 2019: Lib Dems fail to explain disability omissions… and snub disabled members

Election 2019: Lib Dems overlook working-age social care reform… again

Election 2019: Greens set to outdo other parties on independent living

Election 2019: Labour fails to set accessibility targets for ‘housing revolution’

‘Horrific’ stats show how most disability benefit fraud allegations are false

Disability History Month’s stark messages after Tory austerity decade

Tens of thousands of disabled workers ‘let down by equality law enforcement failure’

Thoughts stemming from an article on the smearing of Jeremy Corbyn's reputation

A family member has sent me this link that I believe worth 'flagging up' here: https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/think-corbyn-is-a-danger-to-britain-heres-how-youve-been-brainwashed/12/12/


My choice of 'pull quote' from that article can be applied not just to a The London Economic blog post that related and cited posting that "around £2 million public money was funnelled to a charity in Scotland which posted disparaging stories against Jeremy Corbyn and other Labour figures."

"It should be extremely disturbing to everyone that a ruling Government is using Public funds and official resources for party political purposes. This is the sort of thing we’re told happens in rogue states and banana republics, not here in Great Blighty."

For Private Eye magazine 20 September-3 October issue reported that the Government was spending £20,000 on 'Get Ready for Brexit' Facebook adverts, and I pointed out that the televised adverts with Government insignia must surely be more costly.
https://newsforwardsfromalanwheatley.blogspot.com/2019/09/uk-government-getting-public-ready-for-brexit-and-more.html

And what about the wasted money on a Brexit coin that was minted only to be melted down
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/29/brexit-meltdown-50p-coins-with-31-october-date-to-be-recycled

See also https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/government-adverts-on-facebook-1-6354789

Yes, I do think that Jeremy Corbyn's reputation has been severely smeared through the unfair dominance of government advertising budgets and -- as the
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/think-corbyn-is-a-danger-to-britain-heres-how-youve-been-brainwashed/12/12/
posting points out -- foreign billionaire ownership of dominant UK news media outlets. I believe that should be 'flagged up' and also point out that such foreign ownership of UK news media is a prime example of 'the plunder of the commons' that Prof. Guy Standing draws attention to.
http://camdennewjournal.com/article/attacks-on-jeremy-corbyn-from-his-fellow-party-members-amaze-me?sp=1&sq=bruce%2520kent%2520jeremy%2520corbyn

As a retired disabled jobseeker, I know what it's like to have one's reputation smeared by those with privatisation agendas, and that has led me into blogging and my previous co-authorship of the Green Party of England & Wales response to Labour's 2008 'welfare reform' Green Paper [consultation document] 'No-one written off'. That Green Party of England & Wales document was sat upon by major UK news outlets to which it was sent, but can still be found online via

D – The Green Party is opposed to the use of private for-profit ...

https://www.greenparty.org.uk › reports › GPEW_writing_off_workfare_final

19 Oct 2008 - Writing off workfare: ... Green Party of England and Wales[1] ..... (see Jonathan Rutherford, http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/soundings/ ..... [4] The online title of the same article on the Community Care magazine website is ...

 
I also take this opportunity to flag up an article from the pro-Remain news source The New European that focuses on Dominic Cummings as 'adviser' to Prime Minister Boris Johnson:
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/brexit-strategy-dominic-cummings-ooda-loop-1-6339099

That The New European publication is generally negative about Jeremy Corbyn, as might be expected by the intertwining of the right wing of the Labour Party with pro-EU issues.
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/home/search?q=%22jeremy+corbyn%22+%22alastair+campbell%22&submitted=true&searchSlot=true&submit=true&resultsSearch=&fromDate=&toDate=&resultsSearch=&sort=relevance&fromDate=&filterFromDate=&toDate=&filterToDate=

Bruce Kent has written against the smearing of Jeremy Corbyn at
http://camdennewjournal.com/article/attacks-on-jeremy-corbyn-from-his-fellow-party-members-amaze-me

But I would add that while I do believe that Jeremy Corbyn is a very decent and much-maligned person, his apparent subservience to a witch hunt of anti-Zionists in the Labour Party is worth examining, as Tony Greenstein points out
https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2019/11/corbyn-can-win-but-it-is-unlikely.html
I would, however, distance myself from Tony Greenstein's own way of applying derogatory labelling of people.

Weekly TDEs resume at Left Bank Village, Hereford, Weds 18 Sept 2019

Hello Everyone,

At last - getting back in to the pattern after the summer break!

Wednesday 18 September 2019, 7:30pm-9pm-ish

Cultural Emergence

Cultural emergence is a toolkit designed to create cultures of personal

leadership, collective intelligence and planetary care. Developed by

Looby Macnamara in Conjunction with  other global visionaries, join

Looby to find out how Cultural Emergence can support you in creating

regenerative  cultures in your own life and relationships, as well as

how it can ripple out in to the world. Discover a message of hope and

tools for empowerment.

Looby Macnamara is an experienced permaculture teacher, author and

designer, and runs Applewood Permaculture Centre in North Herefordshire.

Organized by : Herefordshire Green Network.

Wednesday 25 September 2019, 7:30pm-9pm-ish

99% : How creating economic opportunity for millennials will help save

the environment.

Mark E. Thomas, author of the book ‘99% : Mass Impoverishment and How We

Can End It’, will talk about why we are now looking at the first

generation in living memory that can expect to be poorer than their

parents. This is mass impoverishment in action and the result of

political choices rather than cast-iron laws of economics. He will show

how we got into this mess, how we can get  out. He will show that five

key actions that we need to end mass impoverishment are precisely those

we need to tackle climate change.

Organized by : Hereford Green Party, Nat Waring.

Last Wednesday we had our first "Second Wednesday of month World Film

Night".

"Women without men", a 2009 film adaptation of a Shahrnush Parsipur

novel, directed by Shirin Neshat.

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born artist and photographer whose work

explores gender issues in the

Islamic world. Neshat, banned from even visiting Iran since 1996, lives

and works in New York city.

She left Iran in 1974, just before the Islamic Revolution that drove the

Shar into exile.

The film profiles the lives of four women living in Tehran in 1953,

during the American backed coup that returned the Shar of Iran to power.

The film was called "visually transfixing" by the New York Times

reviewer Stephen Holden - "with fierce beauty and precision of it's

cinematography. Two of the film's recurrent images are of a long dirt

road extending to the horizon on which the characters walk, adn a river

that suggests "a deep current of feminine resilience below an impassive

exterior."

We much enjoyed this film whist agreeing that we found it's rather Avant

guard and surreal presentation made it difficult for us to follow at

times.

A powerful portrayal of the oppression of women in this Islamic society

with expectation of acquiescence to arranged marriage and limitation of

personal freedom forcefully exemplified by a brother saying to a very

unwilling woman expected to meet a suitor "If you leave this house I

will break your legs".

Best wishes,

Alan & Nat.