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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 1d

Reconsidering Mandatory Reconsideration: Is the system fit for purpose? by Buki Akinosho
Ideally, they should be abolished
wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/reconsiderin...

Reconsidering Mandatory Reconsideration: Is the system fit for purpose?

Mandatory reconsideration (MR) is a process that allows benefit claimants to request a review of a decision about their benefits claim. MR…

wearecitizensadvice.org.uk

anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 2d

It has been tried before, forcing disabled people to move into work (it was before 2010 under a Labour government, when there was a real drive to understand what was happening). The number were very small, and the jobs never lasted more than 3 or 4 months. Check DWP archives.

anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 2d

Anger and frustration after DWP’s latest jobcentre announcement and McFadden’s ‘incentives’ comment www.disabilitynewsservice.com/anger-and-fr... via @johnpringdns

Anger and frustration after DWP’s latest jobcentre announcement and McFadden’s ‘incentives’ comment

Sick and disabled people have raised serious concerns about the latest Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announcement on its strategy to persuade more claimants receiving out-of-work sickness …

www.disabilitynewsservice.com

Reposted

Louise Murphy @louisemurphy.bsky.social · 4d

Case study 2: UC stats get written up as 'rise in claimants not required to work' - and anyone glancing at this chart would think there's been an extraordinary change in benefit claims. You have to read footnotes/surrounding text to know that there's been a corresponding fall in ESA claims...

Screenshot of chart: Rise in claimants not required to work

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Louise Murphy @louisemurphy.bsky.social · 4d

Case study 1: DWP count people who go through a Work Capability Assessment when they move from ESA to UC as a 'new' claimant. So when you draw a time-series chart of Work Capability Assessments - even if you limit it to 'initial' assessments - you see a big spike in recent months...

Screenshot of headline saying: Long-term sickness claims rising by 5,000 a day

Screenshot of chart: Monthly Universal Credit WCA decisions, Great Britain, April 2019 to May 2025

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Louise Murphy @louisemurphy.bsky.social · 4d

It's increasingly perplexing that DWP aren't prioritising improving their stats to better reflect the move from legacy benefits to UC.

Until then, we'll keep getting misleading headlines like 'Long-term sickness claims rising by 5,000 a day' - you can't blame journalists when the stats are so bad!

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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 4d

May have something to do with the government's objective to cut disability benefits because "unsustainable"

Louise Murphy @louisemurphy.bsky.social · 4d

It's increasingly perplexing that DWP aren't prioritising improving their stats to better reflect the move from legacy benefits to UC.

Until then, we'll keep getting misleading headlines like 'Long-term sickness claims rising by 5,000 a day' - you can't blame journalists when the stats are so bad!

anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 4d

I am a 71y EU national. I have been in UK for 41 years, worked and paid tax. My husband and my children are British and I jointly own my house, but according to Reform UK and some Tory proposal, I should be stripped of my ILR, pension and deported. Is it what UK has become?

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 7d

Keeping people in poverty is an expensive luxury.
My column on the false economies of austerity, which costs us all a fortune. Despite the government's claims, austerity continues under Labour. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It hurt when I crashed my bike into a pothole – and it taught me the true price of austerity | George Monbiot

Fixing that hole could have cost under £100; the cost of not doing so is limitless. My prang highlights the neoliberal folly of false economies, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

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Ellie Harwood @ellieharwood.bsky.social · 7d

Current proposals will make it even harder for people with cancer to get financial support for the extra costs it brings. Scrapping WCA means many patients will have to meet PIP criteria instead. PIP currently fails to recognise the specific and unique ways cancer treatment disables people.

Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 8d

"Abolishing the WCA without ensuring the PIP assessment is more inclusive could result in people receiving no support," said @rachaelmaskell.bsky.social.

"This will particularly impact, for example, someone recovering from cancer or a serious accident." www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

Labour faces another mass rebellion over reforms to universal credit

Welfare secretary Pat McFadden plans further reforms to the benefits system, expected to include abolishing the work capability assessment.

www.bigissue.com

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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 7d

Labour faces another mass rebellion over reforms to the universal credit system, MPs fear www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

Labour faces another mass rebellion over reforms to universal credit

Welfare secretary Pat McFadden plans further reforms to the benefits system, expected to include abolishing the work capability assessment.

www.bigissue.com

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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 8d

All the evidence from Labour conference points in one direction: More cuts to disability benefits www.disabilitynewsservice.com/all-the-evid... via @johnpringdns

All the evidence from Labour conference points in one direction: More cuts to disability benefits

Information from Labour ministers and other party sources has shown beyond any doubt that the government is preparing for further attempts to cut spending on disability benefits over the next 12 mo…

www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 8d

DWP paid nearly £90,000 to disabled claimant left homeless and at risk of harm after years of errors
Where were the safeguards which should supposedly prevent this??
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwp-paid-nea... via @johnpringdns

DWP paid nearly £90,000 to disabled claimant left homeless and at risk of harm after years of errors

A disabled person was left with “ongoing risks” of harm for more than five years – and was even left homeless – after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) missed multiple opportunities to pro…

www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 8d

It is not only a question of affording it (in terms of money I mean). My husband and children are British and live in the UK. I jointly own my house with my husband. Am I supposed to leave all that behind? After 41 years in the UK?

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Dr Farbod @emergencybod.medsky.social · 9d

Here I am in March 2020 wearing the PPE that was available at the time for frontline services about to see an influx of extremely sick people with SARS-CoV-2 now known as COVID-19.

I watched many die.
Colleagues died.

Michelle Mone should be in jail.
And she should only be the first on a long list

A man stands in a hospital corridor in March 2020, fully dressed in early-pandemic personal protective equipment. He wears a disposable blue gown, plastic apron, surgical mask, clear visor with a white strip down the middle, and blue gloves. His trousers and bright blue trainers are visible beneath the gown. Behind him are double wooden doors with "Exit" and "Fire exit" signs, and to the side is a toilet sign. The image captures the stark, improvised feel of frontline PPE at the start of COVID-19.

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 11d

Again, for those Labour supporters at the back, telling us the good stuff that Labour is doing *doesn’t help*, even if on a smart infographic, whilst the big stuff, the headline stuff, is awful.

Cut out the big xenophobic crap, and we might be able to hear the good stuff.

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Sb @xtasbe.bsky.social · 13d

It's not volunteering if it's compulsory

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 13d

"Migrants will have to carry out community work or volunteering to qualify to permanently remain in the UK, according to the Home Secretary." [Telegraph]

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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 15d

Sick who go back to work end up in low-paid, physically tough jobs
Only a tiny fraction of economically inactive find a job each year, and it is often an unsuitable role where they can only last a few months, research shows
archive.ph/f8xsa#select...

archive.ph

anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 15d

Anger and frustration after DWP’s latest jobcentre announcement and McFadden’s ‘incentives’ comment www.disabilitynewsservice.com/anger-and-fr... via @johnpringdns

Anger and frustration after DWP’s latest jobcentre announcement and McFadden’s ‘incentives’ comment

Sick and disabled people have raised serious concerns about the latest Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announcement on its strategy to persuade more claimants receiving out-of-work sickness …

www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 22d

She said: “This is what makes me very angry. You are not born racist. You are taught to be racist, and you are groomed.”

She said the protest had left many of her organisation’s service-users thinking about the support they receive, because as disabled people “you are always having to justify any cost of support, it’s all measured by how much it costs the local authority.

“It’s intersectional because you’ve got the disability and then the [attacks around] immigration, so you’ve got the negativity on both sides.

“People were already struggling to try and justify their existence, and now it has just made that conversation more hostile.”

She said she believed the only way to fight back was for different oppressed groups to work together.

She said: “I think that collective voice is the only way to show those who are trying to create this division that it’s not going to work.”

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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 22d

‘DWP were pushing, pushing, pushing my wife to kill herself, but nothing has been done’ www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwp-were-pus... via @johnpringdns

‘DWP were pushing, pushing, pushing my wife to kill herself, but nothing has been done’

A grieving widower has accused the disability minister of trying to erase the role of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in his wife’s suicide. An ombudsman concluded earlier this year that…

www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 23d

Make Malicious Benefit Fraud Reporting a Criminal Offence - Sign the Petition! chng.it/Xhy8LdF9J9 via @UKChange

Sign the Petition

Make Malicious Benefit Fraud Reporting a Criminal Offence

chng.it

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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · 23d

My place or yours? - Flags and the far right from someone who looks different to you
open.substack.com/pub/bestforb...

My place or yours? - Flags and the far right from someone who looks different to you

By Alex Andreou

open.substack.com

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Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Sep 10

6 out of 10 households in the bottom half of Britain's (working age) income distribution have savings worth less than 3 months' income.

c. 1 in 2 have under £1k of savings.

Combined with a weak safety net, it makes for a huge amount of social insecurity.

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anitabellows.bsky.social @anitabellows.bsky.social · Sep 10

Universal credit sanctions "undermine" Jobcentre employment support, DWP warned by MPs www.bigissue.com/news/employm...

Universal credit sanctions 'undermine' Jobcentre work support

A new report by the Work and Pensions Committee is calling on the government to go further with its plans to reform Jobcentres

www.bigissue.com