DWP seeking CCTV footage against disabled

Saw this on Twitter. Rather shocked. Parking it here.
DWP it seems has many ways to get at the disabled.


https://twitter.com/user/status/969932455472967680

 

Apparently there is some doubt now about the origins of this story. I haven’t checked further. I shared in shock.

 

They are no better than Nazis. I am so ashamed of my country.

 

Do we yet know if it is a genuine news story?

 

I don’t know how to begin to find out

 

Google doesn't seem to turn up anything.

 

I saw this also on twitter this morning and was completely shocked. Even if it doesn’t turn out to be true, the wider story of how society has been encouraged to think of benefits claimants as scroungers and people claiming government money for disability as fraudsters is still a very serious misrepresentation of the vulnerable in society.

Here is a piece by Frances Ryan from the 1st Feb

"Is this truly Britain – a land that spies on sick and poor people?

The demonisation of benefit claimants affects us all. We should help disabled people – instead we wrongly accuse them"

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...it-claimants-disabled-people?CMP=share_btn_fb

here’s an exert

“As the first cuts to disability benefits were introduced amid talk of the bloated welfare bill, the DWP ran advertising campaigns telling us that we, the public, had an important role to play in identifying benefit cheats. National newspapers ran campaigns calling on “all Brits to be patriotic and report any cheats you know”. All are fully aware that benefit fraud accounts for just 1.1% of the total benefits bill.”

Edited: typo

 

They should just tag us all and be done with it.

Would be better than Atos tbh.

 

Which makes the massive assumption people can (and can be bothered to) distinguish genuine benefit cheats from people genuinely disabled but trying to live their lives nonetheless.

 

It's from the founder of Fightback4justice and is on their Facebook page. I don't know if you can access it without joining the group. I would say that Michelle knows what's going on with DWP, so this is true.

 

You'll be shocked to learn that they don't.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/27/false-benefit-fraud-allegations

It is a massive help to those who like to conduct harassment complaints against the unemployed/disabled though. Consider the amount of abuse unemployed/disabled people face in general, add a high proportion of myths and social conditioning, jealousy and general pettiness, leave to simmer and stir occasionally.

I'm sure the posters were just unwitting in fostering this attitude:


<sarcasm> Just remember subjects, all women in or around council estates are suspect, especially when walking. Best be sure and report them. </sarcasm>

 

Especially overweight women and those who dont conform to society's narrow view of what is deemed sexually attractive.

What i find so troubling about all this, is that generally compassionate people, those who believe I'm really ill & not in anyway malingering, will still say to me things like "oh it's not you thats the problem Jem, you are genuine, it's all those layabouts who just dont want to work, they want to get off their fat arses" - and their faces always twist into a mask of spite & contempt while talking about said people.
It's disturbing that they, even knowing me well & the problems i have with the system, still think there are these great swathes of malingering lazy b**tards lying &cheating their way through the taxes of 'hardworking people' like themselves. It's like even in the presence of livingevidence to the contrary they still believe the propaganda. And they can seem to understand that to those who dont know me well I appear to be one of those 'layabouts deserving of contempt & bile. It really freaks me out sometimes.

 

I thikn I'd recently seen some other people raising concerns about this organisation. I didn't look into the details, so maybe I'm just spreading empty gossip, but as others said their may be question marks over this story anyway, I thought I'd mention it.

 

Fightback4justice have had problems with people trolling on Facebook and also pretending to be them. So of course you will see "some other people" raising concerns. Without Fightback4justice's help I would not have moved from basic Activities of Daily Living and the Moving Around activities to higher level for both.

I met with the person who became my advocate at Tribunal at their office in Tottington as I am fortunate enough to live close enough to visit (and have a husband willing to drive me there). Had about an hour's interview about my case. I also met Michelle.

I would be grateful if you don't pass rumours like this around any more @Esther12. While I paid for the help I received I am able to do so via help from my husband @Daysailer. Fightback help many people free of charge. To have an advocate present at Tribunal or other hearing is a different matter, travel time and petrol/rail costs obviously come into the picture. These were not exorbitant, indeed much lower than I would expect.

My advocate was wonderful, supportive, and calming in a very stressful situation. Thanks to her I have a Motability car again. On several other threads on this forum and PR I have recommended Fightback4Justice, and I continue to do so. Their costs seem to me to be very reasonable for what they provide.

If you want to access their VIP platform (for more personalised help and letters and help covering many different conditions) that may seem expensive, but you are free to unsubscribe as soon as you wish after your first payment. I continue with my subscription as I believe that Fightback4Justice are doing a great job and my sub helps them keep going.

 

I understand that well. Apparently it was brought up over Christmas Dinner by my sister's mother in law.

In my humble opinion, we are socially conditioned to view groups of abstract people as 'other', remove their humanity and not apply the same rules and ethics as we apply to people like 'us'. There are plenty of bigoted people who have 'friends' who are the exception to the rule. It's usually excused by labeling the 'friend' as an honorary member of the 'in' group.

Try asking them what happens to the money these 'layabouts' receive. As the proportion of income spent by benefit recipients goes straight back into the local economy, it creates and sustains employment. Maybe even their jobs! It's a perfectly logical argument for keeping benefits in line with prices, accepting that there will always be a minority of fraudsters (~3% by official figures) and ask them if they would like to work with a lazy fraudster, depending on their honesty and ethics! Would they prefer if all the fraudsters were steered in the direction of petty crime instead?

For extra cognitive dissonance, you can tell them that taxes don't 'fund' anything (tax money is removed from circulation), or even that money is an abstract fictional concept.

 

You are so right Luther.

 

The most dangerous words I've heard today

Back vaguely on topic, I wouldn't be surprised if the DWP were breaking the law, as with all agencies, the law is only the law if it is enforced. Who knows what is going on behind the scenes? I would hope that a judge would complain about any shady practices, but the DWP is not exactly known for transparency and exactness. I cannot see the Department of Justice being that impressed with some of the things they get up to.

 

This kind of thing is also why VPNs are useful. Odds are it won't be long before the DWP is taking advantage of the UKs ISP data retention requirements to track down every single website a person visits and finding a way to (try to) use that against them.

 

Yep. It's the mechanism by which whole groups discard empathy for another group, and so feel justified in treating them appallingly. One of the key ways this is done psychologically is by labelling groups of people. e.g. Labelling people vermin, as a way of justifying treating them as such. Or labelling people as vexatious activists ...!