A working system?

@wildcandytuft The current WCA is too rigid and discriminatory. It simply ignores anything that doesn’t fit its agenda.

@ladylyn54 Assessments are not wrong. Atos one-size-fits-all is the problem. We are the money sign for them.

@thisisamy Work capability assessment is flawed because complex health conditions can’t be accurately reduced to a series of tick boxes.

@tottwriter WCA needs to be accurate, not ‘tough’. This is the part that so many people seem to miss. We want it to be fair, not ‘easy.’

@wildcandytuft What do you think could be done to improve the work capability assessment? It’s too tough, too exhausting and, too often, wrong!

@RGPLizCrow It has to be designed with the help of people who are going to be assessed, redesigned by those of us who have experience. It can be rigorous and fair at the same time.

@wildcandytuft We all agree that some form of assessment is required, but it has to be fair, objective and consider real barriers to work.

@Barbsisi Assessment has to be applicable to a real life working environment and take journeys into account.

@thisisamy Yes! WCA needs a dose of realism. Plus, medical evidence shouldn’t be disregarded.

@nightinthelife I am sure they rely on deafeatism to help minimise the costs.

@RGPLizCrow We need a humane process of assessment and appeal.

@wildcandytuft When people are sick, they need a fast and simple process to get the benefits they need. ESA takes months of confusion and stress.

@TrishaL8 The whole system now appears to be disabling and excluding for disabled people, rather than using resources to enable and include.

@wildcandytuft When you’re sick or in mental distress, the last thing you can deal with is months of stress battling with the benefits system. ‘Reforms’ have made claiming benefits so tough that sick and mentally ill people are turned away at their time of greatest need.

@videolizzy A catch 22: DLA is given to people ensure they have a normal life. If you have too much of a normal life, you are deemed unworthy.

@mmaher70 How can a government have a target of how many they will get off DLA without making sure the system is against them?

@RGPLizCrow Managing the assessment and appeals is a full time job.

@CC_Me_AND_ME Being disabled and coping every single day with what illness and chronic conditions throw at us is a full time ‘job’ in itself.

@ladylyn54 If you have chronic or degenerative condition and you will not get better, why re-test so quickly?

@Mylegalforum Oh by the way, latest finding: 348,000 have had to go through ESA grief more than once!

@Fire_Rosa The costs of benefits changes? Tribunals, moving, homes adaptations, etc. Who is keeping track of the money?

@lisapeacefrench There’s a false economy in this and wasting of tax payers money.

@mmaher70 Cuts to legal aid and CAB are going to impact on individuals needing to appeal welfare decisions.

@RGPLizCrow Poor are punished by income cuts, the rich are rewarded with income tax cuts and corporations with tax evasion condoned.

@mmaher70 What is going to happen to people whose doctors are refusing to fill out supporting evidence for ESA/PIP?

@jamg3916 I think the government pushes through benefits changes a) to put folk off and b) to wear folk down, and also this government is so far removed they see only nuisance, not people.

@wildcandytuft People are deterred from claiming benefits because they are scared, confused, proud, and made to feel guilty that others are worse off.

@SoniaPoulton When Cameron needed the assistance he took the advantage of DLA (which he was entitled to).

@ambir I agree the purpose of the current system is to send people away. It does not try to support people.

@RGPLizCrow Daughter said “it’s like the witch trials” Survive assessment & you don’t need the support; die in the process & you did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_l5ntikaU

@MyalgicEncephal The establishment will no doubt knight anyone who can make a person with a disability seem like a witch & thus save them money.

@MyalgicEncephal This about sums up the disability trials. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_l5ntikaU

@dinogoldie Tory mentality: We don’t hate the disabled/muslims/visibly ethnic, just the fake/bad/bogus ones.

@edwinmandella But, as its difficult to tell the fakers from the genuine, we will exterminate them all!

@dinogoldie Yup. ConDem policy is simply the 21^st century version of the witch test. What a bunch of ducking stools.

@Dannilion Johan has decided to claim PIP. First problem: you have to phone for the claim form. His disability means he can’t phone…

@leni_lava Had Atos interrogation…alone… There is no help… No support.

@Mother_Duderior Good always to have someone as witness. Suggest you make notes during and after interview ‘just for the record”.

@lisapeacefrench It’s a crazy system. What is a world where there is no compassion, or even common sense?

@RGPLizCrow DWP claim PIP is “better targeted support” as disabled people, we know we are targets, but not for “support.”

@DADAAorgau Do you see this [the bed] as a way for people to be interviewed in bed to receive social security benefits?

@RGPLizCrow Hmm, tricky to answer because this is very vulnerable. Not sure I’d want social workers/Atos at my bed! But it gives the clearest picture of my circumstances. To protect ourselves maybe we need to get more true stories ‪out. As individuals we can point to those as supporting evidence.

@WOWpetitionchat The WCA has been declared unfit for purpose by the British Medical Association.

@Ramalina If you had a mental health issue, you’d want that assessed by a psychiatrist not a physio. [Atos has recruited a majority of physiotherapists to carry out ESA assessments, regardless of the impairments of those they are assessing.]

@wildcandytuft Do you think that a qualified medical professional and not a DWP administrator should have the final decision?

@wildcandytuft GPs won’t get involved. No reason the state couldn’t employ its own assessment doctors instead of Atos though?

@FordCarole Prior to 1997 disability was assessed on basis of medical evidence and interview with DWP doctor. A no points test.

@CelpiesCorner Until about four years ago, the DWP did employ doctors. Then Atos took over.

@CelpiesCorner Stop doing the bloody thing and ask GP instead?

@onmybiketoo Definitely. A GP or specialist should be the named person as befits the condition being assessed.

@StephenParry80 Let GPs/hospital doctors make decisions, not box-ticking Atos bureaucrats. That’d be a start.

@LordReynolds All it takes is a couple of questions to your cosultant/ specialist: Are they fit for work, etc? When I’ve been seen by a doctor at tribunals, I have won both ESA and DLA. Doctors should be the first line, not the last.

@patientinmind Yes, the WCA does undermine our own GP’s decisions. Is the government saying GPs’ medical opinions aren’t valid?

@edwinmandella The object of the exercise is to empower the disabled people that can to get jobs. How does a doctor help that?

@RGPLizCrow I agree we need to be very cautious in bringing in doctors who might not understand the social issues beyond the medical (such as discrimination), and might not understand some impairments, or even believe they exist. My being out of paid work is not because of diagnosis but a combination of illness and discrimination.

@RGPLizCrow Do people think (good) OTs [occupational therapists] have a role in assessment. If not, who is best qualified to assess?

@onmybiketoo Sorry, but all the community OTs we have met have no clue about what we need. Living with a spinal cord injury, our rehousing OTs are awful. They just do not understand other half’s needs.

@Simplicitly We had a specialist multiple sclerosis OT, but she was the first to go under NHS cuts!

@criquaer By their nature, OTs ought to be trustworthy, but is professionalism sullied by WCAs?

@onmybiketoo If we had people-centred care plans and assessments, they would be personalised around the need for health, work, finances and housing. There would be no need for WCA.

 

Human impact

@Ramalina A serious accident was worst moment of my life. WCA was second worst.

@CaroleShooter Atos Medical Examination soon. Can’t eat, I’m a bag of nerves. Too much coming at me at once, Confused. Afraid of feeling humiliated by breaking down during interrogation.

@long2b Very strange watching my cerebral palsy gait on TV #walkforcamera to prove I’m (in)valid and entitled!

@RGPLizCrow Is it ‘accident or design’ that the benefits restructuring demands we demean and prove ourselves?

@mmaher70 42% success rate at appeal and up to £70 million a year spent on appeals does not measure the stress.

@jamg3916 My experience so far is humiliation, stress and despair. Horrid.

@stuckinscared I feel controlled by – at the mercy of – significant others who neither know nor care about me.

@twowolves I’d stopped apologising but have relapsed further than ever because I’ve been forced backwards by ‘welfare reform.’

@tippyscarecrow Do you ever start to lose sense of who you are? When doctors give wrong diagnosis/don’t believe you, it’s easy to start questioning self.

@tippyscarecrow I am a Paralympian and under Universal Credit am likely to become homeless.and under PIP [Personal Independence Payment, replacing DLA] will be housebound.

@thisisamy The rhetoric from this government is “the most disabled will get support.” Now I worry if I’m disabled enough for help. So negative.

@lisapeacefrench Absolutely ridiculous. They are creating victims from people whose strength and talents they cannot understand.

@jmcefalas And it’s not just loss of income. It’s the full on confrontation of the realities of life, where coping has meant living in the moment. Confronting reality is depressing and exposure of intimate personal information excruciating. Designed to deter? Causes mental anguish.

@Kitschmonkey There is an assumption that disabled people are supported by state/charities/NHS. Often we have no support.

@allbigideas My ESA letter had 2 small boxes: one saying you’re in WRAG [Work-Related Activity Group] and one saying Support Group. Took me days to work out.

@RGPLizCrow: From Anon: “They wrote saying they needed to chat about change in benefits. Face to face they accused me of fraud. DWP mislead in correspondence.”

@RGPLizCrow I was accused of fraud, interviewed under caution, taped, solicitor, nine months’ hell. Oops, they misread my file.

@leni_lava When Atos/DWP declare people fit for work regardless of the facts, people will be left with no money to eat.

@RGPLizCrow Floor “You fall into a black hole.”

@RGPLizCrow Jon says “I lost my incapacity benefit, then my housing benefit stopped. No one said that would happen. Almost lost my home.”

@tiggerbumble No one should have to make the choice between heating and eating. Dickens would be turning in his grave.

@tiggerbumble Living on the edge, just about making it through, is soul destroying.

@RGPLizCrow Local service cuts mean people are becoming more isolated.

@opinion8ed_dyke Stress of assessment affects my health so much. Takes over a year to get back to where I was before the forms came.

@tippyscarecrow Changes have impact on mental health especially when psychosis is already a factor. Very damaging.

@tippyscarecrow My 14-year old: “Our government and McVey can go F themselves with their F-ing cuts! Jesus, I’m not gonna live on the streets cos my mum’s disabled.”

@leni_lava Woke up so anxious, so alone. If declared ‘fit for work’ equals = no money = court = evil.

@cusp Failed on assessment. Found fit to work. Locked out of system now. No support. Invisible.

@KandicePieterse Last Tuesday my father was deemed by DWP as ‘fit to work’. He died on Thursday of terminal cancer.

@tottwriter My nan is in a rural area and gets no help at home because all her DLA goes on motability. She is 82.

@titiantart If my husband loses his Motability vehicle, he will be confined to the house. Live in rural area. Nearest bus stop about 1.5 miles.

@long2b Got a job interview. If offered the job do I tell them can only stay in employment until 2015 after which I’ll have no car #noDLA

@tippyscarecrow Brother of colleague died from terminal cancer two weeks after Atos found him fit for work.

@RGPLizCrow Particularly when life is time limited, it shouldn’t be spent under pressure of fit for work activities, but with time for family and self. 32 people a week dying while placed in WRAG & appealing. What a way to spend your final months.

@RGPLizCrow What is unforgivable is when people are dying and still no one stops it.

@k_runswick_cole What keeps me awake at night is what will happen to my son when I die #learningdisabilty.

@Kewryta Filling out a DWP form undoes months of progress with my depression then there’s the physical toll of assessment.

@Kewryta Heard many people with mental health issues say same thing, that it is painful to delve into what were your worst periods of illness.

@RGPLizCrow Bedside Quote: “Four people were told they no longer had a ‘learning disability’ – and had a complete loss of support, and identity.”

@RGPLizCrow Floor: “What does it mean to suddenly not have a learning disability, it’s a goal posting exercise which damages people!

@RGPLizCrow Disabled people feel paraded and degraded during the benefits claims process.

@VoiceofT_Reason Privacy is part of my armour. Telling my reality is painful, yet that is what is required for challenging this evil rhetoric.

@Onlyfluffyone I never realised how many people were being made to live the same life as I do.

@Kitschmonkey With a misunderstood disability, we are dehumanised and viewed as object of fear. Nobody wants to think this can happen to them.

@RGPLizCrow Suddenly I feel insecure, always waiting for brown envelopes, heart rate going up. I resent the loss of the sense of security.

@RGPLizCrow Many live in fear of the postie. One lady blocked up her letterbox and removed her door number.

@Merrynew13 Desperately, desperately sad, to live in fear of the state. This is what we have come to.

@thisisamy PIP reform worries me the most. DLA enables precious independence. To actively take this away seems very callous.

@RGPLizCrow I was placed in WRAG, which endangers my heath. I fought for nine months for Support Group. Won the tribunal. A whole hour’s elation at winning then remembered that soon it’ll all start again! Main satisfaction: screwing up DWP statistics.

@LordReynolds Well I took ‘em on and after 18 months (sometimes without heat and food), yesterday I had all appeals approved and backdated.

@ambir That is good news, but it should not be like that. 18 months is a long time to fight for what you are entitled to.

@LordReynolds True. How can any civilized society leave its sick in sub-zero conditions? I paid tax and national insurance for 36 years, so now I’ve made a claim on that insurance. End of.

 

Lives more complex

@RGPLizCrow Shifting health: we have a system that is all or nothing. There isn’t flexibility.

@twowolves Also bed life does not mean no life, but complex, and must have positive support.

@mmaher70 The complexity of variable conditions is not taken into account in the new WCA. It is used as a stick to beat people with.

@GothboyUK Indeed, in my WCA the doctor refused to even discuss or consider my CFS. Not even mentioned on WCA report!

@WOWpetitionchat My epilepsy wasn’t mentioned In my WCA report!!!!!

@VoiceofT_Reason Complexities of disability aren’t recognised by welfare system or even by our doctors. How can we challenge?

@Alexandarshippo When a medical practitioner disbelieves a patient regarding a hidden impairment, are they disabling the patient?

@MikScarlet In an act of empathy, I am stuck in bed waiting for a district nurse, so won’t be working today either. WCA doesn’t consider this.

@Katharine_T At my worst, I don’t have the spoons [a method of measuring energy/health] to explain to doctors what my symptoms and struggles are in a way they understand.

@Mrs_Stix I have been told so many times by consultants that my personality/character will conflict with my diagnosis of ME.

@leni_lava Yeah they assume they know us better than we know ourselves… in five minutes. When they don’t even try!

@Mrs_Stix I simply cannot meet with anyone when I am on a poorly day or major relapse, so no one other than my husband sees me like this.

@Quinonostante Also to be deemed remotely intelligent is also damning if you have a mental illness and need to claim benefits.

@leni_lava My aspergers is a hidden disability I need support… There is none.

@bluehook I’m an Aspie too. Couldn’t get a diagnosis till I agreed not to ask for any support.

@leni_lava The Atos assessor asked if I have friends. I do not. Don’t know how they will view that. #aspie

@lisapeacefrench I just took a resilience test – scored exceptional – but I still have PTSD! I have heard from several friends with PTSD that Atos are telling them it doesn’t exist! It does! Yet with support and help people with PTSD can live quality lives we just need support to do so! Anyone with PTSD being told by Atos it doesn’t exist need to come together to make a case.

@cusp How to get help/support when your condition is disbelieved? ‘You look so well’ Pah! :/

@DavidK123123 Atos don’t understand depression or any other health problem in which you have good days and bad days.

@wilde I told the Atos nurse that my life was not like living at all. She barked questions on suicide at me. I cried. No training on mental health.

@Mrs_Stix Have even suggested that if I change my personality it may help towards my recovery. Who would have thought medical ‘experts’ could spout such twaddle.

@FionaArt So if you have strength of will for a few moments or hours before you collapse in a heap, the government says you’re not disabled?!

@crochetkid75 Thanks physio but I don’t just need to get fit. I was super fit and healthy before ME stuck me down.

@RGPLizCrow Those who fall through the gaps are going to be those who need the most help: people with learning difficulties, mental ill health, or at their illest. There is a hierarchy of impairment, the top group of people with low level spinal cord injury without complications, or amputees, people who are able to be active and conform reasonably closely to non-disabled expectations. At the bottom are people with invisible impairment, chronic illness, learning difficulties and mental health issues.

@shudisability @RGPLizCrow says to navigate the benefits system you almost need to not need the system.

@twowolves Exactly: I cannot demonstrate to them without triggering myself!!

@sarasiobhan Falling between the gaps; learning disabled people and those with mental health ‘issues’. Spot on Liz Crow.

@nightinthelife DLA/PIP: you can’t access it when you really need it and people are unable to muster enough strength to fight for it.

@twowolves Spot on! Irony = “At illest I cannot I represent myself.. Need very best advocates then…” Help us out of abyss.

@RGPLizCrow Oh yes. Would like to know how many fall through gaps cos too ill to be ill. Took me four years’ appeals to qualify for DLA “for life”!

@Onlyfluffyone What happens to those who are just too sick to appeal the decisions of Atos and DWP?

@RGPLizCrow Those of us campaigning need to hold in our mind those most likely to fall through the gaps. There’s a terrible irony that, for me, when I am at my illest I cannot represent myself, but when I can present myself I am not seen as ill. In those situations we need the best advocates who can convey these complexities alongside us. There are people in groups such as DPAC [Disabled People Against the Cuts] and other groups who will help; we need to make them more visible and easier to call upon. Many of us have times when we cannot be active, and we must allow this time in groups of campaigners. In groups like DPAC and Spartacus, people have moved in and out, gaining strength and picking up each other’s work in times of health and illness.

@PenPep A day after leaving hospital, I don’t want a Ritz bed – merely a supported, independent life.

 

Into work

@TrishaL8 I was placed in WRAG. Job provider thought CV was magic answer. Not a clue abut epilepsy or issue of regular seizures!

@edwinmandella The judgement should be whether there a job in the market place that this person can do and which is beneficial to all parties!

@tottwriter I was let go because I had too many seizures to work. Who will hire me now when they could have a “normal” employee instead?

@Georgenecs But employers do not want to invest in equipment and time to employ disabled people.

@CllrPaul4Cowick Disabled people do want to work, but they need support to overcome huge barriers.

@Peckitt People say to me – tutors, career advisors – “Don’t talk about your disability. Nobody is interested and it won’t get you a job.”

@MikScarlet Lucky I don’t have a boss. I doubt they would be fine with me taking ages off. Until work practices change, not all disabled people can work.

@edwinmandella In my opinion, many people do not want to employ or work with people that aren’t ‘the same as them’!

@mberest1982 Tory MP Philip Davies thought that disabled people should be paid less. This is our reality.

@scousiepie The Incapacity Benefit rules allowed me to fund myself to train as a social worker after being signed off long term sick with depression and OCD at 23. I wouldn’t have been able to take the time to recover enough or pay my way through the training otherwise. I now work in a Community Mental Health Team, pay more tax than I ever have, have more incentive to look after my health and much improved self esteem. I even like to imagine I’m good at my job sometimes… Yet now the most common phrase I hear from seriously unwell people is “I used to work, you know”. How many of them could have real prospects with a fairer welfare system? I spend so much time reassuring people who are terrified of the DWP and affirming that they aren’t terrible people because they need help. I’m the kind of example people use when arguing that welfare writes people off, but the fact is without a supportive welfare structure I would have been incapable of getting out of my situation….and the way things are now I’m not sure I would have survived. Good disability benefit enables people.

@RGPLizCrow This is the kind of story, analysis and complexity we need to get out there. Not a simplistic success story but a success story built through a combination of individual graft and skill and the right social structures being in place.

@scousiepie Exactly. Without the more relaxed supportive rules no amount of graft would have paid my way. Training was stressful enough! It also reduced a lot of my negative feeling about ‘needing’ benefits. It certainly reduced stigmatic attitude of others. Now when I say it, I get “Oh well you were trying, but I KNOW THIS WOMAN RIGHT….” Many of my ‘clients’ would appreciate and benefit from that structure. Many did and are now worse off. The worst part of my job at the moment is people in tears over ESA forms, worried I’m sitting judging them for needing it. The current situation also implies professionals are prepared to regularly provide false information to support bogus claims. Also consultants, CPNs, OTs, social workers…. all apparently prepared to engage in mass fraud! I doubt it.

 

Getting through and answering back

@RGPLizCrow @SoniaPoulton says: McVey and Maria Miller [current and former Ministers for Disabled People]: puppets with loaded language. None of this is by accident.

@RGPLizCrow I went through ESA assessment last year, and waited 9 months for tribunal and found it a dark period. What got me through was knowing others out there fighting back and, when I can, joining forces. This project helps me go beyond just trying to survive to doing something, which makes it easier to handle.

@RGPLizCrow Much of the way disabled people have campaigned is a model for a good society.

@RGPLizCrow @SoniaPoulton says It’s unique that it’s the affected group is the group fighting the battle.

@RGPLizCrow “I’m not seeing Spartacus” says Mark Hoban, junior minister dealing with Atos. Must be having some impact! http://www.michaelmeacher.info/weblog/2008/08/a-bank-too-far/#149re

@RGPLizCrow Amongst campaigners the challenge is very direct, and there is a huge body of people gathering evidence/experience to use. DPAC and other groups have amassed incredible resources from people who have been through the process already, so others don’t have learn in such a hard way. The website has lots of good information and links. http://dpac.uk.net/

@RGPLizCrow One of the things I have realised about the structure of the benefits system is that it’s based on the Paralympian type, not designed for bodies like ours. Those who need help from the system will fail in this system. That is what we are facing. Really tough to challenge. In the long term, it’s keeping our stories out there, and those stories need to sit in the bigger campaign.

@tippyscarecrow Love your response! ) And so great to bring the Paralympic and benefits rhetoric into the same conversation; fab job!

@RGPLizCrow In the meantime we have to get through this as individuals in this scenario of benefits. That requires us to tell a story, to show parts of ourselves that emphasise everything we have difficulty with. We have to be the opposite of who we are and how we want to live. It is emotionally demanding to be this person we don’t want to be. We need to gain strength from each other during the process – and then return to who we are. One thing which I think is useful is to make your impairment as visible as possible. Two examples, I may wear the dark glasses I wear in private and the mustard sweater which makes me look pale, degrade the image for that time.

@cusp Being an ‘actor’ makes me feel like I am faking it and being dishonest even when I know I’m not.

@RGPLizCrow [responding to concern at presenting yourself in this way] I get that. But you are one applicant and, in this instance, your life depends on getting through the system. You will not change anything in that appointment. You can however work on campaigning afterwards. The system is wrong to demand we act ill to receive, but it’s a temporary compromise we need to go through to get what we need. And friends and support are vital whilst we ‘act’ our illness to fit the system.

@cusp Good to hear Liz talking about the ducking and diving so many of us have to do: two lives.

@RGPLizCrow The medical model is not how anyone lives their lives, so to answer benefits assessment questions we have represent ourselves as needy and helpless. So how do we keep our true selves in that system and still get the resources?

@RGPLizCrow The claimant is set in ‘isolation’ and the ‘social’ side of a claimant is not considered.

@tiggerbumble How to create a fair system that can cope with the complexities of disability/illness and can see us as individuals

@RGPLizCrow Social security does not exist in isolation to other provision, it’s entwined with social services, education, health, employment, etc, each affecting the other.

@RGPLizCrow The only way we can address why so many people are claiming is to look at the bigger picture. For example, we need to address why the ‘welfare’ budget is subsidising employers to employ at below-subsistence wages.

@Alexandarshippo Keep demanding a minimum ‘Citizen’s Wage’ which is adequate.

@RGPLizCrow Floor: Is anyone working on an alternative to the current system for claiming benefit?

@tiggerbumble In the wings we do have to devise an alternative. This is so true.

@WOWpetition We need to redefine what ‘work’ is, what is valued work, how we reward, and minimum income.

@RGPLizCrow Many people would love to work. Many are qualified and the country has invested in them. Yes the system and social structures make employment really difficult.

@kevstanley66 The problem is that we, as a society, seem to see economic activity as the only measure of worth. So wrong.

@k_runswick_cole Never mind the contribution they make as children, siblings, friends and life partners…

@CllrPaul4Cowick Could there be a way to treat disabled people for tax. benefits, ability to work in the same way as the self-employed?

@RGPLizCrow We could have a system similar to the income tax system where at the end of every year we check how much we have earned and tax and a fair level of benefits repayments are calculated. People who can’t work all the time or predict their work capacity over the year would be able to work with a financial safety net. We need to be able to work when we can and not work when we can’t. Better than current system which means it’s all work (not possible for me) or all benefits (wasted resources for everyone).

@bluehook Taking away benefits: it’s not just cruel, it should be illegal. What happened to the equality impact assessment?

@BebzCaulfield ‪#beddingout highlights the trajectory (agenda?) of austerity cuts, ie putting disabled people back into institutions. This must not happen.

@thisisamy One of the scariest things about the myriad of welfare cuts is knowing that the government hasn’t assessed their cumulative impact.

@ladylyn54 Do you think this cumulative impact assessment will happen? http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/41070 

@BobEllard1 It is happening. Not complete, but a partial assessment by London Councils. http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/08/london-councils-set-to-pose-question-dwp-fears-to-ask/

@WOWpetitionchat Three local authorities in London have agreed to do partial cumulative impact assessments. It is a start.

@RGPLizCrow If you have not signed yet please sign http://wowpetition.com WOW is fighting a war on welfare, asking for national cumulative impact assessment and for the WCA to be scrapped. 100,000 signatures needed by 12 December 2013. The petition is a first stage of a much bigger campaign.

@AtosStories We’ve come a long way on Atos and WCA. How far do we have to go before it’s over do you think?

@RGPLizCrow It’s never over but… I think what is happening with benefits and cuts represents a much bigger battle about how disabled people are regarded in wider society. Read inspiring book recently, Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit. She said it’s not so much reaching the destination but making progress along the way and that, in our activism, it is crucial to model the kind of society we are aiming for. The best of our activism does just this.

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