Tuesday 27 October 2009

Employment and Support Allowance Statement on First Anniversary


The government's appalling Welfare Reform Bill has completed its passage through the House of Lords - further stigmatisation of single parents and the unwaged due to follow. Below is a statement issued by the Green Party's Spokesperson on Disability regarding Employment and Support Allowance which is one year old today.


"People on out-of-paid work benefits generally look on the introduction of Employment & Support Allowance as an act of state terrorism. Thus it is appropriate that the Parkinson's Disease Society and the National Autistic Society condemn the way most Employment & Support Allowance claimants have been forced toward the harsher and stingier 'conditionality' of Jobseekers Allowance," Green Party Disability Spokesperson Alan Wheatley said today.[1]

Employment & Support Allowance was introduced on 27 October 2008 -- a year ago today. Survey figures released by the National Autistic Society and Parkinson's Disease Society show that a great many people with autism or Parkinson's Disease are being unjustly treated by Atos Medical Services who conduct the assessments on behalf of the DWP. "That these bodies stand out against such injustices helps restore their credibility with the disabled people that disability charities represent," Mr Wheatley said. "High-salaried chief executives with major national disability charities are frequently seen as state salaried employees, colluding against the interests of the disabled people they purport to represent.

"It is also helpful that Citizen's Advice Scotland has spoken out against Employment & Support Allowance,"
says the Green Party of England & Wales Disability Spokesperson. I doubt that 'leader in global public services reform A4e would be so outspoken against ESA." A4e, seen by some local authorities as a cheaper option than traditional Citizen's Advice Bureau services, is mainly known as a welfare reform scheme provider.[1] [2]

"The Green Party stands for social justice rather than the privatisation of the welfare state. Privatisation of the welfare state amounts to colonisation and commoditisation of the lives of the most vulnerable,"
says the Green Party Spokesperson.[3]

1.


Employment and support allowance slammed on first birthday
<http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2009/10/27/112983/employment-and-support-allowance-slammed-on-first-birthday.html>

27 Oct 2009
http://www.communitynewswire.press.net/article.jsp?id=6237135

2. http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/hornsea/CAB-staff-march-Guildhall/article-174970-detail/article.html
3. 'Writing off workfare: for a Green New Deal, not the Flexible New
Deal', the Green Party response to the Welfare Reform Green Paper,
was published in October 2008.
<http://haringeygreens.blogspot.com/2008/10/workfare-is-not-answer-anne-gray-green.html>
Its authors Anne Gray and Alan Wheatley are working on a follow-up
document.

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