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February 21st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Terminally ill people face being forced to work to keep their
benefits under draconian new Government plans, it was revealed
yesterday… Cancer patients who have more than six months to live
could have to do work experience or see their payments slashed under the
scheme by Work and Pensions Minister Iain Duncan Smith.
Unlike fit and healthy job seekers, there will be no limit on how long
those claiming Employment and Support Allowance are expected to work for
free.
The Department for Work and Pensions initially said rumours
of the plan, which could affect 300,000 disabled people, were “absolute
nonsense”.
A spokeswoman said: “No-one on ESA will be forced to do work experience.”
She later admitted private firms paid by the Government to push people
back into work will be able to compel disabled people to take placements
or lose money.
Mr Duncan Smith’s plan has dismayed experts and
fuelled fury over the Government’s “workfare” scheme that forces the
jobless to work for their benefits.
Mental health and disability groups warn making the vulnerable work risks making their conditions worse.
Neil
Coyle, of pressure group Disability Rights UK, said: “The idea that
disabled people should work but receive no financial recognition for
contributing is perhaps a level of abuse in and of itself.”
He
added: “When Conservative backbench MP Philip Davies suggested disabled
people should work for less than the national minimum wage he was
castigated. But it now appears to be Government policy.”
Department
for Work and Pensions officials held discussions on subjecting people
on ESA to “work-related activity” with disabled groups late last year.
The groups were told: “There are no plans to introduce a maximum time limit.”
The advisers also defended the idea of docking cash from those who refuse to take up work placements.
They
said: “Ministers strongly feel there is a link-up to support moving
close to the labour market, and the individual’s responsibility to
engage with the support. Ministers feel sanctions are an incentive for
people to comply with their responsibilities.”
Vicki Nash, of
mental health charity Mind, said that work placements could be a “useful
bridge” in helping people to get off benefits and into work.
But she added: “We are very worried about people being pressured into taking unpaid positions before they are ready.”
French
firm Atos currently interviews the sick and disabled to decide if they
must join a “work-related activity group” in order to keep getting paid.
They have to have meetings with advisers and take courses to ready them for work.
More
than 8,000 claimants had their payments docked or were hit with other
sanctions in the 12 months to August for offences such as missing
interviews “without good cause”.
Currently, ESA payments, of which
the top rate is £95 a week, can only be docked to the £67.50 a week
level of Jobseekers’ Allowance.
The DWP spokeswoman last night
claimed it was “ludicrous to suggest” that the sick and disabled will be
“forced into unpaid and unlimited work experience”.
But she
added: “The DWP cannot mandate any ESA claimants to do unpaid work but
we can require ESA claimants to take part in work-related activity as
long as it is reasonable to ask them to do so.”
Case studies
Ruth,
52, has Spondylosis, a bone condition affecting the spinal cord. It
causes severe pain in the neck, shoulder, arm, back, and sometimes also
the leg. It can accompanied by muscle weakness. She currently receives
£95 in ESA.
Jon, 33, has a learning disability and had been on
benefits for all of his life. He lost £19 a week when he was moved over
from incapacity Benefit, which is being phased out, and now receives £71
a week.
Jane, 28, has terminal cancer and is expected to live for
18 months. She receives £94.25 per week in ESA, which she could lose if
she refuses to take an unpaid work placement.
February 18, 2912 – Posted at Mirror
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