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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Welfare Razor gang leaked report - the night of the long knives comes to those on welfare



The ideologically stacked Welfare Razor Gang who are using voodoo math to force solo mothers, the sick, the crippled and the mentally unwell back to work in a high unemployment environment are having their report leaked and it looks like National are targeting the weakest members of society first...

Dear People,

I have had confirmation from the Benefit Rights manager at the People's Resource Centre in Wellington, that Work and Income are embarking on a programme of extermination of Invalids Benefits.

They are apparently starting with the "softer"targets, beneficiaries certified for alleged psychosomatic conditions such as backaches, depression, ME (a specific target, apparently - they don't like us), drug and alcohol dependencies, probably Fibromyalgia, and certainly any anxiety conditions.

It is those having their first two year reassessment who are bearing the brunt of this approach.

In addition, PHOs are being told by two MSD staff (Dr David Bratt is one) that GPs are doing their patients no favours by writing them off as permanently unable to work, and that being sent into part time work or course equivalent, is the best therapy for these patients.

Dr Bratt, of course, is one of many GPs who firmly believes that ME is a typical psychosomatic hysteria condition (which of course is why so many women have it...) and he fails to grasp the concept of a physical cause or genetic susceptibility leading to ME.

PRC in Wellington are acting in medical reviews for beneficiaries from all over the country. W & I have increased the frequency of their medical reviews from every six weeks to once a fortnight, to deal with the workload. The success rate of reviews is running at about 50%. Those who fail are dropped to the Sickness benefit with a significant reduction in income.

Long term IB recipients have not been addressed yet, but our time is coming. Even life long permanent IB grant will not be protection, as W & I will no doubt follow the ACC model and place a priority on getting the oldest cases off the books.

Our local support group members still on Sickness Benefit have been telephoned out of the blue by W & I staff and told "So, it's about time you went back to work then!" They are given two weeks to get a new medical certificate stating how many hours of part time work they can manage per week. Not many GPs can resist the PHO management demands to require at least 10 hours per week. This is for patients whose ME is under poor control, and whose long term health can be irrevocably harmed by such fascistic tactics.

I believe this is the greatest threat to the physical and mental wellbeing of ME patients ever perpetrated in this country, and needs to be urgently looked into. This process is not even permitted under current legislation, which so far only applies to those on Sickness Benefit. The IB attack was supposed to happen next year.


...the use of Medical professionals with a vested interest at denying people with any help for conditions they don't see as important is interesting. National tried to use controversial social theories to justify denying rape victims counselling from ACC which were based on research from professor Felicity Goodyear-Smith, a woman married to the son of Centrepoint community leader and convicted paedophile Bert Potter. Her work has been described as a rapists charter and an apologist position that denies any real harm from sexual abuse

Rounding up the depressed first and those too mentally unwell to defend themselves, you've got to give it to National - they are all class.

I love how the weakest of the poor are being asked to do with less because of a global economic crises caused by greedy American corporates.

If you are not angry, you haven't been paying attention.

13 Comments:

At 24/11/10 9:23 am, Anonymous sdm said...

You seem to bury your head in the sand when it comes to affordability.

Do you still want us to go and borrow more with the pending credit downgrade?

 
At 24/11/10 10:41 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We shouldn't be bailing out those fools who got ripped off by SCF either. Oh it was the rich people who lost their money there, that's why they will get it all refunded back.... when the capitalist's money market fails.... they turn to socialism.....

 
At 24/11/10 10:41 am, Anonymous Keith Stewart said...

Or we could increase taxes, cut defence spending an stop bailing out failed finance companies. We could also make sure all banks pay their full tax quota.
Then we could start to talk about picking on the weakest to support middle class lifestyle choices.

 
At 24/11/10 11:40 am, Anonymous Relic said...

All I can say Bomber is that your post is on the money, and anyone with real world experience rather than merely keyboard experience would know that.

Gfy sdm, how affordable was $1.6 Bill for South Canterbury Finance fraudsters?

 
At 24/11/10 11:48 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Socialism is only ok when its for the rich!!

 
At 24/11/10 12:15 pm, Anonymous sdm said...

Relic - the government had a contractual obligation - I dont like it, but thats the reality. Had it not paid it would have been sued, almost certainly lost, and it cost more.

 
At 24/11/10 1:28 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

@SDM: "You seem to bury your head in the sand when it comes to affordability."

What sort of economic system is it which actually requires unemployment*, and then is incapable of looking after not only the able-bodies people it throws on the scrapheap, but even those unable to work due to illness?

The overcapitalised capitalist economy which dominates the globe will simply continue to lurch from crisis to crisis as overproduction rears its head again and again, and the rate of profit in the developed countries continues to fall.

Working people might get a few concessions during the good times. But, without a very drastic destruction of capital, it's unimaginable that the glory days of the welfare state will be returning any time soon. And it's ordinary people who will continue to foot the bill of the rich whenever the economy tanks.

It doesn't have to be this way. It's time we demanded something better.

(* Unemployment being a requirement in a capitalist economy to ensure equilibrium in the labour market - put simply, to prevent wages increasing too quickly, rapidly reducing profits)

 
At 24/11/10 1:52 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

'You seem to bury your head in the sand when it comes to affordability.'

There are of course the billions of dollars being spent on tax cuts for the rich. This is not about affordability, this is about priorities - National would rather give more money to wealthy people who don't need it than provide adequate care for societies' least advantaged.

 
At 24/11/10 2:00 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Back to work. Time to stop living off the rest of us.

 
At 24/11/10 2:37 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh yeah! Lets smack around those that are the weakest and can't fight back!

 
At 24/11/10 6:28 pm, Anonymous zzzzzzzzzz said...

"It doesn't have to be this way. It's time we demanded something better."

Venezuela is that-a way.

 
At 24/11/10 9:33 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe Paula has discovered a cure for Me while she was in America - NOT. What a ridiculous man that GP must be to say Me is pyschosomatic - maybe they should be employing some specialists who actually know what they are talking about???

 
At 25/11/10 12:04 am, Anonymous AAMC said...

"Socialism is only ok when its for the rich!!"

Seems to be helping these guys...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/world/americas/23mexico.html

And yet Capitalism doesn't seem to be helping these guys very much...

'50.2 million Americans were food insecure in 2009'
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/Err108/

 

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