A letter a day to number 10. No 982
Thursday 22 January 2015.
Dear Mr Cameron,
You and your government are knowingly and wilfully causing people physical and mental harm. The benefits system is now predicated on threat and punishment and millions have suffered and are suffering under Iain Duncan Smiths sanctions regime. Even the use of the word ‘regime’ is a sign of the ever growing authoritarian state in the UK.
The DWPs Decision Makers Guide acknowledges that people will be harmed by sanctions, not only that but it normalises the harm caused to a ‘normal healthy adult’ and uses that as a point of comparison when depriving people of the means of Survival:
“It would be usual for a normal healthy adult to suffer some deterioration in their health if they were without
1. essential items, such as food, clothing, heating and accommodation or
2. sufficient money to buy essential items
for a period of 2 weeks.”
With the severest sanctions being three years, we should now be looking at the use of the word ‘genocide’ to describe the effects of your authoritarian state. It is clear to see where it is going so the time to prepare and act is not when a million are already dead but now.
The Guide also states. “Requests for hardship payments may be made by people who say they have a mental condition. A person will only be a member of a vulnerable group if the condition causes limitation in functional capacity because of a physical impairment.” It further states: “It is extremely rare for a mental condition to produce a physical impairment that limits or restricts functional capacity but it can happen.”
The people making up these rules clearly have no understanding of mental health issues or the widespread limitations that occur to peoples ability to function effectively. This is UNUM dictated nonsense from a company discredited in America having been subject to a number of court proceedings and fines for malpractice and yet who have been UK government advisors from the beginning of these attacks on the welfare state under new Labour.
This carefully orchestrated authoritarianism has been with us a long time but became explicit Tory policy from the day you entered number 10 when it became clear that your pre-election promises were a tissue of lies. Since then we have been subject to an avalanche of authoritarian doctrine from racist vans to the bedroom tax and sanctions to the attacks on disabled people and the problem now is normalisation creep. This is not something to be adjusted to but resisted, opposed and fought against every step of the way.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/19/record-number-sanctions-benefits-claimants
The influence of private insurance on UK welfare reforms – Mo Stewart
Fear and Loathing in Great Britain 