Iain Duncan Smith

First topic message reminder :

Is this government right to set out a new criteria by which poverty in Britain is measured or is it just a case of moving the goal posts to help them meet a target?

Poverty Measure To Be Redefined By Iain Duncan Smith

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/14/poverty-measure-to-be-redefined_n_1595677.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Hi Stuart - should be better today - came back on about 10 yesterday and by the time I finished my day, waiting times on the phone were about back to normal

Very true indeed Phil I'm sorry to say.

Apparently, the Lib Dems want a greater priority to be given to those with mental health problems.

So that's another case of them pandering to the issues highlighted by Duncan Smith...

ko lihp, on renoos dias naht enod .

Succinct and right to the heart of it.

When did we ever see so effective an attack from Ed Miliband?

At the Tory Party conference this year, Iain Duncan Smith punched the air with excitement when Cameron announced a two-year benefits freeze. The man is truly evil.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BzRpYUYCUAA-wd6.jpg

Evil Ivan, the man is truly twisted.

I live in hope that one day he will get what's coming to him. I'd give a lot - and I mean 'a lot' - to see that...

Oh so would I Phil and I would like to be the person giving it to him with some vigour.

Who will the voters of Chingford and Woodford Green return to Parliament at the next General Election?

You tell me OW, YOU are more knowledgable than I,

Personally I have never been impressed by mere genius...

Well you tell me Phil? who will they elect or re-elect?

Who will the voters of Chingford and Woodford Green return to Parliament at the next General Election?

IDS's constituency ?

Probably him

Thought so as they will never learn will they.

The evil bastard is at it again....

Typical Toryspeak: "It’s not fair to write someone off as unable to work if they are at the early stages of a progressive condition."

Thousands with degenerative conditions classified as 'fit to work in future' – despite no possibility of improvement

From an article by Emily Dugan:-

"More than a third of people with degenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis are having their benefits slashed because the DWP deems they will recover enough to look for work. Thousands of those with diseases that only worsen with time - and who have become too ill to work - are being denied full Employment Support Allowance. Instead they are assessed as suitable for work-related activity which is designed for people likely to recover to the point where they can seek employment.

People in The Work-Related Activity Group receive less money and the threat of sanctions if they do not attend regular sessions. Many also have this benefit removed after a year as an added 'incentive' to find employment."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/thousands-with-degenerative-conditions-classified-as-fit-to-work-in-future--despite-no-possibility-of-improvement-9811910.html

I always imagine that Duncan Smith would gladly do his job for nothing, deriving - as he clearly does- immense pleasure from inflicting a cruelty upon others who are incapable of fighting back.

In a world of singularly unpleasant and verminous Tory politicians, can there be a worse example of sub-humanity than this sneering creep?

Best solution is the firing squad for that evil twat

Wandering this week through the sylvan glades of 'welfare' provision this week, I came upon this lovely little plant ---
If you come from 'abroad' - even if you have lived and worked in England for several years - and become unemployed, you are subjected 6-monthly to an 'employability test', designed to ascertain whether you are likely to find work soon.
If it is found that you have no immediate prospect of work, as I understand the system, your JSA is immediately stopped, along, presumably, with all allied benefits (housing benefit and the like)

I was gobsmacked - had to ring up a nice lady at the DWP to check I wasn't just having a really horrible dream

I'm afraid boatlady that it also happens to the unemployed born in England, as they tried it on with myself too stopping my invalidity benefit and all other benefits that went with it.

The difference in your case - you'd have been entitled to claim JSA so would have had some income.
Whether you could then comply with the conditionality id a different matter - but if you could, your award of JSA would last as long as you needed - not be reviewed every 6 months with a view to making you completely destitute

This is where I feel Labour could have been far more effective in highlighting Tory indifference- to put it mildly - towards the truly needy.

Miliband - or his front benchers- should have targeted the likes of Duncan Smith on a personal level, endlessly showing the sheer cruelty and the enjoyment which the despicable rat has so enjoyed visiting upon the helpless. But the opposition has been predictable,mechanical and routine, rather than full-frontal and incisive.

There have been other worthy targets for sustained focus - Gove for example- but, as so often, Milly has been about as effective as a small pickled gherkin in a copious Christmas Buffet.

Sick as I am about the Tory war on the dispossessed, I am even sicker about the inability of Labour to hit such a gigantic target with so many potential weapons- and if we are to see another five years of some cobbled- together Tory-led coalition of the spiteful, then thanks very much Ed - for nothing.

boatlady, would I have also got my rent rebate and council tax rebate too, as I had to pay some of it.

If you claim JSA, or ESA you should receive Housing Benefit and help with Council Tax.

Housing Benefit is calculated as being the lowest rent available in your area, and you must not have extra rooms. If you are occupying a low rent accommodation (council housing usually falls into this category) and have no extra rooms, your rent should be fully covered by your Housing Benefit - if your rent is at a higher level than your local housing allowance, or you have an extra room, your entitlement to Housing Benefit will be less than your rent and you will have to pay top-up.

Everyone, however poor, now has to pay a share of their Council Tax - round here it's currently a minimum of about £1.50 per week - doesn't sound much, but out of £72.40 it's a goodish slice

If you are not receiving any benefit (because of being sanctioned or having your claim suspended for example) you can still get this help by submitting a nil income declaration and providing proof - unless you are a foreigner, when you can be debarred from receipt of ANY means-tested benefit - just had a client evicted last week because he is deemed to have failed the Habitual Residence Test - meaning he can't get any benefit at all - this of course means he can't pay his rent - man has been in UK since 2000 and was working 48 hours a week until a work-related injury made him unfit for work.

My boatlady if I have any problems with my benefits at all then I'm coming to you on here ok.

By putting the clocks back, we all had an extra hour in which to hate Iain Duncan Smith today.

The rest of the Tory and UKIP parties also Ivan.

Another day and our genial friend Iain Duncan Smith has found another way of stamping the sick into the gutter.

Government ‘considering cuts to employment and support allowance’

Alison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: “The proportion of people in absolute poverty in families living with disability has gone up each year since 2009 and now stands at a shocking 22%. Any cut in support would make it very much harder for families already reeling from austerity blows and would surely fail any credible family test.”

A spokesman for the DWP said: “We are committed to supporting those people who are able to work to make the positive move into employment”.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/30/cuts-employment-support-allowance-papers-jobseekers-allowance

Doesn’t it make you feel ashamed to be British when we learn that the United Nations has launched an investigation into whether Iain Duncan Smith's disability benefit changes have led to "grave or systemic violations" of disabled people's human rights?

A spokesperson for the DWP (I wonder if it was the same one?) said: "This government is committed to supporting disabled people”.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/08/28/un-dwp-benefits-disabled-human-rights-probe_n_5727580.html

Do not worry Ivan, I feel his works every day.

IDS is proof the Tories value political expedience over ministerial competence

Extracts from an article by Alex Andreou:-

“Brains aren’t everything in politics,” said the former Tory MP Paul Goodman of Iain Duncan Smith, who admits to admiring the former party leader and describes him as “a latter day Wilberforce”. Great reformers, however, must be both conceivers of radical policy and implementers of it. Had William Wilberforce been anything like IDS, the abolition of slavery would still be being tested in regions of the UK with a rollout expected soon.

The question is why is IDS still in his job? Political expedience seems to be the only thought process behind Conservative cabinet appointments, with suitability and effectiveness low on the list. To point out that the Tories are ‘the nasty party’ hardly makes a dent in their image. They have long been perceived as such. But voters expect them to at least be competent managers.

Beyond arguing the wisdom of austerity, there is the hard fact that Osborne promised to eliminate the deficit by 2015, but instead will just about halve it, even using dubious accounting. Beyond arguing about the lack of environmental policy, there is the hard fact of appallingly managed flood assistance and  Paterson blaming the badgers for the failure of his ill-advised cull. Beyond arguing about the cruelty of welfare reforms, IDS promised to have a million people on universal credit by April 2014 and has managed 40,000. These are irrefutable, merciless facts that add up to the compelling argument that, even taken on its own terms, even being charitable by accepting its own figures, this government has been hugely wasteful and utterly useless.

For the whole article:-
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/26/ids-proof-tories-value-political-expedience-iain-duncan-smith

They managed to put me on something new, and different pay days, and nothing is regular going into my bank anymore? so when I keep trying to check what has happened I get different answers.

" Had William Wilberforce been anything like IDS, the abolition of slavery would still be being tested in regions of the UK with a rollout expected soon"

I disagree ; had Wilberforce been like Duncan Smith, the incidence of slavery would have been extended at every available opportunity...

Phil it depends what you mean when you describe slavery mate? as I said my monies changed, go into the bank on different days each fortnight, my disability benefit payment goes in once a month but different days and I cannot keep check on it?
It is so confusing that I get lost with it all.

Can't be easy for you, Stuart.

Stick with it and maybe a pattern of sorts will emerge to allow some clearer financial planning to be possible.

Thanks Phil, it's trying to say the least.

The question is why is IDS still in his job?

Perhaps the answer is simply, he's made such a balls-up of it that no-one fancies the job of sorting it out. The way the DWP is nowadays, there is no credit to be gained for anyone n a prominent position, and even a well-meaning person trying to make the system fairer is going to come in for a bit of stick.
As we know, the Tory dogma doesn't allow for the system being made fairer, so anyone taking IDS's job is going to be the pantomime villain - who wants that? - not the way to grow a political career

I will take it boatlady and give all the sick and injured for life a raise.

Stu for president!!!

After a sleepless night boatlady, and feeling down, I can now not stop laughing,
Should that not read Stu for Prime Minister though love.

If you like - after all you're the boss