Where ‘welfare reform’ ends

25 comments on “Where ‘welfare reform’ ends ”

• Comments are now closed

1. MaxFletcher 1

   10 March 2014 at 11:35 am

   “Sheila Holt, in the UK, is in a coma for 2 months”

   *has been in coma

   Sorry, just that first line gabbed me immediately. I’ll keep reading..
2. MaxFletcher 2

   10 March 2014 at 11:38 am

   “Research has been coming out showing that people living in hostels without internet access are being required to apply for 50-100 jobs each week or have their benefits cut – an impossible task.”

   Even with the internet that is an impossible tasks – there just aren’t that many jobs.
   • Draco T Bastard 2.1

     10 March 2014 at 4:36 pm

     If there were 50 to 100 jobs available per person then there wouldn’t be any unemployment. In fact, the employers would be screaming for workers.

     It’s shit like this that really shows just how out of touch with reality that governments are.
3. shorts 3

   10 March 2014 at 11:42 am

   I believe this is the actual end of benefit cuts:

   http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/28/man-starved-to-death-after-benefits-cut

   Notice how often those suffering the most also have mental health issues – ie they are the very people welfare should help the most

   shame on all our houses
   • Draco T Bastard 3.1

     10 March 2014 at 4:39 pm

     Some people should be jailed for murder over that one – starting with the politicians.
4. geoff 4

   10 March 2014 at 11:43 am

   What a cartoon!
   And in our corner of the world, this week all the bank economists are again hyping up the economy, calling for interest rate hikes because they can’t fleece as many people with 5% deposit mortgages.
   Utter utter scumbags.
5. Tiger Mountain 5

   10 March 2014 at 11:46 am

   Labour needs to suggest in election policy and if elected do the previously impossible and reinstate the benefit cuts from the 90s inclusive of CPI since. Nationals recent war on the poor has just piled on top of Labour’s “Jobs Jolt” and WFF.

   I have a seriously diabetic friend in West Auckland reduced to a near breakdown by WINZ staff insisting he be available for work when he can barely walk and has home dialysis.

   If the minimum wage is raised and a living wage instituted in stages the politicians beloved gap between workers and ‘bludgers’ will be maintained.

   The third way social democrats really kept this up. If WFF was scrapped workers would have to organise and get their own wage increases from their employers rather than fellow taxpayers. And as many say on The Standard a UBI might reduce the benefit stigma once and for all. WINZ workers going down the road is something that would really cheer me up.
6. captain hook 6

   10 March 2014 at 11:56 am

   I guess the people who have jobs persecuting those who dont is an incentive to keep doing it to prove to the masters that just in case they lose their job that they have obeyed the simon legrees who get off on bashing up helpless people.
7. Colonial Viper 7

   10 March 2014 at 1:19 pm

   So, is Labour proposing to reverse their own fitness to work assessments and privately provided medical assessments of benficiaries, that they introduced via WINZ and ACC during Labour 5?
   • Aww 7.1

     10 March 2014 at 4:37 pm

     Labour could get people who are on placement (Victoria just introduced placements to BA Hons apparently) to review the current arraignment, see how disabled people are actually treated by Work and Income, and if appropriate propose a new way of assessing those who are sick. At least it wouldn’t cost thousands in consulting fees.
8. Tracey 8

   10 March 2014 at 1:54 pm

   thats britain. nothing like that happens in nz
   • Kaye 8.1

     10 March 2014 at 2:24 pm

     Tracey- Britian so far. But Paula is watching closely and given half a chance would implement those practices here. Those of us with disabilities and reliant on a benefit (usually SLP) are getting pretty scared. Personally, I’ve been assured by 3 different WINZ workers that I’m not going to be called up for work testing (good luck if they do- with my medical condition there is no employer who will take me on) but I can’t believe them, especially if National win again. Never before have I been so terrified of a General election.

     People with what they consider to be “milder” mental health problems, eg depression, anxiety are already being subjected to work testing and it’s getting much harder to get any sort of disability benefit. Because “Work will set you free.” Sound familiar….?
   • risildowgtn 8.2

     10 March 2014 at 2:42 pm

     A lot of seriously ill people have been reaccessed for work by WINZ.

     This includes mentally ill patients , those living with HIV/Aids so IT DOES and has been happening here for years even under Clarkes Govt…
   • Aww 8.3

     10 March 2014 at 4:31 pm

     Take a look at the show “The Job Lot”. Hell, even our Work and Income branding is based on the UK’s model. What happens in the UK is a precursor to what will happen or is happening here.
   • Stephanie Rodgers 8.4

     10 March 2014 at 5:30 pm

     I wouldn’t be so certain about that. There are a few bloggers I follow who have documented their issues getting WINZ to deal with their applications appropriately. I’m sure there are others out there who don’t have the resources or will to put their stories out there

     http://writehanded.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/1579/
     http://writehanded.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/quick-winz-update/

     http://www.thelittlepakeha.net/2014/01/21/the-modus-operandi-of-winz-tw/
     http://www.thelittlepakeha.net/2014/03/03/constant-reassessment/
   • xtasy 8.5

     10 March 2014 at 5:33 pm

     “Oh no, such things won’t happen in New Zealand” …

     Well, I have information for you. If you wondered why Professor Peter Gluckman, Chief Science Advisor for P.M. John Key, has so far been rather SILENT on issues re welfare reform, and how it may negatively affect sick and disabled, I think we have the ANSWER for this! He seems to have been tied in with the whole preparation of consultations, and possibly more. That raises very serious questions about Professor Gluckman!

     Yes, I have just a few days ago been entrusted with a copy of a recent O.I.A. response from MSD. It reveals – besides of some other information, that Sir Peter Gluckman invited Professor Mansel Aylward to New Zealand, to present some of his “research”, which he prepared at the so-called ‘Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research’ at Cardiff University in Wales, under the SPONSORSHIP of controversial health and disability insurer Unum Provident. For years that centre’s name included the name of Unum and was known as the ‘Unum Provident Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research’.

     UK disabled persons’ advocacy groups like ‘Black Triange Organisation’ and ‘DAPC’ have done substantial research on Mansel Aylward’s ties to UNUM and how he was later offered a “golden parachute” to work in a leading role for that Unum Provident sponsored “research” institute, which ultimately seems to have been set up to deliver some convenient reports that serve insurers like Unum – or certain governments, seeking to achieve cost savings and little else.

     The following links reveal interesting aspects about all this:
     http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/09/09/professor-mansel-aylward-my-what-a-very-tangled/
     http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/09/15/british-government-uses-might-of-u-s-insurance-giant-unum-to-destroy-u-k-safety-net-report-by-mo-stewart-wraf-rtd-14912/

     The Guardian newspaper did a few years ago also publish a highly revealing article on Unum and Aylward:
     http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/mar/17/epluribusunum

     And there is a separate study on Aylward and the agenda he and Unum followed:
     http://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/files/library/THE-HIDDEN-AGENDA-a-research-summary-March-2013.pdf

     Social Security Minister Paula Bennett met with Professor Aylward and other hand picked “experts”, and various NZ media reports expressed some concerns about Aylward and the UK welfare reforms and how they were also intended to be tried here:
     http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8165236/Work-tests-concern-disability-organisation

     Extract:
     “Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has said this would mean little change, although in a speech to health professionals late last year she signalled a new assessment regime which “echoes” the British process. Measuring the extent to which disabled can work, the British tests have prompted a debate in the British Parliament, as well as protests targeting the Paralympics where Atos, the private company doing the tests, was a sponsor.”

     Here is a glance at Mansel Aylward’s past and present (vested) business interests in the UK health sector:
     http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/elision-health
     http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/health-claims-bureau
     http://www.hcbgroup.co.uk/pages/aboutus
     http://www.hcbgroup.co.uk/pages/ourservices

     Mansel Aylward, same as colleagues like Gordon Waddell and others from that particular “research centre” were instrumental in bringing in the very welfare reforms Ben Clark is writing about, leading to such extreme and draconian excesses. That man has basically BLOOD at his hands, I dare to say.

     A former ATOS staff member, Dr David Beaumont, has also been an external advisor for ACC and MSD, and he has for a few years now been the President Elect of the AFOEM (Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine), as part of the RACP, which have a New Zealand branch in Wellington. He is a strong supporter of the approach by Mansel Aylward, who was by many criticised for his claims, that much sickness and disability is nothing but “illness belief”. Under his leadership there the AFOEM did a few years ago publish a policy statement on the “health benefits of work”, based on Mansel Aylward’s research.

     http://www.racp.org.nz/page/afoem-health-benefits-of-work
     (And even Helen Kelly got enticed into this “smart plan”!?)
     http://www.racp.org.nz/page/racp-faculties/australasian-faculty-of-occupational-and-environmental-medicine/realising-the-health-benefits-of-work/may-2010-video-presentation-professor-sir-mansel-aylward/

     So we have the leading colleges for the medical practitioner professions in Australasia adopt findings by a highly controversial professor, who developed his “findings” while sponsored by an insurance corporation, which was under the name UNUM also repeatedly convicted in the US for using fraudulent measures to deny insured their rightful claims.

     ALL these people have been ADVISING Paula Bennett and the New Zealand government on welfare reforms, and they are slowly bringing in very similar assessment practices. Of course, it being election year, they will be very mindful to not push the agenda that far as yet!

     But outsourced work capability assessments by private providers are about to commence here:
     http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/278489/tests-disabled-flawed-model
     http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9356043/Contractors-to-assess-sick-and-disabled-for-work
     http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/281822/winz-apologises-sick-woman
     • risildowgtn 8.5.1

       10 March 2014 at 9:04 pm

       Thanks for this….
9. thechangeling 9

   10 March 2014 at 3:57 pm

   Had another yelling match with Winz on the phone the other week over whether or not I’m ‘suitable’ to be referred for a job they wanted C.V’s for.
   It’s easier to just go along with their insane B.S or else wind up with high blood pressure and the risk of a stroke or heart attack later in the day.
   On another occasion even my case manager said: “You have to be insane to work here”.
   • Stephanie Rodgers 9.1

     10 March 2014 at 5:32 pm

     I knew a graphic designer who was constantly pushed to apply for any job which included the word “design”. Because Photoshop and branding expertise are so applicable to kitchen construction.
10. Tracey 10

    10 March 2014 at 4:13 pm

    ruth dysons regime required stressful reassessment of a family member with cerebral palsy, both physically and intellectual disabled to be sure he couldnt work. they could have just googled to see if a cure for cp had been developed.

    i dont need convincing that many reliant on the state live in fear.
11. xtasy 11

    10 March 2014 at 6:43 pm

    The outsourcing of employment referrals for mentally ill – same as sole parents – has already begun in New Zealand, and private operators get paid handsome fees for placing mental health sufferers into jobs – on trials that are running now.

    And astonishingly, one such private service provider is Workwise, whose ‘Strategic Policy Advisor’ Helen Lockett was also advising MSD and Paula Bennett on how to implement welfare reform, while sitting on the ‘Health and Disability Panel’. Surely she must have had a conflict of interest:

    http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/helen-lockett/25/1b/86b
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1305/S00096/employment-and-mental-health.htm
    http://www.workwise.org.nz/news

    http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15264-welfare-reform-the-health-and-disability-panel-msd-the-truth-behind-the-agenda/

    http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/medical-and-work-capability-assessments-based-on-the-controversial-bio-psycho-social-model/

    More on this outsourcing is found in an article by Simon Collins in the ‘Herald’ not long ago:
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11190002
    (see the list of providers at the bottom of it)

    And here an article from the Herald on Sunday, 30 June 2013:
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10893823

    Even the ‘President Elect’ of the AFOEM (and former ATOS staff member) Dr David Beaumont has his own private work referral business on the South Island:

    http://www.pathwaystowork.co.nz/contact-us
    http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/david-beaumont/2a/780/943

    Strange that, how so many also have their own vested interests in all this?!
12. Foreign waka 12

    10 March 2014 at 7:09 pm

    Since NZ has no constitution the only redress would be via the human right commission. Besides, NZ despises all that is mainland Europe policy (not fit to emanate). I am not aware that this kind of policy would be possible unless the government is prepared to have at least 80% of the population marching onto parliament in any of the EU countries.
    • xtasy 12.1

      11 March 2014 at 10:40 am

      Foreign waka – I am unsure whether you commented under the right post here, but the UK type of welfare reforms, now to a substantial degree also being brought in here, have nothing much to do with “mainland Europe” policies! These reforms are more US style welfare reforms, and they are the result of intensive lobbying and interfering (“consulting”) by a US health and disability insurance corporation going by the name of UNUM, in the UK formerly also known as UNUM Provident.

      They “advised” the UK Department of Work and Pensions (DWP, their WINZ equivalent) for years, and worked closely with controversial former “Chief Medical Advisor” for DWP, later “director” and head of the “Unum Provident Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research”, Professor Mansel Aylward. See the above posts for revealing info on that man!

      These welfare reforms are part of an agenda by private insurance corporations and others with vested interests, to basically privatise welfare, to set new rules, that lead to sick and disabled being exposed to new “fitness criteria” for work, based on science “reports” that Mansel Aylward was preparing while being subsidised by UNUM at the mentioned centre. Although he also used some selected other “findings” by the odd “continental European” researcher (like Norwegian H. Ursin), most appears to be coming from the UK (the mentioned centre at Cardiff Uni), and it is also based on a reinterpreted “model” for sickness and disability (“bio-psycho-social model”), that originated in the US. See the following info on UNUM:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unum

      “Unum became the focus of massive negative media attention in 2002, after several plaintiff’s attorneys who had sued the company went to national television outlets claiming that the company had quotas for closing claims. CBS’s 60 Minutes aired a very devastating article about Unum’s alleged abuses. Among their proof was a notorious “Hungry Vulture Award” offering employee rewards to close claims.”

      “Advising the United Kingdom government on claims since 1994, Unum has been involved with the UK’s controversial Welfare Reform Bill.[7][8] Unum was investigated by the BBC in England[9] and were described by critics as a ‘rogue firm’.[10][verification needed] In July 2010, Susan Ring, the CEO of Unum UK left her post and was replaced by Jack McGarry from Unum US, who was replaced in 2012 due to poor performance of the UK subsidiary.”

      ‘Memorandum submitted by UnumProvident (EDP 03)’ (to the Work and Pensions Select Committee):
      http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmworpen/401/3021203.htm

      Further links to info worth studying:
      http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/HOOPER_CONCERNS_ABOUT_A_COMMERCIAL_CONFLICT_OF_INTEREST.htm
      http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/17/epluribusunum
      http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2012/01/politicians-and-dwp-combine-to-block-answers-on-unum-links/
      http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/02/unum-bragged-about-driving-government-thinking-on-incapacity-benefit-reform/
      http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/first_unum/unum-insurance-disability-claims-18-17071.html?utm_expid=3607522-2.QRdCdW42SWGLZa0nRc6K3w.0&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lawyersandsettlements.com%2Fsearch.html%3Fkeywords%3Dunum%2Bgroup%2Bshares#.Ux4uk86ymB5
      http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2012/09/14/appeals-court-rules-against-disability-insurer

      I am afraid all this requires some study to comprehend, but NZers are being taken for a ride here, by having questionable, largely insufficiently researched “findings” – based largely on hand picked statistical data reports, being used to justify a “work will set you free” agenda, that will not deliver what is promised, certainly not without significant harm to the affected. It will largely benefit certain private service deliverers, insurance companies and the MSD and WINZ, the latter by saving costs, while the others can make money at the expense of the sick and disabled.
      • Foreign Waka 12.1.1

        11 March 2014 at 7:29 pm

        xtasy, sorry I should have been more precise in the meaning of what I wrote. What I meant was essentially, if you would implement a welfare system like Unum in any of the mainland EU states, 80% of people would march onto parliament. They also tend to be more assertive about their rights.
        Yes, it is disgusting that such advise is being accepted by the governments here and the UK. I often wonder how long it will take until people have enough. I would like to know whether it is legal to do this as this is tax money that is held in trust and has been deducted for a particular purpose. By paying a middle men the amount that is available to the benefit of the payer is drastically reduced and can only be recouped by increasing tax and reducing benefit. Both is not part of the contract in the first place. Unless government is now not elected anymore and hence not answerable to those issues it would mean the UK has made a seamless translation to a totalitarian state.
13. Mike S 13

    14 March 2014 at 4:12 am

    The following report is absolutely damning in it’s assessment of the work capability testing regime implemented as part of the UK’s new welfare reforms. It makes for scary reading.

    (sorry if someone has already published the report or a link to it)

    http://www.lcil.org.uk/assets/the-peoples-review-of-the-work-capability-assessment.doc

• Comments are now closed

• Log in
• Donate
• Contribute post

• Articles RSS