Protest Outside The Daily Mail – Stop the Defamation – Stop the Lies - April 14

I honestly don't see what the issue is. They are just reporting the outcome of the test.
That doesn't mean they are lying. Just because you don't agree with the outcome of the test doesn't mean the results were different to what they were.

They also blatantly use the word "could" in the title.

The only real untruth (lie?) here is you reporting that they are lying - this is blatantly not true.

The official statistics are the first revealed by the Work Capability Assessment, a strict new test that decides whether claimants are fit to work.

Of the 200,000 adults so far put up for assessment, it was found that more than a third of those on incapacity benefit were not entitled to claim it.

A further 38 per cent stopped claiming the benefit halfway through their assessment.

Eleven per cent were found to be able to undertake some workrelated activity but qualified for incapacity benefit, while just 5 per cent of people were too sick to work at all.

A further 10 per cent of the 200,000 are still undergoing assessment.

Read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220211/Just-incapacity-benefit-claimants-genuine-tough-new-test-reveals-TWO-MILLION-cheating.html#ixzz1IR2z9y9F

"Just one in six incapacity benefit claimants 'is genuine' as tough new test reveals TWO MILLION could be cheating"

The lie is in the first part of the sentence, claimant as it does that 5/6ths of benefit cheats are not genuine - when in fact there is no evidence any of them did not fulfill the conditions for benefit as they stood. the defamation is the implication that they could 'all be cheating', an implication of fraud with no substantiation

The article goes on to claim: "Under the previous system, they would only require a note from their GP.".

This is another lie, people on incapacity benefit (IB) have been subject to independant testing for years.

The figures and the story ignores the fact that a large amount of people who have lost their IB through the new tests have appealed against the decision with over 40% being successful. It also assumes that the people who stopped claiming half way through the test were 'not genuine' or 'could be cheating' or were as Mark Wallace claims 'freeloading'. The tests can take several months to be fully processed - a more obvious explanation for this drop out rate was that they simply got better before they ever actually had a chance to claim the money they were entitled to, and rather than freeloading could quite possibly have paid tax towards for most of their lives.

Finally and most importantly the article ignores the fact that the tests themselves have been branded 'unfit for purpose' in a DWP report and has led to people with terminal conditions such as MS and cancer being stripped of benefits and told to find work (any work, with sanction from the job centre if they fail to take up any job offered regardless of how it may affect their condition)
Very soon those same people may be forced to undertake physical work as part of the new rules on Job Seekers Allowance.

That's cancer patients, disabled people, people with enduring mental health conditions or mobility problems, forced to do physical work, for £65 a week, barely enough to eat.

That's the real story.

those scum supported Oswald Mosley's BUF (British Union of Fascists and National Socialists) back in the 1930's. They also wrote a lovely obituary for him, calling him 'misunderstood'. They should never be trusted on any issue. We do not forgive, forget nor tolerate racism nor their bigoted views on welfare.

fire to the Daily Heil, i hope their offices get smashed up.

I have had MS for nearly 11 years now and have never been able to successfully claim benefits. The problem with MS is that you have to build up a medical record over the course of a number of years (medical history) before effective diagnosis can be made. So you are often stuck with the symptoms of MS but if you don't have enough MS events on your record, you cannot be diagnosed.

Symptoms of MS can range from numbness, vertigo, fatigue, impaired vision, paralysis or ANY symptom that can come about as a result of damage to the Central Nervous System (CNS). Everybody is different.

You can continue to work with it certainly, but then again it entirely depends on the work you do. You might work as a scaffolder and find that loss of feeling in your legs means its dangerous to be working on ladders, you might find your eyesight suddenly becomes impaired ruling you out of a whole range of work. Also, there are no warning signs when an attack is likely to happen so when it does you are racing against the clock trying to get not only medical help (it can takes weeks or months to get an MRI scan or a Lumber Puncture!), but a claim for benefit open. In reality, by the time your claim is actually finalised and opened, so much time has passed that the relapse is over and you are recovered enough to return to work.

This means many claims that are made, are not pursued through to finality because the system cannot react in time. It can take months to get a claim accepted and many more months to go through the adjudication process as a result of refusal to agree to the claims validity.

For MS sufferers, only a severe relapse causing chronic disability, or transit from remitting to progressive MS is pursuable as a claim. Everything else is just too difficult or a waste of time. Most people give up. That doesn't make them benefit cheats and it certainly doesn't make them criminals, it just makes the system inadequate and not fit for its intended purpose. I think a system which is inadequate, especially a government department, is probably going to be more comfortable with blaming the public than with accepting its flaws. That's what this story is really about and that is why this "story!!!" Is a worthless piece of garbage. Badly written, factually inaccurate, politically motivated and not remotely driven by the public interest.

Don't get me wrong, there are undoubtedly instances of people cheating the benefits system, but it isn't nearly as common as many seem to believe. Which I think is why so much effort and energy is expended on publicising these cases when they are found. It is always the case that a rare occurrence can be presented to the public in such a way that it is taken to be the norm. This is what "suggestive" journalism is all about.

There has to be some way to protect against those who make spurious claims for benefits as they do take away from those genuinely in need of help. Which is why its so important to ensure that medical practitioners need to be involved in the process. There is no reason at all, why a genuine claimant shouldn't want to provide medical record evidence to ensure their claim is founded on evidence. But diseases, hereditory conditions and disorders in many cases are still an inexact science (nobody knows the cure for MS let alone what causes it!) So a benefits system based on medical evidence from medical practitioners is still inherently flawed. In the case of MS, there is only ever evidence of symptoms and CNS damage. Symptoms are notoriously difficult to pin down!

Recently I went through a two month period of not being able to see properly, disastrous given my occupation but I put it down to getting older and naturally occurring short-sightedness, only when my eyesight fully recovered did I realise it was an MS relapse. I couldn't work for five weeks during that two month period and had I have made a claim for benefit, it would have been refused. No tests, no evidence, no claim for benefit!

And as for those who flood the comments section of internet forums and newspaper websites with juvenile comments about benefit scroungers and cheats who don't pay tax. I pay my tax, I have always paid my tax. In my working life I have paid a lot of tax. Probably tens and tens of thousands of pounds in tax. As a long-time taxpayer I EXPECT to be able to not only receive health care for free, but also to receive benefits from the state if I can't work. I EXPECT to receive both of these things in a timely manner and I don't want to wait months and months for either. I don't want to hear other people telling me I should pay tax, only to be called a cheat when it comes to claiming back some of what I have already paid to receive. I can assure you I don't pay tax just to allow MP's and their families to swan about in expensive restaurants and going to the theatre. I don't pay tax to fund the lifestyles of those who make fraudulent and highly illegal expense claims at the public expense. I don't pay tax just so public servants receive enough salary to pay for the private healthcare I can't afford...because I pay too much tax.

So we are now facing major public sector cuts, disability allowances are to be cut and no surprise, the Daily Mail is running stories about why the disabled are the problem. There is no surprise here, obviously the Daily Mail is simply a conduit for Whitehall but then it has always enjoyed a "healthy" relationship with the Government. On any given day, its possible to open any newspaper, or tune into any TV station, and you will see planted content from Whitehall masquerading as objective journalism. If there is a problem here, it is with the MSM failing to properly alert its viewers and readers to the dubious nature of this content, or worse, trying to pass it off as news! Half the time its planted in order to gauge public reaction to a proposed policy announcement. But the comments sections of the Daily Mails website have proved to be unreliable in the past. Political parties, corporations and I regret to say even activists have flooded these comments with single issue points and political positions in the past. So what we end up with, is a battleground for politikers and no debate. Just argument and disagreement or sometimes, and this really grates, incoherent division which is then used to justify inaction by government policy makers on the basis of public indecisiveness!

This is utterly unacceptable on the subject of benefit claims for people requiring help from the state often to help with conditions that are life threatening.

If the system needs fixing to avoid excessive expense, the axe needs to fall on the genuine cheats and scroungers who drain the system from the top. We need far fewer managers, publicity consultants, strategic consultants and superfluous add-ons, and far more front line staff trained to understand the complexities of the disabilities and disorders that drive people to claim sickness benefits. We need more expertise and fewer bureaucrats. There needs to be more work done to synchronise the benefits agency with the NHS. If you give birth in hospital you are given a "bounty pack" which contains forms to claim child benefit.

Why then, when you are diagnosed with MS by your consultant, are you not given a pack to claim sickness benefit? Or at least can have limited details placed into a system which the DWP can get to so if you make a claim, the evidence can be retrieved quickly and inexpensively.

It is truly astonishing how many government departments refuse to recognise each other!

Of course when there was a sudden rise of unemployment amongst the middle classes the Daily Mail treated them with sympathy and penned articles about how tough it is for professionals to be on benefits and find a job.

Wankers!