Glasgow Anti-bedroom Tax Demo and Photos.

     Glasgow's march and protest on Saturday, against the bedroom tax, was well attended and a very colourful and pleasant affair. The full spectrum of ages were represented, which is always a good sign, it means that the young are up for the struggle as well as the old die-hards. The pleasant atmosphere probably concealed the real anger felt by the majority of the people of this country against this continued assault against their living standards. It also concealed the disgust and in some cases downright hatred for the politicians and the financial mafia that rule this country. A cabal of millionaires who rule and shape this country to benefit their own wealthy class. They know it is class war, it is time we reacted in similar fashion.

      This kind of large turnout on a holiday weekend, before the brutal "austerity" cuts really start to kick in, is an indication of what has yet to come  when the real pain of this vicious policy of plundering the public purse gets into full swing.

      Sweeping changes to benefits will affect both workers and the unemployed as the Coalition’s ideology is brutally enforced. At present we have ATOS snatching disability allowance away from the sick and vulnerable. 

       From April 1st. the bedroom tax will be rolled out across the country.  The bedroom tax isn’t a tax in the real sense, but it hits you just as hard,  it’s a reduction in the amount of housing benefit that certain families will be able to claim. If you claim housing benefit and, for what ever reason, you have one or more spare bedrooms, you will be faced with a cut in the amount of benefit you receive.  A 14% cut for one spare room, and 25% cut if you have two spare rooms. It is estimated that well on the way to a million tenants will be adversely affected.

  

     Your idea of a spare room and that of our mansion living millionaire masters, will be somewhat different. Children under the age of 16 of the same gender, like it or not, are expected to share a room, while children under 10, irrespective of gender, are supposed to share the same room. What this translates as, is that we peasants, should not be expected to give our kids a room each, that sort of treatment is meant for the mansion class. For you and I, cuts in benefits, poorer living conditions, all because the bankers and bond merchants don't want to lose the money the gambled.

     As you go into this struggle, remember the rent strikes of 1915, and the poll tax of 1980/90's both resounding victories for the ordinary people of this country, both achieved by numbers and solidarity. The millionaire class can never win against the united will of the ordinary people.

ann arky's home.

ATOS KILLS SLOWLY.

     We all know that ATOS kills, but the most brutal and criminal aspect of their policies, is the fact that they kill slowly. We see protests, and we hear stories, but few of us see inside the lives of those affected. It is a harrowing experience and should bring everybody onto the streets in anger and with demand for real change.

This from a comrade on the front line:

     I work with parents and carers in deprived areas trying to help them ensure that they have the skills and knowledge to encourage their children grow into well-rounded and well-adjusted adults. Given the circumstances that some families find themselves in, this has always been a challenging job. More and more I find my time taken up supporting parents and carers as they battle enormous odds simply to be able to carry on caring for their children. What they are fighting is not the normal ups and downs of parenthood but the constant attacks on them being made by the very institutions that are meant to help them.

    The “judgements” made by ATOS in the name of their government have had a particularly worrying impact on the lives of many of the families I work with. Much has been written, in these pages and others, about the injustices being carried out by ATOS in the name of our government. When injustice becomes so rife, it is easy to lose sight of the human suffering caused by each and every one of these rulings. For this reason I would like to share some of my experiences with families claiming benefit due to ill-health. The details of the families have been changed but the circumstances are all completely true. All these examples come from one small group of parents who meet to make resources for the children in the local nursery.

     One mother who has been coming to the group for over a year has recently stopped attending. When I asked her why she said that her husband was “pretty bad” and she didn’t want to leave him in the house too much by himself. By “pretty bad” she meant that he had stopped taking his anti-depressant medication and had become suicidal (he has since been admitted to hospital). The report he had got from ATOS after his medical gave him NO points for any part of the examination. In his already low state of mind, he thought that his inability to work or even meet other people was not through a mental illness which could happen to anyone (after all the ATOS professionals had said there was nothing wrong with him). Instead he took the view that he was weak and useless, medicine wouldn’t help as he was the problem not an illness and that his wife and child would be better off if he was no longer around to drag them down.

      Another carer is in the process of discussing with Social Work the possibility of the grand-daughter she has cared for since birth going in to foster care. ATOS have declared the 58 year-old grandmother fit for work despite crippling arthritis. This despite the fact that her friends in the group regularly help her with shopping and housework so that she can be fit to look after her 4 year-old grand-daughter. Putting the child into foster care will break both their hearts but as the grand-mother says “What choice do I have. If I have to go to work I am going to be too sore and tired to make her dinners, do help her with her homework, take her places or even play with her. I know I get crabbit with her even now if I am particularly sore. If I have had to work all day and come back home in bad pain, I’m going to be shouting at her for everything. What kind of life is that for a wee girl?” The irony is that it will cost the state over £26,000 a year to keep the child in foster care. Everyone who cares for this little family are just hoping and praying that her appeal will be upheld and she can keep caring for the child who has never known any other home.

   One mother’s experience with ATOS left her so stressed that she has decided against appealing their decision. Having had radical surgery for cancer, she has a number of physical disabilities but the hardest part for her is the worry that the cancer may return and she will not be able to look after her 7 year old son who has Asperger’s Syndrome. Before her initial medical she suffered from severe anxiety with palpitations, headaches and nausea. As anyone who has had cancer will know, any unexplained symptom can cause real fear that the illness has returned. Because of her son’s condition and her own disability, this woman does get some benefits already. She has decided to try to live off these (with some financial help form her family for emergencies) rather than go through any more of what she found was a very traumatic process. However, as part of her economising, she has given up her car. As travelling by public transport is difficult for her, she stopped attending the group which she had previously found of great benefit to her socially and emotionally. I’m pleased to say that the few car-owners within the group now have a rota to make sure she can attend at least once a fortnight so however tight her money is she at least has some company. However, as she says, “it’s probably only a matter of time until they decide to cut the rest of my allowances and I don’t see how we can manage on even less than we have now.”

     When parents and carers are dealing with this kind of pressure, their children will suffer. They suffer through lack of money, the inevitable arguments that poverty brings and the fact that their parents are spending so much effort just trying to survive. These are all decent, caring parents and carers who simply want the same as everyone else - to give their children a decent home and a happy, secure childhood. These people are not work-shy scroungers - many have worked for years until circumstances made it impossible. Yet even in their poverty and stress they do what they can to help other people. In this group, they don’t sell things on eBay or Gum-tree, at least not until they have checked that someone in need can’t use it. They rally round and help each other as much as they can. They spend their time trying to make the nursery better for ALL the children who attend. In fact, had they lived in Victorian times they would have been given help as part of the class of the “deserving poor”.

      But it seems that under the present government one of the worst crimes you can commit is to be ill. The only contribution to society this government is able to comprehend is an economic one through paid employment. The political party of “family values” is systematically destroying family after family. And for what? As one member of the group asked “Where are all these jobs that they think we are all fit to do?”

ann arky's home.

RUTHLESS ATOS AND MANSLAUGHTER.

       Sometimes we can be grateful to the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, as some useful information can be gleaned from the discourses of the "Honourable Gentlemen". During a recent debate on the government's Work Capability Assessment scheme, some interesting figures came out. Some MP's condemned ATOS for, ruthlessly pressurising sick and disabled people into returning to their jobs. Michael Meacher, former Labour minister, stated that 1,300 people had died after ATOS had placed them on a work related activity group, these are people who ATOS deemed too ill to return to work at present but are expected to start preparing for a return to work. There has been 2,200 ill people who have died before ATOS had completed their assessment. There has been several cases of people on disability benefit, who after being passed fit for work by ATOS, and stripped of their benefit, have committed suicide. 

       It would appear that this forcing sick and disabled people through brutal humiliation and stress, can sink to depths no decent person could imagine. The debate in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, were told of the case of a woman who suffered from incontinence and was told she could return to work if she wore a nappy, how low will they sink? Attempting to get those registered as sick and disabled back into work, come what may, at a time when there are approximately 2.5 million people unemployed in this country, is just another charade, concealing their money saving mania. What are the chances of them getting employed when there are more than eight people chasing every vacancy?

           The entire stressful and humiliating process ruthlessly enforced by ATOS at the government's bidding is a criminal act and deaths resulting from such a process should be registered as manslaughter. If you bully somebody to the extent that they commit suicide, you are culpable. If you pressurise somebody to the extent that it could hasten their death, you are guilty of a crime. Why not ATOS?

         It is perhaps too much to expect justice under this present system, but we can fight for a change to society, so that justice will not have to be struggled for, it will be the norm.

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ATOS KILLS - TIME TO KILL ATOS.

Tom Gordon
Scottish Political Editor Herald

        DEPUTY First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is being targeted by protesters who want the controversial "fit-for-work" benefits test company Atos dropped as a sponsor of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Around 15 demonstrators carrying "Atos Kills" posters invaded a constituency surgery in Sturgeon's Glasgow Southside seat on Friday to demand an end to the deal.
       The peaceful protest ended after police were called to the Larkfield Centre in Govanhill but there were no arrests. Sturgeon personally welcomed Atos as an official sponsor of Glasgow 2014 last year, calling the French IT giant's involvement "a significant step forward for the Games".
       The company will supply the software to accredit up to 70,000 athletes, volunteers and officials, and run the Glasgow 2014 website. Sturgeon is also the Scottish Government's leading voice on welfare issues – last week she announced an expert group to help devise a welfare system reflecting "Scottish values" and fairness under independence instead of the cuts being imposed by Westminster.
        Protesters say Atos could not be further from those Scottish values, given its central role in the UK government's welfare reforms. Atos Healthcare has a £110 million annual contract with the Department of Work and Pensions to run work capability assessments of the sick and disabled, and a £400m deal to assess mobility benefits. Critics say the tests are flawed, degrading and inefficient, with one in six passed as fit to work winning an appeal against the decision.
        The Atos sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics led to protests, and similar actions are now planned in Glasgow. The 2014 HQ was occupied last month, and protesters have threatened to disrupt the Scottish equivalent of the Olympic torch relay if Atos is still a sponsor.
        The SNP Government is funding about 80% of the £550m price tag for the Games. However, a video of Friday's protest shows Sturgeon denying any say over the sponsorship: "Obviously the benefits side of this is not a matter for the Scottish Government, it's a UK Government issue ... I will take on board what you said to the Commonwealth Games. Obviously, it's not my decision in terms of sponsors."

        Protester David Churchley, co-founder of the Black Triangle disability rights group, said Atos sponsorship was "absolutely scandalous and beyond belief" and that Sturgeon had tried to give protesters the brush off. He said: "They have learned nothing from the Olympics. They're just riding roughshod over disabled people and those who support us. But Friday will be just one of many stunts we will be mounting up to the Games."
      Sean Clerkin of Citizens United said: "The SNP Government is being hypocritical. They criticise the Tory-led Coalition for what they're doing to welfare, while welcoming Atos as sponsors of the Commonwealth Games. "Nicola Sturgeon is the person talking about a welfare system with
Scottish values. If she's going to live up to those values, she should ensure Atos is dropped as a sponsor."
         An Atos spokesman said: "While we fully respect people's right to peaceful protest and understand this is a highly emotive issue, Atos is proud to be an official supporter of the Glasgow 2014 organising committee." An SNP spokeswoman added: "We are opposed to the criteria and tests set by the UK Government that Atos deliver, and have made clear that they should reconsider this approach. "We are looking forward to a positive Commonwealth Games that will be a great opportunity to showcase Scotland to the world."

Info first obtained from CityStrolls:

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ATOS IS BIG BROTHER.

         ATOS, is big brother, watching you all the time. Sickness is health, disability is ability to work, you are probably scamming to get the miserly benefit.

ann arky's home.

ATOS, PURVEYOR OF MISERY.

            ATOS is a French firm paid £millions of UK tax payers money to try to strip those in the UK of their disability benefit. It creates mayhem and misery among thousands of vulnerable people, all in a millionaire sponsored callous attempt to meet the austerity cuts dictated by the financial Mafia cuts program. People across the country are being pushed and bullied and placed under extra unnecessary pressure because they don’t know how to handle the situation. It is advisable to prepare yourself and if possible, a colleague, in advance of the interview. To this end a information claim form has been produce which you can download here Atos Claim,

 

     ATOS and their pals in the government make money by throwing disabled people into destitution. Hundreds of people across the country will be taking action to clog up their phone lines, their fax machines and their email in-boxes.

This will hit Atos where it hurts: In the wallet! It's the only thing they care about and the only thing they'll listen to. 

 Next Communications Blockade:

Blocking Atos's communications costs them money. It's the only thing they care about. Be polite and let them know what you think of their business practice.

Phone Atos on: 0207 830 4444

UK Head Office Email: ukwebenquiries@atos.net

Email their CEO: thierry.breton@atos.net

Fax their Offices: Free faxes can be sent online from

http://www.freepopfax.com/

Andover: Fax 01264 835556	Birmingham: Fax 0121 6275300	Bristol: Fax 01454 284567
Cambridge: Fax 01223 583300	Crewe: Fax 0161 6018889	Dundee: Fax 01384 448499
Leeds: Fax 0113 3906137	Linwood: Fax 01418 480660	Liverpool: Fax 0151 4782777
Livingston: Fax 01506 410645	Nottingham: Fax 0115 943 1013	Runcorn: Fax 01928 571646
Wilmslow: Fax 01625 884445	Head Office: Fax: 020 7830 4445

Example Email/Fax/Talking points:

Subject: Atos – Stop Making Profits From The Sick And Disabled

To the recipient,  

      Your sister company Atos Healthcare makes profits by carrying out Work Capability Assessments for the DWP on the sick and disabled. Studies have shown these assessments to be highly inaccurate. Over 70% of Atos decisions declaring sick and disabled people as ‘fit for work’ are overturned on appeal, with the help of an advice centre, which the public have to pay for. Both Channel 4’s Dispatches and BBC’s Panorama programmes shown recently exposed the brutal reality of Work Capability Assessments. It has been shown that Atos set targets of passing only 12 to 13% as unfit for work. The process is driven by cost cutting not objective medical opinion. The Government with the help of Atos are cutting benefits to reduce the public debt caused by bankers gambling on the financial markets. The most vulnerable in society are being made to pay for the greed of bankers and the inevitable booms and busts of capitalist economics.

Please pass this message on to your bosses: Stop making profits from the sick and disabled.

ann arky's home.

AFTER THE OLYMPICS, -- THE ATOS GAMES.

       Since the present bunch of millionaire Oxbridge parasites formed their cabal to rule over us they have set about attacking the most vulnerable on our society with savage cuts, while at the same time rewarding their millionaire corporate chums with big fat contracts and tax cuts. Their planned cuts to housing benefit will will increase poverty and stress among the already struggling. However, their most callous and brutal attack is on the sick and disabled, with a lucrative contract to ATOS to get the sick and disabled off benefit allied with the closure of Remploy, they have shown their true colours. They probably thought that this would be an easy target and this group would be the least likely to get organised against this savage attack, how wrong they are.However this is not a battle for the disabled to fight on their own, this is when we show our solidarity, this is all part and parcel of our struggle for a fair and just society, which can only be built outside capitalism.

This from Disabled People Against Cuts:

Join The Atos Games!

On your marks, get set…
for a week of Paralympic fun and games against Atos!

          From Monday 27th to Friday 31st of August, join Disabled People Against Cuts for The Atos Games – five days of action against a company that’s sponsoring the Paralympics but wrecking disabled people’s lives.

We are calling on disabled people, disabled activists, families, colleagues, friends and supporters to come together and fight back against Atos’s attacks. Atos represents as dangerous an opponent as any government, law or barrier the disability movement has faced in its long history. It’s not just welfare, but our very identity and our place within society that is under attack.

And we are asking the whole of the anti-cuts movement to join us in our opposition to the company most responsible for driving through the government’s brutal cuts agenda. Let’s make it Games over for Atos!

We’re not against the Paralympics or the people taking part in it. We’re highlighting the hypocrisy of Atos, a company that soon may be taking disability benefits from the people winning medals for Team GB.

Ever since George Osborne announced he was slashing £18 billion from the welfare budget, the government has paid Atos £100 million a year to test 11,000sick and disabled people every week, then decide whether they’re ‘fit for work’.

Atos uses an inhumane computer programme to do the testing, and trains its staff to push people off benefits. The government has admitted the tests are flawed, and the British Medical Association wants them to end immediately.

But Atos continues to devastate people’s lives. Many have committed suicide because of its testing programme, and over 1,000 people have died of their illnesses soon after being found ‘fit for work’.

We won’t let them get away with murder, so join in The Atos Games however you can – online, on the phone, or on the streets!

·         Monday 27th: We’ll hold a spoof Paralympic awards ceremony, hopefully with some very special guests…

·         Tuesday 28th: Pay a visit to your local Atos office – and maybe even take your protest inside!

·         Wednesday 29th: A coffin full of your messages about Atos will be delivered to its doorstep.

·         Thursday 30th: Phone jam! Let’s flood Atos with calls, and generate a Twitter-storm they can’t ignore!

·         Then on Friday 31st, join us in London where we’re teaming up with UK Uncut for the Grand Finale – an audacious, daring and disruptive action. Last time we shut down Oxford Circus, this time we will be performing miracles…!

Continue READING:

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PICKET ATOS GLASGOW.

Picket Atos

Friday 17th February 2012

4pm-5pm

Atos Medical Assessment Centre,

Corunna House,

29 Cadogan Street,

Glasgow G2 7AB.

Against the latest Atos and DWP con:

Atos and the DWP are conning people into signing on for Job Seekers Allowance when they get turned down for sickness benefit. This means they are forced into applying for jobs that loads of other people are applying for and as most people win their appeal against getting turned down for sickness benefit with the help of an advice centre it also means a lot of sick and disabled people are being harassed into applying for jobs that they are too ill to carry out. If claimants just ask for a reappraisal their money is reduced until they win their appeal, but they are not forced to job search or restart their claim for sickness benefit from scratch and they will get their sickness benefit back-dated.

We also want to let claimants know that it is fairly easy to appeal against being placed in the Work Related Activity Group on Employment Support Allowance (the new name for sickness benefit). In this situation you get sickness benefit, but they try to harass sick and disabled claimants off ESA by forcing them to attend regular interviews over a number of months.

We will be giving advice leaflets to sick and disabled claimants outside Atos, but please share this information with anyone you know on sickness benefit:

Good morning, I'm your new assessor.

What to do if you 'fail' a Work Capability Assessment -

http://thecrutchcollective.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-to-do-if-you-fail-your-work.html

How to prepare for an ESA Tribunal Hearing -

http://thecrutchcollective.blogspot.com/p/how-to-prepare-for-esa-tribunial.html 

We will also continue to inform the public of how Atos are helping the government make the sick and disabled pay for the public debt caused by the greed of bankers and the inevitable booms and busts of capitalist economics:

http://thecrutchcollective.blogspot.com/p/atos-robbing-poor-to-give-to-rich.html

thecrutchcollective@gmail.com

http://thecrutchcollective.blogspot.com/

Facebook Event Page:

http://www.facebook.com/events/190066311101505/?context=create#!/events/190066311101505/

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THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.

         In this society anxiety walks with us, will my benefit be cut, will I be deported and who knows why a young man would throw himself in front of a train, but then again, this is capitalism. 

Jim McFarlane 30-6-11   hereandnowscot@gmail.com

         I was early. I had the luxury - on a clear day - to get off the shoogly bus. Across the Squiggly bridge I sauntered, northwards past the Broomielaw, nondescript buildings housing bureaucrats of BT, the Scottish Office.....

        The Job Centre in Argyle Street wasn't my destination, this time, carrying on, was the ATOS assessment centre at Cadogan St. - quiet outside at mid morning - no Black Triangle or dis ability campaigners this early.

       Reaching Bothwell Street I at first turned right, only to discover the imposing entrance I had imagined to be "Eagle" was not the place. About turning I strode. Across the road, every window of Habitat festooned the message: closing down sale/ everything must go! A symbol of the sixties myth, going the way of Woolies.....

        Just beside the slip-road from the Kingston Bridge was the Eagle building. The penny dropped. This was the immigration office place. Up to the 4th floor, a screening barrier and uniformed civil servant greeted me. Keys, coins, lighters, all to be placed on a tray. It was a hallmark of departure.

      I had to sit next to the toilets. This was the designated bay for benefit appeal claimants. In the larger waiting room space, a few of Jock Tamson's bairns who awaited a different fate: the right to stay or face deportation.

      Another unshaven man was processed. He said he was late because a young lad had thrown himself under an Underground train at Govan. No empathy overflowed from the clerk. My fellow claimant's lateness would undo my planned escape to Paisley afterwards. I settled down - a few BBC science magazines helped distract my thoughts. Others came & went or nervously visited the latrines.

      My time came. The clerk led me along the corridor. He opened the door. A surprise greeted me. This was not like Wellington Street or other overspill locations for Appeals. It was a miniature court room. I took my seat, a desk in front with water and tissues. I was at least 12 feet away from judgement.

     The legal man, explained how they would conduct the proceedings. The medical man - whose face betrayed a liking for the bottle - asked the questions. It was a case of casting the mind back, a portrait of anomie in the months before last autumn. A period when the diagnosis was incomplete. The medical scans were underway but not going as planned. I was sleeping fitfully, I was not functioning as before. Enough information was gleaned.

    Time to go. There would be no verbal verdict. I would be in a state of suspense. They ushered me out of the Eagle's lair. Would I continue under the scrutiny of the State? Or would I tread the path of precarity .

Disability assessor

[to be continued...]

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