Saturday 11 May 2013

BEDROOM TAX DRIVES WOMAN TO SUICIDE

It is a tragedy that had to happen, but none the sadder for that.

Not content with creating a situation where some people on Incapacity Benefit find that taking their own lives is an easier option than trying to cope with the UK government's heartless policy is forcing upon them, the Mirror reports the first suicide of someone who couldn't  afford to pay her bedroom tax.

Mrs Bottrill was going to have to find an extra £80 a month, and she simply couldn't.

How much was it that Mr Duncan Smith, well known for claiming expenses for his underwear and telling lies about how efficient his department's schemes are, claimed for a lunch a few weeks ago? Wasn't there some figure of £75 mentioned?


Proud of this scheme's outcome for Mrs Bottrill then, are you, Mr Duncan Smith?

Still you can't be held responsible for what the people will do when faced with not being able to feed themselves? Maybe she should taken a leaf out of your book and put her lunches on expenses?

Enjoy your Sunday, and don't spare a thought for this woman's plight or the misery of her family.

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This is worth reading too. What are we becoming?

16 comments:

  1. Ad Lib Labatories couldn't give a shite about the many as power is their aphrodisiac 'Rule the City of London' is what they are signed up to, plague on all their houses.

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    1. ps. Why do you still have Labour Hame on your blog roll as they only accept glowing comments?

      Delete
    2. Yes. That's a good point. I never read their rubbish and if I did, I wouldn't be allowed to comment.

      Action this day.

      Delete
  2. Poor lady right enough. It only takes a nudge to send some folk over the edge.
    I read your link to the newspaper article and it said she didn't claim her disability benefits ( despite a doctors line saying she was incapable of working) This may have given her enough money to help her out. It also said she received £2,000 to help with her impending move but said this went on wallpaper etc ?
    Her family and friends may have rallied around to provide the extra £20 a week if they had been more aware of her plight. But that's just hindsight and 'what ifs'.

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    1. I think she may be someone who needed a lo of extra help that she didn't get, Monty.

      If you put in a sick line to JC+ you should go automatically on to sickness benefit, so I'm not sure how that worked out.

      Disability Benefits are incredibly hard to get though, and no everyone who is incapable of work is entitled to them, while some people who are capable of work get them to help with the extra costs of being disabled.

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    2. A guide to benefits for sick/disabled.

      ESA formerly incapicity benefit aka invalidaty benefit - paid to those deemed incapable of working therefore is an outof work benefit
      Two types - work related where the person might be able to work at some unnamed point in the future. These people have to comply with certain rules and may be referred to work programme. Eligible for workfare indefinitely due to recent changes. But they can't work I hear to say - yes indeed!

      Support group ESA - deemed not likely to ever be able to work and exemot from work conditionality, But can be reviewed at regualar intervals to see whether they have improved.

      Next DLA soon to be PIP. PIP budget reduced by 20% therefore new criteria to qualify has been introduced which mean many of those currently in receipt of DLA will not qualify for PIP. Is a non means tested benefit available to cover additional costs of being disabled and can be claimed by those in work.

      It is possible to get BOTH DLA and ESA and it is also possible to get jobseekers allowance (JSA) and DLA - ie your disability means you have extra costs but doesn't mean you are incapable of any work. Many on JSA who get DLA will have exemptions in their jobseekers agreement which mean they don't need to apply for certain types of jobs.

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  3. tris


    this is the fear i have with my brothers both in their lives due to
    their life long disabilities have attempted suicide.
    they dont need the Torys encouragement to try again although
    it would and does give IDS and his ilk a warm glow when reading
    about skivers etc reducing the claimant count permanently.

    I understand if re-elected Cameron, IDS and co are introducing
    assisted suicide clinics at every job centre with offers of free burials
    for them to the remaining family members.

    Ahh! Germany 1932 I remember it well

    http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/StaticPages/50.html

    perhaps others should

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    1. I remember you telling me that one of your brothers got threw the grilling with a "health professional", Niko. I hope the other one did too.

      It seems though that Atos has a nice little thing going with these this contract, in that they are tested every year or so.

      You would think the government had better things to do wit its money that retest people who have been proved to have illnesses that don't get better.

      I've always thought that if they were going to make people's lives so unbearable that they should at least make suicide legal. And providing the facilities for this would avoid the shock and horror of, in this case, the lorry driver.

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  4. a good read


    Lies, damned lies and Iain Duncan Smith

    The way the work and pensions secretary manipulates statistics is a shaming indictment of his department's failings


    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/12/iain-duncan-smith-fiddling-figures

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    1. A very good read Niko. The man is an habitual liar, it would seem.

      Added to this, of course, we read (and they deny) that there are targets for sanctions in the jobcentre. Who to believe... Not too hard, given their record.

      And I saw a piece in Private Eye showing that some jobs advertised in the Jobcentre don't pay minimum wage, because they are commission based and it is possible to earn nothing. That is illegal, but IDS counts these as jobs that are available for the lazy scrounging classes, of only they would get out of their beds before 4 pm and do them.

      Also some of the "jobs" are scams. There are phone numbers or websites that take your details and sell them on for profit. There is no job there. They just take your information and say they will get back to you. They don't but you will start to receive a lot of unwanted emails and/or phone calls.

      Once again IDS counts these as proof that there are plenty of jobs out there. And you have no choice. If you are told to apply for them, you must do so, or you will be sanctioned.

      He's a heartless pig of a man who comes over all gentlemanly and hearts of oak, but who is, in fact a SPIV.

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  5. If its good enough for Susan Calman (and other quislings who sneer at their own folk and country) and for Alex Salmond who I remember being described as such during the UK’s success at the Olympics, it’s certainly good enough for a swine like Ian Duncan Smith.....he is a C*** (You didn’t really think I would print that word did you?)

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    1. And I thought the word SPIV was appropriate Munguin!!

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  6. I suspect that this unfortunate lady's death is but the tip of the iceberg. There are around 800 suicides in Scotland each year but the suicide-rate in the most deprived areas is twice the national average.

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  7. Munquin, unfortunate insult to part of a lady's anatomy.

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  8. I'm sure it is, John.

    Figures for the number of deaths of people who have been forced into work programmes don't seem to be available. This is odd, given that the DWP employs an army of people to provide "happy looking" statistics.

    They don't bother to count the ones that would make the man look like the arse he is.

    David Cameron keeping him in a job when it looks like he is failing miserably and manipulating figures, and playing with people's lives to make himself look good, puts him in the same category.

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  9. Better Together.

    Bruce

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