[Jack_]

Originally Posted by Kazanne

A tad over dramatic there again.

Is it really though Kazanne?

http://calumslist.org

Lawrence Bond suffered from a heart condition, shortness of breath and struggled with mobility. His GP had reportedly also made two referrals for mental health services. But, despite all that, the 56-year-old was declared “fit to work” at an assessment in July.

As a result, Bond’s benefits were slashed and he was told to get down to his local Jobcentre in Kentish Town to look for work. He launched an appeal against the ruling, but had no other options while he waited. “His anxiety was getting worse as he could not pay bills and was afraid to leave home to go to the shops,” his sister explained.

Then, in January, as he travelled back from the Jobcentre, he collapsed and died of a heart attack.

The case of Lawrence Bond is not unique. 2016 figures showed that more than half of disabled people who appealed their “fit to work” assessment eventually got the decision overturned.

“We’re still seeing some really worrying things coming out of those assessments,” says Ayaz Manji from the mental health charity Mind. “There’s a lot of really poor decision-making. Lots of the people who make those assessments don’t understand mental health.

“We’ve seen people who’ve been denied the benefit because they’ve been described as ‘well-groomed’, or ‘able to look somebody in the eye’. But obviously those things aren’t a good indication of whether someone has a serious mental health problem that’s affecting their ability to work. Often the support that people get is quite generic and doesn’t really take their mental health into account.”

The Guardian

At least 2,600 sick and disabled people died shortly after being declared 'fit for work' by a Government contractor.

Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions show that around 100 people per month died shortly after being ruled well enough to take a job.
Officials from Iain Duncan Smith's department insist the overall mortality rate for people on out-of-work benefits, and specifically sickness and disability benefits, has fallen every year over the last decade in line with the rest of the population.

But critics demanded an inquiry as it emerged that, over a period of two years, 2,380 people died within 14 days of being taken off Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) because they were declared 'fit to work' by a controversial assessment process.

A further 270 died within six weeks of being taken off Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance – older benefits which are now being phased out – taking the total to 2,650 between December 2011 and February 2014.

Atos, the French firm which carried out the assessments for the DWP, ended its contract with the Government earlier this year, after a series of complaints that people were wrongly recommended for work.

Claimants for ESA must have this Work Capability Assessment, and are divided into a 'work-related activity group' who could do some work with the right help, and a 'support group' who are not expected to work. Around two million assessments have been carried out since 2010.

Daily Mail

Theresa May 'allowed state-sanctioned abuse of women' at Yarl's Wood

Shadow home secretary criticises minister after TV documentary alleges rape and self-harm at detention centre were ignored

Theresa May, the home secretary, has been accused of allowing the “state-sponsored abuse of women” at the Yarl’s Wood detention centre after a Channel 4 investigation uncovered guards ignoring self-harm and referring to inmates in racist terms.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said it was a “disgrace” that May had refused to come to the House of Commons to answer an urgent question about the mistreatment of detainees, sending a junior minister instead.

She also laid into the home secretary for last November extending the contract for Serco to run Yarl’s Wood, despite allegations about abuse, sexual exploitation, rape and self-harm at the centre in Bedfordshire.

She told the Commons: “There is no point in ministers pretending to be shocked at news of abuse. This is not news. Even now, the ministers have not set up an independent inquiry. Serco has … This is state-sanctioned abuse of women on the home secretary’s watch and it needs to end now.”

The three-month undercover investigation by Channel 4 news filmed Serco guards describing various detainees as “black bitch”, “animals”, “beasties” and “evil”. At one point a guard was filmed commenting: “They are all slashing their wrists, apparently. Let them slash their wrists ... It’s attention-seeking.”

The Guardian

Yarl’s Wood is the ‘ruthless border policy’ Theresa May doesn’t want you to hear about

UK law allows migrants to be detained indefinitely, without trial, despite a 2015 parliamentary report which showed spending more than 28 days in detention can be “catastrophic” for detainees’ health. We are alone among the nations of Europe in practicing this. It is why, last December, I joined the ranks of protesters marching through the soggy Bedfordshire countryside to the infamous Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre, where hundreds of migrants are incarcerated.

Reports of human rights violations

The demonstration was the fifth of its kind organised by the activist group ‘Movement for Justice by Any Means Necessary’. They started in March 2015, with a single coachload of London-based activists and some hand-painted signs. This time, 2000 people descended on Yarl’s Wood, hailing from as far afield as Liverpool, Sheffield and Bristol. We chanted, we whooped, we hammered on the high gates separating the crowd from the main buildings – where we could see the inmates waving white flags from their windows, chanting back at us.

Torn from their families, they live shadowed with the threat of removal to countries where they could face violence or death. Over a tannoy system, they told the assembled crowd that they were paid £1/hour to clean their own cells, that they are not allowed even the small amount of freedom that regular prisoners get; that tuberculosis was spreading through the centre and no medical attention had been provided.

Since its opening in 2001, the Serco-run facility has been dogged by reports of sexual abuse and human rights violations. Untroubled by such accusations, the government has rewarded Serco for its efforts with a new 8-year contract to run the centre to the tune of £70 million. Perhaps this is unsurprising behaviour from administration which talks about the ECHR as a point of tiresome bureaucracy.

The Independent

Inside Britain's 'worst' immigration removal centre at Christmas

Yarl's Wood has a reputation for being the UK's worst immigration removal centre. Radhika Sanghani goes inside and finds women struggling to gain access to medicine, counselling and basic privacy

Shona* is 25-years-old. A month ago she was preparing to graduate from university after studying Law. Now she’s imprisoned inside the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre and has no idea if she’ll be released or sent back to a horrific fate in Zimbabwe.

“It’s so bad here,” she tells me. “I cannot believe this is happening. I should be graduating right now but instead I’m spending Christmas here. I had to miss my own graduation ceremony. I’m so terrified and the conditions here are very bad.

“It's my first Christmas inside so I don't really know how things go but I'm not looking forward to it. What I know is my day will end in tears.”

Shona has lived in the UK since 2008 when she escaped from Zimbabwe, as her mother was a supporter of the opposing political party and had been threatened by Government officials. Shona says that if she’d stayed she would have become a ‘disappeared girl’.

When I ask what that means, she explains that she would have been tortured and eventually killed or sold into slavery. If she is sent back now, that same fate will await her.

Shona claimed asylum as soon as she landed in the UK alone. Officials put her up in Newcastle, and a charity helped her to gain a place at Teeside University, and paid for her education. She has been checking in at a police station regularly ever since, and has not heard anything more about her asylum status. But last month, when she went for a regular check in, she was suddenly taken to a cell.

“I did not see a single face or hear the voice of another detainee. I was locked up for 38 hours with no exercise - every hour seemed like a year,” she says. “I started to challenge my mind to find the difference between a criminal and an asylum seeker. That day l felt like a criminal offender. As an asylum seeker we seek sanctuary but here in the UK we are treated as the outcast and the same way as the prisoners are treated.”

Shona was taken to Yarl’s Wood where she has been for over a month. This is because she was never officially given legal status in the UK. It is one of the UK’s 13 immigration removal centres, but is commonly known as the ‘worst’ after its endless reports of sexual abuse, hunger strikes and shocking healthcare. The centre is mainly for women – there are a few men in a separate unit – and children are no longer allowed to be held there, after an investigation suggested they were being badly treated.

The Telegraph

I don't know why I'm bothering, because as the last seven weeks have proven, no amount of evidence will ever diminish the invisibility cloak that the Conservative Party have. So long as they trot out a few soundbites, they can do no wrong.