New figures for benefit checks

Figures release by the DWP tell us that the new benefit checks will cost over £100 million a year. That's in addition to the £500 million ATOS have already been paid.

The coalition have gone crazy, it's the only answer. The alternative - to work with the NHS and patients own consultants - is staring them in the face yet they won't take it up.

Perhaps they are scared that these checks would be more accurate and therefore tell the world that benefit claimants aren't scroungers?

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Disability hate crime

Disability hate crime figures for 2009 - 1,402.

That's 1,402 separate occasions where people have suffered simply because they are disabled.
Call me whatever you want but I believe this figure will rise in the next dew years. The ConDem government and the right wing press label us as scroungers. No matter what the condition is, we have been targeted.
Inflammatory headlines in the Sun and the Daily Mail scream at people that we are undeserving, feckless and work shy.
So I don't feel very confident that those already predisposed to look down their noses at us will see through the propaganda.

After all, the headlines have been screaming about immigrants and the level of race crime has risen.

So I fully expect the number of disability hate crime to rise too. I only hope that I am wrong.

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Crossposted at Where's the Benefit?

A few figures

ATOS contract £500m for 7 years from 2005
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300,000 appeals at around £300 per year = £9m
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£1bn due to fraud
£1.1 bn due to official error.
£1.3 bn DWP underpayments
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So despite all this money spent to try and combat fraud, it is not succeeding. All it does it make it harder for those in need to claim it.
And more is wasted on error than it is on fraud.

Wouldn't it be better then to scrap the ATOS contract and instead use the money to employ more staff, train them properly and work with the NHS, consultants and doctors?

Or is that too much like common sense?

The deficit - figures

The deficit is £927 billion

The bank bailout was £850 billion

Let's call it 85% of the deficit is due to the bank bailout.

Why did the banks need bailing out? Because of their greed and irresponsible lending.
Now, no-one is saying that the banks shouldn't have been bailed out. The cash injections prevented a worse recession. But, those self same banks are now reaping massive profits again and paying themselves huge bonuses.

To quote Johann Hari

They have just paid themselves £7bn in bonuses – much of it our money – to reward themselves for failure. That's the same sum Osborne took from the benefits of the British poor yesterday, who did nothing to cause this crash.

He's right, we didn't ask for this,but we will have to suffer. How is that fair?

The banks should be made to pay. There is a growing faction at robinhoodtax.org who have the idea to tax the financial sector just 0.05% on every transaction they make between each other. It's a tiny amount that could raise billions and puts the burden on those who deserve it.

That's a much better way of reducing the deficit.

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