Elastic Scattering
@DryRoastPeanuts
Broad interests, scientific background, now specialising in research management, integrity & impact.
Finally an MP that GETS it. We could do with someone like this as Work and Pensions Secretary.
At launch of important new #DisabilityBenefitsConsortium report showing disabled people hit 4 x harder by benefit cuts losing around £1,200 on average each year - even before move to Universal Credit. #WelfareUnfair
Only 4% of those on LCWRA are found fit for work after reassessment...due to the fact that they are severely disabled. Reassessments are a huge waste of time and money yet media pushing for more frequent assessments to supposedly reduce number of claimants. 🤪
💯 this. Had I not worked @HackneyLawCentr & represented "genuinely disabled" people at PIP & ESA appeals, I never would have believed how appalling the so-called assessments are. Rushed. Not thorough. Default position to disbelieve. Rationale for decisions completely irrational.
Anybody who says "genuinely disabled people have nothing to worry about" has clearly never interacted with the DWP or been through an "assessment"
UK welfare spending is 10.6% of GDP. Right wing press never mentions that it is well below the OECD average. UK has some of the least generous welfare across OECD. No questions asked about corporate welfare, uncosted tax reliefs to corporations/rich. gov.uk/government/pub…
🩵💜💗 July 19 = Clinically Vulnerable Awareness Day 4 yrs ago, “Freedom Day” left millions behind. For CV people, it wasn’t freedom but exclusion. Health and safety should be inclusive rights, not a privilege. Show solidarity: Share a masked selfie with #CVAwarenessDay 1/
Solidarity with Diane Abbott I'm white Jewish and I would never claim to have experienced the same forms of racism that Diane faces just because of the colour of her skin. This is her lived experience as the longest serving black female Member of Parliament & should be respected
This is the clip of my interview.
The man who quoted Enoch Powell last month has suspended Diane Abbott for speaking about racism
What a strange conversation. The Motability car scheme has been running for nearly 50 years. The way topics get picked up & a flurry of outrage gets generated is weird. Britain is miserable. Also, too many of you have disdain for disabled people (but we knew this) lol.
1 in 4 disabled is commensurate with European countries, but it doesn't mean 1 in 4 disabled people claim benefits. It means that 1 in 4 people have physical/mental impairment with substantial/long-term negative effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
"Half of the welfare budget that is spent in Britain is spent on in work benefits. That is a direct subsidy for low wages so the corporations who've been screwing this country for years can get higher profits" Eddie Dempsey from the @RMTunion at the #DurhamMinersGala. Spot on!
Yet the evidence is to the contrary. There are many more disabled people who do not claim any support than those who do. In fact there are many benefits that go unclaimed. Perhaps considering the abuse and rhetoric around benefits it’s not really a surprise. 4/
The funny thing about the majority of the abuse is that it relates to benefits, which my husband hasn’t yet claimed. This is what the demonisation of welfare support has done. You assume that every person not in work is on benefits, that every disabled person is too. 3/
While the worst politicians are yelling about costly transport for children with Special Needs, note: this is a result of austerity & messed-up education policy - which were cheered on by these ppl - meaning there aren't appropriate schools & colleges near where families live.
I am putting this story here because I was part of it. We (journalists and me) read what was not there in the figures. Thousands have died after being found fit for work, DWP figures show theguardian.com/society/2015/a…
A minister has finally admitted that spending on working-age benefits is stable, and is not spiralling out of control, despite months of claims from his own department and fellow ministers. #TakingThePIP #WelfareNotWarfare disabilitynewsservice.com/minister-final…
You crush unpaid carers with 90–168 hr weeks, no pay, no support, no rest, then gasp when they break down & need sickness benefits. Burn them out & the state pays double. This isn’t a welfare crisis. It’s a social care & NHS collapse. #FixSocialCare #UnpaidCarers @KemiBadenoch
Someone just tweeted me and said we can’t afford to have 20–25% of the population on PIP. So, as a PSA: 20–25% of the population AREN’T on PIP. 20–25% of the disabled population are on PIP. The percentage of the whole population is 5.5%. #TakingThePIP
No one gets a car for just having food intolerances. Why are these lies allowed to be spread? Does BBC Verify not work with disabled benefits?
The entire UK political/media narrative on welfare is that it is "burgeoning", "a burden" & "unsustainable". But how high is it compared to others? UK welfare is 10.8% of GDP in 2023 (including pensions). Finland spends 25.7% of GDP; France 23.8%: both double the UK.
When a govt says it's considering taking rights from children with Special Needs, a minister doing the rounds saying he's ’not getting into the details’ has one effect. People feel scared. They lose sleep. Again: this is not how to do disability policy (or any policy)