The Judas of the Benefit Claimant or Sacrificial Lamb ?

 

 

 

 

 

Many of you will know the uproar caused on social media/twitter (@suey2y)  when Sue Marsh (Diary of Benefit Scrounger) fame and Spartacus Report who wrote a blog today to inform her followers that she had been given a job worth approx 80K plus perks by the  work capability new assessment provider Maximus who replace the company Atos on March 1st to carry out work capability assessments on sick and disabled people and those off sick in work via Health Management Ltd. In recent times Mrs Marsh has also met with Atos, various Political Ministers, Unum and suddenly out blue she offered a job by a company many people see as the cause of many suicides and untold misery caused by a test designed to harm those intended to endure it. Well  I can’t say I’m surprised but it has angered many campaigners and followers alike including myself. What galls me the most is sick & disabled people online have financially chipped in to her many requests for funding help out of their measly pot of benefits to help this woman and rightly they feel betrayed!

I have never met Sue in person but we have communicated while trying to find a solution to the abhorrent test and to get it scrapped because it is “Unfit for Purpose”. It isn’t just Mrs Marsh either Disability Rights UK have also jumped into bed with this company to train them in disability awareness and Labour have said they will make the test better, but only a few back bench MP’s from all quarters have actually called for it to go when the Doctors BMA poll backed it being scrapped.  Kate Green actually said she hoped that Maximus would be better at helping people into work with right support yet the coalition is cutting the number drastically of specialist benefit advisors  you have to ask why?

I will tell you what I think is happening they will scrap the wrag group and means test all benefits as we see those in support group being targeted recently with letters for a Work Focused Interview (WFI) and those on JSA or Wrag being sanctioned harder than before and bullied by DWP and its JCP managers/staff or placed on workfare placements, while the corporate free labour junkies  get workers for nothing, so they can fudge the real employment issues of not creating jobs while reducing employment stats.

 

Maximus plays an absolute  blinder here recruiting Sue Marsh the so called voice of disabled, which many argue she is not, she has personal stories she collected in evidence for her research to pass on to what many see as the enemy that many divulged hoping it would help scrap this unfair test who wished they never had revealed personal information to someone who they feel has royally shafted them , while acknowledging tests have always been carried out for entitlement to benefits. Marsh is not a stupid woman but neither are the sick and disabled people who work hard in whatever way they can contribute towards helping stopping this cruel and barbaric test and helping their fellow man get through the process and have a ear to bend when they were in such distress.

 

How can someone who initially believed the process to be so wrong then join the ranks you may well ask, I’m sure Sue thinks working from within will help, as do DRUK, but it isn’t they are just being Naïve to say the least to be sucked in and will most probably be spat out just as quick when the powers that be have finished using them to divide campaigners who will have no sympathy whatsoever when they do so.

Her decision to take the job as head of customer experience is likely to spark criticism among many disabled campaigners, but she said she was motivated only by a desire to improve the WCA – which tests eligibility for out-of-work disability benefits – and felt that she could do that best by working with Maximus.

She insisted that she was the best person for the job, and added: “If I can’t get things a little bit more right I don’t think anyone could.”

She admitted that those campaigners who “love and trust” her will “probably be uncomfortable” with her decision to work for Maximus, while the “abolitionists” who “do not believe in incremental change” and want to scrap the WCA completely “are not going to be happy”.

She said: “The only thing that worries me is that there might be some people who really trusted me over the years and might feel let down and upset.”

But Marsh said that parliamentarians and disability charities such as Mind and Scope will probably be “very pleased” with her appointment because they will be “dealing with me rather than somebody who doesn’t know too much about the WCA and doesn’t care about it”.

And she said she believed that Maximus was entitled to be given the chance to prove it can improve on WCA delivery, despite its past record in the US.

She said: “There’s not a company on the planet that isn’t going to have skeletons in the closet. For me, what is important is what they are going to do now.

“If I find out in six months’ time or a year’s time that they are dishonest about the role I am taking on, I absolutely would not be associated with that and I would regret my decision.

“At the moment, they have convinced me that they want to make the WCA more fair and valid.”

 

Well she damn right people are seriously pissed off and think she sold her soul to the devil. it will also be to her detriment too! Those suffering this abysmal test wont  be there next time. Change is not going to happen until this policy and the test is scrapped along with IDS.

 

http://www.latentexistence.me.uk/sue-marsh-given-wrong-drug-and-nurse-refused-to-change-it-agony-instead-of-pain-relief/

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/09/better-way-support-disabled-people-benefits-esa

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/fighting-fund.html

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/a-cry-for-help.html

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/a-spartacus-in-crisis-please-help.html

http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2015/01/leading-wca-campaigner-swaps-sides-join-maximus/