Een
Twitterbericht van Shanise Jenna, met een foto van haar vader die op
de grond ligt terwijl hij medische hulp krijgt, is ingeslagen als een bom. Het
hart van de man werkt voor 25% en uiteraard kan hij maar kleine stukjes lopen, daarnaast heeft hij trombose in beide benen, desondanks stelt het uitvoeringsorgaan Department for Work en
Pensions (DWP) waarvan hij Personal Independant Payment (PIP) ontvangt, dat hij in staat is om te werken (PIP is een uitkering die sinds april 2013 het eerdere Disability Living Allowance
ofwel DLA vervangt),.......
Deze
beslissing werd ook nog eens genomen nadat hij ternauwernood aan de
dood ontsnapte...... Shanise Jenna zag het Twitteradres #DWPCrimes en
zoals gezegd zij postte het bewuste Twitterbericht. Als reactie
op de ontstane verontwaardigde Twitterstorm draaide het DWP haar
beslissing niet terug, nee sterker nog men ontnam de man ook nog eens
zijn bijstand, terwijl hij voorheen, dus toen hij zijn uitkering en
bijstand kreeg, al financieel werd bijgestaan door zijn
dochter daar hij van de totale uitkering niet kon rondkomen........ (zoals Nederlanders niet kunnen rondkomen van een bijstandsuitkering, of van het minimumloon dat zij ontvangen en dat in een puissant rijk land....)
Ongelofelijk
dat de huidige neoliberale westerse regeringen, zo
durven om te gaan met mensen die duidelijk chronisch ziek en/of
gehandicapt zijn..... Neem Rutte 3 die de uiterst schofterige
maatregel wil doorvoeren (o.a. verantwoordelijk daarvoor: hare VVD kwaadaardigheid van Ark), mensen die gehandicapt en/of chronisch
ziek zijn, niet langer op het minimumloon te betalen, waarbij het schoftenkabinet Rutte 3 hen ook nog eens pensioenopbouw wil afpakken,
zodat deze mensen letterlijk hun hele leven lang in de financiële stront zullen zitten......... En zoals al vaker gesteld op deze plek: dat voor mensen die al een grote achterstand hebben op mensen die niet geestelijk en/of fysiek gehandicapt, dan wel chronisch ziek zijn......
Beste bezoeker:
heb je ouders die gepensioneerd zijn, maar die amper rond kunnen
komen, of heb je een gehandicapt/chronisch ziek gezins- of familielid, stem dan ajb
nooit weer op de VVD, het CDA, PvdA (die blaast nu wel bij het voornemen van Rutte 3, maar als de PvdA zelf regeert doet het precies hetzelfde*), D66, of de 'Christen'Unie (!!) Weg met deze onmensen, weg uit de Tweede Kamer of welk ander bestuur
dan ook!
Het volgende artikel komt van theCanary:
Het volgende artikel komt van theCanary:
One tweet exposes the DWP for the monstrosity it is
A
tweet about the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
has blown up on social media. And rightly so – because it sums up
the department’s monstrous treatment of so many people. But it also
acts as a signal of hope.
The DWP’s crimes
As The
Canary previously reported,
a Twitterstorm was organised on Thursday 30 August at 7pm. Using
the hashtag #DWPCrimes,
people tweeted their experiences of the department, sharing news and
encouraging others to do the same. By 9:30pm on 30 August, there had
been around 22,000 tweets:
But
one tweet from a relatively unknown, non-political user caught many
people’s attention. It was about the person’s father, who
previously received Personal Independence Payment (PIP):
My Dad minutes from death the night he fell ill just after been told he was fit to work we then found out he struggled to walk because of heart failure but because he could take steps of course he was fit for work! Now they’ve taken his PIP off him #DWPcrimes @DWP
Shanice
posted a message from her dad explaining what had happened to him. He
said:
My heart is only pumping at 25per cent and I can only walk very short distances. My life is seriously impaired but I’m lucky to be alive. But now after a assessment the dwp, to add insult to injury have kindly stopped my pip payments!
#DWPcrimes posted on behalf of my Dad we’ve been through heartbreak this year I watched him minutes away from death I suffer every day not knowing if it’s his last panicking every time he takes to long to reply to a text. lost his money because he’s “not sick enough” @DWP
Hundreds
of people shared Shanice’s tweet, and offered her messages of
support and advice.
A sadly familiar situation
Sadly,
the figures surrounding PIP show Shanice’s dad’s story is not
unusual.
As The
Canary previously reported,
PIP has been replacing the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) since
April 2013. Since then, the DWP denied PIP to around 381,000
people who used to get DLA. But people can appeal the DWP’s
decision at a tribunal. In 2016/17, these tribunals overruled 65%
of the DWP decisions they heard.
For
Shanice’s dad, the situation has now got even worse. Because since
the Twitterstorm, the DWP has told her dad that it will also be
cutting £64 a week from his Employment and Support Allowance;
leaving him with barely enough to live on.
But
their story, while cruel and heartbreaking, does also show something
else: social media can be a powerful and positive influence.
Meet Shanice
Shanice
told The
Canary:
I’m not a particularly political person, but I’ve been more involved since the [DWP’s] treatment of my dad.
The photo was taken on 2 November 2017. Leading up to that he’d been struggling to walk and had a few things wrong with him. He’d scored zero points on a fit for work assessment, and was having to rely on me. I was helping with money so he could get gas, electric and food. He was also having to search for jobs in the state he was in.
It was my dad that came across the #DWPCrimes hashtag. He rang me to tell me about it; I think he found it through Google News. He’s had another assessment for PIP recently. It took a few months to hear back; in fact, he had to ring to see what the results were. The letter just arrived this week and he scored zero points again.
He is not going to get better; he can barely walk and if he does he has to stop every few yards. The doctor at the hospital told him he must stop every 20 yards. His heart is only pumping blood at 25% which is past severe impairment. He gets out of breath just sitting. Also, he has recently developed anxiety and panic attacks; something he’s never had. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. It broke my heart to see. It’s a form of PTSD from what he’s been through with being ill. When he said his PIP had been stopped I was going to turn to Twitter and then a couple of days later we found out about the #DWPCrimes storm so I said ‘Right, I need to get this posted’.
The power of social media
Shanice
and her dad’s story sum up what Twitterstorms like the #DWPCrimes
one are all about. Many people on social media are already
politically engaged and aware of what the government and its agencies
like the DWP are doing. But many are not – so many people suffer in
silence. They may not realise there’s a whole army of people out
there, in similar positions – but actively fighting back, too.
Shanice
and her dad are a humbling example of the power of social media, and
how it connects us with others in similar positions. Now thousands
upon thousands of people know about their situation. And they also
know what the DWP has done to them.
Get
Involved!
– Check
out the #DWPcrimes hashtag,
support the blogs Universal
Credit Sufferer and The
Poor Side of Lifeand
get involved with Disabled
People Against Cuts (DPAC),
fighting for disabled people’s rights.
Become
a Canary member to support fearless independent journalism====================================
* Zie: 'Asscher (PvdA Tweede Kamer) pissig over plan arbeidsgehandicapten minder dan minimumloon te betalen.... OEI!'
Zie ook:
'Tamara van Ark (VVD staatssecretaris), haar inhumane maatregelen voor gehandicapte werknemers moeten worden gestopt......'
'Arbeidsgehandicapten hebben geen stabiel inkomen nodig aldus CDA, CU, SGP, D66 en natuurlijk de VVD......'
'Gehandicapte werknemers worden in VVD voorstel onder het minimumloon betaald en kunnen daarbij geen pensioen meer opbouwen......'
en terzijde:
'Klijnsma blundert door, deel 888: de Participatiewet.......'
