Lord Freud (DWP) retires

[worldbackwards]

A rare spark of festive cheer in an otherwise miserable existence.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-welfare-reform-minister-retires-9373672

I wonder what other vicious misanthrope they can find to replace him.

 

[Chrisb]

A rare spark of festive cheer in an otherwise miserable existence.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-welfare-reform-minister-retires-9373672

I wonder what other vicious misanthrope they can find to replace him.

I see that they approached you to write the encomium

 

[sarah darwins]

Asked if he could relate to people on benefits, he once said: “You don’t have to be the corpse to go to a funeral.”

That this analogy could even cross his mind, let alone come out of his mouth, says everything about how this 'welfare' minister viewed those unable to work — something that would not have been lost on his great granddaddy.

 

[actup]

This from the dailymail:
But his time in office was marred by several controversial remarks. He was recorded saying disabled people were 'not worth' the national minimum wage and suggested some could be paid only £2 an hour.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...um-wage-retires-government.html#ixzz4RdFei8v5
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[SilverbladeTE]

I'd condemn all such swine to a lifetime clearing cluster bombs their support for evil, lying wars and corporations has left across the world
or cleaning up Sellafield, because they wanted nukes and didn't give a damn about the consequences while they lived high on the hog far away

 

[Luther Blissett]

all round I think, (until we find who replaces him)

@actup the daily mail, going after the powerful after they've stopped being powerful. Didn't stop them printing his black propaganda during his tenure though...

Still, hard to find a newpaper that would be honest about the facts and figures during the last decade or so.
That's not your fault, trying to link to a british paper to show news is a minefield, I suppose the Piddle-in-the Hole Gazette doesn't have much of a online presence.

I could hope that the top left, top right headlines and the top right picture (royalty) were a subliminal campaign but alas. I don't think they'd let @SilverbladeTE anywhere near the editors computer. Shame really, he's got more of a nose for a story than the whole lot of them.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

all round I think, (until we find who replaces him)

@actup the daily mail, going after the powerful after they've stopped being powerful. Didn't stop them printing his black propaganda during his tenure though...

Still, hard to find a newpaper that would be honest about the facts and figures during the last decade or so.
That's not your fault, trying to link to a british paper to show news is a minefield, I suppose the Piddle-in-the Hole Gazette doesn't have much of a online presence.

I could hope that the top left, top right headlines and the top right picture (royalty) were a subliminal campaign but alas. I don't think they'd let @SilverbladeTE anywhere near the editors computer. Shame really, he's got more of a nose for a story than the whole lot of them.

LOL yup, the Royal Family are the biggest dole scroungers of them damn all, but not nearly the most greedy, wicked or evil,
for that, try Rupert Murdoch and the bankers!
Why do morons support the "Nobility"? it never EVER fails to exasperate and infuriate me

Just because Lord McSnootyArse Goatblagger the Third's ancestor was a murderous backstabbing psychopath is no reason why his descendant should own half a frikkin country!
The ONLY difference between a murderous bandit and early kings was, the kings had better social skills and made their crimes "acceptable"!

For every RICH man at the very least 100 ordinary folk must be forcibly kept POOR to support the bastard, that's the reality, and NO the Elite do NOT work for it, that's a frikkin CON GAME!

• guy who cleans up unexploded and terrorist bombs might deserve a wealthy lifestyle
• nurse who has to deal with dying children might (that to me is WAY scarier and upsetting than risk of getting your arse blown off)
• farmer who personally works to puts food on all out tables might (because without good famers we all *die*)
• worker who has to clear out blocked sewers under our towns and cities, by hand, in incredibly filthy dangerous conditions might deserve such wealth (it's vital, otherwise dysentery and cholera would kill millions and that kind of job damn well is dangerous...had to explain to one very ignorant twit that no they do not use robots, that has to be done by HAND. Degrading nature of a vital job is a damn site more deserving of reward than sitting in a damn office)

but some jackass living in a mansion, working in a air conditioned office on top of a modern day pyramid, who is as usually clueless, sociopathic, vicious, useless and dangerous as using a rabid ferret for condom?!
No, the only thing they deserve is contempt and a life sentence for their damn arrogance and crimes *spits!*

The Queen has a bunghole like the rest of us, she's no damn "super being" who deserves all those riches and B.S.
A good monarch is better than a bad politician, but it's the 21st century and we need rid of both the lunacy of a frikkin Medieval nobility, and allowing corrupt politicians to walk the streets.
half the knob strutters in Westminster and their Congress-Critter American counterparts should be doing 25 to Life for all the crimes they've done, INCLUDING what they've done to us.
and folk need to stop supporting "their party", it doesn't matter, their all bought and paid for. Support decent individual candidates, not parties. That's part of what is literally killing us.
to many folk wont engage their brain, all some media baron has to do is wave the flag, the party slogan or whatever and and many folk blindly march along, sigh.

 

[RogerBlack]

This from the dailymail:
But his time in office was marred by several controversial remarks. He was recorded saying disabled people were 'not worth' the national minimum wage and suggested some could be paid only £2 an hour.

I would hesitate to put this gloss on it, but there is an unfortunate grain of truth in this that needs reflected in regulation.

Many of us are demonstrably less capable than any reasonable employee, and 'reasonable adjustments' cannot allow us to do many, or most jobs as capably as others. Paying an employee who is only capable of doing half a job, when you are not required to is not something many employers would do.

This is a real problem for even tolerant employers, who have to pay the minimum wage.
It is also a problem for self employment in that self employment benefit law (in the UK) generally implicitly or explicitly assumes that you earn the minimum wage as a hard minimum.
This means that in order to be counted as 'self employed' and not required to seek more work under universal credit for example - you need to work 35 hours a week.
But - this is 'earn 35*NMW/week'.

If you can work self employed while earning half the minimum wage (because you're half as efficient as you would be), for 35 hours a week, you will be treated as if you are earning twice what you are, and any housing or other support will be reduced by more than your earnings.

Put another way - even in the best case, it means that you as a disabled person who is half as efficient when self employed needs to earn around twice as much per job to have the same treatment in the benefit system.

I note however that Freud is on the list of people I would be overjoyed to see on fire.

 

[Esther12]

I would hesitate to put this gloss on it, but there is an unfortunate grain of truth in this that needs reflected in regulation.

Many of us are demonstrably less capable than any reasonable employee, and 'reasonable adjustments' cannot allow us to do many, or most jobs as capably as others. Paying an employee who is only capable of doing half a job, when you are not required to is not something many employers would do.

But the costs of working are also higher. If the minimum wage is set at the minimum level at which society thinks it is fair for people to be compensated for their work, why should those with health problems and disabilities have to put up with working for lower benefits and higher costs, in addition to all of the other difficulties in their lives?

If people want to volunteer for additional unpaid work, they should certainly be free to do so, but that's quite different. I think that the governments attempts to pretend ill-health and competing in the labour market is a great combination is just nonsense that makes life worse for those with health problems. I also think it ignores that valuable ways people can contribute to society without having paid employment.

 

[Large Donner]

It is also a problem for self employment in that self employment benefit law (in the UK) generally implicitly or explicitly assumes that you earn the minimum wage as a hard minimum.
This means that in order to be counted as 'self employed' and not required to seek more work under universal credit for example - you need to work 35 hours a week.
But - this is 'earn 35*NMW/week'.

If you can work self employed while earning half the minimum wage (because you're half as efficient as you would be), for 35 hours a week, you will be treated as if you are earning twice what you are, and any housing or other support will be reduced by more than your earnings.

This is true to an extent but not true for anyone on PIPS/DLA high or middle care amounts. There is no minimum expected earnings for a self employed person in that case. Therefore the top up amounts they receive from other benefits remains
unchanged.

The problem of course is if you are ill and trying to maintain a self employed status without qualifying via PIPS for the exemption from minimum earnings expectation.

 

[RogerBlack]

This is true to an extent but not true for anyone on PIPS/DLA high or middle care amounts. There is no minimum expected earnings for a self employed person in that case. Therefore the top up amounts they receive from other benefits remains
unchanged.

The problem of course is if you are ill and trying to maintain a self employed status without qualifying via PIPS for the exemption from minimum earnings expectation.

To be clear, on this bit I was commenting about universal credit - and 'self employed' being a shortcut for 'not expected to seek for / find more work. It is my understanding that the expected hours to work can be varied down by the work coach - but this is at their discretion.

Yes, work has costs, but it would at least be fairer in some ways if the option was there to accept that people with disabilities may have lower output, and that the minimum income floor should not apply.
(employment at low wage is another ball of wax)

 

[Large Donner]

Yes, work has costs, but it would at least be fairer in some ways if the option was there to accept that people with disabilities may have lower output, and that the minimum income floor should not apply.

I'm pretty sure the minimum income floor doesn't apply to those disabled who qualify for PIPS/DLA middle or high care.

 

[RogerBlack]

I'm pretty sure the minimum income floor doesn't apply to those disabled who qualify for PIPS/DLA middle or high care.

I cannot find anything looking at the various universal credit legislation that has been passed, or various factsheets from charities on it that this is the case.

This was the case under tax credits - http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/tax-credits-extra-money-due-disability - there are various concessions.

I am not aware - have briefly looked now, and more extensively in the past for similar provisions on UC - and not found them.
Can you point me in the direction of where you saw this?

 

[actup]

@RogerBlack and @Luther Blissett,
I have to apologize for quoting the dailymail as if it's equivalent to the nyt or wapo A relative who works for the nypost as a reporter( few papers have journalists anymore) considers the dailymail a step down. How low can you go. The real irony is Murdoch gets most of his nypost reporters( mostly liberals) from the renowned Columbia School of Journalism. They all hate the paper but are being strangled by student loans.

I'm a little ashamed of my occasional fascination with the sheer volume of inaccurate, unintelligible and often damaging info they churn out every minute of the day. I have a weak spot for those 'headless body found in topless bar' headlines. I figured if they could trash Feud given their 'welfare queen' thinking on benefits he had to be pretty bad

 

[RogerBlack]

@RogerBlack and @Luther Blissett,
I have to apologize for quoting the dailymail as if it's equivalent to the nyt or wapo A relative who works for the nypost as a reporter( few papers have journalists anymore) considers the dailymail a step down.

The mail is perhaps the worst of them - but unfortunately during Freuds tenure at the DWP there have been any number of stories fed to the media that are bordering on flat-out lies, through tortured use of statistics, and good old plain making stuff up.

The mail is far from the only entity that's put out stories based on this rather than actually doing research.
Then there have been other terribly worrying developments internally during his tenure.
Someone looked around for comments by various MPs shortly before the vote on if to remove the extra payment for people who are on ESA, but not ill enough to qualify for the support group, on the grounds that it was a 'perverse incentive against working'.
Many of the comments made (and indeed one by the incoming short-lived DWP minister Crabb) were along the lines of 'removing the payment for sick people who have been found able to work' - when this is a fundamental lie about the actual test. This indicated briefing to ministers was either very bad, and they all collectively got it wrong, or intentionally fraudulent.