Man Starves to Death After Benefits Cut

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I came across this article. Very scary. I feel bad for the poor guy.

http://bit.ly/1k8IRO9

I apologize if this has already been posted.

ATOS has killed thousands of disabled people by canceling their benefits. They've assessed comatose people as "fit to work" because they failed to show up for their assessments because they were in a coma. Because apparently being in a coma is no excuse.

But yeah, many people have died after losing benefits because of ATOS.

I meant to say that it was an autistic man who starved to death.

Anyway, they've declared me fit to work even though I'm going through a crippling depression and can barely get out of bed. And I brought them a paper from my therapist stating that.

No wonder there are so many homeless people in this country. I'm surprised more people aren't dying in the streets.

I hope your appeal will get your benefits.

This article says more than 10,000 deaths:

http://www.freecriticalthinking.org/dai ... death-toll

One part of me thinks they are doing this to weed out the abusers but it backfired.

The other part of me thinks they are doing this to decline their population and weed out the disabled.

They're doing it under the pretense of reducing benefits fraud.

The thing about benefits fraud is that it never happens at the rate many believe it does. People are dying literally days after assessments, like this man:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/polit ... rk-3177803

This article describes how much actual benefits fraud there appears to be:

http://www.cas.org.uk/features/myth-bus ... efit-fraud

And while fraud is wrong, instituting draconian policies that serve to put vulnerable people in risky situations is certainly not the way to go about it.

Anyway, the fraud idea is just a dog whistle. Your second sentence is closer to the truth.

This speaks volumes about how misunderstood mental illnesses, and mental health as a whole are. People think "oh, he's able-bodied, he should get off his ass and work!", but the body can only work when the mind works as well, and when a person is having issues with their mental health, that is a legitimate concern, in my opinion. Government assistance exists to help people who for one reason or another cannot work, and that includes mental health reasons.

I'm baffled and dismayed that they did nothing to help this man, especially considering that he was so depressed he couldn't get out of bed, and that he had a phobia of food. Those two things should have been clear signs that something was wrong, and that something should have been done.

The point of ATOS is not to help people receive benefits. The point of ATOS is to get people off benefits. The point of ATOS is to be the instrument of a government that is hostile to benefits and people who need benefits. What's been going on in the UK recently has been all about demonizing disabled people and single mothers and others who receive benefits, to reduce those benefits, and to force people off of them. If they cared at all for these people there wouldn't be 10,000+ people dead after ATOS decided they didn't need disability benefits.

This blog covers what's been going on:

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/

Also, given the overall media saturation of disabled people as benefits scroungers, hate crimes against disabled people are on the rise:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/cr ... 58841.html

None of this is a coincidence. None of this is due to someone just not knowing what they should be doing or making mistakes in their assessments. None of this is because of a misunderstanding about mental illness and mental health - people with all kinds of disabilities at all severity levels are being kicked off benefits and forced to go through appeals to get them back. Things are going according to plan.

This is a logical step on the path of "entitlement reform" or the attitude that people shouldn't need or want "entitlements."

Reading the comments to the article in the link Verdandi posted, I am shocked how stupid ATOS is to say people are fit to work when it's so obvious they are not. It all looks Nazi. I wonder if the families can sue. I keep wondering about the aspie man how did he eat while on benefits if he had food phobia. That is what I am still confused about.

Stuff like this scares the s**t out of me. I'm unable to drive, which means it's not possible for me to go someplace to work. I have to live with my parents too. Not only am I aspie, but I'm bipolar, have anxiety, adhd, and ocd. I never know if I'm going to wake up after 6 hours of sleep ready to take on the world, or wake up after 12 and have to deal with leaden paralysis for a good chunk of the day. If I could get a ride to a work place, the fluorescent lighting, background noises, and people interaction would have me either crying, rocking back and forth, or falling asleep from exhaustion.

It's not that I want benefits or to go on disability. I'd like to know that I can find a work from home job doing some programming or writing articles on music, but my parents dying and leaving me to fend for myself is the scariest thing that I think about. Knowing that many people don't take mental disabilities seriously and we're told to 'toughen up'. I feel uneasy thinking about it.

I don't think the death toll of thousands is due entirely to the withdrawal of benefits. Many of these people were terminally ill. Withdrawing benefits from someone who's terminally ill is an absolutely horrible thing to do, but it doesn't cause their death if they were already dying. Not that that makes it okay.

But they weren't all terminal patients. Some of those deaths are would not have happened if they had kept their benefits.

I know what it's like; I'm in danger of that, too, just like anyone who's on welfare. I have a friend who's a quadriplegic who nearly lost benefits--and she has an obvious and obviously severe disability. It's not just because we don't seem too disabled or because for some of us the disability truly is mild. Anybody with a disability is in danger.

It won't do us any good to just live in fear of losing benefits. Instead, we should commit to helping each other, however we can. If we can't trust the government, we should be able to trust each other. Get to know the people in your area who are disabled, keep tabs on each other, and when someone needs help, help them or yell at whoever's supposed to be, until they do. Don't leave anyone behind, and don't be afraid to ask for help when you yourself need it. We are not helpless and we do not have to put ourselves at the mercy of people who think of us as numbers.

I added Mark to the memorial a few days ago. His experiences are eerily similar to mine, right down to the pile of unopened mail he couldn't deal with when his coping skills started to disintegrate. I honestly feel like it's simple luck that he's dead and I'm alive. But that's the way it is... everyone dies, eventually. I just want to do something worthwhile before I do.

Regarding benefits fraud: Did you know that the most common kind of benefits fraud is the family members of a disabled person on welfare, taking their money and spending it on themselves? The most common victims of disability welfare fraud are the disabled themselves.

Would this count as fraud? My ex boyfriend told me his mom tried signing him up for social security just so she can have extra money to pay for their land and he got denied. She didn't try and reapply him again. But to me that sounded messed up for her reason for signing him up than for so he wouldn't be a burden to them and so they wouldn't have to pay for his expenses and all and it's for him to support himself. That's probably why they denied him if they actually told them it's so she can pay for their land.