Category Archives: history

Is the damp affecting my brain? I think its getting rusty.

Delta Ladies, Elephant Shelf, music, Musings
Its been a fairly busy week to lost of recording for two separate projects. 3 gigs and I open mike slot, which we don’t do too often, but it was on a Wednesday night when there wasn’t anything else going on and not too far away. It was mostly young folks enthusiastically doing there thing, and its seemed to go across fairly well. We were a bit surprised as we were told we were headlining it. We did the equivalent of a short first set and off we jolly well went.Thursday we were in the studio again and for once it didn’t rain until after midnight.

Friday nights gig was good, but I seem to have gone down with some sort of a bug as I felt very rough and as if I had a temperature, was nauseous and had no appetite. Got stuck in some traffic on the way back due to an accident too so I was not at my best by the end of the evening.

Saturday was OK as I felt a bit better, but again a very wet night so not the biggest audience, but the gig went well enough. I also managed to find something akin to a duck pond on the 3rd lane of the North Circular on the way home that made for an interesting couple of seconds.

Sunday was a strange day. We did a tea time gig in London that’s was a complete waste of time as the place was almost empty. That did not put me in the best frame of mind as it was a pay on the door gig and only covered the cost of a couple of drinks, and there is nothing worse than playing to an empty room particularly if the room is a largish one. We took off for one of a regular drinking haunts that also does live music on some Sundays (one we have played at recently). The London Irish Band (Back of Beyond) were playing and jolly good it was too. Made me feel much better. Bizarrely they had seen us a few years back (The electric band, not the Duo) and we had a brief chat in the break about music and stuff. We suggested a few venues that they might try and stuff.

At the start of the second half they invited us up to do a turn so we borrowed a couple of instruments and did our bit. I had a brief bout of fiddle envy as I borrowed a very nice modern 5 string fiddle, from the also very nice Antonia Pagulatos (made by Bridge)(first time I have played a 5 string, so of course it had to be in front of a fair size crowd ) but it went OK. I would love a violin like that but its not very lightly that circumstances will allow. It was also virtually effortless to play… So I need to get a lottery ticket for Wednesday 😉

I am slowly starting to work in more stretching and exercise now to help free up my back and I now have a lot more movement in my left shoulder, so the Violin playing is getting back to normal though its rather more tiring than it used to be physically and I often find I cannot get a comfortable shoulder position for too long though this is easing a bit now.

I am still searching for something and I haven’t found it yet, but it would help to know what it is…

How it is in the UK right now

Bi-polar, disabilty and health news, whatever

I am republishing here the newsletter from the benefits and work community to help give it a wider airing.

12 June Newsletter

£3.50 OFF AN ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION – ENDS MIDNIGHT THURSDAY
If you’re not already a member, join the Benefits and Work community (Open access) before midnight on Thursday and you can get £3.50 off the cost of your annual subscription.  Just type the following code into the coupon box when you pay via PayPal:

99864

to get an annual subscription for £15.95, down from £19.45

Find out how to subscribe now. (Open access)

14 heart attacks and failing kidneys – you’ll soon be fit for work

How sick do you need to be before the DWP will admit that you are probably never going to work again?

Very sick indeed if your kidneys are failing, as two recent decisions show with brutal clarity.

Paul Mickleburgh, one of the world’s longest surviving kidney dialysis patients is hooked up to a dialysis machine for five hours, three days a week.  He’s also had cancer and pneumonia and  suffers from spontaneous internal bleeding, brittle bones a twisted bowel and agonising joint pains as a result of his renal treatment.  He’s had four failed kidney donations.

To top it all off, Paul has had 14 heart attacks in the last five years and believes his last attack was caused in part by the stress of trying to deal with the DWP.  Sadly, patients with chronic kidney disease are actually more likely to die from associated heart disease than from kidney failure itself.

In spite of this, Paul has been placed in the work-related activity group,(external link) meaning that he is someone who is expected to return to the workplace in the reasonably near future.  Paul’s request for this dreadful decision to be looked at again came back with the same result – he should be moving towards a return to work.

We hope that Paul is now appealing . . . and that his heart will stand the stress.

More desperate still is the story of Karen Sherlock, a disability activist connected to the Spartacus campaign, whose kidneys were failing and who was waiting to be put on dialysis.  In spite of her very serious condition, Karen was placed in the work-related activity group, meaning that her benefit would soon stop altogether because of the time limit on contribution-based ESA.

Karen spent many months fighting that decision.  Two weeks ago she finally won her exhausting battle with the DWP and was placed in the support group.

This week she died of a heart attack.

According to a fellow campaigner (external link):

“She was terrified. Beside herself with fear. She lived her last months desperately scared that her family would not survive the onslaught it faced.  . . . The system failed her and she spent her last precious moments in this world fighting. For herself, for her family and for others.

“She was one of us. She was Spartacus. And now she’s dead and she died in fear because the system failed her, because cruel men refused to listen and powerful men refused to act.

“She spent her last months fighting for the “security” of £96 a week and the reassurance that it couldn’t be taken away.”

Last month, in a speech to Work Programme providers at the  Institute of Economic Affairs (external link), Chris Grayling the Employment minister explained why the Work Programme is not making the profits for the private sector that had been hoped for.  His explanation as to why the much prized incapacity benefit to ESA transfer claimants – for whom providers get paid £14,000 when they place them in work – are in short supply, touches directly on the fate of Karen Sherlock and others like her:

“We have more people fit for work, and moving to JSA. We have more people needing long term unconditional support than expected. And those in the middle [work-related activity] group, who would expect before too long to be mandated to the Work Programme, have proved to be sicker and further from the workplace than we expected. So it will take far more time than we predicted for them to be ready to make a return to work.”

In other words, providers will have to be patient, but eventually those £14,000 a time claimants will be handed over to them . . .  unless, like Karen Sherlock and an increasing number of other seriously sick people, they die before the bounty can be claimed.

FREELANCE WELFARE RIGHTS WORKERS
Combined with an increasingly brutal benefits regime are cuts in funding to the very agencies who can help claimants fight the worst of these decisions.

In May of this year, the Legal Aid Bill became law. This means that legal aid for most welfare rights, housing, employment and debt issues will be withdrawn completely next year, causing a huge cut in the income of many advice agencies and law centres.

Coupled with ongoing cuts in support to the voluntary sector from local authorities, this means there will be a dramatic fall in the availability of free advice – or indeed advice of any kind – and a considerable increase in the number of advisors who are out of work or working only part-time.

Last October we asked Benefits and Work newsletter readers what they thought of the idea of a website where freelance welfare rights workers could advertise their services.  The response was overwhelmingly positive, but with concerns regarding such things as cost, privacy and the reliability and genuineness of advisors.

After much thought, we’ve now set up a website to take the idea of a freelance service forward.  At the heart of the new site is an Advisors Code of Conduct which we hope will deal with many of the concerns you expressed.

We’d be very grateful if you could take the time to take a look at the Code and let us know your thoughts, by commenting on the Help and Advice Plus blog (external link).

If we do decide to begin the service there will be no charge for at least six months to advisors who use it, whilst we pilot it.

OTHER NEWS
As always, there’s much more news in the members area than we have room for in this newsletter, including:

A protest by disabled workers and a horse outside the offices of Disability Rights UK

GPs at the British Medical Association unanimously call for the work capability assessment to be scrapped

Many thanks to everyone who has sent in news stories over the last fortnight, including: Beverley Hymers, John Pring, Jim Allison, papasmurf, Crazydiamond.

GUIDE UPDATED
Following new guidance on the use of aids and appliances in relation to the work capability assessment, we’ve updated our guide to claiming ESA on physical health grounds.  We’re also currently working on updating the guides to claiming DLA for children, following the national roll-out of new claim packs.

GOOD NEWS FROM THE FORUM – OPEN ACCESS LINKS
Finally, as always,  a selection of good news from the forum:

Placed in ESA Support Group with no medical assessment
“Thanks to the great information on this wonderful site i was automatically placed in support group and no medical”

DLA middle rate care and low rate mobility and ESA Support Group
“Thank you all once again the guides were priceless in my case”

Migrated from IS to ESA Support Group without medical assessment
“Thank you all at benefits and work for the excellent guides”

DLA success, high rate mobility and middle rate care
“Many thanks B&W, well worth the subscription”

Placed in ESA Support Group and not called for medical assessment
“just wanted to say thank you to this site & the online guides”

Son’s DLA successfully renewed after reaching age 16
“Have used your fabulous guides and my son’s DLA has been renewed for post 16”

From IB to ESA Support Group for 3 years
“I cannot thank your website enough, I studied your information guides and know that this would not have happened without your help”

Moved from IS to ESA Support Group without medical assessment
“I just wanted to say thanks for the helpful guides you offer.”

Indefinite award of high rate mobility and middle rate care DLA on renewal
“Just proves your guides really do work as all I did was follow the guide to the letter”

Transferred from IB to ESA Support Group
“Thanks Benefits and Work”

Placed in ESA Support Group for 2 years
“Thank you to benefits and work for helping me word the form in the correct way”

After 3 years of “hard struggle” placed in ESA Support Group
“a big thank you to you all for your help and advice”

0 points to Support Group on revision
“I am a bit disappointed if I am honest as I wanted to be in the WRAG group.”

Successful DLA claim for high rate mobility
“I couldn’t have done it without using your guide to claiming DLA. I can’t thank you enough!”

You are welcome to reproduce this newsletter on your blog, website, forum or newsletter provided it is properly attributed to www.benefitsandwork.co.uk

You can also read this newsletter online. (Open access).

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
Company registration No.  5962666

April 2012 So far

Delta Ladies, music, Musings, whatever

Not too bad a month so far a few good gigs and the sun is shining a little, so I am making the effort to take a little more exercise to help ease the back problems and stuff. Touching wood my back seems capable of withstanding regular accordion playing now so I am starting to work up a few more tunes on it, and its not seeming half so alien as it was at first. Its not an instrument to play after midnight on a quite night though as it kicks up a fair old racket that makes the violin seem quiet by comparison.

This year seems to be whizzing past at hell of rate thus far but with plenty of interesting stuff going on. I need to get back to the DR’s soon to see how the old bones are progressing as well. I am building up a bit more stamina but some of our duo gigs have been mini-marathons with often more than one encore. Once you have gone over the 2.5 hour mark it can get a bit knackering.

Saturday night we were at the Global Cafe in Reading. We do play one other venue in Reading regularly called the retreat but this was a new one for us with a younger audience than our usual demographic. We will be back there later in the year and its a really nice place to perform in. This year could be our buzyiest for gigs by the look of things mostly with the Delta Ladies. Doing a 2 hour plus show as a duo is quite demanding at times. We are also going to be putting some new material in to soon as well. So we need to learn that.

Currently we have two albums almost finished. One is the Elephant Shelf Album and the other is an album of swing standards. Once those are out of the way we need to start recording the Delta Ladies Album. Not much time to get bored by the look of things.

We will be back at one of our favorite gigs in a couple of weeks at the Bellvue in High Wycombe and strangely it will be coinciding with their beer festival. How spooky is that then 😉