Apologies - we are now back online

[Guest guest]

From: Benefits and Work

[mailto:campaign@...]

Sent: 17 May 2010 08:54

sheilaturner@...

Subject: Apologies – we are now back online

Apologies – we are now

back online

17 May 2010

Dear Subscriber,

Unfortunately, when we sent

the newsletter out on Friday, the site crashed beneath the weight of people all

trying to download our new employment and support allowance guide at once.

We finally got the site up

and running only to have it crash again for different reasons.

However, we think – hope – we’ve

fixed it now. And because we received so many emails from people saying they

couldn’t get any of the links to work, we decided the best solution was to

reissue Friday’s newsletter, which you’ll find below.

For those of you who did,

finally, manage to get the links in the last newsletter to function, we’ve got

three new items for you to read.

The first is the news that a

doctors union has warned GPs that they should not try to prevent patients from

recording consultations, if they so wish: GPs

can’t stop patients recording consultations

The second is the claim that

the Youreable forum, which closed before Christmas, is set to reopen: Youreable

to rise from the dead

And, finally, we have some

cheery feedback from members, like this:

“I have subscribed to

Benefits and work for the last 18 months and have just been awarded higher rate

mobility and higher rate care. This is beyond my wildest dreams and is all down

to the information you provide on your website. It is the best money that I

have ever spent.

Beyond

my wildest dreams

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

Huge new ESA guide plus

Your future under the coalition

14 May 2010

Dear Subscriber,

This is the first ever

Benefits and Work newsletter written without a Labour government in power.

In our blog we take a first

look at the new secretary of state for work and pensions, Iain Duncan : What

future for claimants under coalition rule?

Unlike most of his

predecessors in the job, IDS already knows a lot about benefits and has some

radical ideas about how the system should be changed – unfortunately, these

include the abolition of DLA. Whether he manages to persuade the coalition that

his personal preferences should become government policy remains to be seen.

We’ve also taken a look at

the first joint statement on benefits by the Tories and LibDems which

concentrates, unsurprisingly, on getting claimants into paid employment: Coalition

publishes first benefits statement

HUGE NEW ESA GUIDE

In the members area, we’ve published a major new employment and support

allowance resource to add to the detailed, step-by-step guides already

available on the site: Major

new ESA resource to download

The 100+ page guide has been

provided by Mark Perlic, freelance trainer and Senior Welfare Rights Officer at

Wolverhampton City Council's Welfare Rights Service. Members will be aware of

the excellent guide to DLA caselaw which Mark provided us with back in February

of this year.

The new guide is an extremely

comprehensive training pack Mark has been using for ESA training days. It

covers many of the areas that we don’t, such as:

national insurance

contribution conditions;

calculating ESA awards;

ESA in youth;

ESA and other benefits;

case law relating to substantial risk

We’ve also updated all our

own ESA guides and published the most recent copy of the ESA Handbook produced

by the DWP. We’re leaving the old version on the site so that people can

compare the two. If you spot any material changes please email us, preferably

with page references.

DECISION MAKERS EXCHANGES

As well as the ESA Handbook, we’ve also obtained copies of the confidential

monthly DLA Decision Makers Exchanges from July to December 2009: Confidential

decision makers DLA documents published

The editions cover a wide

range of issues, including:

whether claiming carers

allowance for another person may sometimes be incompatible with a person’s

claim for DLA or AA;

why it is never appropriate

for decision makers to refer to a “simple” main meal when considering the lower

rate of the care component of DLA.

THE FUTURE

At the moment we have many unanswered questions about what life for claimants

will be like under the coalition.

Will further compulsion be

aimed at ESA claimants as well as JSA claimants?

Will the harsher ESA test

approved by Yvette also get the go-ahead from her successor?

Will the first steps towards

scrapping the entire benefits system and starting afresh be taken, as Iain

Duncan hopes?

Whatever the answers, you can

count on discovering the truth, rather than spin, here at Benefits and Work.

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

© 2010 Steve Donnison. You

are welcome to reproduce this newsletter on your website or blog, provided you

do so in full.

PLEASE NOTE: THE REPLY TO

ADDRESS ON THIS NEWSLETTER JUST COLLECTS HUNDREDS OF AUTOREPLIES. If you have

problems accessing the site or logging in, visit the Help with the site page,

where you can find possible solutions and contact details for our technical

support.

http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-with-the-site

TO UNSUBSCRIBE OR CHANGE YOUR DETAILS, PLEASE USE

THE MANAGE MY SUBSCRIPTION LINK BELOW.

This

message was sent from Benefits and Work to sheilaturner@.... It

was sent from: Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd, PO Box 4352 , Warminster,

Wilts BA12 2AF, United Kingdom. You can modify/update your subscription via

the link below.

Email Marketing by

Manage your subscription

No virus

found in this incoming message.

Checked by AVG - www.avg.com

Version: 8.5.437 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2877 - Release Date: 05/16/10

18:26:00