A Tory plan to reintroduce the Workhouse

/ jaynel62

Rarely if ever have I read anything that has made me physically sick; this morning I came across a Government Report via fellow blogger johnny void that openly calls for “Residential Training is intended to help unemployed adults with disabilities, particularly those at risk of exclusion from the job market, to secure and sustain employment or self employment”  which to my mind describes nothing more than a workhouse.

Reading through this Report I went from Hot to Cold and back again as I rationalised the contents, from the executive summery to the Recommendations. The emphasis throughout is to stress the ‘benefits’ of the Residential element and attempts to demonstrate how that could apply to people on Work Programme which “provides support, work experience and training for up to 2 year” and Work Choice for people “ disabled and find it hard to work“.

The report also repeatedly recommends how this Residential programme might particularly suit people with “people with mental health issues” so much as the authors find it necessary to link unemployment rate figures against differing mental health ‘issues’ “phobia, panics, nervous disorders (14% employment rate) and depression, nerves/anxiety – (33% employment rate)“!

I suppose in order to provide a fair analysis I must also note the reports willingness to be inclusive, therefore I also note the authors desire to ensure this Residential training is also open to those the DWP deem to be “non-disabled people who are long term unemployed”. Although this is because “the unit cost of provision would then be driven down” rather than the programme suiting these potential trainees.

I can not here begin to offer a full analysis of this Report but I strongly urge you to take a look and if you can’t bear to read it all at least read the the 3 Case Studies which focus on opiate addiction and mental health issues, Scoliosis, Asthma, Autism, Aspergers, ADHD and Depression and severe mental health issues, alcohol abuse and long-term unemployment; these alone demonstrate the ‘type’ of individual the authors feel ought to be in Residential programmes, and then tell me this isn’t a case for a return to the Workhouse??

 

123 thoughts on “A Tory plan to reintroduce the Workhouse”

  2. I know many people with “mental health issues” who are just lazy and inadequate ! They have frequent stays on the short stay acute ward where I work and have never, will never, contribute anything to society if they can help it !! I fully support people with real mental health issues but there are many who are just playing the system and they need to be stopped !

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    • Thanks to the FEW who are playing the system and people like you who haven’t a clue, it’s the majority (genuinely sick/disabled) who are suffering, dying, used and abused and paying the price.

      There are no words strong enough to describe the coalition government and their treatment of the most vulnerable in our society and NO excuse!

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    • Those with serious and very real mental health issues have a hard enough time accessing acute secondary care and even basic primary care, yet alone, as you suggest just lazily filling up acute beds. Frequently, as I am sure you will know if you really work in the sector, someone might be sectioned, seen by an SHO then bounced straight back out to an already overloaded primary care system that is ill equipped to help them.

      The system is broken on so many levels. For many the cycle of sectioning, discharge and re-sectioning is not a joy ride holiday with free B&B but an absolute life wrecking nightmare that cannot be escaped.

      If you really work on a ward, I wonder if you are able to offer even the most basic of respect or compassion to those who you deem to not have “real mental health issues” ? The tone of your post suggests that some basic training in mental health ought to be a priority on your CPD plan.

      Your lack of humanity, ignorance and arrogance is shameful.

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      • Totally agree. I work full time but also provide care for my husband who suffers from depression and OTD. He has worked all of his life between episodes but now suffers deeper and more debilitating bouts of psychotic depression. His last was brought on by his ATOS assessment and his being declared fit to work (overturned on appeal). That woman is not fit to work with the mentally ill.

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      • I advocate and care for someone with serious mental illness and even when they are a clear and consistent danger to themselves it is difficult to get them a bed on a unit. As the cuts dig deeper the chances of getting a bed become slimmer. They’re not giving beds to seriously unwell people, I highly doubt they are giving them to people playing the system.

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    • I don’t know how on earth they’ve managed to even get into short stay acute wards, and I doubt your tall tale about people who are just lazy being there. Given my experiences in the mental health system, I haven’t even managed to get referrals or help when I have been at my most severe for months at a time! Basically I think you’re lying.

      All the evidence that i’ve witnessed for many years now indicates the exact opposite of what you’re saying, i’ve heard of people self harming because people like yourself didn’t listen to their legitimate worries, lack of referrals to CMHTs and therapy are serious issues. I can’t see that what you are saying is the truth from what i’ve witnessed, and the people I know and have known with mental illnesses.

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    • The Surgeon General of USA made comparisons between specific mental illnesses and physical disorders. Clinical Depression carries the same burden of disease as Paraplegia. Full blown mania or psychosis carry the same burden of disease as quadriplegia.

      The nurse who inflicts herself on the inpatients under her care seems to approach mental illness as being only emotional or moral. Heck! Half the world goes to work feeling miserable. Anyone can do that. However, what did me in was completely losing the ability to read and retain. That was the end of a long successful career as a manufacturing executive finally reaching the level of VP operations.

      If this is what the health care system in UK has come to I’m sure glad that I immigrated to Canada.

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    • According to government figures disability benefit fraud amounts to 0.8% of claimants. Which strongly suggests that 99.2% of disability benefit claimants are GENUINE, although the government and it’s obedient lapdog media will NEVER put it like this, they clearly prefer to sensationalise the levels of benefit fraud as horrific and shocking in order to influence public opinion. So far they have been quite successful turning the poor against the poorest which has allowed them to announce reform (cut) after reform (cut) with little resistance.

      Judging by your comment you have fallen for their propaganda hook line and sinker, well done Dave would be proud.

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    • Are you another Tory loving “Troll”? As the Acute wards of mental hospital are not (In my experience, as a patient there) a place for someone to take a “social holiday”…there isn’t enough beds to go round the people you identify as having “real” problems…let alone having “tourists” stay!). Seeing as you identify yourself as a mental health worker, perhaps you can identify where you work so I can refer your atittude to the establishments management….thanks if you do this!)

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      • she really has no insight to mental health . Talk to the mother,s father,s sister,s and brother,s they are the ones, who have the experience not a ward worker

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    • What a superficial, narrow minded world viewpoint you have. What do you ‘really’ know about any individual. You say they are lazy and inadequate and will never contribute to society….You don’t know the first thing of what goes on inside a person, or know why they are the way they are. You just see and form your own opinion, that’s all your doing. You just come across as another low empathy, judgmental person who is taking in with this evil governments propaganda that demonizes the unemployed.

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    • Oh my goodness – Pamela I think you have hit burnout (The loss of compassion for those you are contracted to care for) Please take a period of leave, have some counselling/ supervision and re-find the humanity that brought you into your profession.

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    • I can assure you i know of many who are meant to be able to work for a living and are in employment who are bigger skivers or whatever you want to call them than those that are sick,unemployed and disabled.and i don’t just mean politicians

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    • I know of many without mental health issues who are actually meant to be in employment and are about as much use as a chocolate fire guard and couldn’t work an iron lung,these are the kind of people the Government should be targeting as they are taking a working space up and have no intention of working either.Its amazing how this Government has targeted the sick disabled and unemployed and blamed them for everything,whereas politicians bankers and large companies who don’t pay tax or pay the minimum that they can get away with are the ones who should really be targeted and made to pay their way.I served 24yrs with the armed forces and 20 yrs with BT,now i am unable to work due to heart problems im seen as a skiver,scrounger and anything else this lot can throw at me.

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    • Please for the love of god and your patients please quite your job and never come near people with mental health issues in any official or unofficial capacity ever again.

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    • I have mental health problems & I need to use advocacy just to get CPN appointments, you have to fight to get any help as they are so overburdened & understaffed. In this climate of cuts & austerity I cannot see how anyone can have “frequent stays” in a mental health ward without being seriously ill. Perhaps you need to re-visit your training or try & learn a bit of empathy. Mental Health problems are often not visible outwardly but it doesn’t mean people aren’t going through hell internally.

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    • Get on your knees and thank God you’ve never suffered from any mental illness. I assume you don’t voice this opinion at work. Coward change your job I pity anyone you’re “looking after”

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    • If I knew where you worked Pamela I would happily report you for your insensitive public opinions about vulnerable patients. Your attitude is completely wrong for this sort of job and you should consider a career change.
      From a senior mental health nurse who thankfully doesn’t work with you.

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    • Pamela, what a load of bullshit. You should be ashamed of yourself. Frankly, if I could, I would sack you instantly for that lousy attitude towards the mentally ill. How you ever got to work as a nurse on the ward, I will never know, but from what I am reading, you are a piss poor nurse. You have no ethics, no morals, no scruples, compassion or empathy for those you say you look after.

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    • Quite why you work on a mental health unit is a mystery given you are such a b.tch. They are not playing the system. If you are really trained and work with mental health, then you would not be making such ignorant, scandalous comments. Please make your self redundant now. Do not work with vulnerable people. I wish I knew where you worked, because I would inform your employers of your comments. You would be sacked pretty quickly. That is what you deserve.

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  3. I, too, felt that chill wind as I read Johnny Void’s post. I also had visions of the Victorian workhouse. But more than this, Jane, it made me think about Stalin’s gulags and even Hitler’s concentration camps. I know the report is a swivel-eyed proposal and may yet not see much light of day but for me, it’s too late, for this is the mindset and intention of this administration, writ large – and it is terrifying.
    Great post, Jayne x

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  4. Actually Jayne, hope you don’t mind, but I just read it all through too and I disagree. The key here is SANCTIONS. If the government used it as a punishment, forcing people to leave their homes and stay away from them, I would agree.

    But the report makes it clear that they are specific courses, chosen by the individual that provide real skills (accountancy, joinery etc) and have a relatively high job outcome result. Crucially, the people attending the courses appreciate them and speak highly of them.

    They are extremely costly per successful job outcome – 35 – 75k per job! so NOT something I believe gov would consider as a matter of course. It appears that they are a last resort for people who want very much to work but have been unsuccessful using other methods.

    I worry at the segregated nature – after all, that was the reason they gave for closing Remploy factories, but the report does suggest including hard-to-help non-disabled people too which might deal with that.

    I disagree that this is anything like workhouses or something gov would use except in very specific situations – it’s just too expensive. If SANCTIONS were involved or the value of the courses were reduced I’d think again.

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      • When I was job hunting in 2007/8, I was conned into attending a job club, where I was assured I would get appropriate training, such as Excel, to bolster my already strong office admin background.

        When I actually started there, the only courses offered were adult literacy & numeracy, and ESL training. The computers blocked access to suitable job hunting websites such as The Guardian as they were “news sites” We were told to advertise on Gumtree, which I refused as I valued my personal safety.

        Work experience was shelf stacking in Tescos. One woman who was an experienced corporate receptionist was sent to do what she thought was reception work, only to find she was expected to spend all day handing out baskets at the same branch of Tescos.

        I suspect this will be more of the same, and worse, plus compulsory bricklaying to build the gulags.

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    • “Choosing” and “no sanctions” – in Tory Britain!?

      It will become compulsory pretty darn quick, if it isn’t from the beginning.
      This Tory Coalition is full of the kind of insane right-wingers that you would not trust to own a lorry and a can of pesticide.

      No good at all will come of this idea if implemented.

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    • But isn’t it suggested (or at least implied) that this system could be expanded, and opened up to private-sector franchising in order to achieve this? Then the lowering of value would be achieved and mandating would be, undoubtedly, close behind.

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    • I have a social/political problem with Charity shops happily accepting disabled people who are being forced to work for nothing. As this practice values a disabled persons efforts as worthless and on a lower-rung than child labor in global brand sweatshops in Indian and Pakistan and believe me Child Labor doesn’t attract a high wage…..but its still higher than these charities who claim to care about the disadvantaged people of the world are paying out which is a big fat – zero! Lets compare that to the wages they pay for professional fund-raisers?

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      • Hi Steven,

        I don’t see anything wrong with people volunteering short term, it gives people real world experience and should be a stepping stone onto paid employment. It’s when people have been volunteering for 10 years you begin to question why has nobody recommended they start applying for paid work. I don’t think anyone ‘forces’ people with disabilities to volunteer and for many it is an enjoyable, rewarding and valuable experience. I also don’t think that people value their work as ‘worthless’- I volunteered in a charity shop myself and felt extremely valued by the people there. They actually used the expression ‘volunteers are priceless not worthless’! I do agree with you to a point though people can take advantage of volunteers if they know they are vulnerable to persuasion and this does need to be taken into consideration.

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      • Hi everyone

        Firstly Thank you Jayne for highlighting this. Us ‘general public’ don’t hear of this stuff till it’s too late to fight it if it is wrong.

        Although this is a reply to Steven I think it is relevant to the post as a whole.

        There are some people with disabilities who for a myriad of reasons are not able to work either regularly or for enough hours to make them employable. For some an hour or two at a charity shop (or, in my case at the time, anywhere that would have me!) a week is an important for social interaction and as a result, better mental health. It was to stop me having any mental health problems that I started volunteering many years ago which for a period, led me to be able to do ‘permitted’ work. It enabled me to build up to doing 3 hours paid work and a couple of hours volunteering on top of when I was up to it. I felt valued and felt I was ‘giving back’ in return for receiving state benefits. I look back on that with pride and fondness.

        I know young disabled people who volunteer in charity shops. Their disabilities are different to mine and they would be able to earn a wage to live on but despite having A levels or equivalents in some cases no one will give them a chance, they tried other places, not just charity shops, to ask to volunteer but no one else would/ could offer them anything. They are simply filling their CVs while they wait for hopefully permanent employment, just like any other teen. I know of another lad with speech/ Language difficulties and mild learning disabilities who is on trial supporting adults with moderate- severe learning disabilities at a day centre. It’s going well and he will soon know if he will get a few hours paid work, the centre is only open a few hours a week but it’s a start. He was delighted to have his foot on the employment ladder and although his level of disability may make it hard to get work in a mainstream environment (something he does realise even though he doesn’t like it!) he is trying to do something (more on which later).

        I have read a lot of people who didn’t think much of Remploy… I’d like to again reiterate the fact that there are lots of disabled people that could manage a little work, but not enough to be able to come off benefits. Also, Remploy provided opportunities for people who find ‘normal’ (I say uneducated, inflexible and unwilling to learn) workplaces too difficult to cope with, for example, those with moderate learning disabilities, people on the autism spectrum and those with mental health problems. They did ( and some still this find this surprising!) employ “non disabled” people and (again, some are surprised by this) the workforce from what I have been told by former employees all mixed regardless.

        What few outside the disabled community can grasp is that it isn’t 0% or 100%, there are a LOT of sick/ disabled people who want to and can manage a couple of hours of ‘work’ a week, be it paid or voluntary but beyond that is too much of a toll on their health. The sad thing is that these privileged, Tory, rich boys have demonised us all and made people scared to try and do a little in fear of losing their benefits. Successive governments seem to think we can either work full time or not at all. They don’t understand (and nor do a lot of employers) that there are disabilities/ illnesses that mean you can work as productively as anyone else without any support and GUESS WHAT, they ARE working or actively seeking work (and, readers of certain newspapers may want to take note here, they are probably on DLA!). There are, sadly, a vast majority of a lot of us who want to work who just damn well can’t and we HATE it (again, take note certain tabloid readers and Tories)! Remember my young friend volunteering with people who have more severe disabilities than himself? He doesn’t HAVE to work, he WANTS to. I personally help run and coach at a disability sports club (not all disabled sports-people are “Superhuman”… not all sports involve getting sweaty or even moving about a great deal! Again, another point of ignorance amongst those in power), it’s on for 1 1/2 hours a week and I go when I am well enough. I am exhausted after and the next day. I can do paperwork on the computer every so often as I type so slowly and it gives me a headache (we are up to about 75 minutes now and my eyes are watering but I felt I needed to add my voice to this for many reasons) but I enjoy it, I feel I am giving to my community in a way that I can.

        There are so many just like me and similar to me or the people I have mentioned and I wish government and employers took notice. I am going to cut and paste this and send it to my local MPs from all parties. If one takes note I’ll be happy.

        Lastly I have been on residential to help me manage my disability. It was a little bit helpful but I was seriously ill afterwards and never fully recovered! The 17-22 people who were there the same time I was all had differing experiences from excellent to appalling. The people who ran it tried a ‘one size fits all’ and that didn’t work… Government take note

        (Footnote, with the odd addition and correcting the spellings from my dozy finger we are over the 90 minute mark, I MUST get voice recognition software!)

        Take care all the Sick, disabled and family carers out there x

        [Don’t let the B**tards get you down ;-)]

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      • Firstly Many Thanks for taking the time & energy to write this, it is much appreciated; your experiences summarise the situation of many of us.

        If you are willing I’d like to copy this and post as a guest blog?

        Again thank you

        J xx

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      • If charity is as as it means then the leaders fo the charity should work for free too but they don’t, Salvation army boss gets £150.000 a year and a nice office in the city of London while the slaves in his shops work for free. This reminds me of the colonials who used to preach Africans that if someone hit your right cheek give his your left one too just Jesus said but don’t complain while the real criminal disguised as Christians bomb, kill the poor and steal their money and slave them, If you want to be honoured you must pay what is due to the worker. what is wrong in paying people decent wages ????

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    • You are of course forgetting workfare was “voluntary” when introduced, Work experience was “voluntary” when introduced, charity work was “voluntary” until workfare came about.

      This scheme has the exact same wording and expected outcome as both the Nazi death camps and Soviet gulags. “Education and better inclusion in society”. Cost of these schemes has never been an issue for the Tories, proved by the billions, yes BILLIONS earmarked for workfare and other programmes for continued failure to deliver any improvement in unemployment.

      It is an ideological policy that will neither create jobs, offer good qualifications or integrate lazy, scumbag, skiving, murdering unemployed layabouts into wider society. ( all their opinions of the unemployed not mine)

      It will serve as a deterrent to anyone, and I mean ANYONE, who loses their job through any reason and decides to apply for ANY state benefits. The risk of being “imprisoned” and removed from your community and family will once and for all kill the welfare state without the Tories actually abolishing it outright. ( which they would do without hesitation if they thought they could get away with it)

      I also suggest that all these policies are passed on to family and friends who live abroad. People I know abroad have heard none of the current activity in this country due to the media “blackout”.

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    • If the intention is to provide “real training” that disabled ppl (or anyone else) would actually choose to do, what would be wrong in the gov’t paying for us to attend our local FE colleges and universities to take bona fide courses and apprenticiships with the rich folks (without loss of benefits or nonsensical restrictions on study hours)? This would avoid all segregation, involve qualifications recognised and sought by employers, and lead to a realistic prospect of actual paid work.

      Until Thatcher trashed it, the old Dept. of Employment used to operate a Community Programme (introduced by Labour and substantially subsidised by the Eurpean Social Fund iirc) which allowed long-term unemployed and disabled people to do exactly that. For those already qualified there were also REAL jobs at a fair rate of pay – tho usually part-time and on short-term contracts.

      There was no compulsion to join the CP – which was so popular amoung claimants it always had long waiting lists.

      If the gov’t (or Labour when they get in) were serious about helping the disabled and long-term unemployed, the CP would be reinstated.

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    • I’ve got insomnia (again – a symptom of my Schizo Affective Disorder.. and drinking coffee today doesn’t help) and, lying here wide awake, I’ve gotten around to thinking about the whole ‘Workfare Workhouse’ (Disabled Persons Residential Work Training) proposal again and it suddenly dawned on me .. the rationalle behind this despicable scheme goes along the lines of “Residential Training is intended to help unemployed adults with disabilities, particularly those at risk of exclusion from the job market, to secure and sustain employment or self employment”, yes?

      Then why are they so preoccupied with finding something for people to do having closed down Remploy? And why are they now talking about segregating these people, away from their home environment when one of the main tenets of closing down Remploy factories was the argument that integration is better?

      Remploy received £10million a year Governmental subsidy and worked well for the disabled people employed there.

      One has to wonder how much these (doubtless) privately ran (see Serco, Circle et al) residential centres will cost to run, let alone set up? A fuckton more than £10million per year, that’s a cert.

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  5. Actually- though admittedly I’ve mostly skimmed the report so far – though it does not appear to be mandatory, one only has to think about the sanctions aspect of workfare to wonder how long the scheme would be purely voluntary. After all, how else does a private company stay in business without the supply and demand loop. Also and conversely, this could end up with people applying in numbers that compare with the army uptake of the poor, lost and desperate that we hear of in the US. It’s unsettling…

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  7. Pingback: A Tory plan to reintroduce the Workhouse | Welf...

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  10. Great article Jayne.

    However, should it also include “LibDems” in the (Nasty) Tory heading? Nothing those Nasty Tories are doing could get through without the complicit support of their collaborators.

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  13. Aside from all the ‘workhouse’ connotations of this scheme, just exactly what would the participant DO with the skills they learn here? The problem is mass unemployment, due to a dearth of jobs – no use upskilling a workforce if they can’t then use those skills.

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  14. Not playing the one-upmanship game, but I forecast this a couple of years ago on my blog. Still surprises me that so many didn’t see it coming too.

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  15. The important thing to recognise, and which seems to have been missed by most respondents, is that the report is dealing with a handful of historical training organisations which have been around in exactly this form for decades and trying to decide if they still have a place in modern disability thinking, rather than being some new Tory scheme to stuff us all in camps. Now I’m personally surprised that the assessors think there’s still a role for them, as I think their model is largely outdated, but there’s at least one person on the assessment team who’s definitely one of us bolshie crips, so I’m going to trust her judgement.

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  16. I’m not usually one to rush to the support of the govt (especially on this topic!), but in this case, having attended one of these residential training colleges a few years ago, I’m afraid I have to. This is not a new scheme, but an assessment of an existing provision that has been available for years – I’d suggest having a look at Portland College in Notts which is one of the providers (they have a website). The benefits of having an onsite support network are hard to overstate – just the fact that the trainers *understand* the issues PWD face in training makes a massive difference. It was an extremely positive experience and I’d recommend it to anyone looking to up-skill. Is it a route to guaranteed work? Hell no, but it does help to reduce some of the barriers

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    • When a scheme is “voluntary” companies have to compete and offer a good level of service. This will include levels of accommodation and support. When a scheme becomes compulsory then the over-riding issue becomes one of profit.

      I am sure the poorhouse scheme in it’s time and in it’s infancy was meant to instill a similar “work ethic” into the unemployed. However we know as a matter of historical fact they rapidly became institutes of slavery and abuse. The over-riding issue again became one of using taxpayers money to “support the poor and ill” (anything sounding familiar) therefore the only way to keep costs down was to starve the inmates, sell off the children and keep the women as domestic slaves. This (again anything sounding familiar) was to discourage “able” people from seeking the “help” of the poorhouse.

      It seems that history does indeed just keep repeating.

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  18. Grayling has been pushing this idea since about 2005/2006. It has a great deal of support in Tory hard-right circles, mostly from the same Randian nutjobs (like Gove and IDS) who believe that creating wealth is the sole signifier of human worth.
    This country is sleepwalking into fascism, aided and abetted by the disgusting propaganda currently being produced by the BBC.
    It frightens me, it frightens me a great deal.

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  20. Follow the money. Lots of potential juicy contracts for those with corrupt relations to The Tory Party.

    Remember, £100k to £250k buys policy influence.

    Individual MPs are available for upwards of £1k a day.

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  21. That’s some even more depressing news for the depressed isn’t it? That You now will be required to give up your home if you can’t get a job, because you are ill with depression. It does remind me of concentration camps. Perhaps in time they may stick some gas chambers or ‘showers’ as an extension on the buildings, as a punishment for not attending the training. After all, there’s not much else they can use as a punishment for being unemployed left is there?

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  24. Good post, and very informative too. It has obviously stirred up the readers, and given rise to some interesting, and informative comments too.
    When we think, and write, from a left-wing viewpoint, we must also try to avoid romanticising everyone as innocents, and victims. Despite the majority of deserving cases, and many struggling on minimum wage, no-hours contracts (like my own 24 year old daughter), it is simply naive to dismiss the fact that there are many others playing the system, with no intention of ever working. Having worked in the NHS for 22 years, I think the vilified nurse did have a point to make; unfortunately, she chose an unacceptable style and phrase when she tried to do so.
    Of course the Tories will adopt these policies, they are Tories! Surely none of us opposing their ideas are surprised?
    We need blogs like this, campaigns, and public awareness to change things. The current Labour team offer no alternative for the future, so perhaps it is finally up to the people to make a difference.
    Great work Jayne. Regards, Pete.

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  25. Pingback: A Tory plan to reintroduce the Workhouse | Carole...

  27. Also note the last paragraph on page 14 of the Government report here:

    Click to access residential-training-provision-independent-report.pdf

    “In 2009/10, DWP supported around 840 people in residential training, a very small
    number compared to the 110,000 disabled people, identified by the Labour Force
    Survey (LFS), in Further Education. The training led to around 230 job outcomes, of which two thirds were sustained at six months, at a (then) cost of £18 million a year.
    These were the last publicly available figures in 2010/11. ”

    haha! Like that’s not going to cost billions then…I never was good at maths so someone correct me but completely unfeasable!

    it gets better:

    “More recent (unpublished) figures for 2011/12 show around 850 starts on RT, from a
    wide mix of age groups. These are taken from around 1100 referrals. From this, there
    were 317 job outcomes achieved at a cost of (approx) £49k per job”

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  28. And yet the governments excuse for shutting down the Remploy factories was that disabled people should be in the mainstream, that special provision like remploy was a form of segregation.

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  29. Just how much more evil is this government going to inflict on the masses before the masses inflict misery[ie:out of office]on these heartless,uncaring,evil excuses for human beings.Rise up ,robin hood,che guevara,even ed miliband,before its too late.

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  30. They are Tories,they don’t and never will understand the needs of the disabled.None of them have and never will experience hardship in any form except when it comes to not getting what they want (their suspicious claims for expenses).Unfortunately folks,What the Tories are implementing in their welfare reforms, originally were started by New Labour under the command of the biggest liar the country has ever had at the helm, Tony Bliar.Both of these parties need one helluva bloody nose at the next election folks and it is up to us the electorate to do just that.No one knows when or if they will be out of a job in the future and in need of help from the welfare budget.So YOU get what YOU vote for,be careful.

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  31. Pingback: Amnesty International has condemned the erosion of human rights of disabled people in UK | kittysjones

  32. WTF pamela greenwood, you really do need to take a long hard look in the mirror & get yourself another type of job preferably FAR AWAY FROM VULNERABLE PEOPLE. Who are you to judge, just glad that when I was really ill (MH problems) the people I had around me took care of me and eventually I did get better, got eventually well enough to be discharged from hospital and even better I then got a job as a Support Worker helping those with MH problems.

    Hope you never need any help re MH AND if you do , you get someone exactly like yourself to look after you.

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  33. There are only 9 training centres, none of which are in Scotland, Wales or Northern England, though there have been set up satellite centres in previously unoccupied areas.I wonder how long that will be the case once farmed out to A4e et al as a taxpayer funded money spinner for parasitic ‘businesses’ that only exist to fulfill governmental contracts. Still would like to know how they thought in their current incarnation they should only be available in the Southern and Eastern regions of the UK-Do not disabled people UK wide deserve access to training centres that claim to provide quality training that leads to employment? A bi polar friend went to St Loyes, loved it and came back a lot better than she went but it was suggested that as i’m diagnosed with ASD the changes involved would rule me out of attending, so rather strange to see Autism listed as one disorder suggested as being likely to be helped by this.
    I can see training quality drop as numbers increase.From what info I’ve seen the centres do not start with 1,000 students annually, with scant more than 50% completing training, so suspect by the time its been A4e’d and thousands are being put through the training mill it will be on par with the current DWP paid by results fiascos.

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  35. Thank you for sharing! I have been pondering the barriers of the disabled a bit more of late. I am an ‘able-bodied’ disabled by having a stage iv cancer diagnosis. We are encouraged, I think, to see ourselves as different, better perhaps. It is a very false divide that limits our collective voice. Anyway, I appreciate your efforts. And you can see the scapegoating of disabilities 2013 in the US illustrated potently below.
    warmly, marcy
    http://livinglydying.com/2013/08/09/scapegoating-of-the-disabled-2013/

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  36. Is this person for real.Obviously a Tory voter.Is she a specialist in Mental health problems that she can comment on.The Tory government propaganda is working.Pitting working classes against working classes.

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  37. I think everyone’s got the wrong end of the stick about the residential training.
    HOWEVER, god knows people can be forgiven for jumping to conclusions and assume the worst in the context of the rest of the mistreatment we’re enduring.

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  38. A well-written and informative article. May I add to Ian Harris’ post who wrote that the reason for the abolition of Union workhouses was due to WWII. While the title “workhouse” was abolished during 1929/30, such places remained in operation until 1948 while renamed as “public assistance institutions” until 1948. WWII did not, therefore, abolish workhouses. The last vestige of such institutions still exists in the requirement of each local authority, or parish council, to provide “paupers’ burials” for those without the means to cover funeral expenses. May I recommend http://www.workhouses.org.uk/ for those interested in studying this subject further.

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  39. Pingback: A Tory plan to reintroduce the Workhouse | Deaep Activist

  40. Nobody should ever have to work – free houses, big fat cheques, free holidays to the sun. Put your feet up, especially if you are unskilled because you wasted your free education. Even better if you have have physical or mental illness, never lift a finger again… free everything for you.

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