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allowance, benefit, benefits, committee, death, die, disability, disabled, Dr, employment, ESA, fatality, health, House of Commons, Incapacity Benefit, letter, Malcolm Harrington, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, Mo Stewart, Paul Litchfield, Pensions, people, politics, Prof, sick, social security, support, unum, Vox Political, WCA, welfare, work, work capability assessment
Dr Paul Litchfield.
Ignorance is most definitely not bliss for Dr Paul Litchfield.
The man was hand-picked by the Coalition government to review its hated Work Capability Assessment system of handling Employment and Support Allowance claims, amid rumours that previous incumbent Professor Malcolm Harrington had been unhappy with political decisions that ran against his findings. But he delivered a woeful performance to the House of Commons’ Work and Pensions committee last month.
He claimed to have no information about the staggering number of people who have died after going through the assessment system he is being paid to review, totalling 10,600 between January and November 2011 – that’s 220 per week or three every four hours. “I don’t have any information of that type; I haven’t seen numbers on that. Clearly every case would be a tragedy,” he said.
Clearly this expert has yet to gain access to some very important information!
Fortunately, help is at hand.
In advance of the fifth and final review of the WCA, lead researcher and disabled veteran Mo Stewart has written to offer him the benefit of four years’ detailed research evidence.
“The lacklustre 4th review of the WCA left a great deal to be desired,” she told Vox Political. “Now, with the news that Litchfield worked with Unum Insurance on the Technical and Consultative Working Group involved with the creation of the WCA, it can’t be too much of a surprise that Litchfield claims that the WCA had been designed ‘…with considerable rigour’.”
Mo Stewart’s lengthy letter to Litchfield has been distributed to a long list of distinguished experts and professionals, and it will be interesting to see if Dr Litchfield takes the time to respond and to react to the detailed research evidence Mo exposed – evidence that has been frequently quoted during welfare debates in the House of Lords and the House of Commons over the past three years.
You can read her letter for yourself, because Mo has sent Vox Political a copy. Just click on the link here.
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Is it possible to send the letter to the people who’ll be questioning him? After all, he will definitely pretend not to have received it, and certainly won’t read it.
Many people were copied into the letter Steve, including the W&P Select Committee who did question him.
Well done, Mo X
Thanks John… you’ll get a copy of the letter for BT very soon X
The people who questioned him have a personal copy and he can’t claim not to have read it as his PA gave him a copy of the letter into his hands… I’ll get back to Vox Political if I get a reaction or a reply.
I’m glad I found this today, as I’ll now be able to add it to the evidence which I intend to lodge at a Second Tier Tribunal Appeal whenever they get around to organizing it. So thanks for that Mo, and I’ll also send my MP a copy of your letter now too, and trust that he will read it, as he’s a Member of the Cabinet. Although he doesn’t care about anyone’s rights.
Have you any opinions on these campaigns for me please http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/bill-of-rights and a new shorter link to another for the UN at http://goo.gl/rS4HKp
he wont read that for legal reasons. well done mo he can still be charged with a legal redress at some point thou guilty by association as it could be argued he does know the facts and has kept quite
for me personally he must have known of the deaths as everyone else does in the know. if he is saying i don’t know then what the hell is he doing in this type of job
phew is he is backward or what or like most of his type just playing the fools advocate
i cant see any judge letting him off the hook with i don’t know attitude
well he can see this list for starters ?
https://www.facebook.com/ribbonsforwelfare?hc_location=stream
Assuming he’s not a lot different to Harrington, I’m expecting a personal reply. Harrington and I exchanged several letters.
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Corporate manslaughter? How do these evil BSTARDS get away time and time again?
I guess it’s because the Government makes the law, so they’re never going to pass one that could be used against them.
Thank you for your frank and forthright view on this Mo. Let’s hope he has the werewithal and courage to agree with what you have honestly and factually written.
Pingback: Educating Dr Litchfield - a few facts about the Work Capability Assessment
its like blind mans buff isntit with a brain b etter than I yet figures it seems that rtu ids is playing that game again but mo has the figures well lets see if the brainey doctor gets read mores report more truth there than they the house of ill repute could muster jeff3
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
Sorry, bit off-topic. But check out 38 degrees petition on zero hours.
Sign the petition now to tell Vince Cable his plans don’t go far enough to protect people working on zero hours contracts:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/zerohours
Sincere thanks to Mo Stewart for such efforts I think many owe a great deal of thanks for the efforts Mo has made on behalf of many disadvantaged people.
XX Mo
I agree; and wonder if anyone knows how to nominate her for a Nobel Prize for Defending Human Rights, assuming there is one?
Thanks guys. However, I have been doing this research now for just over 4 years so that letter wasn’t too difficult to compose 🙂
Please don’t waste your BP on getting angry – get even…
A lot of people in the HOC and the HOL know my work and they don’t tend to avoid me now…
Remember the words of Mandela – ‘never underestimate the power of persistance’
Well I’ve been trying to persist in demanding my Human Rights for nearly a decade now and have been ignored. So that’s why I started this petition last April, http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/bill-of-rights. But even that isn’t going too well as it’s had less than 500 votes since then and I’m losing any faith in humanity and the so called people power of the ‘global network’.
This other one which I started http://goo.gl/rS4HKp in January has also not been swamped with support and the last signature was a week ago. It seems that barely one in only 1 in 120 million people in the world actually care about Human Rights.
Reblogged this on Still Oaks and commented:
Thank you Mo.
Thanks Mr Angry; that’s very nice of you x
Reblogged this on amnesiaclinic and commented:
Please read Mo Stewart’s excellent letter and then get your MP on side. WCA is not fit for purpose and has to go – NOW! NO more deaths.
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