SICKNESS and Invalidity Benefit (IB) will be replaced with a new Incapacity Benefit in April 1995.
In Peter Lilley's words it will 'concentrate help on those genuinely unable to work' and will include a 'more objective test of whether people can work'.
Vince Gillespie from Regard (part of the British Council of Disabled Organisations) said, "This is an appalling attack on disabled people. They are not only making it harder to claim IB but are also proposing to tax it. This ignores the fact, which the government has always ig nored, that living with a disability is expensive.
'Many people with disabilities have particular needs related to diet and living arrangements which impose an additional strain on their inCOme •We are being told all the time that the government can't ask people earning f25 - 30,000 to pay more tax but they can do this to those on benefit.' These changes are yet another attack on one of the poorest sections of society. Poor because of the low level of benefit but also because many disabled people could work but employers won't give them jobs.
"The government keeps disabled people poor by condoning discrimination and then attacks them for being on benefits.
'We have already seen this sort of assessment procedure used for the Disability Living Allowance. It will particularly impact on those with crisis illnesses such as sickle cell, ME and mental health problems.
'I know someone with sickle INSIDER DEALER considers the lessons of the Roger Levitt case, and concludes that white collar crime is wonderful. IT MUST BE GREAT being a financial advisor. You now have a legal licence to rip off whoever you like for as much as you can get away with, with no chance whatsoever of doing time if you are stupid enough to get caught.
Take the case of Roger Levitt, a man who built one of the most successful financial services outfits of the eighties. With typical modesty he named it after himself - Levitt Group. Big names, including Commercial Union, Legal and General and General Accident, rushed to do business.
Directors of Levitt subsidiaries included Seb Coe, the Olympic 1500-metre champion turned Tory MP, and Adam Faith, the clapped-out pop star. As glorified sales reps, their lavishly rewarded role was to convince gormless fellow celebs to stump up streams of readies on the promise of sure-fire massive returns.
Maggie ruled OK and nothing was too good for the financial-advising classes. Roger went everywhere in a chauffeur driven Bentley, and propped up Castro by spending £900-a-month on Cuban cigars.
The company even sponsored Lennox Lewis, the world heavyweight boxing champion. Mind you, some of the money was wasted. Levitt had an executive box at Arsenal. •. cell who was admitted to hospital 14 times in six months but was denied the allowance because she was not in crisis when she went before the assessment panel.
"The same sort of treatment will now be meted out to people claiming the new benefit.' The attack on disabled people not only comes from the new benefit rules but also from the massive cuts expected in local Local authorities are already ...another for the rich!
When the Lawson boom became the Lawson bust, clever Roger kept the show on the road by conning t22m out of the rich and famous. Some £1m came from his own Dad, and £900,000 from Frederick "Day of the Jackal' Forsyth, supposedly one of his best to disguise losses of £13m. collapsed in December 1990 clays Bank, Midland Bank and for 26m between them. by the Serious Fraud Office ity, a two-part trial, was heard heard at the second trial, and first trial. Panicking, the SFO offered a plea-bargain. Some 21 charges against Levitt and Mark Reed, the group's managing director, were dropped. These included obtaining property and services by deception, forgery, false accounting and making misleading statements.
In exchange, the two men pleaded guilty to a single charge of fraudulently misleading the Financial Intermediaries, Managers and Brokers Regulating Association, supposedly the City 'selfregulatory' body that sees the small investor OK.
Fimbra is a standing joke in good wine bars everywhere. So disinterested is the indusRip-off merchant Clarke struggling to implement Care in the Community and with further closures of day centres and reductions in social services disabled people will be forced into further isolation and dependence solely on totally inadequate benefits. try it is supposed to regulate that Fimbra has an uphill struggle to generate the membership income it needs to finance itself.
Reed's defence was a cracker, by the way. So he was managing director of this here vast financial empire, he admitted, but he didn't really understand anything and confined himself to writing mundane memos, forbidding Faith to but expensive office blinds and ticking off Coe for failing to pay a parking ticket.
Mr Justice Laws came down heavy on the miscreants. The maximum penalty available was seven years imprisonment. But after taking the two men's loss of reputations and fortunes into acI will do whatever is required of me. With a strong heart, I will endeavour to do my best and show my decency to society. I shall enjoy helping the youth of the country. Alright, alright, we get the picture. No need to overdo it, my son.
Merry Christmas to you miserable paupers everywhere. I look forward to putting your working class noses out of joint throughout 1994.