Would have been nice for him to have said this before he lost his power. Stephen Crabb, the born again Christian that likes to sext people that are not his wife.
A former Cabinet minister who was responsible for a controversial disability benefit test has admitted it is “traumatic” for applicants.
Stephen Crabb, who was sacked as Work and Pensions Secretary in July, said the Government needed to “fix” the assessment process for Personal Independence Payments (PIPs).
In a TV interview, the former Conservative leadership contender said there had to be system of benefit tests “when you’re giving out taxpayers’ money”.
But he added: “The way it has been done - I see this in my surgeries, every single MP in their surgery sees this - people who felt that the assessment procedure has been traumatic, intrusive, hasn’t been a comfortable experience at all. And that’s what we’ve got to fix.
The first priority of any government is security, right? Next year, we’ll probably be downgraded to “harsh language” (props to Aliens).
Royal Navy warships will be left without anti-ship missiles and be forced to rely on naval guns because of cost-cutting, the Ministry of Defence has admitted.
The Navy’s Harpoon missiles will retire from the fleet’s frigates and destroyers in 2018 without a replacement, while there will also be a two year gap without helicopter-launched anti-shipping missiles.
Naval sources said the decision was “like Nelson deciding to get rid of his cannons and go back to muskets” and one senior former officer said warships would “no longer be able to go toe-to-toe with the Chinese or Russians”.
Failing on prisons too. Inmates going without food or prescribed medication due to a walk out after health and safety fears.
Prisoners at HMP Liverpool today claimed they had not been fed or received prescribed medication since Monday afternoon after prison officers staged a walk-out over health and safety fears.
Both the Prison Officers Association and the Ministry of Justice - responsible for the prison system - have denied the claims.
Using illegally-obtained mobile phones, a number of prisoners spoke to the ECHO from their cells to complain about the conditions they say they have been left in.
The Department for Work and Pensions is considering forcing all sick and disabled people on out-of-work disability benefits to take part in “mandatory” activity, its new green paper has revealed.
The suggestion of compulsory activity is revealed in a single line of the 92-page work, health and disability green paper, published this week.
Such a change would mean that all people on out-of-work disability benefits – even those who are terminally-ill or have the very highest support needs – would have to stay in regular touch with their local jobcentre or risk having their benefits sanctioned.
Working majority of sixteen. Actual majority of twelve. Up to 31 seats may need to be re-fought.
The volume of news stories this week involving Nigel Farage has prompted Heat Street to revisit some unfinished business concerning the interim UKIP leader and an ongoing police inquiry.
It may have slipped some people’s minds, but the Conservative Party remains under investigation because of its 2015 general election expenses, as David Cameron had to acknowledge in June.
Now a legal source has suggested to us that there will shortly be some “movement” in the case.
If any wrongdoing is proven, some or all of the estimated 31 affected seats fought in May 2015 will have to be contested again.
So this electoral ‘fraud’ is due to the fact that they spent money on a hotel? Really? I thought they’d been doing something bad like tampering with ballots etc.
But if it has broken the rules it should probably be re-contested. Especially now Corbyn is in charge of Labour, the death of UKIP and the way the world (and this country post Brexit) is leaning to the right.
The government have given a nice big private contract to a firm to chase after people it reckons have been overpaid on tax credits.
For most claimants, the first indication that anything was amiss was when they checked their bank accounts and discovered their tax credits were missing. Others received a letter from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) informing them their tax credits had been overpaid, often by thousands of pounds. Some claimants also received a second letter from a company calledConcentrix, informing them they failed to comply with an investigation into their tax credit claim, and thus were no longer entitled to the benefit. No further information was supplied.
Previously administered by HMRC, since 2014 the American Concentrix – a subsidy of Fortune 500 company,Synnex – was employed to assist with tax credit fraud investigations. The three year £75million pound ‘payment by results’ contract was part of the departments’ drive to cut its operating costs, with projected savings of £285million in 2014/15. Due to shambolic delays at the beginning of the contract (anIT failure left Concentrix staff unable to do any work for three months) theNational Audit Officereported the benefits of the contract had been ‘lower than anticipated’. HMRC reported savings of just £2.3million in 2014/15, less than 1% of what was expected.
In 2015/16 however, Concentrix did a lot better, deliveringprojected savings of £122.3million, and £159million estimated for 2016/17. This vast increase is tied to a sharp rise in the number of tax credit claims found to have been overpaid, either through fraud or error. In April, Concentrix received 1.5million records from HMRC in which there was believed to be a risk of fraud. From these records, Concentrix (and their ‘third party analytic providers’) identified 324,000 cases where they believed overpayment had occurred. Philip Cassidy, Senior Vice President of Concentrix, described the process to theWork and Pensions Select Committee;
The thing is, it’s very easy to lie for a vote that is a “one-off”. If the Tories said at the next election that the poor would get loads of free money, and then reneged, then they’d increase their vote. However, many of the new voters wouldn’t vote that way 4 years later.
With Brexit, it’s a one off vote. All they had to do was prey on the stupid and bigotted, and they’d get the vote, and unfortunately that’s what happened. If the vote took place again, the result would be very, very different.
As with all the best plans, I’ve got multiple objectives in mind.
The first is merely to highlight their ongoing and consistent incompetence. The second is to validate my theory that Tory voters will attempt _anything _to cast doubt on something instead of address it.
Paying more for Austerity: Not defended, as it seems to be a fact. Commented that you seem to be happy with people having less money in their pocket as you voted for Brexit knowing that would happen.
Brexit Plan: Defended.
MOD: Not defended, asked if you thought it was an issue as you support Corbyn doing similar.
Stephen Crabb: Not defended.
Prisons: Not defended.
Election Fraud: Defended, kind of. Don’t see why it’s such a big issue, but happy to have re-vote if against the rules.
Concentrix: Not defended.
So we’re talking a 29% success rate on Tories attempting anything to cast doubt on a story. If that’s the kind of success rate you look for in life, your developments must be SHHHIIIITTTTT.
The list dates to 2011 but was only released in July - after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) launched an astonishing four-year legal battle to hide it.
Official claimed releasing the information would hurt “commercial interests” - but eventually lost in the Court of Appeal.
Now Mirror Online has confirmed the whole saga cost more than £100,000.
There was a Tory bird on the GMTV or whatever it’s called now this morning when I was having my shit. She was a blonde bird. She had long hair, but done it like a side parting. It looked a bit strange. She was talking about prisons and things, and also whiplash, and that soppy bro and the sour faced cow who present GMTV, or whatever it’s called, was attacking her like they thought they was on newsnight or something. Honestly, the soppy presenter bro thought he was Paxman or something. Answer the Question, answer the fucking Question! And now, here is a cat in Scunthorpe that got it’s head stuck in a jamjar.
