Who voted for this

In this episode, I talk to renowned benefits journalist Chaminda Jayanetti. We talk about this Labour government's attempt to make cuts to the personal independence payment disability support benefit last year.In particular, we talk about the fact that the government didn't realise who the cuts would hit. Government happily imagined that the people affected would be people with mental health and autism conditions - you know, the so-called snowflakes that politics loves to hate. Actually, it was people with conditions like inflammatory arthritis and serious heart compromise who were in the firing line. On the back of that circus, minister for social security and disability Stephen Timms is conducting a nationwide consultation on the future of PIP as we speak. Wonder if he'll come up with anything sensible. We also talk about the mediafying and gentrification of mental health. Media luvvie-chat about mental health doesn't really reflect the reality of the sort of mental health problems you need to claim PIP. --------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

Today, we hear from Homerton Hospital paediatric doctor Hannah Caller.Hannah goes through the reasons why she made a safeguarding referral about the threat that Hackney council poses to an 8 year old disabled and autistic boy who Hackney council is trying to evict from his council home with his family.And what was the first thing that the council's social services team did when they received the referral? They closed it down. Safeguarding referrals are important. Doctors and other professionals make them when they feel that a child is at serious risk. In this case, the boy is at serious risk of harm from the housing department at his own council. The council's social services department has a legal duty to investigate these referrals. Can't imagine why.I've been covering the boy's story in the last few episodes. More soon.  ----------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

We return to Hackney council and our ongoing story about the council's attempts to evict a disabled and autistic boy and his family from their council home.The council tried again on Friday just gone, but fortunately, a court saw sense and suspended the bailiff's eviction warrant for 8 weeks because of the risk to the boy's health. In the meantime, the council has come up with a gross idea to test the boy's behaviour on public transport.The council's proposal is to stick this boy and his family in temporary housing 10k away from the school where he is settled. He'll have to get public transport to this school. His school is just across the road from his present council home. The boy's teachers and medical supporters all say that the boy can't cope with public transport and has bad meltdowns on it. The council doesn't seem to believe them. It is proposing that an assessor of some sort takes the boy on public transport to get "direct observational evidence" of what happens. In other words, the council wants to put the boy in an environment that he can't cope with to record him not coping with it. Is this actual abuse?  --------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

Oh yes. Labour's very own Hackney council will evict a disabled and autistic 8 year old boy and his family from their council home this Friday, March 6 at 10am. Bailiffs will evict the family.The council does not have to evict this family. It is just a tenancy issue and the council could choose to grant the family a secure tenancy. The council simply refuses to. Instead, it is sending the bailiffs to evict the family on Friday, at which point the boy and his family will be chucked into temporary housing miles from the boy's school where he is settled with 1-2-1 support. The boy won't be able to cope with the stress and he can't cope with public transport. The council has been sent pages of medical and school evidence which makes this very clear. This, my friends, is a classic example of reasons why so-called progressives cannot bear the Labour party. Let us note that the Hackney Greens have supported the family, while Labour wants to crush the family. I am not a supporter of political parties of any stripe, but even I can see that. Here's hoping voters in the upcoming local elections in Hackney put a very big boot in.  --------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, we hear about the ways that councils can drive people in housing need to the brink.This episode is the 4th about a family with a disabled and autistic 8 year old boy. Hackney council is trying to evict this family - with bailiffs - from their council home of 18 years. The boy's paediatric doctor is so concerned about the threat this eviction poses to the little boy's health that she's making a safeguarding referral - ie she feels that the boy needs protecting from the council.Meanwhile Kyla, the boy's mother, says she is feeling suicidal because the council won't stop calling and emailing to tell her to get out of her home of 18 years and to move her family into temporary housing. Her daughter talks about her mother's deteriorating mental health in this episode. Harassment by bureaucracy, innit. Councils and the DWP are masters of it. --------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

We return to our Hackney eviction story - where Hackney council tried last week to evict an 8 year old autistic and disabled boy and his family from their council home.Bailiffs turned up to evict the family on Tuesday. Fortunately, the London Renters' Union, other supporters and neighbours saw the bailiffs off. Was a good day in that sense, but the council says it'll be back. In this episode, we hear from the boy's 18 year old sister. She lives with her mother, Kyla, and her disabled brother. She's a student and a carer for her brother. She dresses him, makes his food, and takes him out for walks and to the park. She talks about her brother, her mother and the council's pursuit of them. Councils should not be making disabled children homeless. --------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

What a title that was to write. This episode tells you exactly what it is like to try and stop a family from being evicted by bailiffs. This is a family that is being evicted by their own council - so, that's a council actively making a family homeless and threatening them with dreadful temporary housing.The eviction is tomorrow, unless the council and/or the courts agree to call off the bailiffs. What a world we're in.--------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, we speak with Kyla who will be evicted from her Hackney council home by bailiffs next week.Kyla has an 8-year-old autistic and disabled son. She's lived in the council place for about 18 years. As you'll hear in this episode, Kyla hasn't "done" anything terrible or even anything terribly wrong... but it's a cold world we're in. She will be evicted unless the bailiff's warrant is suspended. At best, Kyla and her family will end up in a dreadful temp housing hovel somewhere. It'll break her son's much-needed routine and probably his mind as that is how it usually goes with autistic kids. He's always lived in this place and gone to the same school where he has 1-2-1 support. Kids with autism do not cope at all well with change.The council really could let them stay. It really could.------------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

Don't think so. Mel claims the personal independence payment for mental health problems.In this episode, she explains how she got there and how one ongoing event in particular pushed her over the brink. I'm a taxpayer and I'm more than happy for PIP to be awarded to people with mental health conditions. God knows we live in an era that seems designed to drive us all up the wall. ------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

Last episode for this year!In this episode, we travel across our rising millennium seas to the home nation of New Zealand! We're having a starter look at the ways that NZ's useless government is trying to crush benefit claimants. The aim here is to start painting a picture of the way that governments are targeting vulnerable benefit claimants across the glorious West as it putrefies. We hear from longtime benefits advocate Kay Brereton about Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's government - and its nasty sanctions regime and limiting claimants' spending to money management cards, et cetera. Every Western government is pushing nationalism, but they're wonderfully united when it comes to favourite targets - immigrants and benefit claimants. See you in 2026 :) All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UncleSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, we take another look at the benefits and public sector system. It is a total circus. I talk with Michelle Cardno who is a benefits lawyer at Fightback for Justice in Bury. Michelle tells an interesting story about the DWP scanning people's medical evidence the wrong way up, so that a tribunal judge at appeal only had blank pages to look at. She also talks about the way that the DWP randomly allocates PIP. There's also a covert recording from a meeting between a social worker and a homeless woman where the social worker reads from the wrong file entirely - it's another family's file altogether. The point to all of this: getting benefit money and keeping it is not as straightforward as DWP head Pat McFadden would have the world believe. He wants to put jobcentre staff into GP surgeries to get sick and disabled people into work. Problem is, you can't rely on the benefits system to get people's needs and stories right. Public sector systems have been decimated by years of cuts. McFadden needs to look at that and make that work before he gets into his other big ideas. ----------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, we look at another extraordinary email that a professional has leaked to me. This one shows a Hackney council officer telling an education officer to stop writing support letters for families who need to be moved out of terrible housing. This officer works with autistic and special educational needs children who live in rotten housing. Their families need these support letters to tell their councils why they must be rehoused. Some of these letters and reports say that children are at high risk of death in their current housing. We talk to a parent who has one of those letters. We also talk about newly-minted secretary of state for the department of work and pensions Pat McFadden. Specifically, we talk about the lies Pat McFadden is telling about people being able to declare themselves longterm sick to claim benefits. Rot, Pat. Pat McFadden needs to listen to Latoya in this episode, who talks about working 3 minimum wage jobs and still needing to claim universal credit to stay afloat.  ---------------------Episode artwork is by Latoya's son.Music © Concrete UncleSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, we look at an extraordinary email that a senior health professional just sent to me.The email says that a Hackney council officer met with health and medical staff, and told them to stop writing supporting letters for families who need to be moved out of terrible housing - that's families with disabled children.The email was circulated to this senior health professional in their NHS workplace. That person was writing a supporting letter for a family with a disabled child. Families want these letters to give to the council, because the letters are evidence that a child's health issues and disabilities are made worse by their awful housing. The letters are evidence that the family should be moved. But this email tells NHS staff to stop writing them. The email says that families can find a place to rent in the private sector in one month. That is untrue, to say the least.The email also says that the council has a robust system in place "to identify need and allocate housing."That's rubbish as well. There are families in this podcast who have letters and reports which say that their disabled children are at risk of DEATH in their current housing - but they still haven't been moved.In this episode, I share a few theories on why that is - and why a council might want to shut medical staff up on the topic of potential council failures to keep disabled children safe. ------------Episode artwork is by Latoya's son.Music © Concrete UncleSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, Niki tells us how the DWP closed her universal credit claim without any warning at all. They just shut it and that was that. Niki has a 7 year old SEND son who also has autism.Niki and I called the universal credit helpline to ask what was going on. I recorded that call. Universal credit kept saying that Niki would have to wait for the DWP to carry out a mandatory reconsideration to get her claim back. An MR, as you probably know too well, means the DWP looks again at a decision it has made, like closing a universal credit claim without warning. On the phone, universal credit kept telling Niki to keep checking her online universal credit journal to see how the MR was coming along. But Niki can't get into her journal, because her claim has been closed. Still, universal credit kept saying that Niki should check the progress of her mandatory reconsideration by looking at her journal. This went round and round and round until universal credit hung up on us. Great. You know how Liz Kendall, the now-ex secretary of the DWP, has spent most of this year saying that disabled people and their families would be fine and get specially tailored support even as she cut benefits?This is how this so-called tailored support works. Brilliant, innit.--------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UncleEpisode artwork: by Niki's sonSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, we look at Liz Kendall's proposed so-called Pathways to Work programme. Liz Kendall plans to spend £1bn to bring councils, jobcentres, voluntary groups and private back to work companies together to Get Britain Working. This means sick and disabled people and people with mental health issues will be targeted for back to work programmes.It's the gig economy for you, my friends. Of course - the better idea would be for Kendall to raise the living and minimum wages to £20+ an hour. Earning enough to live on would make a lot of people feel a lot less depressed.Labour could also make Amazon and co pay the kind of tax that could be spent on making all workplaces fully accessible, but what would I know. Let's take a look at this Pathways to Work idea. Let's also take a look at how these ideas have tanked in the recent past.---------------------This is the last episode for Season 2. The podcast will return in September 2025.All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © katebelgrave.comSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, Megi talks about: the effects that caring for a profoundly disabled autistic child has on mental healthhow difficult it is to get and live on benefits and how that destroys mental health Liz Kendall and inglorious Prime Minister Keir Starmer never talk about these things, of course. Their line inevitably is that anyone who claims benefits needs a boot up the arse, and to get work and all the rest of it.Actually, the facts are that people in Megi's situation very much enjoy working. Unfortunately, people have to leave work because their kids can't be left unsupervised for a second and never sleep. Affordable, specialised and trustworthy care is extremely hard to get. And people have to spend any spare time that they find trying to navigate the extremely unnavigable benefits system to get tiny allowances like carer's allowance. No wonder applications for PIP on mental health grounds are up.Labour needs to put this sort of story front and centre of its witterings about benefits. Let's talk about the way things really are.All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © katebelgrave.comSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, we return to deeply unpleasant DWP secretary of state Liz Kendall and her plans to cut disability benefits. Liz Kendall claims that disabled people who are most in need (whatever that means) will be protected from her cuts to their support money. This claim is garbage. I'm calling it. That is because Liz Kendall has a famously poor record when it comes to fighting for support money for disabled people. Most memorable recent example: Kendall was on the Labour shadow front bench when the Tories went after the Independent Living Fund, which was money used by profoundly disabled people to pay for extra care support. Those were people who required round the clock care. Did Liz take up their cause? She did not. Well - she took up their cause a tiny little bit when she was running for the Labour leadership and decided that she might need support from disabled people. Not even better late than never there, Liz.------------------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto: Sophie Partridge and Mary Laver © Katebelgrave.comSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, we take a look at: Political attacks on sick and disabled people in the last 10 yearsClaims that benefit money is easy to get when it is categorically notLiz Kendall's stunning lack of imagination for devising welfare policy that brings out the best in us, rather than the absolute worseHow anti-benefit claimant rhetoric runs so deep that people who are meant to help sick and disabled people claim benefits believe it. Not very long ago, I interviewed a frontline universal credit staff member who actually said that homeless people and people who claimed benefits needed to look lively and model themselves on Elon Musk.True story. I'd be interested to know what you think of him when you hear that bit.More to come. All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: © photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

Labour minister Liz Kendall is secretary of state for the department of work and pensions. Liz is not an original thinker. Like all her Tory predecessors, Liz wants to cut benefit and support money for sick and disabled people. In this season, we're going take at look at Liz's implication that sick and disabled people are lazy, feckless and just need tipping out of their wheelchairs and into the amazing world of work. Because Liz is very wrong about that, as we'll see. We'll be hearing from disabled people who know.We'll be return to autism, disability and housing in season 3.-----------------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

Anna tells her story in this episode.It's the story of how Anna, her partner and their 2 sons had to leave their council flat because their neighbour, who likes to wield a knife, was threatening to kill the children. The tyres on Anna's car were slashed. The abuse and aggression escalated as time went on.Anna asked Hackney council for help for a move to a like-for-like council place. This is what is supposed to happen when people are in serious danger, but - yeah. If only. Anna explains what happens when there's a housing crisis and you have to try to find another place to live, because you might be stabbed at your current address. She talks about trying to get help from the council, which more or less became a bigger problem than the neighbour. This is a part of the housing crisis that perhaps doesn't get the coverage it should - ie, that it's not at all easy for people who are dealing with violence and abuse to leave. People can't afford to rent somewhere else. Councils are meant to help you find a safer place, but they're not too good at it. -----------------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, Megi talks about Hackney council forwarding another family's very personal information to her husband's email address. Megi has an autistic daughter. She talked about the family's housing problems in episode 5.The information that the council accidentally forwarded to Megi's husband contained very sensitive details about another family entirely.It had their names and contact details, children's names, bank details and details of abuse and fostering. Why do these very serious data breaches keep happening? Why are people who claim benefits or who need council help with housing made to put up with negligent security of their personal data?-----------------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

In this episode, we return to Latoya. Latoya was featured in the first episode of this podcast. She has an incredibly active 7-year-old autistic son who runs, climbs to incredible heights, barely sleeps and just about never stops. Latoya also has a 4-year-old daughter who is also very likely autistic. She has just been referred for assessment. She is also very active and copies her brother. The family lives in a second-floor council flat, which the boy (and possibly the girl, as time goes on) is going to fall from, sooner or later. For years, Latoya has been begging Hackney council to move the family to a ground floor place that has a bit of a backyard. The boy can't fall from the ground floor, obviously. And if the place has a backyard - even a small one - Latoya can put a small trampoline there for her son to jump on for hours. If he does that, he sleeps and then she can sleep. At the moment, she gets a couple of hours sleep a night, if she's lucky, before she gets up at about 5am to go to the first of her cleaning jobs. WHY won't Hackney council move on this? Why won't Labour tax, tax and then tax major corporations to pay for the social housing people need? The hell with their election promises. Life, and certainly early deaths, matters more. --------------------------------------------Music credit: all music in this podcast is by © Concrete UncleEpisode artwork is by Latoya's autistic son. Send us Fan Mail

In this interlude episode, I ring (and record) letting agents to ask if they accept people who pay rent with benefits like universal credit.You'll hear what the letting agents say.It is actually unlawful for letting agents to say No to people who claim benefits, but that doesn't stop them keeping benefit claimants out, as you'll hear. Most letting agents are smart enough to sound very welcoming and to say that of course you can register with them, but then they say - we don't have any landlords on our books who take benefit claimants as tenants. So - that's really a No, isn't it.Meanwhile, councils insist that people who are desperate for housing and who are on low incomes call letting agents and private landlords to try and find a place to rent. What is the point of that, we ask.---------------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UnclePhoto credit: photos.snapsthoughts.netSend us Fan Mail

Megi has an 8 year old daughter with autism. Megi talks about her daughter and the family's housing issues in this episode. She also takes us on a rollercoaster ride (some cracking downhill bits) through the 5 years that she's spent getting absolutely nowhere in her attempts to get her family rehoused.Megi's daughter is non verbal, not toilet trained and very active and strong. She generally only sleeps for an hour or two a night. She also has serious meltdowns. Their family of 3 lives in a one bedroom flat on the 5th floor of a council block. The girl is at serious risk of a fatal fall from the 5th floor. She can break locks and even windows, so needs 24/7 supervision. Also, the flat is far too small. Megi sleeps on the floor. The family has been begging Hackney council to move them to a ground floor or first floor place as a matter of haste. "Are you waiting for the worse to happen before you do something?” one exasperated health visitor wrote to the council. Good question.---------------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UncleEpisode photo: picture from Megi of the drop from the 5th floor of their flat Send us Fan Mail

Total circus here. Niki talks about the 2.5 years it took to get on the Hackney council housing waiting list. She has a 6 year old son who is autistic. He attends a SEND school in Hackney. The family lives in a very small, one-bedroom private rental which has damp, mould and rodents. Needless to say, the family is keen to get out of there.Niki also speaks of her concerns about the security of her family's personal documents after Hackney council's systems were torpedoed by a cyberattack. She had to submit documents to apply to get on the council housing list. She was asked to submit them several times. She still wonders why.Niki also talks about the way that councils assess people with autism for places on the council housing waiting list. Her son's autism was severe enough to get the family into band B to bid for council places - but then they were downgraded to band C. Very strange. His autism hadn't changed, but clearly somebody decided that it had.----------------------------------------------------------------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UncleEpisode artwork: by Niki's sonSend us Fan Mail

Millennium politicians like to say that getting benefits, housing and support is too easy for too many people.  Au contraire.  In this episode, Niki talks about the ways that trying to get that help takes over your life.  Niki has a young autistic son, a tiny, rented one-bedroom flat for her family's four members (the landlord wants to raise the rent) and an almost full-time (unpaid) job wrangling the benefits and housing systems for support.  Easy it is not. -------------------All music on this podcast is by © Concrete UncleEpisode artwork: by Niki's sonSend us Fan Mail

The podcast heads to Hackney council to ask to speak to someone about Latoya's desperation for a swap to a home when her son won't get injured.The council shows this podcast the door - though we absolutely refuse to leave. We are staying until someone from the council or the ruling Labour group gives an interview.Also - a few lines about how outfits like councils and government departments such as the department of work and pensions use press statements to blatantly lie about the services they claim to provide. Enjoy.  Music credit © Concrete UncleSend us Fan Mail

Latoya is the mother of a 7 year old boy who has autism. The boy is heading for calamity in the family's present home, which everyone who sees him, including professionals, understands within five minutes of watching him. Will Hackney council help the family find a safer place to live? Answer at the moment is probably no, given that Hackney council refuses to even talk about it. They need to have a quiet think about that, because we will be back. My word. Music: In the First World. Original words and music © Concrete UncleSend us Fan Mail