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PODCAST

Who voted for this

Interviews with people dealing with housing problems and welfare cuts. Dislike for those who let it all happen.Kate BelgraveJournalist and bloggerContact:kate@katebelgrave.comHomepage photos courtesy of Latoya, the mother of the little boy with autism in the first episode.

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

24:40

How the government and the DWP made PIP policy on the...

Who voted for this ·

2026/04/12

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.&n...

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20:32

Paediatric doctor: Why Hackney council's housing...

Who voted for this ·

2026/03/24

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 oth...

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18:13

Proving an autistic boy has meltdowns by prodding him...

Who voted for this ·

2026/03/11

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 ...

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16:25

Hackney council will evict a disabled child this...

Who voted for this ·

2026/03/03

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 chuc...

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14:59

Harassment by councils - when you're trying keep a...

Who voted for this ·

2026/02/22

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 ...

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21:30

Protecting your 8 year old autistic brother when your...

Who voted for this ·

2026/02/15

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 b...

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14:34

1 day until Hackney council evicts a disabled child...

Who voted for this ·

2026/02/09

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 Un...

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15:00

Autistic and disabled child evicted from a council...

Who voted for this ·

2026/02/03

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 ...

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15:04

Do too many people claim PIP for mental health problems?

Who voted for this ·

2026/01/13

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 Uncle Photo credit: © photos.snapsthough...

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21:30

No nationalism here: trashing benefit claimants is a...

Who voted for this ·

2025/12/07

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...

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17:43

Mixing files up, losing sick notes, scanning blank...

Who voted for this ·

2025/10/21

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 me...

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16:43

ANOTHER leaked email telling professionals NOT to...

Who voted for this ·

2025/10/07

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 report...

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14:08

Council tells NHS to stop writing support letters for...

Who voted for this ·

2025/09/23

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.&n...

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16:59

We've shut your benefit claim with no warning at all:...

Who voted for this ·

2025/09/07

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 ...

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24:18

"Back to work" programmes for sick and disabled...

Who voted for this ·

2025/08/03

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 ...

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18:02

The benefits system actually causes mental health...

Who voted for this ·

2025/07/14

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 ...

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18:51

Liz Kendall will NOT protect profoundly disabled...

Who voted for this ·

2025/06/17

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 ...

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18:04

The benefits heist: how sick and disabled people have...

Who voted for this ·

2025/06/02

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 uni...

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0:47

Season 2: Liz Kendall and the great benefits robbery

Who voted for this ·

2025/06/02

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....

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27:47

When your council does not help you escape violence

Who voted for this ·

2025/05/05

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 ...

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28 results

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