• Make the Tax Credits Helpline fit for purpose
    As a hardworking parent I know how important this is. A recent change to my wages led to me trying to get through to the Tax Credits helpline to report my change in circumstances. After 3 weeks of trying, giving information to the automated system and being told they were too busy, or getting through to a queue and kept on hold for over a hour then unceremoniously cut off I was frustrated, anxious and left with a large phone bill. I resorted to writing to HMRC and did eventually also get through on the phone, however the information I had given them was applied incorrectly and again I was left trying to contact the helpline with no success. I have since given up, however I know of many people in vulnerable situations who are finding the extra pressure of this unbearable, it's time this system was made fit for purpose.
    32 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Rachel Frater
  • Stop the cuts to the police
    The British state will no longer be able adequately to protect the public from criminals and the growing threat of homegrown terrorists if the Conservatives push through their plans to cut further into police numbers. The coalition has already slashed the police budget by around 26% over the last five years, at a cost of 35,000 officers, and has signaled its intention to maintain that rate of cuts. New figures from the House of Commons library show that if Tory spending cuts announced in last year’s autumn statement – which would lead to public spending falling to just 35% of GDP – were applied equally across un-ringfenced departments, they would lead to the loss of 29,900 police officers and 6,700 community support officers by 2019/20, bringing the ratio of officers to population to its LOWEST level since records began. David Cameron says "But crime has fallen". I think you will find "Recorded Crime" has fallen. This is because of a loss of faith in the police by the public to report crime, officers managing to tactically write a job off as their workload is already piled sky high and with response times dropping massively the incident is normally done and dusted before an officer is ever on scene. The police rely on metal "Operation in progress" signs instead of physically patrolling an area as they don't have the resources. Villages at left in harms way with a response of 20 minutes at times due to shutting local police stations and removing the community's sense of being "safe". Unpaid special constables are being relied on to back up the front line, they are merely paving over the cracks as they are under-trained. The police is at breaking point, stop the cuts, before its too late.
    139 of 200 Signatures
    Created by Thomas Wing
  • bus stops outside lewisham police station
    they want to move the bus stops 150 metres from where they are. many people use these bus stops, including a lot of pensioners. i believe there can be a better solution than moving the stops.
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    Created by peter willson
  • Restructure Financial Ombudsman Service
    For quick and easy resolution of complaints about banks etc in a fair manner.
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    Created by Santanu Pal Picture
  • Our Kirklees NHS is precious.
    The government have decided to take NHS money out of hospitals, call it the 'Better Care Fund' and give it to Health and Wellbeing Boards. In Kirklees, this body has sitting on it, the Chair and Chief Officer of Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group and the Chair and Chief Officer of North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group. It also has a number of councillors and a representative of a company contracted to do work for the CCGs, the representative of the council responsible for Public Health and sometimes representatives of Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust, Calderdale Hospital Foundation Trust and Healthwatch. The NHS has always been run with a public service ethos. Increasingly multinational companies without that ethos, are being awarded contracts to deliver services and they fail to honour their promises. Any private company is vulnerable to takeover bids from larger firms. We consider it worth reminding the bodies responsible for allocating around £2.5m of public money, that money channelled away from the hospitals has a potential to weaken them and that there is no clear evidence that 'Care Closer to Home' will either keep people out of hospital or save money for the NHS. eg. A very recent Kings Fund report - 'The Reconfiguration of Clinical Services - what is the evidence?' (Nov 2014) has stated that there are consistent findings that moving care out of hospital does not cut costs or reduce admissions to hospital. In fact in one study (Roland et al 2012) it increased admissions. The report states that in fact, this kind of reconfiguration of clinical services can act as a distraction from core tasks and can increase risks. North Kirklees NHS Support Group and Dewsbury Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) have been out in Dewsbury, Cleckheaton, Birstall and Batley with paper petitions, but the area of the CCGs stretches to Heckmondwike, Mirfield, Hopton, Kirkburton, Meltham and Huddersfield and district. It is with the idea of giving people a chance to sign in all the relevant areas, that we are running it for a short time online. Please sign and share, if you have a Kirklees postcode. Thank you.
    39 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Christine Hyde Picture
  • Good News
    People have the right to know exactly what is going on in the world, and not to be shrouded by one large main event. News today is negative and depressing.
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    Created by miles hamilton
  • Free Hospital Parking
    Up and down the country patients and their loved ones are having to fork out 20 pounds a month upwards on car parking for extended visits in hospital or regular appointments. The cost of getting to and from hospitals is another thing to worry about for families who are already experiencing bleak times. With hospital waiting times currently out of control, the cost of parking is unjustly becoming higher and higher
    108 of 200 Signatures
    Created by Harry Altoft
  • 124 of 200 Signatures
    Created by Linda Orton
  • Asperger Syndrome - Improve Healthcare Services in Derbyshire for Adults!
    We need to stop post coded lottery nhs support for those with High- Functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome. Derbyshire needs to take asperger syndrome as a real disorder, and start treating and managing the condition on the NHS. Because many of patients with mild autism/ asperger syndrome do not have a learning disability associated with aspergers diagnosis, then the adult cannot get specialized support from their nhs learning disability team. So where do adults with asperger syndrome go. Many adults with the condition then end up with mental health problems, like depression, on top of their aspergers diagnosis. This is not fair! Some asperger syndrome adult patients then end up thrown in the mental health service in Derbyshire, but asperger syndrome adults are not mentally ill, not can we treat the condition like mental illness - asperger syndrome cannot be cured and it is a long-term neurological developmental disorder. So adults with the condition needs specialist medical services, like specialist OT and speech therapy, specialized trained behavioral therapists and psychiatrists. Adults with mild autism and asperger syndrome are not being given a fair and personalized medical support in Derbyshire on the NHS, and this is scandalous.
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    Created by Sarah Child Picture
  • Invest in Adult Education
    Cuts to the adult skills budget will mean that one million adults will have no access to learning and skills. The learning and skills system includes more than schools and universities. In the next decade there will be 13.5 million job vacancies and only 7 million young people entering the job market. The best way to meet the shortfall is to train people of working age. Skills shortages require greater investment, not cuts. Politicians are concerned about middle class parents and opportunities for their children to access university or apprenticeships and are unconcerned about the 5 million hard-working people on low pay or the unemployed because they have no voice and are less likely to vote. Adult Education caters for the learning needs of a wide range of people, including many from vulnerable or disadvantaged groups. At a time when 730,000 16-24 year-olds are unemployed and 15% of 16-64 year-olds have no qualifications at all, the continuing programme of cuts is a national scandal. Here are some typical experiences of people who have benefited from adult education - “When I left school, there were no jobs. Luckily college gave me a course. I did some English and maths and now I’m doing great on my tiling course.” “I came here from Afghanistan when I was 15. It was hard at first but I’m on track now at college, studying BTEC science – I really want to do a degree in pharmacy.” I had to leave education early when I got pregnant. Health and social care at college is my path to a career in social work and a better life for me and my kids” “I was an engineer in Colombia. I’m now working as a cleaner and studying plumbing and English at college in the evening. I hope to get a good job after my course.” “I retired last year and was at a real loss. I popped into my local college and I’m now taking photography and still-life. I’m meeting new people and learning new skills.” Investment in adult education not only provides a route out of unemployment and an escape from low-paid jobs, it also offers hope and dignity and can unleash talent, ambition and energy which will benefit society as a whole.
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    Created by MICHAEL MCGOWAN
  • Bring Back Clause Four
    The original constitution of the Labour Party included a section known as Clause 4 which promised: "To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service." Tony Blair scrapped Clause Four as it did not fit in with his conservative ideals. It is time for the Labour Party to return to its original purpose and fight for working people and those least able to fight for themselves.
    42 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Nick Savvides
  • Slash The Monarch's Benefits
    The Queens Sovereign Grant for 2014-15 was £37.9 million, although this is a drop in the ocean according to republic.org.uk which estimates that "When all [the] hidden expenditure is included, the real cost of the monarchy to British taxpayers is likely to be over £299m annually". There is no way this can be seen as value for money, especially while the most vulnerable in our society are facing the prospect of an even more savage cap in the amount a household can receive in what (for the most part) is a vital, and necessary, lifeline. To find out more about the campaign visit www.charliekb.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/slash-their-benefits/ www.joshua-hill-walsh.com/
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    Created by Charles Kirkby