Make Disability Poverty History

[call me jaded]

Nothing has depressed me more than the announced changes to disability benefits that are really going to hurt disabled people. I have set up a Facebook cause to raise awareness of what these cuts are going to mean. Please join the cause if you are able to and ask your friends to join too. We cannot take this lying down.

[bid]

Done!

 

Bid

[Mumble]

What is a cause (in this sense - I know the more general meaning) and how does it promote awareness? I've looked through the link but as far as I can make out, all it is/will be is a group of people recruited by others (e.g. yourself) who believe the same thing - that's all well and good, but those people will already be aware, so how does it raise awareness?

 

Also, I think I've been asleep this week - what are the proposed changes to disability benefits?

[CEJesson]

 

Also, I think I've been asleep this week - what are the proposed changes to disability benefits?

 

The proposed changes include full abolition of the mobility part of DLA for residential care claimants. Employment support allowance (ESA) claimants are to be reassessed for ability to work, which will no doubt mean thar a lot of people with a hidden disability are judged as competent to work, which they may well be but the employers don't exactly welcome hidden disabilities such as Autism with open arms.

 

This opinion may be different to general consensus on the forum but I agree to reassessment as peoples circumstances do change without reporting them, but I wholly disapprove of withdrawing the residential mobility component altogether, as it renders a lot of disabled people in care homes without the support payment to go out of their abode, and therefore keeping them concealed inside away from everything.

 

Mobility component for non residential claimantss is staying, as is the Disabled Facilities Grant within the budget of communities and local government.

[call me jaded]

I will be creating a website/blog over the next few days that will have more of an explanation.

 

One of the changes on benefits is that disabled people in residential care will have the mobility component of DLA removed. This will leave them £20 a week for personal care items (toothpaste, clothing) and absolutely zero for going out in the community. I don't call that 'fair' which is what the LibCons say these cuts are. I think it's targetting the people least likely to have a voice (or vote).

[call me jaded]

Thanks Chris. I don't have a problem with disabled people being supported into employment, but the ATOS system is flawed and (having been through it in September with my son) humiliating. There are plenty of case where the 'wrong' decision is made, the appeal system is lengthy and there is NO back-payment if the decision is overturned. ATOS is paid on turn down percentages and once ESA at the 'fit to work' rate is paid that lasts for one year and then people will be on jobseekers or nothing if they have a partner. The financial costs to being disabled are enormous as it is.

 

500,000 able people from the public sector are going to lose their jobs so why would an employer opt for someone with additional support needs over anyone else? It is condemning disabled people to poverty.

[Bluesbreaker]

 

500,000 able people from the public sector are going to lose their jobs so why would an employer opt for someone with additional support needs over anyone else? It is condemning disabled people to poverty.

 

Yeah that's my point, this is where i think the Disabilities Discrimination act needs to be reformed slightly, cause the odds are c... again

 

everytime i think about the employment thing, it makes my blood boil. Welcome to Grey Britain, a Third World nation, lets face it that's where this country is going....

 

I have joined causes BTW

[Cat]

Joined and behind you 100%

 

ACT NOW will be continuing our campaign and number one on our list will be the ESA assessments that come in to play 'officially' next April - although they are already being trialed and the DLA assessments which will begin in 2013. Unless changes are made the effects of these assessments could prove to be catastrophic for adults with autism. We are already hearing horror stories from adults who have had assessments and were not allowed anyone to advocate for them and were told to look at their assessor while they were talking to them. We do have some MPs on board but we aim to get many more to listen to us.

 

Cat

Edited October 24, 2010 by Cat

[chris54]

What is a cause (in this sense - I know the more general meaning) and how does it promote awareness? I've looked through the link but as far as I can make out, all it is/will be is a group of people recruited by others (e.g. yourself) who believe the same thing - that's all well and good, but those people will already be aware, so how does it raise awareness?

 

 

I'm with you Mumble, I cant see where exactly this "cause" is going.

 

ESA was introduced 2 years ago. It is only now that the proses of reassessing people who are on long term disability benefit is getting underway that people have woken up to what it might mean for them.

[call me jaded]

Chris, in principle ESA sounds great, the reality is something else. There is really no need to join the cause but quite few have done so in the first 24 hours. It's just a way of expressing concern that people will be affected unfairly by the changes just because they are disabled. Despite politicians' promises of understanding the difficulties of being disabled, they clearly don't.

[chris54]

Despite politicians' promises of understanding the difficulties of being disabled, they clearly don't.

 

Its not so much that they dont understand, as they dont care. Under this ConDem government things are only going to get worse, so we had better all get ready for it. The conservatives probably cant believe their luck, they are able to slash the welfare state and all the while blame someone else.

[justine1]

Sorry to go off track but .... I think it doesnt matter who is in charge of the country the cuts were going to happen and we could see they were coming at least 18mths ago when the US and other countries started making cuts.I am not defending them and of course I dont think the most vulnerable should be affected in this way,not just the disabled but the elderly as well. Reality is we cannot run from it.

 

I definatley agree that if people stick together it will help,providing the idividual/s initiating such a campaign know where to take the document.

[splendid isolation]

While I avoid Facebook like the plague (do not like social engineering), I applaud callmejaded and will support the cause.

[Cat]

Its not so much that they dont understand, as they dont care. Under this ConDem government things are only going to get worse, so we had better all get ready for it. The conservatives probably cant believe their luck, they are able to slash the welfare state and all the while blame someone else.

 

Labour were the ones who signed up to the ESA assessment the Con/Dem coalition are simply continuing with their agenda. I am not sure that we have to sit tight and allow all of this just to happen to us. For starter the Government has broken the law by not carrying out an Equalities Impact Assessment. While they can get away with carrying out an Impact Assessment in some circumstances they must carry out and Equalities Impact Assessment. They finally admitted last week that that have not done this. The Fawcett Society (women's lib org) have challenged the budget and are seeking a judicial review. I am left wondering why some of our national disability charities have not done likewise. There are others who are looking into following in the foot steps of the Fawcett Society. ACT NOW have written their own Impact Assessment wrapped around the issues that parents, carers and adults with autism have communicated to them. ACT NOW had a bigger response to our request for input than Brian Lamb did. You can read the ACT NOW Impact Assessment here http://actnow01.web.officelive.com/impactassessmentreport.aspx SCOPE have also written a brilliant and in depth Impact Assessment which can be found here http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Destination_unknown_-_web.pdf?1286894260

 

Disability appears not to be high on anyone's agenda and that just about sums up how inclusive our society really is imo of course.

 

Cat

[call me jaded]

Thanks to everyone who has signed: 128 members in a little over 24 hours.

 

Personally I think it's going to push about a million people from survival mode into crisis. Iain Duncan-Smith's response to removing DLA was that care homes 'can provide transport for them'. What planet is he on?

[baddad]

Iain Duncan-Smith's response to removing DLA was that care homes 'can provide transport for them'. What planet is he on?

 

He's probably not wrong. Been a while since I was working in care, but I don't think the 'system' has changed much, and basically the cost of residential care was never fully covered by DLA anyway. The difference between the actual cost of residential care and DLA became an arguing point between the service provider and the local authority, who have to pay the 'top up'.

Effectively, the only change that the new rules will imply with regards to transport is a strategic/political one - removing the costs from National figures and hiding them in local ones. Those most likely to suffer are not those on the receiving end of the transport, but, initially, those providing transport (while arguments rage about adjusted costings for residential care that include transport), and, ultimately, other services and sectors in the care industry that won't be locally funded because the money is being spent on transport.

Transport is unlikely to be directly hit, because it is written into the care plan, and Service Providers are supposed to base their charges accordingly.

That doesn't bode well for service providers, or for ancillary services, and those things will probably have a 'swings and roundabouts' knock-on effect for end users. But any group that chooses the issue of transport itself as a focus is likely to shoot itself in the foot, because it will be looking in the wrong place to find evidence of the detrimental effects of new legislation.

My guess, based on historical evidence, is that it's unlikely to be the disabled who bear the brunt. Easier targets - because there's less public sympathy for them - will be the mentally ill, the elderly, the homeless etc, along with those in genuine need who get caught up in the scaremongering and naming and shaming about the unemployed, or the increasing propaganda and prejudice targeting minority group 'scroungers'.

None of which, of course, are reasons for not voicing objections to cuts or to legislation that pretty much unanimously have been identified as 'targeting' the poor. I just think you need to keep your eye on the magician rather than his hat, because nine times out of ten the hat is only providing a distraction from what's really going on.

 

L&P

 

BD

[call me jaded]

Just a few examples of why the mobility component is important to care home residents:

 

• it can be used to buy a motorised wheelchair (current local NHS criteria for children for any wheelchair is that the child must need to use it indoors as well as outside)
  
• it gives automatic entitlement to a Blue Badge (again locally, no automatic entitlement, no badge)
  
• access to the London Taxicard scheme (locally, one outing a week at subsidised rates)
  

 

Add in the gross inaccessibility of public transport in London as another factor (many buses go by without stopping), the likelihood that family members here are much less likely to have a car than elsewhere in the country, and so on.

 

With LA social care budgets also getting slashed I don't think they'll see the running of minibuses as one of their priorities. We foresaw this and part of the Aiming High capital was spent on a new bus for the residential respite unit, full service and parts for five years.

[Mumble]

Just a few examples of why the mobility component is important to care home residents:

• it can be used to buy a motorised wheelchair (current local NHS criteria for children for any wheelchair is that the child must need to use it indoors as well as outside)
  
• it gives automatic entitlement to a Blue Badge (again locally, no automatic entitlement, no badge)
  
• access to the London Taxicard scheme (locally, one outing a week at subsidised rates)
  

How is 'care home' being defined in terms of cuts to the mobility component. I guess because of my experience, when I hear 'care home' I think of somewhere like my brother lives which is a carehome in the traditional sense and where he gets 24 hour care. He wouldn't be going out alone, so in some ways, where the money goes/comes from is irrelevant. I can only see it being relevant where it is wrongly allocated, for instance, my brother gets a small weekly allowance for things like sweets (but he doesn't buy/pay for things like toothpaste or other care items), and I would be cross if this was cut because it has nothing to do with mobility.

 

I would assume that if people are able to go out regularly by themselves, use a motorised wheelchair, etc. they're less likely to be in the same sort of care. Would sheltered type accommodation also come under residential care in this case?

 

I haven't heard of the Taxicard, but it almost seems like getting the same thing twice - a mobility component (which can pay for taxis) and then also reduced taxis - maybe the entitlement criteria need to change so even if these individuals don't see the mobility component directly they still get access to such schemes?

 

many buses go by without stopping

You should complain to your local bus operating company or TfL. This doesn't happen where I live. The only time it doesn't stop is when it's full, but then another bus will come along shortly after which I can get on.

[trekster]

I'm not into Facebook but I would sign a petition to that effect. I'm concerned because I'm due for an ESA assessment anytime

between now and 2012.

 

Apart from a bus pass, those in residential homes will be severely affected by these unfair cuts. This injustice will go into my

dissertation about the services for adult Aspergers (including so called HFAs in there)in the pan-avon area!

i needed another clued up member from here to explain how those impacts would affect various people.

 

As per usual it mentioned more services for a category of people we dont fit into! i have been trying to convince my PCT that

"autistics can have mental health problems", my response was "we dont treat ASDs" but short term mental health says "you are in

crisis go to long term mental health", (balls bouncing from one scrappy service to another).

 

i noticed 'supporting people' are getting more help (home care organisation which would probably say "not mental health or learning

disability you dont qualify") so all we have to do is convince their service providers that we fit into their little boxes so we can get help (sarcasm).

[call me jaded]

How is 'care home' being defined in terms of cuts to the mobility component. I guess because of my experience, when I hear 'care home' I think of somewhere like my brother lives which is a carehome in the traditional sense and where he gets 24 hour care. He wouldn't be going out alone, so in some ways, where the money goes/comes from is irrelevant. I can only see it being relevant where it is wrongly allocated, for instance, my brother gets a small weekly allowance for things like sweets (but he doesn't buy/pay for things like toothpaste or other care items), and I would be cross if this was cut because it has nothing to do with mobility.

 

Good question. It wasn't made clear in the announcement but let's assume traditional care home. People are going to be left with £22.30 per week “to spend on things of your choice, for example stationery, personal toiletries, treats, presents for friends and relatives”, not to mention clothing, your own TV or computer.

 

I would assume that if people are able to go out regularly by themselves, use a motorised wheelchair, etc. they're less likely to be in the same sort of care. Would sheltered type accommodation also come under residential care in this case?

Many go out with family, friends, buddies and care workers to family events, parties, holidays. My own son goes to a youth club and a social club. I would expect this to continue if he was in a care home because all that would have changed is my own ability to care.

 

I haven't heard of the Taxicard, but it almost seems like getting the same thing twice - a mobility component (which can pay for taxis) and then also reduced taxis - maybe the entitlement criteria need to change so even if these individuals don't see the mobility component directly they still get access to such schemes?

 

Not really twice. We have a Motability car AND a Taxicard because you can't use a Blue Badge in certain parts of central London and parking is outrageously expensive. It's particularly useful for hospital appointments, or sometimes my mum, who doesn't drive, will meet my son from school transport and take him to her house in a cab because I'm out with the other children. The mobility component is the gatekeeper to other benefits. I would expect Duncan-Smith to have been briefed on that. There is absolutely no incentive for LAs to change their criteria either because their local budgets have been slashed so this would be an easy win for them. A campaign would take a least a couple of years to affect change.

 

You should complain to your local bus operating company or TfL. This doesn't happen where I live. The only time it doesn't stop is when it's full, but then another bus will come along shortly after which I can get on.

 

We're not directly affected but someone has already started that campaign. Lots of parents tell me they have the same difficulty.

 

Hope that helps!

[bid]

Well, huge kudos to people like Jaded and Cat, who have both campaigned and done practical things to make a difference for those with disabilities

 

Bid

[call me jaded]

Don't think I've done anything yet. It seems to have touched a nerve with quite a few people - 160 members and I only know about a tenth of them.

 

On the look-out for a suitable petition to link into.

[bid]

Don't think I've done anything yet. It seems to have touched a nerve with quite a few people - 160 members and I only know about a tenth of them.

 

On the look-out for a suitable petition to link into.

 

Look at all your work with your local support group and so on! Real, practical help that makes a difference

 

Bid