February 5th, 2013
A personal statement by Brian Barefield.
1. About me:
I am a 63-year-old male and I live alone in a one-bedroom flat which I have occupied since 2001.
I have two recognised forms of disability: the first is “cyclical depression”, a form of bipolar depression. I have lived with this condition since I was a teenager and apart from a three-month stay in a residential community in 1987 I have not missed work because of it.
The second and most disabling condition led to my enforced retirement from work in 2004. “Degenerative Disc Disease” is a condition similar to osteoporosis. It is gradually destroying discs in the lumbar region of my spine causing the spine to “crumble”. Arthritis occupies the spaces left by destroyed discs and puts pressure on various nerves and, to some extent, on the spinal-cord. In addition to affecting my mobility this second condition means I live with continuous chronic back pain and Sciatica, and, because the degenerative nature of the condition means I wake with a different “disability” each morning, I experience occasional bouts of encopresis and/or enuresis.
Because of my inability to adjust to the requirements of formal education – caused by what I now realise were early symptoms of my developing mental illness – I left school in 1965 when I was 15 years old and embarked on a journey which led to me achieving my true academic potential when I was 40 years old.
In a nutshell, during my teens and early twenties I made Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cumulative impact assessment, disability, disability living allowance, Pat's Petition, personal independence payment, universal credit, welfare reform
Posted in Pat's Petition | 5 Comments »
February 4th, 2013
Received from Carole Rutherford on behalf of Act Now for Autism
The Welfare Reform Bill is impacting in a negative way within the autism community both financially and emotionally.
We fully support the team at Pat’s Petition. There has never been a greater need to pause before continuing with measures that are having a catastrophic impact within our community.
Adults and families living with autism are finding it harder to cope with the changes every day. We were told that the reforms would ensure that those with the greatest needs would be taken care of, this is not what is happening. We are hearing from adults with autism on a daily basis who are terrified about the prospect of a face to face assessment without anyone to enable them to communicate effectively.
Adults with autism do not have the ‘historic’ evidence or otherwise that we are hearing will be necessary. The bedroom tax is set to have a massive impact on families who cannot safely allow a child with autism to share a bedroom with their siblings. Families are going to be penalised for having a child with a disability.
It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the disabled. Our current Government is morally bankrupt.
We need to be assured that Labour will not show the same lack or care and understanding towards the sick, needy and disabled
Tags: act now for autism, autism, benefits, carerwatch, disability, disability living allowance, employment support allowance, hardest hit, personal independence payment, social care, welfare reform, work capability assessment
Posted in autism, Pat's Debate, Pat's Petition | 4 Comments »
February 4th, 2013
Received from Katie Clark
My daughter has substantial complex needs. She uses an electric wheelchair, is profoundly deaf and uses a communication aid to talk. She has had a package of support that has enabled her to employ her own team of Personal Assistants. This has cost less than if she has gone into a residential home.
The Personal Assistants support her to contribute to society – to do voluntary work, do paid work training social work students, to speak at the Houses of Parliament and represent other disabled young people, and to take part in awareness raising projects.
The Personal Assistant team also support her emotional well being, her personal care, they support her to access leisure activities such as going to cinema, shopping and meeting friends. None of this she can do on her own.
Due to the huge savings our local authority is making on social care her budget is being reduced and we are under stressful “negotiations” with the council. Cuts to her budget will result in her becoming isolated, bored, not contributing or making a difference, her health and well being will be at risk, she may well become frustrated and angry resulting in behaviour which may be challenging. On top of that her Personal Assistants will be out of work, and I will become her carer and will have to stop my full time job. This will impact financially on our whole family and will cause stress to her and impact her mental health.
She is a young woman who does not want to be “looked after” by her mother. She may end up in the institutions we have worked for years to avoid, with far more needs and more at risk to abuse than having her own team of assistants.
Can anyone tell me where the sense is in this and is it not shortsighted and will result in heavier costs to social care within the next 5 years?
Good luck Pat, in your meeting with Liam Byrne.
Tags: benefits, disability, hardest hit, personal independence payment, social care, welfare reform
Posted in Pat's Debate, Pat's Petition | 1 Comment »
February 4th, 2013
Received from We are Spartacus
Disabled and sick people are being hit by a huge range of cuts and changes to benefits – be they general or disability-specific, means-tested or universal – as well as tightening eligibility criteria and increased charges for social care support. Whilst the poorest are undoubtedly suffering the most, almost every disabled or sick person in the UK, and their family, is affected by the cuts and changes.
The Coalition Government is moving all the goalposts; secure support we’ve come to rely on, that we were told would be there as long as we need it, has been thrown into doubt. And not content with these cuts and policy changes, the Government stands by whilst the media portrays us as malingerers and scroungers, misinforming the British public and ensuring support for its abandonment of disabled and sick people.
If the Labour Party truly believes disabled and sick people should be supported to live independent lives, it needs to nail its colours to the mast and shout it from the rooftops. We don’t have anyone else to fight for us against this Government’s policies; please don’t let us down.
Jane Young
Tags: benefits, cumulative impact assessment, disability, disability living allowance, employment support allowance, hardest hit, mobility, Pat's Petition, personal independence payment, universal credit, we are spartacus, welfare reform
Posted in Pat's Debate, Pat's Petition, welfare reform | 3 Comments »
February 4th, 2013
Received from Berkshire DPAC
These are just some of the things that have impacted on disabled people – at a time of mass unemployment and recession.
The debate in the House earlier this month highlighted the appalling impact of the Work Capability Assessment ALONE on disabled people. People with the most serious and complex impairments can no longer apply for help from the Independent Living Fund, as this has been closed to new applicants. It will be closed completely in 2015, throwing its users on the mercies of local authorities who will apparently not have ring fenced money in their rapidly decreasing budgets to support this. As from April this year the government starts to remove Disability Living Allowance from anybody who is able to mobilise (I use this word advisedly since it includes people who can wheel their own wheelchairs) more than 20 m. They have reduced this distance from 100 m in one fell swoop and failed to put this figure in their consultation paper.
Despite the increasing numbers of administrative errors and technical problems within the DWP, which have caused deaths in some instances – one was quoted in the debate last week – and massive distress in many, many others, the government is also withdrawing legal aid for appeals by benefit claimants as of the 1st of April.
Then there’s the bedroom tax, penalising families of sick and disabled people who need extra bedrooms to cater for things like storage space for equipment, or where it is impossible for anybody else to sleep in the same room as the claimant. Meanwhile social care is denied to the vast majority of people of any age who need it, because local authorities are not receiving enough money to meet the real need.
And now they’re introducing new and frankly insane guidance to the WCA, as if it wasn’t bad enough already. Assessors will no longer be able to consider issues like the depression that often accompanies chronic pain for example, or the physical impact of medication for mental health problems. Why? Because the new guidance insists that people must only be assessed on either physical impairments or mental impairments. Furthermore assessors, who we know rarely have the qualifications or expertise to do so, will be allowed to IMAGINE that a bit of equipment or a type of therapy might help you – and deny you your benefits until you’ve tried them out. Please bear in mind this could take months, in the case of therapies and could cause actual harm in the case of equipment.
All of these lead to stress, anxiety, physical and mental ill health, especially because of cuts to benefits and available cash. They also leads to isolation, depression and in some cases suicide. Some people are told they are fit for work by ATOS but when they go the Job Centre, they tell them they can’t satisfy the requirements for Job Seekers Allowance and therefore will get nothing.
As we have seen, the Work Programme is utterly failing disabled people (Panorama 28/1/2013).
Which other group in society has been hit by as many cuts as these? How can the Government possibly justify its refusal to do a cumulative Impact Assessment? It is no surprise that the references to Nazi Germany’s treatment of disabled people are becoming more frequent.
Merry
Tags: cumulative impact assessment, disability living allowance, dpac, independent living, personal independence payment, universal credit, welfare reform
Posted in care crisis, Pat's Debate, Pat's Petition, welfare reform | 2 Comments »
February 4th, 2013
Received from Nadia Clarke
I worry about the future as I have been told that my funding may not be enough for me to have the right amount of support to enable me to live my life. This will leave a huge impact on my life as I live independently with full time support from my PAs.
It is important to me that I have full time support for in the future, as both of my parents work full time and I am hoping to attend university this year or leave home to live independently. I don’t want my parents to PA for me as no other 20 year old has their parents looking after them why should this be different for me??? I want my parents to be parents to me and not my PA’S, I do not want to feel belittled and to be made to feel like a child.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: benefits, carerwatch, disability living allowance, hardest hit, independent living, social care, welfare reform
Posted in care crisis, Pat's Debate, Pat's Petition | 3 Comments »
February 2nd, 2013
Moira Fraser, Director of Policy at Carers Trust:
“Carers Trust is gravely concerned about the impact welfare benefit cuts will have on carers and their families. Despite assurances, disabled people and carers have not been protected from the Government cuts and instead are taking more than a fair share. Carers are seeing their cost of living rise alongside, for some carers, a cap on benefits and cuts to family income arising from changes to Disability Living Allowance. Together, these changes will have a disastrous impact on carers across the UK.
The Government needs to publish a full analysis the impact and legacy of these cuts will have on carers and disabled people.”
Tags: benefits, carers, carerstrust, cumulative impact assessment, disability, Pat's Petition, welfare reform
Posted in care crisis, Pat's Debate, Pat's Petition, social care, welfare reform | 2 Comments »
January 31st, 2013
Headway – the brain injury association supports the work of Pat’s Petition in highlighting the damaging impact the current programme of welfare reform is having on disabled people and their families and carers.
Every day, the charity, which supports people affected by brain injury, receives calls to its helpline from people desperate for support, fearful of how they will continue to live independent lives in the face of cuts to their existing benefits. Many of these callers report receiving poor treatment during the claims process for key disability benefits such as ESA and DLA. Despite the attempts to improve the ESA claims process and the Work Capability Assessment, we are still hearing of people stuck in a distressing cycle of failed applications, successful appeals then reassessment just a few months later.
Headway is also very concerned about the Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: benefits, carerwatch, disability living allowance, employment support allowance, Headway, Pat's Petition, pats debate, personal independence payment, welfare reform
Posted in Pat's Debate, Pat's Petition, social care, welfare reform | 3 Comments »
January 31st, 2013
Supporting statement for team at Pat’s Petition for their visit with Liam Byrne
To whom it may concern.
The changes that the latest Welfare Reform Act brings are the most devastating set of changes to the UK welfare system ever to be enacted in one go by Parliament.
Whilst we realise it is not legally possible for this Parliament to Repeal the WRA, it may be possible to enact further legislation that would remove some of the more disturbing impacts of this current Act.
The Welfare Reform Act (2012) places a huge burden on those sick, disabled and those on low incomes to reduce the money spent on welfare.
Whilst we can see a need for Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: benefits, carerwatch, cumulative impact assessment, disability, disability living allowance, DLA help group, employment support allowance, hardest hit, personal independence payment, social care, universal credit, welfare reform
Posted in Pat's Debate, Pat's Petition, welfare reform | 4 Comments »
January 31st, 2013
Supporting statement for a cumulative impact assessment to be undertaken looking at the cuts to disabled people’s benefits, services and rights
Members of the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) and the Hardest Hit coalition back calls on the Government to publish information on the total impact of cuts to the benefits and support disabled people rely on. see here
The recent restriction of benefit rises to 1% a year for the next three years is the tip of the iceberg for disabled people who have already seen massive cuts to their benefits and support services, including – by 2015 – £18 billion from the benefits budget and £8 billion from social care.
With disabled people already twice as likely to live in poverty as non-disabled people, these changes represent a serious threat to the independence and quality of life of millions. A recent report found that disabled people, who make up 8% of the population, are being hit by a massive 29% of all cuts being implemented.
Disabled people and their families feel they are being ‘squeezed’ from all sides and are worried about losing some or all of the support they get and how they will live without it.
In 2012, the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) reported that its inquiry into disabled people’s right to independent living:
“received evidence that impact assessments of current reforms were not adequately carried out, and did not take into account the likely cumulative impact of reforms on disabled people. We therefore argue that the Government should publish a unified assessment of the likely cumulative impact of the proposals on independent living.”
Yet the Government still refuses to seriously look into how the many different cuts will together affect disabled people.
Tags: benefits, disability, disability living allowance, employment support allowance, hardest hit, personal independence payment, social care, universal credit, welfare reform
Posted in Pat's Debate, Pat's Petition | 3 Comments »
