Posts Tagged ‘social care’

This is just the end of the beginning – Welfare Reform

Monday, April 1st, 2013

Iain D Smith

The government is bringing in so many cuts that a Cumulative Impact Assessment is far too difficult

April Fool – it’s actually really very simple 

 

At last more and more people are waking up to the realisation of the horrors lying in wait for disabled people, their carers and families. At last there are debates in Parliament with dozens of MPs relating true stories from their constituents. They all tell the same story. How disabled people, those with serious illness, and carers are being hit the hardest.

And this is just the end of the beginning.

Six more drastic cuts come on line today.

It is the perfect storm

That’s why I’m so proud of Pat’s Petition and what we achieved together.Pat’s Petition asked the government to “stop and look at the way all these changes would add up and impact on the lives of disabled people and their carers.” 62,709 people signed in the year that was open to us.

But the government refused. They say it is too difficult. You can read their response on Pat’s Petition here . They are conducting one enormous social experiment and leaving it for history to tell them what they did to us.

How can they get away with this?

Well – they can’t get away with it. We won’t let them. And neither will you.

The government are pretending that it is amazingly complicated when we are asking for something that is really simple. We are asking for an assessment of the impact on individual disabled people. There is no reason why they can’t run example cases through all the benefit changes one by one and show us, and the voters, exactly what they are doing to individual disabled people.

Scope/Demos  have released research on these changes. And it isn’t as impossibly difficult as the government maintain.

We aren’t going anywhere until the government face up to their responsibilities and produce a projection of what their policies are, and will be doing, to disabled people and their carers.

Pat’s team is working with many other campaign groups and we are meeting with government statisticians to discuss how they can carry out a Cumulative Impact Assessment.

The WOW petition is still active and you can sign that here. Their number of supporters is growing daily. Please share this petition as wide as possible asking others to sign and share too.  You will note they have had a preliminary response in which again the government states -

“Cumulative impact analysis is not being withheld – it is very difficult to do accurately and external organisations have not produced this either.”

This is NOT acceptable.

We still receive many emails and requests from people wanting to support this campaign. To this end a space has been created here to add your support, comments can be added too.

This Cumulative Impact Assessment

is going to happen

 

 

 

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Act Now for Autism supporting statement

Monday, 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

 

 

 

Can anyone tell me where the sense is in this

Monday, 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.

 

 

I dont want to go in a care home – Nadia

Monday, February 4th, 2013

 

Received from Nadia Clarke

scissors

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.

(more…)

Impact of Welfare Reform Act (2012) from DLA Help group

Thursday, 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 (more…)

Supporting statement from DBC and Hardest Hit

Thursday, 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 

 Hardest Hit 042

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.

 

 

Supporting statement from Carers UK

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

carers_uk

 

Heléna Herklots, Chief Executive

of Carers UK:

 

“Carers fear finding themselves In the centre of a perfect storm, as, on top of cuts to already overstretched social care services, they may face a combination of cuts to disability benefits, changes to Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit and the introduction of the household benefit cap.

We are shocked and disappointed at the lack of adequate analysis of the impact all these changes will have on carers. There is the real risk that the combined impact will have devastating personal consequences for carers and their families but will also bring greater costs to society and the economy in the longer term. Government should urgently publish full analysis of the impact of their changes to benefits on carers and disabled people, taking account of simultaneous cuts to vital social care support.”

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Carers UK is gathering evidence about the financial costs of caring. They need carers’ stories on the extra living costs they face and the impact on their ability to earn

Full details -  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/carerpanel

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Scope CEO supports the call for a Cumulative Impact Assessment

Tuesday, January 29th, 2013

scope

Richard Hawkes, CEO of Scope has written a piece for the New Statesmen describing the challenges ahead around disability and welfare reform. We recommend you read it.

Richard has always supported the call for a Cumulative Impact Assessment. He said to us -

“A Cumulative Impact Assessment may be difficult but it is essential. We should not be experimenting with people’s lives.  The government needs to look at the bigger picture of the changes made by all its departments and understand the combined impact of these. I hope that Pat and her supporters at Pat’s Petition can have a productive discussion with Liam Byrne to get Labour party support for an assessment.”

 *****

 

Disabled people will be worse off whether they work or not

Monday, January 28th, 2013

Press release received from Disability Equality NW  for  Preston’s Learning Disability Forum [PLDF]

 

 

New benefit rules will force workers with disabilities on to the dole queue, and drive unemployed disabled people further into poverty.

Those are the shocking results of local research into how the new cost-cutting rules will affect some of Lancashire’s most vulnerable people.

Researchers at Preston’s Learning Disability Forum [PLDF] found that half of all people currently claiming Disability Living Allowance would lose some or all of their benefits — and even those who would get more money would have it taken away in charges, thanks to other rules.

Those Employees losing their mobility allowance who can earn a living only because of specially adapted cars would have to give up their jobs, because their cars would be taken away from them and they are unable to use public transport because of their disabilities.

(more…)

The onslaught continues – sign Pat’s Petition

Monday, October 8th, 2012

Sign Pat’s petition here.  

Conservative conference is underway and by the hour we are hearing statements and interviews from government ministers regarding welfare reform and cuts. See links below

 It is even more vital now that we have all these issues debated in parliament.

Will Pat’s Petition achieve 100,000 by Nov 1st? We believe it will if we all push it forward as wide as possible.

The petition has reached over 50,000 signatures – quite incredible for this small group of unfunded friends with no large organisations behind them. But we need to reach 100,000 by the deadline at the end of the month.

As Pat says -  “That can sound quite daunting, but other petitions have done it. Anne Williams last year got 40,000 signatures on the very last day for her petition about her son Kevin who died at Hillsborough. Richard Branson had his support within a week. And the cuddly badgers achieved their target in weeks. If only people would support disabled people in the same way.”

 

link to Youtube video, click here -       Pat’s Petition

 

The group are asking people to be quick about taking actions:

Sign the petition at   http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20968

Check junk boxes for activation emails.

Share the petition link by e-newsletters, facebook, twitter – get to places where people are already online

Add to blogs, write letters to media and your MP

If you are attending A Future that Works Oct 20th march ensure the petition details are shared with fellow marchers

Grassroots groups have been extremely supportive and we ask you to give this a final push.

Campaign teams from charities to come on board and raise awareness to your memberships. Time is running out so you need do this quickly.

 

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

 

Links

1. David Cameron on Andrew Marr show

Q: Nick Clegg said there would be more austerity after 2015. Was he right?

Yes, says Cameron. The cuts will have to be decided before the election. The government will have to look at things like welfare

2. Iain Duncan Smith Guardian 19.26 pm

“This quote is from 19:26 Sunday -

“A delegate asks Duncan Smith if he could cut more from the welfare budget, saying that would be very popular with the public.

IDS says he’s cut more than any other secretary of state – £18bn – but these are “difficult” times.

Once he has reformed welfare, everyone will be able to recognise that those who are on benefits are genuine claimants, he says, and not scroungers.”

3. George Osborne plans to cut another £10bn from welfare budget

FOR FURTHER DETAILS OR IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO HELP PLEASE CONTACT PAT – patspetition@gmail.com