The nightmare of getting help and the Scottish elections

Received from Pat Onions – member of  The Broken of Britain and Carer Watch

All parties are publishing their manifestos for forthcoming Scottish elections and using promise of ‘help’ for 850,000 carers. This is a copy of what i am writing to them all.

Dear……

Do you want to hear a true horror story?

I have been in Australia visiting my brother who had terminal cancer. He died whilst I was there. Somehow I managed to fall over fresh air and badly smashed my ankle. Surgeon operated and saved my foot. No problem with care, support and help in Australia. 

David tried to get me some help from social works for when I arrived home on Easter Saturday. Miracles can happen. Not in this case.

Betraying disabled people and welfare

Abstract

This research paper maps out the contours of a revolution in Britain’s benefits and welfare system. But the evidence Karen McAndrew examines and evaluates indicates that, far from enabling and supporting sick and disabled people, the changes and cuts the UK government is making – disguised by a superficial rhetoric of compassion and empowerment, and eased by ungrounded prejudices stoked in sections of the media – are causing real harm and destroying the fabric of national care and genuine opportunity. Putting human impact centre stage, this paper sets out disturbing evidence that disabled people are being betrayed, the public misled, and the welfare system endangered. Here is yet more indication that the ‘Big Society’ is punishing the most vulnerable and eschewing social justice, by making cuts and implementing an inadequate patchwork of policies whereby under-resourced voluntarism cannot substitute for official, statutory neglect.

Introduction – a harmful revolution

There is a ‘revolution’ going on in Britain, but not in the way Employment Minister Chris Grayling has recently claimed, not always in a visible way – and most definitely not of the kind where those at the bottom of the heap come out on top. Quite the reverse. Consider these developments:

* The removal of people from Incapacity Benefit to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). [2]

* The time Limiting of ESA which is to be applied retrospectively.

* The replacement of the Personal Capability Assessment (PCA) with the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) – which has been described by many at the sharp end as ‘unfit for purpose’.

* The cutting the mobility component of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for those in care homes. [3]

* The abolition of DLA, which is to be replaced by the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in 2013/14. [4]

* The abolition of the Independent Living Fund. [5]

* The scrapping of Legal Aid [6] for all welfare benefits matters, and the massive cuts for funding / closures hitting Community Law Centres. [7]

read in full here