Sad news from DPAC

It is with great sadness that we have to tell you one of our co-founders, Debbie Jolly has died following a short hospital stay. As disabled people everywhere we’ve lost a friend and advocate and a fighter for our movement.

Debbie has played a hugely influential part in the development of DPAC since 2010 and she and I have worked together virtually every day since dealing with the day-to-day things that needed to be done to make DPAC the successful campaign group we have become.

Read in full here

CarerWatch would like to extend our deepest sympathies to those that knew Debbie, both personally and through her campaigning work. RIP

 

Iain Duncan Smith resigns

Iain Duncan Smith quits over planned disability benefit changes

Resignation letter in full

Reactions to IDS resignation

Daily Politics – Welfare Debate Tues 5th May

 

Tuesday May 5th Daily Politics debate

BBC2    2pm

BBC News  8.30pm

Presenters  Andrew Neil and Alison Holt

Participants –

Iain Duncan Smith  Conservative

Rachel Reeves            Labour

Steve Webb                  LibDems

Suzanne Evans           UKIP

Jonathan Bartley       Green Party

 

 

Carers deserve a livable income

With many thanks to those that added their name in support of this letter to the Guardian.

If you wish to add your support please add your name in the comments section

What does Carers Allowance mean to you ?  again leave a comment.

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Family carers are among the most responsible members of society. CarerWatch, along with others, believes suggestions made in recent leaked documents of moving carers to universal credit would result in an unfair system that gives no recognition whatsoever of the contribution carers make to society.

CarerWatch believes that governments should accept their responsibility to carers. Carers deserve a livable income, a separate benefit which recognises that they are not unemployed or “passive” recipients of benefit but are making an important contribution to society.

Those in receipt of carer’s allowance cannot be classed as being inactive. Carers are unique within the benefit system in that they have to

VIAS AGM 2013 – Exploding the Myths!

Start:  06/11/2013 10:00

End: 06/11/2013 15:30

The 6^th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of VIAS will take place at Hillington Innovation Centre, Glasgow on Wednesday 6^th November.

As well as the usual business of the AGM, Simon Duffy, The Director of the Centre for Welfare Reform, the architect of individual budgets and self-directed support, will present and facilitate sessions on

• welfare reforms
• employment.

We hope that you will come along to support our work and contribute to discussion on these important agendas. A light lunch will be provided.

FULL DETAILS HERE

 

 

*Reclaiming Our Futures* – Week of Action

Received from –

Disabled People Against Cuts,

Black Triangle,

Mental Health Resistance Network

and the WOW petition bring you:

*Reclaiming Our Futures*

Join this year’s week of action to protest against austerity, fight for our rights and celebrate disabled people

Our rights are being stripped away day by day, by the neo-liberal policies being imposed on us all by the Condems, leaving us without much hope for our futures – or our children’s.
We have been here before. Our history is littered with examples of how our community has come together when under attack to fight – and win. From the early campaigns of NLBDP (National League of Blind and Disabled People) through to the founding and manifesto of UPIAS (Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation) and on to DAN (Direct Action Network)- Now we have DPAC leading direct action and a host of other key grass root campaigns working towards reclaiming our rights and futures.

We have fought our corner over 3 centuries. And those fights have brought victories; the Independent Living Movement, our early CILs (Centres for Independent Living) and early active DPO’s (Disabled Peoples Organisations) and the significant rights for disabled people (which are now under attack).  They represent big victories, brought about by mobilizing in our communities around our common cause – and having the will and determination to see our demands met without compromising our rights. We have consistently united in anger and celebration.

DPAC Reclaiming our Futures Action

This Autumn, we are asking our community to come together in anger, and celebration again – and to unite around our demands.

We will be launching the UK Disabled People’s Manifesto setting out our vision of how the resources, structures and institutions of our society today can be re-designed to empower disabled people to take part in life on our terms. Disabled people are, and always will be, the experts on our lives and our self-determination. It will be a vision and practical plan that we can take forward in our communities, workplaces and lives to reclaim our futures.

In the build up to the manifesto launch, DPAC is

Benefits Britain 1949 – Monday 12th Aug Channel 4 at 9pm

 

Benefits claimants volunteer to live by the rules of the first year of the welfare state. This first episode asks how the state should support disabled, long-term sick and elderly people.

WOW Petition team take welfare campaign up a notch

Received from WOW Petition team

CLICK HERE TO SIGN

 

#wowpetition & #BeddingOut  Mass Tweet

Friday 2nd August     –     7pm

We are hoping to get the hashtags  #wowpetition &  #BeddingOut trending on twitter by tweeting it on Friday 2nd August at 7pm – including our own short messages about welfare reform, benefit cuts, what WOWpetition is (Resist the War On Welfare), the 3 phases of action and how to help.

The overall aim of the tweetathon will be to raise both awareness of what we’re doing, as well as signatures for the petition and publicise Liz Crow’s Fringe show which WOW is part of. Ultimately this is to save lives.

For full details read here

Sign the petition here    then share asking others to do the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When one of us is threatened – we are all at risk

This was sent in via email. We dont know where it originated so if anyone finds out please let us know so we can give them full credit.

 

First They came ……

 

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.*

What food might this contain?’ the mouse wondered – – – he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!’

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, ‘Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.’

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, ‘

Will you be hit by welfare cuts? Want to tell your story?

My name’s Frances Ryan and I’m journalist covering cuts to disability support. I’ve recently worked with DPAC for stories/interviews about DLA and ESA, and the bedroom tax.

 

 

To fit in with new research on the cumulative impact of April’s cuts, I’m currently looking for disabled people who are set to lose multiple benefits – and would be happy to share their story (anonymously if needed) for a possible article.

 

Will you be hit by the six major cuts?

 

They could be:

 

Contributory Employment Support Allowance

 

If you’re currently on low rate Disability Living Allowance – or perhaps are on a higher rate but have reason to believe you will not be elibible under PIP

 

Bedroom tax

 

Council tax benefit reduction/loss

 

Any other benefit cut/loss coming in this April.

 

If you are going to be affected by simultaneous cuts and are happy to speak to me please email frances.ryan18@btinternet.com (rather than leaving a message here as I wouldn’t want to miss your message).

 

Thank you very much.