The onslaught to carers and their families continues….

The onslaught to carers and their families continues. Welfare cuts are starting to hit harder, bedroom tax, cuts to vital services, closure of Independent Living Fund. Benefits being changed all around and yet the lowest of them all, Carers… Allowance is once again ignored.

Iain Duncan Smith only ‘reformed’ those benefits that could be cut and/or criteria tightened. He has failed carers, many of whom will be hit with a double whammy if the person they care for loses the qualifying amount of Disability Living Allowance.

The whole safety net of SOCIAL SECURITY is being stripped away.

It may not affect you now but it could do.

PLEASE SHARE IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF DISABLED PEOPLE AND CARERS.

WRITE TO YOUR MP

http://www.writetothem.com/

Petition re respite places for disabled adults with life shortening conditions

Received from Robert Watson. Please sign his petition and then share with your own family, friends, networks.

CarerWatch fully support Robert

 

I just started the petition “Create respite facilities to support disabled adults with life-shortening conditions aged 21-45″ and wanted to ask if you could add your name too.

This campaign means a lot to me and the more support we can get behind it, the better chance we have of succeeding. You can read more and sign the petition here:

http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/create-respite-facilities-to-support-disabled-adults-with-life-shortening-conditions-aged-21-45

Thank you!

Robert

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, ‘

Show the government that you care about Social Care

Are you disabled, in ill health, a carer or know someone who is?

CarerWatch members are extremely concerned about the impact of the Welfare Reform Act on Social Care. Not just on those people affected now,  but those that will be in the future.  It is vital we take every opportunity to raise our voices about these issues to government.

See below for details received of a new campaign – Britain Cares

Received from Scope -

I wanted to let you in on a new campaign, Britain Cares – see website here

We all know how much support is being savagely taken away at the moment, but we think coming up there is a major opportunity to help get something positive to happen.

We believe that there is the potential for a big political moment to get the Government to address the growing crisis in social care for disabled people, with the Care and Support Bill coming into Parliament in May (one of only two major Bills) and the Government’s Spending Review brought forward to this June. We need to make a big push in April and May building up to June.

It could make a direct difference to the lives of more than 100,000 disabled people in this country through providing social care – but this campaign is also really about trying to galvanize wider public support for the rights of disabled people.

We want to take it to the Government and show them actually they’re wrong, many people in this country (disabled and non-disabled) believe in good, fair support for disabled people to live their lives.

At the same time, this campaign is about trying to show there are lots of people in Britain with shared values of fairness and freedom, and we want to live up to those values by making sure disabled people can live their lives like everyone else.

We want to challenge the Government by showing them.

There are two main ways to get involved:

- Upload a photo saying “I care!” or “We care!” at  www.britaincares.co.uk  where you can email it to your MP with a message

- If you have experience of the importance of social care yourself, please share your story with your MP – we urgently need to get them to understand more about the importance of social care against the backdrop of all the other cuts – further details to be found here

Please do have a look, it’s live online now and with a first big moment around 30 April,  to coincide with two All-Party Parliamentary Groups who will be coming out with their report on social care for working age disabled people.

If you’re interested and could help share/support in any way once it’s up and running, that would be enormously appreciated.

It’s not just a Scope campaign – other charities, organisations and others are getting behind it too, we want to make this as broad a church as possible.

You can contact Joe Hall at Scope for any more information or materials: joe.hall@scope.org.uk

Disabled people to lose £28.3 billion of support by 2018

 

• Thousands of disabled people will be hit simultaneously by up to six different welfare cuts
• Disabled people will lose £28.3 billion of support by 2018
• Up to 3.7 million disabled people affected in total
• Demos calls on the Government to publish the cumulative impact of multiple cuts to benefits
• Scope asks where disabled people fit in to Chancellor’s ‘aspiration nation’

 

for full details and the report, please see here

Alzheimer’s Society Campaigners Network

Welcome to the first of our Alzheimer’s Society Campaigner’s Network Newsletters

There is plenty happening on the Alzheimer’s Society campaign front and lots to shmonthly newsletter will keep everyone

Our bulletin not only reflects the great work already under way among our campaignhopefully inspire new ideas and new initiatives.

The same applied to the Campaigners’ Network Away Days that took place at SocTuesday 5, February, and Bristol on Thursday 21 February. For those people unabyou can still receive copies of the notes and presentations by emailing sian.blackham@alzheimers.org.uk

In addition, two more events will be held later in 2013.

Read in full here -  Alzheimers Newsletter March 2013 FINAL

( an error in the newsletter as the Care Homes Toolkit is live and ready and can be located at

http://www.arena.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/download_info.php?fileID=5807  )

 

 

 

 

Carers UK: Research reveals over 2 million quit work to care

Press release from Carers UK

Government and employers must step-up support for families as survey reveals shocking impact of caring on workforce.

A staggering 2.3 million adults have given up work to care for an elderly parent, disabled or seriously ill loved ones, Carers UK and business forum Employers for Carers (EfC) today reveal.

A Carers UK/YouGov Poll shows just over 1 in 5 UK adults have seen their work negatively impacted as a result of caring (22%), including 2.3 million1 who have quit work and almost 3 million2 who have reduced working hours.

The impact was highest amongst 45-54 year olds, where more than 1 in 4 reported that caring had taken a toll on their work (27%).

Carers UK has pointed to the impact on family finances of giving up work or cutting working hours – including the risk of financial hardship and

DAY 3 – John, Paul and Evonne’s Independent Living Fund story

Ahead of the court case in London on March 13th 2013, several disabled people are sharing their stories of how the Independent Living Fund has such a positive impact on their lives.

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John, Paul and Evonne’s story

Through support from the Independent Living Fund my step son John is able to enjoy a much more independent way of life, than would otherwise be possible. He can at the moment, go out & access his local community and feel part of society and valued as a person. He is a young man of 30 who wants to continue to live at home and have the best possible chance of some Independence in his life. His mother has been able to set up her own small florist’s market business because the support John receives through the ILF means she does not have to support him full time.

The support John receives now through the ILF is working for him and for our family.

John stays with me now every weekend from 3pm on Friday to 9pm on Monday, which allows Evonne to work the market and to go to the wholesalers too. I also go over several evenings and mornings to bath and shower John. Because of the ILF John gets to

What the Closure of the Independent Living Fund means to disabled people

Received from DPAC and Inclusion London

In the count-down to the ILF court case on 13th March we will be publishing on a daily basis individual stories from disabled people affected by the closure of this essential source of independent living support.

This follows the powerful testimonies recorded by journalist Kate Belgrave and published by the Guardian:

Please circulate the links to the stories and use the tools in the campaigns pack to promote the Independent Living Fund campaign as widely as possible.

All details can be found here

Our first story is from Mary Laver

My love affair with the Independent Living Fund (ILF) started over 25 years ago, – I was just 40 and I am now 65, – when it came into my life, a life that I was existing not living.

Within 12 months of becoming crippled with Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of 40 I was unable to

WOWPETITION pushes towards 25,000 signatories

As the changes surrounding many welfare benefits come closer to being implemented, more and more people are starting to realise the devastating effect that there will be on their lives.

Also, those not affected at the beginning now understand too that the safety net they may need in the future is being stripped away.

From benefit cuts, care criteria tightened, charges increased, abolition of Independent Living Fund, loss of Legal aid, proposed bedroom tax and so the list goes on.

Grassroot groups are increasing in memberships, voices are being raised louder. Their strength growing, as are the campaigns.

CarerWatch will carry on supporting them and help raise awareness where and when we can.

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One such group is WOWPetition – you can read about some of their team here

They have submitted a petition to the governments website.

Full details here  

or click the logo below to register your support.

CLICK TO SIGN

 

and then share as wide as possible asking your own networks to do the same.