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

Reforming care and support

The most radical reform of the social care system in 64 years is announced today. The overhaul will mean people will get the care and support they need so they don’t reach crisis point. The draft Care and Support Bill consolidates a mess of different laws to, for the first time, create a single modern statute for adult care and support.

see in full here

Caring for our future: reforming care and support – White Paper

• draft Care and Support Bill
• Progress report on social care funding

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Sector slams lack of funding solution in care White Paper – Community Care

No more delays – carers cant wait -  Carers UK

Social care white paper represents massive failure – Alzheimers Society

Care costs: Charities hit out at ‘death tax’   -  The Independent

Guardian Live blog

Have your say about how caring has affected your health

Carers Week 18th – 24th June 2012

In sickness and in health

Every year we ask thousands of carers to tell us about their lives. We use the survey to generate interest in the press and media. 

Our theme for 2012 is “In Sickness and in Health” and your answers will help us to highlight;
- How does caring impact on your health and wellbeing?
- How much have the cuts to local services impacted on your health and wellbeing?
- What could really make a difference to your life as a carer?

Take the survey here

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If you are worried about cuts to services please sign Pats Petition too and then gather as much support as you can.

 

Support the Life Raft for Women’s Equality – Fawcett Society

Fightback Fridays!   see here

Since the 2010 Budget, women have borne the brunt of cuts. In the run up to the 2012 Budget, Fawcett and more than 20 other organisations – including Oxfam, UNISON, and the Child Poverty Action Group are calling on the government to implement our  ‘Life Raft for Women’s Equality’ - a set of targeted policy asks that  would go a long way in softening the worse effects of cuts on women.

 

Support the Life Raft for Women’s Equality

Measures to reduce the deficit are hitting women with a triple jeopardy: cuts to their jobs, cuts to the benefits and services that they rely on more, and a growing likelihood that women will be the ones left ‘filling the gaps’ as state services are withdrawn.

sign the petition here

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Also,  Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families

Sign e petition on govt website here. Share as wide as possible and gather as much support as you can. Ask your contacts to share with theirs.

Take the debate back to Westminster

Coalition government – a ‘machine’ made from steel

For countless years, with successive governments, family carers have continuously raised their voices outlining the many problems they face, about resources, finances, respite and/or equipment.

Yet no matter how much they chipped away at the brick wall no real action has been taken, by past and present govts. Campaigns have followed one after the other from many individuals, groups, and charities.

We are currently witnessing the biggest shake up of welfare benefits in over 60 years and still the issues surrounding Carers Allowance are not being addressed.  It is the LOWEST of all benefits at £55.55  per week.

As campaigners we will not give up even though the brick wall is now made of re enforced steel. Behind that wall lies a Coalition machine made from cold steel too. It shows NO understanding, NO compassion. It operates so clinically, so precise and its actions prove that it has no heart.

It speaks of Responsibility, Big Society, yet continues on its mission to persecute many disabled people, their families, and carers, with this current Welfare Reform Bill.

Is this the future we want for ourselves, for our children?

A future where disabled people and their families are battered from all directions.

Borrowing the famous words from Winston Churchill and altering them slightly…

Never has so much been given so freely by so few, for the benefit of so many.

 Carers need action and they need it NOW

 Please contact any groups/charities you belong to. Tell them your concerns surrounding Welfare Reform.

Contact your MP . Add your postcode in the box on this link to find their details

Feel free to use this template from Sue Marsh of The Broken of Britain

Support the Hardest Hit campaign which following on from a successful march in May 2011 are now planning local protests.

One simple change re ESA

As individuals any action we take may seem so small, but collectively we can be stronger.

A space to discuss the Dilnot report – funding of Care and Support

Tomorrow sees the publication of the Dilnot Commission’s report into the funding of care and support – a significant policy development for anyone interested in social care for people of all ages.

Discussion on Twitter has used the #dilnot hashtag for people’s thoughts and to share links/information regarding the Commission. ( also #carecrisis and #socialcare)

People on Twitter have built networks and will be interested in the many responses that will be published by individuals/groups/charities etc. For many time will be limited.

Therefore after a discussion among a few people who host highly respected blogs, it was agreed that ArbitraryConstant  (aka Rich Watt) would offer space, so a frank and open discussion could take place by anyone interested in social care issues.

With many thanks to @rich_w, @monstertalk and @jrfemma for their willingness to try this.

So once you have read the Dilnot report, if you want to discuss the details, please join in with the discussion here

Door slamming – by Pat Onions

This is it. I have had enough.

I have reached the end of my tether. As far as being a strong advocate of an unpaid carer I am no more. I am an ex-advocate carer. Ex-unpaid advocate.  In fact ex- don’t care any more.

For many many years I have believed that one-day life would get better for carers. After all politicians have been banging on for even longer what a wonderful job these unpaid, unsung heroes do. Save the chancellor’s pocket millions of pounds. Almost as many as he doesn’t pay in taxes.

I have dragged David along to carers’ all day conferences. Whilst I have moved around ‘work shops’, which tell me, I can take advantage of ‘short breaks’ or win a holiday in X, Y and Z, he has tried to find somewhere comfy to park his broken body.

I have been to televised link- ups between Universities and carers, where every word spoken has created a cheer.

End the care crisis: Dilnot must be a ‘turning point’

End the care crisis: Dilnot must be a ‘turning point’

Care and Support Alliance

 

In advance of the publication of the Dilnot Commission’s recommendations on care and support funding, 25 members of the Care and Support Alliance – organisations representing older people, those living with disabilities and long-term conditions and their families – have set out the case for reform. In a joint statement they said:

“The publication of the Dilnot Commission’s recommendations must be a turning point in social care. We can no longer ignore the demographic reality of an ageing population and people living longer with illness and disability. Nor can we ignore a growing number of stories of abuse, neglect and unmet need from a chronically underfunded care system, which now faces further cuts. Successive Governments have kicked the question of long-term care into the long grass. This must not happen again, and the public will not forgive delay or half-measures.

The time is past for tinkering with a crumbling system, and urgent, fundamental reform is needed. A central part of that, and our bottom line for reform, must be additional public funding.

The current system is a postcode lottery of often high charges and poor quality services. Years of underfunding, compounded by cuts this year, mean that hundreds of thousands are going without vital support to eat, wash and live their everyday lives. If we want a care and support system raised to the standards we would all expect, then substantial additional funding cannot be avoided. Hard choices need to be made about who pays, but we cannot afford for decisions to be postponed as too costly or too controversial.

Unless you’ve been through the social care system it is difficult to understand how urgently it needs reform. If you need medical treatment, the NHS provides wherever you live. But different councils provide different levels of care services, and the state only pays for the care of people with the lowest levels of income or savings. If you have savings, income or a home worth more than £23,250, the costs of care in your own home or in residential care can be catastrophic.

The current system means that someone with dementia and their family could end up having to pay over £100,000 for the costs of care. Disabled people who want to live independently face a lifetime of huge bills to get basic support. Carers caring round the clock for loved-ones are forced to pay hundreds of pounds to get a few hours rest.

This is not simply a question of a societal duty to a small group of the vulnerable. Every family in this country will be affected by ageing, illness and disability. We all need a care and support system which protects families from catastrophic care costs, ends the postcode lottery in care and delivers fairness, dignity and independence.”

 Signed:                                         

Potential DLA legal challenge – Disability Alliance UK (United Kingdom)

 UPDATED WITH BBC VIDEO – Watch from 1 mins 48 secs

You may have heard that Disability Alliance might be taking legal action against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over some Government welfare plans. Our legal advisors, Unity Law, have examined Government plans and believe there is a very credible case.

Disability Alliance is especially concerned over plans to abolish Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for working age people (defined as 16-64 years of age by DWP) and introduce a new benefit (Personal Independence Payment – PIP) which will have a £2.17 billion lower budget by 2015. PIP will not provide an equivalent level of support for the 652,000 disabled people currently receiving low rate care DLA payments.

We have raised our concerns with DWP over the last year, since plans were announced in June 2010. We have ensured our member organisations’ views and those of the disabled people we have surveyed have been communicated to DWP. We have aired concerns in meetings, briefings, a consultation and evidence to two parliamentary committees. Over 5,500 organisations and people responded to the Government consultation on DLA reform. But concerns have sadly gone unanswered and the Government have made no changes to plans to reflect the level of anxiety disabled people and organisations like Disability Alliance have communicated.

Potential DLA legal challenge – Disability Alliance UK (United Kingdom)

Carers need statement from Coalition Government re Carers Allowance

In support of Carers Week 2011, CarerWatch set up an information stand in a local Gala hall covering the period Wednesday 15th June through to Sunday 19th June 2011.  

The theme was the True Face of Caring and facts and figures can be found here

It has always been important to reach carers, to provide advice and information, and this year it has become even more vital.

Changes proposed within the Welfare Reform Bill, coupled with cuts to Social Services are going to have a massive effect on many familys.

Families providing care are a necessity and as the number of elderly increases and medicine breakthroughs continue, many people with illnesses will live longer…and the country will rely even more on the foundation that family carers provide.  Carers are a group of people who provide a vital service, yet governments past and present have taken them for granted, have taken their Love for granted.

Carers seem to have been completely forgotten, as benefits are changed around them. Both ‘Refresh Carers Strategy’ and ’21st Century Welfare’ – failed to address the issue of Carers Allowance and now the WR Bill is repeating that mistake. The only detail we know is that CA will remain outside of the Universal Credit.

 However, it still remains the lowest of all benefits, claimed by a group of people that contribute immensely to our society. We cannot and must not allow this opportunity to fully reform CA pass us by.

Carers are used to words of praise, more of which can be heard here from David Cameron last week  but it is NOT enough. No matter how much understanding he says the Coalition has, no matter how many times he says…Thank you, it is NOT enough.

Carers need action and they need it now