Disabled people will be impoverished as they face a “Tsunami” of benefit cuts – says Inclusion Scotland

Disabled people in Scotland face the impact of several simultaneous cuts to their benefits, say disability campaigners at Inclusion Scotland. They describe the affect as being akin to a virtual Tsunami which will devastate disabled people’s living standards causing hardship and homelessness. They say that the Department for Work & Pensions has refused to carry out a cumulative impact assessment of the effect of welfare cuts on disabled people forcing Inclusion Scotland to do their job for them.

Labour MP Ian Mearns has called for a debate in Westminster Hall which will take place on the afternoon of Tuesday, 18^th December, on the effects of welfare reform on disabled people, their carers and families. This debate follows over a year’s campaigning by disabled people and carers who have worked hard to promote blind activist and carer Pat Onions’ petition asking the government to stop and review the cuts to disabled people’s benefits & services. In spite of restricted media coverage, “Pat’s Petition” collected over 62,600 signatures.

IS have analysed the changes using the DWP’s statistics and have calculated that the combined effect of the cuts planned under the guise of welfare “reform” will have a devastating impact on disabled people (who are more likely to rely benefits for some or all of their income than non-disabled people).

For example:

Live debate – Effects of welfare reform on disabled people

Westminster Hall
Meeting starts on Tuesday 18 December  at 2.30pm

Private Members’ Debate:
Effects of welfare reform on disabled people, their carers and families – Ian Mearns

Once started you can watch live here

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The program of welfare reform and cuts is proceeding with alarming momentum and the needs of carers  and  disabled people are being lost in the fiscal crisis. 

CarerWatch urge those participating in this debate to please look past the fantasy and wishful thinking - to the reality of what these cuts and reforms are actually doing to many individuals/families.

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South Tyneside Welfare Protest Meeting – Hardest Hit/PSA

Welfare Protest Meeting – South Shields

On Friday night I attended a meeting held in South Shields Town Hall, jointly held by local Public Services Alliance and Hardest Hit North East Group.  I would say approx 100-120 people attended. They consisted of local councillors, residents, representatives from various unions.

Chairing the meeting was Tina Roche (Unison), with speeches from Iain Malcom, Leader of the Council, David Miliband MP and Peter Bennetts, spokesperson for HH North East. All outlined the huge problems ahead. Tina ensured that more time was given for questions and statements from the floor.

Iain Malcom

Mr. Malcolm covered many issues that would affect our local area. Cuts to services, impact of welfare reform. He also spoke of proposed bedroom tax and abolition of council tax. Huge concerns re social care.

Mr Miliband

Mr. Miliband spoke about 3 warnings – Awareness, Protest and Preparation.

More work needs doing raising awareness of welfare benefit changes, as so many people are still unaware of what is in the pipeline ahead.

Protest – protest voices need to be heard and more grassroots groups, charities, unions need to work together. Protests, petitions, write to MPs outlining how changes are impacting on families.

Preparation – How we need prepare for the Tsunami of change, not just locally but nationally. People will need advice, support and information.

He spoke of the impact of welfare reform on families and the fear of them using loansharks.  A place for credit unions. Impact on local services. Of Alf Morris. Local housing issues.

Note

Comment was made from the floor by Stuart Bracking (DPAC North East) that there should be a 4^th point made, and that is Reflection.  Labour need look back on their policies; amend mistakes made, especially with the work capability assessment. I hope to have a statement from Stuart soon to add here.

Lady from floor said that Labour need to be a stronger opposition party, as this is not visible to people.

Peter Bennetts

Peter was excellent. He outlined many of the changes ahead re welfare benefits and held nothing back, describing the fear among disabled people regarding losing their independence.  He spoke of the Hardest Hit rallies already held and informed us of the next event to be held in Newcastle October 27^th. Also there will be HH members attending the A Future that Works protest Oct 20^th

Participating in the meeting meant I have only managed to note down some of the topics discussed, not all, but will hopefully give you an idea of the issues raised.

Bedroom tax was raised time and time again.

Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payment

Loss of DLA could mean a double whammy for families if Carers Allowance is lost too.

Employment Support Allowance and Work capability Assessment not fit for purpose

Cuts to care services will bring added pressure on carers, many of whom are struggling now.

Those in low paid jobs and effect if lose their council tax benefit and need to find money to pay an increased charge.

Loss of Independent Living Fund

Loss of local jobs as council makes cuts

Impact of welfare reform on social care – NHS and social services departments will not be able to cope

Overall the meeting went very well. It was a great opportunity for local people to come together and realise they are not alone.

As a campaigner the biggest issue for me was Awareness. It was mentioned from the front table about how councils, and other bodies/organisations do not want to alarm people too soon about the changes. This was disputed from the floor. Marion, local resident, stood up and said people need informed now. It was waiting too long re welfare reform that meant too little time to fight.

Friday was the start of our local fight and arrangements already in place for further meetings.

Rosemary

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Please sign  PAT’S PETITION

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PAUPERS’ PICNIC for INDEPENDENT LIVING

Received from DPAC

SEPTEMBER 13^th 2pm CENTRAL HALL, HOUSE OF COMMONS

MEET 1.30pm- 1.45pm at College Green, Abingdon Street if you want to go in as a group.

We hope to organise a meeting with MPs before the lobby but even if we can’t do this due to the summer recess we will be lobbying MPs and then having another picnic in the Central Hall. Please bring plenty of bread and water to eat and share. We then hope to make a visit to another relevant building nearby.

“The Independent Living Fund is a ring fenced resource, for disabled people with high support needs that can provide a better lifestyle and outcomes for service users whose full needs would not be met by local authority funding. “

Unlike local authority and health care funding which tends to focus simply on keeping disabled people alive and clean the funding available from ILF helps disabled people to take part in society on an equal basis to non-disabled people.

In 2010 Maria Miller, minister for Disabled People announced ILF was unsustainable and it was immediately closed to new applicants. It is planned to close completely from 2015 with no replacement funding put in place to provide this vital support to those with the most complex support needs. There is currently a very unsatisfactory consultation taking place about the future of ILF funding.

We must make it clear that we will not be silenced by this government’s injustices nor will we simply disappear.

To lobby your MP you need to go to the House of Commons visitor’s entrance and fill out a green card or contact your MP beforehand and tell them you want to lobby them about keeping the Independent Living Fund and why it is important to you.

You can find your MPs contact details at www.parliament.uk or you can write to them at House of Commons< London, SW1A 0AA.

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Over 41,000 people have supported Pat’s Petition.Have YOU and your contacts?

Please sign and share asking others to do the same

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DLA/PIP Help Group’s Response to – DLA reform and Personal Independence Payment

received from DLA Help Group

Please  find attached our group response to the above consultation.
Submitted  10:20 25/06/2012

read here   DLA Help group submission

 

 

Barking and Dagenham Against the Cuts – community conference

received from Anna…………

Hi everyone,I wanted to let you all know about Barking and Dagenham Against the Cuts, and a community conference we are having on Saturday 9 June to bring people together who want to fight the cuts and defend public services and welfare.

Do you, or anyone you know, live or work in Barking and Dagenham? It would be great if you could get involved and come to the conference – and spread the word.We are also looking for people to contribute to informal workshops on the issues of benefits, the NHS and housing. This would mean talking about their experiences of campaigning on these issues – to help participants in the workshops/ conference develop plans for local action.

Would you or anyone else you know be happy to do this? If so, please get in touch!  More information can be found on our website:   (a work in progress – and quite psychadelic at the moment!).

Please let me know if you have any questions/ comments/ suggestions.

Thanks!

Anna

anna.wolmuth@gmail.com

Further details of speakers can be found here

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Also sign this petition and share as wide as possible asking others to do the same.

Pats Petition  background here

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20968

 

Disabled People Against Cuts – protest April 18th

Disabled people Against Cuts

April 18th meet for 1.30 pm McDonalds Leicester Square.

Let us have text contact details if definitely coming. Access needs if any too.

Action will be around benefit cuts, care funding and Loss of Remploy jobs.

this affects older people too so bring your grannies and grandads too.

Contact mail@dpac.uk.net

Press release

Photo opportunity. Meet Leicester Square McDonalds, 1.30pm

DISABLED PEOPLE REFUSE TO SIT BACK AND BE SLOWLY KILLED

Already three-quarters of disabled people live in poverty yet the Condems seem determined to push people even further into destitution. It seems that this is a means of punishing them for daring to be or become disabled – something that can happen to anyone at anytime. This is part of the new economy and Condem society of Britain.

Linda Burnip co-founder of DPAC says  “If cuts to benefits don’t kill you slowly by leaving you starving or freezing to death in winter then massive cuts to care and support funding should finish off those Maria Miller, the so-called minister for disabled people, calls “unsustainable” a bit faster. “

Campaigners say disabled people are being unfairly picked on because they are seen as an easy target by millionaire politicians and the ex-banker Lord Freud in particular.

Disability benefits designed to pay the extra costs of disability and originally awarded for a lifetime term are being reassessed. Many who were certified by medically qualified and independent doctors are losing their meagre incomes to politically appointed and performance incentivised ATOS assessors.

Huge increases to hate crimes, cuts in housing benefits, cuts in public services, the closure of the Independent Living Fund, job losses in the public sector, closure of Remploy factories when unemployment is at a record high the list of attacks is endless.

Debbie Jolly another co-founder of DPAC says: “Disabled people will be descending on London again to tell all politicians we’ve had enough. We are fed up with being vilified as scroungers by successive governments, we are sick of hearing about disabled people who have died from neglect and lack of services or who have committed suicide because services and benefits were withdrawn from them. Debbie from Leicester says: “Disabled people will be descending on London again to tell all politicians we’ve had enough. We are fed up with being vilified as scroungers by successive governments, we are sick of hearing about disabled people who have died from neglect and lack of services or who have committed suicide because services and benefits were withdrawn from them. We are angry at the constant attacks by this government  because we are seen as an easy target .We want to make sure politicians know we will not accept these attacks on our lives any longer. “

ENDS

Contact-  Linda 0771 492 7533 or Adam 07801058235

Notes to editors:

Data from Family Resources Survey and the National Equalities Panel found that:

• 75% of disabled women and 70% of disabled men are already at the bottom end of Britain’s income distribution scale living in poverty.

• A tenth of disabled woman have incomes below £31 per week and a tenth of disabled men have incomes below £59 per week including earned income and benefits.

• Under the coalition government’s economy drive disabled people are set to lose at least £140 per month through direct cuts to disability benefits (initially devised to pay the extra costs of being disabled) alone.

• The Condems are removing DLA saying that the number of claimants must be reduced by half a million.

• Employment Support Allowance and work capability assessments have been criticised by CAB, disability charities and Disabled People’s Organisations. ATOS healthcare failures are costing £50 million in additional appeal tribunal costs.

• Housing Benefits for all tenants will be reduced. From October 2011 for those 2 million disabled people living in private rented accommodation and from 2013 for anyone living in social housing which is deemed too large for their needs

• Added to that funding from the Independent Living Fund for care and support has now ceased to all new claimants and any additional needs cannot be met by them

Extra costs of disability to individuals

A Rowntree report (2004) found that the weekly income of disabled people who are solely dependent on benefits is approximately £200 below the amount required for them to ensure an acceptable, equitable quality of life’

However, even if receiving maximum benefits, disabled people still experience a substantial shortfall in income. The income of disabled people solely dependent on benefits, irrespective of the type or level of their need, is approximately £200 less than the weekly amount required for them to ensure a minimum standard of living.

Source: Disabled people’s costs of living: ‘More than you would think’ (2004) by Noel Smith, Sue Middleton, Kate Ashton-Brooks, Lynne Cox and Barbara Dobson with Lorna Reith, is published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (ISBN 1 85935 236 7,

Employment

The employment rates of disabled people are around 48% compared with around 78% of non-disabled people Source Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2,2010

 Only 20% of those with mental health problems are in employment- Source- Labour Force Survey, Jan-March 2009.

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. Please click here to sign Pat’s Petition  which calls on the government to -

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

Once you have signed share it with all your contacts asking them to sign and pass on too.

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

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Hardest Hit North East: Conference on the impact of cuts on disabled people

Friday 1st June 2012  -    09:00 until 16:30

Banqueting Suite & Pandon Room, Newcastle Civic Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8PP

.The Hardest Hit North East Coalition are holding a conference on 1 June 2012 that will consider ways to take action against government cuts and examine their impact on people in the region. Have you been hit by welfare and benefit cuts, or through changes to local servic…es? Are you concerned about cuts making tackling disability hate-crime more difficult, or wider reforms like changes to support towards housing cost and council tax meaning the disabled could miss out? Are you a carer, someone who works with or alongside those affected by these changes? If so, please come along to this event to help build our region’s response to an ongoing programme of cuts falling on disabled people. Listen to people tell their own stories about how the cuts have affected them and find out more about what we can do to try and stop the disabled being hit harder than society as whole. The event is free to disabled people, their carers and those from charities or Trade Unions. If you would like to attend as a visitor from a commercial or public sector organisation there is a small charge, please email Stephen Powers at northeast@hardesthit.org.uk to find out more about your organisation exhibiting or to be invoiced for a £25 Public/Commercial visitor place.

.Please visit: http://bit.ly/H8AEW5 to register your place for this event

.Join discussions on facebook here

Are you worried about cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families.

Sign Pat’s Petition too and ask all your contacts to do the same. Tell them to share it also.

Last stages of the Legal Aid bill – time to stand up for access to justice

Guest post from

Natalie Sedacca - a member of Young Legal Aid Lawyers.

Carers, and those they care for, are facing a series of attacks by the Government, such as the closure of day centres, tightening of care criteria, and threats to carers’ grants. The already low level of benefits paid to carers is not helped by the Welfare Reform Act. The blog has already reported how this does nothing to alleviate financial hardship for family carers, and how the move from DisabilityLiving Allowance to a “personal independence payment” will impact carers as well as disabled people. In this context, access to specialist legal advice to challenge poor decisions about benefits is more vital than ever.

But this help is under threat if the Government gets its way on a law about to go before MPs. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill sets out Government plans to make sweeping cuts, severely restricting free advice for many types of legal problem. The Bill has gone through Parliament and is now at its final stage, returning to be considered by the House of Commons after April 17th.

Shoot your mouth off

Shoot Your Mouth Off   (SYMO) is a production company specialising in high-quality work with disabled people.  SYMO produces a vast range of work including dramas, documentaries, comedies, music videos, resource materials and much more. We have won numerous awards for our work and our films have been screened at festivals around the world. SYMO is a social enterprise and exists to provide an enjoyable, rewarding and meaningful use of time to those often excluded from traditional training and employment opportunities. We aim to raise the visibility of disabled people in the media, portraying them as they are, bona fide members of society, with hopes and fears, dreams and nightmares, choices and rights.

After months of interviewing disabled people and  travelling all over the North, SYMO is showing “Falling Through the Cracks“. Commissioned by VONNE and the Lottery, the film focuses on disabled people’s responses to the government’s spending review, highlighting their hopes and fears, and joining them in Newcastle for the Hardest Hit campaign demonstration.

Watch video here

Are you worried about cuts to benefits and services too?

Sign this petition  asking the government to Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families. Share the link with as many people as you can and ask them to do the same. Share it on twitter and facebook, blogs too.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20968