Is the government prepared to take action? Carers Week report

When the invite came to attend a speed-networking event in Parliament with MPs I initially said no. Doing a return trip from the North East in same day is not ideal, early start and extremely late arrival home, all for a 2-hour event. However, I have always said that apart from our own MPs, those of us in the North East don’t get much opportunity to meet with other politicians, so I changed my mind and said ‘yes’.  I am now glad I did so, and appreciate the opportunity given by CarersUK and CarersWeek.

The train journey down started really well with an unexpected turn of events. A young man sat a few seats from me and I recognised him as Chris Ramsey, stand-up comedian and actor from South Shields. Those that know me will not be surprised at my next actions, which was to start tweeting him. As most people travelling were using phones, he was unaware who was relating to his twitter  followers what he was doing. Once I identified myself we spoke a little while. Talk about Big Brother is watching. Thanks for the laugh Chris, you were a good sport.

After this light relief it was over to Westminster for the event. I was met by Carers Week staff and introduced to others from various organisations, including Age UK and Carers Trust. Then it was to business.

As a Carers UK member my companions were Emily Holzhausen, Director of Policy, and Chloe Wright, Senior Policy Officer. They took turns to sit with me. Also helping oversee the event was Steve McIntosh.

It was explained how the event would unfold. As MPs arrived they would be guided to tables to speak with carers, how long for was unsure, depending on if they had any other appointments they needed to attend.

I had no worries about speed networking. Those that know Geordies will know we talk fast. My main concern was how much ground could be covered when the issues surrounding carers are many. It was not just about my family’s’ circumstances, but many others out there too, struggling to cope on a daily basis.

We managed to see 8 MPs, names as follows –

Ian Mearns  Lab
Guy Opperman  Con
Norman Lamb  LibDem
Peter Aldous  Con
Sheila Gilmore   Lab
Grahame Morris   Lab
Stewart Jackson  Con
Caroline Lucas   Green

As well as outlining how caring has impacted on my family, other issues discussed were as follows.

1.    The issue of the Children and Families Bill and the lack of parent carer rights in it, and the concern that they would be left behind. We also talked about when the Care Bill comes to the House of Commons, to stop carers from being charged for their own services and to put an amendment, which would prevent family and friends’ support being taken for, granted.

2.    We discussed the impact of welfare reform on carers, in particular the bedroom tax

3.    The benefits system, which causes huge difficulties in trying to juggle work and care.

4.    Lack of services that are right for the people we care for, e.g. lack of dementia services and support for younger people.

5.    Lack of investment locally in carers’ support e.g. carer’s dementia work.

6.    Concerns about cuts to services and reassessments of severely disabled people and the impact on the caring support and family

7.    Concerned about the cumulative impact of different changes and cuts that are hitting families hard.

8.    Problems surrounding Employment Support Allowance process

9.    Impact on disabled people, as well as carers, re closure of Independent Living Fund.

10.   Advice and information being hard to come by but being vital.

11.  Importance of strong local advocates within local carers’ organisations.

12.  The level of Carer’s Allowance and the failure of this Government and the last Government to reform this benefit.

With thanks to Ian Mearns, Grahame Morris and Guy Opperman for the North East presence, to Norman Lamb who stayed longer than intended and was late for his next appt, and remaining MPs for the interest they showed, and the many questions asked.

Journey back took several hours and it was past midnight when I got home, extremely tired but an enjoyable day.

So, following on from the Carers Week theme of ‘I’m Prepared to Care’ – my question would be – What next?

Many of us have already been caring for as long as we can remember. Governments past and present have failed to fully address many of the carer issues.

We need action now

Give us the tools to assist us in our caring roles. It may be finances, respite, services, equipment, understanding from employers etc. Investing in us now can only strengthen the foundation we provide that prop up both NHS and Social Services.

We are ‘prepared to care’ 

 Is the government prepared to take ACTION?

Rosemary

Carers UK blog

WOW Petition – ***MASS TWEET – THURSDAY 6TH JUNE, 10.00AM, 1.00PM, 9.00PM***

Copied from wow petition group

Hi all,

As you probably already know from twitter, facebook, or the blog, we’re organising a series of Mass Tweets for Thursday 6th June. We want to get WOW trending nationwide, to raise awareness of the campaign and get more signatures. You can help by tweeting using the #WOWpetition hashtag at 10.00am, 1.00pm and 9.00pm.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN

Note that twitter calculates trending on the number of original tweets, not re-tweets, so we need as many people as possible to tweet as many tweets as they feel able (fewer than 100 in an hour though, or you’ll end up in ‘twitter jail’ for a few hours and unable to tweet till you’re released) at those times.

If you’d like to help before Thursday, we’d be most grateful if you can inform your friends about the tweetathon via twitter, facebook, email. This blogpost is great to give people further details,

SEE FULL DETAILS HERE   INCLUDING EXAMPLES OF TWEETS THAT YOU CAN USE.

To join discussion on all aspects of welfare, please see here too.

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/

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.

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

Shameless onslaught on carers

 

 

CarerWatch members are outraged having learned of the latest details in a briefing paper recently released by DWP, Personal Independence Payment and Carer’s Allowance, that will affect many carers. Details as confirmed by Esther McVey, Minister for Disabled People -

“Latest estimates project there will be a net reduction of 9,000 recipients of CA (where benefit is in payment) by the end of 2018 as a consequence of reassessment for PIP”

As the above will be the result of a person needing care having lost their Disability Living Allowance, the impact on family’s incomes will be immense. This double blow will especially hit hard those families on the poverty line.

Add to this the introduction of bedroom tax, cuts to local services; we feel this shameless onslaught from the government has shown a total disregard for the services provided by carers. Services estimated to be £119billion per annum

Our society would not function without the care currently provided by unpaid carers and the consistent refusal by Governments to improve Carers lives has ripple effects throughout Social Services and the NHS. Precious few people receive the actual support they need and so many carers are just not receiving vital services and support.

These cuts contradict findings in the Breakthrough Britain report, undertaken by The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), which was established as an independent think-tank by the Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, now the present Secretary of State for Works and Pensions.

It said –

“The low level of Carer’s Allowance discourages people from providing care to family members. It is one of the lowest forms of benefit available but it there is a high level of expectation in terms of work, in return”

Removing Carers Allowance from 9000 (projected no.) people will result in less families being able to provide care.

Therefore, we call on Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Works and Pensions, to look past his fantasy and wishful thinking for these welfare reforms, and look at the reality of what these cuts and reforms are actually doing to many people with disabilities/ill health and their carers.

 

Scottish Welfare Reform Committee meeting Tues 5th Feb 2013

 

WELFARE REFORM COMMITTEE

AGENDA can be found here, along with names of witnesses

3rd Meeting, 2013 (Session 4)

Tuesday 5 February 2013

The Committee will meet at 10.00 am in Committee Room 3.

More about the committee here

Clerk: Simon Watkins

E-mail:

WelfareReformCommittee@scottish.parliament.uk

You can watch live here from 10 am

 

 

 

 

 

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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