Will Iain Duncan Smith turn up for Welfare Debate

 

Twitter users  –   #WelfareDebate15

Tuesday May 5th Daily Politics debate

BBC2    2pm

BBC Parliament  9.00pm

BBC News  9.30pm

Presenters  Andrew Neil and Alison Holt

Participants –

Iain Duncan Smith  Conservative

Rachel Reeves            Labour

Steve Webb                  LibDems

Suzanne Evans           UKIP

Jonathan Bartley       Green Party

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Non-attendance (see below) recently by the purveyors of welfare reform suggests that they deem themselves to be unaccountable for their actions.

Will Mr Smith attend this debate or will the quiet man become the invisible man AGAIN

Iain Duncan Smith fails to show up for General Election hustings in his own constituency

Britain asks: where is David Cameron?

Wirral West MP Esther McVey pulls out of live radio interview in Liverpool city centre

‘Ashamed’ Tories quit Newsnight welfare debate at the last moment

Many disabled people and carers will be watching this show. They have borne the brunt of these cuts and are living in dread of the prospect of the further £12billion cuts to welfare promised by the Conservatives.

We need an election on the cuts

Letter in the Guardian   24th Feb 2011 supported by  Carer Watch

The government’s implementation of welfare reform is destroying the covenant of care between disabled people and the welfare state (Report, 23 February). The most vulnerable people in our country are being subjected to cruelty. The work capability assessment is not fit for purpose. It is denying employment support allowance to those whom the 2007 Welfare Reform Act deemed it not reasonable to require to work.  

The assessment lacks public and medical accountability. Criteria about what constitutes an “illness” and a “disability” have been increasingly narrowed over the years into a set of descriptors that fail to recognise the complex problems and needs of those who are mentally ill, or who have intermittent illnesses or communicative conditions. 

We want a system that is flexible and supportive of disabled people and which helps people into good, appropriate jobs with decent wages. One that values and supports those who are unable to work, and that insures us all against the misfortunes of illness and disability.

Jon Cruddas MP Labour, Dagenham & Rainham,

Neil Coyle Director of policy, Disability Alliance,

Anna Healy Labour, House of Lords,

Gavin Hayes General secretary, Compass,

Professor Jonathan Rutherford Middlesex University,

Professor Peter Beresford Brunel University,

Steve Griffiths Researcher and Consultant,

Rhydian Fôn James The Broken of Britain,

Frances Kelly, Rosemary O’Neill Carerwatch,

Alison Wiles, Anna Kennedy, Carole Rutherford co-founders, Act Now – Autism Campaigners Together

One Month Before Heartbreak – 1st day round up

What a day to remember………

……..to witness so many individuals/groups/bloggers all working together to support One Month Before Heartbreak . The internet was used to its full advantage as a campaigning tool, which enabled many groups to create a network, all working towards the same goal.

Many links were added to Facebook pages, and Twitter was full of #ombh and #TBoB hash tags.

When posting this article –  462 names had been added to the petition today re DLA

Carer Watch  would like to congratulate the Broken of Britain for their iniatitive with this event , and we will continue to support it fully for the rest of the weekend.

Fawcett launches legal challenge to government budget

The Fawcett Society has filed papers with the High Court seeking a Judicial Review of the government’s recent emergency budget. (1)

Under equality laws, we believe the government should have assessed whether its budget proposals would increase or reduce inequality between women and men. Despite repeated requests, the Treasury have not provided any evidence that any such an assessment took place. (2)

see in full here

Your views needed re Government ‘consultations’

Carer Watch will be responding to the ‘Consultations’ below, please join our message board where debates are already taking place. Registration is needed but automatic so access to forum is immediate, wherein you can both read and post.
This is the chance to put YOUR views forward .

Register here

DWP consultation – 21st century
. This discussion document seeks views to inform our thinking on reforms to the benefits and Tax Credits system. We would like to hear from all who are interested. Subject to the outcome of this consultation, we propose to bring forward legislation early in the New Year to reform the current system

Dept of Health
Refreshing the National Carers Strategy. Minister for Care Services seeking views, by 20 September 2010, on the key priorities, supported by evidence of good practice, on what will have the greatest impact on improving carers’ lives in the next four years. All carer issues back in the melting pot.

Independent review of work capability assessment
ESA. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has asked Professor Malcolm Harrington to undertake an independent review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and make recommendations on the future development and efficacy of the WCA

Coalition responses

Below you can find a response to each section of The Coalition: our programme for government. These responses focus on the main themes raised in each section.

Details in full here

Refreshing the national Carers Strategy

Letter from the Minister for Care Services seeking views, by 20 September 2010, on the key priorities, supported by evidence of good practice, on what will have the greatest impact on improving carers’ lives in the next four years. see here

Template for responses can be found on the above link too.

We need your help and support

As part of our Campaign to protect Disability Living Allowance, Carer Watch have been gathering support from groups/organisations and some of the responses received can be found here

As an individual, perhaps if some of these proposals were implemented it would affect you. Please tell us here   how DLA is of benefit to you and why you disagree with the Coalitions proposals .

Last but not least, we would like to ask you to contact the groups / organisations that you  belong to, or have an interest in and ask them to send us a statement of support.  See below ….

FLYER – DISABILITY BENEFITS ARE UNDER THREAT IN OCTOBER

Budget fightback – Save DLA

Please come join us build this campaign to to protect Disability Living Allowance here

Support from groups

Responses already coming in include…

I’m Dan Parton, senior journalist at Pavilion Interactive

For quite some time now Carer Watch have been exchanging a range of views with Dan Parton.  Following his blog entries has also raised many issues for discussion among our members.

We thank Dan for his support and you can read his latest blog post here , Carers need to be central to social care agenda