The government has allocated £800m to authorities over four years to enable carers like Vincent to access short breaks and respite care.

Campaigners welcomed this, but have pointed out that the money is not ringfenced, meaning there is nothing to stop cash-strapped local authorities from spending the funds on other services.

The coalition is ideologically opposed to ringfencing and says local authorities must decide how to spend the money.

The Princess Royal Trust for Carers says that when Labour allocated a similarly un-ringfenced £400m for respite care to NHS primary care trusts in 2008, only 23% of the cash found its way into carers' breaks.

The wider cuts to social care, which begin in earnest in April, are beginning to bite.

Carers are being told that their care and support packages will be reduced, while charities are concerned that many carers' centres, which provide respite care, will be forced to close.

The Vincent case could be just the tip of an iceberg of misery.

Observer  23 Jan 2011

Eternal Slavery for Sick and Disabled

Basically if you are sick or disabled and an assessment has found that you may be capable of some work at some point in the future, with the right support, you can now be forced to take part in the Government's "Workfare" scheme, working for free to make more profit for Tesco and Asda and Poundland! Yay!

With Lupus or Schizophrenia or Leukaemia or waiting for a kidney transplant or.... well anything really. You're probably exempt with less than 6 months to live, but only if you can be sure it's not a day over 6 months.

On top of this, although unemployed healthy people can be forced to take part for 8 weeks only; lazy, feckless cancer, MS and Parkinson's patients can be forced to work forever. For free ...

Diary of a Benefit Scrounger  18 Feb 2012    A 'modern and compassionate party'    The Work Programme    Third Meltdown Log

Work experience critics are job snobs, says Chris Grayling

Tesco branch hit by protest over pay

Tesco asks government to change flagship jobless scheme

London's homeless could be forced to move as far as Hull

Benefit cuts are fuelling abuse of disabled people, say charities

... charities say they are now regularly contacted by people who have been taunted on the street about supposedly faking their disability and are concerned the climate of suspicion could spill over into violence or other hate crimes.

While the charities speaking out – Scope, Mencap, Leonard Cheshire Disability, the National Autistic Society, Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), and Disability Alliance – say inflammatory media coverage has played a role in this, they primarily blame ministers and civil servants for repeatedly highlighting the supposed mass abuse of the disability benefits system, much of which is unfounded ...

Scope's regular polling of people with disabilities shows that in September two-thirds said they had experienced recent hostility or taunts, up from 41% four months before.

In the last poll almost half said attitudes towards them had deteriorated in the past year ...

Gdn  05 Feb 2012    A 'modern and compassionate party'    Third Meltdown Log

Boris Johnson attacks planned cuts to disability payments

Johnson is concerned that the changes could lead to financial hardship and social isolation for chronically ill and disabled people, and push an already disadvantaged group deeper into poverty.

His submission states: "While some reform may be necessary … the mayor is concerned that, if the focus of this reform is solely efficiency driven, government may fail to ensure that the needs of disabled people are adequately met."

It adds that the changes could "potentially condemn the parents of disabled children and young people, and the children themselves, to a life of financial hardship rather than financial assistance".

His objections ... were submitted early last year but only came to light after disability activists requested to see responses under the Freedom of Information Act ...

The government proposes to replace the Disability Living Allowance with a so-called Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

This would focus payments on claimants deemed to be most in need as a way of reducing spending on this benefit by 20% by 2015-16 ...

Gdn  06 Jan 2012    Cutting the Deficit    Third Meltdown Log    

Reforming the Disability Living Allowance

Responsible Reform

Time-limiting disability benefits makes no sense

The government has decided that people living in residential care homes are NOT going to lose the mobility component money of their disability living allowance benefit.

As a disabled 32-year-old with multiple sclerosis (MS) this means one less fear about my future as my illness progresses.

But unfortunately many serious – and much more immediate – fears remain about how the changes to disability benefits in the welfare reform bill are going to impact on my life, and the lives of others around me.

One particularly scary part that's keeping me and thousands of others awake at night is the plan to time-limit employment support allowance for people who are placed in the work related activity group to just one year if their partners are earning over £149 a week.

There's no evidence that people are going to be well enough or capable of getting employment in that timescale.

In fact, evidence from the Department for Work and Pensions states that 94% of people in the work activity group won't have found a job in this time.

My belief is that "twelve months" has been plucked out of the air by people who do not understand the reality of living with an illness such as multiple sclerosis, and the barriers to finding work that people face ...

navellint 5 December 2011 11:24AM

There's no evidence that people are going to be well enough or capable of getting employment in that timescale. In fact, evidence from the Department for Work and Pensions states that 94% of people in the work activity group won't have found a job in this time.

Getting people to pay the price for their own failure to thrive is a time-hallowed Tory pursuit. It makes their own success feel that much more substantial.

Gdn  05 Dec 2011    A 'modern and compassionate party'    Third Meltdown Log

Marginalised by Standortkonkurrenz    'Unsustainable Burdens'

Inquiry call over Mark and Helen Mullins deaths

A charity worker has called for a full investigation into the deaths of a vulnerable couple whose bodies were found in their Warwickshire home.

The deaths of Mark and Helen Mullins, from Bedworth, last Thursday, are being treated as "unexplained" by police.

Kervin Julien, from the Christian charity Anesis, knew the couple and said they struggled to get benefits.

He has called on the authorities to find out what happened so it does not happen to others in need.

He said the couple walked every Sunday to a soup kitchen in Coventry almost 12 miles away in order to have something to eat and pick up food bags ...

BBC NEWS  09 November 2011
A 'modern and compassionate party'    Coalition Log
Third Meltdown Log    Welfare 'Reform'    Whither Britain? Log

Autonomous Individualism    'Communitarian Citizenship'    Marginalised    'Unsustainable Burdens'

RIP Helen and Mark

2m disabled people risk losing welfare support in 'tick-box medical test'

There are 1.8 million working-age DLA recipients – and Scope says all will be affected by the government's proposal to reassess recipients using a new work assessment and fewer rates of benefit.

At least 600,000 people will lose out because the lowest rates of support for care are being cut and almost all other working age claimants will be wrongly assessed, says the charity.

The government's own figures show that to meet the Treasury savings targets, another £366m has to be found ...

Scope says the government is introducing a tick-box medical assessment that "won't help it achieve the very aims it has set out, and could see a repeat of the problems it has faced over its fitness to work test, the Work Capability Assessment, which has seen thousands of people appealing decisions by assessors, with 40% found in favour of the claimant".

Richard Hawkes, chief executive of Scope, said the assessment should take into account how a disabled person's daily life is affected by barriers and extra costs such as poor housing, lack of public transport and a lack of a circle of friends or relatives ...

Gdn  21 Oct 2011

A 'modern and compassionate party'    Cutting the Deficit    Third Meltdown Log

The fight for disabled people just got harder

Welfare reforms a further blow to families with a disabled child

Under the proposals within the welfare reform bill, disability additions will be cut in half for all but children with very specific needs, such as severe visual impairment or night-time care needs.

This will result in financial support being reduced by over £1,400 per year to families who are likely to have equally high costs.

Family Action has estimated that this cut will result in a loss of benefits of more than £22,000 of support over the childhood of a disabled child.

This is an enormous amount for the households on the lowest income, who are already at significant risk of living in poverty or debt ...

While families currently in receipt of this benefit will have transitional protection against this cut we at Every Disabled Child Matters estimate that this policy will impact on up to 57% of all families with disabled children in the future.

Worryingly this week the government released information that it had previously underestimated the number of families receiving this benefit by 70,000.

This means that 170,000 families will have this benefit immediately frozen in 2013 and potentially cut if there is a change in household circumstance ...

Gdn  16 Sept 2011    Coalition Log    Third Meltdown Log    'We're all in together'    Welfare 'Reform'

Marginalised Home Page

The evidence is growing that the cuts are savagely targeting disabled people

Earlier this year, Scope conducted a survey showing that of the proposed £90bn cuts, £9bn will fall upon disabled people.

This week's survey results from disability charity the Papworth Trust add to weight to claims that disabled people are the hardest hit ...

Gdn  01 Sept 2011    Third Meltdown Log

Disability

Public Sector Cuts

Disabled people fear benefit cut

A survey carried out by the charity Papworth Trust found 86% of disabled people would have to cut down on essentials if their payments were stopped or reduced.

The main area claimants said they would have to scale back their spending was on items such as food and drink, closely followed by utility bills and specialist transport.

Of the 2,200 people surveyed, three-quarters believe the Government is penalising disabled people unfairly ...

Papworth Trust chief executive Adrian Bagg said: "We know that all parts of society are facing cuts. Our survey shows that for 5% of disabled people these cuts would have little or no effect, but given the Government is seeking a 20% reduction, this will mean real-terms cuts that further disadvantage many disabled people.

"The people who participated in this survey have many concerns about the proposed changes, but they are particularly anxious that the new PIP Assessment will be unfair."

Mr Bagg urged the Government to "learn the lessons" of previous benefit reforms and "ensure that if they make this change, the assessment will be fair and the implications clearly explained".

Ind  31 Aug 2011    The Third Meltdown    'We're all in it together'

'Unsustainable Burdens'

Scandal of abuse at Irish tycoons' care homes

Nurse Margaret Haywood found out what the Nursing Council does to whistleblowers!

Hundreds of people with learning disabilities and mental-health problems have been subjected to inhumane and substandard care in hospitals and care homes owned by Castlebeck, the firm at the centre of the Winterbourne View abuse scandal that was exposed in May.

Evidence of residents being routinely locked in their bedrooms, taunted by staff members and restrained for no good reason was uncovered by Care Quality Commission inspectors who visited 23 institutions owned by the company ...

Castlebeck is owned by the Swiss private-equity company Lydian Capital Partners (LCP), which charges around £3,500 a week to care for each resident.

The investment fund, backed by two of Ireland's richest businessmen, JP McManus and John Magnier, has overseen an 80 per cent rise in the annual turnover since buying the company in 2006 ...

The Nursing Midwifery and General Medical Councils last night said they would investigate nurses and doctors who had failed to blow the whistle on substandard care ...

Ind  29 July 2011    FYB Log    Outsourcing

Marginalised

Whistleblower petition gets 25,000 signatures

Time to inflict pain on the terminally ill

Mark Steel exposes the Atos scandal in his own inimitable way ...

The ATOS system has worked so well that in the past three years 160,000 people have successfully appealed against their decision.

So from now on perhaps they'll use a more reliable method, such as rolling two dice and anyone who gets eight or over loses their money.

Or they could still call people in for interviews but do three at a time while the assessor lines them up and goes, "Ip dip dog shit, you are not it", and the loser has to crawl to the job centre.

The trouble is that these tribunals have cost £30m (and you'll laugh at this bit), and that money is paid by the Government, out of taxes.

So they still get paid the £100m, out of taxes, and all the mistakes are paid for out of more taxes.

It's like a minicab firm that always takes you in the wrong direction, but you still have to pay them, then they charge you again to bring you back where you started. And to complete the analogy, on the way home they run someone over and shout:

"If you can stroke a cat there's nothing wrong with you", as the victim is carried into the ambulance.

So here's my suggestion.

On live television ATOS are called in for an interview by a panel of disabled people, who ask them to mime looking after their pet, then assess whether they're entitled to still get £100m or have to go and get a proper job.

Ind  27 July 2011    Atos    Welfare 'Reform'

Marginalised

Fit-to-work tests a 'flawed process'

Welfare to Work policy 'casts the disabled as cheats'

New disability benefit test 'driven by cuts'

In a private meeting with disability minister Maria Miller, campaigners set out their concerns over the test for the new personal independence payment (PIP), with many organisations anxious that reform is being driven by a pledge to cut 20% from the cost of the benefit.

The new test will be piloted over the summer on around 1,000 volunteers who currently claim disability living allowance (DLA), which will be replaced by PIP when it is introduced in 2013 ...

The government last year promised to reduce working age expenditure on this benefit by 20% on the forecast expenditure for 2015/16, triggering suspicion among campaigners that the changes are motivated by the need to cut costs rather than to improve the way the benefit is distributed.

"How can you decide that [a reform] is going to save 20% in advance? I would think that this is driven by cost reductions, and that they have come up with a way of assessing people that will result in the cost savings they want to make," [Richard Hawkes, chief executive of Scope] said ...

Gdn  12 July 2011    Coalition Log    Welfare 'Reform'

Marginalised

Remploy factories for disabled workers could all close

In which the relationship between charities and government is called into question

The review, led by Liz Sayce, chief executive of disability charity Radar, concluded that state support for segregated employment should be phased out in favour of helping disabled people to get and keep jobs in the general labour market ...

pipesmokingman
12 July 2011 3:10AM

more fine words - where are all the jobs that the disabled are going to get then ?? - down here there are 20 odd people chasing EVERY vacancy - if we assume that many will be taken by fit young "non nationals" - that leaves WHAT exactly for the disabled ?? - nothing thats what !!

mean while these firms will get paid to shunt the disabled around from pillar to post

i have HAD experience of some of these firms and they are not fit for purpose !!

i even had one tell me that it was "my fault " i could not get work because i set my sights too high - WTF ?? i have a wide range of practical experience in many fields - and a proven track record in both creating a profitable business from nothing and in management

well it's too late for me now as my health has worsened to a point where work is no longer an option - but i feel sorry for those who are less disabled and really want to work - they have NO chance

something those who brand us all as "scroungers " want to take on board !! - you are being suckered by government and media hype - try asking the experiences of the average disabled person and you will get a different story - we are NOT all work shy scroungers - we just don't GET any real help despite what dave and co would have you believe

Gdn  11 July 2011    FYB Log    Marginalised by Standortkonkurrenz    

Disability

Police are failing people with learning disabilities

"Not you again?"

People with learning disabilities continue to be failed by police forces, with many neither properly investigating disability hate crimes or treating victims as credible witnesses, according to a report by Mencap ...

The issue attracted national attention in 2009 when an inquest found that police had failed Pilkington, who killed herself and her severely disabled teenage daughter in a burning car after the family endured years of near-constant torment from local youths.

The Mencap report, Don't Stand By, uncovered some examples of good police practice. But it also found a more general pattern of patchy and inconsistent responses to crimes affecting people with learning disabilities within many of the 14 English police forces it investigated.

A number had little apparent understanding of the particular needs of victims and the assistance they might require in reporting offences.

Mencap also canvassed the experiences of people with learning disabilities who had been in contact with the police.

They discovered many encountered attitudes ranging from patronising – officers ignoring them and speaking only to their support worker – to the downright dismissive. One person told the study: "I reported a crime to police who said, 'Not you again.'?" ...

Gdn  20 June 2011    FYB Log        

Learning disability

Disabled people 'to lose £9bn from cuts'

The Government's proposed benefit reforms will see 3.5 million disabled people lose about £9.2bn of critical support by 2015, a report from Demos claims ...

Demos warns that by 2015, families with disabled children could lose more than £3,000 each, and disabled adults whose partner is a full-time carer could lose about £3,000.

Kitty Ussher, director of Demos, said: "The emerging evidence from recent years is that the only way to get those furthest from the labour market back into work is through individual client-led support.

"Cutting the welfare bill is attractive to government in the current climate, but without better support for individuals it threatens to just exclude people further."

The Independent  09 Oct 2010    Autumn Spending Review    Crackdown on Welfare

Destination Unknown