to think that cuts for disabled people doesn't seem to have the cool factor or whatever that the student thing had?

[daisy5678]

or why are the papers so strangely silent on the issue?

If you agree that cutting disability services and financial support is wrong, please come to


www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_campaigns/1126669-Stop-the-Abolition-of-DLA?msgid=23240953#23240953

[KalokiMallow]

"So I say to any of you who knows about a neighbour with a 'bad back' who digs the garden up, lugs furniture around and stuff while claiming disability allowance - ring them up!"

Or alternatively, try talking to them about their problems first before potentially fucking them over.

I have chronic back pain, for the past 4 days I haven't been able to sit up without help. However last week I was able to move some furniture for about 5 minutes. Those 5 minutes have cost me dearly. But I had to do it.

If someone had seen me for those 5 minutes then they'd assume my back was fine. However if they'd looked at my eyes they'd have seen how doped up I was on painkillers. And if they'd seen me all of 30 minutes later, they'd have seen how much pain I was in.

Do not use a 5 minute snapshot to report someone. Use some common sense instead, and maybe offer to help rather than assume the worst.

[CardyMow]

Try working out how many minutes help a day you need when you need that help because you are unconcious! I think that may be part of the reason why my renewal was turned down in July last year. (Couldn't get an appointment with CAB advisor before DLA form was due back, so had to try to fill in the form with NO help). At least I can attempt to re-apply in February - a lot of people don't know that if you get turned down for a renewal of DLA, appeal it and your appeal gets turned down - you can't reapply for 6 months. Which means that you are without the money to cover essential costs for half a year despite the fact that your life-long disability hasn't vanished overnight, and nor have the costs associated with it. .

There is hardly any support out there for adults with disabilities, and none at all when it comes to filling in the DLA forms other than a very overstretched CAB service, which in my area at least, you can have a 12 week wait for an appointment with a benefits trained advisor. You only get 6 weeks to fill in a DLA renewal form. Helpful?

[MainlyMaynie]

I think the student protests have been effective because a) the student body has actually organised itself and got angry across a range of different organisations and b) it was a direct breach of a manifesto pledge. The OU students association have worked with the NUS for once, as they have developed a shared agenda and anger.

It takes a hook to get press interest and since there isn't the manifesto pledge hook, there needs to be some sort of newsworthy protest IMO. I am totally shocked by the lack of money people living in care homes are going to have, it seems utterly wrong that people won't be left with any money to socialise as though we're making a choice to meet people's physical needs but not their emotional ones. I read the Guardian though, including Society, which is why I know about it.

[Bramshott]

Okay - having read up on other threads here I can see that:

1. Govt figures give a fraud rate for DLA of 0.5%
   

1. The Govt want to save 20% through these changes.
   

So ergo, there will be cuts to support for the most vulnerable, however they dress it up.

Okay, off to email Maria Miller . . .

[Mercedes519]

OK guys, we've had a rant...What do we want them to do?

There is no point turning round and saying its crap don't do it because they are and they will. What we need are specifics that we can all use to make our points.

How about these for starters:

Abolish the arbitrary 20% cost saving
Yes, the DLA process is long and complicated but it?s also detailed and extremely thorough. It has a fraud rate of less than 1%. So where are the 20% savings coming from? From people who have been through this process and have been judged as genuinely in need. The goalposts are moved and now they are not in need? This hits people who are vulnerable, potentially isolated and may not be able to speak for themselves.

Get rid of the preconception that ?DLA is a barrier to work?
How can it be? It isn?t removed when the recipient works. 80% of people who receive DLA don?t work. It isn?t DLA that?s keeping them out of the workplace, it?s their disabilities, a lack of flexibility from employers and a lack of understanding of what people can bring to a role. Lets tackle that as well as this ridiculous statement.

Stop talking about the ?disabled?
There are as many different disabled people as there are in society. It is not a homogenous group brought together by their challenges. A severely autistic child has nothing in common with a 40 year old wheelchair user but they both will be affected by these changes. To significantly reform a benefit like DLA feels like picking on an easy target that cannot speak with one voice, especially with an under-publicised, incredibly short consultation period on the changes.

DLA should continue to be a cash benefit
The people best placed to judge what someone needs is the person in receipt of the benefit or their carers. Overworked and ?tick-box? social workers don?t know the reality of day-to-day situation, how could they? Don?t make the benefit from DLA another thing that disabled people and their carers have to fight their local authorities for.

I think this could be a start for some more standard objections to the changes. I'm sure there are more. What would you add?

I also think its worth putting in our personal stories to highlight the positives of this benefit in the current form.

My DH has a medical condition which leaves him in constant pain and with limited mobility. His mobility DLA allows us (with our normal car costs ? i.e. its NOT free to us) to buy a larger car that he is more comfortable driving. This means he can be independent, visit his family and get his mobility scooter in the back allowing us to have family outings and to enjoy his two young children. Doesn?t sound like much? Think about your quality of life if you couldn?t leave the house. He is 36 btw and will always be like this.

[MissQue]

Sorry, my example was a bit clumsy there, but there are people out there who are obviously faking it, claiming that they are suffering when they're not, and it seems that the only time they get caught is when they are reported.

[Glitterknickaz]

Mercedes, great post.

What I would add to your post is that rather than rely on a doctor employed by a private company sub contracted by the government to make a decision based on one single meeting with the claimant, documentation from the claimant's specialists will also be used in making decisions on eligibility, as it is now.

There are many mental health conditions, Autism being one, that cannot be clearly ascertained just from one meeting.

[Mercedes519]

I've just put it into a new thread in the hope of picking up some more people.

Added your point Glitter.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/politics/1127805-So-DLA-cuts-Why-you-should-care-and-what-you-need-to-say-to-your-MP

[MissQue]

I dare say, Glitter, that most conditions cannot be clearly ascertained just from one meeting, especially if they are going to ignore school reports, GPs and specialists, as well as an individual's own evidence. But yeah, I find it concerning that a lot of conditions fluctuate, or are easily masked, like autism. I imagine that a great majority of folks with a disability have good and bad days, which is why the advice is always to describe how you are on a bad day when filling in your DLA forms.

[weirdbird]

I think everyone is apathetic at the moment, but I also think most people feel powerless to protest.

I want to make my objections noted, but I have no idea where to start.

I am awful at letter writing due to my dsyelxia, it takes me ages just to make posts that make sense and get my point across.

I also think that so many people are waiting to see where else the axe will fall, I know we are waiting to see if my husband will have a job in a few weeks time, that and coping with a newborn is just about as much as I can manage, I wouldn't know where to start to do more.

Can we not start a mumsnet campaign?

[GooseFatRoasties]

There is a thread in campaigns. MN are thinking of taking it up. It would be great if you register your support there.

[bullet234]

Bump.

[madhairday]

Good points Mercedes.

[GooseFatRoasties]

bump.

[poppyknot]

About the protest.....

here

As I have said before the Guardian is teh only national covering this at all as fas as I can see.

(Posted in campaign thread too!)

[Bramshott]

Thanks Poppy - was just coming to post that. It's a really good summary of the situation.

[chocoholic]

I'm not sure which thread to put this on so do please post elsewhere if needed.

There is a petition here and also a pre-written letter which can be sent to your MP here

[LDNmummy]

I think people are not being responsive because, as a student who has been very aware of the recent protests, people don't want to protest for something unless it affects them. It's easier to not get involved. And the media and government made the protesters out to be yobs, it has done the trick of putting a lot of people off the protests and wanting to protest themselves for fear of the same treatment and the stigma attached. Approach the student organizations about this, we are all in this together and I'm sure they will be more responsive than you think.

[daisy5678]

Thanks to those who have posted in support and posted links. I am still that this hasn't had the level of interest from society and MN in general that the tuition fees debate had.

I disagree with the tuition fees rise but they will not actually make anyone's life suddenly poorer. Students will, of course, take on debt for the future, but aren't expected to suddenly find huge sums of money. Long-term, yes, of course, but also going to uni is a choice. Being disabled isn't and the cuts will impact immediately on people and on families - money that some can't just find from nowhere.

I also know it's not an either/ or situation. Neither situation is fair! It's just striking how different the levels of interest are.

But it's nice to see non-SN board names on here taking an interest and supporting - thank you.

[daisy5678]

LDNmummy, I agree with what you've said. Will look into student organisations too - thanks.

[bullet234]

Bump.

[curlymama]

You can't expect people to get het up about it when they don't know what the whole thing means. Not being rude, but I though I had quite a good idea when I posted on this thread a cople of days ago and said that those of you that are going to be affected need to spell out exactly how you are going to be affected, for those of us that genuinely don't know.

Student debt is easy to understand, a whole myriad of diabilities and the extra cost it involves is not quite so easy. It really isn't that people don't care.

It's easy to say that disability costs more, I know of course it does. But when a person knows very little about disability, all they will see is that disabled people get free priority parking, they can get subsidised cars, they get free bus passes, and it is assumed that if they need actual physical help then that will be provided. It often is.

Maybe if a separate thread was started saying that after the cut someone won't even be able to see their family on a regualr basis, or be able to do some other really basic thing, then people will begin to understand and protest more.

The only story I have relates to my DH and I organising a trip abroad for a group of our friends, one of them uses a wheelchair as he is tetraplegic and needs a hoist. The airline company charged him and extra £240 to bring his hoist and toilet chair on the plane, and that was after lots of us complaining. But the airline made it feel like they were doing me a favour for doing it so cheap! We were all disgusted, but I don't know if a story about going on holday when so many people can't afford it is the best way to attract sympathy!

[Remotew]

It's just another disgraceful cut this horrible government is proposing, people do care, but unless it affects them directly they won't do anything about it as something else will be happening that does affect them.

The student protests were loud but they didn't change anything. If they can pass that bill they will pass anything no matter what anyone does. I'm feeling totally deflated and almost powerless. The only way to stop all this is for the lib dems to see some sense.

[Remotew]

Agree with Curlymama also. If someone genuinely needs the help then won't the PIP still be payable at the same rate as DLA. I realise this is probably just another cut but are they scrapping it for something that will mean much less money for everyone or trying to cut it for a few who they deem don't need it?

I don't know enough about it and the figures involved.

[poppyknot]

20% fewer recipients would not be 'a few that didn't need it' though.
DLA is difficult enough to get as it is (and does not go to whole sections such as the under 3s at all).

It looks as if PIP will have an even higher, more arcane bar. (Don't be fooled by the fluffy acronym )