to think that disability affects you all?

[LadySybilDeChocolate]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1380515-AIBU-about-the-government-lying-about-DLA#29486359 I'm talking about this thread. Your support is needed. Disability is an ongoing issue and the disabled are being bastardised at the moment. Children are having vital benefits cut, as are those who really need them. We all know someone who's disabled. By burying your head in the sand you're ignoring the needs of your relatives, your friends or your children.

I know plenty of people who have a disability. They range from my lovely nephew who is autistic to my mother who has Osteoperosis and heart failure. These cuts would affect my family. What about yours?

Can you simplify for an idiot what is happening?

I am, according to work and Occ Health, disabled (my condition means they legally have to make allowances under the DDA) yet I don't claim disability allowances nor am I able to as it is notoriously difficult, nigh on impossible, to claim when you have fibromyalgia. So. Are they going to make it simple for us folk with conditions like that or do we still not count on that front?

I think that it's important for people to remember that even if you are not disabled, there are no guarantees in life, and while this may not affect you personally NOW... it could affect you or your family in the future.

If you don't get involved, it may not affect you today... but it could play a huge part in your life tomorrow....

We are all one illness, car accident, step in front of a bus away from disability. Don't make the mistake of thinking you're exempt. Nobody is.

Read spartacusreport to find out who's paying for the crisis (clue: it's not bankers)

Your link didn't work julia

The thing is everyone is worse off.Is not just people with disabilities.

Doesn't affect me, but more power to you for trying.

Hi Custard

They are messing it up completely. This is the simplified version:

www.disabilityalliance.org/dlatest.htm

The reform of disability living allowance (DLA) will mean that DLA will be replaced by a personal independence payment (PIP) for those of working age from April 2013.

The mobility side of the DLA will also be affected. If a patient uses a wheelchair then they will be unable to get the mobility element as they will be deemed as able to move around. It's rediculous.

Children who recieve DLA will also have the amount of tax credits their parents receieve for them reduced. Currently the payments to these families is higher as they have additional costs which are incurred when raising a disabled child. The government are planning on reducing these payments, forcing many families into poverty.

There's a lot of info on here www.periscopepost.com/2012/01/spartacus-report-government-buried-opposition-to-disability-living-allowance-reform/

Well logically speaking they can move so I can sort of see where they are coming from with that BUT it's not that cut and dry. Someone with an amputation will be far more mobile than someone with MS for instance.

What is the justification for these changes? Is it all about balancing the books?

i think that the problem is that the disabled and their carers are a relatively small group.

People are detached from our cause as they themselves aren't disabled so it doesn't affect them directly.

They seem to forget that each and every one of them is but a minor accident away from disability. but by that time their apathy will have meant it is too late. Their financial fate will have been decided long ago.

It can affect you though Android. I was healthy until 3 years ago when I was diagnosed with MS. There's no history of this in my family at all. I didn't think that disability would affect me directly either. My mother's always had health issues but I don't live near her so I'm not the one taking her to hospital appointments etc. I was happy living in my bubble, just like you.

It's completely about balancing the books. They won't chase the high earners for the tax they don't pay so they will chase the most vulnerable of society instead.

No one plans on giving birth to a disabled child, no one plans on being diagnosed with a disease or having an accident. This really does affect everyone because what's to say that this won't happen to you?

Thing is under these cuts more people are going to be put into residential care. So the expenditure will go from whatever benefits they are currently drawing per week to £3 grand at least per week per person.

shrugs whatevs, eh?

Sybil sorry to hear of your diagnosis, we have MS in my family (more than one family member) and have witnessed it's effects and, like you, they all lived in a little bubble too, some things just hit people for no reason.

I wish you well.

I'm not in a bubble, I'm in a different country to you.

I've had a quick glance at the links but are there any figures anywhere? What will the rates go from and to?

Glitter it sounds like they want to go back towards institutional care and do away with care in the community

The thing is everyone is worse off.Is not just people with disabilities.

agree.

difference is that "everyone" can change their situation. you can return to work, get a pay rise, change jobs etc etc.
A disabled person is stuck being disabled. Very few who claim DLA ever find a miracle cure that means they no longer require it.

That wouldn't surprise me tbh. Although that's insanity as it costs far more to put my three kids in residential care than it does to pay me & DH enough to live on whilst caring for them. Only we're not going to have enough to live on and their disabilities won't magically disappear to enable us to work.

Still, won't be seeing those nasty odd people on the streets will we?
Or maybe we will. In doorways, in cardboard boxes.

Life's unpredicatable. It could have been something so much worse. My old neighbour is currently in remission from bowel cancer, she's 28.

I hope you're in a better country then this one Android.

You can work when you're disabled you know. I really struggle with the notion that having a disability precludes you from employment.

There's no figures yet custard.

glitter doesn't bear/bare (never know which one it is) thinking about.

sybil then it may be that knickers don't need knotting just yet.

I'd say the biggest barrier to work that disabled people and their carers have is employers actually.

Let's face it you have two candidates in front of you, both equally qualified but one may have to take time off work regularly, at short notice and for unpredictable lengths of time because of their childrens' disabilities.

Which would you employ? I don't actually blame employers for that but it does render you umemployable.

You can work when you're disabled but who wants to employ someone who needs time off sick every few weeks? Even if there's enough jobs out there who's going to want to employ someone who's permanently exhausted or needs treatment three times a week? I'm self employed. I have to work or I'd go crazy. I work when I can, rest when I need to.

Hi LadySybil. I amreeling from the shock of what the government is attempting to do to people who have disabilities. I use FB a lot to raise awareness too.