To Think the Tories Are STILL At War With The Disabled?

[JoffreyBaratheon]

As parent of a disabled child, this is what I'm preoccupied with, during a General Election...

Under Cameron and Osborne, and iDS - it was clear the tories were engaging in an all out war on the disabled. Cuts to benefits, and services and of course, the loathed and disgusting PIP replacing DLA...

But what has strong and stable (well, weak an unstable) Theresa May done to reverse the damage? Nothing, so far as I can see.

My son had DLA for life and by some miracle, managed to get PIP but will now have to re-apply in five years. If the tories have the cure for autism and it is going to be made available in 5 years - fair enough. But something tells me - they haven't. We were put through months of hell for that.

Other disabled people and their carers have far worse stories.

Now I might be stupid but I can't see what May has done to address the callous culture of PIP. She is still attacking the disabled. Or am I missing something and AIBU?

I think this should be enough to lose them the election. The fact they have attacked disabled people to the extent they have. Am I the only one not to be hoodwinked by this 'I'm only a vicar's daughter' BS? What she has done to the disabled is the least 'christian' thing I can think of and I want her held to account for it. Anyone else?

Devilishpyjamas DS has autism and gets enhanced rate care and mobility for PIP. We didn't get an automatic blue badge as it's not automatic under PIP (which is so unfair as it used to be for DLA) but we just filled in the form for a blue badge on the council website. We used the descriptor "I am over the age of two and have a permanent and substantial disability which means that I have very considerable difficulty in walking" which means they send you for a face to face assessment with an OT. I supplied copies of all his diagnoses (including dyspraxia, ADHD and epilepsy as well as autism), his EHCP and CAMHS and social services assessments and the OT had no problems recommending us for a blue badge.

Helena, i think you misread my post
That was a bit i took from another post.

This sort of forum is an excellent way to share lots of people's experiences of disability. I don't believe most people are rotten, and let's face it enough people will vote for the tories on June 8, which I can't square with the huge amounts we give to charities - therefore we need to keep talking about the real experiences people are having and publicising them.

Carers, when not caring, are simply the unemployed. they shouldn't be left hungry and homeless, but they should, while receiving benefits, be working hard to find a job as opposed to waiting around. "

I care for a 20 year old. Seven days a week, twenty four hours a day. I get the princely sum of 62 quid a week. I am not unemployed, in fact I work bloody hard. In the times that carers are not working, they may be doing other caring duties, ensuring there are clean sheets daily for those who wet, organising doctors appointments, meetings, ensuring the right food is available, that necessary drugs are at hand etc. There are a whole raft of things that Carers do when their charges are at school/college etc. These are still caring duties. Being a carer is a full time job without any of the benefits a job provides: no holidays, no days off, no restrictions on the hours worked. For 62 quid a week. It's laughable, or would be if it weren't that successive governments were just using slave labour.

Same here. Im a 24/7 carer. No respite or help EVER. DC, lifelong disabilities.

I work harder now than all the times I was in recognised employment. for a fraction of the 'wage'.

as for the following--*This is David Cameron's logic and he should be pulled up on this but as his son sadly died it is swept under the carpet.

He claimed DLA despite being a millionaire and then later called people on benefits scroungers out for everything they were 'entitled' to.
He used a respite service despite having 2 nannies to help look after his son and his wife is quoted as saying ' she wouldn't have coped without the respite service'
Cameron then cut respite services everywhere and the exact service he used despite having money and nannies to pay privately whereas most people don't have that luxury.

How on earth can a man cut disability services he used and his wife said she never would have coped without using services.

Absolutely shameful and he should hang his head in shame. He is the real scrounger along with all the other old boys club*

yes ^^ Beggars belief doesn't it?

Ah Sorry Synster

Not only did he claim DLA he brought his late son up every time he was questioned about the NHS at PMQs.

Cutting disability benefits(like £30 a week cut to ESA) may also cause a disabled person to cover up their disability to get a job.............or seeing all this happening around them may cause them to cover up a developing illness so they can carry on in a job they shouldnt be doing because they dont want to risk poverty.

Glasgow bin lorry man. Dont be too surprised if we see more cases or news stories like that one!

My Tory MP helped me a lot when the DWP were messing me around with PIP (they turned me down at reassessment and made a mistake, then when it was put right by tribunals 'lost' the paperwork). I had a handwritten note explaining they had contacted them and it was being sorted out, and then it was, in a week. I actually found the PIP process not too bad previous to that, they did a home visit and seemed quite aware of mental health. However I did have a lot of medical evidence.

Qui
I have spent today with a raging temperature and sore throat, writing letters to a psychiatrist about his stupid extra diagnosis, the fact that he was late, paid no heed to dd etc. Copying letters to PALS and to GP. Whilst also reassuring dd that I'm okay, that the paracetamol I'm taking is being locked up again each time I use it, and making sure she is eating and drinking. I haven't got her washed today. I'm just not well enough and she fortunately has remembered to use a towel for her period and hasn't soiled herself. Nobody to call in sick to though, is there. Nobody to take over, just me and her.

As for this little gem:
I suppose it's much easier to moan about the situation on Mumsnet than to be actively involved in trying to solve the problem.
I suppose it's easier to make judgements about people whose lives you know nothing about, isn't it. Yours faithfully, a well known activist.

Carers, when not caring, are simply the unemployed. they shouldn't be left hungry and homeless, but they should, while receiving benefits, be working hard to find a job as opposed to waiting around."

Actually yes that's a good idea. All the carers can go and job search, because caring for one person, often 24/7 isn't enough.

As long as you do understand that that child or adult still needs caring for whilst said carer is at work, they'll have to find someone else to do the caring when the they're at work, and the government will end up paying a lot more than £60 a week for their care.

Glad we sorted that out then. Thank god they're isn't no budget to worry about.

Have RTFT and am on board with most, totally at some of the Tory supporters though

For those who are activists, how do you become one? What can actually be done? Who do I contact? Society, sickeningly, seems to be totally disinterested while the Tories continue with their ideologically based attacks

katie The DPAC forums are a good place to start.

Thanks Dawn I will check them out now

Ah greenpipe - that's our problem then - our council only use a central .gov system which only seems to allow the automatic one (for 12 points PIP under the moving around section - ds1 qualifies under the planning a journey section iykwim).

However I did have a lot of medical evidence.

Yes I think that helps LovelyBath. I had very little when I applied for PIP..the little I did have they weren't interested in. I remember trying to show the assessor my physio letter and her telling me she didn't need it. I think mental health understanding very much depends on your area and expertise of the assessor. I clearly remember crying, twice during my PIP assessment. Sorry for the trigger but she asked if I'd ever had SIs as I suffer from D&A too and I said yes and got very upset. In her report she put "pixies was laughing and joking throughout the assessment". contrast that with this years ESA reassessment and the big bundle of medical notes the assessor went off to photocopy!

OP thanks for the info about the cognitive ability thing. I'll look into that. The comments about me being clever came from a bloody Judge in their statement of reasons! but i will look into it thankyou

Ds1 has a huge amount of paperwork - that does help!

It doesn't get any better as they get older. At 18 my daughter's benefits were stopped with no warning as she was leaving education to go to work - according to the government. (She has the abilities of a 6 month old baby) I reapplied got lifelong dla. Then I had to claim essa for her and she was constantly being reassed annually because you know she could always suddenly learn to walk and talk amongst other things.
The system is ridiculous and the government rebranding the benefits doesn't help. Now at 23 she is being reassessed again because essa is changing to esa. The government set people up to fail their tests. In a way my daughter is lucky as her disabilities are obvious but my heart goes out to those with 'hidden' disabilities and learning difficulties as I'm sure they will be put through the mill a lot more than we are.

I think this should be enough to lose them the election. The fact they have attacked disabled people to the extent they have.
Most people simply don't care though unless it affects them. Thats the top and bottom of it. A lot of people seem to not realise that disability can hit any one of us at any time. So its easier to totally ignore the way the Tories treat the disabled than it is to examine how important it actually is. Speaking about the cuts its fairly easy to bury heads in the sand and bleat 'the genuine disabled have nothing to fear' despite loads of evidence to the contrary than it is to examine quite why this has been allowed to go on unchecked for so long, and looks set to remain that way.

I'd rather hammer out the abuse then the genuinely disabled can have more.

This will NEVER happen though. If all fraud was eliminated tomorrow, do you really think that there would suddenly be a u-turn in everything and suddenly disabled people would stop being demonized in the press, people would stop thinking Sheila down the road was fooling her 3 consultants and the pain clinic...and that those on DLA/PIP would receive a letter stating their payments were doubling as money had been saved?! Fantasy. And everyone knows this but still uses this excuse on threads like this...

The elephant in the room with these 'oh but loads are claiming fraudulently' is that in any system there will be an element of fraud. Yes. Making these assessments 'harder' (meaning fail most, even with realms of evidence from various medical experts...its a myth that people get PIP just because of a letter from their GP) only means that genuine disabled people get caught again and again. Those few who do manage to fool a load of experts...know exactly how to pass these assessments...so will continue to claim. So all tightening up the criteria does is take benefits away from those who do actually need them whilst the fraudsters sail through untouched as they are good liars...

Personally I would rather have the 1% (I think less personally..having been through these assessments myself I can't see how many can 'fake' it) continue claiming whilst not putting the remaining 99% through hell, possibly making their conditions worse and causing a lot of stress. Than cause distress to the 99% because you are too focused on the 1%.

Even if the 1% were eradicated, there would be no more money for those who need it, there wouldn't be a few pence refund on your own taxes...and so on.

Dixie I am in the same predicament as you having to apply for an ehcp for one of my DC. My youngest already has one but I didn't have to apply for him as the SN pre-school he was at did it as a matter of course. From experience dealing with my particular LA, I am expecting to get turned down for an assessment, but have heard that over 70% of cases are successful on appeal, so don't be discouraged if they turn you down, just put an appeal in asap. Also, if the paed is suggesting your DC should have an ehcp, that is excellent evidence to include with your application (hopefully that will be on the paed report).

I think this should be enough to lose them the election. The fact they have attacked disabled people to the extent they have.

Absolutely! It is at heart a cowardly act. And if actions do indeed speak louder than words, a stunning indictment of their character.

Absolutely! It is at heart a cowardly act. And if actions do indeed speak louder than words, a stunning indictment of their character.

They don't care though. They'd sell their own grandma for a few more votes.

I think this should be enough to lose them the election. The fact they have attacked disabled people to the extent they have.
Just take a look at these boards. The amount of people that rattle on about the 'genuinely' disabled. They're the people that vote Tory. When they get to the ballot box they don't actually think about us, or if they do, well, most of them are on the fiddle, aren't they. Then there are those who think that due to bad spending by Labour ( a myth perpetuated so often it's a perceived truth) means we have to save money somewhere and why should they support people who are sat on their arses, and why should their taxes pay for them to do so when they work so damned hard. Of course forgetting about the barriers that prevent disabled people who can and want to work; badly designed, inaccessible offices, schools, public transport etc. No, we're all just lazy. Look how often we've had people complain on these boards about someone getting carer's allowance and PiP or DLA. That's the level of comprehension.
Even on this thread we shouldn't be moaning we should be active and we should be allowing governments to discriminate because it's fiscally useful to do so. It's fiscally useful to reorganise the education system properly, but that's not happening, cut trident, not that either. The NHS would be better off with fewer managers and more grass roots staff, but no, let's ignore that and take from those least able to fight back. Nobody will notice or believe.

Not only did he claim DLA he brought his late son up every time he was questioned about the NHS at PMQs.

^^ this. And every time some election/voting thing was coming up he'd use his late son to get the sympathy vote yet wouldn't help the disabled.

I think this should be enough to lose them the election. The fact they have attacked disabled people to the extent they have

^^ thing is, this applies to ALL parties, regardless who's in power. All talk, promises and manifestos and no action.

And now bloody Corbyns, priorty is getting junk food ads off the tv before thewatershed??? WTF???? 1st world problem?

DAWNDONNA I hope you are feeling better. I know the feeling, ''they'' also expect carers to be robots who never get ill, and its all we can do when we're ill and have no choice but to carry on regardless. glad your DD managed to sort herself out with her monthly time .