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?

NoLottery - my local (Tory) MP is no more (thanks election) although he is aware of my son's's case. My local
(Tory) councillors have either ignored my email (now bloody urgent) or sent a reply saying 'I'm sure it's all fine'. No it's not fine. As soon as my son cannot go out he will be smashing his head on the floor. That is not fine. A&E brain scanned him after seeing him hitting his head relatively gently for him.

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

Forgot that silly sausage

I read the story lastnight about the man that was in the army, he ended up leaving the amry because he was sick, he was diabetic, the joc centre sancionted him, he couldnt afford to eat or get electric,he then died, I found that so sad, I hate jereermy corbyn with a passion and I dont want to vote tory, so i started reading, I am going to vote Labour just to get the cons out. I hope corbyn resigns and Labour get a decent leader

devilish my family member has come up against this child to adult problem too - seems a huge failing of joined up government and something that desperately needs addressing.

I'm sorry your local pols haven't been able to help out - how can they not listen? This doesn't seem like something that should vary whether you are a Tory or a lab voter.

I feel we need some sort of collation so that we can say 'this change' let to these outcomes for these people and here are their stories, for all of the ways life has gotten worse for people in the last 20 years.

It sounds to me as though this is an area where serious study and overhaul is needed.

I agree NoLottery. The thing is, fighting against cuts to disability services and challenging the Tory agenda towards disabled people does not seem to be popular amongst people who are not having to experience and deal with the results of the Tory cutbacks in their day-to-day lives. I have been on disability rights demonstrations before and the only people who turn up are those affected by disabilities themselves and their friends / families / Carers. There doesn't seem to be a 'national interest' in this, such as there is with the NHS for example.

Nolottery - it's a recognised problem and why he had a CTR (care and treatment review - set up by the govt to look at keeping people in the community. Aimed at those at risk of ending up in expensive long start hospital appointments. Transition is a recognised risky time).

Even with the CTR and masses of multiagency support we are stuck in an argument with adults who are being disingenuous beyond belief.

Local politicians are completed uninterested. Have previously been helpful when a friend who was standing as a Tory told them about me. I may have to go back to him - but I should not have to use personal contacts to not be ignored

one of the many things that pisses me off is
my dc has to pay a contribution out of their ESA for their care.
so they take all bar 24.50 a week.(fought that and got it upped)
we have not had a bill since September. i have chased it. SW has chased it. so all those weeks of money not collected.
yet adult social care is lacking funds.... makes no sense.
we will get a massive bill, I will offer instalments. why is it not set up properly.

Glad you fought it Syn as that is the disingenuous argument we are in at the moment with my son. Children's pays his fuel. His adults care plan says he has to be able to go out. But 'adults don't pay fuel' and adults payments take all except £24.90 because 'he's in residential'. I have pointed out it has to come out of somewhere - either a payment from adults or his ESA, he won't care which - but neither department will budge.

This argument has been going on for at least 6 months.

I think I am going to write to the chief exec of the CCG that adults sits under as he is pretty good at sorting stuff out but what a waste of his highly expensive executive time ffs.

Sounds like a nightmare devilish, what's the point of a CTR if it can't ensure continuity of care and the right level of funding being maintained.

I can't understand it zen, it doesn't fit with how much support people give to individual charities for different conditions, we need to unpick and reverse how people in receipt of benefits for disabilities somehow became lumped in with benefit scroungers. I agree, the benefits street type programmes haven't helped, scurrilous and unrepresentative muck racking.

I agree, the benefits street type programmes haven't helped, scurrilous and unrepresentative muck racking.

Absolutely, playing right into the worst of Tory ideology.

YANBU that social care and disability benefits system in this country is not fit for purpose. The system needs a complete overhaul.

YABU to attribute blame to one particular political party. This problem has been building up for years as life expectancy and the number of people living with disabilities increases.

I suppose it's much easier to moan about the situation on Mumsnet than to be actively involved in trying to solve the problem.

suppose it's much easier to moan about the situation on Mumsnet than to be actively involved in trying to solve the problem.

Well it could be said that we need to be on the same page, pulling together to help create a new way of doing things. I do think that the Conservative way of thinking about the less fortunate is not the way to be heading.

Too I think Mumsnet is a great place for the exchange of ideas.

I wouldn't day they were at war per se. Nust that they found a very easy target.

Let the media do the work about John from Apple street who's off work with a bad back and claimed £1million a year in disability benefits, quick snap of them running a marathon for full effect and anyone who doesn't look disabled enough will immediately lose out.

Please don't think I'm bragging I'm not. I'm just pointing out. I had a university education, worked etc and have been bringing my children up singlehandedly for the oast six years with my ill health deteriating rapidly. I qualified for ESA, I've recently been moved down a group and in the process of an appeal. I applied for PIP, I got turned down because apparently going to uni means I'm too clever to be affected by my illnesses (one of them is neurological). Can you imagine how insulting that is? For these grown educated men and women to think a claimant cant possibly be affected because Pixies doesn't appear thick enough. I wished I'd had the energy to fight it but the irony is my health had been that bad since I'm having to pick which battles I fight.

The most surprising case I came across yet was an amputee bloke who'd been on indefinite DLA. He was called in for PIP changeover and the assessor had scored him 0 for mobility problems! It would be funny if it weren't so bloody tragic to some poor claimants.

They don't care because whenever they're challenged on it they just point to Clive who was caught defrauding and it somehow justifies going after the genuine who have enough to worry about.

Dowser the ATOS contract was renegotiated for the first time in October 2010, and on many subsequent occasions since. Despite the fact that they made some absurd decisions, absurd enough for the gov to dump them from their ESA contract, they were still awarded part tender of the PIP Contract. All of this was done under the coalition and then the tories. If they cares that much they had plenty or opportunity to fix it.

*say and just.

Pixies I am fairly sure - but I can't give you chapter and verse so maybe someone else can - there was a ruling early on about congitive impairment and the get-out they were using saying if you weren't congitively impaired, you didn't need PIP. The case law went against them. If you can find it, you can quote it at tribunal. Or if it's too late for you, well I'm putting that here for the benefit of others who have had this.

My son got Enhanced and is currently at uni. We mentioned him being at uni several times on the form - that he has to cook with a housemate doing most of it, etc etc. Probably mentioned university half a dozen times. DLA award made when he was a toddler, was for life but now PIP is only 5 years "Because he might go to university in the future".

If you want to know the definitive of "thick" check out PIP assessors/decision makers - as they don't seem to even read the forms submitted.

We daren't appeal because we knew we risked him losing it/ That also should be reformed.

May will be well aware of all of this and the god-fearing, wonderful christian she is - has done nothing. I wonder if her father would have been ashamed of her? I hope so.

As for 'do something rather than whine online', whoever that was upthread... Discussing this on a large forum with a big footfall is precisely the only way we have a voice at all. Maybe shaming the tories into admitting they got it wrong will only come about if a groundswell of public opinion rises up and by skriking continuously on forums across the internet (because the media is too right wing), the zeitgeist will slowly but surely be changed.

Everyone who has contributed their own experiences or opinions here, adds to that groundswell.

Anyone managed to get a blue badge via enhanced rate PIP who isn't a wheelchair user? My son had higher rate mobility under DLA - which automatically entitled him to a blue badge. He now has enhanced rate mobility under PIP (& enhanced care) but that is no longer enough for a blue badge. It shows such a huge lack of understanding of learning disabilities. We have tried to go directly to the council who told us to lie online in the application but you can't do that as they know what type of award you have. Computer says no.

In every bloody way he govt tells you those with disabilities just need to try harder.

*03/05/2017 11:38 LurkingHusband

Remember Glenn Hoddle saying that the disability was a punishment from God (or similar) ?

That's what the Tories genuinely believe.

If you are poor. If you are disabled. If you become disabled. If you are injured. It's Gods will.*

You are making a serious argument look utterly daft. Shame on you.

If you are poor. If you are disabled. If you become disabled. If you are injured. It's Gods will.

Seriously, this kind of "Tories hate the disabled and want them dead!" stuff is completely counter-productive. I totally get that's how some people feel and are justifiably angry at the system and the Tories, but all this hyperbole does is make people who don't have direct experience of the issues, and who may be Tory-leaning, disregard the issue as being grossly exaggerated.... If Tories are to be accused of anything it is that they are ignorant or disinterested... to say that "are at war", and to appear to mean it literally, is preposterous, and turns off the great majority of people in this country (including a good number of Tories) who may be sympathetic.

"SynysterGates Sun 07-May-17 09:41:18
"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."

Purely hypothetical situation Say a disabled person loses their PIP The carer then gets a part time/full time job so that they can survive financially.

The disabled/ill person then has an accident in the home while the carer is out at work , sustains a serious injury or dies.

Would the system then try to prosecute that carer for neglect even though THAT SAME SYSTEM has insisted that the disabled person is no longer disabled enough to receive PIP. How can you charge someone for neglect for not providing care when that care has been deemed not to be needed by the PIP being stopped.

Just a thought!

The attitudes towards disabled ppl on here is disgusting. DH is 67 and is currently being transferred from DLA to PIP. He is on state pension and we live in social housing.