Stop the Abolition of DLA

[Glitterknickaz]

The government are proposing to get rid of DLA in favour of PIP. full consultation here

Riven started a fantastic thread in Chat with the very pertinent point that this applies to everyone, that every one of us could be just one step from disability themselves.

There is NOTHING in the media about this. These proposals could mean poverty for the disabled and their families in this country. It could leave some in residential care completely isolated from their families and support networks through the removal of the mobility component.

My family has already been hit three times through the NHS, education and aiming high, via the cuts, if they now remove the money from our pockets we are going to be in a heat or eat situation.

Please MNHQ do something, as many are oblivious to these proposals and what they will mean, including those who themselves already claim DLA.

Hi!

UPDATE ON OUR Personal CAMPAIGN:

This morning we went to see Hilary Benn, our MP with our son Adam who is profoundly disabled. Hilary Benn is going to raise a question about the planned abolition of DLA Mobility Allowance for those who are in residential schools.

To do YOUR bit, MEET YOUR MP at the PARLIAMENT on 9th February 2011!!! By meeting them in person you can help them understand the impact of removing DLA Mobility from people living in residential care - in our son's case IN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS.

Alternatively, meet your MP locally just as we did today with our son.

The Leonard Cheshire Disability is running a very well organised campaign 'Mobilise for DLA!' and they are going to deliver a PETITION to the government on 09th February 2011 as part of their WEEK OF ACTION.

As for my personal letter sent to David Cameron PM - I am still waiting for his response. (Unlike him, Hilary Benn replied to me in a letter sent by post instantly ...)

Although I am aware that I am unable to make a BIG plash, I beleive, throwing my tiny pebbles still create some ripples.

Go on pick up your pebble!

I actually get Private Eye every fortnight, and it has crossed my mind.

They supported the appeal to get a chap called Stephen, who was an adult, returned from enforced care to his fathers care, just beofre Stephen lost any chance of being ever allowed back into the community.
And why was Stephen in this situation? Because his Father was ill and asked for a week's respite.

I have posted the questions regarding Unum on the guardian site, and Rhydian has asked some pertinent questions about the reform, that also point to Unum.

By demolishing the welfare state at the guidance of Unum, then they will frighten people into taking out medical insurance, with Unum ( or their subsidiaries and associates.)

Unum are in this for the long term.

Hossylass, this is really scary, although it make sense from the goverment point of view. I wonder if we could find out how much money Unum paid to the Tory Party for the election campaign! As UNUM is the largest private insurance company specialising in disability in the world which makes them very powerful indeed.
Hossylass, please try to approach Private Eye, we will do the same.

Did you know about UNUM?

welfarereformbill.blogspot.com/ says they called on Gordon Brown PM to shelve plans to involve the UNUM Group in nay plans for DWP Welfare Reform? Further info on the link: welfarereformbill.blogspot.com/

It seems it's another skeleton from the Labour's cupboard. Politics is corrupt to the core! Not surprising that there is no moral problem to make my severely disabled son to pay for the banker's fraud!

Hello hello hello.

So sorry for dispearing from here.

Can I be very cheeky and ask for a quick update please if anyone can? Only a few days left now until 14th.

I've still not heard from my MP and tomorrow I plan to ring his office direct to check I have the correct address!

If I have, my next e-mail will be rather more ahem, direct.

'disappearing' - sorry, I'm tired.

Bump. Only a week to go before the consultation closes.

Yeah, I've been vaguely aware of the Unum situation for a while.

As kemeva says, Unum are in it for the long term. Just think, all those billions of tax pounds going straight into National Insurance and out again to the public minus only the admin costs!

For private insurance companies it's like being a vampire on the wrong side of a fence from a river of blood: the smell is driving them crazy. All that money, and none of it theirs. Of course they're desperate to divert the bubbling torrent to their side of the fence, to drink their fill and let the public squabble over the much-diminished outflow. And of course they'll chuck a fortune at lobbying of every kind.

Equally galling for them, NI benefits provide a benchmark for their own offerings. People will only take out private insurance if it offers something over and above National Insurance payouts. If the insurers play the sort of games US medical insurers do ("Oh but cancer isn't covered when there's an R in the month"), they'll simply get no business in the UK.

Oops, was that me being cynical again?

My letter to Kent on Sunday has sunk without trace, btw.

Cynical cage, you?

You're right though

Hi! I just posted my questions to Maria Miller Minister on the Guardian website (See link above!)

Here it is:

Dear Maria Miller,

My son may not have speech, but he still has a VOICE!

Is it fair that my quadriplegic, blind, speechless, gastrostomy -fed 15 years old son will be denied of his basic rights as a result of your crude political decision?

Is it fair that our son who attends residential school will lose the use of the wheelchair accessible car leased from Motability?

How will you compensate our family for the £6,000 advance payment we had to pay for leasing his vehicle for 5 years?

Our profoundly disabled son had to go to residential school because the local authority was unable to meet his Special Edeucational Needs in the city's special schools and Social Service withdrew home support after school hours. He already lost part of his DLA in spite of spending his weekends and school holidays at home. If your government will stop his Mobility Allowance, he will lose his wheelchair adapted vehicle and with it his dignity, freedom of movement and most of all regular outings with his family. In fact as a result of your 'money-saving policy' he will have to go to a residential home full time against his and his parents' will!

Do you agree that this is the denial of his basic rights? Are you prepared to defend your discriminative decision at the European Court?

It will also cost the tax-payers a vast amount of money, not to mention the astromonical human costs involved.
DO YOU CARE, Minister Maria Miller?

Fantastic letter

Well written Kemeva. :)

Unum first raised their ugly heads back in 1992, which at the time I think was the tories.
Makes no odds who it was, I think I hate them all now.:(

Cage, when they finally dismember the welfare state, will they be offering tax or NI rebates on all the services we no longer have?
Will they actually administrate the NI contributions in the correct manner, as their failure to manage our insurance has so far been negligable.

If a private insurance company had managed their funds this badly there would have been calls for heads to roll, but apparently when it is a National insurance policy it is subject to abuse and change regardless of those who have paid into it.

I'm hoping the Great British Public are not that stupid as to buy into these lies, and I am damned sure I am going to do my utmost to educate them in future ;)

I'm betting on National Insurance disappearing as though it had never been.

Did you clock that pensions are going to be made NI-independent? Don't remember details, but ConDems propose a flat rate pension regardless of how many years' stamp you've paid, with slightly higher than current amounts. Ahhh, in't that generous?

In't that, in fact, fucking suspicious? Given cuts and all? Why would they be increasing the pension payout?

To distract from the fact that it makes the personal National Insurance record almost redundant:

? pension is flat rate and ignores NI stamp

? Jobseekers Allowance only lasts one year (and has incredibly narrow stamp criteria).

? Incapacity Benefit/ESA also one-year only for most people (also has incredibly narrow stamp criteria).

So what's the point of this huge administrative structure for tiny NI benefits? None. Cut the lot and support these people more efficiently out of general taxation.

And that's the final phase.

Notice I said "these people"? That's right, the ones sitting over there in the corner of shame, who failed to exercise personal responsibility and take out private insurance and pensions. Right now I receive a National Insurance payout, and can look anybody in the eye because I can prove that's what it is. Erase my personal record of NI contributions and I become a mere feckless beggar on the state, at the whim of the tax-payer's charity. Once that narrative's established, even pensions can be cut and cut and cut.

FORWARD TO THE PAST!

Cage, when this is all over lets share a bottle of cava and a good rant!

Thats if we both haven't been "disappeared" for being honest/astute/awake. (delete as inappropriate).

We could have a Cynics Anonymous.

I should knuckle down, shouldn't I, and stop whining, write more letters.

Just a reminder that there is a live discussion with Maria Miller on the Guaridan website at 1.45 pm today. Many questions already posted. How many will beanswered?

here

Aha, you can click "recommend" on the Qs that have been submitted for Maria Miller. Don't need a log in or anything.

Suggest everyone head over to the Guardian via poppyknot's link and "recommend" the more cogent questions (great submission by Rhydian, I note).

Thanks - am clicked out now. Noticed that the top posts get more clicks than the later ones........

A complete waste of time......

What was supposed to happen? Nothing here. [thick emoticon]

Ah, OK, it's just all embedded in the comments, and Maria Miller says very little anyway. Her few contributions seem to be the usual, "Never mind the questions, here's my message."

But sterling performance by Rhydian, you handsome devil!

As a matter of interest Chris Grayling will be discussing work and benfits on the Rethink site at about 11.30am.

It is probably more interesting to play Platitude Bingo on these Q and A sessions as no concrete answers are ever given.....

here

Funnily enough there was a webchat with Maria Miller here when she was Shadow Minister for the family. Missed that one!

here

Found this interview with MM when she had just got the Disability post:

?If a society doesn?t properly support its disabled people, it doesn?t just hurt those individuals. It hurts their families. It hurts their communities. And it hurts the society itself.?

and

?Disabled people should have the same choice, control and freedom as any other citizen. That, to me, seems self evident but, all too often, the opposite is true.?

The consultation on reform of the DLA has been quietly extended till the 18th of February.

here

Ho hum!