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.

God, can barely bring myself to read the Chris Grayling stuff.

Am I right in thinking they're busily rowing back from the "we doing this to make 20% cuts"?

Chris Grayling on the Rethink Q & A:
"This is not about financial targets. It's not about forcing people off benefits"

and intro to yesterday's Guardian Maria Miller Q&A:
"reforms to the non-means tested benefit which, it says, are not intended to cut costs but to make sure the benefit goes to the right people."

Before anyone starts believing that, here's Ms Miller in parliament on 18 October 2010:
"One factor being considered in developing options for the new assessment is the need for reform of disability living allowance to deliver savings of 20% of working age expenditure."

Thanks for that heads-up about the date change, poppyknot.

Experiencing Maria Miller's incompetence and indifference at the Guardian online A&Q was very disturbing. What hope we can have if the Minister for Disability enters into a national discussion so un-prepared and whose professional expertise on disability stems from her having a 'disabled' mother?! She could have done some homework or at least instructed her interns to monitor the questions, analyse them and prepare some real answers! If all she can come up with are headlines from the tabloids or political soundbites, she is NOT fit for the job.! Not to mention her LACK OF INTEGRITY, indifference to human rights and the diasablity movement, her TOTAL IGNORANCE of the Medical Model of Disability and her shameless ARROGANCE!
We should carry on with our campaign.

Remember: "THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO DO NOTHING." (Edmund Burke)

Did you know? There WAS a DLA DEMONSTRATION at the Parliament on 09 Feb 2010! Interestingly, TV broadcast forgot to mention it just as printed media e.g. Guardian (which is strange ofter their online discussion).
However, BBC Radio 4 reported on the issue in two parts:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y8xdz#p00dzj67

BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - You and Yours, 09/02/2011

Chapter 1: DLA Part 1
Chapter 5: DLA Part 2 INterview with Maria Miller Minister

I listened to Maria Miller answering questions on Radio 4 this week just before the 1pm news about the mobility allowance cut for those in residential care. She admitted that the problem was bigger than government had anticipated. She said there was 'confusion in the system and a problem that needs fixing, that the current system was not working.' She wanted to clear up who has the day to day obligation to provide mobility. She will make sure the system is fixed so that there is clarity as to who is responsible for providing transport and she is committed to personalisation. It sounded to me as if her dept still want to shift the responsibility for all transport/mobility onto the LAs and the care homes. Who is going to pay for this?

Once she explicitly and publicly dumps legal responsibility on the councils, there's a chance they will scream and fight back. (How, I don't know.)

The problem with many of the recent changes is that responsibility ends up nowhere or on the disabled person, which rather defeats the object.

I always thought the Employment Support Allowance / JobSeekers Allowance debacle was about that - making disabled people disappear down a crack in the middle. The moment actual profit-making companies find themselves expected to provide welfare by employing sick people (if they wouldn't normally have employed that person), there'll be toys thrown from cots.

If we're lucky, they'll throw them at the govt and we'll no longer be fighting alone.

If we're unlucky, we'll be the toys.

After Maria Millers terrible performance on the Guardian live webchat, I said to myself, prepare for a blizzard of benefit cheating scum headlines - and lo, it came to pass today. Coincidence? I think not. I think she went scurrying back to HQ with news that the disabled were getting a bit balshy and biting back. The site said they were unprepared for the amount of interest and the strength of feeling, or something to that effect, when any idiot would have checked the questions lined up days in advance.

So, what to do? Pour out more inaccurate press release to the media to try and make sure any disability sympathy doesn't start to break out.

It is interesting that IDS has told the Select Committee that some of the rhetoric against the disabled should be toned down, as it is not their fault if they get overpayments! This being the man who said it was a "sin" not to work.

I am also interested in Maria Millers claim that her knowledge of disability comes from her Mother, who lives with her, being disabled. I can find no reference to thisanywhere. However, on MUMSNET 18 months ago she said she managed to juggle her job with children because she had live in childcare from their grandparents.!!

I would love to know what disability her Mother has that ennables her to be a full time nanny?

Thank God not all are so blinkered. See articles on

www.leftfootforward.org/

and fullfact.org/factchecks/incapacity_benefit_fit_to_work-2494

But how to get the general public to read the truth?

I am concerned that the real problem we have here is not the hostility of the public but the inactivity and ignorance of what is really happening by the disabled themseves.

I know 2 people I speak to only occasionally, one on IB and one on DLA, who have absolutely no idea what is happening.
I have tried in the past to discuss the forthcoming changes but seemed to be met with complete disbelief and the attitude that they would be alright because they really were sick, so none of it applied to them.

Recently, I told the one on IB that the reassessments were about to start and what was happening with the ATOS medicals and he had absolutely no idea and was completely shocked.

The other, on a lifetime award of DLA still seems to think that, as such the reassement does not apply to her.

My question is, how do we make the disabled themselves aware of what is happening, when so few seem to actually know?

It is no wonder the petition has only scraped 4500 signatures. Fish and trees get hundreds of thousands (quite rightly) so why not the disabled when there are meant to be 3 million of us?

How do we get the disabled themselves informed when the mainstream media does not cover what is happening? It is only the internet that provides the information but many disabled people do not use it or even think to look for the details.

The other issue I think is simply that people simply do not believe that such a thing can be happening in this country.

Is it a case of

"The more we do to you, the less you believe we are doing it" Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death.

morning

If you go over to 38 degrees website you will find a Campaign suggestion entitled "A campaign to stop the abolition of Disability Living Allowance - the measure of civilised society." It is currently ranked 3rd in their campaigns to consider list, so let's get it to no. 1!

38degrees.uservoice.com/forums/78585-campaign-suggestions/suggestions/1291593-a-campaign-to-stop-the-abolition-of-disability-liv

38 degrees takes suggestions from it's members as to which campaigns it takes up and acts on. To join only takes a few minutes and all they ask is name, email, postcode. Once you've joined you can then vote on the campaign you want them to support - you have 3 votes for each choice, up to a max of 10.

sign up here -

38degrees.org.uk/page/signup

It is a brilliant group and well worth joining - people power does have an effect if enough of us do it. If we can get them campaigning as well it would be brilliant! They have a lot of followers! They have collected 505902 signatures on a petition to Save our Forests and recently ran full page ads in several papers showing George Osborne as 'The Artful Dodger' and calling him to account over his tax dodging.

@cressa - great posts. I agree - no-one I talk to believes me either, they think I'm being paranoid/hysterical etc. "they wouldn't do that" "It will be ok" "Let's wait and see" etc.

I think one way to get the disabled informed may be to get more truth out into the national Press. You said "But how to get the general public to read the truth?" I had one idea - if everyone emails or writes to all the Charities who are supposed to represent us all and ask them to make some kind of public announcement about the false statistics, villification etc in the press, then more might read and believe the truth. It needs to be public, at the moment they are just doing stuff behind the scenes and not publicly standing up for us and raising awareness of what's happening.

They could all unite and put in a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission, and to the Government, they could all contribute to a full page ad denying the false facts that are being put out... I'm sure everyone will have ideas... maybe you could compile them and then write to the charities?? trying to think outside the box a bit, it's needed!

The key here is to get the media especially BBC to cover protests. There are several that have gone on and its been a media blackout. We need as many as possible to contact the BBC newsdesk with information.

Also a central website that coordinates everything that is happening. There are so many different groups doing their own thing but no real connections between them., It is practically impossible to keep up with so many different sites and completely exhausting when ill.

For example, how many people knew this was happening today: I didn't and I try to keep up on events, as much as spoons allow.

righttowork.org.uk/2010/11/peoples-
convention/

Disabled People against the Cuts are organising to go to the March 26th protests in London. We need as many disabled people to go who possibly can or join the virtual protest by sending their photo to be on a placard for someone to represent them

"DPAC supporters who are able to go would like to carry with us placards and banners with the photographs of anyone who would like their views about these savage attacks against us all represented.

Please could anyone who would like to be represented in this way send a photograph and if possible short statement to say what they think for attention of Linda Burnip c/o Melanie, Warwickshire and Coventry Council of Disabled People, Room 6, Koco Building, Unit 15, The Arches Industrial Estate, Spon End, Coventry, CV1 3JQ by the end of February

If you are unable to do this please email to [email protected]" (copied from DPAC)

www.ukdpc.net/index.asp?GetPress=TRUE&id=142&sid=76&ssid=0&sssid=0

count me in, we struggle now i can imagine it being a lot worse if the scrap DLA

About the 38 degrees campaign I mentioned above - a lot of people are commenting on the site without voting - it's important to vote as that's what get's the campaign closer to being actioned! On the left-hand side at the top, next to the title, there is a box with the number of votes in it, below that is a box with VOTE in it- click on that and it will give you the chance to place your 3 votes! It has now got to the number 2 position in the list and is only 250 votes below the top idea! Thanks!

38degrees.uservoice.com/forums/78585-campaign-suggestions/suggestions/1291593-a-campaign-to-stop-the-abolition-of-disability-liv?ref=title

So Sorry!! Link I posted above is wrong!! Here is the right one -

38degrees.uservoice.com/forums/78585-campaign-suggestions/suggestions/1291593-a-campaign-to-stop-the-abolition-of-disability-liv

Sorry I had to leave this for a bit due to the overwhelming apathy.

Can you all take a look at this AIBU thread?
here

A good article in the BMJ about ATOS Healthcare

"Increasing numbers of people previously deemed medically unfit to work are being taken off state benefits after assessments by a doctor. GP Margaret McCartney investigates the ethics and fairness of the system."

www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d599.extract

Read the comments too- and add your own!!

Add your comments to her blog page where the BMJ article originally found -

www.margaretmccartney.com/blog/?p=884

has everyone gone into hibernation?

Yep, hibernating, just for a wee while.

I know I should be doing stuff here , but just can't take solid stretches of it. Someone above linked to an excellent article that expressed it exactly: this shit is forcing me to be disabled all the sodding time.

Living with disability is one thing; having to give it headroom all the time is another.

I know most of us are in the same boat: turn and turn about, I guess. We'll keep the fires burning just about...

Sorry, will be back and read excellent links/posts above, but need the break first.

Hope everyone else OK.

@thisisanicecage - totally understand, brain about to explode with it all, am going to have to take a break myself otherwise total burnout will occur.... really hard work trying to keep up the momentum of this, no-one seems that bothered about us.

I have been to a work and pensions round table discussion on DLA reform and the WCA, Wednesday the 16th 2011.
Hence I have not been on, lack of spoons.

Howver I said my bit, quite forcefully.
They need more testimonies, and the MP's are listed below.
A bit too knackered to give you a breakdown of what was said over the two hours, hopefully I can fnd a transcript and will post a link to it.

Participants in the roundtable discussion :

Geoff Fimister, Campaigns Officer, RNIB
Madeleine Close
Sarah Lambert, Head of Policy, National Autistic Society
Jayne Leak
Simon Shaw, Parliamentary and Public Policy Officer, Sense
Jane Harris, Associate Director of Communications and Campaigns, Rethink
Naneen Ali
Dr Sharon McConville
Neil Coyle, Director of Policy, Disability Alliance
Tristana Rodriguez, Policy Officer, Action for ME
Matthew Lester, Director of Operations, Papworth Trust
Caroline Richardson
Kate Gordon

Other representatives from the above organisation will be present to observe and/or assist. Members of the press will be present and may approach individual participants for an interview after the meeting.

For information, the Members of the Committee are:

Member Party
Dame Anne Begg (Chair) Labour
Harriett Baldwin Conservative
Andrew Bingham Conservative
Karen Bradley Conservative
Alex Cunningham Labour
Kate Green Labour
Mr Oliver Heald Conservative
Glenda Jackson Labour
Brandon Lewis Conservative
Stephen Lloyd Liberal Democrat
Teresa Pearce Labour

I will be back, but need some time off.
++++++out of spoon error - please reboot after removing genetic malfunction +++++++

Blimey, well done Hossylass. [applause]

I have collated a document of testimonies from this thread and can do other threads; MN have given us explicit permission to submit these to the consultation and the media.

I know you're shattered - when you come back, let me know how to use these (I can email doc to you, or if necess PM people and ask them each to submit their testimony directly, if you can let us know where to).

Hope you get a good rest...

If you can, and I know this is a big ask, but can you split the testimonies into two sections, those relating to DLA (what it means, what it is used for, what would happen if people didn't get it i.e. removal of passported benefits, carers allowance, income support etc), and those that are about WCA (what will happen if people fail it, what other benefits they will lose, how they wont be able to comply with the work programs, and if anyone has been through the system what problems they encountered, i.e. medical incompetance by Atos, lying about what was said, inaccessible buildings, no flexibility about appointments.)

Send to the above MP's.
Encourage people to submit their testimonies to their own MP's too.
The knock on effects for families and passported benefits are importnat considerations too.

Cheers Honey!
I'll post again soon but feel crap.

I only have DLA testimonies, because they are from this thread.

Will pay proper attention to this in a day or two, if that's OK. Hope you're properly rested by then too.

Breaking news, well for this thread anyway!

There is a march in London on 26th March.

This is a march against cuts, all cuts. Organised coaches and trains from all over the country - which will be fun before the day even starts.

Obviously this march will represent all people who will be affected by the cuts.

We are asking for "Buddies for Rallies", not an onerous task, it may just be a case of standing with a disabled person at road crossings, or holding their coat while they go the loo. Not a huge commitment (no personal care, no contact, no handling of money or medication will be required) or protesting on behalf of a disabled person.

Details can be found here;
www.dpac.uk.net/about/buddies-for-rallies/
and on other disability sites and message boards.

I know several people offered to do this earlier in the thread, and all your help would be gratefully recieved.