An end to DLA?

[SantasMooningArse]

C&P from NAS email

Dear all,

Thanks for recent email, expressing interest in reform to Disability Living Allowance,

The Government has today launched a public consultation on the replacement of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with a new benefit called Personal Independence Payment (PIP). This will not happen until 2013.

Assessment by an independent medical healthcare professional will be introduced as part of the assessment. We are urging the Government to ensure that they involve people with autism and parents/carers in the reform to make sure that the new assessment fully takes into account the needs of people with autism.

Currently this new benefit is expected to be for working age disabled adults only. However, the Government is looking at whether to replace child DLA too.

There are some positive indications in the consultation document that the specific needs of people with autism will be taken into account in the new benefit. For example, it emphasises that in ensuring eligibility for the mobility component of the new benefit, ability to get around should look at more than a person's ability to walk and also include ability to plan a journey

We are also worried about indications in the consultation that re-assessment will become more commonplace as this may cause unneccessary anxiety.

We are also concerned that the intention behind the introduction of the new benefit is to reduce the number of claims for DLA overall. The proposals set out a plan to reduce the number of bands of benefit payment. They should be seen in the context of the Government's plans to cut the projected spend on DLA for working age disabled people by 20% over the next 3 years

The NAS will be working to ensure that these changes work for people with autism. We will be responding to the consultation and working on the Bill as it goes through Parliament.

We will be in touch again to let you know, how you can feed your views into our consultation response. You can also respond to the consultation directly. See: www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2010/dla-reform.shtml

Many Thanks

Sarah Lambert

The Policy and Campaigns Team
The National Autistic Society
393 City Road, London EC1V 1NG

"To ensure that support goes to those who face the greatest challenges, the benefit will only be available to people with a long-term health condition or impairment. Individuals will have to qualify for the benefit for a period of six months and be expected to continue to qualify for a further six months before an award can be made"

mmmm am i reading that wrong, or does that imply that you actually dont receive any money during the qualifying period?!

right im off to carry on reading.xx

bloody hell. everyone who voted for these fuckers should be ashamed of themselves. WOnder if Grant Schapps on MN tomorrow would like to answer some questions about this?

I wonder what this bit (papra 40) of the DLA consultation paper means

"We are also considering how we could share information from other assessments which disabled children undergo, for example to determine special educational needs, and whether or not we should take into account a child?s support needs
if they are being met from public funds by another institution, such as a school."

I wonder if that means that if they are at a special school they will mean they have done their bit and won't pay DLA/PIP???

Also, my son is due for review in 2013 so I wonder if he will be treated as new/existing claimant

"I wonder if that means that if they are at a special school they will mean they have done their bit and won't pay DLA/PIP???"

That's a scary thought ! Of course obviously all NT children have no opportunity to do or access anything whatsoever outside of school without 1-1 support either !!! So we are all scroungers if we even think our children are entitled to anything resembling a life.

I read it as they may also consider assessing education support needs as well. This. Gets. Worse.

I'm so angry. FFS it's diabolical to save money by cutting diability payments. If there's a protest count me in

Fuck me. it's here. We knew it would happen. I'll be hammering dh to get off his arse and write to the Tory feckers he voted for

brandy77 the bit you quoted here:

""To ensure that support goes to those who face the greatest challenges, the benefit will only be available to people with a long-term health condition or impairment. Individuals will have to qualify for the benefit for a period of six months and be expected to continue to qualify for a further six months before an award can be made"

mmmm am i reading that wrong, or does that imply that you actually dont receive any money during the qualifying period?!"

Is 'just' an extension of current criteria.

To get DLA you have to have a disability for 3 months, and expect to have it for at least a further 6 months. You can't get DLA for the first 3 months.

They want to extend it to 6.

This is scary stuff - don't know how we'll survive without this. We've just got our renewal forms as well..

I'll be up for any protesting. Bastards..

"We know that many disabled people use aids and adaptations to increase
their ability to participate in everyday life. Currently, DLA takes account of
some adaptations, such as prosthetic limbs, but not all, wheelchairs for example. We believe we should take greater account of the successful use of aids and adaptations as part of the Personal Independence Payment assessment, to
ensure that support is appropriately targeted on those who need it most, and
that the benefit reflects the advances made in this area. This might mean, for example, considering an individual?s ability to get about in a wheelchair, rather than ignoring the wheelchair, as we do currently. pg 21"

So don't think they were being generous, suggesting that they should look at 'getting around' as a positive thing. What they mean is 'can we stop people who use wheelchairs getting High Rate Mobility if they can use their wheelchair effectively' [anger]

"In discussion with specialists in this area, we are considering to what extent we could apply the new assessment to children, and whether eligibility requirements should differ depending on the age of the child."

so wanting to simplify things, then, hey?

Yes I reckon if in special school esp residential they will stop / reduce DLA. Says that they will now take into account using a wheelchair could make you more independent eg they will pay for your wheelchair but then say you can get to work and don't need benefit!

They are considering looking at childrens DLA. We should make them look at the real cost to families of a disabled child. But no way they will do that. Our income (and pension - ha what pension) will be massively lower longterm as we will not be able to contemplate fulltime work for many years / ever. Even when DS starts school there will be no after school or holiday clubs - not that I would want him to go to these after a full day at school anyway. Why do they just look at carers allowance or care / equipment costs but not at the lost income to parents. We should make them look at the difference between our life chances with and without a disabled child. It will cost us personally about £1 million over our lifetime on what we would have earnt had DS not been disabled because we both have to work only very parttime now. The idea that we can just stick kids in childcare and go to work is laughable - what childcare? I can't even get a SN experienced babysitter.

Of course we could all do a mass protest of throwing in the towel and insisting the state take over doing all the care we do for free. However you cost it parents doing the care is a very cheap option for the State. We should campaign for a living wage for carers at £7.50 an hour or whatever the living wage campaign is asking for.

Not sure how raising the pension age will help - surely just lots of people in manual jobs will go onto disability in their 60's instead. Plus all those indebted students having children later will lead to an increase in the number of children with disabilities. The % of children with very high needs has already increased alot due to older parents / more premature babies surviving. Surely this will only get worse when the next generation put off having kids until even later.

I just feel sick. DLA is the only thing that has stopped us losing our home over the past 2 years.

the wheelchair thing is odd.
dd cannot drive unattended. so she can't just go out in her powered chair, and she has to be pushed in her manual.
wonder if they will think just sitting in a chair makes you independent!!!!!!

no;I can't read this now,I'll have another go later-I got as far as the executive summary 'I want to ensure the benefit reflects the needs of diabled people today, rather than the 1990s' what the hell does that mean!? So someone who had cp in the 1990s was more disabled than someone today?-I did not vote for the bastards,but did hope that DC with his experience of disability would have some humanity about him- but of course he didn't need DLA did he! We all know it will be a cost cutting exercise again aimed at the most vulnerable in today's society.

The whole thing is disgusting. If they start effectively discriminating against children who are getting support through special schools by reducing funding, I would seriously have to look at whether my son should go to mainstream with support instead. It was an option we had but not the best thing for him and we were advised against it. I gave up a reasonably well paid job becuase I was sick of dealing with my employers attitude to the time off I needed to care for my son and one mainstream nursery basically kicked him out as his behaviour did not fit with the posh image they wanted to present (it was linked to a private school and a child that threw toys around and wouldn't sit still was bad marketing for them). We have no childcare available in our village anyway so working full time would be very difficult.

Unfortunately my son's DLA is up for review end 2013 so I fear if they do apply this to children he may be one of the first. The benefits adviser from the Council told me that the last time the DWP sent a doctor out to one of his clients (a 15 year old) the child tore a radiator off the wall and threw it at the doctor so maybe they will soon learn that sending doctors to disabled children may backfire on them! Seriously though, my son's behaviour can vary day to day and I think particularly with disabilities like autism it would be very difficult to assess in one doctor's visit.

I also noticed they will now only be having two rates of care DLA so I guess some people will lose a lot through that as I imagine they will look for any excuse to drop people to lower rate. Its also interesting that on their graph the number of children claiming DLA has stayed constant over time whilst in other age groups it has gone up - not quite sure what that implies but to me it suggests purely from DWP's economic perspective children are the group that should least be targeted as they don't fit with the argument of the paper that DLA has cost more since it was introduced

Riven-that is so stupid isn't it!Do they think she's going to suddenly 'get better'I guess those forms must get a lttle repetitive!!

Bloody marvellous. I don't buy any idea that they could be aiming to make DLA or its replacement any better for people who claim.

As for wheelchairs making people more independent, how does that work when there's a foot or more of snow and ice compacted on your local pavements? At least we managed to struggle to school without DS2's major, this morning, with little more than frayed nerves from walking along a busy road and tired, wet, feet and very cold hands because he refuses to wear gloves; but what the hell would we have done if he didn't "merely" have difficulty walking?

Some people think they're just going to drop LRC

All the coalition's emphasis seems to be on 'personal' and 'tailored' and therefore allow institions other than a central one to provide help and services. This is what they said with the DLA removal from those in residential care - ie the care home can provide mobility .

riven I have never got that.
we have to renew (we did get 5 years last time, and now doing the 16 one) but ffs she will never get better.
maybe if the sodding goverment spent more money on properly training midwives and doctors there would be less cp out there.
to simple though