John Pring's Disability News Round Up - 13/07/2012

7/17/2012 09:14:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 0 Comments

• The opportunity to celebrate disabled people’s diversity has been “stolen” by organisers of the Paralympic torch relay, according to a leading disabled people’s organisation.
• The government has finally confirmed that it wants to close the Independent Living Fund entirely in 2015.
• Disabled activists have reacted angrily to the government’s decision to delay reforming the funding of adult care and support.
• A national eligibility threshold for care and support will be introduced across England from 2015, ministers have announced.
• Many working-age disabled people will receive free care and support for life – whatever their levels of wealth or income – when the funding of care and support is finally reformed, the government has promised.
• Disabled people who want to overcome the barriers they face in seeking elected office will now be able to apply for financial support from a new £2.6 million government fund.
• Just nine of the 36 sheltered Remploy factories that were set to be shut in the first wave of a government closure programme could be kept open under new ownership, a minister has announced.
• The government’s radical “simplification” of the benefits system is likely to make the future “considerably bleaker” for many disabled people, according to the peer leading a new inquiry.
• The government looks set to maintain the current focus of the blue badge parking scheme in England on disabled people with significant physical mobility problems.
• Disabled activists have paid a series of emotional tributes to Nick Danagher, a central and much-loved figure in the disability movement and an “independent living revolutionary”, who died suddenly on Friday (6 July).
• An award-winning performer whose work is set to be one of the highlights of the London 2012 disability arts festival is hoping this summer’s artistic and athletic celebrations will demonstrate the “normality” of being a disabled person.
• One of Britain’s hottest prospects for Paralympic gold on the athletics track has spoken of her hopes that London 2012 will lead to more opportunities for disabled people outside the sporting arena.