John Pring's Disability News Round Up - 21/12/2012

12/24/2012 09:05:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 0 Comments




  • The government is facing mounting outrage after planning to restrict eligibility for support for people with the highest mobility needs, without any warning or consultation – and then lying about what it had done.
  • An MP who confronted the prime minister with a suicide note written by a disabled man who killed himself after being found “fit for work” has warned that other such tragedies are likely.
  • Activists are hoping that a new petition – backed by a campaigning disabled comedian – could finally force the government to assess the overall impact of its programme of cuts and reforms to disability benefits and services.
  • The government has confirmed it is to close the Independent Living Fund in April 2015, and has admitted the decision will have a “potential negative impact” on disabled people supported by the fund.
  • Thalidomide survivors have welcomed a 10-year, £80 million government grant that will help fund the increasing support needs they face as they grow older.
  • A council has been accused of “censorship” after banning disabled actors from performing a play that highlights the harm caused by the government’s much-criticised “fitness for work” contractor Atos Healthcare.
  • Britain’s Paralympians have been rewarded for their success at London 2012 with a huge leap in funding to take them through to the next Paralympic Games in Rio in four years’ time.
  • Britain’s track and field Paralympians will have the chance to recreate this summer’s golden exploits, after the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced that London would host the 2017 IPC World Athletics Championships in the Olympic Stadium.
  • Experts fear vital accessibility standards could be under threat because of a government assault on housing red tape.
  • The prospect of tougher laws on disability hate crime has moved a step closer, after the government’s advisers on law reform launched a review of how current legislation was working.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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#PIP Emergency - Act Now!

12/21/2012 05:44:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 1 Comments

 Originally posted on the WeAreSpartacus blog by @theyoungjane

On Thursday 13 December, Esther McVey MP, Minister for Disabled People, announced the publication of the draft Personal Independence Payment (PIP) regulations (Note 1) containing the final proposals for PIP. DWP has also published its response to the assessment consultation (Note 2) and a document assessing the impacts of the final proposals (Note 3).
Many of the daily living descriptors have been improved, although there are still issues with some of them. However, we were stunned to see that to be awarded the enhanced mobility component for physical difficulty getting around, and therefore to qualify for Motability, a claimant needs to be unable to walk more than 20 metres – a far shorter distance than the 50 metres given in the consultation draft (Note 4).
An essential element of the PIP assessment is that it should take account of whether claimants can undertake each activity ‘safely, reliably, repeatedly and in a timely manner’. However, the Government has not only decided to roll this phrase into the word ‘reliably’, but has also stated that this will not be included or defined within the regulations themselves. We are concerned this will mean this essential qualifying definition cannot be considered by an appeal tribunal and could be changed by the DWP with ease, at any time.
The Government has, however, listened to concerns about the speed of implementation and the necessity for evaluation and revised its timetable. DLA claimants with indefinite awards will only start to be reassessed from October 2015 – but newer claimants are more likely to have been given time-limited awards and therefore won’t benefit from the delay. However, we have to assume that the criteria published today will eventually affect all DLA claimants, albeit with implementation taking place over a longer timetable, finishing in 2018.
It is clear that those most likely to lose out are physically disabled people with significant walking difficulties who can walk more than 20 metres but less than 50 metres; this problem will be exacerbated by the exclusion of ‘reliably’ etc from the regulations. In fact, DWP’s own projections show that by 2018, when implementation is complete, 428,000 fewer disabled people will be in receipt of the enhanced mobility component of PIP than the number that would be expected to be in receipt of the higher rate mobility component of DLA if it remained as it is now.
Only those with the greatest difficulty getting around, mainly those who use a wheelchair most of the time, will qualify for the Motability scheme on grounds of physical impairment. Many thousands of disabled people with serious musculo-skeletal conditions, serious heart conditions or respiratory difficulties, cerebral palsy, neurological conditions such as MS and ME and many, many more will no longer benefit from the scheme. Their car will simply be taken away before they have a chance to appeal.
Hundreds of thousands of disabled people whose cars are vital to their life and health stand to lose virtually everything. No car = no independence, no job, no salary (with a consequent risk of homelessness), no social life, plus increased dependence on family members, health and social care services and other benefits to survive. This begs the obvious question: how does this cut help disabled people participate in society and contribute by work, volunteering or being involved in their community? Even Paralympians and others held up by the Minister for Disabled People as inspirational role models may have their lives cruelly and unnecessarily restricted.
The PIP criteria for people with a physical difficulty getting around are clearly retrogressive under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by the UK in 2009. The proposals seriously compromise disabled people’s human rights under several Articles of the Convention, including, among others, the right to live independently and to be included in the community (Article 19) and the right to personal mobility (Article 20).
Further details of the implications of so many losing eligibility for the Motability scheme due to physical difficulties getting around are available at: http://janeyoung.me.uk/2012/12/14/well-over-100000-to-lose-motability-vehicles-under-draconian-new-rules/

Tell your MP how angry and upset you are about the draft PIP regulations!

The Government has said no more changes will be made at this point, although a committee of MP’s still has to vote the regulations through. To help you persuade your MP that these regulations must be changed, we have produced some resources to help:

Notes

  1. The Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2013/9780111532072/contents (See Schedule 1 for the activities and descriptors)
  2. “The Government’s response to the consultation on the Personal Independence Payment assessment criteria and regulations”,  December 2012:  http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/pip-assessment-thresholds-and-consultation-response.pdf
  3. “Personal Independence Payment: Reassessment and Impacts”, December 2012 http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/pip-reassessments-and-impacts.pdf
  4. To get the enhanced mobility component of PIP, you need to accrue 12 points from either the first or second mobility activity in Part 3 of Schedule 1 of the PIP regulations. The first activity (Activity 11 in other DWP documents) covers difficulties with planning or following a journey (generally due to a learning difficulty, sensory impairment or mental health problem) and the second activity (Activity 12 in other DWP documents) covers physical difficulties in getting around. To get 12 points from the second activity alone, you have to be unable to stand then move more than 20 metres. In summary, the criteria mean that if you have no difficulties with planning or following a journey and you can walk more than 20 metres, you will not be awarded the enhanced mobility component and you will not be eligible for the Motability scheme.

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John Pring's Disability News Round Up -

12/19/2012 08:22:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 3 Comments



  • The government has made “significant changes” to the criteria it will use to assess disabled people’s eligibility for the new personal independence payment (PIP), but early analysis of the alterations suggests key concerns remain.
  • Hundreds of thousands of disabled people who claim disability living allowance (DLA) will not have to be reassessed for at least two years, after the coalition announced a major retreat on its reform timetable.
  • The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is set to break its promise to publish thousands of public responses to its controversial disability living allowance (DLA) consultation by the end of this year.
  • Leading members of the self-advocacy movement have given a guarded response to the government’s report into the Winterbourne View abuse scandal.
  • The government has pledged to move hundreds of people with learning difficulties out of hospitals and into new homes in the community, in the wake of the Winterbourne View abuse scandal.
  • The equality watchdog has provided new fuel for its critics after announcing plans to work with the Poundland retail chain on its disability policies, before withdrawing the announcement and refusing to comment on the story.
  • A new network of disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) is to draw up a manifesto and plan a week of campaigning action across the UK in a bid to “sharpen the struggle” against the coalition’s attacks on disability rights.
  • The government must back Lord Justice Leveson’s call for disabled people’s organisations to be allowed to lodge complaints with the press regulator about misleading and disablist newspaper coverage, say campaigners.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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ACT NOW - Fight For Your Independence #PIP

12/17/2012 12:29:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 3 Comments



 Guest blog by Beth Morris on behalf of WeAreSpartacus, originally posted here

One for all and all for one…

When I listened to Esther McVey make her commons statement with increasing horror my first thought was – Do I have the strength to fight this!

I’m tired, ill and facing another bleak winter in the sure knowledge that I will be bed bound again very soon – Just like every winter.  That knowledge hangs like a black cloud over our house, my husband gently reminds me when I make plans for January – we like to pretend I will be well enough, knowing full well the chances of me making it to the bathroom unaided become the highlight of my day.

BUT – like you I can’t simply lie back on my pillows and hope someone else will fight for me. That’s not fair because I’m asking other sick and disabled people to do it for me.

There are two massive scary things in the new PIP (Personal Independence Payment) proposals
2 people have written about the 20 meter moving around criteria better than I ever could:

Read them here
 Jane Young Well over 100,000 to lose Motability
Spoonydoc  PIP - A mobile disaster

Secondly the reliably, repeatedly, safely and timely emphasis has not gone into the regulations – which means they are not legally binding and if anyone had to appeal its could not be used as a point of law to show the decision was not fairly made.

The DWP have said it’s inherent and will be in the guidance, but well we know how easy it is to change policy.

The PIP proposals and criteria have to be agreed by parliament – it’s likely to happen in January – so we don’t have much time.

So what can WE do?

We can show our MPs just how short a distance 20 metres is – I bet Esther Mcvey and her DWP cronies are relying on MP’s and the general public not having a clue how short that distance really is and far from promoting independence it will take it away.

Send your MP an E-card before Friday

Here’s how



Use one of these images 





Or



with the wording -  
Please make my Christmas and do 2 things in January
Don’t vote to take my independence away – Insist the DWP go back to using the 50 & 100 metre distances – like ESA and Blue Badge do

Vote to embed the Reliably, Repeatedly, Safely and Timely into the regulations so I’m not left stranded by the whims of future policy

If you have a few spoons and want to make it personal follow these simple instructions to show your MP local places they should know well to highlight just how appallingly bad the 20 metre criteria is
I’m not techy at all if I can do it so can you J

Step 1 – use google map to look up places in your local area
  • Your MP’s constituency office
  • Distance from your house to your car
  • Distance from your house to the nearest bus stop, shop, GPs, Work etc

We need to show our MPs that having a very short distance means we won’t even make it out of our houses to be independent let alone get to important places.

Step 2 – use this link and follow the instructions http://support.google.com/maps/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1628031

Step 3 – Once you have found your house on the map change the google map view to satellite and zoom in til you have a clear picture like this one – make sure you start your measurement from inside your house. 



I spend most of my day in the conservatory – which is why I started from the white bit J  - I have blocked out my road but you don’t have to as your MP needs to know you live there in order to reply.
As you can see – If I reached my car even taking into account of the repeatedly, reliably, safely and timely policy I would FAIL the 20 metre Criteria and therefore would NOT be entitled to enhanced PIP = no access to the Motability Scheme

 Step 4 when you have got the image – press the Print screen button on your keyboard – its is usually on top row of your keyboard says PrtSc

Step 5 open the paint tool and press paste – the image will be there – I cropped the image – save it as a Jpeg and then you can add it to a email

You have both options – of course you could also

Take a photo from your front door and tell your MP 20M wont allow you to have an independent life and to please insist the DWP go back to accepted 50 Metre and 200 Metre criteria ESA and Blue Badge assessment use

Make it personal and the ask is for them to not Vote to take away our independence

We have 3 Days til the MPs break up for Christmas – ACT NOW please don’t just leave it thinking someone else will act for you

You can find your MP here http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

Thank you

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T'was The Night Before Christmas - By @Hossylass

12/15/2012 11:26:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 4 Comments

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the House

MP’s were feasting on subsidised grouse

Their expenses were listed and nobody cared

That the cries of disabled were going unheard



The Members soon nestled in tax funded beds

While visions of riches danced in their heads

And a subservient underclass doffing its cap

Settled their brains for a long winter nap



When out in the streets there came such a clatter

They crawled from their beds to see what was the matter

Drapes cast asunder, it was clear in a flash

That the strivers were clearing the Ministerial trash



The cleaners had trudged in through 8 inches of snow

To buff and to polish the offices below

No living wage at the end of the day

Just tax payer subsidised minimum pay



And out in the doorways of numerous places

The homeless and helpless shielded their faces

Their hopes and their dreams had drifted away

Replaced by despair at another new day.



But this year at Christmas a miracle appears

An army of deviant kind volunteers

Disability Ninjas armed with the facts

Savaging proposals with a symbolic axe



And along the blade the words burn bright

“You will not destroy us, we will turn and fight”

To speak for those who’s voices are small

Voices ignored, if heard at all



Churches and Unions stood up to fight

To demand what is reasonable, and what is right



Twas the night before Christmas and all through the land

Tears are shed at what is planned

By the people who with enormous wealth

Are happy to endanger the very health

Of the people who quietly every day

Keep the country ticking away



NHS nurses and other health workers

In danger of becoming next weeks “shirkers”

But the Charities, activists and Unions united

Now they will help the lives of the blighted

The poor, the rejected, the lost in despair

We will reach out and comfort and show that we care



Twas the night before Christmas and all through the lands

The sword of truth awakens in our own hands

And when it seems to heavy to swing

Remember the miracles that Christmas can bring.

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Well Over 100,000 To Lose Motability Vehicles Under Draconian New Rules

12/14/2012 09:55:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 6 Comments



Guest blog by Jane Young, Disability Consultant, Campaigner and Spartacus Co-ordinator, originally published here


When I blogged on this topic back in January, I predicted thousands of disabled people would lose their Motability vehicles under the Government's draft criteria for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), set to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) under the Welfare Reform Act. Yesterday, the Government published the final version of the criteria and the reality is far, far worse than we could have imagined.

Many consultation responses on the draft criteria complained that the descriptors for Activity 12 (Activity 11 in the draft), addressing physical difficulties in moving around, were unclear and confusing. We hoped they would be clarified; in particular, we expected clarification that being unable to walk more than 50 metres would qualify claimants for the enhanced mobility component and the Motability scheme. But we're stunned by the decision that to qualify for Motability, a claimant needs to be unable to walk more than 20 metres - a far shorter distance.

This has massive repercussions for the majority of Motability customers who, whilst they might be able to walk 20 metres, do nonetheless have very significant difficulties getting around. Under the second draft criteria, published in January, DWP predicted that 27% fewer working age people would be eligible for the scheme once PIP was fully rolled out. It is now clear from the Government's own figures that 42% fewer disabled people of working age will be eligible for the Motability scheme once PIP is fully rolled out than would have been eligible had DLA continued unchanged (see Personal Independence Payment: Reassessment and Impacts, published 13 December 2012).

So what will this mean for disabled people? Only those with the greatest difficulty getting around, mainly those who use a wheelchair most of the time, will qualify for the Motability scheme on grounds of physical impairment. Huge numbers of disabled people with serious musculo-skeletal conditions, serious heart conditions or respiratory difficulties, cerebral palsy, neurological conditions such as MS and ME and many, many more will no longer benefit from the scheme. Their car will simply be taken away before they have a chance to appeal.

Those who no longer qualify for Motability are likely to be unable to get to work, attend medical appointments, visit friends, go shopping or, indeed, have much of a life at all. More than a hundred thousand people, who were previously able to get out and about independently, will find themselves staring at four walls; they will need more support for essential journeys, such as medical appointments, and their quality of life will be decimated. When visiting a small supermarket, 20 metres doesn't even get you from the parking space to the entrance, never mind around the supermarket. In fact, lots of people have to walk more than 20 metres from their car to their front door when they get home again!
Disabled people who live in rural areas will be hurt the most. What little public transport is available is less likely to be accessible. There may be no local shops, no GP or pharmacy nearby; asking for a lift to the GP means asking someone to commit a considerable part of their day to drive a considerable distance.

Then there's the knock-on effect on the UK car industry and the wider economy. In our report, Reversing from Recovery, published in June this year, the Spartacus network used the DWP's own projections under the draft criteria to demonstrate the knock-on effect on the car industry and wider economy once all DLA claimants of working age had been migrated to PIP. However, under the DWP's revised projections of the number of claimants eligible for Motability, under the final PIP criteria, the effect on the car industry and economy will be much more serious:

  • the car industry could lose nearly 50,000 new car sales a year (we predicted a loss of 31,450 sales under earlier projections),
  • more than 5,500 jobs could be lost from the economy (we predicted a loss of just over 3,500 jobs under earlier projections)
  • the Treasury could lose £126 million in tax receipts from motor-related industries (we predicted a loss of £79 million under earlier projections),
as a result of fewer claimants using the Motability scheme by the time PIP has been fully rolled out. And of course, if disabled people lose their jobs because they can no longer get to work, they will claim more in benefits and pay less tax. All in all, the original estimate of the effect on the economy was bad enough, but these figures are far worse.

For some, there is one slight cause for encouragement: the Government has listened to concerns about the speed of implementation and the necessity for evaluation and revised its timetable. DLA claimants with indefinite awards will only start to be reassessed from October 2015 - but newer claimants are more likely to have been given time-limited awards and therefore won't benefit. And without extra assurances from either side of the political divide, we have to assume that the criteria published today will eventually affect all DLA claimants, albeit with implementation taking place over a longer timetable.

Hundreds of thousands of disabled people whose cars are vital to their life and health stand to lose virtually everything. No car = no independence, no job, no salary (with a consequent risk of homelessness), no social life plus increased dependence on family members, health and social care services and other benefits to survive. This begs the question: how does this cut help disabled people to fulfill the social contract of being part of society and contributing by work, volunteering or being part of their community? Even those held up by the Minister for Disabled People, Esther McVey, as inspirational role models will have their lives cruelly and unnecessarily restricted.

The Government has clearly paid little heed to the impact of this 'reform' on disabled people's human rights. There is no doubt that the PIP criteria for people with a physical difficulty in getting around is retrogressive under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by the UK in 2009. The proposals seriously compromise disabled people's human rights under several Articles of the Convention, including, among others, the right to live independently and to be included in the community (Article 19), and the right to personal mobility, specifically to....' personal mobility with the greatest possible independence' (Article 20).

This attack on the lives of disabled people who have difficulty getting around is NOT a price worth paying. MP's on both sides of the House of Commons should vote these regulations down. The Government can, and must, do much better than this, if it really wants to build on the legacy of the Paralympics.

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