Standing up for the disabled and challenging stereotypes

This week I’ve been saddened to hear several blind people I know saying the benefit system needs reforming as too many don’t go out and work and would rather sit at home and sponge off the government. Here I’ll try and challenge these myths and stereotypes and hopefully we can stop others doing the government’s job for them for a change. Firstly I am blind myself having been for 10 years now and have worked whenever I can. I do a part time job for my dads company. It’s no great shakes but its work and I always attend punctually and so on. I don’t believe disabled people are anymore lazy than any other part of the population. I want to dispel the stereotypes of workshy s benefit scroungers that don’t want to do anything to help them if I can. I do receive Disability Living Allowance son to be phased out which I’m increasingly worried about with its replacement PIP Personal Independence payment being tighter and harder for people to claim I do worry for many disabled people out there today going through stressful unnecessary tests. I also claim working tax credits as my pay is so low it needs topping up just for me to get by. Just getting a job is not the magic dream the Tories like to think it is there are many who are on poverty wages and struggling to feed them every week despite having a job. We need to unite with those in and out of work as we all face the same enemy in the capitalist system itself using us for profit making. Challenging the myths and falsehoods put out by the government and our dear media which is set to divide and rule us. If people really wanted to help more people disabled or not into work then why were good jobs like the brave Remploy workers who lost their jobs a few years back at the hands of this Tory government and why do they not extend access to work to those looking for work too. Access to work which is funding and support to disabled people in work which can be made available to those needing “reasonable adjustments” to enable them to do the job. None of this is covered by the employer so there is no additional cost to employing a disabled person which is another myth we must smash. I know many blind and partially sighted people looking for work and am struggling not many wish to remain on benefits and laze about as the government and the media would have you believe. Putting it simply there is just not the jobs out there if you’re disabled or not let’s be frank. Even if a job was there there are so many ways around discrimination laws employers can try it is made even harder by the stereotypes of disabled put out there by the establishment that disabled people are not as hard workers as their non disabled counterparts which is completely rubbish. A recent statement from DPAC a group I’m closely aligned with Disabled People against Cuts writes about the cruel Work capability assessment which the last labour government brought in for anyone thinking labour are any better towards disabled people think again. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/29/disabled-not-lazy-stop-hounding “The WCA presumes that there are too many people on disability benefits because disabled people are too lazy or too comfortable living on benefits to work. It is founded in the idea that disabled people need to be harassed and hounded out of their comfortable life into finding work under the threat of loss of benefits. No one is comfortable living on benefits. Disabled people are no more lazy that the rest of the population. The real reason that there are so many people on benefits is that society does not include disabled people. We do not have the same access to education, transport, housing and jobs. Social attitudes ensure that disabled people in the workplace are seen as a problem, rather than an equal opportunity. And there are large numbers of disabled people who simply can not work. Why should they be harassed? Why should they be hounded? Why should they have to live in fear? We know, and this report confirms, that many people have wrongly been found “fit for work” when they can’t work. We also know and the UK courts have confirmed WCA discriminates against claimants with mental health impairments. The Work and Pensions Committee report recommends “improvements” to make the system more workable and less harmful. This is pointless, because it would not make the WCA any less wrong or any more useful” We call once again on Labour to commit to scrapping the WCA and to address the real problems that disabled people on benefits face in society. We call once again on the British Medical Association to send guidance on DWP rules “29 and 35″ which allows doctors to prevent foreseeable harm being done to ‘at risk’ patients. They didn’t improve slavery; they abolished it, because it was wrong. They didn’t amend Apartheid; they ended it because it was wrong The WCA is wrong, and it needs to be abolished Signed Andy Greene, Disabled People against Cuts Annie Howard, Disabled People against Cuts Bob Ellard, Disabled People against Cuts Debbie Jolly, Disabled People against Cuts Denise McKenna, Mental Health Resistance Network Jane Bench, #New Approach Eleanor Firman, Disabled People against Cuts Ellen Clifford, Disabled People against Cuts Gail Ward, Disabled People against Cuts John James McArdle, Black Triangle Campaign Katy Marchant, Disabled People against Cuts Linda Burnip, Disabled People against Cuts Michelle Maher, WOWPetition Nick Dilworth, #NewApproach Pat Onions, Pats Petition Paula Peters, Disabled People against Cuts Rick Burgess, #New Approach Roger Lewis, Disabled People against Cuts Rosemary O’Neil, Carerwatch Roy Bard, Disabled People against Cuts Wayne Blackburn, #NewApproach Another good piece by the excellent Johnny void that runs an excellent blog you should all check out “The shocking story of Jobcentre abuse recently published on Disabled People against Cuts’ (DPAC) website will be all too familiar to many claimants. The post tells the story of a claimant who was called on their mobile phone by a Jobcentre advisor in the middle of a blood transfusion for a life threatening condition. Instead of simply offering to call back, the advisor then began demanding that they immediately attend the Jobcentre for a back to work assessment, despite the claimant having lost six pints of blood due to kidney failure. It is difficult to call for unity between claimants and low paid (and themselves harassed) Jobcentre staff when claimants face open abuse like this. But every job has its share of contemptible bastards and part time Jobcentre staff themselves will soon be facing this brutal regime when Universal Credit is introduced. We will all be benefit scroungers then and this unites Jobcentre staff and claimants with a common cause. This is an opportunity to amplify and escalate the fight against Iain Duncan Smith’s bodged social security reforms and it should be taken by those in and out of work alike. The treatment doled out to the above claimant reveals a dangerous time-bomb at the heart of welfare reform. Without excusing at all the behaviour reported by DPAC, there is really no reason why Jobcentre staff would have any understanding of complex health problems. Jobcentre staff are not health care professionals. Neither are they social workers, mental health specialists, probation officers, substance misuse counsellors or housing officers. Yet Jobcentre staff have been granted unprecedented powers over the lives of so called ‘vulnerable people’. With a stroke of a pen, Jobcentre decision makers can sentence claimants to four weeks unpaid work, or stop vital benefits, whatever their circumstances. In fact there is no reason why Jobcentre staff would ever even know that someone has a drug problem, a mental health condition, a serious health problem or is street homeless. And if they do know, they aren’t trained to deal with it. The situation is even worse on the privatised Work Programme where the ‘black box’ style of provision means welfare to work companies can mandate claimants to almost any activity they see fit with no scrutiny whatsoever. As Jobcentre staff themselves could well testify, even before the huge re-assessment of people on sickness and disability benefits, then many of the small number of long term unemployed people often face complex problems in their lives. It may surprise people to know that if someone hasn’t had job for twenty years, it is usually not because they are lazy. Jobcentres have always dealt with large of numbers unemployed people who were sleeping on the streets, had diagnosed, or undiagnosed mental health conditions, serious problems with drugs or alcohol or a range of factors that meant full time work was a long way away*. Now those people have been joined by hundreds of thousands of claimants formerly on sickness and disability benefits and everyone of whom has been signed off work by their own GP. If a GP can order someone to bed rest only to be over-ridden by a DWP clerk or welfare to work advisor ordering them back to workfare, then what chance do social workers, mental health nurses or probation officers have. From December 3rd last year the DWP gave powers to Work Programme companies and Jobcentres to mandate sick or disabled claimants to workfare for an unspecified period. Workfare sharks like the inaptly named The Conservation Volunteers (@TCVtweets) have said they will provide their own assessment of a claimants ability to carry out the very physical workfare programmes they run**. A conservation charity worker can now force someone to work unpaid even against the advice of the claimant’s doctor. The potential consequences of this are horrific and not just for claimants. With no CRB checks, risk or health and safety assessments on the Mandatory Work Activity scheme – or any interaction with other agencies – then the possible dangers are endless. An alcoholic could be sent to work in a licenced premises for example. Or someone with a history of violence in stressful situations could be sent on workfare to work in a stressful situation. This is something workfare using charity shop managers might like to consider before being tempted by the lure of free labour. It is only a matter of time before this situation leads to a tragedy. And when it does, it will quite likely be a Jobcentre worker who faces the blame. This should be a pressing matter for the PCS Union whose members cannot be expected to have a specialist understanding of the vast array of problems that claimants face. And they should be supported by social workers, probation officers, mental health teams and other social care professionals. As Universal Credit is introduced and benefit conditionality vastly expanded then care plans, child protection measures, resettlement and treatment programmes will be torn up as vulnerable people are subject to the nasty and ever changing whims of ministers at the DWP. *Homelessness, substance misuse and mental health charities also know this incidentally. They have just chosen to remain silent as the magical belief has flourished that if only someone got a job in Tesco then all their other problems would disappear. Some people will sadly never make it in this cruelly competitive capitalist world where people are solely judged by how much they profit they can generate for the rich. ** TCV have changed their statement and there is now no reference to them saying they assess a claimant’s health before they begin a period of workfare. Presumably they now leave it to poverty pimps like A4e to decide. They have said they will not use people on sickness benefits as workfare staff – if they are fibbing and anyone knows of anyone on ESA forced to work at TCV then contact Boycott Workfare: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?page_id=1703 Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

Disability benefit cuts be aware of what’s going on

Today changes are being rolled out in disability benefits. The change from DLA to PIP enters another phase being rolled out in other parts of the country. • Concern? A new system of disability benefits has begun to take effect across England, Scotland and Wales. Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) are replacing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) as part of the government's welfare reforms. The government claims PIPs will target resources more effectively towards those who need it most. But a charity warns that almost a fifth of claimants - 600,000 people - could eventually lose their benefits. Since April, thousands of new claimants in the north of England have already applied for PIPs. Now, new claimants of working age in the rest of Britain will also have to apply for a PIP, rather than DLA. Northern Ireland will join the system later. From October, PIPs will be extended further, when the government will start to re-assess existing claimants, but only those who circumstances have changed. The vast majority of the 3.2 million people who currently claim DLA will not be re-assessed until 2015 or later. Many disabled people fear having to be put through the new in-person tests to test their eligibility. Phil Sumner, a former postman who has multiple sclerosis, told the BBC that the prospect of an interview is "quite intimidating". "It's like being judged again. Filling out forms is bad enough. Face-to-face, I don't like anyway," he said. Savings Figures from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) suggest that 450,000 will no longer be able to claim the benefit by 2018. But the disability charity Scope said that - including those who would have been new claimants between now to 2018 - some 607,000 people will miss out in total. The government claims the new system will better target those who need help. Under DLA, most people filled in their own application forms, and did not have to re-apply, even if their health improved. "Seventy-one percent would have indefinite awards, without regular checks," the disabilities minister, Esther McVeigh, told the BBC. "So this is about targeting billions of pounds a year at the people who n So we are told. I am currently on DLA and am not being reassessed just yet I don’t expect to be for sometime but it is a worry at the back of your mind. My eyesight is unlikely to ever improve so how is my situation ever likely to change? I was awarded my DLA for life when I got it and don’t see why this has to change. I will have to see what happens but I don’t see why I should be targeted while the rich laugh all the way to the banks evading billions in tax. Quite clearly this is an attack on disabled people who as we know can’t fight back so easily so are an easy target for this vicious and cruel government. All benefit cuts must be fought as best we can. Keep a watch on my blog for further updates on benefit cuts and disability news and views.

Coping with a disability and busting the myths

As people may or may not know I am registered as disabled being registered as blind. I have less than 30% vision I lost my central vision due to a rare genetic disease back in 2004. Life isn’t easy for me I’ll admit that. I make the best of a situation and do as much as I possibly can. Hearing the constant news of benefit scroungers and benefit fraud it worries me deeply that I’ll be next to see my benefits cut or ended. Ok I do work part time as there isn’t any more work I could do where I am at I would love to work full time but there simply isn’t the work for me as yet.

I decided to join the socialist party as I firmly believe they have the best ideas and the best strategy to creating a better fairer society for tee many not just the few. Other political parties talk a good game but no one puts their words and theories into action quite like the socialist party they do as they say and I’m glad to be apart of them.

But this government wish to make us disabled people including myself who are blind to pay for a crisis caused by the rich reckless bankers who gambled huge amounts of money more than you or I could ever possibly imagine and lost. We as ordinary working class people and the middle class lets not forget have to pay for their mistakes in the way of austerity measures.

I get by on little money any money I do get be that in a wage from work or benefits from the government are mostly given to my mum who I still live with due to the fact there is little chance of me moving out anytime soon as the lack of affordable housing out there in my area. I do not live the high life and I certainly don’t have it easy. The Tories and new labour before them have constantly attacked disabled people using various different terms such as scroungers, festering, work shy, drain on society, cost we cannot afford and the media have brought into this echoing these attacks in the daily press. Many people who read these papers and subscribe to such media take this in as gospel but I would like to shatter these illusions if I can and tell it how it is for me being disabled and a benefit claimer.

Sheffield socialist party have produced this myth buster which I hope they don’t mind me sharing with you all its fantastic. If this piece made it into the mass media or a opposition used this to defeat the lies we could really get somewhere as it is Labour buy into the scroungers idea too unfortunately something we must fight against too as they are no better.

The welfare state has led to a 'something for nothing' culture? IT'S A LIE. There are over 8 million people receiving benefits in this country. There are more people IN WORK who get benefits than not working. 90% of all housing benefit claimants are IN WORK. The Welfare state is actually a massive state subsidy to business which enables it to pay poverty wages and charge exorbitant rents.

You're all sick of paying a huge swathe of chavs to lay about watching Jeremy Kyle all day?
IT'S A LIE. Less than 5,000 people, out of a population of 60 million, have been on Job Seekers Allowance for more than 5 years. Historically, whenever jobs get created, they always get filled. The idea that there is a vast horde of the work-shy is a myth.
Living on benefits is a lifestyle choice?
IT'S A LIE.
More than 80% of benefit claimants are aged over 35. The vast majority of unemployed claimants have worked, and paid taxes, for years and are now on benefits due to redundancy, sickness, disability or having to care for someone. Millions more are receiving benefits due to poverty wages.
People won't work because benefits are too high?
IT'S A LIE. Average benefits amount to £3,400 a year. These people are living in poverty. Since 1997, due to various Government actions, the value of benefits has fallen sharply year on year in real terms. People on benefits are far worse off now than in the last 30 years.

People should get off their arses and look for work?
IT'S A LIE. When Iain Duncan Smith suggested the jobless in Merthyr Tydfil should get on a bus to Cardiff to find work, Merthyr had 43 people for every job vacancy. Problem was, Cardiff already had nine unemployed people for every job vacancy. The jobs just don't exist. In 2010, there was 1 million more unemployed than there were job vacancies.

Benefit cheats are bankrupting the country?
IT'S A LIE. Benefit fraud does amount to about £1.5 billion a year. However, £16 billion goes UNCLAIMED every year. Meanwhile, the amount of tax lost through avoidance and evasion is a whopping £120 billion a year. ( And don't give me the crap about avoidance being legal, the truth is, it shouldn't be. Not one of the major parties will openly state the real truth. The biggest causes of poverty in this country are lack of jobs, poverty wages and part time work. All the parties have social policies that they KNOW are based upon outright lies, lies that are allowing a whole section of society to be vilified as heartless people cast around to find a victim upon which to blame all this countries woes


The money is out there for us all to live comfortably I say lets tax the rich and bring their wealth into public ownership to benefit the many not just the few.
With thanks to Sheffield socialist party for the exert on myth busting benefits.

The nothing for something culture

We are constantly told of the something for nothing culture which apparently infests our country with many people scrounging benefits and feeling a sense of entitlement. This is completely untrue of course and is a rhetoric driven by the ruling class with the capitalist controlled media aiding their assault on disabled people as one section of the society feeling the attacks hardest.

But I thought I’d twist this on its head and re name it the nothing for something culture where we are being asked to work for nothing in workfare schemes where big companies get cheap labour well for nothing.

The government of millionaires are quite happy for this society to carry on as many of them have financial benefits with such companies involved in the workfare scheme. Workfare is meant to help people find work but ultimately it is unpaid labour where the workers only get their benefits and if they refuse they may not even get that.

The battle to defeat workfare hasn’t gone away and a concerted effort to highlight the programme and how we can create real jobs with real wages needs to be addressed.

Many will ask so you oppose workfare so what is your alternative?

Well how about using some of that 750 billion big business is sitting on either tax it or say we’d nationalise them to run for need not profit providing socially useful jobs perhaps in the construction industry for a start. Rolling out a mass affordable house building project.

Other areas could be investing in our railways, a fully nationalised railway and public transport system run for the need of people not just the profits of a few fat cats at the tops of these private organisations.

The nothing for something culture has to end with the bankers laughing all the way to the bank with their bonus’s all be them not as large as before we do need to get organised to change society to benefit everybody on this planet.

Disabled people this week have been attacked in the news this week with the news that Iain Duncan Smith the work and pensions secretary for the government declaring half a million S DLA claimants are to be re assessed and those in least need will be losing their disability benefits. Even amputees who have lost limbs in illegal wars could see their benefits cut or removed entirely. Only the most genuine cases will be granted support and this will be constantly monitored I don’t imagine any life time indefinite claims will be granted. Forcing more disabled people into misery and poverty I wouldn’t be surprised if many feel it is too much to carry on with the cost of living and the challenges they already face feeling far too great. Life is a struggle to many disabled people myself included as a blind man we are not a drain on society and certainly don’t fester on long term benefits. I work two days a week on part time employment but I still don’t earn much but I try my best. IDS want us all to work harder and get less as a result. Its time this government was gone in my view.

Welfare bill spells difficulty for many

This is a piece i have submitted to go in our paper the socialist this coming week. It may not appear as this may be jigged around here and there to fit in the paper but i thought i'd post my original version here for all to read if they wished.


So as the Welfare bill makes its course through the houses of
parliament going backwards and forwards between the commons and the
lord's disabled people such as me reflect on what will make our lives
harder than they already are.

For me the proposed changes are yet to be spelled out to me but I
understand the DLA is likely to be replaced with Pip which will surely
cost more in the long run to introduce and make the transition across.
I was granted DLA indefinably after I was told I may not see ever
again following the traumatic loss of my sight in 2004. From what I
understand PIP will be harder to claim and more and more strict tests
will have to be performed before you are granted help and support.

No doubt such profiteers such as ATOS will be there carrying out the
tests on disabled people with tough rigorous tests to carry out to
prove if you are fit for work or not.

With DLA this was not means tested so you could still claim it while
working which has been a great help to me as I only work part time and
receive working tax credits as a top up due to such poor level of
wages.

I know many cases of people who have already been through tough
screening and have lost out with attempts to get benefits to help them
live independently. Missing out and still not being able to find work
is extremely tough. I was unemployed a few years back after leaving
blind college in Here ford the RNCB which again receives local
authority funding for students to go there to study and receive
support in a residential environment.

I fear for others and myself who will have to face tough questions in
the coming months and years in terms of what we can and cannot afford.

Disabled activists may have been heartened by the role the house of
lords has played so far but we would air on the side of caution and
say the lords only oppose part of the welfare bill. As socialists we
would oppose the whole bill as it is a vicious attack on ordinary
working class disabled people.

With all 3 main capitalist parties Tories, lib dems and labour all
agreeing with the principle of the bill it is time disabled people
along with others in society say enough is enough and put our efforts
in to fighting for a new workers party fighting for the interests of
all not just the 1%.

Who are the real scroungers in society ?

As many of you who know me will know i am registered as blind and have been since 2004. I lost my sight due to a rare genetic disease which attacked the cells at the back of my eyes connected my eyes to my brain the optic nerve in otherwords.
This has left me using a white cane and finding jobs and opportunities hard to come by despite my determination to try and live my life as normally as i possibly can still.
I do claim for Disability Living allowance and feel no shame in doing so. I cannot drive and i cant reach places by walking all the time so a taxi or two or to pay a bus fare is needed. I have never played the system as some of the capitalist media like to put it so kindly.
I do work part time at present mostly down to the fact there is little work around at the moment where i am at and a part time position i feel is better than sitting at home doing nothing. I feel proud that i can contribute in my own little way. Its not much i know i'm basically costing up parts for electrical control panels and quoting for prices. This gives me experience in the work place and a sense of belonging too.

But i do get benifits a working tax credit to top up what i dont earn as my wages are so low and a disability living allowance to aid with me living independently as best i can. Life is tough at times i have no bones about that and dont cheat the system but benifits are there to help people live not to fund a lifestyle which is where the government and the labour party have disabled people all wrong.

Benifit fraud although a tiny 1% of claiments are frauding the system is clearly a serious thing people shouldnt be cheating the system of course but we can all understand why people may be forced into such measures by this system we live under. The increasing desperation of people in todays society may be forced into such hard choices.

But we are always being told by every newspaper and every polititian these days be them tory labour or lib dem that benifit cheaters are more of a problem than anything we have ever faced.

In cash terms, it amounts to around £1bn. Yeah, I know. A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you are talking big money. Even so, it is little more than small change in comparison with the £850bn spent on the bank bailout. That comparison is one that everybody on the left should commit to memory ahead of the debates with the right that inevitably lie ahead.

HAVING MUGGED the public with £83 billion of cuts in public spending (to plug the budget deficit caused by bailing out the failed banking system), millionaire chancellor George Osborne has, hypocritically, rounded on alleged benefit fraudsters, accusing them of 'mugging taxpayers'.

While identifying an estimated £1.5 billion in benefit and tax credit fraud, Osborne failed to mention any measures the government will implement to resolve the estimated £16 billion in means-tested benefits and tax credits that currently goes unclaimed every year.

According to Citizens Advice: "Up to three million households are missing out on an average £13 a week in council tax benefit, while as many as 1.7 million pensioners are missing out on an average of £31 a week in pension credit."

Applying for means-tested benefit is complicated and many are discouraged from claiming.

While speaking out against benefit fraud, Osborne is also silent over the estimated £120 billion that is lost to government income through tax avoidance, evasion or uncollected taxes. Collecting this enormous sum has been made more difficult by the government sacking 25,000 tax workers and closing 200 tax offices. Osborne may also be reticent to pursue these billions as several high profile Tory backers are 'non-dom' tax dodgers.

Prime minister David Cameron recently announced that Experian - a profit-making company - will get a 'bounty' for each person that it identifies as defrauding on benefit payments. Such a system is open to abuse as Experian has a financial incentive to throw accusations at people.




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I am a socialist for the reasons i have previously stated i care about others and want us all to be equal. I dont want the world i just want to live comfortably and not ahve to worry about money and i wish for the same for everybody else too. I joined the socialist party last year for this very reason. Finding like minded people who share my outlook on life and the world is a place i want to be involved in.

I think its always important to present the facts as they are and link them to a personal situation it helps you get your point across better i always find and asking people to look up from their copies of the sun and the mail and open their eyes to the real injustices in the world and to find taht people who have benifits oftn often do not wish to be on them and feel stigmatised for it. But it is something they need to help them live. If there were enough well paid jobs to go around for all we wouldnt have this problem. For those who cant work there should be sufficient things in place for them to be still able to contribute to society in some way or fashion.

This is my idea of a socialist society of the future where society is based on the needs of the many not the profits of a few, what is your future world going to look like ?

The hardest hit march, May 11th Disabled people fighting for dignity

This wednesday myself- hhopefully if i can get there and thousands of other disabled people will be marching in centrel London organised by several disabled groups including Scope, RNIB, MENCAP amoung many many others.

Disabled people will sadly be the hardest hit when these cuts start to bite. We are already seeing cases of some on disability support benifits being hounded to come off of their benifits to go ona much lower job seakers allowance. In some cases this is causing so much stress it is leading to patients wanting and in some rare cases taking their own life as they feel sucha burden to the state and others around them.

This i find absolutely disgusting and our polititains should be utterly ashamed of themselves. The rich greedy bastards want to make the people who are worst off in society pay for the mess they had nothing to do with creating. It is a outrage in my opinion and this government needs to be shamed. Not only this government but the one before was no better.
The previous labour government, the one who claimed to care so much for the poor and disabled people were the ones who started this ball rolling. The tories and the lib dems are just carrying this program through a lot quicker.

So if we want to look at who started this we can look no further than those smug labour MP's some who have gone on to get nice jobs in teh lords now for starting a attack on the working class and most notably the disabled of us out there.

I myself wrote a little piece in the socialist paper last week i do hope you can read it. It not only features me but has some excellent points in the article too.

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But as for the march on wednesday we aim to tell this government they are wrong and shame them for their inhumane actions of making the working class and the disabled pay for this mess while their rich friends in the city get off scot free and even get themselves tidy little tax breaks. How nice for them !!

So much for making those with the broadest shoulders shoulder the burden ay Mr Cameron ?

Everything that comes out of a tories mouth is a lie i'm afraid and they cannot be trusted so they must be opposed and stopped.

SO please do join us if you can on Wednesday 11th of May.

The march will begin on Victoria Embankment between Horseguards Avenue and Bridge Street and will assemble at 11.30. There will be a rally on Victoria Embankment with speeches between 12.00 and 12.30 before the march sets off. The march will then begin at 12.30.

The march will take about an hour. It will take in Victoria Embankment,Parliament Squareand Millbank and finish in Dean Stanley Street.

Methodist Central Hall, which is near the end of the march route, will be available as a quiet space during the day.
The lobby

After the march the group will be lobbying MPs as the Welfare Reform Bill reaches a critical stage in the House of Commons. They will be sharing their stories, making sure that Parliamentarians understand the combined impact of the cuts on their lives and futures. Crucially, they will be asking MPs to challenge policies that will push disabled people further into poverty and isolation. The lobby will take place in Westminster Hall and Methodist Central Hall between 13.30 and 17.30.

Only 10 more days to campaign to keep the DLA benifit

As the days draw ever closer to febuary the 14th, Whilst most people look forward to this day for Valentines day many of disabled people across the country including myself will be on tender hooks worried to death that the government will vote to scrap the disability living allowance. We only have 10 days left to lobby our Mp's whilst i myself dont hold out much hope of this being voted down i do want to get the message out there that it is important to a lot of people and does need saving.

take a look at this thread on this page here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/messageboards/NF2322273?thread=8034533
It explains a lot and highlights a excellent campaign from the broken of britain to protect the disability living allowance. The governments replacement will b ea personal independance payment which will be more strict and therefore making it harder for borderline disabled people to claim for this.

For the government who promised that the weakest and the most vunrable in our society would be protected it is a absolute outrage that they are being allowed to get away with these attacks on our disabled population. So where is our beloved opposition when it matters and we need them to defend the voice-less ? ? no where to be seen. As the reality is the labour government of the last 13 years was the ones who started the raids and attacks on the disabled. They were starting to cut disability benifits even whilst still in government. I'm not one of these people who see's what they did through rose tinted spectecles i have to live through it and are being affected by these cuts and so called reforms.

So i hope as many of yo who do read this blog and those who dont can lobby your MP to urge them to vote to keep the DLA. I dont hold out much hope myself as DLA in the large part is not a very well known benifit to the majority of people and due to that fact the ignorance of most people they will cut it with no thought spared.

Take a well known policy change the trebling of student university tuitian fees a month or so ago that was hugely popular movement and protests were formed and even that got voted through, all be it narrowly. So what chance does a little benifit that only the disabled benifit from have of surviving these vicious government cuts ?

Despite this i do hope it can be saved or at least protected and Labour and the lib dems who stand for fairness and for the vunrable in society can find their backbone on this vote in the commons on 14th of feb.

To many the DLA is a lifeline. It enables them to get to the local shops by taxi and get out of their house rather than being house bound. It is a benifit which enables people to gain some of their independance back. It may not be perfect and i'm sure many do claim it wrongly that could be looked at. But a major reform of it is not nessesary in my view.

So once again it is the poorest and the most vunrable in society are left picking up the bill for the rich bankers mistakes. Where the government has over spent on illegal wars and other such needless matters. When their money runs out in the capitailist system they dont turn to each other at the top for a bail out they turn on the poor and working class who have little say in anything anyway.

If Mp's vote to scrap this including my own MP they can rule themselves out of me ever voting and supporting them again. But then again i'm sure they wont care as they dont have to face the difficulties disabled people have to face on a daily basis.

As a excellent placard spelled out at a recent disability protest i attended in LOndon said, If you want my benifits you can have my disability. Too right, if money is taht important to them they'd happily take it off those who need it most, It clearly shows how broke the capitailist system is. Lets expose them for who they really are.

letter back from my MP about cuts to DLA

Today in the mail i recieved a letter back from my MP i scanned it in and thought you'd all like to read this. Very oddly someone else i know on twitter recieved the same response from their tory MP word for word. This smacks of laziness and as though they are acting like sheep with no brains to think for themselves for their own ideas.

here is the letter in full.

"Dear Mr Wright,

Thank you for contacting me about reforms to Disability Living Allowance.

I believe that the Government owe a duty to disabled people to promote their independence and equality and I also believe it has a duty to ensure that it has the right governance in place to deliver this support efficiently and sensibly.

The Government is already undertaking a large-scale reform of the welfare system, for example the Universal Crdit and it's flagship Work Programme. These welfare reforms are designed to protect people in the most vulnerable situations, including disabled people. The Government has made it clear that it is steadfast in its support for the principles of DLA, as a non-means-tested cash benefit contributing to the extra costs incurred by disabled people.

However, DLA is currently a poorly targeted and unsustainable benefit. Almost three million people receive this benefit at a forecast cost of £12 billion per year. We now have a disability benefit which is confusing for individuals to understand, based on unclear criteria and often results in inconsistent rewards, and since 1992, both the case load and the cost of DLA have grown to a level that is unsustainable. Change to DLA are long overdue and must address questions of fairness and value, while supporting disabled people to lead independent lives. We must ensure DLA better reflects the needs of disabled people today, rather than in the 1990's, and that it enables support to be targeted to those with the greatest need.

The Government wants to bring disability benefits into the 21st century by replacing DLA with a new Personal Independence Payment. This is an opportunity to improve the support for disabled people and enable them to lead full, active and independent lives. The Personal Independence Payment will maintain the key principles of DLA, but it will be delivered in a fairer, more consistent and sustainable manner. It is only right that support should be targeted at those disabled people who face the greatest challenges to leading independent lives and this reform is required to enable that, along with a clearer assessment process.

The Government has launched a formal public consultation on DLA and wants the views of disabled people to be fully reflected in any change it makes to DLA and has asked disabled people and their organisations to join the debate on reforming DLA. You may wish to make your views known and you can contribute to the Consultation by visiting website: http://dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2010/dla-reform.shtml
I want to assure you that those who are genuinely sick, disabled or retired have nothing to fear. This Government does not regard caring for the needy as a burden, but as a proud duty.

I hope that this reassures you and thank you again for taking the time to contact me.

Yours sincerely


Mark Prisk MP

this clearly shows my MP like so many others are ill informed and seem to not support disabled people one little bit. THis shows they want to rip into the welfare system and wreck peoples welfare and independance. Alot of this letter is waffle and clearly not their own ideas as someone else i know recieved exactly the same letter as this. Its poor and shows a lack of compassion to the sick and disabled in this country. It does seem you ahve to be severely disabled now to get any sort of benifits, even then yuo must prove it beyond doubt. Where is this country going making disabled people feel they are a burden on society. it is all wrong i tell you so very wrong.

The case for keeping DLA

I have been wanting to do a blogpost on this subject for sometime. But my earlier blogpost on the governments plans to replace the disability living allowance and reform the benifit totally and this blog post here
http://carerwatch.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/welfare-system-%e2%80%98does-not-need-overhaul%e2%80%99/

have encouraged me to put my own views across in a blogpost.

I am myself registered blind. Having lost my sight back in 2004 through a rare genetic disease named Lebers optical neuropathy disease. This caused me to loose my central vision over the space of a few months. Leaving me with very little sight.

I started claiming DLA from the end of that year. I feel that DLA adds to my life. It enables me to be independant getting about to social events by taxi's which in my opinion are a rip off anyway but there we go. It enables me to pay my mum for rent to the stay in her house and furthers my life i feel.

I do think there could be changes to this benifit where people who are not that disabled or that impaired should maybe be removed from it or have their payments reduced somewhat. But the idea that the DLA is discouraging people from working is absolute nonsense as first of all the DLA is not a work based benifit. You may still claim it while you are in work. I do exactly this as i work 2 days a week currently.

It is not also there to boost your income per week, income support is there and working tax credits are there for that.

I personally can see little point in a mass over haul of this particular benifit. It is not a substitute for work and we shuld not buy the line that the government are throwing at us that it encourages people who are disabled not to work.

I feel it goes a long way to helping disabled people live a independant life. I for one will be protesting to protect the DLA if i possibly can and hope that many other blind and other disabled people join with me to oppose this disgusting move by the government.

The plan is to bring this new benifit in in 2013 with strict medical assessments taking place from then on. I fear for myself and others who will no doubt miss out on this and be left in a worse position than t hey are now.

I think this move is going totally the wrong way, we should be looking to increase the DLA to disabled people not taking it away or reforming it as they cleverly disguise it as.

Of course ther are cases wher people may be claiming it wrongly and have more sight and can cope quite well but this can easily be resolved by medical assesments and a doctors letter backing up their claims or not.

I see no need fora huge overhaul of the welfare system and the disabled benifit system at all. Just like the post i link to further up we all agree this is unessesary and heaps further missery on the less well off in this country.

To me it is a further attack on the poor and the weak. If we taxed the bankers a lot lot more and made sure to close the tax loop holes that certain companies seem to still be getting away with we could afford to support our elderly and disabled and sick properly like a proper modern country should do.

Please if you are against this move by the government and its proposals please look up my facebook page for keeping the disability living allowance

that is at the follwoing link http://is.gd/ii4D1

please join it and spread the word. If anyoen would like to help me start a campaign to protect DLA please do contact me through twitter or email
@markwrightuk88
or markwrightuk@gmail.com

many thanks for reading

tories block disability rights march

I follow various people and sources on twitter and recently found out about a march going on in Birmingham to protest at the Conservative party annual conference on the 3rd of October. This is to protest against the proposed reduction of DLA and other such benifits disabled people, such as myself will feel in the coming years as welfare cuts take affect.

This is a protest i wanted to attend to voice my anger to the tories for treating disabled people in this way and stand up for our rights. THis email below is a email i recieved from the campaign and it looks as though the tories are preventing one of the most crucial human rights, the right to protest.

take a read of this.

ONCE AGAIN DISABLED PEOPLE DENIED THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS Protest at Tory Party Conference update


We have amended our original leaflets which are attached to advise people to meet at Chamberlain Square since following a lengthy meeting with the police last week we are still not in any position to arrange anything beyond that. Originally the police had agreed that we could rally at and march past the conference centre.



We are now being refused permission to march past the Tory Conference by the Tory controlled Birmingham City council and West Midlands police. Last week we were told that the march would have to start from outside the city centre and would take some obscure route through a suburb of the city. It would have been impossible for disabled people to get to this.



There was a suggestion from one of the council’s employees there that we could travel via an inaccessible rail station, obviously also ignoring the fact that anyone who needs assistance to travel by train has to book at least 24 hours in advance and only one wheelchair per train is allowed even if the train is accessible .



We then managed to get agreement that the route would be based in the centre and that we would be assembling at Chamberlain Square. Other than this after 2 hours we were no further forward.



We have a legal, democratic right to protest against these cuts which we know have already resulted in the deaths of a number of disabled people and which if not stopped will lead to further deaths. We want to be able to exercise our rights and disabled people from all over the UK are planning to attend this march.



If we are prevented from protesting outside the conference this will deny us of our rights under the UNCRPD article 29 - Participation in political and public life “ States parties shall guarantee to persons with disabilities political rights and the opportunity to enjoy them on an equal basis with others…” and article 5 - Equality and non-discrimination “states parties recognize that all persons are equal before and under the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection and equal benefit of the law.”



We are asking individual disabled people and especially our DPOs to email to insist that we are allowed to rally and march past the Tory Party Conference on October 3rd.



Leader of Birmingham City Council - Mike Whitby -mike.Whitby@birmingham.gov.uk

Copy to cabinet member for Equalities and HR – Alan Rudge – alan.rudge@birmingham.gov.uk



West Midlands police- for attention of Inspector Matt Ward

contactus@westmidlands.pnn.police.co.uk

or directly onto internet form at

http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/contact-us/email-us/index.asp



Please copy any emails to any press and Disability Now to increase their interest in this event



Local press in Birmingham.



Birmingham Mail news editor – Andy Richards andy.Richards@birminghammail.net



Editor Disability Now – ian.macrae@disabilitynow.org.uk



Able magazine – editorial1@cravenpublishing.co.uk









You may also want to ask our Lords and Ladies to support us and if so

email



Baroness Jane Campbell – campbelljs@parliament.uk



Baroness Rosalie Wilkins – wilkinsrc@parliament.uk



Baroness Grey-Thompson – greythompson@parliament.uk



Lords Morris and Rix have no email contact details but can be written to at

House of Lords. London, SW1A 0PW





The road past the conference centre and into Centenary Square will not be totally sealed off and there will be footpath access anyhow for the general public.