‘Iain Duncan Smith seems to enjoy shocking Telegraph readers with a boast that half a million people will lose disability living allowances: thalidomide victims and servicemen who have lost limbs may not qualify. All will undergo new tests: “They were just allowed to fester,” he says.’
I know there have comments about this man in the past, but what is in his mind to make remarks like this?
I know he is a high church Roman Catholic, but the morality behind this escapes me somewhat.
Hello,
Did you read the blog in The Telegraph?
This is the web address http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielknowles/100157641/cutting-back-on-disability-living-allowance-is-right-in-principle-but-it-will-be-a-political-disaster/
Hi
I agree, that comments like ‘left to fester’ appear inapproriate. I think the comment was made regarding the 70% of claimants who were given lifetime awards and not re-assessed. That suggests that 70% will get neither better or worse or technology aids will not help their needs, which seems unnatural.
Certainly, some people will never get better, some will get worse. I suspose as technology improves, peoples ability to become mobile / care for themselves may improve.and lessen the need to qualify for that component at that level.
I know my ability towards mobility has improved a little with lighter wheelchairs, although there is still the argument about lifting it in / out of the car & the camber of paths / gradient of slopes. If only the world was as flat / level as shopping centres life would be easier.
If claimant levels have increased by 30% then why is that ? Are we becoming a society with greater illness ?
I don’t know the answer. Who does ?
Can we exclude certain illnesses / disabilities?
Is there a disability that is so clear cut that everyone with it should qualify for a set level of PIP ?
I hope PIP works for those who need it.
All the best
Neil
Due to the management of the banks the western world monetary system is very unstable and the corruption that caused the banks to go into debt has been transferred to the state such that it is now overloaded with debt.
This means there will be cuts in government spending on all sorts of things. Now I have a free bus pass and would be the first to admit that if we have to save money then funding for that is less important than say hospitals or funding benefits for those in genuine need. However it seems perfectly clear that bus passes buys more votes than benefits for the disabled, it is a numbers thing.
It is desperately unfair but then most of life is, what have people with MS done to deserve their plight?
As far as I can see sickness is markedly on the increase and that is another problem making the burden worse
This article provides a few answers.
Quite agree Whammel; I feel so sorry for those people like my friends with Fibromyalgia who are having their benefits cut for no reason other than some people do not recognise it as a disease and as for people with mental conditions can’t imagine what they will go through.
I have never been a fan of the Tories but as a doctor said on the radio last night, Labour’s record re the NHS was not that good either and don’t forget these changes were coming in with Labour too!
Most people (like some ex friends of mine) are keen to give people sympathy, they told me constantly about a neighbour whose MS left her being fed by tube, ‘oh poor woman what she goes through with that MS’ but when they realised the ‘poor woman’ and her husband were getting benefits their sympathy almost turned to jealousy.
There has been too much gossip about how ‘well off’ the disabled are. I know because I’ve heard it said and now people belive it to be true. There will have to be a backlash at some point.
Wendyx
The so called quiet man is cocking a deaf ear to the disabled
John
did we expecct anything diffrent from the tories,unfortunatley they are just living up to there reputation,
My sister has a son, my lovely nephew who has brain damage and i feel she deserves all she gets from DLA and DWP,she gives 24/7 care, i mean 24/7 care, as he does not sleep well at all avaraging 4 hrs a night , changing nappys(he is 9yrs old), behavior problems, so she cant take him to many public places,she has 2 other boys and does all this on her own and much much more more. so tell me who are(Rebecca) you to judge people by just knowing what disability a child /person has and what they deserve. As people with MS we constantly get annoyed with people saying we look well and nothing wrong with us, they dont see the pain ,fatigue, etc, but it is very hard . Its the same for people that u can see the disability and their carers. Who are we to judge!!!
I don’t think anybody would disagree with people being given better more targetted support to meet their needs. However nobody outside of a situation can assess what those needs are
It is naive to think that the benefit ‘reforms’ are about giving better support to the needy, they are about cost cutting.
Neil
The Guardian online yesterday said DLA had risen by 30% because of the number of older claimants and younger children who are entitled. The DLA people said this does NOT mean there are loads of people fiddling their system - they put the number of false claims at 0.5%.
The fact is that people who would have died 20 years ago are now living because of better medical services…but many are left with chronic disabilities.
I hesitate to ask this but…would IDS prefer us all dead?
Liz
PS - I don’t ever buy the gruniard but it does have some good articles. I have a complete breakdown of all 3.2 million on DLA by condition and rates for mobility and care. If I can find the link I’ll post it.
Morning everyone,
Not even a droplet in the pond but … read the attachment
This is the sort of thing I think IDS is afer and I’m sure there are many more of the same ilk
You can always rely on whammel to hit the nail right on the head:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/14/disability-living-allowanc…
Read this article in full - carefully.
Now I am too old to get DLA - which means that I could not get a Motability car if I wanted one, etc. So I am not biased.
What gets to me is that from the figure quoted in the Guardian article, some 16% of Atos decisions are getting reversed. This means that the arbitrators think that Atos are getting it wrong better than 1 time in 7 (1:6.25, to be exact). I can think of no non-governmental organisation that would put up with an error rate that high.
So the real question is:
Where are all the charities that are supposed to look out for the disabled? Why are they not making a real fuss about it? And, the one thing that will never be revealed: which civil servant made the decision that Atos was the company to handle this, and then recommended them to a health minister?
Geoff
Apart from my stick, I look absolutely fine. People looking at me would probably assume that the only extra cost I have is said stick. Wrong.
Prescriptions: £104pa pre-paid certificate (otherwise it would be ~£720pa)
Prescribed supplements (but not available on NHS): £73pa
Recommended supplements (but not available on NHS): £35pa
Gym fees (recommended because I don’t get regular physio): £270pa
Petrol (I can’t walk or stand for long, so I have to drive everywhere): 30p per mile, estimated extra annual mileage of 2000 miles because of mobility = £600
Aids: last year ~£1500 (new chair + freewheel + shower stool + stick), this year so far £40 (new sticks)
Home help (because I can’t do it myself any more): cleaning £1920 + ironing £300 = £2220
Car (I have to have one or I would be housebound): £54.05 per week (high rate mobility paid direct to Motability)
Extra cost of food (ready meals instead of home cooking): no idea! but not insignificant
Care provided by my husband: £0, but at what cost to our relationship and at what cost to him and his mental and physical health?
So, the grand total (if I’ve remembered everything), excluding aids because they vary a lot and last quite a long time once bought and excluding food because I really don’t know what it costs: £6112.60
DLA received: £3879.20 (including payment to Motability)
So, my MS costs me in excess of £2233.40pa more than I receive in DLA.
I don’t doubt for a second that there are a lot of people on DLA and IB who shouldn’t be, but there are far far more who should be properly supported, no matter what things look like from the outside. Disability is expensive, especially when you add the personal costs too (like looking after a child 24/7 for their whole life, and all that that means).
It’s easy to make judgements. It’s hard to get them right.
Karen x
With you a 100% Karen
Mo x
I read this post last night before I went to bed and do not wish to be post negatively but I disagree with it so strongly that I must.
DLA for children compares their care needs with that of a healthy child of the same age. My 4 year old could for example:
Dress herself in the morning; put on coat and boots to play outside; sit at the table and feed herself with a knife and fork; take herself upstairs to the toilet and wash her hands afterwards; play safely by herself in another room or out in the garden while I cooked a meal and much much more. I don’t think that I had a prodigy or that the intervening 20 odd years have clouded my memory. My point is that the level of care that I needed to give to my independent little girl does not begin to compare to that required by a disabled child. Parents of these children are unsung heroes and to begrudge them DLA is mean spirited.
Karen (Rizzo) has carefully listed the hidden costs of her disability. Costs that outsiders would simply not imagine. I feel sure that the parents of disabled children could produce a similar list.
I think the current climate encourages people to be judgmental about others when we none of us knows what goes on behind closed front doors.
Hi
Hope you are all well.
Karen has made some really thoughtful and extremely valid points.
Let me add:
Insurance that my partner pays which is directly related to my disability: insurance which pays off the mortgage on our modest house so I have a roof over my head (heaven forbid) in the event of his death, insurance which gives me a modest income in the event of his death,insurance if he becomes critically ill or is made redundant because he is the sole breadwinner
Wheelchair insurance because we simply cannot afford to purchase another if something happens to mine
Scooter hire because it is becoming more and more difficult to physically use my chair
Mortgage-we took our mortgage on a two income basis but then life happens, doesn’t it? Too bad we didn’t think more about insurance BEFORE MS :\
It all adds up.
Tu
Another government once decided that disabled people were a burden on society. It was Germany in the 1930s.
Think it couldn’t happen here?
Nothing happens overnight. It starts slowly. People start believing the propaganda. They start hating a group of people. They feel righteous. Justified. It snowballs, gathers pace. Becomes a movement.
I feel very sad to see a post on these boards judging a family who are coping with the care of a chronically disabled child. Might be worth remembering the words ‘there but for the grace of God go I’.
Pat x
I didn’t post last night when I read this thread because it upset me too much. I am not in receipt of DLA, nor have I applied for it. The care of a healthy child is exhausting, the care of a child with special needs cannot be compared Good luck to the family who relieve DLA I’m sure it doesn’t even begin to cover their needs. It beggars belief that someone who has particular needs themselves could be judgemental in this way. I hoe when PIP is introduced this families benefits are doubled! Chis
I find it appalling that anyone, far less someone who lives with the daily effects of a disability should sit in judgement on the family of a disabled child about whose condition, and its day to day effects and costs, they appear to have little knowledge.
I’ll give you a clue – up during the night again and again assisting the child to toilet & bathe, washing her laundry however many times, not being able to hold down a job because they are caring for the child and / or too exhausted to do anything else. Cost of accessible holidays, cost of babysitters when they have the odd respite couple of hours. This is in addition to transport costs which you can so graciously acknowledge is an extra cost.
The media in this country have launched a vicious attack on those on benefits, usually the very poorest in society. Benefit ‘scams’ are estimated to cost the country (or ‘us honest taxpayers’ as it tends to be reported) £1.2 billion per year. You have wholeheartedly fallen for this line and are banging the ConDem / right wing media drum.
Tax dodgers aren’t shopping each other and twitching their net curtains when someone they suspect of evading tax walks down the road, they’re knocking back magnums of champagne, swapping tips and slapping each other on the back in congratulation in how they managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the masses who will believe anything they feed them in print, turning their media hounds on those with no hope of employment through disability or other circumstance.
If, as it is suggested this £1.2 billion fraud is ‘crippling the country’, why aren’t they crusading in equal or even greater measure against tax evasion, which at a conservative (no pun intended) estimate costs the country easily 10 times that amount?
The annual fraud indicator estimates a loss of £15 billion through deliberate tax evasion; these are rich people, people who exist above ‘the law’ who have evaded tax in the full knowledge of what they are doing.
This is not some woman who has her mobility benefits stopped because a nosy neighbour has filmed her walking from her car into the house. This is wholesale rape of the economy by the rich, the same people who caused the global collapse of the banking system.
As I said, that’s the conservative estimate, ‘the shadow economy’ is estimated by the Tax Justice Network to cost the country in excess of £70 billion, if you take into account tax evasion – politicians and high ranking businessmen (and women) registering themselves as limited companies and paying themselves a salary from the public purse, anonymous PO Box accounts in the Cayman Islands, Swiss bank accounts then the annual loss to the country in tax evasion rises to a staggering £120 billion.
Why isn’t the Daily Heil and The Scum reporting this colossal fraud inside its filthy pages? Ah that’s right, the press and therefore the views and opinions of the majority of the sheeple is owned by the Murdoch empire, the same family who have a raft of tax avoidance and evasion loopholes set up across the globe…for reasons we won’t get to know, the Murdoch empire is currently on the ropes, trust me, if it is permanently removed, another empire will rise from its ashes.
Read a little; open your eyes, let some fresh air and thoughts blow through your mind…before you next sit in judgement, in the words of the National Lottery ‘It Could Be You’
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Pastor Martin Niemoller