Disability

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/25896587

Up to 1.2 million people with disabilities will lose thousands of pounds under the government’s welfare overhaul, experts have said, as campaigners warn the plan will exacerbate the country’s mental health crisis and push more children into poverty.

Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, laid out her long-awaited changes to the benefits system on Tuesday, announcing a set of measures aimed at getting more people into work and saving £5bn by reducing disability payments.

But with experts warning the plans will reduce the incomes of more than 1 million people, ministers are braced for the biggest rebellion yet of the Labour government, with as many as 30 MPs expected to vote against the plans within weeks.

In a sign of the growing pushback which ministers now face, Debbie Abrahams, the Labour chair of the Commons work and pensions committee, warned against “balancing the books on the backs of sick and disabled people”.

...

But the most financially significant decision is Kendall’s plan to introduce drastically tighter limits for who can claim personal independence payments (Pips), which are intended to help people with their quality of life and are not connected to employment. The Pip savings will help the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, stick to her fiscal rules when she announces her spring statement next week.

...

Ministers will not lay out where exactly the £5bn savings are coming from until next week, though officials indicated most would come from reduced Pip spending. The Resolution Foundation thinktank said the plan would see between 800,000 and 1.2 million people losing support of between £4,200 and £6,300 a year by 2029-30.

Louise Murphy, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Around 1 million people are potentially at risk of losing support from tighter restrictions on Pip, while young people and those who fall ill in the future will lose support from a huge scaling back of incapacity benefits.

“While it includes some sensible reforms, too many of the proposals have been driven by the need for short-term savings to meet fiscal rules, rather than long-term reform. The result risks being a major income shock for millions of low-income households.”

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19696007

OP contains the link to Parliament's official page for how to contact your MP. I'm a Labour supporter but I know these rerorms are a massive step in the wrong direction. I've already emailed my MP about this and I want as many people as possible to do the same.

The good news is the government has already watered down the worst aspects of the original suggestions. They've also introduced some positive reforms in the green paper which you can read and respond to here. We also know that MPs across the party and even up to the Cabinet are unhappy. This all suggests that further lobbying might be successful.

Some tips for lobbying:

• Tell personal stories. MPs are people, too: play on their emotions! They also get a lot of near-identical emails on lots of issues, especially big stories like this one. Personal accounts stand out from the crowd.

• Be clear what you're asking for. Stick to the point, don't ramble.

• Be polite. You might think your MP is totally evil and want to vent at them, but a sweary, shouty email is just not going to get read. One with actual threats might land you in trouble. Keep yourself safe!

• Don't write off your MP. Even Tories have friends and family who are disabled. It's worth lobbying them, too.

Thanks for reading. We can fight this! Every penny we claw back for people who need it is a win!

Disabled experts who advised the Labour government on its ground-breaking Life Chances report – which was published 20 years ago on Sunday – say successive governments over the last 20 years have abandoned its ambitious goals.

The 20th anniversary of the report – which placed independent living at its heart – comes just days after the new Labour government announced further delays to long-term reform of the adult social care system in England.

Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People was widely viewed as a radical and ambitious report that had the language of rights embedded in its pages.

Influential disabled people played a key role in drafting the report, which used social model language and principles, and called for every local area to have its own user-led organisation modelled on centres for independent living (CILs).

Doug Paulley’s efforts have led to the ombudsman issuing what appears to be its highest-ever compensation award for a failure to provide assistance, opening the door to more generous payments for countless future disabled passengers.

He began his campaign because he was frustrated at the ombudsman’s failure to award a fair level of compensation to disabled passengers who had faced discrimination when trying to obtain passenger assistance on a rail journey.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/20611328

Stigmatising views, inaccessible public transport, a lack of job and volunteering opportunities, and the failure of schools to make reasonable adjustments, all contribute to the loneliness experienced by young disabled people, according to new government research.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17415297

This article highlights why it is important to include people within the disability community to help guide the development of new AI technologies.

When Luca was born in a Perth hospital two years ago, it flipped his parents’ world in ways they never expected.

With the joy came a shocking diagnosis: Luca had cystic fibrosis. Then Australia - Laura Currie and her husband Dante’s home for eight years - said they couldn't stay permanently. Luca, his parents were told, could be a financial burden on the country.

“I think I cried for like a week - I just feel really, really sorry for Luca,” Ms Currie says. “He's just a defenceless two-and-a-half-year-old and doesn't deserve to be discriminated against in that way.”

With a third of its population born abroad, Australia has long seen itself as a “migration nation” - a multicultural home for immigrants that promises them a fair go and a fresh start. The idea is baked into its identity. But the reality is often different, especially for those who have a disability or a serious medical condition.

I am posting this here because it is the closest to a UK specific disability community.

If this is invalid please let me know. While I am not comfortable setting up a UK disability and benefits community alone. I am happy to help run one. It will just need a good few members willing to take an active role.

This post really is to discuse ( and rant) about the proposed changes to PIP the gov is proposing.

What really annoys me. Is the government seems to be getting away with pushing false data.

They keep using the differences in acceptance from 2010 to now.

With 0 recognition that the 2010 rejection rates were seriously flawed. With many winning appeals after being forced to take the gov to court. Where well over 60% were seen as false rejections.

Plus multiple reports of suicide due directly to DWP actions. It really bothers me that no media is pointing out this clearly false data.

While plenty are pointing out the culture war that the tories are clearly trying to start. Some of the charities challenging these distorted claims seems to be needed.

Idk how many people know about it, but July is disability pride month! It's a moderately new celebration to the world, since it started in the US.

The first disability pride day was held in Boston after the signing of the ADA in 1990. It started as one day and became a month long thing about 2015.

Here, protests began around the ITV telethons for funds for disabled charities in 1992. Disabled activists blocked access to the studios as a result of the growing feeling of being made to be a spectacle and object of pity rather than functional members of society.

Disabled civil rights groups held protests and demonstrations which eventually led to the passage of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in 1995 after 14 unsuccessful attempts at similar legislation throughout the early 1980s and mid-1990s.

Due to the many shortcomings of the DDA and continual campaigning, the Equality Act replaced it in 2010.

There's more info on the history of disability rights in the UK here if you're interested in a longer read.

Disability Pride (to me) means that I'm proud of everything I can do, and that I have both abilities and disabilities. It means that my disabilities don't make me lesser, and that I deserve the same rights and opportunities as anyone. That my value as a person isn't measured in how productive I am, and that I deserve opportunities to contribute, participate in society at large, and be supported as I need (because a society should take care of its ill and elderly).

I'm on the third day of a continuous migraine and I'm so tired of it. I had a small reprieve from ibuprofen but holy heck it came back with intensity.

I'm currently lying in bed with blackout curtains and the dog. I'm bored out of my mind and the pain from my migraine is radiating down my face. Debating messaging for steroids to break the migraine but doing that means insulin use for about a week and a half - 2 weeks.

Intermittent phone use makes it less boring but doesn't help my pain lol. I guess I just want to moan a bit.

So I am on the hunt for a travel tablet organiser, specifically one for my as needed medications. I don't exactly want to take them out of blister packs when it might be days or weeks before I need the next dose but I usually break them out into 'singlets' to take out with me. I currently just keep them tossed in my bag but they're prone to being damaged or forgotten. Does anyone have any idea for how one might keep these tidy?