From Inside Housing The deputy prime minister has warned housing minister Grant Shapps that council cuts to supported housing budgets in England are causing vital services for vulnerable people to be scrapped. Nick Clegg wrote to Mr Shapps in April to flag up the impact of Supporting People funding cuts, in a letter obtained…
From benefitclaimantsfightback “Take action now to defend the Welfare State. We will not pay for their crisis. The National Day of Protest Against Welfare & Housing Benefit Cuts on 15th December 2010 aims to be the first of many and this time will concentrate on the Housing Benefit cuts. Facebook event page at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=181074851903167&…
Rethink has produced a form and letter template to enable you to easily contact your local councillor to express your concerns about cuts to your mental health services. Click below to send your email. Bring mental health in from the cold Your council today received their total budget from central government, so now they…
From the Office for Disability Issues. (click on link above for version with graphs) Disability equality indicators The Disability Equality Indicators are a starting point in measuring progress towards disability equality. They cover a number of themes that disabled people have told us are important to them. These indicators are used to help monitor…
From the DPAC website RALLY AGAINST CUTS Nov 13 Birmingham November 8, 2010 RALLY AGAINST CUTS 2 pm, NOVEMBER 13th CARRS LANE CHURCH, BIRMINGHAM B4 7SX Join Disabled People Against Cuts ( DPAC) at an anti-cuts rally. The cuts put forward by the coalition government in the budget and Comprehensive Spending Review will hit disabled…
If you voted Labour at the last election, or are a current Labour member, I’d be grateful if you could read this and take part in the survey at the end. As you already know, the Coalition government has announced a range of reforms to welfare since taking power. Many of these will impact directly…
Posted by CarerWatch on the Compass website. CarerWatch is a group of unpaid family carers. We have many members with severe and enduring disability. We work closely with Broken of Britain which is a campaigning group for disabled people. So we know what it is like at the coalface of disability. We would like…
“Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis,…
“To the disabled people of Great Britain. Our individual voices are too quiet to be heard, but collectively we can shout loud enough to drown out this tide of abuse against us. Disability Hate Crime, lack of full legal protection, people in care homes costing too much to be let out and not one political…
Another excellent video by BendyGirl. Please watch it all the way through, and visit her website. “To the disabled people of Great Britain. Our individual voices are too quiet to be heard, but collectively we can shout loud enough to drown out this tide of abuse against us. Disability Hate Crime, lack of full…
Please read this great blog post by itsallabouththeprophets. “I want to take action but where is the coalition of disabled people?” And this one, written shortly after the election, by Stilleto Wheels: “Disability Ghetto 2010”. They both tackle a common theme discussed many disabled people I encounter at the moment. How best to challenge these…
If you haven’t yet read Inquisitive Flo’s post on Welfare Reform, and attitudes to disabled people in this country, then please do .
Disabled People Against Cuts From the Disabled People Protest website 20th Oct Spending review October 20th meet noon at College Green, Westminster to protest. (diagonally opposite Palace of Westminster, corner of Millbank and Abingdon Street) Please bring any placards you can saying: ‘Cuts Kill’ ‘Hands off Disabled People’ ‘Rights not Charity’ or anything else…
Human Rights and Mental Health University College Cork Conference World Mental Health Day Oct. 8th 2010: Originally published on thenormalityofmadness’s Blog. By John McCarthy of Mad Pride Ireland I’m tired. I’m tired to my soul listening to the ignorance and stupidity of those who purport to speak on my behalf. I’m tired. I’m tied to…
From the Financial Times. September 12, 2010 by Alex Barker “There’s been lots of speculation over the Treasury’s plans on sickness benefit. The Times flagged up a proposal to “means test”, while the Observer has a letter pointing to £2.5bn of incapacity benefit savings from an unspecified reform. No final decisions have been taken. But reading between…
Department for Work and Pensions | September 2010 Reassessment of incapacity benefits customers – Q&A for healthcare professionals Who will be reassessed? Anyone claiming incapacity benefits will be reassessed using the Work Capability Assessment to assess their eligibility for Employment and Support Allowance. The only exception to this is those who will reach State Pension…
The UKDPC published their response to the Independent Review of the Work Capability Assessment yesterday. The WCA replaces the Personal Capability Assessment, which was used for Incapacity Benefit claimants. It is being used for all new claimants for Employment and Support Allowance, and will be used for the transfer of IB claimants onto ESA, starting…
This is available as a Microsoft Word document by clicking on the link below. I have reproduced the full document here for those who do not have Word. UKDPC Response to WCA Harrington Inquiry 10/09/2010 UKDPC has provided a formal response to the Independent Review into the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). Professor Malcom Harrington has…
Benefits and Work’s latest newsletter contains some information which might prove comforting to the many disabled people who are worrying about the Government’s recent announcement that they will start using credit reference agencies to track down benefit fraud. The announcement was reported by the media using scaremongering tactics, which have only heightened stress levels among…
From the Employers’ Forum on Disability: 2nd September “Research has revealed that nearly half of workers with mental health conditions in Wales admit to being too ashamed to tell their employers. Conducted by Nacro, the study found that 47 per cent of those asked were of this opinion, while 44 per cent would be too…
A list of a few campaigns and organisations, that you may not have heard of, uniting against cuts to benefits for the disabled. They are all run by the disabled, service users/survivors, or carers. Mad Pride New Campaign for Autumn 2010 Welfare Benefits under Threat from the new Coalition Government! Those cuts, many of which…
I’ve just been reading a very good article by Naomi Jacobs aka @lilwatchergirl published in today’s Guardian. The article, entitled Disability: We can all do better, is a response to last week’s SCOPE poll showing that 90% of people say they have never had a disabled person in their home. The SCOPE poll illustrates two…
A Bit of Fry and Laurie – Slightly Mad, posted with vodpod
Time to Change – How can people help friends or…, posted with vodpod
The media hasn’t annoyed me too much over the last few days. No preposterous stories about disabled people claiming benefits whilst simultaneously being world famous lion tamers, using taxpayers’ cash for round the world solo hot air balloon trips, or employing a harem of illegal immigrants using Independent Living Funds. So I thought I’d have…
Mind In Flux 