This site hasn’t been updated for a couple of years, but I am hoping to sort this out over the next week or so. So just be aware that some links will be out of date, and information may not be reliable at the moment. Sorry all, I’ve not been so well, and campaigning has…
By the NHS Confederation and the National Mental Health Development Unit Click for Report
Affinity Sutton’s analysis of new research by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research (CCHPR) shows that charging a rent between social and market rent could ease the strain of soaring private rents for thousands of families if they are able to obtain a new housing association home. However, those dependent on benefits and…
From epolitix.com Throughout the debate that has been raging on the future of social care, it is often said that ‘it is a matter for celebration that people are living longer’. Indeed, this is the first line of Professor Andrew Dilnot’s ‘Fairer Care Funding’ report. But social care is not simply about providing care…
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 the DWP Advisor website. The Welfare Reform Bill currently going through Parliament is proposing two changes to contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA): to limit the amount of time that people in the Work Related Activity Group can receive contribution-based ESA to 12 months; and to remove the special contribution criteria for ESA…
Philip Davies is right. “If an employer is looking at two candidates, one who has got disabilities and one who hasn’t, and they have got to pay them both the same rate, I invite you to guess which one the employer is more likely to take on. “Given that some of those people…
Changing the law on assisted suicide would put pressure on disabled people to kill themselves, according to new research. The new Comres poll found that 70 per cent of disabled people were concerned that such a change would lead to ‘pressure being placed on disabled people to end their lives prematurely The survey,…
From the Guardian Disabled people to march in London against cuts to benefits and services Organisers of Hardest Hit march expect between 5,000 and 10,000 people to attend largest event of its kind for decades Thousands of disabled people will demonstrate in Westminster on Wednesday against cuts to benefits and services, in an event that…
From the Independent “My name is Jody McIntyre and I didn’t begin fighting for equality on the 9th December, the night that I was thrown from my wheelchair and dragged across the road by a riot police officer. I’ve spoken out against injustice, in all contexts, for as long as I can remember. As…
Excellent Blogpost by Truth, Reason and Liberty. Have a read.
From the Guardian Anger over Richard Littlejohn’s comparison of Jody McIntyre to Little Britain’s Andy, as BBC interview also sparks outrage A Richard Littlejohn column in the Daily Mail that compared student fees protester Jody McIntyre to Matt Lucas’s Little Britain creation Andy has prompted 500 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission. Police…
From the Telegraph My esteemed colleague Toby Young makes a brave attempt to stand up for Ben Brown’s interview of Jody McIntyre on BBC News 24. He really needn’t have bothered. The clip speaks for itself. To be honest, Brown looked like a police stooge when he repeated their claim that prior to the clip…
Apt rewriting of the Christmas Carol from Where’s the Benefit (click link)
I’ll be complaining to the BBC about this interview.
From the BBC A fund which supports more than 21,000 people with severe disabilities is to be phased out by 2015. The £359m Independent Living Fund pays out an average of £300 a week, to help people pay for carers so they can live at home and not in a care home. It was…
From Leonard Cheshire Disability Mary shares how Government plans to remove the Mobility Component of DLA for people living in residential care homes will impact her sister’s day-to-day life. My sister has lived in a residential care home for many years – all her adult life – and for the last few years I…
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…
Below is footage of Jody McIntyre (who has cerebral palsy) being dragged from his wheelchair by the police at the tuition fees protest in London last week. The images are quite dark, but he can clearly be seen being pulled across the ground by a police officer, from about 1 min 25 onwards. He has…
From the Sunday Telegraph A disabled protester is to lodge a complaint against the Metropolitan Police, claiming he was twice dragged out of his wheelchair by riot officers during last week’s chaotic protests against student fees. Jody McIntyre says officers beat him with batons and pulled him across the ground and has…
From Community Care Minister for disabled people, Maria Miller, has said she does not know how many disabled people will be affected by government plans to reform disability living allowance (DLA), or how much the changes will cost. The admissions came in an interview with Community Care that followed the publication of plans to…
From the ONS website. The interim findings of a major survey, which explores disability in terms of social barriers to participation, is published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The Life Opportunities Survey (LOS) is a new large-scale survey of disability in Great Britain. It is the first major social survey in…
From the Guardian Department of Work and Pensions cannot take legal action to recover money paid as a result of its own error The supreme court ruled today that the government cannot recover overpayments of social security benefits through the courts where the claimant is not at fault. In a landmark judgment, the…
More information about the proposed changes to DLA have been published and can be found here. Main points: It will be renamed Personal Independence Payment. It will be non means tested, and payable in and out of work. It will be introduced in 2013-14. There will be a Mobility component (two levels), and…
The press release from the DWP confirms the Housing Benefit cap will now start from January 2012 for existing customers. However it will still take effect from April 2011 for new customers. In addition, the change in LHA to the 30th percentile is being moved forward from October 2011, to April 2011, for new customers.…
Many areas of the UK will have qualified for a Cold Weather payment this week. Find out more below to see if you qualify, and use the postcode checker to check your area. From the Direct.Gov website. Cold Weather Payments can help people who are in receipt of certain benefits with their additional…
From the Guardian The government has signalled an overhaul of its controversial medical tests to decide whether the seriously ill and disabled can claim long-term sickness benefits after an independent review found they were “impersonal, mechanistic and lacked empathy”, leaving many claimants feeling unjustly treated and distressed. The review, conducted by the academic Malcolm…
An Independent Review of the Work Capability Assessment Professor Malcolm Harrington “Executive Summary 1. We know that, for the vast majority of people, work is good for you. Similarly, we know that many disabled people or people with a health condition want to work. As a civilised society, we need to enable as many people…
From the Independent Iain Duncan Smith misled Parliament by passing off figures from a property comparison website owned by the Daily Mail as official government figures. In a parliamentary debate, the Work and Pensions Secretary claimed that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that private sector rents had fallen by 5 per cent…
Mind In Flux 