Disabled People Against Cuts
www. dpac.uk.net
http://twitter.com/Dis_PPL_Protest
Becoming disabled can happen to anyone at any time. So how disabled people are treated is important to everyone.
Disabled people and their lives are under threat
· The ConDems will be removing Disability Living Allowance and replacing it with a payment which has criteria excluding the vast majority of claimants. Even those who have been awarded DLA for life now seem certain to have to undergo a regular rigorous medical to see if they still qualify. This is a waste of taxpayers money as their condition will not improve.
· Employment Support Allowance and Work Capability Assessments have been criticised by CAB, disability charities and Disabled People’s Organisations. Even people with terminal cancer have been declared fit for work and removed from Incapacity Benefit. Scottish and English GPs have voted unanimously for an immediate end to ATOS assessment, which they describe as unfit for purpose
· These assessments, which ignore GP and consultant views, are earning Atos healthcare £100 million a year and appeals against wrong decisions are costing tax payers over £50 million a year.
• Added to that, funding from the Independent Living Fund for care and support has now ceased to all new claimants and any additional needs cannot be met by them
· Housing Benefits for all tenants will be reduced (since October 2011 for those 2 million disabled people living in private rented accommodation and from 2013 for anyone living in social housing which is deemed too large for their needs).
· There are 1.8 million people in households on social housing waiting lists. Currently 1 million children live in overcrowded households
· Already 30% of disabled people live below the poverty line and 1 in 4 families with disabled children cannot afford heating
· Benefits are now linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) instead of the Retail Price Index, so claimants will lose £300 a year as the CPI ignores any housing costs you might have
· VAT increased to 20% will hit those on the lowest incomes the hardest - it is estimated this rise will increase each household’s costs by £500 per year
· Social Services budgets are under extreme pressure and nearly all Social Services departments have been told to reduce their budgets by 25% which has an obvious knock-on effect to their provision of care and the amount people need to pay towards this. Incontinent disabled people are having their support replaced by packs of incontinence pads.
What these cuts mean to disabled people
· “ My Uncle committed suicide last summer, for I'm sure various and complicated reasons. He tried to get ESA and succeeded in getting it by appealing at a tribunal. However, the DWP had him go for another medical assessment through ATOS healthcare and they, again, awarded him 0. He hung himself a few days after receiving the papers for the second appeal tribunal. “
· A disabled woman fighting for re-housing for over 5 years as well as having her social care cancelled left a suicide note saying “No human or animal should ever have to go through life as I did.”
· attempted suicide by ex-school caretaker who had a brain tumour and was unable to sleep, had weakness down one side of his body and was having fits. His GP deemed him unfit to work but the 15 minute Atos medical declared him fit for work. This led to his benefits being cut by over £60 per week..
· A man who is suffering from horrendous blood clots and open ulcers has lost his disability benefits - after job centre doctors labelled him fit for work. James Major, 33, struggles to walk, and has been told by specialists at two hospitals he would be risking his life if he went back to work. But the fisherman has had his benefits stopped after the job centre in Grimsby, decided he should go back to work - despite the huge open sores on his legs. They have been recorded stating they don’t care – it’s function that matters. i.e. By hobbling in he proved he was fit to work!