Why Community Care Is Supporting Disability Cuts Campaign #ombh

Community Care is supporting the Broken of Britain's blogswarm from 14-16 January.

The event, "one month before heartbreak", is to raise awareness of the ongoing consultation to reform disability living allowance, which ends on 14 February.
Across the disability channel of our website, on our home page, forums and Facebook page you will see links to some of the many articles from people outraged about the proposals.
The proposed cuts to DLA are many and savage.

Service users are united in condemning the cuts.
"Cuts to disabled mobility benefit will leave people with £14 a week," says Learning disability support provider Dimensions in a guest entry on our adult services blog.
Government claims over the DLA have been dismissed as a myth, by a coalition of 27 disability charities. The case they make is powerful and convincing.
The stark reality is that the reforms will be a double whammy to councils. The planned cut in the number of people receiving DLA will reduce the amount of money that councils can raise through means-tested care charges.
This is because councils can take into account the care component of DLA when calculating users' income for charges. Fewer people on DLA, without providing an alternate source of income for them, therefore reduces what councils can charge for.
To make matters worse, the DLA cuts will increase demand on social care services, whist these very services are being slashed in the face of savage public sector funding cuts.
As Emma Crees, author of the Writer in a Wheelchair blog, writes: "If I didn't have that [DLA] money, I wouldn't cope and I'd soon be back knocking on social services' door asking for help."

If that's not bad enough, councils are already restricting eligibility criteria to critical only. More demand will put intolerable pressure on social care professionals who are already overworked. (Let's not forget: one in 10 social work posts are vacant and one in six social workers have more than 40 cases. It is these hard-pressed frontline professionals who must make impossible decisions about care for people in great need when there simply isn't enough money to go round.)
The impact of the DLA cuts should concern all those who care about excellence in social care.
So, if you haven't already, support the campaign and make sure your voice is heard before it's too late.
Other content you may be interested in 
"I don't think the government have been that honest," says shadow minister for disabled people Margaret Curran about the changes to disability living allowance's mobility component
Sign the petition to stop DLA reform
Get out of your comfort zone, disability living allowance cuts are relevant to all, says @bendygirl
Deconstruction of the case for reform
The Social Work Contract 

Originally posted here