The consultation about DLA reform ends on 14th February 2011, Valentines Day. Though traditionally a day for love, this day could adversely affect disabled people should the reforms be adjusted incorrectly. We are holding this event a month before the consultation ends to raise awareness and give anyone who wishes to the opportunity to respond.
Showing posts with label BendyGirl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BendyGirl. Show all posts
Monday, 17 January 2011
Transcript for 'What is Disability Living Allowance' video
Text at the beginning reads: "What is Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and who gets it?"
Disability Living Allowance or DLA is a benefit paid to eligible disabled people. It's a cash benefit and it's not means tested and it's not taxable. And the reason that it's not means tested and it's not taxed is because it's a recognition that the costs of disability are fixed. And that whereas you can economise and chose to shop differently or do without to make ends meet when it comes to the costs of disability there is no alternative.
Disability Living Allowance is paid to people under 65 who need help with their personal care or supervision or help with getting around. It's paid in two components. The care component and the mobility component. The care component is paid in three rates. It's lower, middle and higher rate and it's for help or supervision with personal care needs. Now that means things, basic things, like to qualify for lower rate care you have to be unable to prepare a main meal for yourself. Not a ready meal that goes in the microwave but food that goes on the grill or on the hob or in the oven. So you might qualify for that if for example you have very severe arthritis in your hands or your feet and you can't stand to cook or you can't safely transfer a pan or chop anything up.
Middle rate care is paid for people who need more substantial help either during the day or during the night. It might be paid if you need supervision to make sure that you're not putting yourself or other people in danger for example if you have epilepsy and you don't know when you're seizures might occur. You need someone around to ensure your safety at all times. If you have perhaps very severe behavioural or learning problems you might somebody with your during the day time to ensure that you're kept safe.
For the higher rate of the care component you must need help both during the day and the night and that help must be substantial. So you would need help for example going to and from the toilet and help perhaps getting off the toilet. You might need help to turn over in bed at night. Or if you have breathing difficulties somebody there to keep an eye on you.
It is only paid to those with much more severe disabilities. For example if you have a hip replacement and you're fully recovered in six months you wouldn't qualify for disability living allowance. But you would if your hip replacement failed and it left you permanently disabled by it.
The mobility component is paid at two rates, the lower and the higher rate. The lower rate is for people who need somebody with them to ensure their safety or to supervise them when they're outdoors. That might be because they have learning disabilities or challenging behaviour. It may be that they've had an acquired brain injury and they forget their way home all the time.
The higher rate of the mobility component is much more difficult to get. And for that you must be either completely unable to walk or considered to be virtually unable to walk by the reason of your physical disabilities. The care component and the mobility component are paid either seperately or together depending on how the person qualifies.
The mobility component. The higher rate component gives people access to the motability scheme. They can either contract hire or purchase a vehicle of their choice through the scheme. So the money goes straight back into the economy. For some disabled people that will mean purchasing a motability vehicle. But for others it's used to purchase a power wheelchair or scooter. Because those tend to be very expensive and although the NHS provides electric wheelchairs its only if you need to use a wheelchair full time indoors. And they will only be provided with that wheelchair after using a wheelchair indoors for a minimum of 6 months. Now it's obvious to see that a lot of people will fall outside those criteria and won't be eligible for an NHS wheelchair but they might be eligible but they might be eligible for the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance and so able to use the motability scheme.
Text at end: What is Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and who gets it was produced by Kaliya Franklin of The Broken of Britain.
Further information about DLA is available from DirectGov
Blogs about DLA are collated here
Transcript very kindly provided by Emma
Disability Living Allowance or DLA is a benefit paid to eligible disabled people. It's a cash benefit and it's not means tested and it's not taxable. And the reason that it's not means tested and it's not taxed is because it's a recognition that the costs of disability are fixed. And that whereas you can economise and chose to shop differently or do without to make ends meet when it comes to the costs of disability there is no alternative.
Disability Living Allowance is paid to people under 65 who need help with their personal care or supervision or help with getting around. It's paid in two components. The care component and the mobility component. The care component is paid in three rates. It's lower, middle and higher rate and it's for help or supervision with personal care needs. Now that means things, basic things, like to qualify for lower rate care you have to be unable to prepare a main meal for yourself. Not a ready meal that goes in the microwave but food that goes on the grill or on the hob or in the oven. So you might qualify for that if for example you have very severe arthritis in your hands or your feet and you can't stand to cook or you can't safely transfer a pan or chop anything up.
Middle rate care is paid for people who need more substantial help either during the day or during the night. It might be paid if you need supervision to make sure that you're not putting yourself or other people in danger for example if you have epilepsy and you don't know when you're seizures might occur. You need someone around to ensure your safety at all times. If you have perhaps very severe behavioural or learning problems you might somebody with your during the day time to ensure that you're kept safe.
For the higher rate of the care component you must need help both during the day and the night and that help must be substantial. So you would need help for example going to and from the toilet and help perhaps getting off the toilet. You might need help to turn over in bed at night. Or if you have breathing difficulties somebody there to keep an eye on you.
It is only paid to those with much more severe disabilities. For example if you have a hip replacement and you're fully recovered in six months you wouldn't qualify for disability living allowance. But you would if your hip replacement failed and it left you permanently disabled by it.
The mobility component is paid at two rates, the lower and the higher rate. The lower rate is for people who need somebody with them to ensure their safety or to supervise them when they're outdoors. That might be because they have learning disabilities or challenging behaviour. It may be that they've had an acquired brain injury and they forget their way home all the time.
The higher rate of the mobility component is much more difficult to get. And for that you must be either completely unable to walk or considered to be virtually unable to walk by the reason of your physical disabilities. The care component and the mobility component are paid either seperately or together depending on how the person qualifies.
The mobility component. The higher rate component gives people access to the motability scheme. They can either contract hire or purchase a vehicle of their choice through the scheme. So the money goes straight back into the economy. For some disabled people that will mean purchasing a motability vehicle. But for others it's used to purchase a power wheelchair or scooter. Because those tend to be very expensive and although the NHS provides electric wheelchairs its only if you need to use a wheelchair full time indoors. And they will only be provided with that wheelchair after using a wheelchair indoors for a minimum of 6 months. Now it's obvious to see that a lot of people will fall outside those criteria and won't be eligible for an NHS wheelchair but they might be eligible but they might be eligible for the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance and so able to use the motability scheme.
Text at end: What is Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and who gets it was produced by Kaliya Franklin of The Broken of Britain.
Further information about DLA is available from DirectGov
Blogs about DLA are collated here
Transcript very kindly provided by Emma
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Cuts to DLA 'The easiest bit of welfare reform to sell'
"The coalition’s assault on what the Conservatives refer to as “broken Britain” is underway. The government has announced for the first time how many of the UK’s 2.6m recipients of disability benefits it estimates will be reclassified as fit-to-work in this parliament. The answer: a cool 500,000 or 23 per cent of the total.
Although this will generate political heat among those affected, it is the easiest bit of welfare reform to sell. Britain’s out-of-work disability benefits have been abused. The last government belatedly recognised this and started to introduce a more rigorous system. But many of the 2.2m people who still claim the old benefit elected to do so because it is more generous than the dole."
This article in yesterday's Financial Times* makes very clear the ethos behind the Coalition government's slash and burn attacks on sickness related benefits, that cuts to disability benefits are perceived as the "easiest bit of welfare reform to sell" . The FT don't distinguish between the different types of sickness related benefits so I assume the figure of 2.2million people claiming what they describe as 'the old benefit' refers to Incapacity Benefit, the predecessor to Employment and Support Allowance brought in by New Labour. It seems equally safe to assume that the 2.6million they refer it is actually the 2.9 million Disability Living Allowance recipients, some 1.25 million of which are adults who claim both DLA and IB.
The official Department of Work and Pensions fraud rate for Disability Living Allowance makes it very clear that only 0.5% of the total number of claims are fraudulent. That's approximately 14,500 fraudulent claims out of an overall 2.9million. So, less than 15,000 Disability Living Allowance awards are fraudulent and the coalition are determined to reduce the numbers claiming DLA by half a million. Playing fast and loose with the DWP's own statistics and assuming they're wildly underestimating the problem of fraudulent claims, which seems particularly unlikely, if an overall fraud rate of, say 5%, 10 times that of the official rate were assumed, that would still only be one hundred and forty five thousand fraudulent claims out of a total 2.9 million. Still some three hundred and fity five thousand short of the half a million proposed reduction.
The agenda is clear. To vastly restrict eligibility to DLA, already the most rigorously assessed and difficult to claim benefit of all.
So much for David Cameron's claim that "Those that can should, and those who can't we will always help. I want to make sure that my government always looks after the elderly, the frail, the poorest in our country." David Cameron, 11th May 2010
Like Advent Calendars...Only A Bit Shitter
I got my DLA! High rate for both care and mobility, and it's an indefinite award. Well, indefinite until 2013 when we're all getting reassessed and being given medicals anyway. Then, even those of us now deemed to be so cripped up there's not any point in giving us medicals in the first place must have a medical to save money.
The brown envelope arrived this morning. Tucked in amongst the pile of student debt letters for my neighbours I knew immediately what it was. I was shaking so much I couldn't pick it up properly and when I did manage to open it I dislocated a finger in the process. Undoubtedly a crafty tactic on the part of the DWP to place one final 'are you really a proper spazzer' test before issuing the good news that actually, yes you are. So spazzed up in fact that, despite the desperation to be seen to catch those 0.5% of fraudsters the Daily Mail love to hate, it's not worth dragging you in for a medical. The psychological impact of being deemed that crippled won't hit for a few days.
It's been four hours or so now since I opened the letter and the shakes are finally diminishing. As anyone who's experienced stress for a long period of time will know, once that stressor is removed there comes a huge rush of anxiety hormones. I may have stopped shaking but I'm still very wobbly, panicky and can't really think too straight.
At first I was elated. The sheer relief of not having to fill out another form, knowing I don't have to appeal and that I'll be getting more money than before. Actually that dind't come first. Sitting shaking and hyperventilating a bit did. The relief is just about starting to trickle in now...though is regularly being defeated by the wooshing hormones of anxiety still leaving me. In case anyone is wondering, anxiety is bloody awful. Give me a dislocated hip anyday, so long as you keep the anxiety.
The hardest bit about applying for DLA is the need to justify how absolutely, utterly shit you, everything about you and your entire existence is. Even if actually you think you're pretty ok...admittedly wobbly and sometimes a bit dribbly, but pretty ok really. There's no room for ok on a DLA form, it's all about the shit. Sometimes the piss too, but shitting inappropriately will really win you stars on your spazzer wall chart. Like advent calendars...only, well, shitter!
So erm, yeay me. Officially shit. But my god am I glad to live in a country which still just about holds on to the concept that providing financially for those of us officially deemed crap is the right thing to do. Yeay for the shit!
Originally posted here
The brown envelope arrived this morning. Tucked in amongst the pile of student debt letters for my neighbours I knew immediately what it was. I was shaking so much I couldn't pick it up properly and when I did manage to open it I dislocated a finger in the process. Undoubtedly a crafty tactic on the part of the DWP to place one final 'are you really a proper spazzer' test before issuing the good news that actually, yes you are. So spazzed up in fact that, despite the desperation to be seen to catch those 0.5% of fraudsters the Daily Mail love to hate, it's not worth dragging you in for a medical. The psychological impact of being deemed that crippled won't hit for a few days.
It's been four hours or so now since I opened the letter and the shakes are finally diminishing. As anyone who's experienced stress for a long period of time will know, once that stressor is removed there comes a huge rush of anxiety hormones. I may have stopped shaking but I'm still very wobbly, panicky and can't really think too straight.
At first I was elated. The sheer relief of not having to fill out another form, knowing I don't have to appeal and that I'll be getting more money than before. Actually that dind't come first. Sitting shaking and hyperventilating a bit did. The relief is just about starting to trickle in now...though is regularly being defeated by the wooshing hormones of anxiety still leaving me. In case anyone is wondering, anxiety is bloody awful. Give me a dislocated hip anyday, so long as you keep the anxiety.
The hardest bit about applying for DLA is the need to justify how absolutely, utterly shit you, everything about you and your entire existence is. Even if actually you think you're pretty ok...admittedly wobbly and sometimes a bit dribbly, but pretty ok really. There's no room for ok on a DLA form, it's all about the shit. Sometimes the piss too, but shitting inappropriately will really win you stars on your spazzer wall chart. Like advent calendars...only, well, shitter!
So erm, yeay me. Officially shit. But my god am I glad to live in a country which still just about holds on to the concept that providing financially for those of us officially deemed crap is the right thing to do. Yeay for the shit!
Originally posted here
Helping Hands
As anyone who follows me on twitter already knows, I'm mired in the hell of re-applying for my Disability Living Allowance. On the upside this means I'm not remotely bothered about moving flats so soon, that's easy compared to benefits applications, although I'm not sure I'd recommend it as a way of dealing with moving related stress. Oh, and if you have to move on the cheap using only 'friend labour'....don't do it in August when everyone's on holiday!
I'm off to visit my GP this morning, his name will be on my DLA application so he needs to know what kind of issues I deal with on a daily basis. How often I fall, what help I might need going to the loo, preparing a meal or during the night are not subjects which crop up during routine GP consultations as they aren't strictly speaking medical issues, but they are the issues the DWP are interested in so TopDogGP and I have to have a chat. Despite the best efforts of lovely physiotherapist J, my ribs and spine are as directionless as any politician so it's also probably not a bad idea to be seen by a doctor, I tend to have a poor perspective on how well I am at the best of times, which abandons me altogether at times like this. I do know I haven't been so ridiculously lax for quite some time.
It's difficult to get an understanding of what kind of questions and answers are required by the DWP for a DLA application so as I'm currently filling mine out I thought I'd publish part of one of my answers. It's an issue I didn't give much thought to on the occasions it occurred, other than a few minutes sulking about 'dirty, opportunistic, groping bastards' but for some reason having to write it down has been very distressing. The question asks;
I'm off to visit my GP this morning, his name will be on my DLA application so he needs to know what kind of issues I deal with on a daily basis. How often I fall, what help I might need going to the loo, preparing a meal or during the night are not subjects which crop up during routine GP consultations as they aren't strictly speaking medical issues, but they are the issues the DWP are interested in so TopDogGP and I have to have a chat. Despite the best efforts of lovely physiotherapist J, my ribs and spine are as directionless as any politician so it's also probably not a bad idea to be seen by a doctor, I tend to have a poor perspective on how well I am at the best of times, which abandons me altogether at times like this. I do know I haven't been so ridiculously lax for quite some time.
It's difficult to get an understanding of what kind of questions and answers are required by the DWP for a DLA application so as I'm currently filling mine out I thought I'd publish part of one of my answers. It's an issue I didn't give much thought to on the occasions it occurred, other than a few minutes sulking about 'dirty, opportunistic, groping bastards' but for some reason having to write it down has been very distressing. The question asks;
Q.31 Do you need someone with you to guide or supervise you when walking outdoors in unfamiliar places?
"Sometimes I have no choice but to ask complete strangers to help me. Mostly people are very kind and will go out of their way to help, but some take advantage and I have been sexually assaulted by strangers 'helping' me who have groped my bottom or breasts. It is difficult enough to fall and stumble in public and deal with the pain of multiple dislocated joints, which dislocate again while I'm being helped up, but being frightened that the person assisting me might use it as an excuse to sexually assault me makes it even worse.
I need someone I know and trust to be with me whenever I am outdoors so that they can help me when my joints dislocate, get me to safety and I wouldn't have to be worried that a stranger might harm me further"
Originally posted here
Originally posted here
Saturday, 15 January 2011
I Am Me
Today has been what my friends and I describe as one of my raggy doll days, and that in combination with some of the posts I've read recently over at the excellent Chewing the Fat has been making me think more about the language we use all the time, specifically though in relation to disability.
The title of my blog should be some indication to the way I view language, it is of course as EmmaK asked so early on in part ironic, but is also largely to do with the attitude I have towards negative language, that somehow, some part of me feels it vital to challenge all those negativities and make words usually considered to be shocking or derogatory insults into comfortable every day terms.
I am a cripple, a spaz, a spacker, a gimp, a muppet, a bendy freak, a genetic throwback, a raggy doll. I am a pixie, a gorgeous blonde, a sex kitten, a cherub with a devil's mind, a bendy girl, a bit of a hippie chick, an incisive mind. I am me.
What I am not and never will be is disabled. Sigh. Dis abled. Dis abled. Disconnected. Displaced. Disintegrated. DISTANT. I hate the word disabled. So why would I want to willingly use it about myself let alone every chose to think about myself that way? Don't get me wrong, if the situation demands it, I will use the D word to describe myself, have used it on this blog, but I hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I only use it to enable other people. To give them something to understand. But it is not and never will be a term I would chose to use for myself. But those other words, words used to cause offence, still I know able to cause such offence for so many, they, they are the words I choose to describe myself. These are words with power to them, not the negative and to me oh so whiny preposition dis disabling by its very nature for any of these words, no these words have bite, they are good strong, colourful words to describe myself with. I am a cripple when in pain I struggle to walk, a spaz or a spacker for my clumsiness, my sheer inability to co-ordinate, a muppet for my daftness, my ability to forget or lose things at the drop of a hat, a raggy doll when I laugh and my muscles lose the ability to hold me up, causing me to drop to the floor in a hopeless helpless heap of giggles, a gimp when I am covered in bandages, a genetic throwback my whimsical wander back to times when humans were dead by the age of 30 and perhaps such unusual bodies those we with EDS have were of some evolutionary advantage, the bendy freak bit should be obvious by now. Really.
Not a single one of those words has any power to hurt me. I live in a world of sick warped humour, and it's a good place to be.
Originally posted here
The title of my blog should be some indication to the way I view language, it is of course as EmmaK asked so early on in part ironic, but is also largely to do with the attitude I have towards negative language, that somehow, some part of me feels it vital to challenge all those negativities and make words usually considered to be shocking or derogatory insults into comfortable every day terms.
I am a cripple, a spaz, a spacker, a gimp, a muppet, a bendy freak, a genetic throwback, a raggy doll. I am a pixie, a gorgeous blonde, a sex kitten, a cherub with a devil's mind, a bendy girl, a bit of a hippie chick, an incisive mind. I am me.
What I am not and never will be is disabled. Sigh. Dis abled. Dis abled. Disconnected. Displaced. Disintegrated. DISTANT. I hate the word disabled. So why would I want to willingly use it about myself let alone every chose to think about myself that way? Don't get me wrong, if the situation demands it, I will use the D word to describe myself, have used it on this blog, but I hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I only use it to enable other people. To give them something to understand. But it is not and never will be a term I would chose to use for myself. But those other words, words used to cause offence, still I know able to cause such offence for so many, they, they are the words I choose to describe myself. These are words with power to them, not the negative and to me oh so whiny preposition dis disabling by its very nature for any of these words, no these words have bite, they are good strong, colourful words to describe myself with. I am a cripple when in pain I struggle to walk, a spaz or a spacker for my clumsiness, my sheer inability to co-ordinate, a muppet for my daftness, my ability to forget or lose things at the drop of a hat, a raggy doll when I laugh and my muscles lose the ability to hold me up, causing me to drop to the floor in a hopeless helpless heap of giggles, a gimp when I am covered in bandages, a genetic throwback my whimsical wander back to times when humans were dead by the age of 30 and perhaps such unusual bodies those we with EDS have were of some evolutionary advantage, the bendy freak bit should be obvious by now. Really.
Not a single one of those words has any power to hurt me. I live in a world of sick warped humour, and it's a good place to be.
Originally posted here
Friday, 14 January 2011
Another Little Piece Of My Heart
When I first read this personal testimony by an anonymous user of the carerwatch forums it broke my heart. The honesty and bravery of this person in coming forward to explain that they simply cannot cope with the repeated benefit reassesments disabled people are being forced through, and so will end their life when that time comes should move not just every Briton but people around the world. So here you have it, a little piece of my heart and a little piece of the author's, broken by the actions of both Coalition government and the New Labour government who preceeded them.
Today is January 14th, the start of One Month Before Heartbreak. A month from now on Valentine's Day the flawed DLA consultation ends. Please support us and help ensure that disabled people's hearts are not broken and our lives not lost. You can help by signing the petition, by sharing these blogs on facebook, twitter and anywhere around the internet. Use our template letters to write to your MP, to Maria Miller the very not disabled minister for disabled people, contact your local or national newspapers or TV stations and demand to know why they are not giving adequate coverage to the cuts to disability benefits. But most of all, listen to the words written, spoken, sung or shouted by disabled people and carers and ask yourself if this is really the Britain you want to live in.
Originally posted here
Today is January 14th, the start of One Month Before Heartbreak. A month from now on Valentine's Day the flawed DLA consultation ends. Please support us and help ensure that disabled people's hearts are not broken and our lives not lost. You can help by signing the petition, by sharing these blogs on facebook, twitter and anywhere around the internet. Use our template letters to write to your MP, to Maria Miller the very not disabled minister for disabled people, contact your local or national newspapers or TV stations and demand to know why they are not giving adequate coverage to the cuts to disability benefits. But most of all, listen to the words written, spoken, sung or shouted by disabled people and carers and ask yourself if this is really the Britain you want to live in.
Originally posted here
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