Latest news with #disabledCommunity
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Labour is taking the Pip – and disabled people have had enough
Why have so many deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent public figures pulled together to launch the campaign #TakingThePIP? Every area of life as a disabled person is difficult – employment, social situations, healthcare, education, transport and by far the most pervasive and arduous: other people's attitudes. Everything is a fight, but this feels like a fight too far. If Labour goes ahead with its proposed benefits cuts to tighten the eligibility criteria for personal independence payment (Pip) and reduce or lose the health element of universal credit, many people in my community don't know how they will survive. Make no bones about it: this could be a matter of life and death for some people. I am in tears reading the stories of what might happen if these further cuts, after years of austerity, go ahead. People who are currently choosing between using their electricity for breathing equipment or charging their wheelchair will no longer be able to afford either. People who need encouragement to eat will be left alone; people with mental health illnesses will be severely impacted, losing so much of their support alongside those people who are unable to wash or dress their lower body. Overall, households could lose up to 58% of their income, and these are the households already in poverty. Already in the last six years, homelessness among disabled families has risen by 75%. Three-quarters of food bank users have at least one disabled household member. What's going to happen when people can't use their Pip or the health component of their universal credit to top up their rent and bills? These disability benefits are crucial support that help towards the extra costs incurred with a disability or long-term health condition. Today I learned about a young woman with cerebral palsy whose family had been evicted. The temporary accommodation provided to them was not accessible, forcing her to use the toilet at the local bus station as her bathroom. This is the reality before the proposed funding cuts. Accessible housing is already rare; accessible emergency housing is almost nonexistent. Disabled people are routinely left out of planning decisions. We're not considered in everyday policies, let alone in times of crisis. Did you know that the last round of cuts stripped people of their basic right to full care? Many lost vital support, including help simply to use the toilet. In some cases, individuals who are not incontinent have been forced to rely on incontinence pads because there is no longer enough staffing or time allocated to assist them properly. Care packages were reduced to as little as six 15-minute visits a day, barely enough time to support someone with eating, washing or using the bathroom, never mind living their life. Evening and morning care were cut so severely that many adults can no longer choose when they go to bed or get up. Essential support for tasks such as food shopping or cleaning was also removed entirely. The government and the headlines keep focusing on getting disabled people 'back to work', yet the existing scheme to support disabled people in employment is broken. Access to Work already has nearly a year's waiting list for new applicants, and, according to leaks, the support worker element may be cut next. Only last week, the wonderful Jess Thom, the co-artistic director of Touretteshero, had her support cut by 61% by Access To Work. Those of us who can work want to work. Many people use Pip and universal credit to top up expenses that come alongside working. Some disabled people can only work part-time, and the benefits bridge this gap. These proposed cuts won't save money; they'll lead to greater costs from the resulting damage, along with widespread distress and suffering. Did you know that the fraud level for Pip remains less than 1% and that 46% of applications are refused – with a shocking 70% of those refusals that go to appeal being overturned. It's a gruelling system to navigate. There are 16 million disabled people in the UK – not even a quarter of those people currently receive Pip, and the ones who do are the most in need. We as a society need to stand together on this and demand that the government stop taking the Pip. Cherylee Houston MBE played Izzy Armstrong on Coronation Street and Tinsel Girl on BBC Radio 4. She is the founder of TripleC
The Independent
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Campaigner seeks urgent action to address lack of wheelchair-accessible taxis
A campaigner has called for urgent action to address a lack of accessible taxis in Northern Ireland. Dermot Devlin, from Omagh, Co Tyrone, said that as of December 2023, there were just 380 wheelchair accessible taxis in the region. He has authored a study on the subject, and said just 6.6% of the 5,719 registered taxis in Northern Ireland are accessible, adding that with 25% of the population identifying as disabled, this proportion is 'alarmingly inadequate'. He said wheelchair users are severely curtailed in terms of where they can go and when. 'Being a disabled person who is a wheelchair user, we don't have the spontaneity that non-disabled people who are not wheelchair users get,' he said. 'It restricts what we can do in the world, when we can go out and where we can go. Most accessible taxis are impossible to get after 6pm which reinforces the idea that disabled people don't go out, don't enjoy themselves and they don't have a social life. 'But also during the daytime as well, a lot of taxis are booked up with hospitals and schools so we can't get out to do our shopping, go to the hospital etc. 'Being a wheelchair user and disabled, our life is restricted by not having a proper accessible taxi system in Northern Ireland.' Mr Devlin said ensuring he had a way home was also a barrier to going out, and said he had been left stranded before, and said after attending a concert at the Ulster Hall in Belfast one night he tried to flag down a taxi but none were not able to take his wheelchair. 'It is scary and it is exhausting, physically and mentally,' he said. 'It means its safer for people like myself to stay at home because what else can we do. 'Staying at home you feel isolated and cut off from society. It makes feel like second class citizens in our own country where we're an afterthought – they don't plan anything around us, they don't plan anything around making the country accessible for everybody. 'We're just seen as a problem. The Department of Infrastructure needs to talk directly to disabled people at the beginning, not after putting things in place. 'It could also be the Department for Communities, Department of Education, Department of Health. They need to talk to disabled people about what needs to be done, we know because we've lived it.' Mr Devlin's report was assisted by VIEWdigital editor Brian Pelan and supported by the Social Change Initiative (SCI). Mr Pelan paid tribute to Mr Devlin's work across this issue and others that he has also written about for the VIEWdigital. 'He really steps forward a lot more than a lot of able bodied people out there,' he said. 'It's a cliche, but he is an inspiration.'
Sky News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Sir Keir Starmer faces rebellion from Labour MPs over 'impossible to support' welfare reforms
Sir Keir Starmer is facing a looming rebellion over his welfare reform package by dozens of Labour MPs who have warned it is "impossible to support" in its current form. Scores of Labour MPs have thrown their support behind a letter urging the government to "delay" the proposals, which they blasted as "the biggest attack on the welfare state" since Tory austerity. The MPs - who are restless after Labour's poor showing at last week's local elections - warned the prime minister that his plans to slash the welfare bill by £5bn a year were "impossible to support" without a "change in direction". In the letter, seen by Sky News, the MPs said the reforms - which will tighten eligibility criteria for incapacity benefits - had caused a "huge amount of anxiety among disabled people and their families". "The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity and over three million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected," they wrote. "Whilst the government may have correctly diagnosed the problem of a broken benefits system and a lack of job opportunities for those who are able to work, they have come up with the wrong medicine. "Cuts don't create jobs, they just cause more hardship." The MPs called for a delay to the reforms until all impact assessments on employment, health and social care had been published, thereby allowing them to "vote knowing all the facts". Call for change in direction A government impact assessment in March found an additional 250,000 people - including 50,000 children - could be pushed into relative poverty in the financial year ending 2030. The MPs went on to say that while the benefits system needed reform, this needed to be done "with a genuine dialogue with disabled people's organisations". "We also need to invest in creating job opportunities and ensure the law is robust enough to provide employment protections against discrimination," they added. "Without a change in direction, the green paper will be impossible to support." 2:33 The letter comes after Sir Keir and his allies sought to quell the discontent that has emerged in the aftermath of the local elections, which saw Labour lose the Runcorn by-election and control of Doncaster Council to Reform. The losses at the hands of Nigel Farage's party have sparked an internal debate as to which direction the Labour Party should now take. While some MPs in Labour's traditional northern heartlands want the party to focus more on cutting immigration, others representing London and metropolitan areas have warned that such an approach risks driving progressive voters to the Green Party and other left-wing rivals. 'The fight of our lives' On Wednesday night, the prime minister sent Pat McFadden, his chief cabinet "fixer", to address MPs in a bid to calm the disquiet in the party. However, Mr McFadden warned the meeting of around 100 Labour MPs that they were now facing "the fight of our lives" against Mr Farage and his politics. The meeting was called after Labour MPs began demanding a U-turn over the cut to the winter fuel allowance, which they blamed for the party's poor performance last week. At Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir defended taking away the allowance for most pensioners, arguing that it had helped to "put our finances back in order after the last government lost control". Downing Street also ruled out a U-turn on means testing the winter fuel payment, following newspaper reports earlier this week that one might be on the cards. The prime minister's official spokesperson said: "The policy is set out, there will not be a change to the government's policy." They added that the decision was necessary "to ensure economic stability and repair the public finances following the £22bn black hole left by the previous government".
