Saturday, December 18, 2010

Tories Axe Independent Living Fund

The latest stunt this evil government is now proposing will cause disabled people and their relatives an immense amount of mental anguish, misery and pain.  
This wonderful "caring compassionate Conservative" government we have, glibly announce they are getting rid of the Independent Living Fund (ILF) . Make no mistake, this is an assault and an unprovoked attack on the most severely disabled in our society and this sly government announced this, then leaked news of town hall cuts and this attack on the disabled got completely buried in other bad news.

There is cowardly, and then there is crafty and spiteful, and then there is fascism dressed up like reason and it is this that we have right here in Conservative Britain! Ladies and gentlemen we are officially back in Thatcher's Britain, "son of Thatcher" lives on in the long cold dark shadow of the "mother" that spawned it. "Thatcherism" had not really gone away, it was laying dormant in the privileged toffs that adored her,  now it is back and is determined to outdo its mother and determined to avenge for all the years the Tories were kept out of power by those "unclean" classes (us). Just in case anyone is still in doubt, the Tory spite is upon us.

I honestly did not think that my lowly opinion of this hellish government of ideologues could sink any lower, but it has plummeted to new depths.

The Independent Living Fund is financed by the Department of Work and Pensions and pays out on average just over £300 a week to 21,000 people.
Its aim is to allow severely disabled people to pay for help so they can live independently. If these people cannot claim this fund then the chances almost certainly are they will have to enter a home, or attend expensive daycare to be looked after and this will cost upwards of £600 per week, so where is the saving? Unless of course this government intend just leaving these people to fend for themselves! And I would put absolutely nothing past them.

This is just another short term idea with long term detrimental repercussions, not only to the 21.000 severely disabled people who claim ILF, but actually for the economy and the deficit too, it is absolute madness. This ridiculous decision not only does harm to the physical care disable people receive, but it will harm them psychologically too. They are likely to be taken out of their homes and familiar surroundings and thrust into alien environments, it is not fair and it is certainly not right, it is abysmal and inhumane treatment of disabled people and I believe it infringes their human rights. What are we going to see on our streets next, thousands of disabled people, many in wheelchairs, demonstrating?  That will enhance this country's reputation abroad - not. Already Iran of all places, is accusing us of human rights offences citing the heavy handed police tactics used against  in the demonstrations over Nick Clegg's broken pledge not to raise tuition fees.

The overriding puzzle here is that the Prime Minister's own father and son were disabled, he has first hand knowledge of the pressure caring for a disabled child and parent can have on the family - or does he really? Perhaps  Cameron had the money to buy in all the care he needed for his little boy and his father, so he has no idea of what it is like to struggle to provide the care needed? I really do not like mentioning this, but I have to because I find the whole thing totally unnerving and bizarre.

Not only is this government scrapping the ILF they are also scrapping the mobility component part of Disability Living Allowance for people living in a care or nursing home. Once again, this government is showing little, if any understanding of disabled people's needs. They obviously think that all people in residential care are cabbages who cannot get out and about, not people with carers and family who come and take them shopping or for outings in their mobility car. Or perhaps it is an electric wheelchair or scooter they paying for out of that money and will no longer be able to afford it. There are so many things that disabled people need and this government's decision to remove one of them is cold callous and ideologically driven.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This gives a bit more information and a copy of the Minister's statement.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/ilf/news/index.shtml#safeguards