Threat to axe disability benefits! Discussion Thread

Lady_K

Is it not both tory and labour that are supporting the paper?

The whole thing makes me ill thinking about it and I just feel it will all happen anyway. I know they have to tackle fraudsters but it seems they are going to go overboard with this and in the process many genuine needy disabled people will be badly affected and a lot of them just cannot fight for themselves

[Deleted User]

SEE wrote: »

I got my response today, and my LABOUR MP supports it going through. He claims the need is due to benefit fraud

So the Government and everyone who posts here and those who genuinly receive benefits should not be worried about benefit fraud?

Benefit fraud is the reason why those with genuine disabilities are forced to jump through so many hoops to prove themselves or their family sick and/or disabled.

Has anyone actually read the consultation?

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_102338

I was horrified by the information put out by some organisations about this but having read the consultation realise it is scaremongering.

Antispam

I support the need to prosecute MP's who commit fraud but different rules apply to them

SEE wrote: »

I got my response today, and my LABOUR MP supports it going through. He claims the need is due to benefit fraud:mad: DON'T VOTE LABOUR, spread it through the forums and to your neighbours. LABOUR IS KILLING BRITAIN.

alicem

Defending Attendance Allowance

In July 2009 the Government published a social care Green Paper, Shaping the future of care together to address the challenge of growing demands on England's social care system. This paper has its pluses and minuses and RNIB will be submitting a full response in due course.
At this stage we already know that one very big minus is the proposal that Attendance Allowance (AA) should be abolished and the money used to help plug the gap in funding for social care.
RNIB agrees that this gap needs to be plugged - but not at the expense of AA. We are very strongly opposed to the loss of this important benefit.
Why do we feel so strongly?

Attendance allowance is a non-means-tested benefit that helps people over the age of 65 with the extra costs of disability. If somebody meets the conditions, they get the benefit and can spend it as they wish - all the advantages of an individual budget. Currently over 53,000 blind and partially sighted people receive AA.
If AA were dissolved into the social care “kitty”, these funds would become means-tested, cash-limited and rationed. Without a national legally defined entitlement, they would also be vulnerable to future Treasury “raids”, under cover of “efficiency savings”. And if anything like the current rationing system were in place, many blind and partially sighted people would be excluded altogether.
The Government says that existing claimants would be protected. But that isn’t the point - this whole debate is about the future.
Are other benefits also threatened?

The Green Paper says “for example Attendance Allowance”. It is very likely that this also includes the care element of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for people aged 65 and over who qualified when they were younger. There have been press reports that the care element of DLA for all ages was in the frame, but there was opposition within the Cabinet. (The mobility element of DLA is not thought to be threatened.) RNIB would be strongly opposed to the loss of any of these benefits.
What is RNIB doing to defend AA?

We will tell the Government very clearly why this measure would be very bad news for blind and partially sighted people, both in our response to the Green Paper and at every other opportunity. We will join with other organisations in campaigning against its abolition. And we will be collecting evidence on the difference that AA makes to the lives of people with sight loss.
What can I do?

Tell the Government your views. The Green Paper consultation closing date is 13 November 2009. If you get AA yourself, or know someone who does, say what you or they spend it on and would miss out on if it wasn’t there.

tandraig

jeez - Attendance allowance covers many aspects social services cant - will SS pay for taxis? for replacing items destroyed by people suffering dementia or autism - for special diets? for days out? (if you are not a convicted criminal that is) for looking after people in their own homes 24/7? therefore saving the govmt cost of institution (sorry care home or hospital) care - or non-care otherwise known as neglect. I dont get AA I just get DLA mobility - but the time will come when i NEED personal care - i just dont trust Social Services or the NHS and would prefer to pay someone to take care of me even if its only to babysit me while partner takes a break. I think this is the Labour Govment taking the !!!! yet again. why do they target the vulnerable? do they think we cant fight back - well - perhaps miss lumley could be persuaded to help here - she certainly scored with her campaign about the gurkhas (and rightly so - i even joined that by emailing everyone i could think of) I am too annoyed to think straight right now - will prob post some more when i calm down.

zzzLazyDaisy

There is now an online Government Consultation where people can leave their comments. I have started a new thread, as I've heard that some people can't get the site to accept their submission, so I think that needs monitoring.

But please, go to the new thread, click on the link to the Govt website, and voice your objections. This is OUR chance to make our views known.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1917115