Budget - tougher for DLA claimants

Indie_Kid

They claim it would save money - but would it really? There would be appeals. (more than now I asume)

Indie_Kid

jimbms wrote: »

A quick question for you, does someone on DLA get a decent tax allowance if working.

They get the same tax allowance as everyone else. Unless registered blind, where it's about £1900 more.

government_slave

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

I really do not think that your son will be assessed more than once, if this government has any heart they will see that he only needs 1 assessment and then I think that he will be fine. This is all hype, do not worry.

Oh I hope so skcollobcat. That would cut down on the bruises. LOL

[Deleted User]

jimbms wrote: »

and also employers get a grant to assist employees on DLA if needed.

Not in every case. Access to Work can make payments to assist employers make reasonable adjustments but only if the cost is over a certain level and the employer has to pay a %. My employer got nothing, they did still make the adjustments and buy equipment I needed but I'm employed by a council. Those working in some private business are not so lucky.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/Employmentsupport/WorkSchemesAndProgrammes/DG_4000347

Access to Work pays a proportion of the costs of support if all of the following apply to you:

• you're working for an employer
• you've been in the job for six weeks or more
• you need special equipment or adaptations to premises

The precise level of cost sharing is determined as follows:

• employers with 1 to 9 employees will not be expected to share costs
• employers with 10 to 49 employees will pay the first £300 and 20 per cent of costs up to £10,000
• employers with 50 to 249 employees will pay the first £500 and 20 per cent of costs up to £10,000
• large employers with 250 or more employees will pay the first £1,000 and 20 per cent of costs up to £10,000

government_slave

deeplyblue wrote: »

I did say, "~£60 per week" - meaning "about" just to give readers with no idea of how much is involved a rough idea. Some people have very little idea, and assume that carers are rolling in "tax-payers' money" in exchange for sitting around all day.

So yes, I do know that many carers are giving care not 35 hours a week, but something close to 24/7, since they are always on call, and can't expect more than a few hours unbroken sleep at any time. If carers were paid at the minimum wage rate for the bare 35 hours, they would get £207.55 a week.

I was merely pointing out that the Carer's Allowance is not generous enough to pay for a respite care out it. I suggested that saving up DLA (Care) to give the carer a break was a useful and entirely valid way of using the money. It's also financially sensible, since it can extend the amount of time which the carer can spend with the person getting the DLA. A sick carer is often financially disadvantageous to the welfare system.

I also know that in your position, even this sort of break can be very difficult to arrange, given the very precarious balancing act which having a severely autistic person in the family engenders, and their panic and rage when someone important disappears even for a short period. You have my profound sympathy. I also think that you should be given as much help as possible, with one assessment when your son reached adulthood, and a yearly form asking only, "Has anything in your circumstances changed?" in case your son has had to be institutionalised.

I wish you all the best.

db

Sorry db I didnt know what that squiggly thing meant [real novice on computers] I didnt mean to offend you.
Know exactly what you mean by people thinking carers sit around all day rolling in it. I have been told many times I dont know how lucky I am that I dont 'work' and get paid for being home all day. Yet they have no idea how I envy their 'normal' lives. People also dont realise that we carers also have to pay for respite at a rate, with my council, of £30 per night. As you say Carers Allowance and DLA doesnt get you much respite.

Thank you for your kind words also, it is nice to hear from someone who knows what kind of position a carer living with a severely autistic person is like. I just hope the Government are a little sypathetic when re-assessing and think of the carer also, it would cut down on my bruises and stress levels. LOL

government_slave

deeplyblue wrote: »

The report mentioned comes from the Citizens' Advice Bureau.

My "favourite" example comes from someone assessing whether someone with severe learning disabilities could work. The clerk asked them, "Can you count?" The claimant said, "Yes." Clearly mentally able enough for some jobs. The commentator (who knew the disabled man personally) said that the problem was that the clerk was just ticking boxes, otherwise they might have checked a little more thoroughly. The man could count - to 5. And, of course, he did not know enough to explain that.



db

That one make me smile. My son says yes to every questions asked even though he doesnt understand them. I remember when a rep from DWP came to see him in order for me to be his appointee for his benefit money she started to ask him a few questions and he of course said yes to everything, then she asked him if he was the Queen of Britain and he of course said yes, with that she just smiled to herself and signed the form to appoint me.

jimbms

_shel wrote: »

Not in every case. Access to Work can make payments to assist employers make reasonable adjustments but only if the cost is over a certain level and the employer has to pay a %.

shel, it would help if you read my entire post and saw that I am in the Isle of Man and thus UK regulations and laws do not come into it IoM is a seperate country, it is only a crown dependancy and not part of the UK or EEC thhankfully, as you would see from my conversations with sh1305there are vast differences, a good example was the last question where people here on DLA get an extra £3750 tax allowance where you don't or your answer, companies here get very generous grants to employ disabled people whatever their size or number of employees, example one very well known major bank gets paid for the cost of installing the extra phone line and broadband connection to an disabled employees home if they allow them to work from home.

Indie_Kid

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

??????????????????????????????????????

You told me to "learn to adapt" - how on earth do I do that? I have an ever-changing disability.

TOBRUK

deeplyblue wrote: »

Ditto if you can't prepare a meal because you keep forgetting what you are supposed to be doing, or why you are supposed to be doing it. Remembering to carry out the instructions written on a packet takes much less concentration than dealing with finding a knife, a chopping board, working out you need to start with the onion, then remembering how to chop an onion etc etc.

Sounds silly? Try watching someone you have known as a good cook, whilst they stand there staring into mid-air with an onion in one hand and a knife in the other, unaware that they are not doing something they've done thousands of times before. Try to help, and they say, "I know how to chop an onion!" Then, after months of this, they realise that though they still understand the process of chopping an onion, they can no longer do it in the sort of timescale required to prepare a main meal in under 3 hours, and without burning half the ingredients. And, incidentally, leaving them so tired that they can hardly eat the meal afterwards, or clean up afterwards.

If ME-type exhaustion is the reason for all this, then handing them a microwave meal is really helpful, as they have enough energy to put the meal into the microwave, press the appropriate time, get it out and eat it. Giving the money for a microwave dinner is a LOT cheaper than paying someone to bring in meals. It's even cheaper when the person has to pay Tesco to deliver the meals once a week.

Many of the payments which genuinely help people to remain independent are highly cost effective. Or they seem so if you think that the State would otherwise have to take care of people. There are those who look at someone with ME and say, "faker" or "hypochondriac" (which - at its crudest - is what the Wessely school analysis boils down to). Then you tell them to get off their backsides and pull themselves together. Of course, they can't, but the state then neither helps them with enough money to remain independent nor allows them to benefit from care.

I worry a lot about how people with ME are going to cope when benefit cutters are looking for soft targets.

db

Sometimes too exhausted to actually eat a meal, sounds silly but true!

de1amo wrote: »

do they continue the normal reassessments between now and 2013 or are they going to put things on hold--make no sense being assessed and then reassed again after 2013--its obvious that new assessors and assesments will be roled out in 2013--atos as the only body that is currently placed to do them!!

Well, I couldn't understand the government yesterday announcing they were going to cut down on IB benefit claimants, to test whether they were fit for work ... WHAT?! Work capability assessments had already begun under the previous Labour government!!

I have been on DLA for a few years now and after renewal beginning of this year I was awarded HRC and HRM INDEFINITELY. I have also been getting IB and a few weeks after receiving my DLA award I received a letter headed YOUR INCAPACITY ASSESSMENT. They had looked into my case and concluded that I was within the limits of receiving IB. They didn't call me for a medical assessment but they had obviously looked at my case!

Does the fact that they have assessed someone for IB mean that as that person also receives DLA that they will also be assessed for DLA? What I mean is, if you are on DLA and also IB they will assess you twice?

krisskross wrote: »

The question is though does a monthly cash payment really really help people with whatever they choose to call disabilities?

As I have said before my grandson receives LRC and LRM. He simply sees it as his spends. He pays for the SKY multiroom and then buys computer games with the rest. I honestly do not believe that over £150 a month should just be handed over with no checks on how it is spent. And the payments have made no difference at all to his MH issues.

No one gets ill any more, they apparently have varying disabilities for which they seek compensation.

Sorry if I'm wrong krisskross but didn't you sometime last year apply for AA and was awarded it? I seem to remember that you accepted the award. You said that you are a carer for your husband although you didn't expect to get paid for doing so. Didn't you say that you also applied for DLA a few years previous (for your husband) and was turned down, or that your husband didn't want to apply for DLA.

If you do receive AA, perhaps you could answer the question of whether a monthly cash payment help you.

Trialia

deeplyblue wrote: »

Trialia, I'm impressed. Either you are very good at editing the text, or dictate very clearly, or the programs have really improved - or perhaps all three. Whichever, the results are excellent - congrats.

How much editing do you have to do?

Thanks muchly! But I don't use it all the time. I have been typing since I was six years old and have a light laptop, which does help. I try only to use Dragon when my arms or hands hurt too much to type for long periods. It does take a certain amount of editing, but I can do that if I'm not typing at my normal speed and using that energy. I have practice at dictating clearly - was a finalist in the Thomas Cranmer Award over a decade ago, and I do podfic as a hobby (read-aloud-and-recorded fanfiction).

I used to be able to type 190wpm, now it is down to about 75 if I'm lucky, but I have to rest in between paragraphs. I am typing this, but lying flat while I'm doing it with my laptop propped up in bed. I don't need to see the keyboard though, I learned to touch-type a long, long time ago. I have learned, since becoming disabled, not to hammer the keys (I learned on a manual typewriter first!) because it tires me out less if I don't.