Funny stuff, the Tories casting themselves as civilised relief to Ukip. Such a hoot. And such bollocks. The truth is that the sadism of this government knows no limits. It never has. And nothing has changed. Attacks on people who need support continue at pace. Some of those people have died, and others will die, as that support disappears altogether. Others will be forced to live unpleasant, restricted lives where they once didn’t. These facts have become acceptable to the political mainstream and to the media associated with it. That lot really thinks that austerity is in the bag. That lot is wrong – the sort of inequality we’re seeing on our so-called elite’s watch can’t be sustained – but it pushes on nonetheless.
Witness the government’s destruction of the Independent Living Fund – a destruction which continues despite the court of appeal overturning the government’s first attempt to close the fund last year. The Independent Living Fund was set up over 25 years ago to pay for the extra carer hours that severely disabled people need to live independent lives. The ILF is often used to top up council care packages with extra money. That means people can have round-the-clock care support if they need it. They can pay for personal assistants to help them wash, dress, eat and leave their homes to work, study, socialise, etc – wherever they’re at. There are videos with ILF recipients in this post in which people explain how crucial that funding is and how concerned they are about going without care if that money is removed. These people are adults, with adult lives. They don’t want to be shoved into carehomes. Who would? They make a very fair point – or so you’d think. People want independence. We all want independence. People need that ILF money. Anyone could.
Here’s ILF recipient Gabriel Pepper on the subject:
And here is Gabriel on his blog – which is a site everyone should visit regularly, by the way. It’s certainly on my required reading list:
“Disabled people are a front line of resistance. We will not be victimised, vilified and fucking shoved out of society by a bunch of fucking cunts just to pay for the reckless casino capitalism of the bloated elite.”
Amen to that. That’s politics today – a bunch of fucking cunts and reckless casino capitalism…with a bit of immigrant-loathing and hatred of disabled people thrown in to keep people’s minds off the fucking cunts and the reckless casino capitalism. That is exactly how things are going down. This renewed attack on the Independent Living Fund demonstrates that very clearly.
Mike Penning is determined that the ILF money will go, of course – earlier this year, despite that recent court of appeal ruling against the government’s earlier ILF closure decision, he announced again that the fund would close and that ILF recipients must rely solely on councils for care from June 2015 – which is only a year away now. Penning knows and I know and everyone knows that councils can’t afford to pay for the high-cost care packages that ILF recipients rely on. The ILF already tops up council care packages. And council social care is being destroyed as it is. Anyone from any party who says otherwise is being disingenuous in the extreme. Basic maths will give you the answer here – you don’t improve care services by removing the money that pays for those services. You certainly don’t improve care services by removing millions of pounds from the sector. The sums don’t add and anyone who says they do is telling dangerous lies. These people need to answer to these lies.
They’ll certainly be answering to them again in court again shortly: Disabled People Against Cuts has just announced the launch of a judicial review of the DWP’s latest decision to close the ILF.
“The Department of Work and Pensions is facing a judicial review challenge by a group of disabled people of the decision of Minister for Disabled People Mike Penning to close the Independent Living Fund (ILF) in June 2015, taken just weeks after the Court of Appeal quashed a previous, almost identical decision as being unlawful.
The ILF provides vital support and funding to some 18,000 severely disabled people in the UK to enable them to live independent and fulfilling lives. To be eligible people must already receive a substantial care package from local authority social services, but ILF funding provides a top-up for those with particularly high support needs. The ILF system was set up in 1988 in recognition of the fact that more severely disabled people are at high risk of social exclusion and face particular barriers to independent living and working, but their needs in this regard were not adequately addressed by council provision with its focus on meeting basic needs.
The claimants, represented by Deighton Pierce Glynn and Scott-Moncrieff & Associates, fear that loss of ILF support would threaten their right to live with dignity, and they may be forced into residential care or lose their ability to participate in work and everyday activities on an equal footing with other people.”
Events are also planned for July to draw attention to the government’s ongoing attack on the fund and on disabled people.
Video: ILF recipient Sophie Partridge:
Independent Living Fund recipient Sophie Partridge [on video] referred to David Cameron’s late son Ivan as a would-have-been or could-have-been recipient of ILF in later life.
David Cameron referred to his own late father — another disabled person — by way of a topical obituary at a time when Cameron’s government was conducting the start of a war of attrition on disabled people as ‘a glass half full person’, i.e. a person with a positive attitude rather than a ‘whinger’. My response to that was that some people have much bigger glasses than others.
That some people have much bigger glasses than others also links Cameron’s disabled father with the Guardian piece Kate cites on unsustainable wealth inequality: “Critics of the wealth report said it failed to capture the huge diversion of wealth to offshore tax havens, which account for trillions of pounds worth of savings.”
As I recall, a prime mover in the development of offshore bank accounts in Thatcher’s times was David Cameron’s ‘glass half full’ father, apparently not caring how many families were denied opportunity so that an elite could ensure that their own glasses were forever topped up.
I was told I qualified in 2010 no money in pot so applyied 2011 run out never bothered 7 months in new home no support whatsoever phoned ombudsman who said I have to wait final response and that I was entitled to compensation into six years yes complete bollux mp says file closed ombudsman will reopen basically lot is a farce and hand on hand it’s corrupt and exists on blocking high time media started reporting
Now, Green Party of England & Wales Deputy Leader Amelia Womack writes in the Morning Star: “…. No fence in the world is high enough to persuade refugees to return to countries where their homes still lie in rubble, their family and friends have lost their lives, and where they will be persecuted and oppressed once more….” We Need a More Humane Approach to Migrants