Disabled People Against Cuts is calling for a mass action at the House of Commons at the start of next year to save the Independent Living Fund.
Last week’s court case to save the ILF may have been lost, but in no way did that represent the end of this fight. Doesn’t matter what this government thinks it has won.
The ILF is a fund that disabled people with the highest support needs use to fund the extra carer hours they need to live independent lives. It will surprise nobody to hear that this government wants to close the ILF and to sentence profoundly disabled people to lives shut away in carehomes. Disabled people and campaigners are not going to tolerate that. Nobody should tolerate that. Why the hell should any of us tolerate that.
In this film, ILF recipients talk about the role the ILF plays in their lives and how intolerable life will be without it:
We’re all in it together – aren’t we? from Moore Lavan Films on Vimeo.
Labour is still refusing to commit to keeping the ILF open, which is utterly useless of them. The fight to save the ILF has been going on for several years and all Labour has is…err, Let’s Wait A Bit Longer. Hammersmith and Fulham council has committed to ringfencing any devolved ILF funding, but I think of that as a late effort at best, especially at this stage. Nobody knows how long ILF funding will be devolved to local authorities, how much money councils will get if funds are devolved and for how long, or if councils would continue to commit to ringfencing it. Politicians need to commit to keeping the ILF open and reopening it to new applicants (the ILF was closed to new applicants in 2010). They need to commit to the idea that disabled people have as much right to live full lives as everybody else does. That idea is being relegated to history.
The sad truth is that these days, you’ll be a long time waiting for Labour to pull finger to save any aspect of social security, including this one. Which leaves people with a fairly stark choice. They can wait for politicians to get their act together, or they can get stuck in and sort problems out themselves.
Earlier this year, ILF recipients occupied Westminster Abbey in protest at the proposed closure of the fund.
On January 6 2015, there will be a DPAC-style lobby of parliament.
“We must stop disabled people being pushed back into the margins of society. We will not go back into the institutions. Our place is in the community alongside our family and friends and neighbours and we are fighting to stay.”
Exactly.
The action will take place on Tuesday January 6 2015, 1.30pm for 2pm start, House of Commons, SWIA 0AA.
Be there.
Can Labour be better than useless? Well I certainly hope so, but don’t hold your breath.
I don’t mean to appear negative all the time, but Labour are a lost cause. Seriously. All the parties, excepting probably the Greens, are working for the new world order. The rich are accumulating power and weatlh. What the political parties say on the run up to an election is all bluster and lies to give the appearance of democratic representation. About time people started realising that the Tories, Labour, Lib Dems, Ukip, all work in the interests of the rich. Anyone only has to read the first few pages of Private Eye every fortnight to realise that the whole system is corrupt and is working flat out for the financial elite.
Fear not, comrade. People say I’m negative all the time as well. In fact, I’m just a realist. I’ve been doing this for years and can confidently report that the entire political structure is totally poked. Five years this government has been in (if not actually voted in) and here we are, still with a so-called opposition that can’t land a blow on it. Even when it comes to the ILF. I mean – how fucking difficult is it.
Exactly. Thanks for the reply.
Solidarity with severely handicapped people always. I have no faith in Labour to change anything and in the general elections I will be voting socialist. KEEP THE ILF
The socialists can steal a march on The Greens and gain the 303 seats predicted to go to Labour and Lib Dems, with 282 seats Tories.
The Greens have in their policies something new and unique which is not in theri 2015 manifesto. That is the Citizen Income and the same amount for a Full State Pension for all citizens, irregardless of their National Insurance contribution / credit history, with a supplement for the disabled.
This The Greens said would be to the level of the basic tax allowance.
If a socialist party like the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, The Left Unity and that ilk, either of such as these parties did a u-turn and took on board those policies and bettered them, then they would get the 15 million who are the poor from 18 to 100+ in or out of work, and including the 2.6 million pensioners only on state pension and far below the breadline.
And women born from 1953 and men born from 1951 facing
NIL STATE PENSION FOR LIFE
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
Giving all pensioners a state pension at 60 in 2015 is nil funding consequences, because the government (and Labour) has held back and is calling a surplus the £30 billion in the National Insurance Fund not paid out since 2013 as state pension to women who turned 60 and their husband’s at 65, so taking away 7 years payout, payable if remain in work or are early retired on average on just 4 per cent lowest income, in lieu of redundancy under the massive austerity job cuts that were due to be a million jobs lost by 2018, but now more likely to be 2 million as the state shrinks to 1930s levels.
Anybody?
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