When PIP starts to replace Disability Living Allowance next year anyone who can walk just twenty metres will not qualify for help with mobility. Twenty metres is less than the distance most of the disabled parking bays at my local Tesco are from the door. It's really not much. Hundreds of thousands of people will no longer get a mobility allowance and as a result will no longer be eligible to lease a Motability car. One day it might be you that needs this.
The government has also left out the phrase "safely, reliably, repeatedly and in a timely manner" from the PIP regulations. This means that if a person can do something just once, or can push through pain to do it, they might not get help and can't even challenge it at tribunal.
These are just two of the largest problems. Please write to your MP and ask them to fix this urgently. I can't stress enough how urgent this is. You can contact your MP at Write To Them
There is lots more information at We Are Spartacus.
Please also sign the (Stop the) War On Welfare petition which is calling for government to do a cumulative impact assessment on welfare reform. A great many changes are being made all at once and yet the government have not stopped to consider how they will affect people when taken all together.
This is the message that I sent to my MP, you can use mine as a starting point for your own if you are stuck. Remember that MPs pay more attention to unique messages.
Dear xxxxxxx,
I am writing to you about the new Personal Independence Payments (PIP) which will soon replace DLA. It has emerged following the publication of the PIP regulations last week that there are many problems with the regulations, two of which are extremely serious.
Under PIP a person who can walk just 20 metres will not be eligible for the mobility component of PIP. That is an astonishingly short distance. Even the closer disabled parking bays at my local Tesco are twenty metres from the entrance. This decision will deny mobility allowance to hundreds of thousands of people who rely on it, and an estimated 100,000 people will lose their Motability cars in the first year alone as a result.
I also note with alarm that the phrase "safely, reliably, repeatedly and in a timely manner" has not been included in the regulations. This phrasing is extremely important, since a person may be able to do something once but then not again for hours - effectively meaning that the activity cannot be done, but PIP will take no account of that.
Government ministers claim that the vulnerable will be protected. I hope that you can see why I am so concerned about PIP and how this will leave people trapped in their homes without transport and denied support for even the bare minimum of activities that they must perform. Please can you give me your assurance that these regulations will be amended so that disabled people can continue with their lives.
Sincerely,
[Name and address]
Done. My MP hears from me so regularly we're on first name terms!
ReplyDeleteMy MP unfortunately is conservative - she says 'If you are truly disabled then you have nothing to worry about do you' I can proly walk 20metres but no more without having to stop. some days only 10-15 - But I know i will lose it all and she (Tracey crouch) really does not care at all abotu how life is being ruined she just does what she is told.
ReplyDeleteI will send to my MP but I don't hold out much hope. He is a new conservative from the batch that got voted in the last general election. He cares more about defense than anything else. I usually get replies from him but they are form replies and they never address the issues brought up in my communication to him.
ReplyDeleteI think it is worth sending a message to your MP even if there is no hope of them agreeing with us because they can't then claim that no one objected or that all their letters were in favour. OK, can't is a strong word, shouldn't is probably better.
ReplyDeleteOK i sent it anyway - But i doubt her reply will be of any help as she cares not for the disabled. Not at all like 99.9% of tories
DeleteI've sent this to my MP and added this bit at the bottom. Hope thats ok, I tried hard not to get overemotional but I think I failed!
ReplyDeleteI am a 22 year old student at Magdalen College, in my final year of a history degree, I am writing to you as my MP as I live here full time, my mothers home is inaccessible to me and Magdalen have stepped in to house me for the remainder of my degree. I have Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy in my left leg, RSD is the most painful disease known to medicine.
I want to work, I'm 22 years old, I don't want my life to be over now but to work I will need an adapted car with hand controls. My blue badge is my lifeline, without it I would not be able to do my shopping even with all the support I am given from my mother who cares for me.
I cannot walk the 20m in the PIP regulations but others can, although they may not be able to walk much further. These others also rely on their motobility car to work or their blue badge to shop. We don't want to be burdens on society but we do need help, we were told we would be protected but this is not the case.
Please help, I and others like me rely on our DLA and we will rely on PIP please safeguard the help that so many desperately need.
it is about time mobilising was taken into account and not just walking.
ReplyDeleteCare to expand on this? We actually had a minor argument trying to get a blue badge that 'your electric wheelchair is the same as walking'.
DeleteTBH this will be the final straw for me, they have completely removed the whole point of DLA which I thought was to give us similar opportunities to able bodied, note that similar is not the SAME as same! Having a car enables me to do my own shopping and look after my granddaughter two days per week, which is the only time I see any of my family. it enables me to get to the doctors and other hospital appointments.
ReplyDeleteI would have no life without it. But I think that that is the point. they want us to kill ourselves so we are less of a burden to them!
Well, if you've got aids, you should use them. People with sight impairments are expected to use aids when outdoors. The difference being, your wheelchair gets you from A to B. My mobility cane doesn't stop me from wandering into the path of oncoming traffic.
ReplyDeleteYou have an alternative way of getting around by mobilising, why shouldn't you use aids designed to help you?
let's all queue up and do this government's dirty work for them shall we?
ReplyDeleteeven labour party offer only more of the same
ffs, how much more of this are we going to take?????????????????
I have sent it to my MP and Im 66 disabled and get DLA, currently I understand it wont affect me I,ll still get DLA for the duration of my award that said I support all the younger disabled, they have rights and this PIP should never have been introduced its going to make many people housebound.
ReplyDelete