tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post6373489441772824314..comments2023-07-04T16:57:28.929+01:00Comments on Where's the Benefit?: Stealth Cuts – Other ways we are being hurt – Part 2Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16714918894319998184noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-81115523887417789122010-11-14T16:35:47.412+00:002010-11-14T16:35:47.412+00:00I would be harmed by my local council cutting back...I would be harmed by my local council cutting back sports funding. I can't afford to go to a private gym so I go to my local authority gym. The swimming team I train with uses a pool operated by my local authority too. I can't jog or many other "free" forms of exercise. I need to gym/swim. Especially in this weather when a brisk push in my wheelchair is out of the question.<br /><br />Exercise is important for me because strong muscles can better compensate for hypermobile joints. So if my local authority were to cut sports funding the direct impact on me would be that it would make my mobility impairment more painful.<br /><br />In my experience councils could make savings from adult social care budgets by spending more sensibly. I'll use my father as an example:<br /><br />My dad is 76 and has had cerebral palsy all his life. During those 76 years he's worked out ways he can do things like transferring from wheelchair to toilet.<br /><br />In Aug 2009 he broke his femur and was told he wasn't allowed to weight bear for 3 months which threw his usual transferring technique out the window. The NHS said they had no beds to offer him rehab to learn new methods of transferring so sent him home with a hoist and instructions that it had to be operated by 2 people.<br /><br />With dad's usual care package he only had one person in at a time so for 6 months (the 3 he wasn't allowed to weight bear and 3 more while he got back some muscle strength after not using his legs for 3 months) social services were paying for him to have 2 people in at a time.<br /><br />While the NHS said they had no access to rehab beds, social services did have the option of sending him to a private rehab facility for a couple of weeks so he could learn to transfer himself. While in the short term it would've come with a big bill, in the long term it would've been cheaper than paying for my dad to have 2 assistants at a time for 6 months.<br /><br />There. I just found a saving Essex County Council could've made if they were smarter about their spending. That saving could've given someone currently refused assistance hours a PA for a couple of hours a week.<br /><br />To get my new kitchen earlier this year my argument was "if you don't make my kitchen more accessible I'm going to need care hours because I've always struggled and my recent injury has now made using this impossible. Giving me a new kitchen will work out cheaper for you in the long run." So they acquiesced. But had <i>I</i> not pointed out what would be cheaper for them in the long run, they'd have taken the pricier route.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16714918894319998184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-71251194027331997692010-11-13T08:12:33.620+00:002010-11-13T08:12:33.620+00:00Let's face it - This Govt are NOT thinking or ...Let's face it - This Govt are NOT thinking or caring about anyone at all. Yes the country needs to save some money - But they are looking at all the wrong places.<br /><br />No1 - The whole MP/Parliament thing is a huge waste of money - These men sit around boo'ing and jeering in a very large expensive place - Having their other home paid for and their office with 1000 quid a roll wallpaper on the walls. No1 - I would give them a block of old council flats and a pot of paint and tell them - THIS IS YOUR NEW ACCOMODATION WHILST IN LONDON - Then - I would tell them that the way you use your services is rubbish. You all use different phone lines and services for yourself when you have the POWER between you all to demand cheaper services or threaten to move to another firm to provide you with it. STOP wasting money on the most expensive of everything - Turn ON your collective brains and use the power of the many that you hold.<br /><br />I would immediately get the Tax Man to demand payment from all tax evaders (starting with the 6bn owed by Vodaphone)<br /><br />The NHS has buying powerit does not use - You buy one Titanium screw for fixing bones and a screw would cost you maybe £1 outside the NHS suddenly whn the NHS is mentioned it rises tenfold - Use the power you have and demand that the NHS stop being ripped off just because the people providing the items think the NHS is an easy target - You all have buyer power! If - You choose to use your brain, that is.<br /><br />This Govt said they would be open and honest - transparent - This Govt lied and now they are in they are just wrecking the entire country with their stupid ideas and uncaring ways - Disabled people NEED care - This ridiculous - dont take a job and get no benefit for 3yrs' thing - It cannot work - Unles they expect all these people who are suddenly thrown off benefits to live in a cardboard box until they just happen to die. I guess that means the road cleaners bill will rise from removing all the unsightly dead bodies of the selfish dead people!<br /><br />The word CARE is not in this Govts book, they will trash this country, with all their non workable ideas. I would love to know WHERE they plan to find all these jobs for the 500k of people they newly made unemployed whn there wasnt jobs there for the people who are already unemployed, then the disabed people they decided are fine to work cos ATOS medicals are flawed. so that a hell-loaf of newly unemployed people who will all be sent out to do made-up jobs that dont exist - Never mind that you will no doubt reduce benefits making people unable to afford the bus fare to get to the place int he first place.<br /><br />Its the wastage the Govt want to focus on, not the disabled - WE DID NOT CHOOSE TO BE DISABLED.<br /><br />To be honest, all I see in my future is a bigger struggle than the one I already face now. They cannot SEE fatigue, they cannot SEE inside my head. Therefore I should probably be perfectly fine to run the marathon???????? NOT!<br /><br />Cameron and Clegg need to wake up and stop playing silly games with the lives of the people - Until they actually understand that their silly plans wont work and they are just wastin money trying to impliment to unworkable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-52265573886120861672010-11-12T23:55:25.519+00:002010-11-12T23:55:25.519+00:00I agree with shooz — that website "game"...I agree with shooz — that website "game" is the classic divide-and-conquer strategy for setting disadvantaged groups against one another in order to reduce our effectiveness.Kakehttp://www.earth.li/~kake/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7999633524276247455.post-29047839871180053382010-11-12T23:22:57.821+00:002010-11-12T23:22:57.821+00:00The answer is to protest about ALL the cuts to cou...The answer is to protest about ALL the cuts to council budgets, not to fight one corner against another. The cuts aren't needed. Sort out the tax dodgers and we don't have to lose services.<br /><br />I, for one, will not play that game, and will try to maintain solidarity with ALL affected peopleshoozhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13171342945711638717noreply@blogger.com