The TUC, March for the Alternative and Language Discourses which Promote Exclusion.

Two blog posts were brought to my attention yesterday that really merit a post each, but I don't currently have the capacity to do that, so they will have to share a space.

Firstly, an open letter to Brendan Barber, the General Secretary of the TUC, from Disabled People Against Cuts.

This letter is appealing to the TUC to work with them to make the March for the Alternative on the 26th March, more accessible to disabled people. They point out that

At the latest count it was found that disabled people were facing fourteen separate attacks against our lives and living standards as a result of the Coalition government’s policies. What we are witnessing is our human rights, supposedly guaranteed under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People, being violated by regressive and draconian cuts to benefit and care funding.

and ask that disabled people are as " fully included in this march and rally as our non-disabled peers would take for granted".

Disabled People Against Cuts have clearly explained the numerous barriers to disabled people's participation in this event, and have as yet failed to get a response from the TUC about their suggestions of ways to improve access.

Given how horrifically the cuts ahead are going to affect disabled people's lives, it seems that we should be at the forefront of planning such protests, not ignored and sidelined.

The second is a post from My Political Ramblings about Welfare Claimants and the Discourse of Threat, and articulates really well the process of scapegoating, rhetoric and stigmatisation involved in making the cuts to disability benefits acceptable to the public. This is a really insightful and useful post, and is well worth reading.

**Edited to add, as I posted this, Lisa posted simultaneously that the TUC have now released access information. Please check her post for the most up to date information.**

(Cross posted at incurable hippie blog).

Good Advice Matters

Someone drew my attention to a website called Good Advice Matters, which is a non-profit organisation dedicated to offering 'accurate and relevant information' on welfare rights.

We have many years experience behind us and specialize in disability and sickness benefits, appeals, benefits for foreign nationals, better off calculations, benefits for young people, benefits for carers etc.

Good Advice Matters supports the rights of individuals to claim the benefits that they are entitled to without experiencing judgmental attitudes, un-necessary delays and confusing and contradictory information. Good Advice Matters is frustrated with the lack of accurate information and advice currently being offered by the DWP. In short we feel that benefit claimants are being let down by the system.

Good Advice Matters is extremely critical of changes to the benefit system such as the introduction of employment and support allowance for claimants with limited capability for work and the planned cuts to benefits such as housing benefit. We have seen at first hand the devastating affect that a decision to stop benefit can have on an individual and we will actively campaign to ensure that claimants receive a fairer, more transparent and supportive service.

They invite people to contact them with any benefit query or question.

They have already answered one query about Is my Incapacity Benefit Safe? and under their DWP tag and benefit advice tag they have plenty more advice on benefits.

www.goodadvicematters.co.uk looks like it could be a really helpful resource for disabled people, regarding benefits and rights, especially as more, confusing and punitive changes come into law.

(Cross-posted at incurable hippie blog).

Round-Up Post

There are plenty of must-read articles and blog posts which I haven't had the time or the spoons to cover. All of the following are well worth a look.

• Scope are running a survey about the real costs of being disabled, which you can fill in here.
  
• "On the Shoulders of the Vulnerable", an article from Morning Star with information about ATOS and how ESA medicals are failing disabled people, especially those of us with mental health problems.
  
• A Guardian article, Housing Benefit Cuts: What's the Real Truth?
  
• Laurie Penny in the New Statesman writes Strictly Come Scrounging, Anyone?, about The X Factor vision of society [which] blames the poor for their predicament.
  
• Hopi Sen and Left Futures point out the contradiction in David Cameron criticising those claiming over £20,000 in housing benefits, compared to his own expenses claims for his second home.
  
• Crisis, a national charity for single homeless people, have created a comprehensive, myth-busting press release full of information on how the government are 'peddling myths' to sell the Housing Benefit cuts.
  
• Lenin's Tomb deconstructs a Daily Mail article decrying 75% of Incapacity Benefit claimants as 'fit to work'.
  
• The same article is looked at on This Is My Blog, who looks in depth at 'abandoned claims' and why they might really happen.
  
• Susannah posts a plea for help, describing how the removal of the Mobility Component of DLA from people in residential care will directly affect her brother.
  

Twitter round up

As I mentioned before it can be hard to find the spoons to write here, but what's really easy and uses little energy is tweeting. So sometimes I post links to articles on Twitter that don't get covered here on the main site. And that's not good for our non-tweeting readers who end up missing stuff.

So I thought I should start doing a regular (or as regular as I can manage) round up of relevant news stories that we've tweeted.

There's been quite a lot about the housing benefit cuts. The Guardian reported that councils are planning for an exodus of families from London. Boris Johnson, the Tory Mayor of London, told the BBC that he will not accept "Kosovo-style social cleansing" of the capital due to a government cap on housing benefits. (And as many Tweeters pointed out, when BoJo is standing up for the poor you know there's something really wrong.) Unsurprisingly many MPs distanced themselves from Johnson's comments and Vince Cable accused the mayor of using "inflammatory language". The Independent report that the government is determined to push ahead with the plans regardless and that Cameron thinks the cap is "fair".

The next big issue is the planned removal of the mobility component of DLA from people resident in care homes. BenefitScroungingScum appeared on BBC Radio Leeds to talk about the issue. @beccaviola tweeted that having her Motability vehicle while she was stuck in a care home was the thing that stopped her killing herself. RADAR released a statement that they're strongly opposed to the plan.

The big twitter story of the week has been the Vodafone tax bill story that we reported last month. Protesters managed to shut down both a Leeds branch of the store and Vodafone's flagship store on Oxford Street. There are more protests planned for tomorrow (scroll down to the comments for a slightly more accessible plan if travelling all over London isn't that ideal for you). Johann Hari wrote a column about just how effective protesting can be. @kimkali wondered if all those made homeless by the cuts are going to move in to their local Vodafone store.

Other tweets of note:

• @girlonetrack: So the coalition government cuts our public services, yet finds £2bn to read our emails? http://bit.ly/stopthesnooping
  
• @johannhari101: You pay your taxes. Sign the petition to make multi-millionaire George Osborne pay his: http://bit.ly/a3EOmJ
  
• @nusuk: Spending Review Cuts Briefing: Disabled Students. Read more at http://bit.ly/915awh
  
• @batsgirl: New Blog Post: Abandoned Claims http://batsgirl.blogspot.com/2010/10/abandoned-claims.html
  
• @andyholland01: George Osborne is a very stupid man hiding behind the deficit http://bit.ly/boaOUc
  
• @libcon: The disability benefit reforms fail the liberal test http://bit.ly/9fXXxw
  
• @libcon: Osborne gifts £40bn to super-rich in Swiss deal http://bit.ly/aWfbIf
  
• @TheSliverParty: RT @hangbitch The three pro-spending cuts retailers we're boycotting in November http://bit.ly/aroO4Q and why http://bit.ly/cyQ5Ma
  

And finally: The CAB are conducting some research into the ESA medicals process. If you're claiming/about to claim have a look at their Fair Welfare campaign page.