Alan Wheatley - Changes to disability benefits
Alan Wheatley is the Green Party's spokesperson on disability issues. Alan has already signed up to the "Benefits and Work" campaign against proposals to change disability benefits. A working group may convene soon to form a party response to the Green Paper, but Alan gives his initial view here:
Many people have had jobs that paid sufficiently for them to make savings and go on holidays. That is not bad, but what is bad is when such people, in complete ignorance of disabled people and their carers, join in with the portrayal of disability-benefit claimants as "scroungers." Twenty pence newspapers are written for "reading ease" but do not encourage voters' informed decision making. Pensioner-poverty is not as great as the poverty of many below pensionable age on disability-related benefits, but is a "divide and rule" factor.
There are a great many people with disabilities who have not been assessed as disabled enough to receive disability-related benefits -- or even had a proper diagnosis. There are also people on disability-related benefits -- especially people with learning difficulties, learning disabilities, mental health problems and autistic spectrum conditions -- who have been effectively cheated out of the lifelong learning supports they require.
It would be interesting to compare spending on the Afghan War against the year-on-year "efficiency savings" upon "efficiency savings" that Gordon Brown as Chancellor inflicted on the social care budgets of UK local authorities. Gordon Brown recently boasted in Prime Minister's Question Time of continuing real terms 'defence' spending budget increases over the course of New Labour.
New Labour and Tory plans in welfare reform are making commodities of some of the poorest members of society. The privatisation of welfare is for the financial advantage of mercenary, bonus-guzzling companies such as Atos Medical Services, Unum, Serco and A4e, at the taxpayers' expense. For disabled people and carers, life in the market economy is more than taxing, anyway.
Meanwhile, the Green Party of England & Wales is working on pledges toward making disabled people's, carers' and older people's well-being into election issues.
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Find out more about the "Benefits and Work" campaign here.
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