irishmists story #spartacusstories #spartacusreport

I'm probably one of the few who don't 'do' Twitter-yet!! So maybe OK for me to say a few words here about DLA? - My son claims DLA, it supports him in employment, and to have access to a life. He has many additional expenses,including his adapted vehicle and his wheelchair, repairs and insurance for example. He lives near a train station, but it is not fully accessible so he can't use it.In order to live independently, he had to buy a property, as he needed to make extensive changes (overhead hoist,widening of corridors etc) which would not have been possible in a rented property. The waiting list for local authority housing was YEARS, and he'd been offered a job in the locality.....My husband claims DLA, he has a progressive condition. We spend much time indoors,and we have extra heating costs because he feels the cold, not moving much. We bought an adapted vehicle ourselves, from savings, without which we would be lost. My husband has an electric wheelchair which doesn't work well outdoors, is quite unsafe. We have a mobility scooter which we bought ourselves secondhand, and that is how we 'walk'to the town centre, there is no bus, and only one wheelchair accessible taxi in this town. As my husband has turned 65, we are worried that we may lose money which enables us to have some mobility.
I am so angry!!! Months and months of worry about all of this, and being for the most part denied the 'oxygen' of publicity from the mainstream media, in order that the general public may know the truth of the situation, and the Human Rights disaster which is unfolding in our midst. You feel like you want to go out into the street, any street, and yell 'WAKE UP', tell everyone what is happening here. Then I remember that we must be dignified and factual...so just off now to write many emails to the Labour and Crossbench Peers before tomorrow dawns...

Carer's With Attitude #spartacusstories #spartacusreport

Just back from a carers meeting where we 'discussed' the cuts. General feeling is a bit odd - they can't really believe all this is happening to their sons/daughters. There were odd sparks of anger, and a general feeling that we needed to do something to stop it. They want to speak to the managers and politicians directly but I think they're finding it hard to come to terms with the enormity of what these cuts mean for their own children.

When you go through the detailed cuts they say things like "... but they can't cut that, he won't be able to get to the doctors..." "... but that means he'll have to be with us all the time and I'm 73 ..." "... but she needs that to pay the rent, so how's she going to stay in her house ...". They're not really angry just yet - they don't really believe it. They (and me) can't believe how anyone could do this to a vulnerable, disabled person.


I know these cuts are real rationally, but when you're a carer, your horizons get pulled in and the circles you move in have lots of disabled people in them. They're your world, but outside, most people go to the pub or a football match or work, and there aren't lots of disabled people in their faces all the time. I mentioned Mobility Allowance to someone outside the 'disability world' recently and got the usual reaction - "most of them are scroungers who are just dodging work and cheating us out of our taxes - not your son of course - but most of them". Or another when the local cuts were mentioned "Well getting rid of a load of social workers has to be a good thing". But that isn't what these cuts are about. They're about locking up disabled people in their own homes and taking away the desperately needed care.

The real price of these cuts won't show until a few more carers commit suicide with their children and a few more learning disabled people are found starved in their homes because they didn't have the help to go out and buy food. Then the press will have a lot of 'Isn't this awful' headlines for a day before it goes back to covering the love cheat footballers.

This doesn't have to happen. We need to stop these cuts before they do any more damage. We carers need to get our heads out of the sand and start shouting. We need to stop being the silent, heroic martyrs the press and TV love to wheel out for a nice heartwarming end to the programme. We need to be Carers With Attitude.

Originally posted here  

 Originally posted as part of the One Month Before Heartbreak Campaign Jan, 2011