Friday 15 April 2011

"Let's make disabled kids Pay" (Compassionate Conservatism)

"Cut, cut cut" Am I becoming white noise yet?

Has the shock worn off? Do you have cut fatigue?

Well, every now and then, one squeaks through the gaps, sickens me, fills me with disgust. Just when I think I've got to grips with the unremitting onslaught facing sick and disabled people, I hear something else that stops the noise for a moment or two as it lurches into view in all it's horrible glory.

This story in the Mirror :

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/04/13/government-slashes-benefits-for-disabled-children-115875-23057148/

points out that :

"the disability element of the child tax credit {has been} cut from a maximum £52 a week to just £25.95. 

Around 100,000 families could lose up to £1,366 a year - or more than £20,000 by the time their child reaches 16"

Disabled kids, bearing the brunt of deficit reduction. Nice. Just where everyone thought the cuts would fall eh? Just what we hoped a "Compassionate Conservative" government would do. Because obviously, "protecting the most vulnerable" was never supposed to apply to disabled children.

The 3rd May, just 3 days before the General Election seems a long, long time ago now doesn't it?

"But in making these decisions I will want to, if I am elected, take the whole country with me. I don't want to leave anyone behind. The test of a good society is you look after the elderly, the frail, the vulnerable, the poorest in our society."

David Cameron, 3rd May 2010

I wonder how much difference a loss of £26.05 a week would have made to his life when his family faced caring for a profoundly disabled child. Not much I suspect.



56 comments:

  1. it just gets worse sue and something is very wrong here

    You will find there are other changes in the pipeline that will be emerging over the next few weeks that have been buried in the small print of certain benefits and disabled children are definitely a good target for cuts as they cant even speak some of them

    This is very disturbing news indeed and needs a halt put on it by the head of the civil service along with the Courts in the EU and to bring this government down

    The sick and disabled had it bad in Germany under Hitler my German friend jurgen told me how his brother was taken away and gassed with the Jews as he was disabled so we need to be very mindful of the overall master plan of this conservative government

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  2. Your kids will be paying much much more than £26 if we keep borrowing and fail to take fiscal responsibility.

    The country MUST live within her means.

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  3. "But in making these decisions I will want to, if I am elected, take the whole country with me. I don't want to leave anyone behind. The test of a good society is you look after the elderly, the frail, the vulnerable, the poorest in our society."


    David Cameron, 3rd May 2010



    EVERY WORD THAT MAN SAID WAS A LIE! Thos Govt shoudl be thrown out immediately and things ALL things put back as they were until they get some ^*^king HUMANITY

    I am sickened by how evil this Govt are to all of the meekest in society and how they also protect those with millions - because they are EVIL!

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  4. Minus - I'm usually more constructive than this, but my fury is still too raw.

    TELL IT TO THE BANKERS.

    Do you REALLY think we should be starting with disabled kids? Really? £26 a week? £26 that means difference between dignity and indignity? Really?

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  5. Living within its means doesn't mean cutting everything from the bottom and hoping to kill of the people who "don't matter much". As has been pointed out many, MANY times there are other things which can be done, other alternatives as well, and this certainly isn't it. I'm appalled at this new measure and I am furious. Gods knows I've fought for ages to have to "prove" that my son was entitled to his High Rate Care, and I'm more than grateful for this tax creds as I doubt I could cope without. But I know many people with children on the ASD spectrum who will be knocked for six by this. Absolutely seething!

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  6. Oh dear - Godwin'd after only one comment! :)

    Sorry to play devil's advocate again, but according to that article, more families will be eligible for the higher rate. Whether a significant amount of extra children will be eligible for the higher rate of disability support, remains to be seen. (Seems it's only estimated to be about 17,000 - The Mirror's 100,000 figure is also based on estimates)

    So, they seem to be taking from the least disabled and giving it to the most disabled… some might call that "protecting the MOST vulnerable".

    For example, I wonder how many taxpayers would support reducing the amount a child with, say, ADHD (approx. 17,000 families) will receive and have that money given to children with severe visual impairment? (A disability now being included as severe and bought into the higher-paid category)

    I am not saying I approve, I just think that things need to be looked at from both sides of the fence before casting judgement and coming out with emotive, sensationalist statements. :)

    Plus, (I don't know this), is there any scope in the Universal Benefit shpeel that allows any shortfall to be regained? I doubt it, but just asking.

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  7. Supplementary Benefit was probably a Universal Credit system. Under a universal Supplementary Benefit, workers on Housing Benefit would have their rebates/allowances calculated on the long-term rate, rather than short-term rate as now.

    If this is such a good idea, why did the Tories abolish it in 1987, and why did Labour not bring in back between 1997 and 2010?

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  8. No, I'm sorry Kevin, run that by me again....

    Halving the maximum amount they pay helps the most vulnerable how? Because more kids are entitled to half as much??

    How do you decide who is "worthy" and who isn't? Will we use WCAs, cos they're working out just great? Maybe we'll let the Daily Mail decide, or ...I know...lets have a cripple lottery.

    I'm sorry, there are too many of these double accounting double speak, Cameroonianisms to keep on believing it.

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  9. Oh yeah and if you think this stuff is over emotive and sensationalist, you really want to try reading my email inbox. Message after message after message from people who just don't know how to go on.

    It's a bloody shameful disgrace and you haven't seen the start of it.

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  10. [QUOTE]It's a bloody shameful disgrace and you haven't seen the start of it.[/QUOTE]
    very true sue
    The only way that you can bring about a positive overhaul to the benefits system is to find an mp or lord who has had first hand knowledge of being long term sick or disabled like myself who cant get out much but has a life time experience so that the changes made would be not only positive but easily understood by all concerned and fully supported by the whole country

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  11. NOTHING in that article says more children will be eligible for the "higher rate" Kevin.

    That would be the "higher rate" that is now half as much?

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  12. Sounds like a BIG disgrace on your govt's behalf to me. In australia, those who care for the disabled be it children OR adults, are entitled to carers allowance and carers payment... both of which are supplied by the government to help those who need help, in helping others. somerthing to think about perhaps?!?

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  13. "I wonder how many taxpayers would support reducing the amount a child with, say, ADHD (approx. 17,000 families) will receive and have that money given to children with severe visual impairment?"

    I wonder how many non-disabled people understand how dangerous and just plain wrong a hierarchy of disability is? If you don't know why that is I've a post explaining here: http://dwgism.livejournal.com/6978.html

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  14. MINUS: See http://eoin-clarke.blogspot.com/2011/04/ten-economic-facts-that-every-person.html?spref=fb before ranting about fiscal policy.

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  15. The speech made by Dr martin Luther king is just as relevant today as it was back in the sixties in that the government seeks to punish financially the vulnerable in our society

    If we could relive this speech on behalf of the vulnerable by someone who can look and sound the part in Hyde park then we would then see a change but until this speech can be delivered convincingly then the government will just carry on as they have


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

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  16. As I said - suddenly ADHD/ASD is now just "naughty children" and that money should go to the More Deserving Poor who have more physical disabilities.

    Sensationalist? Swivel - I don't have time to be distant and clinical about this; it applies to too many people I know. It's a hairsbreath from applying to me and my son, and I'll be as motherf*cking emotional as I like about that, thanks.

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  17. Why punish vulnerable children for the acts of reckless investment bankers.

    In the 20's and 30's these arseholes had the decency to take their own lives but now they parade around like untouchable peacocks while children who had nothing to do with their crimes suffer.

    It makes me fucking sick to the stomach. It makes me wish I could do more to stop them destroying what little spirit struggling families have.

    When I read things like this, even with the potential for spin on the articles, it makes me understand the violent protests and wish I ha the ability to join in.

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  18. Sue, apparently 17,000 additional families will benefit from the higher rate, which has increased by just over a pound. ie: Children with severe visual impairment that were receiving £52 will now receive the higher rate of £73. It is mentioned in the Mirror link: "We have also increased the number of children eligible for the higher rate of disability support"

    I don't decide who is worthy of benefits and I don't decide a "hierarchy" of disability, as DavidG said. The Government has criteria on what is a disability and, further to that, they define what is a severe disability.

    For example, you know as well as I do how debilitating IBDs can be - and the meds that are used to treat them, but is that classed as a disability? No. So are we undeserving? Let's ask the Government and see if we fall above or below their definition of 'disabled'… yes, we are undeserving.

    I personally think that if you have to cut, you prioritise and cut from the bottom, upwards… and I would have thought that helping the parents with disabled children would be pretty near the top!
    Having said that, I look around see loads of pointless crap, paid for during Labour's spending binge that I think could have been better spent further up that list of priorities… it doesn't excuse this particular cut, but just pointing out that both sides are as bad as each other with our money. ;)

    As for sensationalist, I don't think you can be more sensationalist than comparing the situation with Nazi Germany, as what I was referring to with the "Godwin" line… ;)

    Regarding ADHD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12359070

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  19. Kevin
    i was not referring to your goodwin line i was just making a statement from the past and that my friend is still alive and has to re live it and is a fact

    History can and does repeat itself in many parts of the world and the uk is no different just more subtle in bringing about change to vulnerable groups of people and to target them and to make their already difficult lives a misery

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  20. There is a baroness Masham who i believe is disabled who i did speak to last year about the treatment i reveived at my WCA, I got through to her via house of lords

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  21. Also another point Kevin the government and the DWP can destroy vulnerable people like they are doing at this time with the way they work behind the scenes to just attack those that may not be able to fight or communicate back you don't have to gas them to still be effective in destroying them

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  22. sue as your blog is very popular have you managed to get any mp or lord to read it ?

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  23. it is astounding that we are living through such unkind times and how people justify things....read this link before I saw this one...think you may find it interesting...

    http://addictinginfo.org/filthyliberalscum/2011/01/04/ayn-rand-and-the-sociopathic-society-or-%E2%80%9Chow-i-learned-to-stop-loving-my-neighbor-and-despise-them-instead-%E2%80%9D/

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  24. The Nasty Party is well and truly back!!!

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  25. I do believe I may have fourbanks, but I'll say no more ;)

    Kevin - Where did you get the 17,000 figure from?

    You really want to split hairs over THIS? An extra pound a week? yet 100,000 children will have their payment halved?

    As I can't verify the 17,000 figure, I'm afraid I shan't believe it yet. Time and time again I've heard these so called increases, but it always hides cuts somewhere else. Show me a link and I'll take a look.

    I find it totally (sorry to say this) sickening that anyone even bothers to try to justify ANY cuts to disabled children. If you had the first CLUE what parents have to go through to get their children statemented you might think twice. Yet again, it is basically an underlying assumption that (shhh, whisper it) most are just trying it on/pushy parents/made-up disabilities.

    I suppose they have to find some way to sleep at night, so it's easier to claim a hierarchy of worth than look to save money in other areas.

    I'm fairly confident that when ministers claimed they would protect the most vulnerable, people assumed they meant the sick, poor, disabled, elderly, homeless and weak.

    I don't think for one tiny minute that they thought it meant "we'll protect those with 6 months to live, but only if they have their chemo as an infusion not a tablet" for instance. That level of hair splitting shames me.

    If as you say, 17,000 extra children will qualify for the higher rate (I'm snorting with disbelief just writing it) then do you HONESTLY argue that that means it's OK to ignore the 100,000 who will see their support halved?

    Don't forget, it's not just the tax credits - it's the care packages, the special schooling, the hospices, the NHS care, DLA if the child stays in hospital will be stopped and on and on and on.

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  26. I do believe I may have fourbanks, but I'll say no more ;)

    That's good to hear sue :)

    Just getting myself to read your blog is no mean feat being from the bank of England i do find this very distressing that i can tell you and I just hope to god the mp that is reading this see’s that this government is just plain evil and takes the necessary action in the EU and get these overhauls to the benefit system stopped. We are a very diverse group here and that's important

    I myself with my loss of liberty for one would like restored and there must be others who are week and are targeted that need help that’s for sure

    To attack the likes of myself from the establishment the bank of England then that in itself just goes to show how underhand this government is but to target children sick or not is way below the belt and every effort must be made to get this government thrown out and prosecuted for all deaths that have taken place through worry and persecution since they come to power just over a year ago

    If my life has been a hell then there surely must be others out their suffering in silence

    My daughter is off to university in September studying international politics so we must all pray to god she does well as she is a most wonderful caring thoughtful daughter and I have high hopes that she will do well and that her generation will bring about the right balanced changes for the future which is just and fair for all where the vulnerable have the loudest voice and not like we have now the weakest

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  27. My daughter BTW with her 3 A star grades rejected oxford university for Cardiff university which i think Say's a lot about her character

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  28. I am astounded by the Inhumanity of this Govt - They all send back the same crao cut n pasted to any correspondance - Its a waste of time - Seems not even one MP has a hear or any humanity for if they did They would all stand up and walk out in respect of the people - But all they are interested in is themselves.

    They are all sick nasty evil inhuman baskets

    And if i were a conservascum Mo i would quit because i would be unable to live with myself being connected with such inhumanity to the disabled and to children

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  29. [QUOTE]sue marsh
    I'm fairly confident that when ministers claimed they would protect the most vulnerable, people assumed they meant the sick, poor, disabled, elderly, homeless and weak.

    I don't think for one tiny minute that they thought it meant "we'll protect those with 6 months to live, but only if they have their chemo as an infusion not a tablet" for instance. That level of hair splitting shames me.[/QUOTE]
    I think everyone thought the same sue as there was no indication whatsoever in the DVD recording i have of anything different but when you look at the recording you could see how very desperate he was to get into power
    So we have an elitist government from Oxford and Boris Johnson running London The Bullingdon Club boys they were a menace to local society then and today there a menace to everyone

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club

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  30. Minus,

    Government borrowing isn't simply a matter of living beyond your means. It just doesn't work like that. And no, we are in no way on the brink of bankruptcy:

    http://www.tmmblog.co.uk/?p=1627

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  31. Private sector worker

    As usual a lot of people here just cannot grasp the economic reality in which this country finds itself. Yes there is a major crisis in banking thanks to Labour's failure to regulate them properly. However, the main source of our economic problem is that, at the point in our history when tax receipts were higher than ever before, at the height of a `boom', we were, as a country spending more than we earned.

    Many people here simply cannot grasp the implications of that deficit. Most countries have a National Debt, but we also have a structural deficit.

    If you want to slam bankers, then insist they remove their business from this country and go elsewhere. But then start thinking about where this country will make up the revenue.

    Amazing that Sue Marsh who is so ill, manages to spend hours and hours researching, surfing the internet, blogging, complaining, e mailing, organising petitions, and not one single hour working towards getting this country out of the horrible economic mess we have drifted into.

    I work a 45+ week, and my husband, running a business 60 hours. No sympathy from many of you lot for that. Why not devote a bit of time to positive action for the country, rather than constant negative whining?

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  32. Ha ha ha ha ha! No positive action?! Do your research.

    Well done as always, Sue, for pointing out the essentials of the situation. Extreme deregulated capitalism will always create bubbles, which will always burst and bring some level of destruction. Perhaps we on this blog are more interested in achieving a decent, rather than inflated, standard of living than in trying to repair the damage done by consumption-chasers.

    Oh and incidentally, my father works 10 hours a day 7 days a week, and he's as disgusted as I am by the psychopathic attitude of this Government. As is my best friend with a full-time job and full-time uni course, working herself into the ground. It's not tribalism, it's humanity, or lack of it.

    I'm sick of this shit. And I know I shouldn't feed trolls, but sometimes one just has to let it all out.

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  33. We are constantlly being told 'there is no alternative' yet money can be found to go and drop bombs against Gaddafi. That's not cheap, is it? But there's always money when they want it.

    Seems to me this government are letting us know where their priorities lie...

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  34. [QUOTE]Anonymous said...

    Private sector worker[/QUOTE]

    Whatever the reasons you have in government for saving money you should never involve the sick or disabled that is morally wrong at any time
    It is the equivalent of a once so called decent person who becomes a pedophile and says to the judge i only sexually abused young children because my wife has died

    As is both instances above there are things you don't do in life and one of them is the government not acting like a low life scum and using vulnerable people to abuse and blame for the so called mess were in

    You know if this was in the middle east and i was the king of Saudi and the opposition party had this government's mental attitude with regards the sick and disabled i would have them all executed that i do know as you don't need scum government's like this in the world who only target the weakest

    For any normal worker who has to live knowing that this is going on will also feel just as bad and upset and if your not your not human and you should work oversees with all the other selfish greedy people of the world

    So just to recap there is no excuse whatsoever in this government victimizing vulnerable people be they young or old there never has been and there never will be and i hope i make myself loud and clear on the matter

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  35. Private sector worker

    As usual on this site, lots of complaining but not one single viable suggestion of how the country pulls itself away from the edge of the economic cliff.

    No doubt the usual unworkable `tax the rich' suggestion will be rolled out - ignoring that we have one of the highest rates of taxation on `the rich', in the world. So it would have to come down to the usual solution - tax the ordinary working people more. The selfish solution - expect working people to work longer hours, retire at 70, take on overtime to make ends meet, in order to sustain the current welfare state - the area of government spending that has grown out of all proportion to the country's ability to fund.

    We have the largest number of people on invalidity or disabilty benefit in the modern world. How has that happened? Either the NHS is a massively failing organisation, or we are a nation which is genetically weak, or we just have quite a few people who shouldn't be receiving those benefits. We also have the highest number of children classed as having attention deficit disorder and entitling their parents to welfare payments - why is that? It's virtually unheard of in other European countries.

    No solutions are offered by anyone on this site for how we continue to fund such high welfare payouts. It comes down to this - the country keeps borrowing to fund such spending, and ends up having austerity measures far worse than currently proposed, imposed upon it from outside. We raise standard rate taxes and force ordinary working people to work harder and longer for less, or, we try to tackle the situation before it tackles us.

    As to Sue Marsh's interpretation of the article - it's just the usual wilful misreading and misunderstanding of what is proposed, for political purposes.

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  36. Private Sector Worker - I gave you lots of solutions the last time you commented here.

    What happened to me could happen to anyone - even, God forbid, you. We ALL face the possibility that sickness or disability will find us one day and our lives will change forever.

    Just like other disabled people, I decided I had nothing else to lose. Yes, I spend (more than your paltry 45 hours a week - lightweight) trying to ensure that should that day ever come, you, Private Sector Worker, would be able to live with a little dignity.

    It nearly kills me to do this some days, how do you feel after a week at work? Absolutely nothing like I do after a week of, as you say, researching, writing and reading whilst vomiting over a bowl or writhing in pain, but I do it for you and people like you. For your friends, your children and your family.

    Some things matter very much. Helping people into work is a noble aim. Forcing or bullying them won't achieve a thing. You can decide I'm just a rabid anti-cuts tribalist, but, if one day, after all your years and years of hard work (as I worked for many years) you found that your heart or kidney or lungs failed, I imagine you would hope there was treatment for you, help to recover your health and support while you did so.)

    I'll cope with a bit of verbal abuse if it means that I protect the basic rights to dignity of those who cannot fight for themselves. One COULD say I was the very epitome of the Big Society - who'll do the Big Society thing if not for workshy crips like me?

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  37. oh yes, and your "economic cliff edge" is a con. I could post chart after chart showing you it is a con, but you wouldn't believe them .

    Do you ever wonder why George Osborne only ever talks about deficit not debt? Do you ever wonder why he'actually going to spend MORE than Lab did over the term of this parliament? Why, taking into account inflation, John Major passed on much more debt than Labour?

    Even forgetting all of that, the ONLY thing that can shrink the deficit you profess to care so much about is growth. 20 Billion of that deficit was reduced under Alastair Darling and Brown's stimulus measures. Just 7 billion has reduced since Osborne took over.

    Cuts to cancer patients and dying children won't reduce your precious deficit, higher tax receipts will though. Lower unemployment will.

    Debt is projected to be HIGHER under Osborne than under Labour. Wake up and smell the capitalist coffee.

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  38. Your view point Private sector worker is a good question in itself but that doesn't mean that the vulnerable should be involved in rectifying the countries financial mess

    You sound like a captain of a ship who is going to bail out with the women and children instead of staying to the end and going down with the ship like an honorable person

    There are many people in this country who have great wealth who have not worked in the sense of work having worked very little and that includes many members on the front bench of this conservative government

    All of these people should be paying vastly more tax to tide the country over and if they did it would take pressure off the vulnerable

    Why aren't they i hear you say ? it's because by and large there just greedy and selfish nothing more they think I'll just keep adding to the money pot without a thought for anyone else

    Take bill gates for example with 50 billion he now is wasting vasts sums of that money in trying to eradicate malaria of which he wont succeed in so he for one should have been heavily taxed so that he couldn't waste money he does do other small projects and that is good but overall he wastes a lot as do most millionaires and that is be frowned upon especially as we have in this country despite benefits which are very modest at best people still living in poverty

    People who don't work are all on the breadline and that's a fact if anyone says or implies different they are a lying full stop as i know all of the rates of all of the benefits and am fully qualified to pass judgment

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  39. well its finally happened the disgust we feel at the coalition. i for one feel sick to the stomache everytime i hear, see or listen to that shameless crap they come out with. People may well feel there is no purpose to carry on when the cuts start to bite and that may well topple the coalition, its like a road when enough people have died we will put speed bumps in thats as good as it gets. Myself with the drugs i take to control the disease lessens my life by about 7-10 yrs so im told but what if life is just not worth living because you have no money to live it

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  40. have to agree what is the big picture here where does it end. My mom said to me more than once the cons are a disgusting party son nothing they do will benefit anyone but themselves and the rich what ever you do never vote for them. Those words have stuck with me for almost 30yrs. Its time for the people of this beautiful country disabled / non disabled to stand together and rid this virus

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  41. Apart from generally distrusting anything that comes from the Mirror, I really have no defence for this one. It's plain awful. A deeply shameful situation.

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  42. Stephen Wigmore - Awww, you always pop up to remind me that we really ARE all in this together. Very few people of either political perspective want this kind of cut.

    I really don't care about the "small print" in this instance - halving support for sick or disabled kids is just a step too far.

    Shall we set up a cross party group?

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  43. Private sector worker

    Sue, once again you SAY you have put forward ideas for growth, but checking through I can't see a single one. I am in no way wishing to take anything away from the `sick and vulnerable' but we have to be honest and say that not all those people currently receiving disability or invalidity benefit are genuine cases. If they are, as I have pointed out, we must be the sickest most feeble nation in the modern world, as our rates apparently exceed those of every other country.

    I would in fact give more to those genuinely in need of help, but we have to face up to the fact that there has been widespread abuse of the welfare system which has to be sorted out.

    As for your vomiting and pain, thanks for pointing that out. As a lifetime diabetic and cancer survivor I really do know pain, but unlike you I prefer not to go on about it all the time, and have managed to work throughout my life, with minimum disruption for sick leave, something which I find has helped pyschologically.

    On the economy, the old maxim holds true `after the feast, the reckoning'. We have feasted recklessly and without thought for the future. Coming back into the UK last week I asked myself `where did the money go?'. A scruffy down at heel country with dreadful roads and infrastructure. The money has been blown on needless admin and bureaucracy, failed projects and a ballooning welfare state.

    The generations of young people to come, may well grow to resent our recklessness and selfishness. You encourage protest against the current `cuts', but I foresee a situation where the young will protest violently about the tax burden placed upon them, by selfish older generations.

    Personally I would rather take the pain now and get this over with, rather than the slow slide into a failing country.

    Halving support for sick or disabled kids - you read it in the Mirror, that great investigative tabloid? Stick to the facts not your fantasy world.

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  44. Private Sector Worker....'As usual on this site, lots of complaining but not one single viable suggestion of how the country pulls itself away from the edge of the economic cliff'.

    If we were really on the edge of the economic cliff I doubt this government would be quite so ready to go and bomb Libya, would it? I mean, military action doesn't come cheap, and 'there is no alternative' but the Government can always find the means to go to war.

    As for your comment about Sue 'going on about' pain... remember there is no moral high ground when it comes to pain, and you do yourself a disservice when you try and claim that position.

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  45. yell in the dark is right everyone deals with their pain the best they can some make it and some don't
    If someones not working theirs a reason for it in most cases as to live on benefits is not a viable long tern panacea that some may think it is

    A fit person who is not working is not fit but very depressed if he is not working it is not normal to stay at home and only a sick or disabled person can do so as their body has adapted to do so in order to protect them which is completely outside of their control
    Extreme tiredness for one dizziness on standing up nauseous and sickness every day i could go on ?

    private sector worker glad to hear you have recovered from cancer so you know yourself just how bad feeling and vomiting is more then anyone

    I have an old friend who went down with cancer and it was the vomiting that he couldn't take and was on the verge of committing suicide but prior to his illness he couldn't understand sick people he thought we were all a con well he does now understand that's for sure

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  46. I wonder how long it will be before "Red Ed" offers his full support for this during Prime Minister's question time.

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  47. I'm glad I'm doing my little bit to maintain your faith in humanity Sue. :)

    We definitely need a cross-party campaign and wide consensus to reverse these cuts. Some actual interest by the media might help as well.

    I man can dream. . .

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  48. this is the dream Steve with me it's not about the money it's my liberty i have lost having to be told what i can and cant do by the DWP always coming round my house and picking things over then to be told that you owe them £5500 because they have overpaid you and it goes on and on year after year with no end in sight sucking my mp's valuable time month in month out

    yes i have a dream this one (lol)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

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  49. To add insult to injury David Cameron claimed DLA for his deceased disabled son Ivan even though he was and still is a Multi- Millionaire.

    Just the sight of Cameron on TV or the sound of his voice on the radio makes me feel physically sick, and "Red Ed's" support for his persecution of the most vulnerable in our society is abhorent and cowardly.

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  50. If his son was still alive things may very well be different as it would have been extremely difficult for him to keep abusing the sick and disabled with cuts and DWP assessments as his son would also be sucked in to the atos regime
    Or probably not as he would have been the prime ministers son he would have got off Scott free

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  51. As an aside, Rhydian from TBofB brought up a point which I had honestly never considered, but which does maybe shed some frightening light on the issue: Cameron's son was a very disabled child who died much too young, agreed, and I doubt he's unsympathetic to disability as a result. However (and again, I'd never thought of it this way) Cameron's idea of disability may well be that it has to be as physically debilitating as it was for his son, or it's just not THAT bad. Kids who can walk, for example, may be not THAT disabled in his mind, even though I can heartily assure people that my son being mobile is sometimes more a curse than a blessing, especially when he shows no sense of danger and runs out in front of a lorry.

    It's a rather shocking epiphany that we may be all held by the "most vulnerable" benchmark of being extremely disabled, and ONLY that counts as "truly disabled". It also assumes that medicine can diagnose and treat all the other ailments out there and therefore if you have treatment, you're fine. But the truth is many diseases are often completely undiagnosed until much too late, or maybe not even then. You can still be disabled and die from an illness that no GP or specialist could diagnose - and therefore, have received no DLA or care plan at all.

    It's a shocking state of affairs and I am certainly getting rather irate about this and banging the drum in my local constituency - especially as a very expensive "City Centre Revitalisation Programme" is being implemented here without any input from people who actually live here; they're finding all this funding to prettify the place but at the same time care and council housing is being slashed. Hmmmmm

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  52. Nice post Oya's a very good analyses

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  53. What I find most worrying of all is that even the disabled and sick are being encouraged to play the 'I'm more disabled than you are' game. There is no heirarchy of disability. There are different disabilities, yes, some affect the mind, some the body, some affect both. Some are visible and some are not.

    Just because I am still working at the moment does NOT mean that someone else with the same condition could also work. Nor does it mean I will still be working this time next month/year. It just means that for the moment at least, I am trying to cope.

    And when I can no longer cope, I would really really appreciate some help... not charity.

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  54. carol/liverpoolloon/twitter18 April 2011 at 10:08

    i am so shocked at the continuing attitudes towards ADHD. My son is only one not thousands so i can only speak for him but he had a brain haeomorrhage at birth. we were told he wouldnt walk or talk ( which he did) but he had severe behaviour problems instead including ADHD conduct disorder, and aspergers. Do you think i make this up? do you think hes malingering? does his disability not count as its invisible? he cannot function in normal civilised society despite any intervention, frankly he would get more sympathy if he was in a wheelchair as it is he is treated like a leper and most people assume he was dragged up by a feckless inadequate parent. to those who mock children with mental health problems as undeserving or faking it It makes me cry thanks

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  55. Rhydian makes an intersting point, but I think Cameron loved his son and cared about him, but couldn't give a fuck about other people's disabled and sick children. That is what Conservatism is all about "I care about me and mine and everyone else can go to hell I don't care not my problem".

    Deplorably Cameron didn't mind invoking his dead son to con people into believing him when he said he wouldn't do any top down reorganisations of the NHS.

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  56. [QUOTE]Anonymous said...

    Rhydian makes an intersting point, but I think Cameron loved his son and cared about him, but couldn't give a fuck about other people's disabled and sick children. That is what Conservatism is all about "I care about me and mine and everyone else can go to hell I don't care not my problem".

    Deplorably Cameron didn't mind invoking his dead son to con people into believing him when he said he wouldn't do any top down reorganisations of the NHS.[/QUOTE]

    I think you have hit the nail on the head. Conservatives with money have always only ever looked after themselves a bit like the royal family yes it is a bad trait and cant see it changing. There emphasis is always on money never warmth or love for others very sad

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