Sunday 15 January 2012

Conservative Manifesto 2010 - Disability & Care

Jobs and Welfare

Jobs and Welfare

"The Government believes that we need to encourage responsibility and fairness in the welfare system. That means providing help for those who cannot work, training and targeted support for those looking for work, but sanctions for those who turn down reasonable offers of work or training.
  • We will end all existing welfare to work programmes and create a single welfare to work programme to help all unemployed people get back into work.
  • We will ensure that Jobseeker's Allowance claimants facing the most significant barriers to work are referred to the new welfare to work programme immediately.
  • We will ensure that receipt of benefits for those able to work is conditional on their willingness to work.
  • We support the National Minimum Wage because of the protection it gives low income workers and the incentives to work it provides.
  • We will re-assess all current claimants of Incapacity Benefit for their readiness to work.
  • We will support would-be entrepreneurs through a new programme - Work for Yourself - which will give the unemployed access to business mentors and start-up loans.
  • We will develop local Work Clubs - places where unemployed people can gather to exchange skills, find opportunities, make contacts and provide mutual support.
  • We will investigate how to simplify the benefit system in order to improve incentives to work.

Social Care and Disability

The Government believes that people needing care deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. We understand the urgency of reforming the system of social care to provide much more control to individuals and their carers, and to ease the cost burden that they and their families face.
  • We will establish a commission on long-term care, to report within a year. The commission will consider a range of ideas, including both a voluntary insurance scheme to protect the assets of those who go into residential care, and a partnership scheme as proposed by Derek Wanless.
  • We will break down barriers between health and social care funding to incentivise preventative action.
  • We will extend the greater roll-out of personal budgets to give people and their carers more control and purchasing power.
  • We will reform Access to Work, so disabled people can apply for jobs with funding already secured for any adaptations and equipment they will need."


Quite apart from the appalling betrayal of carers highlighted in this afterthought of a manifesto entry, does anyone notice anything? Anything huge they forgot to mention? 

Oh yes, silly them. Not a peep about scrapping DLA and replacing it with PIP. Well, except this of course :

Conservatives have pledged to preserve Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance as cash benefits.”

Makes it sound like there's nothing to worry about doesn't it? 


14 comments:

  1. I believe that David Cameron does not see people who are on benefits as part of Society, Big or Small. His brain cannot process that.

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    Replies
    1. I believ that David Cameron doesn't see anyone he doesn't want to

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    2. Oh, he "sees" us"! But it's a reflection in one of those mirrors they used to have at carnivals. It doesn't look like us at all.

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  2. I wonder if a manifesto constitutes any sort of contract that you can sue if it's breached?

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  3. What a shame manifesto pledges aren't legally binding.

    Parties can promise anything in a manifesto, and as far as I know there's no requirement to carry out any of it, other than pressure placed on them by their MPs (& on them by the public).

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  4. Lies, damn lies and manifestos. How I wish this Coalition to be held to account for the myriad of lies they have made to the British public. We MUST hold them to account.

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  5. Hey wait a sec, this it just from the Conservative Manifesto. Need to look in the coalition booklet

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    1. Ok sorry my mistake, it IS from the coalition booklet.

      Sorry Suey

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    2. Just thought I'd add this too -

      Liberal Democrat Federal Constitution

      The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals, we acknowledge and respect their right to freedom of conscience and their right to develop their talents to the full. We aim to disperse power, to foster diversity and to nurture creativity. We believe that the role of the state is to enable all citizens to attain these ideals, to contribute fully to their communities and to take part in the decisions which affect their lives...we reject all prejudice and discrimination based upon race, colour, religion, age, disability, sex or sexual orientation and oppose all forms of entrenched privilege and inequality. Recognising that the quest for freedom and justice can never end, we promote human rights and open government, a sustainable economy which serves genuine need, public services of the highest quality...We are determined to strengthen the democratic process and ensure that there is a just and representative system of government with effective Parliamentary institutions, freedom of information...We support the widest possible distribution of wealth and promote the rights of all citizens to social provision and cultural activity. We seek to make public services responsive to the people they serve, to encourage variety and innovation within them and to make them available on equal terms to all...These are the conditions of liberty and social justice which it is the responsibility of each citizen and the duty of the state to protect and enlarge. The Liberal Democrats consist of women and men working together for the achievement of these aims.

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  6. Party Political Manifesto's = Bullshit

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  7. My MP, once the minister for disabled people in the last shadow cabinet, says that disabled people will be okay with this present government.

    Okay for what? the firing squad, the gas chambers .....?

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  8. Our (Tory)MP is being very quiet - we emailed him nearly a week ago re the Spartacus report, and asking for a response, but nothing yet. Not that surprised really - we met him for the first time after the Hardest Hit march, in Westminster Hall. Suffice to say we were amazingly underwhelmed. He kept on about how DLA claims had increased by 30% since whenever, and how GP's just waved people through on the nod, just to get rid of them. Maybe that's why we haven't had a reply, because facts in the Report get in the way of stories like that. Still, I'll bet he comes up with some kind of defensive answer..

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  9. wasn't it labour that came up with atos?

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  10. Our MP is slow too. Emailed about Coastguard campaign and she replied 3 months later after the GOV made their choice and just agreed with them.

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