Aspire campaigns
Tuesday, 7 April 2015
New Aspire Blog
The Aspire blog is now integrated with the new Aspire website. You can find the new blog by clicking here.
Tuesday, 8 July 2014
Tell the government about your experiences with PIP
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was introduced in April
2013. It is the new disability benefit that will eventually replace Disability
Living Allowance (DLA). Those newly seeking support today will now be applying
for support through PIP rather than Disability Living Allowance.
One year on since implementation, the Government has
convened an independent panel to seek feedback on people’s experiences of the
benefit. Aspire would like anyone who has applied for PIP to be a part of this
process and make sure that they complete the survey linked below. The
contribution you make will help the independent panel to make recommendations
on what the government should do to improve things.
Take part in the consultation by clicking on this link http://survey.dwp.gov.uk/index.php?sid=63591&lang=en
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
Guest Blog post: My Accessible EU
Aspire was
excited to learn about a new crowd sourced project called My Accessible EU. We
met Barbara Brayshay who has written the blogpost below to explain what the
project is all about and how you can get involved.
At some time in their lives most people will
experience limitations to their mobility, either temporarily or permanently as
a result of long term or temporary impairment.
Parents with children in pushchairs, older people and wheelchair users
are all vulnerable to the negative effects of poor accessibility as they go
about their daily lives.
My Accessible EU is a
new EU funded project that aims to help make Europe more accessible for everyone.
We want to hear about your experiences
with accessibility in your daily life, be they good or bad. Tell us about your
most positive and or your most negative experience and let us know how these
experiences affected you. We would love to hear your recommendations on how to
improve accessibility and your ideas for best case scenarios. Based on your input we will make
recommendations for solutions for eliminating existing barriers. The
MyAccessible.EU project gives us the opportunity to make our voices heard, to
address the right people and make those people aware of the need for
accessibility.
Please share
your thoughts and any ideas for solutions on the My Accessible EU blog or email info@mappingforchange.org.uk
Find out more about MyAccessibleEU
see the video at http://vimeo.com/9854036
Thursday, 15 May 2014
Contact your MEPs and candidates about the European Accessibility Act
In the lead up to the European elections, Aspire is
gathering momentum and seeking commitment from MEPs and candidates to support
the European Accessibility Act.
You can read our full policy document on the issue here LINK
Accessible products empower disabled people to live
independently. At the moment, disabled people are cut off from even accessing
basic goods and services. For example, more government services such as renewing
vehicle excise duty and welfare benefits claims are moving online. It is
important that disabled people are able to access these services independently
and that technology used empowers them to be independent.
The European Disability Strategy, adopted in November 2010,
centres on Accessibility and has a goal to make goods and services accessible
to disabled people and promote the market of assistive devices. The Strategy
committed the European Union to consider the proposal of an European
Accessibility Act by 2012.
Within the scope of this Act, it was envisaged that specific
standards would be developed to ‘substantially improve the proper functioning
of the EU market for accessible products and services.’
The Act would focus around technological goods and services
procured in the European Union by public bodies. Companies that wanted to
supply to this market would have to ensure that they consider the accessibility
of their products. Companies will know that when they are developing products,
not considering the needs of disabled people will harm their chances to supply
to public bodies in the European Union.
We’d be grateful if you could also contribute to the campaign and contact
your MEPs about this issue. Make the most of any contact you have with
candidates and Members of European Parliament and ask them for their support
for this worthy cause. MEPs are elected representatives and it is important
that they are held to account and also that they use their influence to help
make positive change for disabled people.
We have compiled a step-by-step guide on contacting your MEP
which you can follow here LINK
Remember to forward your replies to krupesh.hirani@aspire.org.uk
Aspire will be following this up with successful candidates
after the European Elections on Thursday May 22nd 2014.
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
More disabled people should be exempted from the Social Sector Size Criteria
The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee has
published a report
looking into Support for Housing Costs in
the Reformed Welfare System.
We draw particular attention to the section on what the
report describes as the Social Sector Size Criteria (SSAC). More commonly, this
is known as the Bedroom Tax and in Government publications, the Department for
Work and Pensions and Coalition MPs refer to it as the spare room subsidy.
Regardless of what it is called, we were shocked at some of
the regional differences in the impact of the policy shown in the report. The
evidence gathered in the report estimated that 60 to 70% of households affected
in England have a disabled tenant and 80% of affected households in Scotland
have a disabled tenant. It is particularly distressing to
hear that 4 out of 5 households affected in Scotland are tenanted by a disabled
person.
The report says ‘We
are deeply concerned that the policy is causing severe financial hardship and
distress to people with disabilities, many of whom will not be easily able to
move.’
Particular attention was drawn to the estimated 100,000
households around the country affected where the property was adapted
specifically to accommodate the needs of a disabled person.
The report recommends that the government should exempt
households where a disabled person receives the higher rate of mobility or care
component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA), and its Personal Independence
Payment (PIP) equivalent. Aspire has consistently called for people who receive
DLA or PIP to be exempt from SSSC.
At the very least, Aspire believes the government should
follow the recommendations made in this House of Commons Committee report.
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Aspire welcomes interdepartmental approach to looking at issues affecting disabled people
Disability Rights UK has reported that the Minister for
Disabled People, Rt Hon Mike Penning MP, will
chair an interdepartmental group to address issues affecting disabled
people across different government departments. Aspire welcomes this development.
In the past, Aspire has written to Ministers expressing our
disappointment on decisions made by other Departments that have had a negative
impact on disabled people. A specific example included when a wheelchair
service changed their eligibility criteria to restrict supply of powered
wheelchairs to people who were receiving higher rate Disability Living
Allowance mobility payments. The response we received from the Minister at the
time said that it was a matter for the Department of Health as they were
responsible overall for wheelchair provision.
Our Policy and Research Officer recently asked the Minister
Mike Penning how he saw his role as a Minister and whether he would reach out
to other departments to tackle issues that affected disabled people where responsibility
was in other government departments. The response was positive and at the time,
the Minister did say that such a group would emerge in the pipeline.
We hope that this way of working will mean that the Minister
for Disabled People has more strategic oversight on how policies affect
disabled people across the board.
There is still room for improvement. Greater involvement
from the Prime Minister and secretary of states would signal that this is of
greater importance and show that it is high on the agenda of government.
However, on the whole, it is a very positive start and Aspire hopes the group
will address cross departmental issues and that this has a positive impact on
policy development.
Thursday, 27 February 2014
Personal Independence Payment delays causing unnecessary hardship
Aspire is concerned with the roll out of the new Personal
Independence Payment benefit and the hardship that delays in the system are
causing to people with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). This is of particular concern
to those who have been newly injured and are having to wait for months before
they received their Personal Independence Payment entitlements. The catalogue
of errors and delays experienced by Steve who sustained a Spinal Cord Injury in
2013 is something we believe no one should experience.
On 29th June 2013, while Steve was still a
patient at the NHS Spinal Cord Injury Centre in Sheffield, he completed part I
of his Personal Independence Payment claim. He received his first PIP payment
on 5th December 2013. What Steve experienced during this time period
is unacceptable.
First of all, Steve felt that the form was incredibly
difficult to complete.
“With the amount of information that they ask for, in a lot of places,
it feels like an attempt to try and catch you out.”
Secondly, Steve was given dates for potential assessments
that Capita were unable to commit to themselves. On one occasion, the assessor
did not turn up at the arranged time. When Steve phoned the Capita advice line,
he was told that his assessment had been cancelled. Unfortunately, they had failed
to tell Steve this.
When the Assessor did turn up, there was a computer error
and they were unable to access any files that Steve had sent as part of his
claim.
“The whole process was unnecessarily bureaucratic. It was a concerning
time for me… absolutely unbearable. Missing appointments, not letting me know.
It is a totally inadequate service.”
Steve received help from his Member of Parliament and Aspire
was there to help every step of the way. He was able to fight his corner and
raise the issue on Capita’s agenda to the extent that senior staff at the
organisation’s PIP operation took action. We know that Steve is not alone. We
are even more concerned about people who are going through the system without
adequate support who do not raise their voices loud enough.
We accept that where people do successfully receive
entitlements, payments are backdated. However, the financial impact that this
has on people, especially at a time when they most need additional income to
meet costs after having a life changing injury, is devastating. It hinders
people’s ability to get on with their lives and be more independent. In one
case, Aspire found someone wearing jumpers and gloves in their own home because
of the financial difficulty they were facing following their injury.
Furthermore, we are concerned with the contractors’ ability
to cope when reassessments are rolled out on a national scale. The government
expects all DLA claimants to have been invited on to Personal Independence
Payments by September 2017. With 3.3 million people receiving DLA, this
requires on average 825,000 assessments a year, or 16,000 assessments a week,
or 3,200 assessments a day. This does not even include new people entering the
system.
With so many people affected, it is no surprise that the
government had to rethink their approach last year and introduce a more phased
reassessment timetable.
As people are going through the process for the new benefit,
we are already receiving feedback from people and having to make
representations on their behalf to the Department for Work and Pensions and the
assessment providers. Indeed our introduction of a new Welfare Benefits Advice
Service is testament to the additional support we anticipate we will have to
provide to people with SCI as a result of multiple benefit changes.
If you have Spinal Cord Injury and are experiencing any
problems with any welfare benefits issues, contact Aspire’s new Welfare Benefits
Advice Service on 020 8420 6711 or email welfarebenefits@aspire.org.uk
(*Steve is not the individual's real name)
(*Steve is not the individual's real name)
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