New Aspire Blog

The Aspire blog is now integrated with the new Aspire website. You can find the new blog by clicking here.

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

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 

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 22^nd 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.  

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. 

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 29^th 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 5^th 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) 

Aspire meets Shadow Minister

Last week, Aspire met Kate Green MP, the Shadow Minister for Disabled People, to talk about the work of the Charity and also raise our concerns about the rollout of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Benefit. PIP is the new benefit that is due to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

Kate only recently became the Shadow Minister towards the end of 2013 and this was the first time that we had an opportunity to directly speak to the Shadow Minister. Kate has an impressive background in the charity sector. Before she became a Member of Parliament, she was the Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group.

She showed particular interest in Aspire’s Housing Programme and how we worked with NHS Spinal Cord Injury Centres to offer temporary housing to newly injured patients who had no access to accessible housing after being paralysed. The fact that 20% of people with SCI are discharged to nursinghomes is a shocking statistic and Kate thought so too.

Kate was happy to work with Aspire to raise the issues that were affecting people with Spinal Cord Injuries. We raised our concerns about the new Personal Independence Payment benefit as people have already started coming to Aspire because of delays throughout the whole system. Kate will be raising these issues in Parliament when the opportunity arises.

Aspire will continue working to influence all political parties on behalf of the 40,000 people with SCI in the UK and ensure that that their experiences and views are represented in the process. This is a crucial time to be speaking to Parties who are beginning to shape their offering to the electorate in the lead up to the 2015 General Elections.  

Boro Taxi saga shows there is still a long way to go to change attitudes towards disabled people

Quite often a story comes to our attention which leaves us gobsmacked. Guilty this time around is Boro Taxis. Teeside’s biggest taxi firm has said that they will no longer take disabled passengers.

It all snowballed after Middlesbrough Council received complaints from wheelchair users that they were being charged more by private hire taxi firms.

The official Council Licensing Committee paper which reported on the issue said,

Wheelchair users are being charged up to twice the price of their able-bodied counterparts as a direct consequence of their disability.

The Council decided to take a collaborative approach. Under the ‘Actions to take’ section of their report, they said,

Given the Authority’s consistent wish to work with the trade wherever possible and appropriate, the comparative complexity of the legislation and the apparently widespread level non-compliance, it was determined to address this issue on an advisory basis. As a result, a letter outlining Operators’ obligations and how to comply with them has been sent to the relevant businesses engaged in the sector.

The letter addressed to Members of the Trade in the Borough read,

We are aware that confusion may have been caused by the fact that the specific provisions of the Equality Act 2010 pertaining to hackney carriages and private hire vehicles have not been implemented so I am writing to all Operators to raise awareness of this issue and reiterate that the general provisions under Section 29 of the Equality Act still apply.  As a result I request that you do not impose additional charges in these circumstances. 

Please note that if we receive any evidence in future that additional charges are being levied for the use of wheelchair accessible vehicles by disabled passengers, more formal action will follow, including possible referral to the Council’s Licensing Committee for a review of your Private Hire Operator Licence.

Unfortunately, the boss of Boro Taxis has continued to defend this practice, justifying it on economic grounds. He has even gone a step further by now refusing to take any passengers who use wheelchairs. He is quoted in the press saying,

"The simple fact is if you order a car and four people jump in you are charged for a taxi. If you order an eight-seater minibus and eight people jump in you are charged for a minibus. If you order a minibus and there's only one person you will still be charged for a minibus because that's what you ordered.”

What this does show us is that for some people in society, the concept of disability discrimination is difficult to comprehend. What it also shows that complaining to authorities about injustice can catapult an issue into the spotlight. We hope that it now also instigates change for the better.

After taking the collaborative approach, the Council should now seek to review its stance and refer firms that continue to carry out discriminatory practices to the Licensing Committee for a review of their Private Hire Operator’s Licence. 

Aspire and World Human Rights Day - disabled people and employment

The last of our posts for World Human Rights Day looks at the right to work.

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

“Disabled people are significantly less likely to be in employment than non disabled people”

UK public policy has seen a shift in focus to getting people from benefits and into work. The Department of Work and Pensions’ flagship Work Programme, aimed at getting people off benefits and into employment has risen in prominence, particularly in light of the recent economic climate and drive to get the benefits bill down.

Despite the schemes and assistance provided, it is still difficult for disabled people to gain employment. Compared to other equality strands such as race and gender, disabled representation for high level jobs is massively under-representative of the disabled population. A 2009 study from Leonard Cheshire Disability found that 43% of respondents had been turned down for a job because of their impairment. And even when people do get into work, disabled people are paid less than non-disabled people for doing the same job.

When broken down into full-time and part-time, figures show that 32.9% of disabled people were in full-time employment compared to 58.9% of non-disabled people and 14.4% of disabled people were in part-time employment compared to 18.3% for non disabled. This means that a greater proportion of disabled people in employment work on a part-time basis when compared to non-disabled people.

The public sector has shrunk during this Parliament with Departments making around 25% spending cuts across the board and even more in some areas with some Councils having their grants reduced by even 50% by 2018.

The government has looked to encourage private sector growth and has looked for it to provide 2.5 million jobs. The public sector fairs better than the private when it comes to disability employment rates; and the odds of having employed a disabled person are one and a half times higher in the public sector than in the private sector.  

Perception amongst employers on disabled people is also misguided. The UK has lower employment rates than other European countries after spinal cord injury. In a survey of employers, 33% said hiring a disabled person was a major risk and 47% said it would be difficult to retain an employee who became disabled.

Unless there is a drive to promote disability awareness to businesses, greater reliance on the private sector to provide employment opportunities could have a negative impact on employment opportunities for disabled people.

Research has found that the cost efficiency of workplace support increases over time and becomes cost-efficient to taxpayers around the fourth year of operation. For every £1 invested in supported employment, the taxpayer gets back around 43p from savings elsewhere in the system making the investment worthwhile in the third year. However, where there is opportunity for short term savings to be made, the long term benefits can often be overlooked.

The government does have policies in place that do help disabled people get into work. Aspire has received positive feedback on the Access to Work scheme. The scheme provides financial support to disabled people travelling to work as well as help at work, such as with equipment or support workers.  

We hope that this scheme will continue to receive investment and that it will be publicised wider so that people know that there is funding to help them get back into the workplace. More help from schemes like Access to Work will help towards recognising this Human Right for disabled people. Furthermore, Aspire has launched InstructAbility which trains disabled people to become fitness instructors around the country and helps them into work.

So we will end our Human Rights series on a more optimistic note on the theme of employment and we hope you have enjoyed reading these series of blogposts.

Social Security - Aspire and World Human Rights Day

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Two contentious areas of disability benefit reform relate to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA). Both areas are being severely criticised by disability groups and disabled people. DLA is a non-means tested benefit that recognises the barriers that disabled people face and the extra costs they incur because of their impairment. DLA is set to be replaced by Personal Independence Payments (PIP). PIP will still have the same aims to support disabled people. However, the government’s own projections show that they expect the case load, that is the numbers supported, to decrease. Within their own figures, they have also predicted that less people will receive higher mobility support.

ESA has had its problems stretching back to its creation. We have had negative reports over the years on the accuracy of assessments, assessment centres being inaccessible and the success rates of appeals.

Another damaging development has been the new under-occupancy penalties. This has been more commonly described as the Bedroom Tax. As a result of this welfare reform, we have found couples unable to share a room and people with heavy machinery being penalised for having what the government deems to be a spare bedroom.

Aspire believes that state should contribute and support disabled people if needed to live independently in society. Doing so has an overall positive effect on that person and will empower them to contribute to society too. We work with decision makers to get this argument across and we will continue to strive for this Human Right for disabled people.

Civic Participation - Aspire and World Human Rights Day

1)      Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

2)      Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

We are a democratic country and all have the right to participate and even be elected representatives. However, disabled people are significantly underrepresented in government and in Parliament. If Parliament was truly representative of society, there would be 65 disabled MPs in Parliament!   

Furthermore, people have found that even visiting Parliament can be a strenuous task for wheelchair users. Wheelchair users visiting Parliament have to be escorted around the building whereas non-wheelchair users practically can roam around freely in most of the public areas once they get through the security barriers. This is more different access than equal access.

The ability to vote and participate in elections is a key democratic right. In the 2010 Polls Apart report, research found that at 67% of polling stations surveyed, disabled people faced accessibility barriers. That’s an improvement of only 1% on the last general election, and just 2% on the election before. Progress is not moving fast enough.

Councils regularly review polling stations and as part of this, they should also ensure that there are as few barriers as possible at polling stations for disabled people. Staff training was also cited as an area that needs improvement. In one case study in the report, a voter felt totally ignored as the member of staff chose to communicate with their personal assistant rather than the individual voter.

The solutions for realising this Human Right are in better training for staff, wider voting options and greater accessibility of polling booths. Certainly the rate of improvement needs to change for the better. A 2% decrease in accessibility barriers faced since two general elections ago is nowhere near good enough.

Property - Aspire and World Human Rights Day

Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

What happens when someone cannot get back into their own home following a spinal cord injury?

Every eight hours, someone is paralysed by spinal cord injury. Imagine if you have steps going into your home, or live somewhere with narrow corridors and no turning spaces. You might have a home, but you may not be able to access it. Your right of owning that property remains, but it can be agonising not being able to get into it.

Our research shows that 20% of people with Spinal Cord Injury are discharged to nursing homes. Often this is because of the lack of accessible housing available. Increasingly, Aspire is finding that people are unable to go back to their own place because care policies are becoming restrictive when it comes to delivering in people’s own homes. Some Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) as well as one local authority we are aware of, have set a cap on the amount that they are willing to spend on delivering care in people’s own homes. In such cases, an arbitrary percentage has been identified where if the cost of delivering care at home is above this percentage compared to receiving this care in a nursing or residential setting, the CCG or council will not meet the costs.

Essentially, this removes the individual’s whole lifestyle, family needs, work needs and places greater emphasis and importance in decision making on short term costs. Often this doesn’t recognise that the long term cost implications are far worse. The physical and psychological impact on people with Spinal Cord Injuries can be devastating as our research has found.

What’s more, people may have access to their property but cannot get to all areas of it. 37% are discharged to unsuitable housing meaning that they may well be in their own home, but not necessarily living in a way that encourages independence. They may not be able to access their own bedroom so are forced to live downstairs. This can be a horrible experience if your bathroom is also upstairs.

Through one of our surveys, a Spinal Cord Injured person in Cornwall told us, "I have no life as such. I live in one room. I can't get out." The psychological impact in living in these circumstances is damaging.

The Disabled Facilities Grant is key to helping people to adapt their own homes. However, it is a pot of money that is no longer ring fenced. At a time when funding for local councils is being heavily cut by the government it can be tempting to also reduce spend on adaptations.

If we are to recognise this Human Right for disabled people, we need more accessible housing and a better and more efficient Disabled Facilities Grant process. This would go a long way to fulfil the potential of disabled peoples’ rights to property.

Incitement of Discrimination - Aspire and World Human Rights Day

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

There has been huge uproar, and Aspire believes quite rightly so, over some of the language that has been used in the media and even by leading politicians in the debate on disability benefits.

The media has been seen to showcase extreme cases of benefit fraud in their print and online articles. The words "scrounger" and "work-shy" have been casually used in the benefit reform debate.

Scope produced a report last year which found that:

· 73% of disabled people experienced the assumption that they don’t work
· 83% said coverage about benefits scroungers can negatively affect attitudes
· 87% said benefit scroungers themselves have a negative effect on attitudes

Disability hate crime is at its highest rate since records began. There has been great progress over the last 60 years but there is great concern about more recent trends.

What we need and what we are calling for is a more truthful representation of disabled people in society. Sadly, this does not make provoking headlines which is often what the tabloids are after.

However the Paralympic games in 2012 did show that as a society we could be positive about disabled people. However there is a line of argument that says that this positive view only applied to disabled athletes. Where the Olympic and Paralympic legacy has failed is harnessing and taking that positive mood to reflect on all disabled people in society. Society needs to come together to speak louder against such injustices and promote a more positive and accurate reflection of disabled people’s contribution to society.

We need more disabled people at universities, mainstream schools and workplaces. The opportunities need to be there for disabled people to access mainstream services so that people can recognise the truth.

A lot of work is needed and a significant culture change in how disabled people are viewed and treated is needed to realise this Human Right.

Dignity - Aspire and World Human Rights Day

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 1 in the Universal Declaration for Human Rights addresses the issue of dignity. But what is dignity for a spinal cord injured person?

We estimate that around 25,000 people with spinal cord injury receive some form of care or support to meet their health and social care needs.

People with higher level spinal cord injuries often receive 24 hour care, seven days a week to help with day to day tasks as well as fulfil medical needs.  Having someone there to turn you over in bed, to get you out of bed, provide bowel and bladder care is very intrusive.

What helps is when people’s preferences are listened to. Often these relationships can work well when people actively engage, interact and, as strange as it sounds… be human.

A respondent to our care survey told us, “the carers I have are fantastic, and I think of them as friends and equals. The social services team my Council are brilliant and so are the rehab team at my hospital who had the first contact with the social workers.”

Some on the other hand have a personal preference to have their personal assistants come in, do the job and leave. Personal assistants, district nurses and carers need to be mindful of the need to listen to the person they are caring for.

Even when undergoing assessments for disability benefits or social care provision assessors are seeking minute details on people’s lives. Often this is beyond what is actually relevant to the support being assessed for. 

When it comes to personalised social care, what people spend their direct payments on is heavily monitored by some local authorities. Of course they have a duty to account for money that they are spending on care packages, but some of systems for reporting information are far too invasive and intrusive. Some local authorities still insist on receiving paper copies of every penny people spend with their direct payments, making the whole process bureaucratic and burdensome at the same time. 

People deserve the right to be treated with dignity and local authorities and health commissioners need to be mindful of the feelings of the person being cared for too when carrying their duties. Regular training to care agency staff to instil a culture where the person’s wishes are always at the forefront of staffs’ minds would go a long way to ensure people are helped with greater dignity.

 

Aspire and World Human Rights Day

10^th December 2013 will mark 65 years since the United Nations General Assembly's adoption and proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The day is known internationally as World Human Rights Day. 

In the run up to 10^th December, Aspire will be looking at seven specific articles in the Declaration. We will be highlighting the significance of the articles along with the shortfalls of progress and how we should be improving to ensure we are meeting the obligations that we have signed up to as a nation.

We’ll start off with Article 25 to warm you up and set the scene; 

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Nonetheless, this is the only Article which specifically mentions disability out of all 30 articles.  What it enshrines is that in the event of adversity beyond someone’s control, people should be supported to the right security, food, clothing, medical care and necessary social services.

Recent evidence shows that this is becoming more and more difficult for disabled people in Britain today. More people are turning to food banks for help, benefit cuts mean that less well off people have less money for clothes and medical care and social services are becoming more restrictive as the NHS and local councils feel the pinch of budget cuts.

In the days ahead, we will be writing on specific Human Rights articles on dignity, discrimination, property, civic participation, social security and employment.

Stay tuned to our website and social media channels over the coming days for more on World Human Rights.   

Keeping the flame alive

Yesterday, a House of Lords select Committee published a report on the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Committee has been specifically set up and tasked to look into this issue.

Two areas that were reported on focused on the drive to increase participation and the perception of disabled people.

We found some positive statistics in the report. There has been in increase of 353,000 disabled people participating in sport once a week since 2005/06. Sport England was highly praised after adapting its funding arrangements after the Games to target disabled people.

However, it was noted that participation amongst disabled people was around half the rate of participation of non-disabled people in sport.

The will is there, with the report citing that 8 out of 10 disabled people were considering taking up sport after the Games. 70% of disabled people agreed that the Games were inspirational for them.

Yet the report admits that this positive hope is hindered by practical barriers. Barriers such as untrained staff to cater for disabled customers and lack of appropriate equipment. Indeed, when we reported on disability and the fitness industry back in 2011, we called for:

·         Greater participation rates of disabled people in sport and leisure.

·         Better inclusive fitness provision within the leisure industry, with accessible equipment being available at all sites. 

·         Better understanding and awareness of inclusive fitness in the fitness industry.

·         More instructors in the leisure industry trained to work with disabled people. 

All these asks are still as relevant today as when we conducted our research before the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Our InstructAbility Programme, which looks to increase the pool of disabled fitness instructors in the country, is going some way to address some of the shortfalls we found.

The findings on changing perceptions of disability show there is great room for improvement. The period after the Games saw a more favourable impact on how disability sport was perceived. But this is in great contrast to how disabled people in society are viewed; the fact that disability hate crime statistics are ‘the worst they have ever been in 10 years of reporting’ would suggest that the Games have failed to create a positive legacy on perceptions of disabled people.

Unfortunately, the only recommendation stemming from this point in the report is for the government to continue to monitor public perceptions of disability and to continue to promote disability athletics. We believe this call should be more ambitious and that the committee should be bolder in their ask to government to use the legacy to improve perceptions of disabled people. Not doing so fails to hold to account the progress of the lasting legacy of London 2012.

A busy week for Personal Independence Payment

It’s been an eventful week in the disability sector with news surrounding Personal Independence Payment (PIP). PIP is the new benefit that is due to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

First of all we had the government response to a consultation on the moving around activity of Personal Independence Payment assessment. Earlier this year, the government changed a qualifying distance in one of the assessment areas for PIP to 20 metres from its original proposal of 50 metres at the last minute.  People who can walk up to 20 metres, but struggle after that point, are likely to score fewer points in their assessment. This potentially affects their entitlement and the support they receive to meet their needs.

This change was made without the government even indicating it would do so during the consultation process. In the context of such strong feeling on this matter and a legal challenge pending, the government consulted on the matter (you can read Aspire’s paper here).

The government’s response to the consultation has now been published. Aspire is disappointed that after receiving over 1,000 responses and only five being in favour, that 20 metres will remain as a qualifying distance in the assessment.

The second piece of big news on PIP was that there would be a delay in reassessing people on DLA for the new benefit. The process was due to start on 28^th October but the government has now decided to take a more phased approach, starting with people living in Wales, West Midlands, East Midlands and parts of East Anglia.

On the slower roll out of reassessments, if the system is struggling to cope then a slower roll out is better than rushing full steam ahead. However, this is something that should have been thought of before. Changing the approach at the last minute and just creates more uncertainty and confusion.

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 doesn’t even include new people entering the system!

With so many people affected, it’s no surprise that the government has had to rethink their approach.

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.

The government needs to improve its planning and give further assurances that it is in control of the roll out of the new Personal Independence Payment benefit. The last minute changes and impromptu consultations that we have experienced recently do not inspire confidence.

David Weir is just one of 300,000 disabled people without an accessible home

Paralympic athlete, David Weir hit the headlines earlier this week when it was revealed that he has to pull himself up the stairs in his own home several times a day because he doesn’t have a downstairs toilet. His local housing association does not have enough accessible properties to meet the needs of all the disabled people in the area. Presumably, the lack of downstairs toilet is not the only issue for Weir and this difficult route also has to be undertaken whenever he needs to check on his children after bedtime, change clothes or head for bed himself.

The story made the news because Weir is a household name. But the reality is that thousands of wheelchair users in the UK face similar difficulties in their own homes. We live in a country where so much of our housing stock is old and inaccessible; 300,000 wheelchair accessible properties would be needed just to meet the current shortfall, and the aging population is only going to make this problem worse in the future.

Making do in an inaccessible property can be extremely uncomfortable. Over the years we’ve heard from countless people who, like Weir, have done the best they can to get on with their lives in trying circumstances. There was Shelley who couldn’t shower or bath for two years because her bathroom was inaccessible, making do instead with a strip wash at the sink. And Mark who moved his bed into the family living room for 18 months as the upstairs was completely out of reach. John couldn’t even get into his own house, or back out again, without having two people to carry him up the steps to his own front door. Even so, in many ways, John, Mark and Shelley and all the others in similar circumstances were actually the lucky ones; 20% of every one who sustains a spinal cord injury will be discharged into a nursing home because there is simply nowhere else accessible, or even partly accessible, for them to go.

The effects of inadequate housing for wheelchair users are many and far reaching. The lack of independence can have a profound impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing, and it obviously puts a strain on family relationships too. Pulling yourself up stairs or over steps puts shoulder joints at risk of injury, a significant concern for wheelchair users. And there’s an inherent risk of infection when the lack of an accessible bathroom makes it difficult to maintain hygiene standards.

Yet despite this obvious need for many more accessible homes, we don’t actually do that much as a country to address the problem. Look at any new housing rhetoric and you are bound to see references to affordability and environmental sustainability; important issues, no doubt, but where’s the talk of making sure that disabled people can actual live in the finished properties?
London does have a policy in place that requires 10% of all new builds to be wheelchair accessible or easily adaptable. The latest figures suggest that we don’t quite manage that target, but at least it’s a start and we desperately need other regions to take note and bring in similar rules. And with those rules in place, the architects and builders need to think a bit more about what they are doing; we visited a wonderful accessible flat on the first floor of a new development recently, but found that the lift to reach it was too small for a powered wheelchair.

With accessible properties in place, Local Authorities and Housing Associations need to make sure that the right people have access to them. A Greater London Assembly policy paper revealed that in London, 70 per cent of wheelchair accessible homes in 2008/09 went to households with no wheelchair user. In addition, the Greater London Authority’s Housing Strategy paper revealed that in 2007/08, only 46 per cent of wheelchair users moving into a housing association home were allocated a wheelchair accessible property, while 68 per cent of lettings of wheelchair accessible homes were to households with no wheelchair user.

Aspire is currently working on a response to the Housing Standards Review consultation which focuses on issues such as space and access of housing. We will argue the case for stronger minimum requirements for space and access standards that meet the needs of wheelchair users.

Better planning, more housing and better organisation; it’s really not rocket science. But it will mean that wheelchair users – be they Paralympians or mere mortals – have properties where they’re not risking their own health just by living there.

Party Conferences: how they fared on Disability

Party Conferences have been all over the news in the last few weeks, with all UK political parties trying to gee up their activists and get their message across to the nation about why they believe people should support them.

The main highlight of party conferences is inevitably the leader’s speech. We looked beyond that and specifically analysed the content of speeches from the MP with lead responsibility for Work and Pensions in the main parties.

The difference between them all was huge this year. Firstly, we were disappointed that there was no main conference speech at all from the Liberal Democrat lead Steve Webb MP so it only leaves us with speeches from Iain Duncan Smith MP (Conservative Party) and Liam Byrne MP (Labour Party) to analyse.
A quick scan of the speech transcripts sees disability or disabled mentioned once in the Conservative speech and seven times in Liam Byrnes address.

If we were to pick a moment of inspiration from Iain Duncan Smith’s speech, we’d opt for the line, “Our reformed welfare system will once again catch you when you fall, but lift you, when you can rise”. An aspiration I think that all can share with the Secretary of State. We want a welfare system that is there for you when you need it and that helps you and gives you a lift as well so that people can and strive for the best.

Both the Labour and Conservative speeches had a great deal of political bashing. However on the whole, it was heartening to see disability being mainstreamed and given such high prominence in the Labour Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary’s speech. In fact, the Labour speech was much heavier on real policy and proposals, whereas the Conservative speech was much more focused on their record to date in government tackling debt by cutting welfare.   

It’s hard to compare two very different approaches, however there is one main policy difference that was clearly identifiable and comparable: the issue of under occopancy of social housing, and the policy which has been nicknamed the Bedroom Tax. Iain Duncan Smith saw the policy as an achievement and said, “we are ending the situation where taxpayers would have to pay out £1 billion over the next two years for some social housing tenants to have spare bedrooms.” Byrne on the other hand said, “we say the Bedroom Tax should be axed and axed now and if David Cameron won’t drop this hated tax, then we will repeal it” giving a clear commitment to scrap the under occupancy penalty.  So one Party sees it as a success and one clearly doesn’t and has promised to scrap the Bedroom Tax.

(See our advice and information about the Bedroom Tax here)

I’m sure that more policies will emerge as we draw nearer to the general elections in 2015 but the dividing lines are beginning to emerge, at least, between the two main political parties.

Aspire will continue to try and influence all political parties n issues that affect people with spinal cord injury and want to encourage you all to do so too by contacting your local MPs. If you want help in going about doing this, feel free to contact our campaigns team on 020 8420 6702.

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Krupesh Hirani, Policy and Research Officer