Society & Welfare

The Hardest Hit

4th May 2011 — Filed under: Society & Welfare

Gill Stancer Gill Stancer

On May 11th I’ll be travelling to London to join thousands of disabled people marching past the Houses of Parliament to express solidarity and anger at the cuts threatening our benefits. We will make sure our voices are heard and MP’s and Peers understand our message.

I feel so passionate that these cuts should not be instigated; after the march I will be one of many challenging our respective MP’s to vote against these cuts.

We want to know why the government are planning to take the mobility component away from disabled people living in residential care. It seems that MPs wrongly assume that people living in residential care do not need the mobility component. I’ve been speaking to friends & colleagues who use Leonard Cheshire Disability residential services, on whom this will have a massive impact; they will become virtual prisoners trapped in their rooms if they lose this allowance. This money is essential to pay transport costs to enable them to be able to get out visiting friends and family using a taxi or a mobility vehicle

We do not lead extravagant life styles; the mobility component of the DLA enables us to pay for repairs & batteries for our wheelchairs and scooters to give us a degree of independence and so improve our quality of life. Without this independence the choices that are the automatic right of an able bodied person will be denied to people living with a disability.

GUEST POST: Gill Stancer is a member of the National Service User Networking Association (SUNA) Committee of Leonard Cheshire Disability, the voluntary organisation aiming to change attitudes to disability and serve disabled people around the world. She has been involved with Leonard Cheshire Disability since 2000, in a variety of roles, including on the Campaign Team and as Innovations Rep for SUNA. She lives in the New Forest and has four grown up daughters.

One Response to The Hardest Hit

  1. Comment made by Hindle-a on May 4th 2011 at 5:20 pm:

    Gill Stancer-completely agree .I happen not to be disabled but this proposed measure is despicable-raises miniscule amounts of money with significant impact for its current recipients-there is no “overlap” and in any case it is for the recipient to choose what they use it for. Purely ideological.