Less than a week to go - One Month Before Heartbreak

I need to write a post with some more details of One Month Before Heartbreak, I really do.  Hopefully if I don't get that done tonight (I'm off out in about half an hour not sure for how long) I will get it up tomorrow.

But one really, really great thing you can do to help us promote One Month Before Heartbreak is to use this image that Lisa (@IconicImagery) made for us.  Put it on your blog.  Use it as your facebook profile pic or your avatar on twitter.  Or some other site that I either can't think of or don't know about (if you do think of another site, let me know. I'd hate to be missing a site I might love!)

It's a purple triangle point downwards with a big red heard in the middle and splatters around it, a bit like blood.  At the top is says 1 Month Before Heartbreak, at the bottom The Broken of Britain.  And I absolutely love it. Love it.

The Broken of Britain Submission to the Consultation on DLA reform - Call for Evidence and Criticism

This is your chance to shape The Broken of Britain's submission to the Public Consultation on DLA reform. Being an user-led group, we are interested in everything you have to say, even if you have never been on our blog or forum before. Read what we've written, take bits out, put new bits in, tell us what you like and don't like, and tell us if you disagree with us - we just want to make sure that we're accurately putting your views across.

This is a link to our forum where there is a downloadable first draft of the submission.


We need criticism and testimonies. First, on criticism, read our submission and either tell us what you want to critique, change, or get rid of completely. Or you can do it yourself given time/spoons and email the amended document to: rhydian@thebrokenofbritain.org

On testimonies, we need:

• A paragraph long testimony from DLA claimants who are enabled to work because of DLA
• A paragraph from a claimant who is chronically ill and will not ‘get better’ about why re-testing every few years is a waste of their time
• A paragraph about why you think DLA is fit for purpose
• A paragraph explaining why three rates of Care component is easier to understand than two (i.e. if you have medium care needs, how do you choose?)
• Why renaming the benefit PIP will not change your life
• A paragraph about the barriers to life that you face because of disability or illness?
• A paragraph on ‘[things] about DLA that should stay the same’.
• A paragraph on the main extra costs you face due to disability or illness.
• A paragraph about what would happen to you if you went down from Middle to Lower rate of Care (losing up to £29.85 a week).
• A paragraph about the broad range of specific activities that you consider essential to your life.
• A paragraph on how DWP can appropriately take account of variable and fluctuating conditions when

Very importantly, we also need input from carers explaining how DLA affects them, including as a passport to CA. A paragraph should be 300 words at most, but use your own judgment. Choose what topics you want to write on – all the topics listed or just one, depending on time, energy and spoons – and get cracking!

To submit your input, e-mail me at: rhydian@thebrokenofbritain.org

Legal Aid Cuts

Legal Aid cuts – the quick version!

The Government is proposing to cut civil legal aid, which helps people deal with debt, housing, benefits, immigration, family law and many other issues. This will leave tens of thousands of vulnerable people without access to help and support to access their rights, and will result in destitution, debt and homelessness. The amount of money being cut equals a tiny percentage of the deficit, and is a true false economy as all the research shows that early advice saves the state money in the long-run. You can help us challenge these proposals by sending a letter to your MP asking them to oppose the proposals and by submitting a response to the consultation – a suggested response and sample MP letters are available here. For more details on the proposals please read the information below. Thank you for your help!

Legal Aid cuts – the longer version!

What will you do the next time you need help with benefits? Or when you are unfairly dismissed? Or when your landlord refuses to fix the leak in the roof that is making everything you own damp and mouldy?

If your answer was ‘Get some legal advice’ then get it while you can, as the government are going to take away Legal Aid funding for all of these kind of cases and many more – this is going to result in tens of thousands of people not being able to get advice in future. The government states that the rest of the voluntary sector will be able to pick up the pieces, but this simply isn’t true – thousands of voluntary sector agencies, like Citizens Advice Bureaux and Law Centres, are funded via legal aid and local authorities, so will be reducing services at a time when they are most needed. These changes will leave people living in disrepair, leave people without money to eat or heat their homes, and will leave people struggling with debts they cannot manage – all of which will cost the state more money in the long run than they will save by cutting the funding for advice to deal with the problems. Advice agency clients did not profit from the boom years, and certainly did not cause the bust – why are they now made to suffer to help the government balance the books?

Access to justice for all is essential in a democratic society; these proposed cuts are simply not fair as they hit the poorest the hardest.

How can people help to make a difference?

• Write to your MP and or local councillor, sample letters are available from your local advice centre or on www.advicewest.org.uk
•   Comment on the government’s proposals by February 14^th 2011: www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/legal-aid-reform-151110.htm - suggested responses are available on the Advicewest website.
• Join our Facebook campaign: ‘Say No to Legal Aid Cuts in the South West’

• Join us for a demonstration outside the South-West offices of the Legal Services Commission: Queens Square, Bristol, 7/02/11 from 12noon.

Thanks for your help – future users of legal advice service will thank you too!

A New Year's Message From The Broken Of Britain

Transcript here 

A New Year's Message from The Broken of Britain

This year was not kind to people with disabilities. 2010 began with a steady trickle of horror stories about Employment Support Allowance introduced by the Labour government in 2008 as the replacement for Incapacity Benefit, thus creating a draconian system making benefits conditional on work-related activity for most claimants. This conditionality is based on assessment by ‘healthcare professionals’ who are not doctors and may not be familiar with the variety of health conditions they face. The assessment is run by private sector provider Atos, who refuse to release the details of the test used to assess eligibility for reasons of ‘commercial interest’. There followed more disability charities lining their own pockets by colluding in the unfair system rather than fighting for those they claim to represent; and continuing doubts regarding the future of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) paid to help disabled people face the additional costs of disability.

Labour eventually backed away from DLA, and disabled people sighed with relief. Past Tory zeal for chopping at the welfare state and the Tory papers’ penchant for calling disabled people cheats has not befriended the party to us, but the Coalition Government was not totally objectionable. After all, David Cameron has experience of disability in his family, the Tories made an election promise to safeguard DLA, and the Lib Dems were not a party of unfair and discriminatory cuts. Early statements and the news of big changes to come caused some unease, but the first real signal of the Government’s intention came in the Emergency Budget, with George Osborne’s announcement of unnecessary medical tests for DLA claimants.

Since June, news of substantial losses for disabled people has come thick and fast. The axing of disability bodies doing useful and necessary work in the cull of quangos; a Comprehensive Spending Review which removed the mobility component of DLA from those in residential care to much anger; time-limiting contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance to 12 months in the same review; the cutting of advice on benefits; the fudged Harrington review of Employment Support Allowance which avoided the major points of criticism; the three-year extension of a contract worth over £100 million per year to Atos; all whilst disability charities continued to cheerfully pick the carcass of the welfare state. Then came the straw that broke the camel’s back – the Government decided to scrap DLA and replace it with a new, leaner system called Personal Independence Payment (PIP) - the public consultation on DLA reform closes on February 14th. PIP will cut the DLA caseload by 20% using testing similar to that used for Employment and Support Allowance. The case for reform is badly flawed and there are several damaging changes hidden in the small print. For example, six-times London Marathon winner Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson could lose out because she uses her wheelchair too well.

The Coalition Government has heaped misery on disabled people in just six months, backed up by their tabloid attack dogs, targeting them more than anybody else. A week after breaking the camel’s back, the Coalition decided to bash its head into the sand by axing the Independent Living Fund. This money funds 21,000 people to live independently who would otherwise live in hospitals or residential care, at far greater economic and social cost. Maria Miller, Minister for Disabled People, justifies the decision by deeming the ILF to be “unsustainable”. On a personal note, my best friend relies on ILF to support her care needs. ILF enables her to live independently and employ her high skills. Her contribution to society, including the tax she pays, is enormous. I suggest the Minister try telling her that her support is “financially unsustainable”.

By targeting DLA and the Independent Living Fund the Coalition have gone too far. A number of new disability rights groups and websites have responded to the proposals with focus and determination and are organizing alternative protest and direct action. Whilst the disability charities busy themselves forming consortia worth £654 million to bid for Government back-to-work contracts, protesting for disability rights is coming from the grassroots using our skills to raise awareness of our fights and to build political alliances. Public sector workers have been unfairly targeted as well; students too are victims of cuts and broken promises; these and other Coalition targets are our natural allies. We are campaigning on many fronts and ask that you join us in doing so by signing our petition to stop DLA reform and supporting our DLA campaign, as have a number of Lords and MPs including Jon Cruddas and Hywel Williams. We are getting MPs to ask questions, start debates and table Early Day Motions on DLA, pressuring the Coalition to back down.

2011 will be a good year for disabled people as we petition this Government to withdraw on DLA and the Independent Living Fund, and to bring fairness back into Employment Support Allowance. David Cameron and Iain Duncan-Smith have picked the wrong fight.

- by Kaliya Franklin and Rhydian Fôn James