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Dispatches: Britain on Benefits CH4 8pm
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The Disability Living Allowance helps more than three million people lead useful lives. It pays for transport and carers, meaning that disabled people can work and lead independent lives.
But the benefit bill has to be cut, and the government plans to take more than half a million claimants off DLA. What will that mean for those who depend on it?
Talking to fellow Paralympians, disabled army veterans and disabled people in work, wheelchair basketball ace Ade Adepitan goes in search of answers, and asks if this hugely ambitious and expensive plan to reassess disabled people has been properly thought through.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide/series-123/episode-1
No idea what the findings will be but worth a look for anyone interested.
But the benefit bill has to be cut, and the government plans to take more than half a million claimants off DLA. What will that mean for those who depend on it?
Talking to fellow Paralympians, disabled army veterans and disabled people in work, wheelchair basketball ace Ade Adepitan goes in search of answers, and asks if this hugely ambitious and expensive plan to reassess disabled people has been properly thought through.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide/series-123/episode-1
No idea what the findings will be but worth a look for anyone interested.
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Comments
Required 20% cuts without even seeing anyone tell you all you need to know about how this will work out.
Well seeing as Channel 4 have already postponed it at least once seems they weren't that interested .....................
Wasn't that to do with coverage of something new? Horse meat? Not sure but sure someone can confirm.
What did you think of the programme though, especially the assessment of the ex soldier who lost his leg?
So what you are saying is Channel 4 think horsemeat is more important than this disability story - think that says it all really.
It's a government plan and those so rarely improve anything that you might as well save some time and just say no. Even if a plan does actually improve something you can guarantee it will get cancelled and replaced by something worse by the next government to come along.
No, I'm saying wasn't there a breaking news story or recent news story broken that they covered instead? I'm not sure why you think TV scheduling has anything to do with what this government are doing to the disabled though?
A rather pointless comment given that it was originally scheduled for last Monday and was put back a whole week to accomodate a last minute programme on the horsemeat scandal.
As for the programme itself, 25 minutes is nowhere near sufficient to do justice to such an important issue.
Paralympians are no more representative of the vast majority of disabled people than Usain Bolt is of the able-bodied community. It is therefore rather lazy, imo, to spend so much time on the Paralympians.
The programme needed at least an hour so that we could see how DLA helps people to work and also how it helps re people's care needs. Some financial figures showing how much DLA contributes to the economy and how it saves money from other departments would also have been good.
It was sad that neither the programme makers nor McVey (unless she was lying) seemed to know that lifetime DLA awards have not existed for quite a few years now. A DLA award is either fixed or indefinite. Indefinite awards can be reviewed and a further medical may be required as part of that review. Therefore, the number of people receiving a lifetime DLA award is 0%, not the 71% that McVey erroneously claimed.
Tanni Grey-Thompson echoed the views of many disabled people when she said it would be better to reform DLA than start from scratch with PIP (don't forget the latest tick box test cost over £700m in addition to the hundreds of millions of pounds going to Atos and Capita). Her point about PIP possibly taking disabled people back to the ghettoisation of 30 years ago was also very valid.
All in all, there was nothing new in the programme and it was disappointing that the huge amount of opposition to the introduction of PIP from charities and dpo's was not mentioned, and neither was the sneaky last minute change to the mobility rules.
channel 4 looks into the move from DLA to PIP - This Channel 4 Dispatches programme, was to be broadcast on the Monday 18 February but has been postponed and been replaced with a programme on the horse meat scandal. 14 February 2013
http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news.htm
It wasn't a breaking news story. It was hysteria about horsemeat masquerading as news. There wasn't anything new in the programme and the fact that they decided to kick the disability programme into the touch to show it shows in my opinion what Channel 4 really think about the disability issue.
Nothing to do with the Government, I was answering your original question
Actually not a pointless comment. Channel 4 postponed the disability to show a non story about horsemeat which does go to demonstrate where Channel 4 think the disability story fits in tyhe scheme of things - and that is not very highly
It was rather shallow but gave glimpses of the thinking behind it such as arbitrary 20% cuts no matter what and the extent to which examiners are ignorant of the claimants problems or inexperienced. I guess the whole point was to show that if paralympians struggle with everyday living then how badly do other disabled people suffer? Remember there were lots of calls from the usual quarters about how if paralympians can manage then everyone can. This showed how even they suffer and will do even more if the PIP goes through.
If or when you or someone you care about becomes disabled will you still feel the same?
If you were guaranteed £1million would you willingly choose to have your legs amputated or to never see again, would you choose it for your children? If the answer is no then why do you see the issue as so trivial?
Horse meat was all over the headline and like all documentary programmes, they put out a timely programme looking at the matter. Your coming over rather dismissive and ignorant about the problems disabled folk face under this government.
Another pointless comment. Maybe you could try commenting on the actual issue.
It does seem a bit of a shambles.
How on earth can you look at a guy missing a leg, then conclude that they shouldn't get DLA?
And why reassess every few years? In case it has grown back?
Shambles!
Regards,
Cypher
To keep up the flow of public money to private pockets. :mad:
It would also have been good if they had time to confirm the DWP's latest figures which show that the rate of increase in claimant numbers in the 1 group being affected by PIP (ie working age claimants) is just half that of the pension age group and less than a quarter of the under 16 group. The headline figures mentioned by McVey were deliberately misleading, as usual.
Also, I saw the 2 Atos tender documents before the DWP removed them and I think the programme should have mentioned that they proposed using just 19 doctors for Scotland plus the whole of England minus the Midlands. It was good to hear the concerns of the physios, but I think the programme also should have mentioned the paltry 7.5 days of "disability training" that these physios and nurses receive before being let loose on claimants.
I doubt it - it's just incompetence.
Regards,
Cypher
Alot of people on DLA work, and if they lose that money they might have to give up work. I know someone who works and gets high rate mobility, does not drive and has to have a taxi to and from work every day they work. If he losed his DLA he would have to give work up as he could not afford the taxi fares
That is part of the objective, they see those of us who are disabled as competition and want to get us out of the way, like all bullies they are insecure and cowardly.