"The moral test of government is how that government treats those who
are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of
life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick,
the needy..." (Hubert H Humphery)
The UK is now morally bankrupt!
After the Welfare Reform Bill suffered 7 defeats in the House of
Lords it was brought back to the House of Commons on Wednesday 1st
February where MPs voted to overturn each of the amendments made in the
House of Lords.
The Speaker of the House then declared the Bill a 'Money Bill' - the
Government had announced its intention to use ‘financial privilege’ on
some amendments to get them through parliament in advance of the Bill
going back to the House of Commons.
The Coalition Government is ‘not for turning’ no matter what the emotional cost as well as the financial cost might be.
Many of the changes that are currently being forced through
parliament, by fair means or foul, are not to be found anywhere in
either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat election manifestos. There
was nothing in either manifesto about any plans to reform Disability
Living Allowance and no mention of the NHS reform either.
It would appear that voters were led up the garden path. It is
however the disabled and their carers who have found themselves pushed
towards their limit this week - the very people David Cameron pledged to
protect!
During the last 18 months people with disabilities have seen themselves
dehumanised and demonised in the press. Scroungers is a word that we
are now all too familiar with and levels of anxiety and stress have risen sharply within the autism community.
This has badly affected the emotional well being of people who do not
choose to be disabled. Disability can affect any of us at any time and
yet we are living in a society that is rapidly moving towards/back
towards the exclusion of people with disabilities, because we are deemed
to be too costly for society to support. We are in effect ‘not worthy’.
Back to a time when people with an invisible disability are afraid to say
publicly that they are disabled - this is not the kind of society that
we should be striving to live in and yet public opinion has already
been swayed by the demonisation of disability in the media.
Not content with pushing families living with disability towards an
abyss of despair, the handy work of this Bill is now likely to see
families who have a disabled child fighting with each other over whose
child is the most severely disabled. (Children who are deemed
not to be disabled enough will have their support cut by half.)
This is abhorrent, cruel and immoral and again, is most likely to affect families with a child whose disability is 'hidden'.
Children with disabilities and serious illness are also to lose
their entitlement to National Insurance contributions. an entitlement
that politicians right across the house have in the past supported. ACT
NOW is seriously concerned and finds this yet another clear indicator of
the devaluation of children and adults with a disability.
Today (Friday3rd Feb) there are reports in the Press that David Cameron
is going to spend 8 million pounds on a ‘
Happiness Index’ which has now
been expanded to cover ‘the meaning of life’:-
Do you really want to know how we feel Prime Minister?
We feel let down, devalued, demoralised and devastated by the long term implications of this Bill. Far from happy.
