Disabled people hit by changes to the benefits system are having to rely on food banks, according to a coalition of disability charities. The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), which is made up of 50 charities and other organisations such as the MS Society, Leonard Cheshire Disability and RNIB, is warning the situation will get even worse as the government implements more changes.
A survey of nearly 4000 disabled people, carried out by the DBC, reveals that of those hit by housing benefit changes – such as the ‘bedroom tax’ – more than one in ten (12 per cent) have needed to use food banks to feed themselves and their families.
There have also been changes to council tax that have hit some disabled people hard, increasing the amount of money they have to pay when they were previously exempt. A similar number of people affected by those cuts – 9 per cent – have also needed to use food banks.
Among those people unfortunate enough to be affected by changes to both housing benefit and council tax, as many as 15 per cent are using food banks.
The DBC is warning the government that even more disabled people and their carers are going to be forced to rely on food banks as benefit changes continue to come into force.
The Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is currently being replaced by Personal Independence Payment (PIP). PIP is supposed to help disabled people with the additional costs of living with a disability, but under the plans more than 600,000 people will no longer qualify for support. It will leave them even more likely to need help with the costs of housing and council tax.
Friday, December 20, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
News from Blakenall
Interesting mess being created with the debacle around the land issue where at present Bloxwich baths stands.
We have the past announcement that these baths and leisure centre will be rebuilt with lottery grants.. however who actually owns the land on which this Leisure centre stands? Have the Miners charity who left the open space of Leamore Park for the continued benefit of the people of Blakenall been consulted? How incompentent can you get? and risk losing precious regeneration funds?
News also that the Ryecroft NRC based in Ryecroft Place is to close along with the adjacent health centre facilities. All those using Ryecroft NRC will be expected to move to the Dartmouth centre based in New Forest Road .. the welfare rights service and the ryecroft training unit.. Have the people of New Forest Road been consulted? Not a bit.. we have sent round a consultation paper to seek their views and most feel that the Dartmouth Centre in new Forest Road should be considered for demolition.. they already have too many cars parking there on the road and to increase usage by making the Dartmouth centre the hub of a gigantic spoke will vastly increase the car parking.
Ryecroft NRC I in the right place and if Dartmouth centre was demolished , the land sold for housing, some of the proceeds would cover doing up Ryecroft NRC and expanding into the adjacent health centre.. to be used as a day care centre for the elderly living in the area for lunchtime meals etc
.. a much more sensible plan,.. needs proper meaningful consulting of course .. but your local independent councillor Peter Smith accepting this way forward with £200K to facilitate has done this without asking all local residents about it.. the idea makes good headlines but local residents have to live with the consequences.!
We have news that the Goscote area will be offered up for development... all that debate about the open space called the Lea.. in reality there was never any probable cause for alarm that the Lea would be built on.. the essential first step was to get the advert out to see if any major developer would come forward to talk about it.. as we stand the save the Lea campaign has just delayed the talking and allowed the tipping paradise open space to remain for longer.
WHG should concentrate on looking after their tenants as a priority and I fear that too many times they have lost sight of that with distractions into too many other areas
We have been asking many residents on the effect they see of the introduction of the so called bedroom tax.. a great many horrific personal stories of residents caught up for no fault of their own in the accompanying cuts to their household incomes and so reducing their standard of living to below the poverty line... guilty of ruining peoples' lives... there will be more evictions, family splits and domestic violence and continued wrecking of lives... those who are well off can just shrug off these changes... those in charge have lost touch with reality.. time to turf them out!!
Ian Robertson
We have the past announcement that these baths and leisure centre will be rebuilt with lottery grants.. however who actually owns the land on which this Leisure centre stands? Have the Miners charity who left the open space of Leamore Park for the continued benefit of the people of Blakenall been consulted? How incompentent can you get? and risk losing precious regeneration funds?
News also that the Ryecroft NRC based in Ryecroft Place is to close along with the adjacent health centre facilities. All those using Ryecroft NRC will be expected to move to the Dartmouth centre based in New Forest Road .. the welfare rights service and the ryecroft training unit.. Have the people of New Forest Road been consulted? Not a bit.. we have sent round a consultation paper to seek their views and most feel that the Dartmouth Centre in new Forest Road should be considered for demolition.. they already have too many cars parking there on the road and to increase usage by making the Dartmouth centre the hub of a gigantic spoke will vastly increase the car parking.
Ryecroft NRC I in the right place and if Dartmouth centre was demolished , the land sold for housing, some of the proceeds would cover doing up Ryecroft NRC and expanding into the adjacent health centre.. to be used as a day care centre for the elderly living in the area for lunchtime meals etc
.. a much more sensible plan,.. needs proper meaningful consulting of course .. but your local independent councillor Peter Smith accepting this way forward with £200K to facilitate has done this without asking all local residents about it.. the idea makes good headlines but local residents have to live with the consequences.!
We have news that the Goscote area will be offered up for development... all that debate about the open space called the Lea.. in reality there was never any probable cause for alarm that the Lea would be built on.. the essential first step was to get the advert out to see if any major developer would come forward to talk about it.. as we stand the save the Lea campaign has just delayed the talking and allowed the tipping paradise open space to remain for longer.
WHG should concentrate on looking after their tenants as a priority and I fear that too many times they have lost sight of that with distractions into too many other areas
We have been asking many residents on the effect they see of the introduction of the so called bedroom tax.. a great many horrific personal stories of residents caught up for no fault of their own in the accompanying cuts to their household incomes and so reducing their standard of living to below the poverty line... guilty of ruining peoples' lives... there will be more evictions, family splits and domestic violence and continued wrecking of lives... those who are well off can just shrug off these changes... those in charge have lost touch with reality.. time to turf them out!!
Ian Robertson
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
What future for our NHS?
Our National Health service seems to be continually under attack by often misguided politicians and also from within by those who work in this sector but forget the basic principles of how to select treatment plans using evidence based medicine .
We have a Government that . has caused a crisis in A&E and cut 4,000 nurses while wasting £3 billion on a damaging reorganisation of our NHS, founded 65 years ago on Friday this week .
People worried about difficulty in getting medical advice with their own GPs now often opted out of out of hours cover go to where they know a place is open and even with a horrendous wait at A and E will eventually get that medical care. This ha created serious pressures on those who are trying to cope with running this part of the service and where sifting through the patients attending is often down to the non medical person sitting on the reception desk. Of course there are many who attend A and E who have relatively minor medical needs and have come to the wrong ‘medical bus stop’ and so hamper health care delivery elsewhere in the system.
The NHS appears to use their resources inefficiently. A health service has the prime objective of treating ill patients , getting them better quickly and helping them to return to normal living and to continue as independently as possible. We also allow public companies whose main interest is producing a profit for their shareholders to write contracts that have so many self interest clauses in to protect those profits and so cost us the tax payers dear. How can these highly paid executives in our NHS and elsewhere be so naive and such poor negotiators?
However we use enormous resources to screen large sections of the public … screening for breast cancer, prostrate cancer, aneurisms, colon cancer which do find some early signs of disease but when you look closely at the figures these numbers are very small ( unfortunately) screening should only be targeted at very high risk groups.. otherwise the only use is to raise awareness of future signs of ill health.
We are now going along the trail of preventative medicines .. such as statins when the proper and only real ‘prescription’ is an adoption of a more balanced and healthier diet maybe with evidence based knowledge of how for example the diet pattern in Southern Italy results in much lower incidence of CHD.
We do not support and coordinate the voluntary sector who are absolutely vital to the sustainable care of the vulnerable, elderly and those convalescing after recovering from illness or supporting with dignity those who are terminally ill.
We must save our NHS from itself becoming terminally ill and drifting into a privatised service where the size of your bank balance determines the quality and speed of access for treatment of your illness.
We have a Government that . has caused a crisis in A&E and cut 4,000 nurses while wasting £3 billion on a damaging reorganisation of our NHS, founded 65 years ago on Friday this week .
People worried about difficulty in getting medical advice with their own GPs now often opted out of out of hours cover go to where they know a place is open and even with a horrendous wait at A and E will eventually get that medical care. This ha created serious pressures on those who are trying to cope with running this part of the service and where sifting through the patients attending is often down to the non medical person sitting on the reception desk. Of course there are many who attend A and E who have relatively minor medical needs and have come to the wrong ‘medical bus stop’ and so hamper health care delivery elsewhere in the system.
The NHS appears to use their resources inefficiently. A health service has the prime objective of treating ill patients , getting them better quickly and helping them to return to normal living and to continue as independently as possible. We also allow public companies whose main interest is producing a profit for their shareholders to write contracts that have so many self interest clauses in to protect those profits and so cost us the tax payers dear. How can these highly paid executives in our NHS and elsewhere be so naive and such poor negotiators?
However we use enormous resources to screen large sections of the public … screening for breast cancer, prostrate cancer, aneurisms, colon cancer which do find some early signs of disease but when you look closely at the figures these numbers are very small ( unfortunately) screening should only be targeted at very high risk groups.. otherwise the only use is to raise awareness of future signs of ill health.
We are now going along the trail of preventative medicines .. such as statins when the proper and only real ‘prescription’ is an adoption of a more balanced and healthier diet maybe with evidence based knowledge of how for example the diet pattern in Southern Italy results in much lower incidence of CHD.
We do not support and coordinate the voluntary sector who are absolutely vital to the sustainable care of the vulnerable, elderly and those convalescing after recovering from illness or supporting with dignity those who are terminally ill.
We must save our NHS from itself becoming terminally ill and drifting into a privatised service where the size of your bank balance determines the quality and speed of access for treatment of your illness.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Death by a thousand cuts.
Death by a thousand cuts
News that Walsall Council will be obliged to make £80 million more cuts over the next 5 years could ring the death knell for services for the vulnerable who are the weakest in our society and who have the most to lose in quality of life. We in the labour Party will do our utmost to ensure that we help those who are already falling through the net and are facing a very bleak future for no fault of their own.
How to move forward?
As a start a serious cull of those in upper management must occur… we do not need an army of over paid civil servants.. as the Gilbert and Sullivan song goes.. they will not be missed…
As a Council we are not anything like skilled enough in the art of robust and fairly ruthless negotiation of contracts and getting the best possible deal for the Council tax payer.
A number of services could be provided by the not for profit sector in many cases, much cheaper and more effectively than
We need a streamlined joined up organisation of the voluntary sector who , if given a seat at the top table in joining in a proper partnership can deliver vital support to our caring services but they need proper acknowledgement of this important role.
All partners need to join forces whether it be housing, social services, the police, the NHS along with the voluntary sector to avoid duplication of effort and resources.
News that Walsall Council will be obliged to make £80 million more cuts over the next 5 years could ring the death knell for services for the vulnerable who are the weakest in our society and who have the most to lose in quality of life. We in the labour Party will do our utmost to ensure that we help those who are already falling through the net and are facing a very bleak future for no fault of their own.
How to move forward?
As a start a serious cull of those in upper management must occur… we do not need an army of over paid civil servants.. as the Gilbert and Sullivan song goes.. they will not be missed…
As a Council we are not anything like skilled enough in the art of robust and fairly ruthless negotiation of contracts and getting the best possible deal for the Council tax payer.
A number of services could be provided by the not for profit sector in many cases, much cheaper and more effectively than
We need a streamlined joined up organisation of the voluntary sector who , if given a seat at the top table in joining in a proper partnership can deliver vital support to our caring services but they need proper acknowledgement of this important role.
All partners need to join forces whether it be housing, social services, the police, the NHS along with the voluntary sector to avoid duplication of effort and resources.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Peter Smith is a Tory
In May 2012. A year has passed since the local elections in Blakenall which resulted in defeat for myself as the Labour Party candidate and the election of the Independent candidate Peter Smith. His vote supporting the Tory group on the Council tipped the balance to keep Walsall Council run by the Tories and his vote again in May 2013 has directly prevented the Labour group from again taking over. I still however continue to fight for your futures.
What damage has happened over this last year? Over 400 households in Blakenall have suffered from the imposition of the ‘bedroom tax’ penalising households who happen to have a spare bedroom , often with a genuine need to have one available. No availability of any smaller property to move into will result in a forced housing benefit cut. Peter Smith again keeping these Tories in power will lead to further big blanket cuts to the budget for care of the more vulnerable disabled and elderly residents living in Blakenall and over all Walsall.. the continued disastrous outcomes of education for our children in Walsall and unacceptable levels of unemployment ; the continued favouritism of budget spends in road and pavement repairs for the more prosperous Tory wards leaving Blakenall behind yet again We continue to lag behind in ill health statistics while the resident tat wagons still plague our neighbourhoods supported by Cllr Smith.
There will be local elections in Walsall in 2014. For the sake of the more disadvantaged wards such as Blakenall, I hope that Labour will win back at least one seat and so put a more caring Labour party in control and so stop independent Cllrs such as Peter Smith from blocking and defeating the Labour Party
Is Peter Smith a Tory? Walsall residents are again condemned to suffering a Tory/ Liberal run Council until 2014 when the ballot box can change the balance of power after 14 years under the Tories.
The three Independent Councillors who are not members of the Labour Party Peter Smith from Blakenall ward and Paul and Chris Bott from Darlaston, two of the more disadvantaged wards of Walsall Borough have for the second year running refused to vote with the labour group of councillors and so allowed the current Tory/Liberals to continue in power and so in control of the budget.This last year has seen failure of the Tory Council in their job creation schemes, overseeing child protection services judged inadequate on inspection, a failure in securing the future of our Town centres and threatening to close our Gala swimming baths… while the ruling Tory Councillors awarded themselves this year a massive pay rise. How Councilors such as Smith and the Botts can allow another year of a Tory run Council who have a record of letting the weakest in our Town go the wall with their policy of ‘let the market decide’ OK for those who earn lots or live in the more prosperous parts of Walsall. Here we have three who profess to be concerned about the most disadvantaged in their wards and end up abandoning their so called principles in return for a promised seat at the top table.
We note that Councilor Smith is now installed to be Mayor in 2014, while residents in his ward suffer increased unemployment, increased fly tipping, and disastrous effects on the many very poor residents in his ward unable to avoid the cuts caused by imposition on their families with the ‘bedroom ‘ tax.
We now see the reality of the effects on our NHS by the so called re-organisation with accident and emergency departments finding at times unable to cope, while those who were in the top management of our NHS for example at Stafford Hospital where hundreds of patients died prematurely due to concealed continued incompetence claim to be ‘not guilty’ and announce their intention to retire with a nice £2 million pension.
There is a more positive way forward .. a council driven by a partnership of organisations who are determined to address the unfair inequalities in our society, are committed to social justice and recognize that our children deserve a better future by receiving an education that is not judged as at present near the worst in the Midlands and to live in a Town that is not amongst the worst in the Country for hosting empty shops … we are all in this together but the Tories are in it for themselves and their friends…. Please join us in helping to gain those crucial extra 3 seats for Labour and so enable a caring and listening Labour group to take control of Walsall council after 14 years of mismanagement by the Tories.
What damage has happened over this last year? Over 400 households in Blakenall have suffered from the imposition of the ‘bedroom tax’ penalising households who happen to have a spare bedroom , often with a genuine need to have one available. No availability of any smaller property to move into will result in a forced housing benefit cut. Peter Smith again keeping these Tories in power will lead to further big blanket cuts to the budget for care of the more vulnerable disabled and elderly residents living in Blakenall and over all Walsall.. the continued disastrous outcomes of education for our children in Walsall and unacceptable levels of unemployment ; the continued favouritism of budget spends in road and pavement repairs for the more prosperous Tory wards leaving Blakenall behind yet again We continue to lag behind in ill health statistics while the resident tat wagons still plague our neighbourhoods supported by Cllr Smith.
There will be local elections in Walsall in 2014. For the sake of the more disadvantaged wards such as Blakenall, I hope that Labour will win back at least one seat and so put a more caring Labour party in control and so stop independent Cllrs such as Peter Smith from blocking and defeating the Labour Party
Is Peter Smith a Tory? Walsall residents are again condemned to suffering a Tory/ Liberal run Council until 2014 when the ballot box can change the balance of power after 14 years under the Tories.
The three Independent Councillors who are not members of the Labour Party Peter Smith from Blakenall ward and Paul and Chris Bott from Darlaston, two of the more disadvantaged wards of Walsall Borough have for the second year running refused to vote with the labour group of councillors and so allowed the current Tory/Liberals to continue in power and so in control of the budget.This last year has seen failure of the Tory Council in their job creation schemes, overseeing child protection services judged inadequate on inspection, a failure in securing the future of our Town centres and threatening to close our Gala swimming baths… while the ruling Tory Councillors awarded themselves this year a massive pay rise. How Councilors such as Smith and the Botts can allow another year of a Tory run Council who have a record of letting the weakest in our Town go the wall with their policy of ‘let the market decide’ OK for those who earn lots or live in the more prosperous parts of Walsall. Here we have three who profess to be concerned about the most disadvantaged in their wards and end up abandoning their so called principles in return for a promised seat at the top table.
We note that Councilor Smith is now installed to be Mayor in 2014, while residents in his ward suffer increased unemployment, increased fly tipping, and disastrous effects on the many very poor residents in his ward unable to avoid the cuts caused by imposition on their families with the ‘bedroom ‘ tax.
We now see the reality of the effects on our NHS by the so called re-organisation with accident and emergency departments finding at times unable to cope, while those who were in the top management of our NHS for example at Stafford Hospital where hundreds of patients died prematurely due to concealed continued incompetence claim to be ‘not guilty’ and announce their intention to retire with a nice £2 million pension.
There is a more positive way forward .. a council driven by a partnership of organisations who are determined to address the unfair inequalities in our society, are committed to social justice and recognize that our children deserve a better future by receiving an education that is not judged as at present near the worst in the Midlands and to live in a Town that is not amongst the worst in the Country for hosting empty shops … we are all in this together but the Tories are in it for themselves and their friends…. Please join us in helping to gain those crucial extra 3 seats for Labour and so enable a caring and listening Labour group to take control of Walsall council after 14 years of mismanagement by the Tories.
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